crunchewy
-
Posts
99 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by crunchewy
-
-
I was reading elsewhere that the caches found total is not a score, but still I think it would be fun to have Game Center leader boards and achievements.
At least for comparing with friends, that would be fun. Make that happen, Groundspeak. -
I'm wondering if I shouldn't contact Garmin about a replacement unit. I have calibrated numerous times, including twice today, but it's always off the mark and now I think it's not consistently off. Might be kind of close in one direction and further off in another direction.
-
It would be nice to have that as an option, but I'm not sure why that would be better then having what you are looking at appear up on the map. I guess I'm use to that.
-
Maybe they should go free to play. So you could find one cache but then have to wait 2 hours before finding another, or buy coins which you can cash in to speed it up.
-
Setting to magnetic north definitely didn't help. It made it worse. I tried using the user settings and with the way I was facing, an adjustment of 10 degrees west seemed to be pretty good, but then I turned 90 degrees and it was off in that direction.
I'm getting the impression that the compass in this thing is either terrible, or defective.Related question. When you are navigating to a cache, is the arrow pointing in the direction of the cache dependent on the magnetic compass, or does it somehow use only the GPS? Probably a silly question, but I figured I'd ask anyway.
-
Hmm. Mine is set to true north. Could the map be magnetic north? I will try it out later. Thanks for the heads up on those settings!
I just tried it, and it didn't seem to help. It was different, but still off. However currently I'm in my building and maybe there is some interference. I will try it later outside.
I did notice that the user settings seems to allow you to set an offset. So maybe that's what I need to do to get it straightened out.
-
The app is way cheaper than a standalone GPS, both in initial outlay and the future (no paying for maps) and a ton more convenient and easy to use. And those maps are great, including google satellite/hybrid maps as well as open street map topo and street maps. Plus great in concert with a standalone GPS if you end up getting one of those, for finding caches on the fly, looking up logs, making log entries, etc. Totally worth the asking price. However I understand that the Android version is currently behind the iOS version and is missing some key features such as offline maps. Still I would think it's got to still be a very useful tool. Certainly the iOS version is worth it at least.
-
That's right - no offline maps with GC Android app.
Well that stinks. Hopefully it's just a matter of time before they get feature parity or close to it.
-
Ah, yes that is exactly what I see. The wandering back and forth of the direction drives me particularly bonkers. LOL. So I guess this is just normal for this GPS? I was thinking that if there were a way to tell the GPS to rotate it's magnetic reading x degrees that would fix it, because it at least seems to be consistently off by a certain amount, but I'm not sure about that.
-
I think I said that wrong. Not the compass screen, the map screen. The map rotates such that the way I'm facing is always up, except that it's not quite the way I'm facing. It's perhaps 20 degrees off or so. So if I'm pointing straight down a straight road, the map shows me as pointing off to the side a bit. If I start moving eventually it straightens out I guess because it's using the GPS to get my direction (which requires moving). Then when I stop moving it's back to being off again.
-
When I use the Geocaching app on my iPhone it will spin the map around so that the direction I'm looking is always forward on the map. Is that what you're talking about? If so, I think I had to tap the little compass icon at the bottom left of the map so that it says "On". Is that there in the Android version?
-
You can use an external battery pack to extend the battery life of the iPhone. There are many of them on the market. Some are kind of large and connect via cable and some are small and connect directly. Obviously the latter type don't provide as much run time, but they are small and light.
I also recently got a Garmin GPSMAP 62sc and it is very nice, has great battery life, it's waterproof and has better reception… yet I still find myself using my iPhone 4 a lot. It's hard to to give up the convenience and features of the geocaching app. I'm often looking for caches on a whim and that is where the iPhone shines and it is sooo much more convenient too. Plus the maps are way better on the iPhone app than anything I have for my Garmin. Topo and definitely satellite. Maybe if I paid the big bucks for Garmin's outrageously priced topo maps I'd be happier with those, but that's another major expense for an already expensive device.
Don't get me wrong - I like the 62sc a lot, and while it's more of a pain to use, the results are good, but I still like using my iPhone 4 too.
-
The official app does have offline maps. At least it does on iOS. Not on Android? It works quite well on iOS, although you can't store google maps offline. You have to switch to OpenStreetMap. Then you can store them offline. Unfortunately that means no offline google satellite/hybrid maps, but otherwise it works great.
-
I recently downloaded the free version of Looking4Cache for iOS, and while it has a pretty anemic capability for actually locating a cache, it has a great feature where I can navigate to a cache (or related waypoint) via an external app. It supports at least TomTom and Navigon and probably others. This is really fantastic, as otherwise I'm manually entering a GPS coordinate into TomTom, because I'm terrible at navigating via car on my own.
I would love to see this capability in the official Geocaching app. For now I can use both apps - searching for and navigating to a cache with Looking4Cache, then actually finding it with the Geocaching app, but it sure would be nice to be able to just use the official one, especially since it's way better for actually locating a cache. -
Is there any way to get the compass in a GPSMAP 62sc to be more accurate? I've calibrated numerous times, but always the compass points a little off the direction I'm actually facing. What I mean is the arrow it shows on the map, indicating your direction. For example I could be facing straight down a road, but the compass will point as if I'm at a, I guess, 20 degree angle to the road. I'm not too good at judging angles, but it's something like that. It's pretty consistently off. Does anyone else's 62sc have this problem? Any solutions?
-
I didn't even know it could do this, but I linked my twitter account today, then found and logged a cache... and nothing was sent to Twitter. So it does appear to be broken.
-
I just tried using Looking4Cache for real and the searching and link to TomTom is awesome, but actually finding a cache, that's where it falls apart. The map is slow to update and I have no idea what the compass arrow is pointing at, but it's neither the cache nor the direction I'm facing. So I had to switch to the official app to actually find the cache. Maybe I just don't understand how it's supposed to be used? In any case it failed me there.
-
IK've never had that problem with anything else, so I guess there's something odd about how the 62sc mounts a MicroSD card, or perhaps a bug in Mac OS X 10.7. I haven't upgraded to 10.8 yet. Maybe that will fix it.
-
The stores are different, so you'd have to buy it again if you want the official app.
-
Thanks for pointing that app out. I've been playing with it and and it seems very nice, though the translation to English is a tad poor (or non-existent in some cases) and the UI is a bit confusing, it has some pretty great features. The one I like best is the ability to navigate to a cache or related waypoint via another app such as TomTom or Navigon. This works great with TomTom at least. It brings up TomTom with the map view to choose where to navigate, with the cache (or waypoint) location initially selected, so you can pick a different spot if needed, for example a nearby road. Also filtering options for searches. There is a some pretty confusing wording in that, but once you figure it out it's pretty nice. I wish it had the ability to filter on "Found in last X days", but otherwise it's got everything you could want. I might splurge for the Pro version, but for now I think I'll use it as a supplement.
-
I have a 4GB in mine. I might go up to larger one at some point, but for now the built-in memory plus the extra 4GB is plenty. The only annoying thing about having a MicroSD card in my 62sc is that on my Mac when I eject the built-in memory and the MicroSD card, after a few seconds they mount again. So I have to eject and then quickly disconnect the 62sc before they remount. It never did that when I didn't have the MSD card in it. Does that happen on Windows too?
-
Basecamp won't install the maps from GPSFileDepot. You need Garmin MapManager, which is also available from Garmin. Note, though, that there is annoying bug. When you double-click the file it will launch MM, but the window you need to be looking at is *behind" another window so you can't see it! Pretty confusing design. Move the window that is in front out of the way and you'll see the little window that you need to click a button to install the map on the GPS. As far as I can tell you have to install it onto the GPS, and then it gets copied to Basecamp when you launch it (or do you need to manually copy it? I can't remember now). Your GPS needs to be plugged into the computer to install the map.
-
It's not normal. My iPhone 4 shows as good as 16' foot accuracy. Of course that is only without any tree cover and such.
Note, though, that when you first launch the Geocaching app, the accuracy will be terrible until it locks, but it doesn't take very long on my iPhone. Maybe 10 seconds? Not really sure, but it's generally pretty quick.
For an app that will show whether you are locked on, I can recommend the Motion-X GPS app (not the "Drive" app, just "Motion-X GPS"). It's a pretty handy app to have anyway as it can make tracks for you and such. The spinning globe at the top right is red before it locks on, blue/green when the GPS is locked on.
-
In the settings there is an option to "Adjust for Daylight Savings Time". Does checking that mean saying that it *is* daylight savings time, or only that it should adjust times for daylight savings time when it is daylight savings time?
At least for comparing with friends, that would be fun. Make that happen, Groundspeak. 
I'm getting the impression that the compass in this thing is either terrible, or defective.
Why so expensive?
in Website
Posted
LOL! Probably true.