Sue and Bernie

You need a serial cable to connect your eTrex to your PC. Then go to this page on Garmin's site and follow the instructions: eTrex updates.... ...it is straightforward.

Bluetooth has to be switched off during flights. ...that's why we'll use the infra-red! (actually the only option offered in the game setup). Just like the old Palm days...

I've just got a second Ipaq 6340 for Sue to use.. Ebay £202 in the end. Second-hand but pristine - and HP will transfer the remainder of the 3 year warranty. No inbuilt GPS but it does have an unlocked phone, wifi and Bluetooth. This enables us to use BT gps, earpieces and keyboards. This makes is a lovely integrated soluton - and we can play Scrabble between them during flights without dropping and losing the letters! Don't get me wrong, I still love my Palm IIIxe and its gucci folding keyboard - it led me inevitably to this current solution - I wanted everything in one box (it was either that or the male-handbag thing to lug it all around)! I particularly miss the faultless, automatic restoration and the straight-forward syncronisation that is the Palm OS. I know I can take it out of the drawer, pop in a couple of batteries, hot-sync it from a standing start and I'll be off from where I left off with the calendar sync-ed and up to date. I keep it for just that reason - for when the Ipaq falls over (and being a PC running windoze, failure is inevitable somewhere down the line). Trouble was, the PPC had the biggest and the best software and so many permutations of hardware it made my head swim....so we settled for one each of the same for us.

I'll second that! As well as much improved reception under tree cover, I've noted that the battery life is also much better even though the screen is in colour and a wee bit wider. The Vista C (or Legend C) are particularly good buys if you already have City Select or City Navigator software as supplied with hi-end Garmin autorouting units (such as Quest or Streetpilot). This software can be "unlocked" for use with a second Garmin GPS unit so you can get full auto-routing in the battery powered handheld Vista C as well as your main unit.

You're going to like this - not a lot! We own a Vista C. Firstly, you can only use Garmin software to install map data into your unit. It's a cracking unit, fast, batteries last ages, small and effective. However, read on... It will load hi-res map data from all the Garmin Metroguide (MG), City Select (CS) and City Navigator (CN) series of software. All the programmes display similar street-level detail of the areas purchased. MG is the cheapest, it is unlocked and will not provide auto-routing. CS and CN are extremely expensive, each programme can only be unlocked to 2 Garmin units via their internal electronic serial number. These programmes are normally included in the purchase of associate Garmin hardware. You cannot purchase the European versions of CS or CN as standalone programmes - similarly, US citizens cannot purchase USA software alone. Don't ask me why - ask Garmin! From the above, you will soon work out that if you already have CS or CN (in our case by owning a Streetpilot) - the Vista C is great! We have full auto-routing on the handlebars of my bike courtesy of CN. If you don't have the software available like we do, you will now start to fume at not be able to access the proclaimed auto-routing features of the Legend C and Vista C. Pass on the topo mapping, I have seen the US version and was not too impressed, it was fairly clunky. Bet you wished you'd asked first!!!

Dave, I can sort you out with this - unfortunately not at present because I am away from home on training courses for the next few weeks. I have the Palm Desktop software disc that came with my Palm IIIxe - this will install the Hotsync software that you need to connect your palm to Outlook (or the Palm Desktop Information Manager). B

Yippee! ...tis working now.

Still not available! Is it anywhere else?

Oi! Lordelph! Where's this brill script hidden? I am away from home using my laptop - I've just brought it up to date by installing Firefox and went looking for this script, the original link says it's missing. I really want the little veto cross back.... Cheers....

There is a similar function in GPS Tuner. I printed off the manual to have a look at the facilities it offers. It too can use calibrated images of maps that you scan yourself. Once you've registered two sets of coords on the map, it works the same way. The programme also uses the same gpx files as GPSonar and lists the caches in a similar manner.

We're quality too... cycling in the summer, walking in the not-so-summer! We normally plan an outing, of either sort, to a roundabout trip to pick up a couple of caches at a time.

...along with outputs for any Garmin units, Memory-Map, GPSonar....blah, blah, blah. GSAK is a geo-geek's delight - excellent central point for all your waypoint needs.

I use FF as my browser of choice - particularly on the GC site. I have not had any sort of printing difficulty. In fact, I have just finished showing Sue the diffences between FF with all the greasemonkey scripts and the plain-vanilla IE version of the same cache and forum pages... No contest!

First off, get a bluetooth GPS and then you can have MM produce a moving map display for you. It will immediately lock the map to your current position. Excellent for confirming those poorly marked footpaths (where the local landowner has accidently fallen on / driven over / removed the sign). It will also track your movements, drawing a red line as you move. Super! You can also lash out for TomTom 5 software, whole of Europe for about £100. Route yourself to caches and other interesting points, get warned of "danger zones" (as indicated by the postioning of a speedcamera). After that, GPS Tuner is worth trying, an all-in-one GPS/Geo-geeking solution.

I think our resident GreaseMonkey clever clogs should add their neat offerings to this site, the 2x maps insertions scripts and the ingnore threads script... Veeeeerrrry clever stuff indeed...

...there are not many dinosaur that go around using a system of 24 orbiting atomic clocks to feed data into a hand sized, portable, battery-powered device to locate themselves to within feet of their position on the surface of the planet! It just goes to show how fast stuff moves on! What you hold in each of your hands, the Palm and the Legend, were on the cutting edge just a few short years ago....

Why juggle two or three devices? This was the exact reason for upgrading from an iPaq and seperate mobile phone for me. But then maybe I use my phone and PDA and GPRS more than some. I am very much a fan of integrated tech stuff! Get that Freeview built into the telly, get that DVD Burner built into the VCR along with a hard drive. One thing I really like about the integration in my Ipaq is that I can look up a contact, dial direct from thre and then set it as a destination for TomTom. It's the way it should be! PDAs and mobile phones are steadily converging in their capabilities anyway (TomTom on a phone etc) and PDAs with phone capability. Soon we will not be able to spot the difference. I was using a LG 8120 alongside a Palm IIIxe until the Ipaq took over. The 8120 was fairly clunky on the PDA side of things so the Palm did everything I wanted on the PDA side. It was tedious having to duplicate information in two electronic boxes that both had to be carted about and both had to be regularly sync-ed with Outlook. Integrating the facilities from the 2 boxes (and adding Memory-Map too) became the clear solution.... ...and when I buy another 1GB SD card, the MP3 player will get the boot too!

Why juggle two or three devices? This was the exact reason for upgrading from an iPaq and seperate mobile phone for me. But then maybe I use my phone and PDA and GPRS more than some. I am very much a fan of integrated tech stuff! Get that Freeview built into the telly, get that DVD Burner built into the VCR along with a hard drive. One thing I really like about the integration in my Ipaq is that I can look up a contact, dial direct from thre and then set it as a destination for TomTom. It's the way it should be! PDAs and mobile phones are steadily converging in their capabilities anyway (TomTom on a phone etc) and PDAs with phone capability. Soon we will not be able to spot the difference. I was using a LG 8120 alongside a Palm IIIxe until the Ipaq took over. The 8120 was fairly clunky on the PDA side of things so the Palm did everything I wanted on the PDA side. It was tedious having to duplicate information in two electronic boxes that both had to be carted about and both had to be regularly sync-ed with Outlook. Integrating the facilities from the 2 boxes (and adding Memory-Map too) became the clear solution.... ...and when I buy another 1GB SD card, the MP3 player will get the boot too!

Buying a pocket PC is just like buying a normal pc, there are so many options available that it becomes a real headache. I had got into paperless caching through the Palm IIIxe route. This got me into the delights of using a PDA to organise the world. The only problem was the amount of clutter that had to be wedged into pocket all the time. It was getting dangerously close to male handbag time... I wanted a single smallish unit that would roll up all my gizmos in one box, phone, bt (for phone and GPS), road routing, memory map et al, wi-fi for the obvious. I plumped for an Ipaq H6340 - only 64 MB of memory and a single card slot but it does have the fully unlocked, quad-band phone capability which I particularly wanted. At £250 off ebay, it was a bargain (trying to get another for Sue, prices are now higher - go figure)! As some-one mentioned, bt on the Ipaq has been a real pain, I have had to work out a particular sequence of pairing and software installation to get 2x BT GPS, 2x BT earpieces and a BT keyboard all working. After a lot of trial and error, the whole kit now works a dream. With the bt earpieces, you can use the phone while the unit is navigating you across the country. With the bt GPS units, you can use memory-map in the field. With the bt keyboard, I can text the kids back as fast as they can send 'em!

Interesting - but stoopid! Reminds me of my younger days when, working on Her Majesty's Buccaneers (Atom Bombers), I used to think nothing of jumping down from the wings to the concrete, a good 16 - 20 foot drop, as a short cut to the toolbox. It was a lot quicker than walking 20 feet up the wing, another 20 feet up the spine to the side of the cockpit, down the access ladder, over to the kit.... blah, blah. Now in my mid-50's, nice shiney X-ray photos of my hip joints show the signs of my youthful impatiences and impetuousness, there's plenty of excessive wear and damage. It did seem such jolly good fun at the time... ...seeya in 40 years time DRC.

We've worked this one out! We were both right! Alex's little helper used 2 separate email addresses for the original contact about the issue/payments for the EU coins. One of them was actually obsolete. Naturally, Sod's Law determined that I reported the duff EU coin using Alex's obsolete account - which meant I was writing to a dead end. After sending copies of my emails, we now have proper 2 way communication and are putting a solution together. Peace and tranquility restored...

Alex, I know you must be busy with the latest coin rollout but I have sent you a two separate emails about a duff EU geocoin (wrong number - would'nt register) that I received. You obviously did not have time to respond (or perhaps your junk mail filter is working overtime too). We are sitting on our other one, intending to launch them as a pair - one for each of us. If you can spare the time from your busy schedule, I would appreciate you chivvying up the replacement coin. Ta! Bernie

Dave, ...stop SHOUTING! we can hear you up here at Colt! B

It's got to be.... A Clod

Bill, Well that was a shock! I had obviously picked up details of hundreds of caches over the years that had not been updated. This has probably happened through either changing my PQ or the listings had been displaced off PQ by newer caches being placed - or the archeive thing! Anyway, I ended up pruning literally hundreds of caches out of our GSAK database. Now I am aware of this situation, I should be able to avoid Sue & I chasing the phantom caches in the future. Thanks for flagging up this situation...