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DeadHead82

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Everything posted by DeadHead82

  1. Yeah that's a drag. Last summer I went to Texas with my girlfriend to visit her brother. I was lucky enough to get a window seat. When they came over the speaker and said electronic devices were ok to turn on the first thing i went for was my 60csx. I didn't think I'd be able to get a fix but, managed to by pointing the antenna out the window. I was really surprised when it finally locked. I had tracks enabled, got to see our relative position, and even got to see the 500 + mph we were doing on the speedometer. The 76 and 60 are pretty much functionally identical, so hopefully for your next flight, you grab a window seat.
  2. @knowschad: Totally! The ballfields aren't very far from my mom's. I doubt the local police will let the car sit there for very long. They've probably winched it out already. However, I will go snap a picture of the aftermath. I'll go ahead a figure out what cache it was so i can find the whereabouts.
  3. Wow, opened up the forums after work tonight and what do i see!? Why that's my home town! Those are the ball fields at which I played up until high school. I've since moved away to complete school, but never thought in a million years I'd see something like this on a world-wide forum. The Tuscarawas River runs behind the ballfields. Not too far away is a water treatment facility, hence the name "Water Works Fields." No wonder it was soupy and muddy. It's a floodplain for crying out loud! I don't know what possessed the dude to try and get his car through there, but he sure paid for it. lol I'm still in shock that my little po-dunk hometown got some publicity, albeit bad press. The first thing i thought was "Leave it to good ol' Phila to come out with something like this." Sure, it's good for a laugh I guess but, unfortunately, people make bad decisions no matter what their activity of choice. I'm sure when I get home for Christmas my mom will that that article clipped and show it to me. Now I can tell her it hasn't been just the talk of the town, the story reached a far wider audience!
  4. No worries! Glad to help. I was awfully upset when I found out I was missing map segments. However, the building and transferring of city nav as compared to the topo maps i have is night and day. There's a ton more data in the topo mapsets and they take forever to build and load. I can have all of city nav NA on the card ready to go in less than 20 minutes. The last time i built a topo mapset it took well over 2 hours.
  5. I've got city nav 10.1 when i zoom out so that i can see all of north america and click and drag across the whole mapset, i get 123 maps as well. I was making the same mistake you mentioned when i first loaded it. there are some considerably small map tiles around some major cities in a few states. MN, LA, NY, and IL come to mind. With the map zoomed too far out it's hard to see that they aren't selected. Upon zooming in, it's easier to tell. If i wasn't careful i'd get somwhere in the range of 118 maps. I'm fairly certain that the whole mapset is 123 tiles. That includes the virgin islands and all the smaller tiles. All the best.
  6. I thought about that too when I first read the post, but the "location selected" option is for displaying your current location in your selected format. i.e. UTM or user grid. The two location options are for "lat/lon" and "selected." If you choose "lat/lon" your location will be displayed in lat/lon despite having a different location option selected.
  7. Sweet! You can tweak just about everything, so have fun setting it up for your usage patterns. Just remember to put the GPS down and pick up your books and notes when you've got an exam coming up!
  8. Despite the price of maps, you should be delighted with your choice of handheld. It doesn't have all the "paperless" bells and whistles but it's a sold unit nonetheless. Accurate as all get out and virtually indestructable to boot! I've taken a couple of spills with mine clipped to the shoulder strap of my Camelbak while trail riding, and the thing just keeps going! The free maps I pointed you to have mac installers, so however you go about getting software on those things you should be good to go. Caching only accounts for about 10% of my usage, the rest is trail riding, hiking, and exploring. Ohio, boonies, hillbilly stuff ya know. What I can tell ya is to thoroughly read the instruction manual and find stuff online. Get to know the ins and outs. I barely have to look at mine to use it anymore. However, I'm just a gadget geek and a map junkie. I've got a little over a year of experience with mine and am fairly confident in my abilities with it, so, once you get it, if you've got any general usage questions, I'll help any way I can. Don't hesitate to drop my an e-mail thru my profile. Good luck, and congrats on the purchase. You'll be logging hikes in no time! Take it easy, Zack
  9. No problem! Glad to help. I totally got burned when i got my GPS. I went and bought the Topo DVD only to discover afterwards that there were better, cheaper options available. I forgot to ask, are you on a PC or a Mac, because there are some differences where software is concerned. I myself am running Windows XP, so if you use a mac, you'll have to hope one of the Mac savvy users is around if you need help, 'cause I'll have noo idea at that point. If you run a PC however I'll be able to help. Some of this garmin stuff can be a real headache your first time thru. I took some GIS courses while I was in school and still got twisted by garmin's software sometimes.
  10. Maps aren't necessary to get started, however they do make it a whole lot easier to survey the landscape. Before you shell out the coin for the garmin topos, I suggest you take a look at gpsfiledepot.com. There are topos for just just about anywhere in the US and they're free! Many of them are 1:24000 scale and are much more detailed than the 1:100000 scale garmin maps. I've got Topo US 2008 and the Ohio Topo from the depot. In my area, the maps from the depot absolutely smoke the garmin maps in the contour line department. I have noticed that the water data on the garmin maps is better than the free ones, as they provide more intermittent waterways. All in all, you really can't go wrong with the free ones, heck the price is right for at least a look see. Most if not all come with an installer so you can use them with mapsource on your computer. Garmin maps have one more edge though, Topo US contains DEM shading data which aids in the visual presentation of the maps, but you'll be using a 60 (just like me!) and that unit doesn't support the relief shading, you'll only be able to see it on the computer. If you've got any other questions I'll be happy to help, just ask away. All the best, Z Edit: I assume by your screen name you're in CA so I've added the link to CA's Topo with 20 foot contours: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/28/
  11. When the skies finally clear up after almost a week of rain and cold, and you decide it's time for a caching trip, the pocket query generator will be acting up!
  12. No worries friend! I'm glad to help where I can. I created a profile on that site and uploaded a few pics and my main riding route. I thought it was pretty cool, so I owe you thanks for turning me on to it. I did a test earlier today. Typically, if I'm not doing my regular loop on the hike and bike, I'll just ride until I'm half spent, select "go to" HOME and my city nav maps route me right there. By tracing the track and using non auto-routing software, it worked fairly well. However, the route understandably doesn't follow the road. It just gets you to the next intersection and points you in the direction of the next via point. It's actually an OK workaround for someone who doesn't have routable maps on their unit. I've just been spoiled since I shelled out the clams (lol terrible pun, I know) for the city nav. software. It essentially turns the CSx into a rugged Nuvi. You may want to think about it as a future purchase. It totally added another dimension to my GPS usage. When I first started I was using the free gpsfiledepot maps that were 1:24,000 scale. They're really nice too. I've got all of city nav. NA and the entire Ohio Topo on a 2 gig sd card. I use city nav to get where I'm going and switch to the topo to survey the landscape. Keep me posted on any info or site updates you hear from the guys as "ridewithgps." It looks like it could be a pretty neat tool. Good for finding new ride routes, or routes to check out when I travel. P.S. A "quick 40 miles?" That's crazy! lol I'm pretty well spent after about 30 but, then again, I don't know what kind of machine you're using either. Further on, Zack
  13. Here are a couple that helped me brush up when I got my Suunto M3 http://www.ussartf.org/compass_basics.htm http://www.learn-orienteering.org/old/ It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, but it can be confusing for a novice. Good luck and enjoy! All the best.
  14. No, I don't think so, but don't get your hopes up, I'm not completely certain. However, I remember reading somwhere (either mapsource manual or the net) that you can retrieve your unlocks should anything like what you've outlined occurs. Hook up your device to the computer and click on the utilities menu, then click on manage map products. Select the product you want from the list and click "unlock online." Ensure that the garmin communicator program is installed and click find device. Enter your device's serial number in the prompt and click retrieve unlocks. This process should restore your unlocks to mapsource without issue, altough garmin is known for issues to be forewarned! Oh, I looked it up, the info above does come from the mapsource manual, not just rumors on the interweb, so if you can't get your maps re-unlocked this way, you'll have to put in a call or e-mail to garmin's tech support to get it sorted. It's worth a shot first though. If you've got any other questions, feel free to ask away! All the best!
  15. All the map tiles you wish to send to the data card must be sent at one time. When you're selecting tiles in mapsource, select the first set, then go the the drop down menu in the top left, select a different map product, select the tiles you want from that one, then back to the drop down, select yet another map product, select tiles....so on and so forth until all tiles wanted are selected. Check the "maps" tab in the side bar. You should see tiles from all the different products. Then hit "send to GPS" You should be on your way. Mapsource comes with a manual for reference in .pdf format. It should be in your "garmin" folder under program files. It explains this process in detail. If you don't have it it can be downloaded here: http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/MapSource_M...eUsersGuide.pdf If you have any other questions, problems, ect. feel free to post back. I'll help in any way that I can. All the best.
  16. Crafty Turtle, first of all, take a few deep breaths, chill out, and I'll try and help you as best I can. I too have a degree, although not in a cartography related field (conservation biology) but, I did take a few GIS courses in school, and this garmin stuff gave me some headaches as well. We've got the same exact setup so there should be parallels (or at least one would think) First I'll have you check and see if city nav is installed. When you start up mapsource, under the main menu, file, edit, ect. there should be a drop down box. When you click the arrow, you should get a list of all of the map products installed that mapsource recognizes. If it's there, we're on to step two. You could post back, or if the mods desire, I could help you step by step either by PM or e-mail. edit to add: in the dropdown box you should see "City Navigator North America"
  17. Ok, so I just did a test for you guys/girls? It looked like a cool site, and I'm a fairly avid cyclist myself (mountain/cross, not road but that's neither her nor there) When you make a "route" via the site and export to .gpx, you're able to open the file with mapsource. There is a catch, however. Mapsource recognizes the file as a "track" not a "route." Unfortunately, this means you won't get turn by turn directions, next turn pop-ups, ect. You're able to send the file to your GPSr as a track and it will display properly on the map. The only thing is, you'll need to pay a little more attention since the unit won't tell you when to turn, or recalculate if you go off course. There may be a work around, although I haven't tried it yet. You could open the file in mapsource so that you see the track and use the "route tool" in mapsource to trace over the track, placing prominent via points where you see fit (major intersections, turns, curves, and the like.) I'll give that a shot on one of my non auto-routing maps and see how that turns out. All the rest of the processes outline in my previous post still hold true for whichever method you decide upon. You'll have to upload the "track" or "route" via the software, as you can't place .gpx files on the card and expect the unit to read them. I hope I haven't confused you too badly. Any and all questions you may have are certainly welcome, and I'll do my best to help you work them out. The more you can concentrate on cruising, the better the ride you'll have. Pedal on!!! All the best.
  18. The 60csx reads only maps from the SD card. It only writes tracklogs to the data card (provided you have that option selected.) In order to transfer a route to the unit, you must use mapsource and send the route to the unit's internal memory. You can save up to 50 route on that particular handheld. If you're getting a .gpx file from said site, open it with mapsource. There you can hit the "send to gps" button, ensure that the "routes" tick box is checked, and you're good to go.
  19. S=Sensors i.e. Barometric Altimeter and Electronic Compass
  20. It's a reference to "True" north. True north is "map" north. Straight up to the pole. Magnetic north or (M) is shifted a bit. How much so depends on your location. Here are a couple of sites: http://www.ussartf.org/compass_basics.htm http://www.learn-orienteering.org/old/
  21. As far as turning products on and off, while you're in the map setup menu, where you see all the individual tiles, if you hit "menu" again it'll bring up a list of installed products. In that menu, you're able to turn products on and off as a whole. I switch between Topo US '08 and City Nav '10 on my 60csx frequently. All the best.
  22. I use City Nav on my 60csx. If you don't recalculate once you're in the general area of the cache, the software continues to try and place you on the nearest road. (If you selected "follow road" as your routing option) To get to the actual coordinates, you then have to recalculate using the "off road" option. This will give you the "bee line" that you're looking for.
  23. Nope, you've got a GPSr and a paperless caching solution so, you're good to go. However, many newer units come with "High Sensitivity Receivers" that are much better at holding a sat lock under challenging conditions. (Tree cover, canyons, buildings, ect.) I've got a 60 csx and the only time I lose a lock is when I'm inside a brick building, or someplace where there's major interference. I don't know where you do most of your caching, but if obstructions aren't an issue, I'd say you're all set. All the best.
  24. Hey Roddy, I just checked out the site. Those maps are part of the Open Street Map collection. They do have routing capabilities, however, I don't think it's Navteq data. They've also got contours. So basically you can liken them to the routable topo software you've got on your -40. Hope this helped All the best! Edit: Oops, JDiablo beat me to it. Keep it easy, fellas!
  25. Not to butt in or anything, but I've got a suunto M3, just not the global model. It's served me well over the past year, and I have no reservations about trusting it. I used to use maps and compasses alot when I was in scouting but needed to brush up a bit when I received this one last year. Here are a couple of sites i've found that helped a bit: http://www.ussartf.org/compass_basics.htm http://www.learn-orienteering.org/old/ There are more out there, but these are what I found to be most helpful. Okiewan seems to be much more experienced than I, so if he's got something else in mind, by all means, check it out. I'm just trying to point ya in the right direction to get you started. All the best.
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