CelticDave

So far so good and I will be there to join the fun, and to be laughed at as the total noob snowshoer that I am

We don't get the chance to play with Wherigo much but we are in an area with one and I could not get the site to work. After reading the forum posts I am sad that this is a known problem that has not been corrected yet. Whats up with that?

I would go with the OR over the CO. I say that having owned four COs before giving up on them. The OR has been pretty solid. Are you in the GeoWoodstock Pack?

I agree GSAK without a doubt Are you in the GeoWoodstock Pack?

For starters, you can't delete caches from the front panel of the Oregon. You have to hook it up to your computer, navigate to the Garmin/GPX folder, and delete the *.gpx file(s) you have stored there. While you're poking around, look at the folder Garmin and open the cache_visits.txt file. That's where your found/not-found logs are created. As for the second problem - it sounds like you're using "road" navigation. It thinks you've already arrived and visited the location and are ready to move on. Recheck your settings. You are likely looking for drive E to get to Garmin then gpx file then just delete the gpx file, and you can also delete the file that says current then start all over.

Having both been through the Colorado phase my wife has the Oregon and I have the 60csx (using POIs). This in my opinion is the best of both worlds. I just got the iphone and the geocaching program is awesome, even better after yesterdays update. So now we both can be completely paperless. I had the PN-40 but prefer the 60 and the Oregon over it. So it went back and I got the iphone. Everyone has their own perferences and the iphone won't meet everyone's needs but the iphone 60 combo isn't too bad being that you have the fully paperless advantage of the iphone and the rock solidness of the 60. Good luck with whatever you choose.

It is interesting to see this thread as I too have returned my PN-40 for many of the same reasons. I would add or expand on a couple though. The 1000 waypoint limit is just not the way to go for a GPS unit that has 8 gb of memory (SE). I don't understand why there are waypoint limits on any GPS that is being released these days. The second is the redraw speeds when having imagery loaded on the GPS. Everyone including Delorme agreed that you should only maintain 1 to 2 gb of imagery to avoid the slower redraws. So what is the point of having up to 40 gb of total memory again? The last is bad reception. I have used the PN-40 side by side with both the Oregon and 60csx and without exception the 40 loses signal prior to either of them and in areas where I would not think it should lose signal. I will say that the expectation of having good signal in any city with skyscrapers is unrealistic and not a good benchmark for GPS reception. It was a bittersweet moment to return the PN-40 because Delorme has some of the best customer service I have experienced in quite some time. I think the information flow has dwindled as of late from Delorme and I am sure this is due to NDA but it still troubles me. So that’s my story and I have joined the ranks of those using the geocaching application on the iphone and so far I am very impressed with its functionality. Will it replace my current GPS? No, I will continue to use the Oregon and 60csx.

Not by Garmin, just by those who have owned 1...2...3...or 4 of them. I am so sorry but I could not resist Seriously that is a good question for Garmin customer support.

I own the PN-40, the 60csx and the Oregon (my wife's) Out of the three I am liking the Oregon more and more. We cache every day and our current streak is 521 days straight. My 60csx is solid but I like having the duel maps on the Oregon and a few of the other features of the Oregon. I am not sold on the PN-40 at all. Putting all of the really cool imagery onto the memory really really slows the screen draw times. I am not a fan of having to go throu Topo 7 to get everything done. It is hard for anyone to say how it will work because even though we have one in our hands we still don't have the full geocaching functionality to know how great it will be. Based on what I have in hand today, I agree with Starbrand that the Oregon may be your best choice.

To switch between maps to to Setup then Map then Map Information Switch map

Congrats to Mrs. CCC (Celtic Cacher Clan) for hitting #1500 today

Thanks to Embra and others (on both sites) for your help. One of the first things that came to mind was using smaller bites of the color imagery on a smaller SD card (1GB from what has been pointed out) and on the same card loading up to 1k of caches within that area. 1GB SD cards are cheap and this also helps with the redraw rates by having a smaller area of complex information to redraw. I am gathering that there may be a problem with this solution from the T7 side of things, is that accurate? It sounds like some of this may be worked out in the caching upgrade but it also sounds like non-disclusure will keep those secrets a bit longer. The only thing I will say about that is for those of us making the decision about keeping the PN-40 I hope that Delorme might acknowledge that pending the upgrade, the ability to return the unit be extended past the 30 days to allow for working things out after the upgrade is made available. I hope that came out right, I am not suggesting that the upgrade be rushed as much as the return part. I purchased the SE direct from Delorme so that is what I am getting at.

I think I found it, made changes and will see how that works, thanks

Lets try this again Well Santa did bring me a PN-40 for Christmas and I have been putting quite a bit of time since in learning to navigate T7, move caches to the GPS (Thanks for the Tutorial Embra), and learning to download (cut) color imagery from my area into the GPS. I have used the PN-40 daily (have a current 491 day caching streak) and on Saturday used it most of the day (had to go back to 60 on the way home due to waypoint loading limits)at a cache machine where we found 65 caches. I just wanted to share some of my experiences in using the PN-40. Please keep in mind that some of my observations are probably related to learning how to use the GPS and others are what I have found to be issues related to the functionality of the GPS. Any guidance anyone can give me would be appreciated. FYI I am using update 2.4123299. I have owned and used the Garmin 60cs, Colorado, Oregon (wife’s current GPS), and currently I have a 60csx. I will start with T7, I had a heck of a time getting through the learning curve of this software. I was able to work it out but it is a time consuming process and the user guide is hard to understand and is not clear when talking about “cutting” map information and other topics. I think I pretty well get it but it will be effort whenever I have to download a new area. The color imagery is awesome and worth the time it takes to download it. The grid areas are small and with the limits on download file sizes it takes quite a bit of downloading to get things done. I think a good way of doing this will be to download different areas onto smaller SD cards for use when in a specific area rather than trying to keep too much information on the GPS or one big SD card. It appears that having too much information on the GPS slows it down. Whenever routing to a cache (using imagery) and changing the zoom level from 640 to 320 or from 320 to 160 the redraw rates are slow taking 30 to 45 seconds to complete the redraw. The GPS locked up five times during the cache machine. This appeared to be associated with having the GPS plugged into power and shutting the car off and then restarting it. Each lock up required pulling the battery to reset the GPS. There is a lot of button pushing to route to a cache moving from find, address screen, menu, find menu, waypoints, cache. Maybe I am missing a more direct way to do this. I like the ability to alter coordinates of a cache without having to create an additional waypoint. The way of changing numbers in this way is simple and direct. This is a pleasant feature for multi, and puzzle caches. Garmin could learn something from you on this one. While I wish the GPS would auto re-route when you go off course the back on track feature only takes a couple of button pushes to use. What I don’t see is a quick way to change from route to direct when you get close to a cache. I have had to reload the cache (start over) to achieve this. Perhaps this will be a feature of cache register when it is available. When trying to move the cursor over an object such as a cache you have to be very precise to get the object to open. I am not sure what this is based on (pixel count, etc, ?) but I had a hard time opening caches from the map. The orange color of the routing line does not stand out very well as far as contrast to the normal map. Maybe it is just because I am coming from a Garmin perspective but I think there could be a better contrast color for the route line. I am not going to discuss accuracy because anything within three meters works for me and there are just too many variables to accuracy. If you totally depend on your GPS to put you on top of GZ and find the cache you will not find many caches. We find most of our caches counting on the GPS to get us close and then (use the force) work it out from there. The one thing I can say is that the PN-40 consistently has lost satellite lock before my 60-csx in similar surroundings. Yes I had the units side by side for this comparison and also saw satellite loss from the PN-40 where I know my 60 to keep sat lock. After caching for a while I was trying to route to a cache and a message came up that I could not route because routes were full and I needed to delete some in order to route again. I did not know routes were being saved. I found the delete all routes and problem solved. It will be nice to have the 800 character limit removed. I noticed this the most with earth caches which have longer descriptions that you have to be able to read in order to answer questions associated with finding the cache. The final comment that I have is that of the 1000 waypoint limit. I have not seen in any of the forums a solid number of what will be supported. Garmin did not change from 1000 to 2000 for the Colorado for a while. I have used Garmin’s POI loader to have unlimited caches on my Colorado (that was the only way to do it when it came out as it did not support caches at all) and currently for my 60csx. I would like to know if something like that will be supported or better yet there be no limit imposed. I am sure that as with Garmin this is something worked out between Groundspeak and Delorme and not completely your decision. In any event, with tons of memory available there does not appear to be a reason to restrict the GPS to 1000 waypoints. I enjoy using this GPS and the screen size has not been an issue. The PN-40 is much brighter than the 60 and of course has better resolution. The rechargeable battery is awesome and charging it while in the GPS is a great feature. The RAM mount is about as solid as you can get and gives you total control of positioning the GPS where you want it. The buttons are good but I don’t like where the power button is as I find myself hitting it a lot unintentionally. I am sure I will get used to this over time. I think the PN-40 is pretty solid but I have not had that aha moment that has me totally sold yet. I am hoping that the cache register program is out soon before my 30 days are up as that will be where I make my final decision if I am going to keep the PN-40 or not. Thanks to Delorme for all of your efforts in the forums here and in Groundspeak. Your positive involvement in listening to your customers and potential customers is outstanding and a great example of what a company should do in support of their products.

What everyone is seeing with the release of the PN-40 in one word COMPETITION. Garmin has not had to worry much because they were only competing with their own product, the 60csx. Now that Delorme has released the PN-40 Garmin is on the bubble for coming up with something new that will regain their reputation. Just from a customer service standpoint it is not rocket science that Delorme was light years beyond Garmin the day the PN-40 was shipped. If anybody would like to debate that please do, you are going to be on the losing end if in fact you have dealt with Garmin over the last year. I am still waiting for Santa to come through with my own PN-40 but I have no doubts that Delorme will support their product and continue to listen to their customers and potenial customers. Of my current 450 day geocaching streak I have used a 60cs, Colorado, 60csx and Oregon. I can't wait to continue the streak with the PN-40.

Just because I can't leave well enough alone. Having owned a total of four Colorados before we gave up on them, we now own an Oregon (which is hands down a better than the Colorado) and a 60csx. I am asking Santa for a PN-40. Only time will if I am considered naughty or nice for all of the bad (but true) things I have said about the Colorado. I hope all of the wonderful things I have said about REI are taken into account. Their return policy is the only reason we are not still complaining about owning the Colorado. Just the fact that Garmin is replacing a defective Colorardo with an Oregon is IMHO pretty telling as to where the future is headed. So write those Christmas wish lists for Santa and write to Garmin for those Colorado fixes and see where you have the most luck. My bets are on Santa

Okay so after reading the thoughts people have on the subject and glazing over people’s spats, here is what will be my personal philosophy on logging my own caches. If I own it alone I won’t log it. If I co-own it but it is not on my account I will probably log it. If I co-own it and had nothing to do with placing it, I will log it. If it is my challenge or I co-own a challenge and THEN complete the requirements for the challenge I will log it. I would not log one of these for my daily cache to keep my streak alive as that is pushing it too far for me. People already whisper about me at events I won’t lose any sleep over it I really don’t need to pad my stats and finally, THIS IS A GAME PEOPLE!!! Have fun and enjoy it. The most sensible comment I saw listed here was that if it is okay with the cache owner then it is okay. That was enough for me right there and is the best take on the matter. For those of you who will call me cheesy…cheddar and Swiss are my favorites unless it’s in salad then its blue cheese or maybe gorgonzola, oh and if it is on a turkey sandwich it has to be Havarti (thanks to my wife)

Despite what you may feel you've read here. A Colorado or Oregon is MUCH better than a 60csx for those uses and I suspect better than the PN-40 will be. I know it will shock everyone out there that I disagree with Red90 on this issue, but I do. We have owned four Colorado’s (all have been returned) and currently use a 60csx and Oregon daily (we just passed 365 days for our current geocaching streak). The 60csx is rock solid and you can't compare the Colorado to it at all. While I enjoy the Oregon's touch screen, paperless and pda-less caching it is difficult to navigate (but tolerable) and entering waypoints is cumbersome at best. I would say that Red90 might want to read the stats on the PN-40 before you bury it prior to its release. Can you say tri-axial compass? You know more about the PN-40 now, prior to release, than we know to date about the Colorado or Oregon.

Okay, I can stop pushing the button now. I have been pushing it it for a while now waiting for it to get better. So I am glad I found this thread. Same as other confirmed in IE and Firefox

For those of you who might have missed it. That was Chip from Delorme, who is once again is active in the forums because he and his company care about their current and future customers...and Garmin is where? For those of you who have "perfect" Colorados with no issues, would you please send one back to Garmin so they can clone it for the masses. For those of you who would rather bury your head in the sand and wait for Garmin to make everything better when they won't admit there is a problem. For those who would tell us who would dare speak out against Garmin to move on to another comany? I had an IT specialist work on my computer last week. After being unable to repair the problem, his suggestion was to let it sit and maybe it would fix itself?? (he really said it that way and was serious). I am still waiting but it has not gotten any better. Should I call them back or keep waiting for it to fix itself? There is a very good chance that when 10/15/2008 Garmin will not have to worry about me saying anything about their company ever again. Sorry for the somewhat rant, I just finished wathing Obama's speach

I agree that Garmin engineers know exactly what the issues are and that they can't be fixed by firmware. My wife and I have have owned four Colorados and have returned all of them. Garmin could have expanded on the proven 60 and 76 product line but chose to go to an entirely new platform of stuffing Nuvi or a very Nuvi like operating system into a new handheld design and released it with very little or any product testing. If you have any doubt that Garmin's problems are only with their handheld product line just do a search for the Nuviphone, or their stock prices. I would guess that the hand held market is probably their smallest and least profitable to begin with. It is too bad that they have allowed their name to now be used in the same vein as Magellen. I had contact with Garmin's tech support on multiple occasions and was never satisified with their responses of "we will send that to our engineers". For me the biggest thing that Garmin could do is to be honest with all of us and tell us what the problems are. After eight months, any of the issues they had with the release should have been addressed by now. If now suddenly after eight months because the execs finally know that their customers are not happy and there is a sudden fix all firmware patch I will be even more concerned. If that is the case then heads should be rolling in Garmin for whoever allowed this to go so far without being addressed. In the mean time Delorme appears to be the name to watch with the PN-40 now set for release on 10/15/2008. I have also corresponded with Chris from Delorme and they appear to really be listening to their customers and potential customers. Looks like Garmin has about a month and a half at this point to show their customers that they do care about their products and more importantly, their customers.

Garmin has not learned anything from the release of the Colorado if they are not willing to give information to their customers about problems that most of us who have owned the Colorados have encountered. The marketing vs readiness of the product to go to the market was one of the worse I have encountered. Does everyone remember that when the Colorado came out it would not even show caches on the map? I don't understand why Garmin has taken this approach with their customers. The release of the Oregon has not been much better. They still refuse to give technical information about the unit because why? is it that much of a trade secret? Delorme on the other hand has been very forthcoming with information about the PN-40 that has not even hit the market yet. With REI and WalMart blowing the Colorado series out with big discounts it would appear that the Colorado will have the shortest lifespan of any GPS ever. Wow, who ever thought it would be Garmin? If Garmin continues on this path they will only end up in one place, that is out of the hand held GPS market. Garmin, there are much easier ways to do that, that don't tarnish or destroy your reputation as a company. So while we all wait for Garmin to do the right thing and treat it's customers with the respect we all deserve (for beta testing the Colorado for them) I think we will see Delorme nipping at their heels as a leader in hand held GPS. Only time will tell but I for one think it is time that Garmin gets it together. This apparently also holds true with other Garmin product lines with the Nuviphone now being released in the first "half" of 2009. Although, if it is not ready yet perhaps Garmin has learned something? This is about as much effort as I am willing to put into this but feel free to use it in your correspondence with Garmin executives.

Wow Delorme, You have my head turning and Garmin's too I am betting. Talking to your customers and potential customers in the forums is nothing short of awesome. For those of us who have been getting no information from Garmin this is so refreshing that I can't even put it into words. This is the competition we have been looking for solid improvements to a GPSr. The only question I have is to ask you about street navigation? I had read that this was the only drawback in the PN20. Have there been improvements for the PN40 in this regard? Looking forward to seeing your response.

Yes you need it, you won't know why you need it until you want to do something really cool, then you will take the time to learn how to do it. I am still a total novice and was really confused at the GSAK class at GWVI, but I continue to make baby steps and use it daily. Yes you need it and you can't live without it...okay that is probably a but much, but you can't live well without it.

We have had quite a bit of experience with the Colorado series and were never satisfied with it's performance. Accuracy and random shut downs were the final straw for our last one. I had already traded mine in for a 60csx. Our new Oregon has been a pleasant surprise. No issues and no random shut downs. We have not experienced any accuracy issues with the Oregon and it has been just about as good as the 60csx, the differences not enough to make me leary of it. If I could only have one GPS I would base it on price at this point between the Oregon and 60csx. I like using POI files for caching because I can have so many more and you can do that with either. 95% of the time I use CN and not the topo but it is nice to have the topo available on the Oregon. We use our GPS units everyday so we spend quite a bit of time with them. Our primary use is geocaching. If you can afford both I would have one 60csx and one Oregon. You will have the best of both worlds and won't be disappointed.