nchmura

Hi all. I am sure this has been discussed somewhere up here, but my searches turned up nothing partially because I am a terrible searcher and partially because the forum search engine wanted longer search strings Regardless... I am looking for a GPS case that I can attach to the shoulder strap of my backpack that is: 1) Secure / won't come off easily. 2) Somewhat protective 3) Most importantly, allows the GPS to keep its signal I have browsed through 1000's of compact camera cases and none seem to do the trick - 99% would completely encompass the gps blocking the signal too much. Of the real GPS cases I have found - they are either specific to particular model (I want it all for all!) or are simply to apparently protect them when not in use. Which is silly I would even settle for something that securely attaches to my backpack. Any suggestions? I am also at the point of getting a cheap camera case and ripping off the top flap and replacing that with some sort of mesh. Unfortunately my sewing skills are moot and I am not ready to spend an afternoon bleeding Thanks.

I am a north upper. Though I use my gps's more for mountain biking than geocaching, and I keep it in my backpack - so whenever we stop to see where we are, the gps does not seem to always stay oriented in the direction we were traveling. So with north up I just pull out my trusty compass and all is well Otherwise, with track up, I have to start hiking until the track up is actually up! Though if it was handlebar mounted I might go track up....

Mine just arrived today (I was lucky enough to get one)! Not too shabby of a unit. Does anyone know the max size of SD card it can take? The manual makes it sound infinite (mentions 512) but I read elsewhere 256 is max?

I have a rino and find it does get excellent reception overall. I am (pretty) sure you will be happy with the 200 though, only thing is that it does not have pc connectivity (though you can get some crazy 3rd party aftermarket kit thing i hear).

First open the tracks you want to upload, then go to options->Preferences and make sure the gps port settings and such are all good. The choose gps->gpx transfer, click "upload tracks", then select the track you want to upload in the drop down on top, click begin. Should do the trick. However, if you are looking to upload topos as basemaps, you are out of luck

I have a 110 and I like it. The whole interface takes some time to get used to, but I find its a great little unit. Gets good reception as well

I use my gps more for mapping trails over geocaching, but i am a huge topofusion fanboy I do use expertgps as well.

I have been happily using expertgps for many years now. I upgraded to their new version and I am not as happy a user. Somehow I found it a little less intuative to use and not as fast. Can't really explain it though. Be sure to check out topofusion as well

Check out Topofusion as well: http://www.topofusion.com Easygps will probably prove to be the easiest set up and get downloading with, but it does not have maps

Looks good! Looks like its on its way to be a great resource! I added my site ( http://www.crankfire.com ) to your CT list and I left the "http://" in the url and it showed up in the listing as "http://http//www.crankfire.com" - which does not work for obvious reasons [start shameless self pimping]Crankfire is along similar lines to yours - though I focus on mountain bike trails only.[/end shameless self pimping] Touching upon peoples machines blowing their brains out on map load: I also have been playing with the Google Maps API (for example) as well and noticed that on some of our larger gpx tracks - Firefox just spins up and freaks out. And as much as I hate to admit it (being a firefox fanboy), IE handled these larger tracks better. For hooking the topo's in there, did you write that from the ground up or did you try mulka's hook? I have been considering giving that a whirl - but just have yet to get around to it. PS - I will toss you into my links section

1 Garmin Rino 110 2 Garmin GPS 12's 1 Magellan Map 330x 2 Eagle Explorers (old school!) Well, technically I don't own them all, my website owns the 12's and Explorers (loaner units)

Yeah, its a good bit of software. It is stable and well featured. I personally think it excels in making uploading and downloading data to and from your gps's a breeze, especially if you have multiple gps's. They have trial download. Though I think i bought mine for $40 back in the day, $60 seems rather steep. And along a similar vien, be sure to check out Topofusion I own both and find myself using expertgps to download stuff from my units and topofusion for management, analysis and editing and such.

I was thinking the exact same thing New release is looking pretty good.

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1929.html Some happy... and some angry customers Not too shabby on prices though.

I mountain bike with a gps in my camelbak. I have had many regular old wipeouts along with lots of over the bar crashes landing on my back (and gps). So far the 2 toughest units i have are Garmin GPS 12's and uber old school Eagle Explorers. Both can drive nails. Granted I have not broken any yet. Just some scratches really. I think the Explorers are in fact bricks. Out of all of the units i own, my Garmin Rino seems like it could be rather delicate, but it seems to be hanging in there.... but time will tell

I certainly did upload some to the saved tracks, but I think I was getting the same thing when i was uploading to the active track. I think.... I didn't really pay attention to where it pooped out though, I will give it another try later. As far as track size is concerned, the track i was trying to upload was one i made using the rino, though it was a pretty big one Any idea what the limits are on the saved tracks? I could not find anything on that.

I having an odd problem uploading tracks to my Rino 110. First off, I store all my tracks in the GPX format. When I attempt to upload them to my GPS my Rino puts a little message on its screen saying 'Track Truncated' and thats exactly what it does: drops a good portion of the data i am uploading. I have tried uploading them with expertgps, topofusion, and easygps - and they all yield this result (and none of the softwares figure it out, they just keep uploading the track). So I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with the software. I also made sure the GPX files were well formed and even went as far as making sure they contained only 1 track/no track segments. Anyone have any ideas/experience on this one? I couldn't find anything in the manual or on garmins website.

When I was caching with my Garmin 12 alongside a big variety of other GPSrs, I almost always got the best reception under a canopy; I don't think my new Vista does as well. I hear ya - for geocaching I am sure it does just fine as you are moving a little slower and probably have it 'out in the open' (i throw my units in the mesh on my camleback) a little more - my experience was more flying through the woods going fast as i can pedal, and when i would download the track it would often have 'dead spots' in the track. But I would certainly recommend the unit, especially if you can get it pretty cheap

Topofusion is awesome. Definitely give it a try, they have a free to download just about full featured demo up there - so there is no risk. It is perfect software for gps wielding mountain bikers!

I also have 2 gps 12's - i loan out for mapping bike trails and not really for geocaching though. They are certainly tough units, have all the basic gps features and I find the menu-ing and such on them to be pretty intuative. Oh yeah, and they have pc connectivity - which is very important if you ask me. On the downside though, of the 4 different units we have, the 12's have the worst reception under heavier tree canopies. I picked them both used on ebay for $24 and $38 ( i watch ebay a lot) so don't pay too much!

The Ram mounts are very nice. Personally, i just throw my GPS into the mesh on my CamelBack - works out fine for me. Though if i want to see where i am, it does involve fishing it out. And for me, i think a gps hanging around my handlebars would probably get in my way!! And now for the shameless plug: If you are a mountain biker and happen to map any trails - consider checking out my site (biking and gps data collecting/mapping): www.crankfire.com

I find PC Connectivity is a big one for me - and this is not an option with the explorist 100's Granted I 'collect' whatever gps'es i can get cheap for mapping bike trails and am not entirely concerned with the latest and greatest features - but I have won a couple old garmin gps 12's for as little as $21 off ebay. I got 2 Eagle Explorers as well for real cheap. Just an option in case you are looking to go real cheap.

I ordered these yesterday: Lenmar 2000 mAh NiMH Rechargeable AA Batteries (24 Pack) - $21.99 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00...9574211-8018250 Then i added this: Tech B BTAA2401 AA Batteries 24-Pack Alkaline http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00...9574211-8018250 To get the free shipping

I have been chatting (and testing their software) with these nice people who are writing software that will take your gpx data and picture data and add the geographic data into the photos exif data http://www.grazer.de/grazer_home/index_en.html I don't think they released a version yet, but its pretty neat if you ask me. Maybe not exactly what you are looking to do though. Otherwise, I would recommend quakemap or topofusion though.

I recently picked up a couple old Garmin GPS 12 units on ebay for about $30 each. Certainly not fancy units, but they do the trick for me (i use them as loaner units for mapping mountain bike trails) and I imagine they will do just fine for geocaching (though no WAAS) Its the whole $30 thing