ClubMCR

Anyone know what it is about NiZn that makes the compass calibration unnecessary? Or alternatively, why NiMH almost requires a compass calibration every time the batteries are swapped?

Yesterday I bought some clear silicone RTV to repair the rubber strap on my Etrex. After removing the rubber strap, I peeled off the double sided tape. It came off very cleanly, and I was surprised that there is another layer of clear tape (which showed no signs of loosening) under the double sided tape. I decided to leave that in place. I cleaned off the rubber strap with goof-off, applied two very thin beads of the RTV to the unit (one near each edge of where the strap would reside, and put it in place. The rubber strap had noticibly stretched so I secured it with two rubber bands until the RTV cured. Worked like a charm and it's like new again. And I'm confident that it will last a whole lot longer than the original.

I'm with ecanderson. The silicone sounds like a great PERMANENT solution. The factory solution is only temporary as everyone with an etrex has found out. What are the chances of needing to disassemble the unit anyway?

Yes, I used gpxsonar on an axim x50v until I got my Oregon. GPXSonar was an excellent application. Get the latest v1.5 It takes the zipped pocket query from geocaching. That zipped file contains 2 files: gpx and wpts.gpx Midway through last year, something about these files from geocaching.com changed, and gpxsonar wouldn't read it properly. The solution was to remove the wpts.gpx file from the zipped pocket query. I found an application that ran on the axim that would open the zip file, and I could remove the wpts.gpx file and resave it. I don't remember what it was called. But this allowed me to not have to download the PQ to a computer to edit the zip file before transferring to the Axim. Good luck.

On the Oregon (pre x50 units), it's actually quite easy to see when the unit switches from GPS to electronic compass. On the compass screen, it will display "hold level" or something like that when the electronic compass is on. Text will turn off when it switches to GPS compass. I assume with the X50 units that have the 3-axis compass, it will no longer display this text since it doesn't need to be level for the electronic compass to be accurate. I've definitely found that the electronic compass on the Oregon needs to be recalibrated more often than it did on my VistaHCX.

I've had good luck both with my handheld and my car gps. But yes, you need to be by the window. It's really cool to see your speed and altitude at levels you aren't accustomed to. You can also add a waypoint at your destination and track how far you have to go.

The etrex family uses a standard USB to mini-USB cable. You may already have one sitting around your house from various other electronics (like a digital camera). Otherwise you can get one at any electronics store. No special software needed. I do think you need to install a driver for your computer to recognize the etrex, but the first time you go to send a geocache to your etrex using the geocaching website, it will prompt you for what you need to do.

I would love to take your charger and batteries off your hands if you were serious about getting rid of them. Of course I'll be more than happy to take care of all shipping costs etc. Just let me know

Not to mention that the Rayovac Hybrids are cheaper than any other NiMH battery. I think the regular price is ~$5.50 for a pack of 4AA's at Frys. Sometimes they go on sale for $4. Can't beat $1 each NiMH's!

I was at REI yesterday, and saw they had the Oregon 300 on closeout for only $225. This was the store in Fremont CA. I checked, and they still had 3 in stock. I don't know if other stores may also have it on clearance or not.

The new dashboards are pretty nice. I especially like the geocaching-active one. When you touch the geocache symbol, it takes you directly to the geocache description. One nice improvement would be that if you touch the small compass, it would take you to the compass screen.

Update your software verion to the latest - and the new version will have 'dashboard' options for the map and compass data fields. The geocaching-active is nice, as it lets you go directly between the compass screen and the geocache description.

Wow, that looks like a very nice app. But I'll stick to my comments regarding the compass. My first GPS didn't have one and that feature alone was enough reason to upgrade GPSr's

I don't think you're going to get the desired results. I don't know of any application that will give you a direction and distance pointer. I'd also assume that the CF GPS unit will not have a magnetic compass, which means it relies on motion to determine direction - not very good for geocaching.

I believe that the nuvi 500 does not have a magnetic compass. Personally, I wouldn't consider a unit without a magnetic compass for geocaching.

I've been having trouble recently with the PQ's as well (used to work fine). I'm using GPXSonar. The new zipped PQ's won't load properly (GPXSonar uses the zipped file directly). The problem actually seems to be the -wpts.gpx file. If I open the zipped file, remove the -wpts.gpx file. Rezip it with just the standard .gpx file, then it will work fine. But this is a very cumbersome process since I cannot do this directly on my pocket pc. If there was an option to just get a .gpx file in a PQ, rather than both the .gpx and -wpts.gpx, that would solve the problem for me.