jammun

The manual is not real clear on this. It says you can "enter coordinates for a waypoint manually", then conveniently does not tell you how to do that. Believe me, I went down this road. So: On the map, mark your current location, any location. Give it a name. This will create a waypoint. Then go edit the waypoint (Find > Waypoints), and enter the coordinates you want. Now you have the usable waypoint.

First off, my wife and I are totally new at this with a whopping total of four finds. However our mindset has been to get out and get a bit of exercise, enjoy a nice day, see some areas in the neighborhood we might not have seen before, take some photos, and maybe find a cache. This makes the game much less frustrating, if the cache is not the end in itself. I'd echo what some others have said: make sure you've input the coordinates correctly (I made that mistake) and make sure once you're on the hunt that you have your unit's map drilled in properly in terms of distance. Our unit was showing us right on top of the find, until I realized the map was zoomed out to something like 400 ft. Once we zoomed in properly, we found the cache in no time.

I dont' have experience with any others, but I'm happy with my Vista HCx. I have found it to be extremely accurate.

Thats why I started - Oh and there was the it looks fun bit. I am sure that's why my wife made sure there was an eTrex under the Christmas tree this year! It does make us get out, have a bit of fun, visit some areas in the immediate neighborhood we've not necessarily seen for a few years. We'll start venturing further out once we've logged finds for all the caches nearby.

Glad to hear that you are up and running. I followed along in your earlier thread about the failure to read the microSD card. I told you it was a hardware failure... I just had to convince Garmin of that! In any case, nice weather today so we went out for a short while after work and found our -- tada! -- second cache. BTW, thanks to you guggie and to all of the others who helped me out during what was an extremely frustrating time with the original unit.

Mine shows no signs of use. It came in a bag labeled "newly overhauled", hence I assume it's a refurb. I assume that could mean any number of things, either not up to spec when manufactured or a customer return, for example. I don't care. It works; my "new" one did not.

My refurb is pristine. I don't have a problem with it, as long as it works, which it does. No sign that it's been used. The main thing for me is that it actually works, which my new unit did not.

I had a brand new Vista HCx which would not load maps from the card reader slot. I finally convinced Garmin customer support that it was not the card, it was my unit. They gave me an RMA, and my refurb unit arrived today! And it loads my 24K NW topo! I can actually see detail now, instead of a vast yellow expanse. Many of us (me) tend to rant about bad experiences on many forums, so I thought I'd go ahead a post a thumbs up for the support folks at Garmin. Excellent experience once I got their attention. For those who are buying one of the Etrex family that is capable of loading topos, I would highly recommend either including $ for maps in the budget, or go for the free ones. The difference in the map detail is amazing.

Well as a newcomer to this as well, with a total of one find so far, I'm not an authority, but let me add a few observations: - My first cache was an easy find, which I assume is a good thing. Not too easy, but we found it within 5-10 minutes of starting the search. - The second cache we did not find. So this was a bit frustrating, because this particular cache is visited at least once a week. Two problems: first, I had made a slight error when entering the coordinates, which caused my GPS to steer me further south than necessary; second, my wife was with me, complaining about the cold, so we gave up a bit sooner than I would have liked. - My GPS is now at Garmin for repair/replacement, so I haven't been back out in the urban wilds doing searches. As soon as I get my unit back, I'll go look for that second cache again. - I've always found the forum members to be extremely helpful. I was extremely frustrated with my Vista's hardware problems, and many people responded to my posts with helpful troubleshooting options. In the end, in fact, with their help, I was able to convince Garmin that my unit was indeed faulty and in need of warranty repair. So stick with it. For my wife and I, it's purely not success in this that counts. It's getting out, getting some exercise, exploring some new areas. If we happen to find the cache, then great, that's a bonus. (I realize if you are out with kids, who may have higher expectations, lack of success may not be taken so casually.)

I really liked my Vista HCx. It is currently en route to Garmin for repair/replacement because it will not load maps from the microSD card slot. For any caches outside of your immediate area (i.e., places you are not familiar with) I'd say a topo or street map would come in quite handy and perhaps even be necessary. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't like seeing nothing but a yellow screen with no detail when out searching. Can't wait to receive a working unit as the weather is finally getting tolerable.

I found their email support to be pretty much worthless. However, called them today and my non-functional Vista HCx is now headed back to them. Won't bother with the email support again unless it's for a minor "how to" problem All things considered a good experience if I eventually get my replacement unit.

My Vista HCx does the same thing, but only if there is a microSD card with map loaded onto it inserted. With just the base map it works fine, but as soon as I pop in an SD card, it crashes on boot up. If you have an SD card installed, remove it and see if it works okay. Also received mine from Amazon in December. It's going back to Garmin as soon as I have a chance to call them -- their online/email support is worthless.

Have you tried a hard system reset? I had something similar happen with min Legend HCx and everything showed up afterwards. What are the steps for a hard reset? Hold the PAGE (upper right) button and joystick ENTER buttons. Press power while holding those two. A screen will come up asking if you really want to erase all the data. Thanks. No luck however. I guess it's going back to Garmin now.

Have you tried a hard system reset? I had something similar happen with min Legend HCx and everything showed up afterwards. What are the steps for a hard reset?

On the map setup page, scroll over to Map Setup - Information Then press the Menu button (left side-bottom button) Anything other than the basemap listed there? Nope

Well let's hope my wife can find the receipt. She gave it to me as a Christmas gift.

You may want to view my post today on my Vista HCx. It's not a bad little unit, but the base map is worthless and mine is unable to load topos or other maps from microSD.

Here we go again. My Garmin Vista HCx was refusing to read third-party maps from the microSD card. So I bought the official Garmin WA/OR 24K topo on microSD. If I go to System Setup menu and look at Card Info it shows the card as being installed with 1488.2 MB of maps. So far so good. If I go to Map Setup menu, on the information screen, no map is listed. The Show Map Name box is empty. If I go to the main map display screen, where the base map is showing, and select Menu > Setup Map, same deal. No ability to select the topo that's on the card. So is my Vista HCx just a piece of garbage, or am I missing some minor but crucial step? Thanks for any help you can give.

Well interesting, when I transfer the entire state to my SD card, the HCx actually starts up. But in checking the Maps loaded, the topo is not there and I'm only displaying the base map. Thinking I have a bad card now, though my computer likes it.

Yes, Garmin doesn't support third party maps, but the Vista HCx will certainly use them. Mine does in any case without any trouble. What gpsfiledepot map is not working for you? I would be happy to give it a look. Thanks for the offer. It's the Washington (state) topo. I'm only trying to load a couple of segments -- about 12 MB total. I suspect one of two things now: my unit is faulty or my unit has a problem with microSD that the Washington topo is loaded on.

So here's the latest. I contacted Garmin support and was told in absolute terms that they do not support third-party maps. In other words, if the maps work, good enough. If they don't, Garmin doesn't want to hear about it. I actually can understand their stance. I went ahead and ordered the Garmin Pacific NW 24K Topo map on microSD. Hopefully that one will work with the unit. If not, it then does become Garmin's problem, providing my wife can find the receipt for the Vista HCx (she gave me the unit for Christmas). If my Vista can't stay powered on with Garmin's map, then it's clearly messed up. I was reading another thread about Oregon's shutting down on power up, which sounds exactly what my unit is doing. I wonder if it's just coincidence.

Yep, the batteries are fine. The unit boots up just fine and displays the base map if 1) no SD card present, or 2) SD card present but no map files on it. If SD card is present, it recognizes it as being pretty much empty, i.e., it can read the card and know it's empty. If SD care has .img file on it, unit immediately powers off. I've tried using MapSource both direct download to unit when unit is connected via USB, and download to F: drive (SD card) on computer, unit not connected. In both cases it creates the same size .img file on the SD card. BTW, I'm only trying to load 6 MB (1 segment) from my mapsource file, so it only takes a minute or two to build the file. Maybe I'm missing something, but for the gpsfiledepot map I'm using the instructions listed here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-...armin-gps-unit/ Tried the same process with mapinstall and the unit still powers off as soon as it tries to load the map on startup. A little more info: on the startup screen at the bottom I see a progress bar displayed if there is a map on the SD. It shows 0% and then the unit powers off. I went ahead and ordered the Garmin 24K WA/OR topos tonight. I think this will be required for me to prove to Garmin the unit is faulty, if it is. If that one doesn't work, then I see a new Vista HCx in my future.

I have tried every possible way to get the maps onto the SD card: directly from MapSource, directly from MapInstall, via computer to MapSource, via computer to MapInstall. In every case if the SD has a map on it, upon power up the unit powers down. I went ahead and ordered the Garmin 24K topo for WA/OR. If that works, then I'm happy...well not happy, but I'll live with it. If not, then the unit goes back to Garmin for replacement since I've only had it for two months. It's too bad the base map on these is worthless. Not too many caches hidden on the interstates I would guess. Or maybe those are the 5/5's, microcache on an expansion joint on the freeway in an urban area. Better make a really quick grab

Update: Downloaded MapInstall from the Garmin site. Went through the process to put two topo segments (around 12 MB total) on my microSD card. Everything indicates success. Put card in HCx and power on. I get the Garmin power-up splash screen for about two seconds, then the unit powers down at about the point it would display the map.

Don't use file transfer, use Map Install. Put your MicroSD in a card reader and send the data there. you have to leave the folder named gmapsupp.img. stick it back into your GPS and restart. I recently bought one of these Vista HCx and love it. this is the fastest way to get files on to your GPS. What is Map Install and where do I get it? With MapSource, there are two ways to get the map onto the card: 1. Connect the HCx (with microSD installed) to my PC, then do Transfer > Send to Device. If I use this method, the HCx powers down as soon as the transfer completes. 2. Put the microSD into it's adapter, and use Transfer > Send to Device and select whatever drive letter the micro SD is using. If I use this method, once I put the microSD into the the HCx it powers down once it is powered on. In both cases a Garmin folder is created, with a gmapsupp.img file in it. So if I'm not doing this correctly please let me know. Otherwise, I do think I have a POS device.