pppingme
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Posts posted by pppingme
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I read the oregon 450 manual ( issue Nov. 2009 in regard to this problem. Page 31 says " select AUTO to switch from an electronic compass to a GPS compass ". This is obviously wrong.
Correct reading would be: Auto = electronic compass, Off = GPS compass.
Actually the way it works (on auto), is, if you are stand still or moving slowly, it uses the magnetic compass, however, regardless of settings, if you are moving it will use gps to determine direction regardless of the compass settings.
I think the threshold is around 2 mph for using gps for direction.
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Wow, your answer from Garmin is the opposite of mine.
Looks like from testing and yet another answer from Garmin the answer may be 5000 after all.
Thanks for all the input.
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The 450 will have ... the ability to hold 5,000 geocaches.
This is up for question.
At this time, it does appear that the 450 holds 2000 and only the 550 holds 5000. This is not absolute fact and there is discussion in another thread with testing going on to determine and resolve this question.
Queries to Garmin have yielded conflicting answers and it appears that some of the WIKI pages are guessing that the 450 is the same as the 550.
The most official answer from Garmin so far appears to be 2000, but it was from a person that was obviously not familiar with geocaching and there is speculation that he could be confusing geocaches (since they get special treatment) with waypoints.
I'm also considering a 450, and currently own a 400t, and this is a deciding factor for me.
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I wouldn't get anything less than a 300, or a dakota 20.
Both of those have unit to unit xfer capability so once you meet up with other cachers or attend an event, this will be a useful feature.
If you want the 3-axis compass, then an Oregon 450 or Dakota 20.
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Once Groundspeak changes the PQs to hold 1000 I can easily answer this. Right now I have 1500 on it and its as fast as it is with none.
Thanks, I may be bugging you in a month unless someone else answers before then.
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See question M3 on this page:
http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/Miscellaneous
It walks you through forcing it into mass storage (pc) mode.
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I'd think that 450/450t can store 5000 as well, but since I don't have one to experiment with, and this is Garmin we're talking about, after all, it is possible that it only supports 2000..
And thats the problem. Everyone answering is either guessing, or relying on one single non-garmin faq that has been heavily quoted and deemed accurate by most but seems to be wrong.
I currently own a 400t, and I want to upgrade with two very specific features, 3-axis compass (not a question here, I already know both the 450 and 550 have it) and 5k caches (450 ??, 550 yes). I could care less about the camera.
The quote I got from garmin seems to be the most authoritative, although it wouldn't surprise me if its wrong (and you seem to think it is).
My question is, Does anyone here own a 450 and how many caches can you load on it? As a side question, I'm also curious if having 5k caches on it makes it sluggish compared to having fewer (say 1k to 2k).
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Finally, after three queries to Garmin (not sure why the question confused them) got a straight answer, and its not 5k, its 2k.
Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I will be glad to help you with this. The Oregon 450 series can hold up to 2,000 geocaches. However to get to this amount you will need to use the pocket query function from Geocaches.com. If you do not use pocket query you will only be able to hold up to 200 .gpx files. Let me know if you have any additional questions.Of course this answer even leaves some to be desired, with that wonderful spelling of gc.com.
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So far it looks like everyone is quoting the wiki page that someone referred to. Garmins lack of documentation doesn't help either.
I'm finding several people saying that they can only load 2k caches to their 450, but at the same time, I'm not sure these people aren't confusing how to load a cache vs a waypoint.
Is there anyone here that owns a 450 and can confirm that they have successfully loaded more than 2k caches to their unit?
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Have you tried other zip codes? Do you know how old your zip code is (how long ago it was put into usage)?
There seem to be a lot of reports of newer zip codes not working, but otherwise everything by zip code does seem to be working.
If there is a particular zip code that seems to be broken, what is it?
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The x50 Oregons support 5k caches.
Whats the most you've loaded on your 450 and does it get sluggish with a full load?
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You said 450t, but the 450 (non-t) is probably more equivalent to a Dakota 20, and I think brings the price to within $50 of each other.
The "t" model (for all oregons) adds terrain maps and bumps the cost $100 compared to the non-t models. Both units can have maps downloaded to them later.
Beyond that, the two biggest differences are the screen size (bigger on the 450) and a Wherigo player.
Both hold 2000 caches (some sources seem to indicate the 450 can do 5000, but I'm unsure about that and the user manual doesn't indicate) as well as 2000 waypoints and unlimited poi's.
The Dakota is supposed to have better battery life and is physically smaller.
For only $50 more, I think I would opt for the 450.
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I've come across that wiki page too, the problem is there are both users and other sources that say 2000, which is why I question it. I've probably found more than 1/2 dozen posts in this forum alone that infer the 450 can only do 2000.
An email to garmin just pointed me to two faq's, one that covered the x00' units and another that covered the 550, neither covered the 450.
Can anyone who owns a 450 confirm that you can indeed load 5000 caches (or at least significantly more than 2000)?
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If you're in mass storage mode, it will shut down to force a reboot so it can read any new .gpx or .poi data. This reboot really isn't optional (and you will notice that if you haven't loaded any new .gpx files, the reboot is faster).
If you are just running it off usb power, and its acting as a gps, it will prompt you if you want to stay on or turn off.
If your seeing different behavior than this, post some details.
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Can anyone confirm how many caches the Oregon 450 holds?
I'm finding two different answers, 2000 like the 300 and 400's hold, and 5000 like the 550's hold.
Garmin's user manual does not say.
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Notifications don't use home coordinates, despite multiple requests to fix or add that.
You have to go in and manually modify all of your notifications. Especially troublesome because you have to have one for every type of cache and most people end up having close to a dozen.
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That notice was sent by my mistake and was not an official communication by Groundspeak. I've been making changes to the PQ generator this past week and a flag got changed that enabled that old "feature". I've disabled it once again so you shouldn't see that happen with tonight's run.
Sentences in all caps are hard to read too..
-Raine
Raine, thanks for the update.
As a side note, I'm not against a "spring cleaning" or whatever else you may want to call it.
Its all about the notification.
Here is a suggestion on what I think would be a good way to handle this if its being considered:
* Send the pq email as its normally sent
* Send a separate email to the account email address (not the pq email address) with a link to reactivate.
Now, everyone got notified, "communication" doesn't go to an unread account, and reactivation is extremely simple.
I'd rather gs not auto-turn-off my pq's, but if they do, communicate it in a way that's not going to be missed.
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Despite the uproar last time, I also heard that a significant percentage of PQs were never re-enabled. This means many PQs are being run needlessly.
If it cuts down on the waste, and enables *my* queries to run faster, I fully support a yearly "spring cleaning"
I don't mind the spring cleaning, its the lack of notification (putting a note in the pq email is not adequate notification).
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Wow, you would think they would have learned last time they tried, this.
PQ EMAILS GENERALLY DON'T GET READ.
People expect their communication from gc to come to the designated email they have listed in their profile, NOT TO SOME ALTERNATE EMAIL THAT THEY ARE SENDING PQ'S TO.
They tried this quite some time back, and it caused a massive uproar in the forums, for these two reasons.
If this is really happening, ANY COMMUNICATION NEEDS TO GO TO THE EMAIL THAT I DESIGNATED FOR COMMUNICATING WITH GS, IT WILL NOT BE SEEN ANYWHERE ELSE.
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There's an attribute for that very purpose, but the problem is attributes aren't used consistently and are even mis-applied quite often.
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Those notifications go to volunteer geocache reviewers and don't necessarily concern anyone else but the cache owner. I'd have to be convinced that other people would find this useful.
First person that tries to find a cache discovers a serious problem, like its on school grounds and they are threatened with arrest, or the land owner immediately chased him off the land with a gun.
I think most people would log a needs archived way over a needs maintenance in this case. Now, with no one being able to see the notification, no one knows there's a problem until they get there, find the same problem, and get arrested or shot at.
I've come across the first example twice, once was just really bad coordinates, the other was just very poor judgment on behalf of the hider, and 12 hours later when the reviewer finally saw my log, he completely agreed.
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They rarely acknowledge the bugs.
Then why is Nate always in here saying we are working on it, its on the list, we can't duplicate it, etc.
That sure sounds like acknowledgment to me.
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All caches show up unless you check "Are not on my ignore list". However if you preview the PQ
If the pq preview and final emailed results are different, IT'S STILL A BUG, and now we are talking about multiple bugs.
Two bugs that gs has not addressed or even acknowledged.
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Another excellent example of why the recent changes to the ignore list went WAY TOO FAR.
Oregon 300 wrong date
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
Since the have it right on the field notes page, it couldn't be that complicated that they haven't already figured it out.
It goes wrong after you go to the logging page.
This is a simple fix, instead of recomputing it of zulu time (which they aren't doing, they are using it straight), they need to refer to the time they already computed on the field notes page, (and if thats not computed until display time, they just need to use the same formula when converting it to a log).