tiber

I was hoping one of the approvers would respond to this. The idea is not to be dishonest with caches, which is why I asked the question initially. I suppose I'll place it and throw it to the approvers and if it doesn't fly with them, I'll go recover it.

OK guys, I've got a shore house down in Jersey, where I'm posting from at the moment. My fiancee caught the geocaching bug and would like to place a cache. She suggested in an area we frequent, which is sandy. The sand is loose pack for a few feet down; You can easilly dig it out with your hands. The question is about the "pointy object" rule for placing caches. Can we place caches buried in the sand so long as it's not so deep as to require pointy-objects? I've already come up with a way to track where they are buried so we won't lose any, I just need to make sure it's geokosher.

You need to post what type of GPS you're using.

And quit ripping the batteries out while it's running.

See if they have a return policy. Serial links are generally assumed to be uninterruptable. Adding bluetooth changes that and it's very likely you'll encounter problems with bluetooth if you happen to be an in urban area or near a car with bluetooth support. The Magellan embedded OS does not take kindly to things going awry. To demonstrate this, begin syncing the GPS with your computer and disconnect it from the cable. The GPS will go to lunch and require a hard reset. That's about the only drawback I see. The bluetooth GPS drivers are fairly mature and you may find that it's a killer product.

I've run across bears before way out in the PA sticks. Then there's snakes... In my own humble opinions, the smaller it is, the worse it is. The bigger animals you can usually detect without trying and avoid. It's things that get underfoot that are bad. I've also run across a few rabid animals (in the late stages), and while unfortunate, they also pose a danger if they bite you or you otherwise share fluids with them. I would be less concerned about being mauled and more concerned about lyme disease or poisoning.

Bump it to 5.40 and see if that solves the problem: http://www.magellangps.com/en/support/prod...PlatinumStd.asp I know it changes the backlight behavior, although the changelog from Magellan is all but absent. 5.40 is supposed to turn on the backlight whenever the GPS chimes.

The best I can offer up is this: http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI....e=obj(887)#hard Although if that doesn't work, things get hairy.

What in Gods name are you trying to map? Yeah, there's a weird limit in there which has a lot of technical play "under the hood". The best I can offer is to keep the maps smaller then that and if you must, rename some IMG files. There's is a limit, even if you choose to change the software configuration. If you, for instance, find "blue" areas on the map, that means the Color is still loading that region.

For one of the caches I'm thinking about placing (near a river), I'm going to be chaining the ammocan to a nearby rock. Even if it means lugging a bag of cement two miles from parking to the cache site, to glue the chain down or build my own rock. That's why God invented the alice pack... Aside of preventing the cache from washing away when the river rises, it should also protect the can from walking off. I've also heard of people attaching combination locks to caches and posting the number with the cache to prevent muggling.

Oops, didn't mean to attribute you to reviewing my cache, I assumed that you were the cache reviewer for PA (the keystone state) and that MissPlaced was the collective mask of the reviewers. My bad. Although I feel like people should be included on the brainstorming process. Is there an open blog or process in a central location for ideas? GC seems more of a community rather then a centralized sport.

Hmmmm, anyone else notice the amount of cache vandalism seems to be on the up and up?

So, has anyone else heard anything about it? The interface on the website appears to be from 2004...

EDIT: I have no idea how I posted in this topic, was supposed to be under the magellan contest...

Well, currently I can tell you what it is not. In the words of the Great Keystone Approver towards my virt: (The quote isn't complete, it leaves off the first paragraph and the contact information fluff -- basically, things specific to my virt). I'm sort of intrigued by the idea of the virt though, especially because I'm playing with the idea that a virt can be something other then "find the ammo can". Lets say, for instance (and this is not GC.com canon) that in order to claim a cache, you have the geocacher pick up one piece of litter and photograph themselves putting it in the appropriate trashcan. The obvious argument is that "theres no cache to find". Well, sorta. The objectives become slightly different, and the idea is specific to a virtual because I felt that making a cache+requirement would get the cache largely ignored or snub geocachers who didn't feel like accomplishing the objective. Or the argument would come up that there was no litter to pick up but they found the cache anyway (and there's no way to verify the honesty of the statement). My cache idea -- I'm pretty sure it's not getting approved but I felt like giving it a shot -- was to lead the cachers to an interesting cultural item in chinatown. It's an underground market in philly. The cultural gap prevents me from placing a cache there, which is pretty much my only claim to a virtual within the GC rules, but the rules of the cache state that the cacher must enter the market and photograph an item there. The idea was to try to expose people to something they might pass over or not know about. In short, the "ammo can" has been replaced by the objective, which represents the reward. In this way, the rift between finding the cache and actually enjoying the area the cache is in seems smoothed over. But that's my two cents. There's a lot of virtuals out there that simply are nice areas which get enough traffic from the locals that an ammocan wouldn't survive. In my specific cache's case, I didn't think I could explain the concept of geocaching in a way that the people would understand and I felt it was respectful to local culture to make it a virtual. Minimize the impact, so to speak. This might also pave the way for virts at museums, or digs, or other sites where there's an important or interesting item, but actually putting a cache into it would be a breach of conduct.

MAKE A BACKUP BEFORE EDITING THE FILE. Alright, I was close, here's the answer: In your magellan software directory (I have DirectRoute and Topo), find the MAPSEND.INI file. Open this in NOTEPAD. A word processor may mangle the formatting. Find the line Conv_Memory_Size=16384 and change it to something larger. I believe the latest version actually ignores this and will let you make ungodly large regions but don't quote me. To convert a number into MB, multiply it by 1024. So if you have a 64MB memory card and you would like to make single regions that size, take 1024 * 64 = 65536. It would be Conv_Memory_Size=65536. You can't do wacky things like change it while the software is running but you get the drift. Also, on some firmware and MAPSEND software combinations, you can edit \MAP\EXPORT.CFG and change the COPYRIGHT field to match your name. [COPYRIGHT] 1=NavTech 2=All rights 3=reserved. becomes [COPYRIGHT] 1=My Name 2=Address 3=Address 4=Phone Number It'll stay that way so long as no-one flashes the firmware or uploads a map from another PC.

Alright, thanks man. I agree it's a pretty fair deal given the circumstances. Hopefully out of all this anyone else who has a dead magellan will either be offered the same thing or follow suit and manage to land the same deal.

Alright. Now you're accusing me of lying which is completely unreasonable.... As it stands, and in an effort to make this into a constructive thread instead of a pissing contest over who's opinion is correct without representation from magellan, I called them and I spoke with a manager. It took some effort to get a manager to call me back but persistance has paid off. I was told that my antenna was also damaged but they were still going to charge me the $96 (understandable, the screen was shoved upwards). Normally an antenna and screen would be $130 to $150 (the price of an entire unit god forbid it gets hit by a truck), but I was originally quoted $96 and they were willing to honor that. The manager today also told me that the unit will have an unconditional 90 day warrenty, but he also assured me that if I had any failures in six months, there were "pretty good" about replacing the damage for free. They're basically refurbishing the entire unit, including the nasty scratch the rubberization had on the side. The manager was polite and articulate and even went so far as to ask me if I was OK while telling the story. So, I suppose the lesson learned here is that Magellan support can be spotty, but they weren't the jerks that their initial representation made them out to be.

YES! Probably my two favorite "long caches" were Pinnacle Rock and Pulpit Rock (camp out!) and one on the AT. The names happen to escape me at the moment, but we did the AT one on the shortest night of the year and we were rewarded by being able to watch the sun set and rise from the trail while driving. I really enjoy multis and the long walks. Cache-n-dash sucks, in my opinion.

1GB worked in my Meridian Color and I also shared that card with my Pocket PC. As far as the map size goes, I'm not entirely sure why directroute limits the maximum file size to 16mb. If you hunt around in magellans directories, you can find map.ini (not sure, doing this at work from memory) and within that file, you'll see a line like map_size=16384. Bump it up and the software will make bigger files. I'll check on this when I get home.

I've had it three times now. The first time was the only time I actually got the rash. The other two times I had all the symptoms but no rash. I would STRONGLY suggest getting the testing done if you think you need it. While I'm not as bad as some of the stories posted here, I can still wake up in the morning a gross the fiancee out cracking all my joints as I sit up. It could be a lot worse.

Alright, I'm not going to argue the bumper-to-bumper point. The analogy I'm trying to use, which seems completely lost on you, is that the GPS unit is generally not listed as a consumable item. Batteries, for example, are consumable. If I go offroading in my Subaru WRX, and it spins a wheel hub, I expect some type of warrenty on a new wheel hub. They will not fill the tank. Similarly, if I go offroading with my GPS and a nonconsumable item breaks, I expect them to repair it. The warrenty is what I feel is unreasonable. If I get the item (wheel hub, etc) repaired, I expect them to at least give me a three month warrenty. That is the (belabored) point of that post. As someone who races and has family in the SCCA, I'm pretty familiar with the return policy and expected durability of parts. I just did a strut-tower assy in my MR2 and the parts I purchased are warrentied for one year. They don't even care that I'm not a professional mechanic. If I bend the tie rod or control arm, I just send them the twisted wreckage and I get a new one. Search the forums for the amount of broken Magellan units at the moment and the runaround people are getting. Now do the same for the Garmin. You cannot honestly expect me to believe I'm getting the same deal the Garmin people are.

I usually don't like cache and dash caches. I get outside and possibly get to walk a bit and screw with my $300 sheet of paper replacer for awhile but they really add nothing to me. JShoe impressed the living daylights out of me with their Dr Strangelove cache, and it's one of the best in my books. All the scenic locations in this park in one cache, and the hides are fantastic. I'm on the fence about Virtuals also. I recently submitted one for review because I couldn't get the location owners permission (it's a business) but it was unique enough to warrent a cache there, or so I feel. Virtuals as a concept, however, are quite interesting. Virtuals give you the chance to make the finders jump through a set of hoops to claim them. I'm really thinking that I may setup a few action based virtuals for things like "in order to claim this, take a picture of yourself removing one piece of litter". I would love to see the concept used elsewhere aside of caches I'm submitting...

Magellans use FAT32 as their filesystem. If you format a card in WinXP, however, I'm not sure what filesystem it's under. I know it's not the same FAT32 that the Magellans use. The solution I had found, assuming you're not making interface errors, is to have the Magellan format the card and then plunk it in a card reader. WinXP can use the card (so does my PocketPC 2003) at that point. For whatever reason, having the computer format it screws up the magellan.

Being familiar with the internals of the Meridian Color under less then happy conditions, I can safely say that the screw on that particular part of the frame is never going to pull out. If it did, I would be impressed. This case and this case both look excellent. The second one is actually padded. If you feel it's going to be a problem with the screen not being exposed, do like I plan to do: Cut a hole where the screen will sit in the case and another one for the controls. Put a PDA screen protector over the GPS screen and cut it down with a razor. If you find the padding ugly, seal it with a lighter. Tada, do it yourself GPS case. And for the lanyard, use a boot lace cut to size with two holes poked in the case, or go through or around the belt loop.