RandyE111

Thanks. I would love to try this as it really is annoying. How do you do this? Find and download soundrecorder.exe to a computer with Windows XP or earlier. Open the Tourguide wav files. Edit the file to shorten the duration of playback to .25 seconds. Save it and that should do it. It's not difficult at all. You should save a copy of the original file just in case you do make a mistake.

Remember the old soundrecorder.exe program in earlier versions of Windows? The sound files used to notify you of a nearby cache can be edited in the soundrecorder program. I was having the same problem you're having and, yes, it will drive you nuts. I edited the sound files by changing the time the sound file runs from over two seconds down to 1/4 second. It worked. If I'm in a nest of caches, I only get one quick "ding" for each cache and it stops.

Just did a quick check and there's about 750 caches within 30 miles of Blairsville and about 200 within 15 miles.

http://geocaching.totaltechworld.com/index.html

What's the difference between the BC900 and BC9009 LaCrosse chargers? Couldn't find a thing on their website. Thanks.

I actually don't have any idea sorry. Is there a chance perhaps this is in fact a small firmware bug with the unit? Perhaps a quick email to Garmin might shed some light on it? (Although it'll take a week for them to reply) He replied in one day........ Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I see what you are looking for. Try loading the files again and instead of Express, try selecting Manual and then select Proximity points and then Next. That should put that option on your device. With Best Regards, Jeff P Product Support Specialist ************************** I had tried this before. Selected No Alerts in the macro and Manual settings in POI Loader. It gave what seemed to be erratic alerts (some caches alerted, others didn't) and they were that low pitched "bong" sound instead of the loud "ding" I got with your macro. Plus, the alert couldn't be shut off without pulling the memory card. Thanks for your time.

OK, that's all good so I'm still confused. Everything works as it should except for the creation of the Proximity Alerts icon that would allow me to turn off the alerts. Any ideas why Tourguide (Radius) won't cause the Nuvi to create that icon in the settings screen? Pilotsnipes....while I have your attention. I want you to know that I appreciate all you've done here. You're a kind, generous and smart man. Thank you. Your macro worked flawlessly in my 350. Still trying to get jjreds to work in my 265. Randy

MassCache, is there only one file created in your Nuvi after you run the macro and POIloader? If so, what is the file extension? I have one file and it's named poi.gpi. Is that what it should be? Thanks again.

Sorry to start a new thread but the original is long and the discussion is beyond my capability to understand. I read about 11 pages looking for an answer before the eye strain set in. I've tried suggestions offered by MassCache but couldn't isolate a problem. I've installed the latest version of the macro into the latest version of gsak. I'm running POI loader 2.5.2 and my Nuvi is updated. All I want is found and unfound caches. I've selected Tourguide (Radius) and everything works beautifully but the Proximity icon in Settings isn't being created. That means I have to load the caches (4 PQ's) onto a memory card and pull the card when I don't want the alerts to sound. Any ideas as to why the Proximity icon isn't there to turn off the alerts? Just for kicks I loaded everything using Proximity (On Route) and the icon was created. I could untick the Custom POI box which is supposed to stop the alerts. That didn't work. Alerts kept coming. One more item for kicks. I clicked on Slice and Dice and set an alarm distance for Found Caches. That doesn't work. Should it?? Thank you kindly for any help. Randy

On the 265T, the Proximity icon isn't there permanently. It only shows up when there are Custom POI's loaded. For some reason, if I select Tourguide (Radius) in the macro, the Proximity icon isn't created. If I select Proximity (On Route) in the macro, the icon IS created but it seems to alert randomly (maybe I'm missing something) and unticking the checkbox doesn't shut off the alerts anyway. I guess another question would be why doesn't the Tourguide selection create a working Proximity alerts icon in the settings screen. Thanks for your help.

I'm using a Nuvi 265T with the simplest set up. All I need is found and unfound folders. It's working nicely by loading everything on a memory card. My question is this. There are times when I need to disable the alerts. Since I have to use the Tourguide setting, I don't get the Proximity icon to turn them off. I tried using the proximity (on route) setting but that was confusing and setting it not to alert didn't even work. Is loading everything on the card and pulling the card the only way to do disable the alerts? Thanks Randy

The Nuvi 255 seems to have more features than the 260 but is priced less. Why is that? I compared on Garmin's site. The 260 gets one more hour from a battery charge and uses an SD card versus a Micro SD. Is that worth $70. TIA Randy

I'm curious about an answer to westernPaBilly's question (post #45). Is that what is being described as drift?

You're right. It's there on Garmin's website. I downloaded and now have SW version 2.70/GPS SW version 2.60.

I stand corrected. Were both dates wrong or just the Vista? (Not that it matters)

Garmin has corrected the HCx date error on their Updates and Downloads page. It's now showing as Feb 4, 2008 instead of Feb 4, 2007.

I sent an email and got somewhat of an acknowledgement that there's a problem. Still not a satisfactory response. ********* My email: Subject: Accuracy is inconsistent Message Body: The position accuracy of my Vista HCx ramdomly changes considerably more than what would be considered normal. It happens no matter if I'm in the open or in tree cover. I've looked in different forums and there is considerable documentation of this problem on the www.geocaching.com website. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?sh owtopic=186593&st=150 I understand the Colorado models are having similar issues. Could you please have someone of authority acknowledge the problem and assure everyone that a fix is being worked on? From what I've read in the forums, Garmin's excellent reputation is taking a beating on this one. People's confidence in your products and tech support is dropping. ******************** The reply: Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I am happy to help you with this. Garmin is aware of this issue and we are constantly working to improve this limitation of the new high sensitivity receivers but this is an issue with the technology rather then with the design. The new receivers have a tendency to jump around a bit more then the older models when stationary. If you were to compare the old and new you would find the old would loose reception under heavy canopy but the newer model would not. It is really a bit of a trade off but the units still navigate you to the location regardless of the accuracy which is just an estimate based on satellite geometry. With Best Regards, Larry Keegan Product Support Specialist Outdoor/Fitness Team Garmin International 913-397-8200 800-800-1020 913-397-8282 (fax) Att: Larry Keegan www.garmin.com

Take a look at what a 350 can do here... http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html

Loading over 1000 caches into 350 went perfectly. Tried loading into my Vista HCx and I got caches in my Waypoints folder, caches in my Geocache folder and caches in a newly created Custom POI folder. There's also Airport waypoints in the Waypoints folder. I don't understand why. Is there a method to get them into the geocache folder with a little helpful info along with them such as the hint, coords, type of cache, difficulty, etc. Thanks in advance. Just fascinated with all of this and trying to learn.

I second that. I tried it and it works beautifully on my nuvi 350. 1300+ caches loaded onto it.

Dumb question?? If I drop a new gpi file in the POI folder, will it completely replace the original gpi file? If so, how do I combine caches from two or three different queries? I want several hundred in there from different parts of my state. Thanks again for what you've done, pilotsnipes. This is absolutely great!!!

Never mind. I made a mistake on one keystroke. Fixed that and all is well.

My TourGuide.gpx file generated fine. The custom export attempt resulted in the following DOS window message. I tried it three times. Same result. Thanks for your good work. c:\gsak>GPSBabel.exe -N -i gpx -f "c:\temp\TourGuide Geo.gpx" -o garmin_gpi,desc r,category="Geocaches",alerts=1,units=m, -F "c:\temp\TourGuide Geo.gpi" GPX: Cannot open file 'c:\temp\TourGuide Geo.gpx'! c:\gsak>Pause Press any key to continue . . .

I posted before about this and didn't get satisfactory answers so I'm still confused. Why don't you need the electronic compass? Doesn't it make it easier standing still and have the arrow still point to the cache?...or does it not work like that? Sorry to OP for changing the subject.

I’m new at this and trying to decide between an etrex legend HCx or vista HCx. Please explain to me the advantage of an electronic compass. Is it on a separate page or is the Vista compass page and bearing pointer handled differently than on the Legend? I know it will give you an accurate reading if you're standing still. Wouldn't a decent compass do the same thing? I looked at the manual on Garmin’s site and it mentions having to calibrate the compass fairly often. Seems to me that would be a bit of a bother. Thanks for your help.