cerbera147

The good news is my refurbished Dakota 10 arrived today I guess you were right splashy; some models have known issues that get replaced straight away. I guess mine will be getting repaired ready for the next one to come in. Very pleased with Garmin's customer service and of course the fact I'm not out any money; thank you Garmin

Quick update. Just off the phone with the nice man at Garmin. He said a replacement device was sent out today, woo hoo I'll update again when it arrives

Thank Matt; they received it today. I'll report back as and when I hear anything Thanks for the info splashy. I did try those with no luck. It's a shame it doesn't have a hard reset and soft reset button. I've managed to get a lend of a friends Legend HCx as I'm putting some new caches out this weekend. I just hope they can fix it; don't know if I could do without one now I'd have to geocache with my Tomtom

Hope not. Can't see anything like that on the UK site. Guess I'll send it in and see what comes of it.

Thanks; that helps ease my worrying mind I know some companies have fantastic warranty and customer service. Leatherman is one such company; all their multitools are covered for 25 years. I've had no personal experience but most people who make use of their warranty generally get a new tool back to them. Here's hoping Garmin have customer service to write about. They did reply to my query very quickly so that is a good sign I'll let you know how I get on.

Hi all Have had this great GPS for just over a year and it has just died on me Used mostly for geocaching; never dropped, bumped or got wet. I can't understand what happened. A quick Google search found this has happened to others Some solved it by connecting to PC and updating. Mine has the latest software update and connecting it now does nothing. Garmin have asked that I send it in. I suppose my question is 'will this cost me money?' It is just over 12 months old by a few weeks. Will Garmin repair under warranty or will I be out of pocket? Also if they do repair and send back will I have to start from scratch i.e. maps, geocaches, settings, etc.? I'm in the UK

Thanks for the replies I'm connecting to the PC with the standard USB connector. I have now downloaded the Garmin drivers and Communicator. The PC does recognise it but not as a drive in the same way my Dakota does When I send from GSAK I get the error message below

I hope someone can help me with this I have my own Dakota 10 that I get on really well with and found really easy to use straight from the box. My friend got a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and I kindly said I would set it up for her and load some caches to get her started. I can't for the life of me work out how to load the caches When I connect to the PC it doesn't recognise it. I had micro SD lying around so I put the GSAK GPX file in a GPX folder within a Garmin Folder; nothing. Then I thought maybe it has to be a LOC file; again nothing I tried sending direct from GSAK but it kept coming back with an error message. Am I missing something really obvious? Does it even need the micro SD card for maps / caches? I would have thought it has ample memory for the essentials with expansion option if required. All help will be very much appreciated

Thanks all. I think I know what I need to do Cheers, Dan

Thanks for the super quick responses Pretty much answers my question. Hopefully he'll see my email and get back to me Thanks again.

Hi All, I hope you can help with a query There is a series of six caches close to where I live in a large country park. From what I gather they have been placed there about 4 years ago and the owner has since moved away hence no maintenance. IMHO they weren't placed in proper containers to protect from the poor weather and damp. Pretty much all the caches are now soaked through with no SWAG. Almost everyone who finds them posts that they need maintenance. Anyhoo, the cacher who placed them has not been online at GC.com since November 2010. I emailed him yesterday offering my services if he would like me to take care of them as I live locally. Just wondering what the options are if I don't hear back. The caches are in a terrible state and I would hate for a new cacher to find them and be put off straight away If needed could a reviewer disable them? Ideally he'll reply and I would breathe a bit of life into them again Many thanks.

TBH, I think they are a bit too much. Like you said they are worse when seen with the others It is a family friendly activity. My kids always ask what's the name of the cache; first we'll go for 'Try My Pie' followed by 'Big Jugs' I can just imagine that being repeated at school Like most things a bit of common sense always helps out:)

How did you guess? Just got another CC order in as well. A friend in the US sends it to me

What a truly terrible idea Unlike everywhere else across the internet where there are about a trillion different websites for hobbies and pastimes; geocaching has a one stop shop. I really like that fact but if there are going to be silly rules that discourage instead of encourage I can see division within the ranks. Why tar all newbies with the idiot brush?? If you find 100 caches do you automatically reach enlightenment for hiding the perfect cache? Doubtful. You could find 10,000 caches and still put out terrible caches or find 1 caches and place 10 of the best caches known to man or woman I really don't think we should be adding barriers to geocaching. After about 15 finds I felt ready to hide my first. However, most of my first finds were hid by experienced cachers so I got a good feel of what way I wanted to go. I think I finally got 'round to placing my first around the 50 mark, so far I think it's been a success It's difficult to measure how much or how little experience someone needs to place a good cache and who will police this? Geocaching is a community very much run by the community. If we didn't all do our bit it would disappear overnight. Clearly Geocaching.com / Groundspeak do a great job of keeping it altogether and organised but are they expected to police bad cachers?? The only way to improve poor caching is with honest feedback. TFTC is no good when you really mean 'Thanks for sending me in totally the wrong direction only to finally find your cache soaked through because you're so cheap. BTW why did you bring me to this awful industrial estate?'

As someone else said remove SWAG and remove a large section of cachers; families and the next generation of cachers. I enjoy caching to see nice / interesting places in my area and to get out in the fresh air and spend some fun time with my kids Them; they just want 'the treasure'. Not strictly true but obviously 'the treasure' is a large part of the game for the young 'uns. As long as it's clean and is in reasonable condition I'll allow them to swap, which why I'm always well stocked. Again as someone else said I will occasionally 'top up' a rather empty looking cache if I feel it deserves it I think the condition of the cache also relates to its contents. I've been at few where the cache and contents are either slightly damp or soaked through; no way am I adding to the mess. It would be a waste! I recently placed my first cache and took my time deciding what to fill it with. Below is the final result. All homemade by me, tactical man knitting as I call it It doesn't cost a lot to make but takes a bit of time and skill. I do hope my future finders enjoy them as they are different to the norm.

Thank you; that is just what I needed to know Hopefully others will benefit too

This may seem like a silly question but there are conflicting views on the interweb Some places say 2000 geocaches but then say 1000 waypoints. Does this mean 3000 total waypoints? I am using GSAK to load my PQ's so 100 caches may turn out as 130 total waypoints. I hope this query makes sense; I'm just trying to tweak my GPS and PQ's to get the best results from both Many thanks.

I thought the same until I tried it. You should at least give a try and play around. It is pretty neat

1. Maxpedition Fatboy with Nite Ize Clip Case attached that holds my GPS 2. Gloves, nobody likes thorns and nettles 3. Wet Wipes 4. Lucozade Carbo Gel 5. Laser pointer & red spy capsule with some meds 6. Titanium foldable spork 7. Romisen RC-A4 flashlight, for those dark hidey holes 8. Grappling hook, for grappling things obviously 9. Batteries, CR123A on top for Romisen light and Eneloop AA for camera and GPS 10. Sweet tin, got some hard boiled sweets for me and the kids 11. First aid kit, basic but does the job. Included is sting/bite crea, 12. Cable ties 13. Blank geocaching logs 14. Heavy duty zip lock bags 15. Individual wipes 16. Whistles 17. Garmin Dakota 10 18. Leatherman K502 knife 19. Leatherman Juice S2 multitool 20. Leatherman Squirt PS4 multitool 21. Victorinox Compact Swiss Army Knife 22. Duck tape wrapped around a Starbucks card 23. Chewing gum 24. Maglite Solitaire 25. Parker pen 26. Paper, card and business cards 27. Bandana 28. Trash bags 29. Spare SD card for camera 30. Tripod 31. Peanut lighter 32. Stainless steel Sharpie 33. SWAG 34. Geocoin/travel bug Not included is my aluminium drinks bottle, Nokia 5800 phone and my camera which also come with me. The Dakota 10 goes in the Nite Ize case on the left of the bag. When out on the trail it can also be clipped in the plastic carabiner on the right of the bag. The gloves can also be held there Hope you enjoy my setup I've recently purchased a Maxpedition Pygmy Falcon II which is a backpack. I am in the process of setting it up similiar to this one as it will serve me well on the longer treks

And I thought it was just me lol. I kept getting Germany when entering BT postcodes. Before I got my GPS I got my coordinates from Google Maps and searched with those. NI always getting the smelly end of the stick

Garmin Training Centre followed by Mapsource worked perfectly Thanks for your help!!

Thanks all, I'll give it a go and report back Got a CD with the Dakota but all it has is the manual.

I have a Garmin Dakota 10 and would like to view my tracks etc. on my PC. Is this possible? I had quick Google and it sounds like Mapsource would be what I need but it only comes free with their maps I would have thought you would have got with any of their GPS too. Is there any other way to do this?

+1 Would nice if it was free but $10 for 3 months seems affordable to most. It really pays for itself; you can effectively have all caches in your area on your device waiting to be found. Or all caches in your holiday destination, etc. I have the Dakota 10 and love it

As a newbie I have recently purchased a Dakota 10 from Amazon £154 which was pretty cheap I thought. I've added talkytoaster's maps for UK and Ireland [thanks Martin] and everything is running great. For true paperless caching this is the bee's knees along with the Premium Membership. My needs are pure geocaching and some hill walking etc. so this model will see me right for some time