Munin

The same picture is used for all the Jeeps, so they all show the same tracking number (JP8M3W). And as thehaggishunter pointed out, that particular Jeep ("Copper Mountain (CO)") has since been locked. Looks like people will have to actually find a real GJTB to get that little icon.

Correct, Centex - the "Custom POI" icon only shows up if you've got a custom POI loaded. (For what it's worth, on mine, with a custom POI loaded I have 24 icons on the Find screen.)

Yep - if you've hidden the City Select/Nav maps to use the topo maps and then try to plan a route, the GPSr will fall through to the next-best unhidden map containing routing information - and that'll end up being the poor little basemap built into the unit. And yeah, those basemap routes can be pretty ...ummm... "entertaining".

(Edit: Oh well, your route idea seemed reasonable, Prime Suspect, but having tried it now I see the problem.) Guess I'm back to my Rube Goldberg approach!

Give the following a whirl: Power up GPSr. Go to the satellite page. Turn off GPS reception (Menu -> Use With GPS Off) so it ignores the satellites. Create waypoint for destination in Indianapolis (Mark, edit coords, give wpt a name, etc) Tell the GPSr you're in Detroit (Menu -> New Location -> Use Map, pan/zoom to friend's house in Detroit, Enter) Plot route (Find -> Find, select Indianapolis wpt, Go To -> Turn Demo Mode On -> Follow Road -> Faster Time) Tell the GPSr "No, you don't want to simulate dirving the route". Flip to the "Turn Preview" page, cycle through the route, and read all the mileages and turns off to your friend. Afterwards, you might want to go back to the Satellite page, do the Menu -> New Location -> etc etc etc business again, and set your GPSr back to your true coords (in Columbus) so you'll be ready to go out caching locally.

I've dabbled a little with writing homebrew apps for talking to my Garmins, and you're correct tozainamboku - when a piece of software talks to a Garmin GPSr, the Garmin I/O protocol specifies that waypoints are transmitted in WGS-84 (and the lat/lon coords are transmitted in "semicircles" - a format that only a hardware engineer could love ). Doesn't matter what the GPSr is set to display - what travels over the serial/USB cable for waypoints is WGS-84/semicircles.

Miragee: I think I recognize the file icon daisi-mae was describing - sounds like the one that WinXP uses when it doesn't have any application associated with a particular file extension. (Sort of a piece of paper with a corner bent, with a picture of a highly stylized version of the Windows file browser, inside of which are three microscopic little pictures that are supposed to represent file icons.) dasi-mae: something to try - when you download the file, make sure the filename you save it to ends in .loc. If the file has no extension (or an unepected extension) then Windows might not recognize it as something associated with EasyGPS. If you are already saving the downloads with a .loc extension, then you might need to remind Windows that .loc files are associated with EasyGPS. In that case (assuming you're using WinXP), right-click on the file icon, take a look at the "Opens with:" line, and if it says "Unknown application" go click on the "Change" button, where you should be able to select EasyGPS from the list of installed applications. Do this only if you're definitely saving the file with a ".loc" extension and it's still not being properly associated with EasyGPS! (Otherwise you might end up associating some totally random file extension with EasyGPS, which could result in what the tech world calls "A Bad Thing". )

If I'm actively following the map (hiking or driving) then definitely Track Up - I like my maps to line up with what my eyes see. Even with paper topo maps I'll usually turn the map so that it lines up with the terrain. A secondary reason is that the map screen (at least on the Garmin's I've used) is off-center from the current position, with about 2/3 of the map towards the top and only 1/3 on the bottom, so Track Up also usually gives me the best view of the terrain ahead. It's one of the reasons I started to really like the mag compass on my 76CS/CSx GPSrs - bop a button, map swivels around to what my brain thinks of as the "right direction". (My brain's one of those older models, so anything that reduces its processing load is usually A Good Thing. ) If I'm sitting at home and just mousing around the map to plan something out, then typically North Up. Otherwise the map just ends up randomly oriented, which I find rather annoying. Male vs female? Errr, I dunno - I'm male...make of that what you will.

The 76CSx definitely has the geocaching functions - happens to be the GPSr that I'm currently using. If you download the owner's manual (English version available here - I didn't see a 76CSx manual on their Swedish site) then you'll find references to the geocaching mode on pages 16, 21, and 71-72.

Hey there, trezurratt - congrats on the new toy! With the 60CSx, you're probably fine powering it up indoors, especially if you were near a window. (Heck, I can usually get reasonable reception in the middle of the ground floor of my house. ) The directions about turning it on outside on a clear day are just the safest way for Garmin to ensure that the GPSr will be able to receive enough satellites to establish a position fix and retrieve the current almanac (orbital parameter) info. If your GPSr eventually got a lock and figured out where in the world it was sitting, then it's off to a good start. (Basically you won't hurt anything turning it on indoors - about the worst that could've happened would've been that it didn't pick up enough satellites for a position fix, and maybe thought it was in China or Quebec or something.) One site that's well worth reading is Sputnik's Garmin GPS FAQ page. It covers a number of things that aren't terribly clear in the user manual. I know it was really useful when I moved from my little old Foretrex up to my 76CS.

Cheers, Goldfinch! Ran into a problem with the Brussel Sprout cache - seems I ran a-fowl of that pesky "no cache in food" guideline...

There's at least one GJTB in eastern Massachusetts! GJTB Brawley Peaks (NV)

How's about a deal, Ashalar - either introduce something at least vaguely related to geocaching into your thread (you know, something about hiding things on the planet Earth where carbon-based lifeforms with GPSrs can try to find them), or head back to one of the other boards where "Face On Mars" stuff is actually, you know, sort of ON TOPIC. For instance, might I suggest simply returning to one of the threads you've participated in on: SciForums ...or.... Anomalies.net ...or... Bad Astronomy and Universe Today ...or... Cyburbia.org ...or... Ye gods, how many forums have you posted this stuff to?!?!? ..................................... The hunt is on: Release the Brussel Sprouts!!!!

Taking advantage of the marvels of indoor reception, I fired up my 76CSx and let it sniff around until it had a reasonable lock (20-30' EPE), but no WAAS. Started a track log at 30s intervals (thanks to this silly thing called "work" I can't go running around to try other logging options just yet ), let the log run for a while. Moved the GPSr up against the window, where it was able to pick up WAAS corrections, and let the logging continue for a while. Finally moved the GPSr back to where it started, watched it lose WAAS, and again let the logging run. Still ended up with a single, uninterrupted active log. I think we can rule out WAAS - gaining/losing coverage doesn't seem to trigger a break in the active log.

Just in case anyone's thinking about taking the path of buying City Select v7 (as part of the Auto Nav Kit) and upgrading to City Nav v8, Garmin now has City Nav v8 upgrade DVDs available for shipping.

Since I'm running with the 3.00/2.70 firmware combo, I left my 76CSx on overnight to do a simple test - logging a track at 30 second intervals for about 8 hours. Ended up with a single, continous active track log. GeoBobC - what options are you using for your track logs? (Distance/time/auto, interval setting.) I could try setting my GPSr up the same way and log some tracks while I'm running around this weekend, see if anything wonky happens.

Could you give an example of what you're seeing? Perhaps provide the waypoint (GCxxxx) for a specific cache, along with the coords for that cache as shown in EasyGPS, and then the coords as displayed on your GPSr? Seeing the actual numbers at each step might illuminate someone's mental lightbulb as to what's going on.

Whoops! Ummm, now what was the original question here...? :) I wonder if we might revisit the Legend Cx's "wild goosechase" for a bit. Was your Legend Cx regularly bouncing around +/- 100' like an electronic jumping bean, or was it more like "I was watching the bearing arrow, and it seemed fairly stable/reliable until I got pretty close to the cache - call it 100' or so - and then the closer I tried to get the more the bearing arrow started to swing around all over the place"? Or some other experience? Regardless, I'd certainly give two thumbs up if you wanted to go with the 60Cx. I'm currently using a 76CSx, but if you ignore the sensor bits of it the 76CSx is really just a 60Cx in a different-shaped case - as far as GPS functions go, the 60/76C(S)x models are the same inside. The SiRF Star III chipset in the 60/76C(S)x models does a very good job of pulling useful data out of signals under adverse reception conditions. (I'm sure you've read about SiRF III GPSrs getting a lock while indoors, and I've been very pleased with the 76CSx's performance under heavy tree cover.)

Take a read through Sputnik's Garmin FAQ, particularly #9 in the "Loading and Managing Maps" section. Basically when you're on the Map Setup menu where you can enable/disable all hundred-gazillion individual map segments, just hit Menu one more time and you'll get a screen where you can hide/show entire groups of maps (hide/show all City Nav, or all US Topo, etc). It'll have you switching between CS and NP24K nice and quick.

"Topo" is short for "topographic" - maps that show terrain features like hills, wetlands, etc. These aren't needed (in the sense of "required") for geocaching - I found my first 100+ caches using a Garmin Foretrex 201, a unit which has zero support for maps of any kind. (I also got myself a bit ...ummm... mislocated - okay, lost - driving to/from caches on a number of trips, which was one of the main reasons I upgraded to a GPSr with maps and autorouting.) Topos are useful for visualizing the terrain, which can be handy for planning your route to a cache. Is the cache on top of a hill, or on the far side? If it's on top of the hill, is one direction a gentler approach than another? If it's on the far side of the hill but at the bottom, does it look like any trails might loop around the base of the hill, perhaps allowing a less strenuous hike? Is there a stream in between me and the cache, where I might want to keep an eye out for a bridge to cross, even if it doesn't seem to be the most direct route? To get an idea of the differences between City Nav and US Topo maps, here's two views of a park in my area: <== City Nav -vs- US Topo ==> With the City Nav map, the park is just a big old blob of green. Nice to know that it's a park, but that's about all City Nav can tell me. With the US Topo map, we can see potentially useful things. There's at least four prominent (named) hilltops in this area - that's those little blue and white mountain shapes. The one I've got the cursor over, Burrill Hill, is 284 feet high, with some of the nearby contour lines showing 98', 131', 164' - basically if there were a cache on Burrill Hill, I'm looking at anywhere from a 120' to a 186' elevation change depending on which direction I'm approaching the hill from. Okay, so this area isn't exactly flat as a pancake, but it's also hardly the Alps - I reckon I can survive the hike. It's a little hard to see, but just under the "C" in 'MERRIMAC" there's a topo symbol for "wetlands" (kind of a light-blue spikey shape) - might be something to consider if I thought I'd have to hike through that section (boots and bug spray, perhaps?). I can also see several roads, including one heading up Burrill Hill - most likely maintenance roads inside the park, and probably not open for driving since they don't show up on the City Nav map - so these might provide good hiking routes to get to various sections of the park. I also see a stream of some sort coming from "Walden Pond", meandering through that wetlands area, and apparently ending up down in "Breeds Pond" to the southeast. Hmmm - might be an obstacle, but those roads seem to cross it in a couple of places...so probably not going to be a problem if I stick to the park roads. Would you be able to find caches in this park without topo maps? Why, of course you could! Might the info derived from the topo maps come in handy? Possibly! Will they help you figure out that the cache is inside the hollow stump of an old oak tree covered by a layer of leaves? Not a chance! A few things to know about the US Topo maps. First and foremost - at least for US Topo, the maps show roads but do not contain navigation info - if you want automatic route planning, you also need something like City Nav or City Select. That sometimes trips people up, since they see roads on the topo map and don't realize that it takes more than just a brown line on a map to let a GPSr automatically compute road routes. (It's a little different for Garmin's Canada and UK topo maps - apparently those do contain navigation info and can autoroute.) Second, the US Topo maps rely on USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) map data, and some of those maps haven't been updated in decades. Chance are that this won't matter much - mountains don't tend to move around all that frequently, and larger maintenance roads tend to stay pretty much the same, but always keep in mind that the info on the map could be a bit dated - maybe a maintenance road has been relocated, or new roads built that don't show up on the map. There might be new subdivisions where the topo shows an open field, or a stream may have shifted its course a bit so that a cache turns out to be on the opposite bank of where you were expecting. (For that matter, always keep in mind that any map, even City Nav v8, can be obsolete - highways sometimes get moved/expanded/merged, interchanges get diddled with, exits are added/closed, etc.) Lastly, if you were already familiar with topo maps like the 1:24,000 scale USGS paper maps that people often use for backpacking trips, the US Topo maps aren't nearly as detailed, being 1:100,000 scale - you'll still see larger hills and mountains just fine, but some of the smaller hills might not be as obvious as they would be on the higher-resolution maps. Smaller trails that might be shown on a high-res paper map are usually absent from the lower-res US Topo maps - don't expect that these maps will show you every little footpath wandering through a park. City Nav v8, perhaps? (City Select only goes up to v7, which is the final release for that particular series. )

No idea what the EPEs were during most of the test - I was inside getting my stuff together for a climbing outing. When I checked just before starting the log, the 76CS was somewhere around 22' and the 76CSx was down around 12' or so, but those numbers could've gone just about anywhere during the 1.5 hours that I was recording data. The track logs don't contain EPE/etc info, so I'd need to stick a laptop out in the Jeep to capture more detailed data. Hmmmm, might actually be fun to do something like that.

Gotta love GNU! (And those track logs were retrieved with GPSBabel, btw. )

Yep, that'd be about right. Note that only a handful of points are out that far though - even with the CS the vast majority of the points are clustered closer to the center. I'll put another couple of plots of the same data down below, showing the North and East values of each GPSr over time - it's easier to see that there's only a few points in the CS plot that are relatively far away, with the majority falling closer to the center. I didn't try that - this was just a quick little test to compare the "dancing skills" of the two GPSrs. Okay, back to those graphs. First there's the North coords recorded by each GPSr, followed by the East coords. Looks like there's maybe a dozen relatively distant "spikey" points for the CS out of 183 points total, with the remaining points being more on par with what the CSx recorded. The remaining points look like they're all within about 50-60' of the center area, with the majority being more like 35' or less. For the CSx, almost all the points are within 35' or less, with one hiccup (arround point 110) that skittered out to around 60'. Note that these distances are just approximations measured in MapSource, not any sort of fancy statistical mean/deviation analysis.

So far I've only encountered one cache that had deliberate decoys. Basically as I approached the coords for the final, I spotted the good old "suspicious pile of sticks" against the base of a tree. Whoo hoo! Zipped on over, and behind the sticks was ... nothing. Hmmm... Looked up, and there, a short distance away, was another "suspicious pile of sticks" against the base of another tree. Hey-hey, good to go! Quick-stepped over, and behind the sticks was ... nothing! Hmmm.... Started turning around, and saw several more trees, each with a nice neat "suspicious pile of sticks" at their base. Frankly, I just started laughing at that point, and took a fresh look around. Soon found the cache, hidden in a rather different (still traditional, but more subtle) manner in the same area. Would I want to find decoys on every single cache I did? Heck no. But encountering a decoy setup every now and then, especially something so tongue-in-cheek, would continue to tickle my geocaching funny-bone.

I'd seen the "dancing" claims too, so I decided to run a test where I put both my 76CS and 76CSx inside my Jeep (soft top, which shouldn't interfere with the reception, parked outdoors), let them both run until they'd locked onto multiple satellites and picked up WAAS corrections, and then had them both record track logs at 30 second intervals. Let 'em run for just over an hour, then plotted the logs: (For a sense of scale, the points furthest from the center area are approx 100-130 feet away.) Same logs, but only plotting points this time - might be a bit clearer where the points are and how they're distributed: To me, this suggests rather strongly that both models would appear to "dance" if you stood still and watched them like a hawk, and that the CSx actually kept noticeably closer to the average center than the CS did. (Whether either units is more "right" than the other I can't say - it's not like I had the Jeep parked on top of a benchmark or anything. ) Anyone gathered data from similar experiments with C(S)x versus older units?