Hynr

Posted too soon. Upon inspection the results are basically showing <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <GetGeocacheDataResponse xmlns="http://www.geocaching.com/Geocaching.Live/data" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <Status> <StatusCode>1</StatusCode> <StatusMessage>Fail</StatusMessage> <ExceptionDetails/> <Warnings/> </Status> etc So, it seems that the API is responding but not delivering anything useful. I am also noting further down in the response that the API appears to have no clue as to what my limits are: <a:CachesLeft>2147483647</a:CachesLeft> <a:CurrentCacheCount>2147483647</a:CurrentCacheCount> <a:MaxCacheCount>2147483647</a:MaxCacheCount></CacheLimits>

At this moment (3 hours later) I am having no trouble with GSAK using the API.

The first 100 are the hardest. Once you see how geocachers are able to hide stuff in plain sight or cleverly camoed, it gets easier. Personally I think using a smartphone rather than a dedicated GPSr adds difficulty. I have pretty decent phone and my find rate is MUCH lower with it than with are real GPSr. Go to the nearest event and visit with others. Usually there are small groups that head out to find the nearest ones. That could be educational for you. I bet there will be a few times where you say "I didn't know you could do that!" or "Wait, that tiny little thing is a geocache?!?"

For my needs and limitations: the Garmin Montana You didn't mention your needs, constraints, desires, attitudes about money, etc - so for each of the companies that did their market research right you might end up getting every model mentioned in this thread.

I too noticed that the status page was not representing the situation correctly for much longer than I would have thought normal. I wonder if the IT folks at Groundspeak might be helped with a bit more quantitative information about the specific incident this morning: I was not able to access the API, nor view any cachepages, for 45 to 60 minutes after Pingdom began reporting the site to be healthy again. I have marked the range on the timeline that shows green in which I could not get any geocaching.com web page to show nor API responses: In the time from the blue box to the next hashmark (~9 am) I was occasionally able to get the API to respond to a call without timing out. After that timeframe the API began to respond but it was bogged down. I imagined 10000 geocachers suddenly realizing it was back and all hitting the service at once. I would note that this screenshot was taken just now and the green bar is green all the way to now and at this moment all the services that I typically use appear healthy. Yet the icon for Aug 10 (today) is red on this page as well as on the summary page. It would seem to me that a "status" page would highlight the instantaneous condition rather than an incident since midnight. So I see two issues: 1. I thought the page was a status page, and it is not for the purposes of this geocacher wanting to go caching. Now for the rest of the day the red icon will suggest to geocachers that the site is failing when it is actually is working fine. 2. This tool seems to be useful only to diagnose if the problem was so severe that the IT hardware was not working; It really cannot be trusted with the present condition at even an hourly resolution. I do join in saying thanks to those who got up early this morning to resolve this issue.

It sounds to me like you are trying to emulate your old GPSr without considering the new features. Try using the dashboard for geocaching (map Setup). If you have that active, then it will always be pointing to the nearest geocache even if you are not navigating to anything. When you are navigating to a cache, it does then show a pointer pointing to that cache, and with more information then you probably saw on our old GPSr. Give that a try. You might like it.

If you find that your CN version is pretty up-to-date then it is very unlikely that you have a version that you can transfer with out paying Garmin to get an unlock code. So if it comes to that, then I would suggest you try the Open Street Map version for the Garmin. It works great in a Montana (I use that for the entire globe). and it's free. And one thing you should be aware of: the Montana has "Dashboards"; you will want to switch back and forth between the "Geocache" dashboard (when hunting a cache) and the "Nuvi" dashboard (when you want a gprs telling you where to go).

I bought a Garmin Montana for this very reason. It's bit bulky in the hands but I can see and even read the text with my aging eyes. My caching partner has also has one and has no trouble with the size. I don't get to the N.U.T.S. events much anymore but there should be plenty of folks there that would let you test drive one.

I'm on a Mac. As I indicated before, when I try and open it it wont open as a straight text file - says its a binary file. There were 921 caches when this first happened over Memorial Day. Then geocache_visits.txt was deleted and device reset so now there are no more than 40 isn caches. It was working fine before with 700, 800, ... caches in geocache_visits.txt Note that if you are managing your USB drive (the Garmin) with OS/X that when you delete files it does not actually do what you ask. It marks them as being in the trash but the files are still occupying space. So you could be running out of space despite the fact that you see no files. To really remove deleted files and get the full space back, you need instruct OS/X to empty the trash. To see if this is part of your issue, do a Get Info and look at "Available" (before and after emptying the trash) to see if that number is consistent with what you expect.

The way GDAK works is that it takes an entire GSAK database, regardless how big. Let's say you have a GSAK database named Home. Then you will note that you have a folderC:\User\Jim\AppData\Roaming\gsak\data\Home and this folder contains several files. As you attach your phone to the computer via USB cable, the Android OS will have some options for how to make this connection. On my Droid I see 4 options. If you directly can see on the computer that it has attached as a drive right as you connect it, then you are probably good to go. If not, then on the phone pull down the message bar at the top of the display and under Ongoing select"USB connection". Use the USB Mass Storage" selection. After a few seconds the phone should now be visible on the computer as a removeable drive. Use Windows explorer to look at the root of that drive. You should find various things there (DCIM for the camera photos, etc). Assuming you have GDAK installed, you should also see a GDAK folder there. You copy the entire database folder into this GDAK folder so in the above exmaple you would end up with the folder ...\GDAK\Home and in this folder there are 4 files (sqlite.db3, etc). If you database is big then the copy can take a few minutes; so be patient until it is done. It could take several minutes for a moderately large database. Two more steps are required: 1. you now need to disconnect the phone from the computer because Android does not let the phone see the SD card while it is a USB drive to another computer. 2. start up GDAK and note the 4 big icons across the top. The third one with the solid triangle in a circle is the one that selects the database. If you do not see a database choice there, then the above did not work right. If all worked right, then you can select a database and you are ready to go caching. If all fails, bring it to my event on Saturday and I'll take a look at it. That advice should work for all geocachers - take your stuff to your local geocaching event and "pretend" like you need help and see just how many folks just love to help you; you'll make some new friends at the same time.

I had an issue like this when I updated both a Montana 600 and 650t to firmware v 5.0 a few days ago. When I tried to view description, all it did was the show the rotating progress indicator. I hooked it back up to the computer took out the gpx file, rebooted the Montana, attached it to the computer and put the gpx file back, restarted the Montana and it was fixed. Did that with both units and it fixed the issue in both. Walt, can you try that to see if that fixes it for you?

Why is that a downside. According to Garmin In other words, the GPSr itself is your charger. If you don't want to use that system, then just use conventional AAs. With this approach you have the best of both worlds. I would note that the Montana does charge it's included Li battery pack also, and I have not used any AA batteries since getting it. I too thought initially that I would be carrying back up AA batteries all the time, but that has not happened.

This function can really only work if the unit knows the spot that you are trying to get to. So if you are routing (either direct or by streets) it has a way to know how far you are from the destination and can zoom so that both your current position and your destination are on the screen. So just having your unit's "dashboard" indicate where the geocache is would not be enough; you actually have to tell the unit to navigate to it. Try that to see if that makes sense.

I am traveling abroad quite a bit and can impart some advice: calculate the price of using maps into your purchasing decision. For some GPSrs you cannot get maps for other countries, or these drive up the cost considerably. You can get free OpenStreet maps for Garmin GPSrs for nearly any place on earth. When traveling in foreign locations it is VERY useful to have a unit that will route you and show you on the map where you are; even if you are not geocaching.

If I were in this situation, I would not immediately do what has been suggested. The very first thing to do is to put one nearby geocache on it and go out and find it with the GPS. No other maps, only the factory stuff. In other words, first test it to make sure it performs exactly as specified. Being that you are already on the road. I would NOT copy files directly from the old unit to the new unit if you can recreate them with the computer that you have with you. There is certainly a possibility that you have a corruption in the files on the GPSr and copying this could easily defeat your new unit. Do not do any unnecessary testing until you are back home. Don't copy maps onto it that you don't need.

Help about GSAK's smartnames: http://gsak.net/help/hs22160.htm Image showing dialog with use of %smart tag showing how it can be used: http://gsak.net/help/hs8100.htm

My experience with the eTrex Legend is that it generally does not take an hour to load enough of the almanac to see coordinates. But it does take longer than you typically care to stare at it. If you did leave it out for a full hour in full view of the sky with no obstructions, then that should have been long enough to see coordinates. It sounds to me that you have the unit set to not use the GPS. Go to the Satellite page, with joy-stick select the icon for settings (second from the right on to line) and click there. If the first line reads "Use with GPS ON" then you have found the problem. Click on that to turn the GPS circuitry on. NOW set it out in full view of the sky to get have it locate itself.

Paragon33, Load some OpenStreetMaps (free). This website: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download scroll all the way to the bottom for pre-made USA maps. I use the approach where I download the img file and deposit that in a Garmin folder in the Montana. Restart and you should then see maps. These files do give your Montana the ability to autoroute, so if you have the dash-mount, the Montana will speak to you to autoroute you to the cache.

Curious. I have had no glitches with my 650T.

injunblood & squaw, You really need to communicate with DeLorme before you buy anything. Also, before you buy anything, communicate with the person you bought it from to get the rest of the bundle. PN GPSrs are ONLY sold as bundles with Topo North America. So unless it is stolen, you should be able to get the Topo that belongs with the GPSr that you bought. In the worst case, you should be able to get the 4 or 5 CDs/DVDs that hold the pre-cut maps as these do the former owner no good whatsoever. Note also that it is generally not possible to interchange maps between Topo/PNs bundles. I don't recall exactly what the deal is, but if I cut a map set for my PN with my Topo software, then those files will not work on your PN. As such, you should be worried whether simply buying the latest Topo will do you any good. Ask a DeLorme tech.

I had a cache which was in a clean area when I put it there, but at one point I went to service it and there was tons of crap that was not there when I placed it. I hate it when that happens. I moved the cache to a spot where no one has to come in contact with filth. I suspect that was months before I did that because I did not know how bad it had gotten. When I encounter a trashy cache location I take a moment before "diving in" and stand back to consider how great this cache would need to be for this to be a winner. I then look at who placed it. If I know the cacher, I also know whether to walk away. If there is lots of trash, then it is best to let the cache owner know that that is what you encountered and the degree to which you enjoyed it . I doubt that I would take the action to move all TBs out. That seems spiteful to me. To suggest that the place is likely to be cleaned up seems to be entirely contradictory as that clearly is not happening. It would be much more productive, if indeed there is a better hiding place nearby, to get the coordinates for that and email that to the cacheowner with a suggestion to move the cache.

Yes. Anytime there is adequate power on the USB port, the unit will charge the Li-Ion battery if it is installed. As far as I know it does not charge AA batteries if those are used instead.

With that vintage of GPSr you will need to carry the data in a separate device. This can be a PDA or any other device that can display text. I cached for many years with an eTrex Legend and I used a Palm PDA.

It's pretty clear that you want to spend some money, so don't let us stop you. But note that you can easily inspect the free OSM maps right on your Etrex Legend Cx and probably also on your Nuvi. The Montana will process everything faster, but you can see the quality and the various map features with your older GPSrs. If you have the audio going out to a speaker, then you can hear spoken directions with the Montana; your Nuvi can probably do that also but you eTrex won't as it has not provision for audio-out. If your experience is like mine, you won't be buying any more maps and map upgrades from Garmin, but because of this tool you may well be buying more Garmin GPSrs (I have bought two Montanas which I would not have bought if it had not been for availability of the OSM maps).

Long ago in a place far away my parents gave me a German name (which makes sense because that’s what we were). This name got shortened to "Heiner" by my friends and family long before emigrating to the USA. One day in 2003 I came back from a business trip to find that my wife had take a liking to a little yellow GPSr and was heading out on Saturdays to hang out with folks pretending to be searching for pretend treasure. That sounded a bit too absurd to me so I offered to accompany her. It was a picnic in a park and all these super-geeks were there with mostly made-up names and they would be calling each other by these goofy names and comparing stories about hunting for tupperware with million-dollar military hardware. I thought that was weird but since my wife was enjoying it, I figured I should be supportive. It made a lot of sense to me to go ahead and pick a name for myself that was different from my actual name (so as to be incognito) but would sound just like my actual name in conversation. Turns out to have been a really good decisions because many of those geocachers are really good friends now and its great for them to at least have an inkling of what my actual name might be.