Ratsneve

Brand new to finding more elaborate caches... I need to do some homework before finding a cache. The instructions state that "the actual cache is offset by the following amount..." I am not questioning how to figure out what the offset is BUT rather how does the offset get applied? The original coordinates take you to a sign that directs you to another sign which directs you to a third sign over a couple miles and a couple direction changes. Both the N and W offets are + m.sss type. Specifically, do these offset amounts get added to the original coordinates or are they applied to whatever the coordinates are at the last sign used to provide the offset amounts from? This cache is called "Redmond Zoo #5" listed in the 97756 zip code. I suppose I could try the two possibilities but...I don't really want to. Now that I have typed this whole thing out and thought about it I think the obvious answer is that the offsets must be added to the original coordinates BECAUSE those are the only known coordinates. The coordinates at the last sign where the offset clues are taken from could vary from GPS to GPS which might introduce significant error. Okay, so I'll post this and see what happens. Thank you.

On the 200... The little antenna button with the star symbol on top of it when horizontal seems to place the unit at around 30 degrees? --not 45 and not 10. On the other hand so far it doesn't seem to matter any. Likewise on the 200 the compass isn't magnetic and so the screen does not have to be held horizontal either. It isn't electronic either. It only functions when the unit moves and samples location change, and orientation doesn't seem to matter if you keep your wits. When I get within 20 feet or so of a location the compass indication gets pretty wild. Obviously I need to work more on my in close technique. It may be I can't comfortably walk fast enough for the unit to process and display accurately?

Ah yes...it was all so simple. After making my post I revisited the cache page and discovered the link to log the visit. Then I got side tracked rather then immediately change or delete my post. I'm using an eXplorist 200 to get my feet a little wet with geocaching and routing for a trip a week from now to Arizona and parts inbetween. If I continue to enjoy the hobby I will be migrating to the 600 when it comes out or a Garmin--color display, better auto routing, better geocaching features, etc. Thanks.

So I found my first cache today but now I can't figure out how to log it into my account. The closest I come to the log is a message that my log is empty! Sigh...

I'm going on a trip in two weeks so I decided to buy a low end eXplorist 200 and probably upgrade to the 600 when it finally goes on sale. Questions abound... On the 200: 1. Is the best antenna orientation achieved by holding the unit at a 45 degree angle so the antenna button is horizontal? 2. The WAAS function and 3 meter accuracy seems very hard to achieve. What are the tricks. I have seen the 200 display WAAS only twice so far. I live in Central Oregon. 3. It looks like the display customizations are very limited. Will the 600 display a page showing all the possible parameters at once? I.E., I'd like speed and distance but also ETA, ETE, and the others. Is this unrealistic for the 600? On the 600: 4. When is it approximately roughly estimated to be coming out now? 5. Will its street/mapping functions include any audio and/or voice? 6. Does the 600 include a color display for sure? For some reason this has been unclear to a local sales person I talked to. He says the 600 is B/W only which seems strange. Thanks much.

I have to think too that Magellan's SD capability is a HUGE advantage as to what software they or others could turn out for the units and what convenience(s) the space could afford one. In fact it is weird and short sighted by everything else in today's standards that Garmin has no means of RAM expansion/convenience.

A gps class? now that is neat! that would be a good time killing elective and an easy A. so what do they teach? i mean what can be taught that would fill a whole semester? i wish my CC did a gps class.... and dumped humanities as well!!! lol Oh, it is just a 6 hour adult ed class. Meets two Wednesdays in a row for 3 hours each. I'm going to talk to the instructor. I suspect the class is largely for those who don't like to read or understand their GPS manuals if the units are not intuitive enough. Actually that is an interesting question... Are these hand-held GPS very intuitive and forgiving as to what buttons to push? Can you learn how to use one just by pushing buttons and seeing what happens. Is either Garmin or Magellan better at engineering in intuitiveness or is it a real mixed bag depending on each model design?? Regarding the class again... Since I don't have a GPS yet and may very well wait for the eXplorist 600 there may be no point in the class at all for me and I will withdraw in time for a full refund. Since there was only one seat left I signed up.

Also, I just remembered that my laptop sticks me with USB 1.1--not 2.0--although I guess I could buy a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card for more bucks. Anyway @ 1.1 I wonder how long and how much longer to load a Garmin or a Magellan SD? Why is Garmin's AutoRouting considered so superior to Magellan's Map Send Direct Route? Thanks. Susan

Each SD you use is going to cost some money. If you have a laptop or palm isn't it just as easy to reload directly to your Garmin as reloading directly to a Magellan or a Magellan SD? Thanks.

It turns out there is a guy at the community college here who teaches a GPS class. I'm going to look into that, relax, and delay my purchase until I pick his brain clean.

Don't count on it. Not until I buy the Vista C...then the SD slot will come out in the Vista D.

You're right. Time to call Magellan--especially since the eXplorist 600 isn't out. Their tech support confirmed that Map Send Direct Route would work in the 600. The problem is that the 600 isn't out yet and isn't supported yet and the guy I talked to didn't have a clue to offer when it would be coming out. I suggested that if that was the case it might be premature to be mentioning it on their website but what was he suppose to say next? Magellan's Map Send Direct Route lists for around $150 I think and may on special for $99 now. It works the same as Garmin's autorouting with audible signals. You must look at the screen to tell what direction to make turns. Reading through Magellan's cautions doesn't sell the software in very good light imho--not any different then the dangers of reading a paper map while driving. Don't know why they and Garmin can't do audible left and right turn beeps or a beep to go straight through an intersection. If Magellan's tech support is clueless about the 600 I might be miles ahead if I would stick with the Garmin Vista C. With my luck at this though as soon as I buy the Vista C the 600 would be released the next week. Thank you. Susan

I want to be clear on this autorouting...please... This feature means that the GPS will direct your travel to a destination--by in this case audible signals--you don't have to look at the map display to tell whether you are turning left or right but can tell from the audible signal(s)? If a GPS, like the new Magellan eXplorist 600 doesn't have autorouting but can be loaded up with surfaces maps and the like in its SD cards how does it work? Is it only showing where you are located on a road and isn't much more then a glorified paper road map? If this is true then autorouting has got to be a 'must have', ah... for me IMhO. And why wouldn't Magellan include it in the eXplorist since they have the SD card room? A million tradeoffs...how do I come up the winner? Maybe the Vista C is once again my best choice? Surely Magellan has another line that does autorouting. Darn, I don't want to buy two GPS's. The eTrex Vista C would give me autorouting and geocaching abilities--just not top of the line--less the kitchen sink? Plus the more controversial patch antenna instead of quad helix. Only 24 MB of RAM--less then the 60CS but if I travel with the laptop and map CDs I need do I care? How tough is it to stop at a rest stop somewhere and load in and manage new maping into the Vista C from a laptop? And I trust there is no reason why I can't use Ni-MH rechargeable cells if I want to? Also, how much harder is it to load numerous geocache sites into the laptop and run that info from there, write down notes and clues about a cache and go off looking for it instead of loading all the geocache site information into the eXplorist 600? I'm going to bed. Thank you for all this information.

What can one simulate on a GPS with the GPS feature turned off?

Here's another good one... Joystick and buttons on front face or rockers on the side? But I'd like that temperature readout, a rechargeable & replaceable battery, and a SD cartridge. Seriously, doesn't the eXplorist 600 sound great? But it doesn't do auto-routing? Ratsneve

Not again! Those darn "quad-helix antenna". I swear there is someone on this site who has a "patch" antenna that works better then the "quad" under trees. Today would you stick with the 60CS or get 76CS with even more memory? Looks like...well I don't have a clue yet but I'm working on it.

About the audio beeps. Does it make a distiinctive different beep for turning left at the next interesection--a different beep for turning right? Or do you really have to take your eyes off the road and look at the display to see which way the arrow is pointing?? I'll take a look at the 60 and 76 CS'es. Did you or would you give me several good reasons why you are so much more a Garmin fan then a Magellan fan? Has Magellan historically been a much poorer choice for a number of reasons--and still is? It sounds like this eXplorist series with SD cards and the geocaching downloading is going to be hot if it works. What battery drain factor does adding a larger SD have? Roll-your-own... I think I know what that means. Thank you.

Thanks Peter for your detailed reply of important advice. Needless to say I have a lot of thinking still to do and a little waiting perhaps. I discovered the Magellan eXplorist 600 thread further down and that unit looks real good for geocaching and maybe the SD memory advantage? So, you must hold these units vertically to work properly? If horizontal will the error distance increase significantly? But you can walk or drive and periodically hold the unit verticle and let it aquire the signal properly and update can't you? I tried to find info on what type of antenna the explorist 600 uses but didn't see it. When you are geocaching to a coordinate that is hidden in a dense sheltered area can you use your GPS to map around the area taking way-points (not sure what you call them?) and then plot where the actual cache location would be even though once there you would have no signal and would have found it by the seat of your pants so to speak? Magellan's warranty is 1 year in the U.S. but I couldn't find Garmin's warranty. It is probably the same. I may be putting too much into this for first time GPS geocaching. I'm not a strong hiker now so that is one reason why some other uses of the GPS might make one worth more. Thanks again. Susan

This may turn out to be a shorter discussion then I had first anticipated. "Robespierre posted Jan 6 2005, 06:10 PM. Alright: #1 geocaching. #2 marking location/elevation for astronomy. #3. driving. I love my Vista for caching, maps are decent enough, but I don't use them that much, and for the road, you can do better. Perhaps with extra maps it is better. The outstanding feature is the dynamic compass. It doesn't lose its focus when you stand still, like the Legend & others." 1. I've been thinking the Garmin eTrex Vista C might be just what I need but someone in the newsgroup posted this GPS is not NMEA compatible and that they could not connect it to their home computer. The unit comes with a PC/USB interface cable. My laptop has USB 1.1 which is slower then USB 2.0 to be sure but what is this NMEA problem? So let's base the discussion around the Vista C and if I end up with a Magellan or something else there will be good reason for it I'm sure. 2. Focussing on #1 geocaching I think my most important concern is accuracy moving and stationary and in various terrain and obstructions. I know there are limits to weigh but does the Vista C do an excellent job for the dollar compared to others? 3. If I'm in a non-WAAS area why is the accuracy worse then if I had a non-WAAS receiver? Can WAAS be turned off at the receiver to recover the accuracy? 4. I don't see my need for an external antenna although I will be using it in the car. Will it have to be kept on the dash or rear window sill then or out an open window? That's okay since I suspect that is the same for all GPS units until you hook up an external antenna. It doesn't look like the Vista C has an external antenna jack. Am I going to regret not having one? Are there any clever ways of coupling in an active external antenna if the need ever does arise? 5. Although it comes with a wrist strap I suspect I should use a neck strap or something else. Otherwise I see myself triping and smashing the unit into a rock! Why go with a wrist strap only? 6. So I get the local basemap for the Americas...what happens when I visit Australia/New Zealand--completley useless then? How does that work? Can a basemap chip be swapped out for a different region and/or can you load Australia/New Zealand road maps that mask over the Americas basemap? 7. It sounds like the unit directs you through city streets using audible sounds but not English--how does that work? 8. If I was taking a trip from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles, California would the unit hold all the street information in it I need at one time or would I periodically have to pull over and delete old information and load new information from the laptop into it? 9. Any other pros or cons for the Vista C? 10. Any other GPS that you really think might suit me better for the various questions I mentioned and/or your own experience that I have no knowledge of yet? 11. Here is an example...Garmen seems to use a fixed amount of RAM with PC/USB cables while Magellen maybe prefers flash memory? I see some advantage to the flash memory cards as it would be easier/faster to update the unit--correct? But does that "advantage" mean that much? 12. Surely Magellan has something similar to the Vista C with its own advantages and disadvantages. And who knows what else might be out there. Keeping geocaching usage as primary I was thinking of around the $100 but not approaching $500. Costco has the Vista C for $330 which all things considered looks good to me. 13. What can I download into the Vista C? Am I stuck buying only certain map data to show points of interest, gas and food stops and the like costing $100+ more or is there plenty to add off the Internet to cover these things? Weakly worded I know... I think I'll end it here and see what happens. Thanks much for the help and advice. It will be interesting to see if I stay with the Vista C or change over to something else. Susan

Okay, this thread is closed here and moved to: Geocaching Related Topics | GPS Units and Software | Ratsneve's GPS Help? Thanks.

Well, I think the best suggestion was posted here and quite obvious. Without trying to see how difficult I can make my life, geocaching IS the driving reason why I want to jump into owning a GPS. So this forum should be right up my alley. Secondary interests in between geocaching might be noting one's postiion and elevation during amateur astronomy activities, monitoring changes in elevation and barometric pressure, and as a driving aid. Thanks.

I need to buy a GPS but I'm overwhelmed with the variety and price range. Are these forums the best location to discuss what might become an extensive thread learning about my options and what I really need or would the newsgroup 'sci.geo.satellite-nav' actually be better? I am comfortable posting to either--I just want the best exposure to experts please. Thank you. Once this is determined I will get into a zillion questions no doubt. Susan...er...Ratsneve