geognerd

That's the first I have heard of this, and it sounds interesting. Could you (or anyone else in the know) elaborate? Which nuvi models do this, and how do they learn?

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I like the idea of a DeLorme PN-series wiki. I'm a prospective PN-40 buyer and hang out in both forums, trying to soak up information. The problem I'm seeing is that a lot of the topics at the DeLorme forum are becoming several-page-long threads that could be difficult to sift through. The wiki could save people from having to search the DeLorme forum or read through several pages of noise to get an answer. Marky hit the nail on the head.

Cachemate says it will work on PalmOS v3 and higher. I'm using Cachemate on my Palm IIIxe, which runs PalmOS v3.something.

Seconded. The Triton is touted as being easy to use, but it ended up being one of the more complicated units to use. A better choice for you would be a Garmin GPSmap 60Cx/CSx, GPSmap 76Cx/CSx, eTrex Legend HCx, or eTrex Vista HCx, with Garmin's City Navigator maps.

I follow a procedure similar to ace862's for sending caches from GSAK to my eXplorist 400. Ace's instructions should work for you, provided your eXplorist is in File Transfer mode. When you copy the .gs file to the eXplorist, make sure to put it into the Geocaches or My Geocaches folder (I forget what it's called). Edited to add: If GSAK is too confusing, try EasyGPS.

I have an iPAQ hx4700. I agree with Brian. Do not use it for geocaching, except for perhaps viewing cache descriptions in the field. But even for that task, I prefer to bring my $8 Palm IIIxe instead of the $140 (used) iPAQ. I'll be out less money if I drop the PDA on the rocks. The durability and battery life of the iPAQ make a cheap dedicated handheld GPSr a better choice. I do use a GPS receiver with my iPAQ for the purpose of mapping WiFi hotspots. I use a Holux M-1000 Bluetooth GPS receiver. It is fast to acquire a signal and has worked well with the iPAQ. I also tried an SDIO GPS receiver from US Globalsat that goes into the SD slot, but it was more difficult to get my software to interface with than the Holux Bluetooth GPSr. Pairing up with the Holux is easy.

DeLorme has various flavors of XMap that let you load your own aerial photography (XMap Professional) and GIS data (XMap Editor and Enterprise). As you know, there is plenty of free aerial photography and GIS data out there. Granted, you do have to pay for XMap, but it appears to be a one-time cost unless you want to update to a newer version. Garmin and Magellan haven't released such tools for their consumer handhelds, not even if you were willing to pay. At least DeLorme has made it possible for me to load my own MrSID imagery, road centerlines, and parcels. Sure, I wish you didn't have to pay $99 for XMap Pro to load your own aerial imagery, but there are costs associated with developing the software and firmware for the unit. A company can either charge more for the unit and throw in all the bells and whistles for "free," or they can take the path DeLorme has and offer advanced capabilities at an additional cost for those who want them. I'll throw in my two cents about the screen-size - I played with a co-worker's PN-40 for a couple of days and it is definitely sufficient for reading the maps and data fields. I used it to find a cache and also for autorouting. I have to admit that the PN-40 did not blow me away as much as I thought it would. Perhaps my expectations were set too high with all the hype that had been built up. The PN-40 did everything I expected it to, but it didn't do anything unexpected that wowed me. Maybe I just knew too much about the unit already. Should my eXplorist 400 poop out suddenly, I would buy a PN-40 in a heartbeat. But at the moment, I cannot justify the significant expense of upgrading from a still very functional unit. DeLorme needs to keep up what they are doing. They are definitely on the right track. Magellan has shown incompetence, and Garmin seems to be floudering at the moment. Unless Garmin comes up with a head-to-head competitor for the PN-40, they don't have anything that interests me.

Check out Busse Woods, south of Rolling Meadows and not very far. There are lots of caches in Schaumburg (SW of Rolling Meadows), but many are micros and I don't know how much the kids would enjoy those.

I just stumbled across an advertisement for the ikeGPS. It combines a GPS receiver, compass, laser rangefinder, inclinometer, camera, and iPAQ Windows Mobile device. Pricing is steep though, at $6000-8000. Here's a review.

I hope DeLorme does not sacrifice affordability for a larger screen. If they come out with a large screen version at a higher price, that's fine, as long as they have a lower-cost option. The PN-40 appears to do everything I want, and the screen size is about the same as that of my current GPS device. The color screen would actually be a step up for me. For the majority of handheld GPS users, I suspect the PN-40 will be a huge step up from whatever they are using right now, regardless of screen size. The thing keeping me from buying the PN-40 right away is its cost when paired with XMap Professional for the capability of loading my own MrSID aerial photos. The cost would be even higher had DeLorme chosen to use a larger display.

Magellan is hardly a good example of how to run a handheld GPS receiver business, but do recall that the original line of eXplorists (which had a screen about the same size as the PN-40) came out first. Then Magellan eventually came out with the eXplorist XL, which had a 3.5" screen and operated off of 4 AA batteries. The big screen is a novelty. Most people will do just fine with the normal-sized screen. Maybe DeLorme will have a larger-screened version in the future for those who want to pay for it.

The size attribute is not shown on geocaching POIs, but you can use a program like GSAK to alter the name of the cache so it will have the cache size as part of the name. I use an R at the end of the name for regular, S for small, and M for micro on my 400. This post has an explanation of how to do that. The technique works for exporting Geocache POI (.gs file) as well as the regular POI files (.upt) mentioned in that post.

I vote for the refurb eXplorist for $75, though you might want to check eBay or the Garage Sales section of the forum here to see if you can get an eXplorist 500 for less than what Magellan wants to charge you.

There is a typo on the iPhone page. I'm sure you mean "by."

Cobras aren't supported by third-party waypoint managers like GSAK because there are relatively few Cobra users. The software developers have little incentive to invest their time to support Cobra products.

I haven't watched the sample episodes yet, but I agree with those who say cache hunts may not be enough to sustain a series of programs. However, working Waymarks into the show could help provide some subject matter. So in addition to showing the adventure of finding a cache, you could also take us to a particularly interesting waymark. Kind of like a typical travel show. If the waymark is historic or culturally significant, you could spend several minutes sharing its details. Or if it's just a neat thing to look at, you could feature the waymark for 20 seconds after a commercial break, if the show were to be picked up by a network.

Lee is referring to the eXplorist 400 and the eXplorist line of Magellans. The original post just said 400, so she could be referring to the Triton 400. $169 is in line with normal pricing for the Triton 400. However, I strongly urge the OP to avoid the Triton series. They are notoriously buggy, crash, and operate slowly. Just look at other topics about the Triton in this forum or read the reviews on Amazon.com. Otherwise, take into account what Lee has written above.

Here is one from PCMobile: It came in handy when trying to troubleshoot a charging problem I had with my eXplorist 400.

The Tritons are pretty rotten. I'd go for a Garmin or DeLorme. You mentioned two Garmins - the eTrex Legend and eTrex. If you are looking at those two for budgetary reasons, look at the eTrex H or eTrex Venture HCx instead. They are in a similar price range and offer better reception (eTrex H) or better reception and more features for your money (eTrex Venture HCx). For more reasons why not to go for a Triton, check out this topic. Even though it is about the Triton 1500, everything applies because the different Tritons are just different variations on bad. The customer reviews of the Triton on Amazon.com are a fun read as well.

If you get the Triton, you will regret it. Tales abound regarding lockups, slow operation, and crashes. Not to mention Magellan's unresponsive and unhelpful customer service. I used to be a fan of Magellan (have owned 3 of their products), but my automotive unit is a Garmin nuvi and my next handheld will be a Delorme or Garmin. Some suggested alternatives: Garmin GPSmap 60Cx/CSx, 76 Cx/CSx, or eTrex Legend HCx. Also take a look at the DeLorme PN-20, though the PN-40 is coming out fairly soon and you might want to wait for that unit.

A full-blown GPS does not determine speed in that manner. It detects the Doppler shift in the signals to determine speed. I don't know if a phone's GPS chip, intended to provide e911 service, has the ability to detect speed in this manner. In the case of the iPhone 3G, it uses what looks like a fully-featured GPS receiver chip - Hammerhead II (link to PDF) by Infineon/Global Locate/Broadcom.

I've read in some other forums about SiRF-equipped Bluetoot GPS receivers having a setting called Static Navigation where the GPSr won't calculate a new position if you are moving at slow (walking) speeds. Perhaps that is what is afflicting your GPS receiver. Have you tried running to see if the position updates?

I picked up a Holux M-1000 for $40 to use with my iPAQ hx4700. The little Holux works great - better than any of my handhelds or my automotive unit in terms of reception and time to first fix. I get 15-20hrs of use between charges, and supposedly the battery pack can be replaced with a Nokia cell phone battery. I forget the exact battery model. The M-1000 also uses an MTK chipset, which works just fine. SiRF is no longer the gold standard or only game in town. I often use my Holux while on foot and from looking at some data I collected for a mapping project, it has no problems calculating positions at slow speeds.