Dosido

Check out the FAQ - G17 - that will show you the screen you can 'click' or 'enter' to get to the description - hopefully then we're on the same page!

I hope you didn't miss this: if you're actively searching for a cache in geocaching mode, you can press the scroll wheel button to see the description.

Just getting my feet wet with the Colorado 400t - first foray to the dark side, so I have nothing Garmin-wise to compare it to... However, I did notice that while routing with CN 2009 that the zoom level (scale) is not shown on the screen. Is this a bug, or a trait that CN has on all units? In addition, my hearing is about as good as it gets, and boy is that routing beep a quiet one! I would also like to see key pad tones be a different option from alarms/proximity/routing tones - do I really have to have keypad tones on to hear routing tone?

I had no luck running a new PQ last night or today, but this morning, I simply edited one of my exisiting PQs to reflect the different zip code I wanted to run for a trip, and it ran immediately.

With the standard GSAK csv export, as stated, the file created contains quotes around the lat & long figures. The Mio POI Loader chokes on those. Fortunately, Clyde is a genius and gave us the TEXTOUT macro function. The macro that GSAK shows as the example is very close to what we need for the Mio output. A couple of quick edits and this should give you what you're looking for: Goto Position=Top while not($_eol) $_txt1 = $d_longitude $_txt2 = $d_latitude $_txt3 = Quote($d_name) $_txt4 = Quote($d_container) $result = TextOut("C:\Documents and Settings\The Whites\Desktop\miocaches.csv","none","comma") # Just in case file permission error or something test for error IF Left($result,7) = "*Error*" Pause Msg=$result Cancel EndIf Goto position=next Endwhile

I don't think you're correct when you say the Mio POI Loader will only accept 5 digits after the decimal. However, it may depend on whether you're enclosing the lat/lon in quotes. Try this - I just uploaded these 'caches along a route' to the Mio C230 without a problem: -72.593783,42.076217,"Agawam's Old Red Barn","Traditional Cache" -72.6044,41.953917,"A Soldiers Sunset Cache","Traditional Cache" -72.690117,41.861433,"Barber Pond Dam #17","Traditional Cache" -72.557967,42.11935,"Colleges of Springfield Tour - AIC","Traditional Cache" -72.555433,42.10065,"Colleges of Springfield Tour - Springfield College","Traditional Cache" -72.583167,42.109033,"Colleges of Springfield Tour - STCC","Traditional Cache" -72.664083,41.750583,"Colt Revolver: Second Chamber","Traditional Cache" -72.662667,41.756,"Colt Revolver: Target","Unknown Cache" -72.66395,41.752567,"Colt Revolver: Third Chamber","Traditional Cache" -72.645833,41.932217,"Happy Heart day Cache","Traditional Cache" -72.606383,41.955583,"Kings Island Cache","Traditional Cache" -72.597883,42.124967,"Peligro!","Traditional Cache" -72.679283,41.799067,"Scary in Several Ways","Traditional Cache" -72.67715,41.7075,"SMK-25 Wintergreen Dash","Traditional Cache" -72.674767,41.706683,"SMK-26 Wintergreen Stash","Traditional Cache" -72.666617,41.693117,"SMK-27 Mill Woods Memories","Unknown Cache" -72.665433,41.6883,"SMK-29 Firepit","Traditional Cache" -72.687117,41.874767,"SMK-85 The Trip & PicklesMcGee","Traditional Cache" -72.550833,42.142283,"SpringVille - 3 -- Baby Machine #1","Traditional Cache" -72.587067,42.083683,"Team S&M Pocket Park #9","Traditional Cache" -72.58545,42.081167,"Western Mass Scale Solar System - Mercury","Traditional Cache" -72.677367,41.705867,"Wintergreen Cache","Traditional Cache" GSAK exported the lat/lon with quotes around them, and it failed. I removed the quotes, and was good to go. Oh - I see you used "N" in front of your lat - only use the numbers...click on the ? on the POI Loader to get more info on what's acceptable (very little)

Garmin POI Loader may accept GPX, but not the Mio POI Loader. Two different animals.

I'm planning on making the jump from the Magellan Explorist to the Colorado. A lot of the complaints seem to stem from 60c series users, and what the Colorado lacks or omits from the 60 line. However, I know up front that the biggest complaint I'll have (and would've had with the 60 line) is that there's no ability to select a specific file of geocaches - thus I'll be stuck with the 2000 cache limit with the Colorado. Magellan has had the option to select a specific file of caches from a list on their Explorist line from the get-go (2005?). The fact that Garmin allows me to use a 4GB card, and only allows me to use one geocache file is absurd. So, I think the deficiencies of the Colorado all depend on what unit you're upgrading from. But after reading thousands of comments on the Colorado, this fix would be tops on my list.

I recently picked up a Mio Digiwalker C230 - due to onboard memory only has the lower 48, but I added the Canada maps on an SD card. I like the unit quite a bit - it has text to speech, and is infinitely hackable - skins, etc. - as it is a Windows CE based unit. Cost $150.

Late Q2 2009. Oh, wait. I thought this was the Magellan forum... April 14.

Hit Menu, Preferences, Active Map, and verify that your new geocache file is selected under 'geocaches'.

I'm not sure if waypoint averaging would fix the issue you describe above. If you have 'outliers' in your data, they're just going to skew your final waypoint value. If you have 5 points that are x +/- 5 feet, and one that is x +/- 170 feet, you've just screwed up your final waypoint, by adding that point that's clearly erroneous into the averaging algorithm. That said, perhaps someone in the know could state whether the algorithm that Garmin uses would be smart enough to eliminate that spurious data.

Marky, Could this be checked by converting the GPX file to loc and back to GPX, thus dumping the descriptions, then sending to the Colorado, and seeing if the same caches are missing?

I find this interesting as well - my current GPSr, the Explorist, zooms to 100' - and I've used that zoom level probably once or twice geocaching (out of maybe 6 or 700 finds with it) - I usually only zoom to 250', and then watch the compass arrow. Perhaps I should file this under 'you don't know what you're missing', but I can't imagine that it's a terrible hinderance to only be able to zoom into 80' on the Colorado for the average cacher.

I have an event coming up where I required to remove the menu link as well. Of course, I removed it, and the cache was posted immediately (my link was to the apres-meet restaurant, and not the venue) Looking at the guidelines above, it would seem to me that the intent of the guideline is to prevent blatant solicitation of a particular commercial enterprise. However, most events that are held at restaurants, etc. are to held to gather geocaching participants (NOT simply to drive traffic to the venue), and in that light, this is a win-win situation for geocaching/Groundspeak and the venue. The venue does potentially gain revenue, but geocaching as whole gets a free venue, and has to potential to attract more geocachers, and thus generate more interest in the game and potentially more ad or premium member revenue to Groundspeak. My link was to a restaurant's menu where we would meet up after the event - the restaurant was not giving us a space for the event for free, thus I can see the reason that my reviewer requested removal. However, if the venue is hosting the event, it seems bad policy to refuse the innocuous link - as they are tacitly promoting and sponsoring both geocaching and Groundspeak.

Well, you could buy the 300, and get City Navigator, in lieu of the topo maps that are included in the 400t. High price aside, remember that a handheld GPSr is not geared towards those that want a car routing unit. You can get that in a Garmin Nuvi for $200 elsewhere.

Probably depends on whether everyone knows he's exaggerating his story/score, etc. When the paper states that Kim Jong Il shot 5 holes-in-one and was 38 under par in his first ever golf outing, we know that's full of baloney. When President Clinton tells the press he shot 80 when playing against President Ford, we'd hope we can take him at his word. But no, Clinton regularly takes mulligans, and that statement pissed Ford off, as Ford actually scores the game properly. Golf is a great game to measure the honesty and integrity of folks. Those who take liberties in golf, likely do so elsewhere. See: President Clinton. So, is it earth shattering that someone logs a cache that they didn't find, or didn't visit? No. But like fudging your score in golf, it does say something about their character. Edited to add links.

Of the pictures I've seen of the backlight comparisons, they've all been of the map screen. And many of those who have complained about the Colorado being too dark were specifically speaking of the map screen. Is it possible that the DEM shading is part of the problem? Or does the lack of sufficient brightness affect all screens?

The 500 can take AAA if you get the battery clip, but comes standard with a Li-Ion rechargable. The 500 LE, I believe, comes with the AAA pack. I have a friend with a 210 and I have a 500. Wouldn't even think of trading the color 500 for the mono 210. I do have the battery clip for AAA backup, but also have a backup rechargeable - gotten on Ebay for $6 or so. The addition of the SD card allows me to carry many maps for trips, etc, whereas a 210 user would have to swap maps on and off the unit via a computer each time you wanted to take a trip somewhere out of your home area. No problems with WAAS here.

I have 20 of them right now, and have gotten rid of (left for swag) my remaining rechargeables & chargers. They hold their charge for a long time, so are useful even when pulling them out of the camera bag 3 months later. I won't go back to 'regular' rechargables any time soon.

Actually, in your scenario (and I like the idea of talking myself into a car gpsr) I think the major drawback for the geocacher is that you'd have to load two units with coords for parking and/or caches in order to get to the next cache easily. For me, the drawbacks of the poorer auto-routing of the handheld are easily outweighed by the convenience of having an all-in-one caching/routing unit.

As an Explorist 500 owner/early adopter, let's hope that the Triton firmware update doesn't take as long - and that there's more than one firmware upgrade. Especially when it appears that some current Triton owners are simply beta testers.

Perhaps a dumb question from a current Magellan user: Does the Colorado 400t autoroute with the installed Topo maps, or will I need to add street maps to the unit to accomplish that?

Excellent post - this one just about covers it all. I've found that a backpack and/or jogging stroller (I've been on many hikes with them that no sane person would bring a stroller on) is a great idea, and of course, never, never run out of food. I have a friend here who I cache with - his mantra is essentially 'if it's not fun, stop'. This is rule #1 when caching with kids. If you're not having fun, they'll know it, and if they're not having fun, everyone will know it! Another thing to think about is social caching - grab some of their friends, and bring them along. We can't keep up with the kids when they're caching with their friends. We've gone on caches up mountains, on hikes with sleds in 10 degree weather, etc. It's fun to bring along 'celebratory' items - we've had licorice, jerky, granola bars, hot chocolate and candy canes, etc. that we break out in celebration after the find. And of course, be willing to wait longer for them to choose swag than they did for you to find the cache!

Would seem to me that Fizzy's geocalc was in the public domain before the Nov 29 '04 trademark filing by BlueMarble. The wayback machine shows a geocalc page from Nov 9 of 2004.