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Hi, My Garmin 450t will work when powered through the USB 2-mini cable, but will immediately lose power when the cable is disconnected. Setting an alarm to activate the unit does not work and the power-switch seems to function normally. I suspect the problem is with the battery case; there is a small crack near the edge and I wonder if a wire is either broken or shorting out. Is it possible to replace or repair the battery case? If so, are there instructions or photos on how to do this? Alternatively, could I use an external lithium battery pack intended to recharge cell phones as a means to provide a continuous power source via the USB 2 mini? (or are portable recarhdgers only intended to recharge and not act as a power supply?) Thanks for any advice on how to keep my Garmin in the game!

I was just awarded the Haunted Hides souvenir without realizing that I was within a souvenir zone! Awesome! Now, I'd like to collect more, but I do not understand how to find them. Is this simply because I do not use the "official" geocaching app or do I need to have premium membership? For urban caching, I use an android phone with c-geo as my app. I need an app that works in offline mode, because I do not have data service on my plan. For hiking caches, I use my Garmin, since it is rugged with long battery life.

I'd like to try finding more benchmarks, but today I was batting 1/4. The only one I found today (HL0299) was because the topo map made it easy. The SCALED coordinates had an error of +/- 6 seconds. I think each second is about 31 meters horizontal distance, so this is a HUGE search grid in rough terrain! I think the actual coordinates were closer to +/- 2 seconds. Since the mark was set in 1934, I wondered if I would be better off trying to use Datum NAD 27 to project the coordinates on my GPSr, or is the location description still my best bet? (note: many marks reference structures that have been gone over 50 years, so this strategy has limitations too). Any advice? Bonus questions: 1. aside from NGS benchmarks, is there any benefit to tracking other benchmarks I stumble across. Some are located in areas not open to the general public, so I am hesitant to post them on Waymarking.org, but they are nearly 100 years old in remote areas, so I figure it might be useful knowledge to someone. 2. are photos of the mark in relation to modern landmarks useful? Thanks!

what an awesome idea! The Easter Geocoin Bunny rulez! I haven't found a coin, and I'm not a kid, and yet I'm smiling at just the genius of it all!

I don't think it's bad etiquette to inform us newbs of what deals are available, since the charter for this forum implies that it's goal is to help provide cheap equipment to new geocachers.

Thanks for the info, Eric. It seems I have an "unofficial" geocoin. It is 4cm in diameter and made from bronze. The "head" side of the coin has a howling coyote with the text "WAYPOINT 15 www.geocaching.com", the "tail" side is the geocache emblem. The bug search cannot find "15", and the word "WAYPOINT" is too many characters for it. So I've inherited a mystery. I'll drop it off into another cache and make it someone else's problem to track it.

I just found my first cache, and it also contained a geocoin. I went to www.usageocoins.com, which said to "Track your coins at Groundspeak.com,. just like Travel Bugs." Groundspeak.com doesn't have anything related to geocoins on their root page, and the travelbug search doesn't recongnize my coin. They have no help or search links for their page either, so I wrote to 'travelbug@geocaching.com' and when that failed, I wrote to 'contact@Groundspeak.com'. Both addresses fail with "service unavailable". Are geocoins officially dead?