Sputnik 57

I'll add this note just in case this thread comes up in a search. After repeated power cycling, the unit eventually booted normally and now seems to be working. No idea what the cause or cure was.

Thanks. I tried that with no luck. Garmin tech support e-mail said hold the "two soft keys" while powering up the unit, so I've tried various combinations of corner presses with no luck. Specifically, I loaded 1711 tiles from Topo 2008. Total size was 819.9 MB. There is no data card in the unit. I had tried to load a larger map set and got an error message in MapSource, so I reduced the number of tiles to get the data size below the 920 MB or so that I had first tried to load. The data compiled fine in MapSource, and I got an message saying that the data was successfully sent. I sent maps only. No waypoints or other data. After sending the maps, the unit continued to show the screen indicating that it was hooked up to the computer. Now, when you power up the unit, it shows the Garmin logo, the copyright 2008 message and the message saying "loading waypoints, tracks and routes . . ." Then it shows some horizontal lines across the screen and fades out. I get exactly the same result when I put in fresh batteries, and when I plug it into the computer.The unit won't reset when I press the upper left corner of the screen while powering up the unit, either on battery power or when plugged into the computer. No matter what I try I get the same result. If I hold the upper left corner and the power button, the unit stays on "laoding waypoints, tracks and routes . . . " for as long as the power button is held. Once it is released, it dies.

My Oregon 300 won't boot after loading about 820MB of Topo 2008 maps. Garmin e-mail tech supports suggests a master reset by holding down the two "soft keys" while powering up the unit. The wiki offers the same advice. But the manual doesn't tell me where the mysterios soft keys are (can't even find the phrase), nor does the wike. Searched this forum with no luck. I feel like a dope asking such a simple question, but I know you guys are the fastest way to get help. Thanks in advance.

Regardless of your good reasons, and the good intentions of anyone offering to help, this thread solicits illegal software sharing and violates the forum rules.

Ok, I'll play: Caches along a route (using GSAK) How to find your magnetic declination Thot's Beginner's Guide Paperless caching with a Garmin Nuvi Paperless caching with a PDA

WOW! User number 934! You are indeed a venerable one. Welcome back to the game, and happy caching.

Greetings to the venerable Leprechaun. User number 8110!!! As has been stated, new much more accurate chips make newer models better at locating your position in marginal conditions (for example, Garmin models marked with and x, plus their newer Colorado and Oregon series). Almost all handhelds come with basemaps that show your position on major roads and highways. For under $100, you can add detailed street maps that allow the handheld to auto-route you like a street navigation GPS (usually without voice prompts, however). $75 or so adds detailed topographic maps of the US if the back country is more your style.

A bit of both on my part, I guess. Sorry for the miscue. Glad it worked out for KXAffliction.

I see that Eastern Mountain Sports has the 3Oregon 00 on sale for $249 with free shipping. Sounds too good to be true. I don't have any dealings with these folks, but a quick on-line check shows that they are favorably rated. Anyone able comment, pro or con, on experience with EMS?

As the Garmin tech said, the units are not designed to work with sdhc cards. Some newer card seem to run, but it is hit and miss. If you have an sdhc card that works, count yourself lucky. If you are buying a card, I would stay away from sdhc for these unis.

Set your navigation method to "prompted." Then the unit will ask you whether you want navigate with "Follow Roads" or "Off Road." Most cachers use "Follow Roads" in the car to get near the cache. Then hit MENU->Recalculate, but this time select "Off Road." The familiar compass page with the arrow and "found it" button will then come up.

I'll throw in that your ETA in pedestrian mode is a LOT later that your ETA in car/motorcycle mode. In fact, I sometime change mode to pedestrian and forget. Then when I am navigating by car, and my ETA for a 5 mile trip says 1 hour, I say, "Doah!" and switch it back.

Mapsource always replaces the prior mapset. The trick is to open mapsouce, select the CityGuide maps you want. Then go over to the drop-down menu in the upper left corner, choose the topo maps, and select those too. Watch the memory usage total at the bottom of the maps tab to make sure you don't exceed the Rino's capacity. When you load the combined set, they will all be there, but only the CityGuide maps will show up. Go to map settings and hit "Hide CityGuide" and the topos will appear!

Just to add for completeness, the blue circle is a function not only of the signal error, but also of the precision of the map you are using. If you have detailed maps, the circle will be smaller, given the same reception, than using the basemap, since the road positions on the basemap are not as accurate. Basically, the circle is saying, "I'm pretty sure you are somewhere inside this blue circle."

The search isn't alphabetical. It is global. When you hit H, it should show all caches that contain an H, not just those that start with H. As you spell out more of the cache name, the list should narrow.

Edit: Double post

Ooh. Forgot about that. FizzyMagic also has a free program that will do this: FizzyCalc.

The geocaching site lets you download cache data in two file formats. One (a .loc file) is a pretty streamlined desciption of cache names and locations. The more robust format (a .gpx file) contains hints, descriptions, recent logs, etc. .gpx data has become a widely used waypoint data transfer format, and lots of third party applications can read the format. Among them are MapSource (Garmin's map interface), and Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (google or search this forum for GSAK for more info). GSAK is a database management tool that lets a user import cache info in a variety of formats, filter and sort the data, and export the results (again in numerous formats) using a slick program call GPSBable "under the hood". If you want to do it yourself, try looking up the .gpx file specs. I'm pretty sure the info is public.

Like a lot of cachers, I get my pocket quieries though g-mail. We usually port them into GSAK to filter them before sending them to cachemate and/or a Nuvi 350. But just curious since I now have my g-mail account on my iPhone. Will Geode let me open a .gpx file from the g-mail on the iPhone? This would be great for users who aren't near a WiFi connection.

More expensive Garmin units allow you to change the field, as Dominink1507 indicates. For units without this functionality, you can always "reverse project." To do that, tell the unit to GOTO the point that you are projecting from. Then start walking 180° from the direction that you were told to project the waypoint (i.e., if the direction is 180 or less, add 180. If it is more than 180, subtract 180). Keep walking until the unit shows that you are 683,3 meters away at a bearing of the computed direction. You should be standing on the spot!

Velocity using change in position divided by time is probably not going to be very accurate, given that the position accuracy is only +/- 10 feet in the best of circumstances. If you are actually traveling 60 mph and you sample once per second, you might get a distance of 88 feet, which would be right. If each sample is 10 feet off, though, you also might get 68 feet or 108 feet, yielding 45 mph on the low side, or 72 mph on the high side. You may have figured out a way around this problem, by averaging, etc, but GPS chips compute and output velocity using doplar shift, and are accurate to within .1 mph. I would think that tapping into that data would give a lot better result.

My iPhone is on order , but I would definitely be interested in getting the beta release when it is ready. Two features most regular cachers would undoubtedly want would be (i) the ability to import filtered cache info from GSAK or another cache managament application (probably by uploading a .gpx file); and (ii) the ability to store map information when out of cell/wi fi range (which your site indicates you have in the works) I assume you've seen the SDK for iPhone 2.1 software that reportedly lets you port speed and direction info into your app. That would pretty much allow you to replicate the geocaching compass screen functionality of the Garmin C and SC series (constantly updating distance and direction, speed and heading, etc). Although not critical, it would make the iPhone a nearly complete all-in-one solution.

While reasonable minds can differ, the thread really relates to the geopher app. I personally think it is a "Units and Software" topic. Thanks, though, for snipping out the multiple posts. Edit: By the way, not update on the Buxley's site about discussions with GC.com since Jan '06, so RK's notion that it is a dead horse seems to be correct. I really appreciate the clarification on geopher's discussions with GC.com. I couldn't see how the app did anything more from a use standpoint than my Treo does when I access http://wap.geocaching.com.

I'm having sort of a senior moment, but isn't this reminiscent of the Buckley's (?) geocaching site several years ago? Someone developed a great site that displayed geocaches in a very user friendly way. The problem is that it pinged GC.com for cache information to display, and purportedly wreaked havoc with band width (maybe that explains the multiple duplicate posts above ;-)). TPTB shut the guy down, to the heated outrage of lots of cachers in the forums. Users accused Jeremy of wanting to keep all the spoils of Geocaching for himself. GC.com said it was a Terms of Use issue and protective of the site. Blah, blah, blah. I can go to the GC.com mobile site from my phone (including an iPhone). Maybe the new app just need to be more like cachemate, so users download PQs that they then load to their iPhone, instead of pinging the site for live cache data. Time will tell.

To elaborate a bit, the coordinates on GC.com are set up in the format ddd mm.mmm (degree, minutes, decimal minutes). I would bet that your unit is set up for ddd mm.sss (degrees, minutes and seconds). The latter is fine if you are using it with some application that provides coordinates in that format, but it won't play well with GC.com. In particular, the unit knows that there are never more than 59 seconds in a minute, so the unit won't let you "mis-enter" coordinates in that format. Find the manual, go to "set up" find the coordinate format setting, and change it to ddd mm.mmm and then enter the GC coordinates. You be much less frustrated then.