geognerd

How can an area have more than 100 caches per square mile? With the 528ft rule, the best you could do is a 10x10 grid, or 100 caches. In your example, there are 10064 caches within 50mi of the centroid for the 90706 ZIP code. So pi*(50mi^2) would give us ~7854 square miles. Dividing 10064 caches by 7854 square miles gives me only 1.16 caches per square mile. Am I missing something? Oh, I see. Just did some more math. I was assuming Chuy's cache count is based on a 50-mile radius from the center of the ZIP code, whereas Chuy is assuming the cache count is for a 50-square mile box centered at the centroid of the ZIP code. But I still don't see how it is possible to go over 100 caches per square mile.

I read a while back that the eXplorist automatically averages. That's why it is important to keep the GPSr at the cache location for several minutes when placing a cache. While the eXplorist is stationary, it is averaging. I wonder if the Colorado is automatically averaging. I doubt it though, as Garmin has for a long while had an explicit choice to average when marking a waypoint. One example of a program that shows future satellite constellations and DOP is Trimble Planning, for those who don't know about it. As for accuracy and precision, accuracy refers to how close an observation is to reality. For example, if the temperature outside is 12C and your thermometer reads 20C, your thermometer is not accurate. If your thermometer reads 20.00036C, it is precise (can more precisely read the temperature to more decimal places) but not accurate.

Sassygeogirl, you list your location as Naples, Florida. Are you in Collier County? If so, you can view the assessor's geographic information system. Click this link, then click GIS Maps on the left side of the screen and accept the disclaimer. Maximize the map window that pops up if it isn't already maximized. Use the zoom and pan tools on the right side of the map window to navigate to the location you are interested in. Once there, click Identify and click on the parcel. A window will pop up (I had to enable popups for the website) and it will show who owns the property.

I haven't updated my Sansa e260's firmware in nearly 2 years, so I don't have all of the latest "features." That said, I don't see how one could cache paperless with a Sansa e2xx series player. There is no support for text beyond ID3 tags for the songs, unlike the iPods that can take vCards. I suppose I could make a screenshot of the cache page and cut that image into a bunch of pieces and load each jpeg onto the player for viewing in the picture viewer, then view each piece sequentially to read the cache description. Hardly efficient.

The installed Xandros Linux is fine IF you ONLY want to do what it's designed for. As soon as you go outside of what it was specifically set up to do and has installed applications for, unless you're a Linux expert, your time is better spent installing Windows XP. Roger that. I was fooling around with Kubuntu Linux a little and everything extra got me wrapped up in command line hades. It becomes a hobby in itself and you'll end up working for the Asus notebook rather than have it work for you. Outside of that, I'm highly supportive of that endeavour. I agree with the sentiments above. I got a black Eee when they came out just before Thanksgiving. I've stuck with the "Easy" user interface mode since all I really do with it is go online. If you only use the programs that come with the Eee, it's super easy. There is a learning curve if you want to install additional programs and you aren't a Linux guru. I was able to get Google Earth installed but had to use a patch from the EeeUser wiki to get the program to run smoothly. I wanted to install a Linux version of a GIS mapping program I use, but my eyes glazed over when I read the instructions on how to do the Linux installation. I'm fine with Windows and DOS, but have no clue about Linux. Haven't installed GPSBabel on the Eee yet, but that is something I should do. Buying a copy of XP for the Eee would make it more usable but adds to the cost of what I intended to be a small cheap second computer for web browsing around the house (my primary rig is a desktop).

Your description of the connection raises an interesting point. Has anyone checked to see if it is possible to connect the cable to the Triton upside-down? The design of the eXplorist's connection allowed this and I'm wondering if Magellan made it possible to connect the Triton the wrong way as well. Lots of new eXplorist owners have connected their cables incorrectly.

The more the merrier. In case someone else encounters this issue, I found another tool in my arsenal that did a decent job converting a tracklog - EGPS2shp.

How are you creating this path? Are you using the Add Path tool in GE? I just drew a path in GE, saved it as both a KML and KMZ to see if there was a difference, and all the vertices in the path were listed in GPS Utility (don't have MapSource or ExpertGPS).

GIS = geographic information system. They are probably using some flavor of ArcGIS. There are a couple of ways to convert the GPX track log to a shapefile, which is one of the more popular GIS file formats. They can use a program called GPS Utility or GPX2SHP to convert the GPX to a shapefile (.shp). The resulting shapefile will probably need to have its coordinate system defined in the GIS software; they should use a Geographic Coordinate System (not projected) and WGS84 or whatever datum you had your GPSr set for. If you have a Garmin, they could use DNRGarmin to bring your tracklog into the GIS software. I don't have a Garmin handheld, so I can't speak from experience there. BTW, all those programs are free. If you like, I can take a shot at converting your GPX files. Send me a private message with your contact info if you're interested. You can do these conversions yourself, but you'd need a way to check your output. There are a few free viewers and full-blown GIS programs, but that's just another program you'd have to download and mess with. I also don't know how willing the state parks GIS folks would be to convert your files, though it is probably something they should learn.

Garmin, if you're listening, could you please introduce a "Colorado 200?" The Colorado 300 looks fine and good to me (and a leading candidate to replace my Magellan eXplorist next year), but I really have no need for the electronic compass or barometer. I carry a separate compass and live on the flatlands of Illinois, so a barometric altimeter won't be much help. A Colorado without the compass and barometer would be a successor to the 60/76Cx, which plenty of people purchased. Magellan screwed up the launch of the Triton, but at least they had a couple of budget models thrown into the mix. Companies typically introduce the most expensive versions of a product first, so there may be some hope. However, Garmin's CES product announcement made no mention of a lower-end Colorado.

Your question?

I believe this is a coordinate format issue. The GNIS data I've dealt with had the coordinates in degrees-minutes-seconds and sometimes had the coordinates in decimal degrees. I don't have my nuvi 200 with me right now, so I can't look at how its coordinate input screen is set up. Try entering the coordinates for a known cemetery you have in your list and use various lat-long formats to see which one comes up in the right place. A nice program for converting coordinates into various formats is FizzyCalc.

I believe Dustydew is trying to use the Send to GPS choice on geocaching.com. Garmin wrote that plugin, so it will only support Garmins. To send a cache to the Triton, you'll have to download a GPX or LOC file and send it through VantagePoint.

Link to a long-running topic with a thoughtful comparison of Garmin and Magellan's autorouting products. I became fed up with the autorouting on my eXplorist 400 w/DR v2 maps and just got a Garmin nuvi 200 that says it uses City Navigator 2008. If the routing on the Garmin handhelds is anything like it is on the nuvi, Garmin wins by a longshot. My eXplorist took a long time to calculate simple routes. I could tolerate having to press the GOTO button twice to trigger a route recalculation, but often times I would have already passed the next turn on the new route by the time the route was calculated. Also, I could not find a way to tell the eXplorist to avoid toll roads or U-turns. The manual for the 76Cx says you can program it to avoid tolls and U-turns, so I suspect the other routing Garmin handhelds will be similar. I was hoping Magellan would catch up to Garmin's autorouting on the Tritons, but right now there is no telling how autorouting will be implemented on the Tritons. Routing on the eXplorist works, just not as well as it could. JetSkier also raises a good point about the Garmin basemap being routable, which means you can load detail maps for your origin and destination and just use the basemap for the route in between. About the currency of the data, DirectRoute v3 came out I think over a year ago and still didn't have my 7-year-old subdivision in its road data. Garmin, which updates its road maps more often, showed my neighborhood on the version of CN loaded on the nuvi.

The IIIxe is a fine PDA for paperless caching and is used by many forum members. However, I don't think it is worth $65 for a new one. For only $25 more you can get a brand new current generation Z22. A used IIIxe will do just fine and will hurt less financially if you should drop and damage it. I got mine for $10.50 but I think they usually go for a little more than that. I see a bunch on eBay right now for $14 (caveat emptor of course). I have loaded 1000 caches onto the thing with plenty of room to spare. I think those 1000 caches only took up about 1.4MB. The IIIxe and eTrex Legend both use a serial cable, so you may need to get a serial-to-USB cable to connect with your computer. Not sure how well that will play with a Mac.

That stinks about the autorouting. Hopefully Naturescape just missed an option or the capability will come with a firmware update. Redwoods Mountain Biker has posted his initial impressions of the 1500 here.

Thanks for posting this. It's been so weird with websites giving conflictin information as to whether the cable comes with the 200 through 500 models.I think we might be able to put the cable issue to rest about the 200-500 models. The reports continue to come in about these units having the cable in the box. Today I was at Cabela's and saw a 300. The outside of the box said it came with a cable. I opened the box and it did have a cable inside. Good to know we won't have to pay extra for the cables. Unfortunately I didn't think to push the buttons to see how they felt compared to the eXplorist.

I'll pile on. GooTech, you said it can accept .gpx files. Are you saying you just copied and pasted the .gpx file into the unit or did you do some sort of operation in VantagePoint? I have a pocket query loaded in VP, and when I am in the library mode and go to the Export function, it only gives choices for eXplorist .gs files and GPX. No mention of a Triton-specific format. Makes me wonder if there isn't one and the Triton just reads the GPX file directly. Admittedly, you would probably just do the Sync process in the MyGPS section of VP, but I'm curious about the file formats and how files are structured in the unit (folder-based like eXplorist?) Also would you be able to take a photo of what the geocaching information screens look like on the unit and post it here? It's kind of odd that the unit has been shipping for a few weeks (albeit without all the parts until recently) and we're having to lean on the early adopters so much just to get basic information about the thing. Very skittish rollout of the product by Magellan.

I hope this new unit allows you to change the screen view from portrait to landscape like the V did. If so, it could certainly be the best on-trail/on-road GPSr out there. It would basically be the GPS VI that I've been begging for. I would definitely buy one. Looking at the photos we are both SOL in that regard. I don't think we should dismiss this idea too quickly. A landscape orientation option for on-road use could explain why they went with a touchpad and why the touchpad is on the "top" of the unit, which would be the right side when you turn the unit around. The GPS V had its keys on the right, as do those paddle-shaped Magellan Roadmates. So we have a marine-oriented Colorado and a topo-oriented Colorado. Garmin seems to have some bright people working there, so it wouldn't surprise me if a road-oriented Colorado comes out.

Ouch. I hate to say it, but any Magellan owner's first stop should be here or the Yahoo eXplorist and Meridian groups if they have a non-physical problem with the unit. The user community has had to step up since Magellan's support is flaky. There are some very knowledgeable folks here who can get you up and running within 24 hours, and it doesn't cost $50. The missing basemap problem has been addressed many times in this forum. The fix is also at GPSFAQs, though it looks like that Russian site doesn't have the eXplorist basemaps anymore.

I remember another forum member a while back wishing the GPSr manufacturers would release firmware specific to geocaching. Sounds like Garmin was listening. I bet geocaching is one of the activity interfaces you can choose from. And with so much built-in memory, some people may never need to use the SD slot (assuming most of the 384MB is available).

I think this silly notion that caches are buried comes from the use of the term "treasure hunting" to describe geocaching. There seems to exist this idea that treasure is always buried. If caching is like treasure hunting and the cache is the treasure, the cache must be buried. Faulty logic. I see on the Geocaching.com FAQ that the word "treasure" is used twice. I know referring to caching as a treasure hunt may help get the kids involved, but that may actually be hurting how the game is perceived. Perhaps we should equate geocaching with a scavenger hunt more than a treasure hunt. The press seems to like to take this treasure hunt idea and run with it, distorting the nature of geocaching.

If you are going to be relying on the basemaps, you will be disappointed. They include little beyond interstates, US highways and I believe place names. Some state roads are included (at least on the 400). If this is really important, I can compare the two basemaps for you later today (I have a 210 and a 400). Looking at my 400 now...shows state roads, US roads, interstates, a handful of major arterial roads, airports, some streams/rivers, major place names, and railroads.

@Triton, eh? since they seem to know a lot: Has there been any changes to how the Triton does autorouting? For example, are there options for avoiding highways, toll roads, and U-turns? Is route calculation faster? Also, I remember having to enter my eXplorist's serial number into DirectRoute v2. Would DR v2 recognize a Triton serial number?

Is there another way to send caches to the Nuvi 200 besides using the site plug-in? I read something online about it being able to use GPX files. The price of this unit has come down so much that I'm tempted to pick one up to use to navigate to cache locations instead of my Magellan handheld, which does only a so-so job of routing.