Team Sidewinder

Having purchased a Garmin 12XL 6 years ago and upon finding out you couldn't change the lithium battery for the internal memory I emailed Garmin asking how many years of service I could expect before the lithium battery went dead. Now this is only what he emailed back. The life expectancy of the internal lithium battery ( Which he said was approx. 10 years ) would out live the useful life of the gpsr. I thought that was a little odd but seeing as I had just purchased the 12XL I thought that in 10 years I would be replacing the unit. Well after having the 12XL 6 years I started having a problem with loosing all my saved waypoints and routes everytime I had to change the 4 AA batteries. Emailed Garmin again and they told me replace the 4 AA batteries and let the unit sit for a couple of days which I did but still the problem occured. After further emails to Garmin I was told to sent the gpsr unit into Garmin. They sent me back a factory reconditioned 12XL which was OK with me as I had thought my old gpsr was well out of warranty. I passed the old gpsr onto my son which is working fine and have since bought another Garmin, but that was my experience with the life expectancy of a gpsr. sidewinde LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

Yes, you most certainly can. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

Thanks canadazuuk for stating the obvious twice and it seems that is what some people need. I can't believe all the pissing and moaning about this and that. So that is my pissing and moaning about all that other p and m. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

Please forgive me as I know this is off topic but sombody did say the f word. I say boycott anything made in france. Viva la USA. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

And the same to you Lep. Everyone always seems to have a little Irish heritage today. Long live Ireland. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

I would second the good info on the Maguires products for getting out the scratches. The prevention of more problems with the screen protectors by Strong Engineering are well worth the money. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

But a bad geocaching is better that a good at work. I can really relate to being on the wrong side. I looked for one cache twice from the wrong side of a river before going upstream and finding a bridge to get across and finally finding the cache. Summer is coming someday. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

I had a garmin 12XL for about 5 years and loved it. The only difference between it and a regular garmin 12 is the XL has a port for a external antenna. I think you could not find a more durable unit than the 12 series and it will do everything for geocaching you want. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

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I like it but don't know if I like it better than the tracks. You shouldn't have to worry about the tracks you had before being too long as if it is to inconvient for some lazy people to scroll across the screen then TOO BAD. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

I am not sure where you are seeing this acc.3mtr thing. Is it on the gpsr and what screen are you on. I don't recollect seeing that anywhere on my gpsr anywhere. No the war if it happens will not effect the gps. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

I agree with nincehelser. I had a Garmin 12XL as my first gpsr and it did everything I asked of it and found 99% of my caches so far. I haven't had my Garmin 76S that long but the simplicity of the old reliable 12XL is really hard to beat. I guess if you go to the gps brand and model you are already familiar with you can't go wrong. Although the old reliable ( 12XL ) gets the job done it is not to say the bells and whistles on the 76S might not make you want to upgrade for a long long while but that is just my 2cents worth. sidewinde LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

I also use a couple of plastic tie straps around the shoulder strap and then hook the belt clip on the back of my case from The GPS store behind the plastic tie straps. It holds like if it were on a belt and with this style of case your gps can still have a full view of the sky if you want to leave it on and create a track log. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

The one the only BRDAD already does that exact thing with a CD with senic pictures of his home area. This is brdad's signature item that he places in caches and next to moun10bike's geocoin it is one of the coolest signature items I have ever seen. It was my pleasure to be able to sample some of his handiwork and as I suspect as with anything he tackles it was flawless work. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT. [This message was edited by SIDEWINDER on March 08, 2003 at 09:55 PM.]

I am not much help on the maps to load. You are really at a handicap for getting maps that you can download for you area. I think Garmin thinks only people in the US buy their products and therefore don't pay as much attention as they should to customers in other areas of the world when it comes to their mapping software. I have Mapsource TOPO and it works great for me. I don't have the problem some have with their city and road information being outdated as the old world topo doesn't change that much. Ha Ha. All good advice in earlier posts and I am glad your update went smoothly. I was afraid when I downloaded the first beta version that if anything was going to happen it would happen to me. Hope you enjoy the 76S and happy geocaching. sidewinde LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

You are going to love it. You were smarter than me as I started at the bottom and then moved up to the 76S. My only suggestion is to make sure you go to the Garmin site and download the most up to date firmware ( I believe it is now 3.20 ) my gps came loaded with 2.10 so I upgraded to the 3.20. It is no big deal and a snap to do if you follow the instructions. I also bought the Mapsource TOPO and I think it was worth the money as it adds so much to the basemaps already installed on the 76S. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

I had the same problem with my 12XL a while back. I lost all stored data everytime I had to change batteries. I was told by Garmin tech the same thing as to putting in new batteries and letting it sit for a couple of days. It didn't help and after talking to Garmin tech again they gave me a number to send it in to them. They sent me back a factory remanufactured one a couple of days later with new case and everything including the latest updated software. Although I will add that I had my 12XL for 5 years before this problem happened. Who know how long some of these units sit on the shelf before someone buys them. I was told by one Garmin tech that the expected life of the lithium batt was 10 years and that would exceed the life of the product which I thought was pretty lame. But they did replace it after it was out of warranty as I said so I don't have any complaint. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT [This message was edited by SIDEWINDER on March 06, 2003 at 06:48 PM.]

Thanks Data Lynx for bringing back memories of how it felt to be just starting this game. It has been awhile since I started geocaching and sometimes you forget why you really started doing this and how simple a thrill it was to find that first cache. Have a great time. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

I had a Garmin 12XL before passing it along to my son. Had it about 5 years (way out of warranty) before it would clear all my saved data every time I had to change batteries. Called Garmin and they had me send it in and they sent me back a factory remanufactured unit. In the box with new case, manual, lanyard and updated software. I have no complaint so that is why when I decided to upgrade I bought a Garmin again. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT. [This message was edited by SIDEWINDER on March 02, 2003 at 07:25 PM.]

That is what the Wolf said to Little Riding Hood too. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

Wow! we got $149.00 back this year. We started using our REI credit card for everything anymore. I just took advantage of the 10% before the end of March thing also. We can always use something from REI. Got Mapsource TOPO for myself and a daypack for the wife and it only cost me $8.00 out of my own pocket and I charged that on the REI credit card of course. It only took 2 days to get the stuff I ordered and I love the TOPO addition to my Garmin basemaps. It seems like a win, win situation to me. I doubt that the prices are cheaper than Campmore but you figure in your membership dividend and the credit points from using your REI credit card and it's not too bad. I didn't order a gpsr from them though when I bought mine a month ago. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEP [This message was edited by SIDEWINDER on March 02, 2003 at 03:39 PM.]

Well the only time it comes and goes is when is if a cache is in such a area as you have to creep along for or stand still for a couple of minutes or so. Caches where you can keep moving right up until you are within the range your gps is telling you are right on top of it then I don't have this happen. It isn't really that much of a problem but just the nature of the beast as far as I can tell. I am using a Might Mouse II external antenna and that will help some if tree cover or mountains obscure a good view of the sky and cause sat. lock to be lost and I do stress SOME. I don't use my external antenna much since I got my 76S as the internal antenna seems to be so much better than the garmin 12XL I had before. I will admit that I haven't had my 76S all that long either and haven't had it on nearly as many cache hunts as my old reliable gps so maybe I am not your best source of info on this either. Hope this helps but am sure there are people on this forum that could give you a better reason why this might be happening. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT

Well there is the common problem with all gpsr that when you moving really slow due to terrain or just looking for the cache or come to a stop or while you are sitting there typing a post to this thread your accuracy readings are going vary alot. That is just my guess as to what the problem might be. My garmin 12XL and my 76S both do the same thing under these same conditions. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

Thanks Alphawolf. I guess I didn't make it very clear about not being able to download the maps into the gpsr itself. Think I saw some of your cool friends down in Yellowstone Park last weekend. Wolves I mean. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.

Just got Mapsource TOPO and think it is pretty cool. I know it is not Metroguide but the accuracy of the TOPO isn't bad and it adds alot of features to the 76S basemaps that I didn't have before. Besides there isn't too much that is going to be outdated on a topo map in the next 100 years so I thought is was worth the money.I have National Geographic TOPO and it is alot better on detail but you can't download maps into your garmin so I have both. sidewinder LOST AND FOUND DEPT.