cameramonkey

I JUST got a 130 in the mail that is a 5.0. I can find no differences between it and my 120, barring the normal differences that should be there since its a better model. I think its a manufacturing thing more than function. They probably found a better/cheaper way to make the guts with a different chipset.

My only beef with the stock copy of 2002 with gps tracking, is that its PAINFULLY slow on the position updates. I estimate it between 5 and 10 seconds per update. "ok honey, your turn is coming up in a few seconds... turning right onto main st." "you mean that street we just passed?" Overally its not bad. The wife and I are using it to scout out a new house. we import the street listings into MP02, then use that to figure out exactly where each house is located, and how to best drive from house to house. It has definitely saved us hours. I also agree that the Delorme software is much better for routing and real-time tracking.

one thing that worked exceptionally well for me... I already used a program called "alcohol 120%" It allows you to make backups of your CDs, as well as mount them as virtual drives. Alcohol software webpage Yes, its a little more costly than the above drive copying and registry tweaking, but I think this scenario is better on two fronts. First, it saves the disk images in standard iso files. If you ever LOSE your disks, you can very easily recreate them for reinstallation if needed. Second, there is no chance of screwing up your PC by accidentally editing your registry incorrectly. just my .02.

Coincidentally, I called Garmin on this exact issue several hours ago. Here is what they said.... There are actually TWO different RINO 120s out there. the 3.x version and the newer 5.x version. On the outside and (generally) functionally they are the same, however the electronics are different between the two. a 3.x WILL NOT work with the 5.x software. This update is only for BRAND new Rinos made very recently. If yours is one that you have had for a while, its most likely a 3.x version. hope that helps.

I finally decided to buy a Rino 130. I looked around at the cheaper places... Well, I tried ordering from offroute.com... Brian emailed me to say it would be towards the end of the month until I would get mine as they are waiting on a factory shipment... no big deal (great service from offroute, BTW). I looked around and nobody had any in stock at a price under $300, except a few places... buy.com being one of them. So I ordered from them, since they indicated I could have it in 3 days (1-2days to process, plus overnite). I ordered it, and it has now the order has been sitting "at the warehouse" for 3 days now... and no estimate on when it will ship. Now when I go to the product page, they are no longer saying "ships in 1-2 days" now it says "1-2 WEEKS". So I guess the bottom line... if you need a rino 130 quickly, verify with a human that they actually have them and can ship them... seems that the discounters right now are all out for a week or so. speaking of humans... NEVER buy from buy.com... they have great prices, but its nearly impossible to contact anyone except via email, which takes literally days. Just a heads up....

It was in mine too, and when I went RIGHT to the map after powering up (and before satellite lock) my location marker showed it was there next to the waypoint... obviously from testing at the factory.

Geko 101 and none of the Explorist have a PC connection, so they are a little crippled and limiting on what you can do with the units. My experience would be go with a yellow eTrex if you are down to those 3. Its the one I started with, and I was pretty happy with it. You can also check out used units here in the garage sale forum. You can sometimes get a pretty good deal from other geocachers that are upgrading. Thats my .02

Why? the unit is useless for geocaching for anyone except the ignorant newbie that just runs out and buys based on price, or a massochist that enjoys pressing buttons... "lets see... the coordinates are... up-right-right-right-enter.... down down left left left enter...." 3 hours later, they finally get all thier caches entered and can go hunting... Notice I said ignorant, and not stupid... there is a difference. I get the feeling this isnt a very long product life cycle. Mark my words... I give it a year before you see them on clearance and they are replaced with the 500, 600, and 700s... no real new features except a data port (or sdcard socket). Freinds dont let freinds buy an eXplorist.

GOD!!! Please tell me that was sarcasm.... If not, ya need help...

OK, so have been hitting a few caches recently, and several I found were a bit disappointing based on my search criteria. I have my cache reports set to only list traditional caches, not micro caches. However I keep finding some pretty small-ish caches that could be considered micro. As an example, One "traditional" I found was an aspirin bottle hanging from a tree. the other a small tupperware box roughly 4x4x1". That one was small enough that the log had to be cut in half to make it fit. another is an altoids tin. In my opinion, all of those should be considered micros. Is there an accepted size cutoff? general rule of thumb? what would you do if you found a cache that you feel should be listed as a micro?

*BUMP* Auctions close in about a day, just wanted to give one last reminder and bump to the top of the list. They are probably gonna go cheap!

To my knowlege they arent shipping (officially) until the end of this month. However, scuttlebutt around here isnt too favorable. Apparently none of the explorist units have data ports, so all waypoints will have to be hand keyed, and you cant use it for position reporting on your laptop software, etc. Be interesting to see for sure if that is truly the case.

OK, I need to vent... How about ebay-ers that are rude and take several days to get around to contacting you when they buy your high ticket auction? Come on folks, I got GPS toys to buy!!! Get off your butt and pay for what ya bought!!! Ahhh.... Much better. (not really)

As a professional IT guy (8 years in the field) I say dont worry about it if its just the name you see when you install programs, etc. That field is not really of any importance, and it doesnt affect the operation of the unit. Now as it was mentioned earlier, if it WAS purchased out of the back of a car, etc. then it might be a bigger deal. In that case I would scratch out the serials, and have a techie freind wipe it clean and start over.

Thanks, Searching. So it looks like the 60CS is a really good unit. Extremely expensive, but good. So now that I know that info, how about some 76s and rino users' input?

Thanks geobernd! If anyone else has thier input, fire away! The more I look, the more I like the Rino 130 for its features (and price point as compared to a 60cs). Until they find a way for me to easily upload my finds, I am not sold 100% on the new geocaching features of this unit. Not to mention I can buy a Rino 130, with a backup 110 for the same price as a single 60cs. So... I am especially interested in any user input about the Rino in comparison.

I have an Etrex Vista that I use now. Its great, EXCEPT this time of year when the trees and vegitation are full. Now when I get too far into thick tree cover, I lose signal after a few minutes. Except for poor reception, the vista is an OUTSTANDING unit. Great screen, good features, etc. However, the signal loss has gotten so bad, that I am starting to look for another GPS, or just stop caching except for spring and fall. -I want something I can download maps into for topo and street level maps. -Must have electronic compass. That seems to help SO much during the final 100 feet of the search. I like the 60cs due to its new geocaching features. Color screen is nice, but dont need it. Thats why I suggested a 76s and not a cs. I am not against a Magellan. However since I already have maps, accessories, etc. for a garmin, it makes sense to stay with that brand. So how about it? how well do these units perform under intense tree cover? Anyone use the vista and a 60/76/rino side-by-side to give an apples-to-apples comparison? I am looking for a true comparison, like where you were using both at the same time and the vista lost a lock and the other kept going, not a "I've never used a vista, but my unit NEVER loses a lock under tree cover".

Cameramonkey here on the south side of Indy... Not as active as I would like, but slowly getting back into the swing if things. I started back in December of '01, and soon dragged Bear and Ting into it... They kept going, but I kinda got busy with other things and something had to give... But thanks to a VERY exciting saturday AM sprinting across an open field after the local Magellan contest cache, its definitely got my attention again (as well as the wife). Hope to see you all at the fall picnic!

I know they arent exactly GPSr's, but I use(d) them for Geocaching. The wife has been nagging a while for me to get rid of some of my redunant stuff, so this is part of it... I guess you could call 5 radios for a couple with no children a bit excessive So I am dumping my two sets of radios that I dont really use. The first is my old standby set... work great, only complaint is no drop in chargers... but they are solid radios For being FRS. FRS Radios Then there are these radios. They have the drop in chargers, but Audiovox decided to put absolute crap rechargeable batteries in it. The first one I bought, wouldnt hold a charge. Returned to the store, exchanged for a new set. those batteries lasted 2 weeks, with only two charge cycles. Needless to say, I have been using those with standard batteries, and they do pretty well. I usually get 1 day's use out of them. The best part, is they have the NOAA weather radios, so you are never out of touch with the weater. GMRS Radios They could go cheap... Both start at $10 for each set, with no reserve!

Thanks so far to those who have replied... At this time, I am looking for non-realtime averaging.

I have an application coming up that could use a bit of help... I am looking for a PC app that will take a cluster of waypoints and/or tracks and generate the average. For instance, 4 readings at the corners of a property, where the center isnt accessible. By averaging the results, (in theory) the average of those 4 points would be in the center. (or am I smoking and not sharing?) It would also be handy to take some readings over time from the same point and average them out to get a more accurate reading. is there an app to do this, or am I stuck trying to export the data to a spreadsheet and do it manually? If I am mistaken in my understanding, please correct me.

Interesting article I just read this AM. It doesnt look good for us... slashdot article For those too lazy, here's a summary. "The U.S. government may be degrading GPS satellite signals, to cripple Iraqi forces' ability to use those systems during the war. This could potentially reduce accuracy from ~3 meters to over ~100 meters. Users depending on GPS systems may want to do sanity checks on any data returned by those systems during the war. The U.S. will do this by increasing the inaccuracies on the civilian C/A code, turning back on S/A (Selective Availability), by having the satellites deliberately and randomly return inaccurate information on where they are. S/A degrades GPS accuracy to only 100 meters 95 percent of the time and 300 meters the other 5 percent of the time. This will not effect the military P code." If you had a hard time finding caches before, you aint seen nothin' yet

I have a Garmin Venture, and am getting tired of switching back and forth between garmin and NMEA in/out when I want to download or use it as a tracking device (respectively). is it possible to up/download waypoints using the NMEA standard? if so, what unit do I set it to communicate with? or does that cause more trouble than its worth?

quote:Originally posted by chubby forest monkey:WE SHOULD KEEP GEOCACHING A SECULAR SPORT! I consider myself a somewhat religious person (beleive, seldom attend), but being a mischeivous devil's advocate here... Isnt that just slanting it religiously towards those that are atheists, etc? after all, the absence of god (or any mention of it) is what they seem to crave . somebody had to say it LOL

quote:Originally posted by chubby forest monkey:WE SHOULD KEEP GEOCACHING A SECULAR SPORT! I consider myself a somewhat religious person (beleive, seldom attend), but being a mischeivous devil's advocate here... Isnt that just slanting it religiously towards those that are atheists, etc? after all, the absence of god (or any mention of it) is what they seem to crave . somebody had to say it LOL