Driddy

I have been using a Garmin Glo which utilizes both the US and Glonass (Russian) satellites and I find that it gets me to gz at least as well as my Garmin Oregon 450, even under heavy tree cover and in narrow stream valleys. I am surprised that external BT receivers are not more popular.

I am not sure whether the issue applies to my GSII. Mine is the TMobile/T989/Hercules variant and there is a surprising heterogeneity in the hardware across carriers. I did come across this discussion of the issue and thought you might be interested if you have not already read it.

I have never heard of this before but maybe one of the engineers on the forum could comment. At the risk of sounding like I am a salesman for BT GPS, I also want to mention that another advantage to using one is that the phone battery discharges slower with GPS turned off. That is not a big issue for me since I have several spares, but tthought I would mention it.

Were you in "easy" conditions? IE, in the open? My GS2 is fine in open fields, parking lots and so on, but under trees with leaves and in canyons (actually steep stream valleys) the reception is very poor. Blue tooth GPS receievers are small devices that are designed to get very good GPS reception and can be paired with cell phones, laptops, tablets, etc. via bluetooth. With Android, in order to use BT GPS, you need to download an app (free) that will connect to the BT GPS and substitute the Android device's internal GPS with the signal received via BT. When using a geocaching app, one keeps the phone's GPS turned off and uses the signal provided by the BT GPS. Geocaching apps function seamlessly under this scenario. Yes, I am US so my prices were USD. In addition to the $99 USD Garmin Glo, you may wish to check out lower-priced units made by Globalsat (indeed, my sense is that they are the primary manufacturer of BT GPS). Last time I checked, Globalsat is based entirely off of the US GPS constellation but one would certainly think they will soon support glonass (and the EU system as that matures). I hope this helps!

I have a TMobile GS2 and its GPS reception sucks in the woods. I really love some of the Android geocaching apps (especially Cachesense) but have been very frustrated by the discrepancy between the GS2 and my Oregon 450 (the 450 consistently puts me much closer to the actual hide). As a result I have been carrying both and using the GS2 to read descriptions, logs, etc. and to log my finds. However, I was just given a bluetooth Garmin Glo (which utilizes both US GPS and the Russian Glonass system) to presumably obtain a very accurate fix. I hope to have time to compare the two over the weekend. The point is that you may wish to consider getting a BT GPS to provide a more accurate fix to your GS2. Well-reviewed BT GPS receivers start around $30 (the Glo is $99).

I previously started a related thread under the Live-Enabled Apps forum but that forum sees very little traffic. I have two questions: 1. Can offline maps be saved within the Official Android GC.COM app? If so, how? I own this app but can't see any way to do this. 2. Same question for IOS. (I do not own the IOS app and would consider buying it if it had this capability).

The IPOD does not have a built-in GPS AFIK. I am not able to find any button in the Official Android app that caches maps for offline use. I see how to have offline cache info and to seek them via compass, but I see no way to save maps. Can anyone tell me how to do this?

Am I correct that the IOS Groundspeak app has provisions for offline caching? I have an Android phone and the official android app but my daughter just got an Ipod and a bluetooth GPS. In the Android app I can't see how to do offline maps -- I can download PQs but there is no obvious way to cache maps. This doesn't affect me because I prefer Cachesense anyway but I want to know about the IOS app before paying for it for my daughter. In the IOS app can you cache maps? How do you do it? Does it work well? Thank you!

Depending on your budget, you may wish to consider the Garmin Glo ($99). That is an interesting choice because it simultaneously uses both the American GPS system as well as the Russian Glonass satellites. This supposedly results in better reception in challenging conditions. There was a thread in this forum a few weeks ago regarding this unit but I have not yet seen any really detailed reviews of it's utility for geocaching. I expect to get one within the next week and will share my experiences once I have taken it into the field.

Cachesense is also a great alternative and it is evolving at a very rapid pace. It also has great support for offline caching and there is a free 30-day trial version that is identical to the paid version.

The big appeal for me would be making geocaching with a smartphone practical under the terrain conditions (heavy tree cover and narrow stream valleys) that make gps reception spotty at times with a dedicated GPSr and often unusable with my smartphone (Galaxy SII). I would love to be able to take advantage of the benefits that some of the geocaching programs bring (especiall Neongeo since it easy easy to cache offline maps and send caches to it via GSAK). As it stands, the performance of my phone is simply not acceptable except in parking lots and open fields. I could go with a standard BT GPS based on US GPS for about $50 and get acceptable performance but I am willing to spend another $50 if that means incrementally better reception in challenging conditions.

Drunix, thank you for posting. I will be very interested in any further impressions you post -- particularly how it performs under heavy tree cover and other gps-challenging terrain.

Neongeo has an offline mode. There are a number of ways to get caches into Neongeo, including panning around the map while online (which will automatically d/l cahes), via gpx, or (my favorite) by sending caches via a GSAK macro that creates a Neongeo native sqlite db. As for maps, NG has built into a map wizard that will download (when you have a network or data signal) maps covering all of the caches you have loaded (you can chose from various map servers, including osm, google, google hybrid, google sat, topo, among others). This all works quite nicely.

I am considering buying one and am also interested in knowing whether anyone else has tried it yet. (This is a long-winded BUMP)

Yes, your total find count is decremented.

You shouldn't need to do this. Have caches on SD card. Remove SD card and start device cache list will be empty. Put back SD card all caches should be fine. Interestingly I have been runnning 6.0 ever since it came out and have had zero lock ups since that point. With Garmin's record this will probably change in 6.1 . No, that would not have cleared up the problem I was having. I am familiar with the issue of freezing during loading and the various ways to fix that. I was talking about situations in which the unit boots all the way, displays all of the caches that were loaded onto it but frequently locks up when you try to display a cache description. That problem was not cured by the means you described.

On several occasions over the past 2+ years my Oregon 450 has begun to misbehave in various ways (such as refusing to load any caches or locking up when displaying the Description). In each case I found that reinstalling the software cleared up the problem.

There has been a bit of criticism of the CO in this thread. I don't think ill of the CO and would rather that we keep the discussion centered on the circumstances under which it is appropriate to delete logs. The CO and I had several polite exchanges over e-mail after I inquired as to why the log was deleted. I bear the CO no ill will and don't wish to escalate the matter or complain to Groundspeak. I would like to thank everyone for their input and I have learned from both the CO and the posters in this thread. With respect to the original scenario, a fellow cacher made a suggestion to me offline as to how I might have handled it differently -- I could have posted a Found log and then followed it with an NM indicating that the CO might wish to consider removing some of the paper. At this point it would not make sense to do that (the cache was found quite a while ago and the CO has already taken some actions that probably makes the log a little easier to handle.

The reason the CO gave was, "Logs on my caches are not the forum you should use to complain about things." Also, a subsequent finder also referred to it as a nano and his log was not deleted so I really don't think the issue was that I gave away the container.

I did find some Groundspeak Guidelines relating to Log Deletion. Here they are: http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=204

So you replaced a general observation which technically doesn't necessarily apply to that cache with a specific complaint. I'm looking forward to hearing if the CO takes that better. I didn't think the current version reads like a complaint and that was explicitly what I wanted to avoid. I thought it now reads as an account of my experience with the cache, just as one might report that it took a long time to find or that the container was found in the open.

I have relogged it as "This was a quick find. I had difficulty removing and replacing the log without damaging it because it is very large relative to the size of the container. (Team 100)" On another day I might have written it that way from the outset.

I recently had a log deleted by the CO of a cache. My log stated, "This was a quick find. I wish COs of nanos wouldn't put huge logs in them -- it is always a big hassle getting them in and out without shredding them. (Team 100)". When I inquired about why my log had been deleted, I was told that it had been done to give me a chance to relog it and that logs on their caches should not be used as a forum for complaints. While I agree that the tone of my log could have been more constructive, was the CO within Groundspeak Guidelines or commonly accepted practice to delete my log (and without asking me to edit the log before deleting it)?

I have used both Sanyo Eneloops and Amazon Basics (somewhat less expensive) and my sense is that I get comparable or better performance from the Amazon product. However, I have no quantitative data to support this.

I agree that it would be nice to have a WIFI enabled GPSr, especially when travelling (I don't own a laptop). One workaround that works on some recent Android phones is to connect the GPSr to the USB port on the cell phone via an OTG USB cable. With that setup one can download PQs from GC.com and then copy them onto the GPSr. Of course, an even simpler approach, is to download the PQ onto a micro SD card on the phone and then insert the card in the GPSr (assuming of course that both units support micro SD). However, I am not too keen on handling micro SDs while in the field.