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BelchFire

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Everything posted by BelchFire

  1. OK, I think I've figured this out. They were archived this past January and new GCs were published in February. For some reason, the new ones weren't coming up; I had to back into them from the State Park website. I'm good now ..
  2. Admittedly, I am a very casual geocachers, so I was unaware that GA has archived all of their geocaches. I stumbled across something that said they would be adding new geocaches in February, but there wasn't a year shown, so I have to wonder if it has come and gone with no update. Are GA State Parks coming back on line, or is that over?
  3. The Magellan Pioneer wasn't the first hand-held GPS by a long shot, but was billed as the first GPS under $100. I rushed out and paid my $99 and promptly learned that it DOES NOT save anything when the batteries go dead. Sheesh....... I have an ancient marine grade (swivel mountable, but convertible to hand-held) that I bought in about '91 or '92. That rascal was $800!!!!! But it pointed me to West End, Bahamas and got me over and back, so I was tickled. Now who is it collecting these things??????
  4. Wow, you guys seem to be onto your stuff. I guess there could be a loose or broken wire in the original cable. I don't plan on getting rid of the extra, but I'd rather not open it until I need it (in case I decide to sell it as NIB later). As long as this original works, I'm good. But I'm still perplexed by what it did when it started all this. It wouldn't come on with or without the cable. That really concerns me because my wife doesn't have a good sense of navigation and relies on this GPS to get around unfamiliar cities when she travels. And if it flakes out on her 100 miles from home....... Thanks for your time and responses, Dr Jeckyl and sagc. I wish GC forums had a "thanks" button.
  5. I found the new Garmin power cable, but before opening the package, I tried the old cable again. And it works fine. So at this point, my question is: What happened in the first place that it wouldn't come on at all? I put it in the console for two or three weeks and it worked fine when I took it out, so it wasn't batteries. What's up with this unit?
  6. That looks like standard lat/lon to me, but there's no datum reference. In Google Earth (whatever datum that is), it comes up about 28 miles west of Nashville, TN. What type of output do you need?
  7. I think I have a new Garmin cable still in the pkg somewhere. I'll look for it tonight.
  8. t4e, Yes, I tried a reset both holding the lower right hand corner of the screen while booting as well as using the button on bottom of the unit. Thanks for your input. Dr Jekyl, Thanks for your input too! It started all this with the cable that originally came with it (in the car), but since testing, I've tried that cable, as well as a Motorola cable (that runs my Vista HCx well). Both cables do the same thing. We've had this unit for about three years and love it. I'd hate to have to send it back, but that's looking likely, huh?
  9. My wife's Garmin Nuvi 260W is stuck in USB mode when it's on the car charger. First off, it wouldn't even power on. AT ALL. So I put it in the console and promptly forgot about it for a few weeks. Later, I managed to get it to boot on the power cable, but it went straight from "loading maps" to USB mode and wouldn't budge. Still later, I learned that it would boot fine from battery and would function normally. I tested a full navigation sequence and it performed flawlessly. But when I plugged the power cable into the cig adapter, it went straight to USB mode. So I took it inside and connected it to a computer (and as expected, it went into USB mode again). and the computer reads it fine. I browsed all the files, etc. Nothing new. I tried a reset from the bottom of the unit, and nothing changed. I connected to webupdater and d/l'd the current software and nothing changed. I DID NOT install the chipset M update. At one point during my car testing, I managed to get it to run normally by plugging it into the cig adapter and letting it boot (into USB mode), then unplugging it and plugging it right back in. It stumbled into normal operation on the car charger and stayed that way for a while, but I haven't been able to do it again. I searched this forum with "nuvi" + "USB mode" and got a lot of stuff about the Colorado, but that wasn't helpful. The "nuvi" query was hitting on people's sig files. What's up with this unit? Does it need to go back to Garmin? Is it hopeless?
  10. One ancient Magellan Pioneer, (circa mid 90's?) One Garmin Etrex Camo (circa 2000-2001?) One Garmin 255W Nuvi (circa 2005?) One Garmin Etrex Vista, HCx (circa 2007) I'll never go back; Garmin has hooked me.
  11. The cemetery is HUGE and I can only give an approximation of the grave location. The cemetery office doesn't have any record of the grave. That's why I'm trying to find the position; so I can have them add him to the registry. If I can find someone to help me look for him, they would have their work cut out for them. Where would be the appropriate sub-forum to request this help? (psssst; how far is Durango from Grand Junction?)
  12. Grasscatcher, I understand your point about 1 meter, so I'll concede. However, I'm a mechanical engineering major and DMS is incredibly simple to me. (I just didn't know the UTM format, nor how to use it). 1 degree of latitude at the equator is 60 nautical miles, so one minute of latitude at the equator is 1 nautical mile. That's as far as I would attempt to differentiate distance with coordinates. If I need anything beyond an approximation, I'll ask my Vista HCx (which, by the way can be set to display UTM format, touche') My only concerns with UTM would be: 1) It's not nearly as recognizable, nor readily accepted as DMS (or DD). At least I didn't recognize the format, nor did I know how to convert without Google's help. 2) It requires 4 items of information; the zone, the datum, the Easting and the Northing. I can give you the same point on a map with the same accuracy by using two sets of numbers in DDs instead of four. It just seems SO much easier to use exchange information. But then that's just me. If UTMs work for you guys, I say, go for it. I can live with whatever works for you; you certainly have been accommodating enough to me and I'm very grateful.
  13. I think you've hit on it. I've never met her and she's about an hour south of the cemetery. What's worse, is she doesn't have a clue about GPS, and got someone to help her with that, so I hesitate to overextend my request. What I don't understand is how they came up with UTMs in the first place; what GPS reads in UTM? Oh well; I'll get there one day. Visiting these graves is on my punch list and now I know where to look, it may just take a little while to find him when I'm there. Grasscatcher and jmundinger, Thank you VERY much for answering my query. I came here knowing that GC'rs would come through for me and I greatly appreciate your help!
  14. Hmmmmm, there's something very strange going on here. Yes, that's what I got too. And when I entered that into Google Earth, it showed up about 6 or 8 feet off of one of the roads in the cemetery that was very close to a verbal description that her brother gave me in an earlier email. But when I pulled up the waypoint properties in Google Earth, it showed 37º, 16' and some change and 107º, 53' and some change. Strange. I corrected the coords to the numbers that we're all getting and it went right back where it was -- showing the wrong numbers again. What the? Soooooo, I manually scrolled around until I found the correct coords, and, BY JOVE, I wound up in the edge of the river just west of the school. Weird. So, taking this back to square one, here is her message: It's definitely in the Greenmount cemetery according to her, but that doesn't mean the coords she provided are right. Where is the grave (in Lat/Lon)?
  15. Explain, please. I entered the UTMs that I posted (as WGS84) in the link that I posted and got a set of Lat/Lons, in D-M-S that fall about 8 feet off of one of the roads through Greenmount Cem when viewed from Google Earth. What makes you concerned?
  16. She said it was WGS84, and the converter at the link I posted defaulted there anyway. Grasscatcher, I didn't realize you were in CO all this time. That's kind of funny that you would answer the post of all GC'rs. It's definitely Greenmount Cem. She found the grave and reported the coords for me. He was buried in 1899 and the cem records don't predate 1904. I wrote them, but they couldn't tell me. Now I can tell THEM. Thanks guys, GC'rs are the BEST.
  17. Got it, Grasscatcher; thanks. I finally figured that out. About that time, I got an email that updated me on the nomenclature and the datum. I used http://www.rcn.montana.edu/resources/tools/coordinates.aspx to convert them to good numbers. Thanks!
  18. I was given coordinates to a grave that I'd like to catalog near Durango, Colorado. The coordinates I received are: 13245590E 4131613N just as typed. I have no idea if this is decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes, or D-M-S, so I thought I'd just enter them all to find out what puts me where I expect it should be; not too hard, huh? The cemetery is basically, 37º 16' N 107º 53' W I first assumed that the E and W were just a typo, so I went from there, and everything fell apart. Is there a coordinate system that uses a number like the first one that would be close to the cemetery as I show it above?
  19. Suspicion alert. Serial converters are "iffy" at best. It sounds like you're doing it right though. Can you try a different machine to see if the converter works better.
  20. Is there a distinction between geocoin and "personal" coin? I.E. If I had coins minted with my name on them and no tracking number, would it be a geocoin, or a personal coin? Would people trade for it, or would it be relegated to a novelty find in a cache? Do geocoins sell/trade better with a tracking number?
  21. Certainly I understand the concept of the Geocoin; that's not my confusion. But having never made one or owned one from another, I'm at a loss to fully understand how the process is intended to work. Were they intended to be only traded, or is selling them the original idea? Which is preferred; selling or trading? Is there an unspoken connotation that selling is bad, or good? Are other people allowed to sell your coin if they traded for it? Where's the etiquette in all this? If you don't have a personal coin (in quantity anyway), how do you get a lot of other folks' coins? Can you trade other swag for coins, or can you just pick them up? (I guess you'd have to know the coin owner's intent on that one?). Do you start a collection primarily by buying a bunch of other folks' coins that appeal to you or do you start out trading? What if you don't have your own coin to trade? Do you trade one-for-one, or do some coins garner higher trades than others? (I could just about guess this one based on baseball cards and other collectibles, but I thought it best to ask). There are some fantastic looking personal coins that folks are making themselves. To me, that's the best way to go as it adds a personal touch that's truly unique. And a hand made coin, just means something more than a purchased coin. But I realize that a lot of people don't have the time and/or the talent to make their own coins so they buy; that's fine too. When you purchase coins, what are the most common options? What is the most common size? How many do you buy? Do you have a coin minted hoping to sell them and make money, or just trade for other coins? Do you leave them in a geocache without swapping anything or are you expected to receive a like coin in trade from a cache? Perhaps a better way to ask this is "How do your coins get their start?" Give me a primer on geocoins; I'd love to make my own or buy some.......
  22. I bought mine in August of '07 and it seems like they had been out since June or July at that point. I could be wrong though; I was once before.....
  23. I posted a similar question recently and got a lot of good feedback including a great way to back up to most of the older SW versions. Lots of good info on GS!
  24. EXCELLENT information; thank you, Chuy! and quiqqie!
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