Twister65

I just got one from eBay for $9.99 before S&H. Thanks for the tip! Scott

Here's another one for the bug list (hope this is the right place for this kind) The built-in map of the eXplorist 600, and probably all models, has an incorrectly labelled highway in Gloucester, Ontario, Canada. It labels is as "HW-17", when in fact it is "HW-174". It used to be 17 a couple of years ago and was changed. Scott

GPS Trackmaker worked like a charm. It was able to open the route file and save it as Google Earth file, which then opened without any problem. Thanks! Scott

I ordered my eXplorist 600 and a car adapter on Dec 21 from GPSCity. The web site indicated that it was in stock at the time. I checked the status of my order a day or two later and it indicated it was on back order. I emailed them to ask why and I got a reply that it was stuck in customs, but should be released on the following Monday or Tuesday. It eventually arrived at my door step on January 3rd. I could be partially due to the Xmas season, but it did take about a week and a half to arrive, which was longer than the last time I ordered something from them. It was a little annoying to have something that was "in stock" switch to back-order shortly after, but I wasn't in a big rush to get it, and I did save some money compared to GPSCentral's prices. GPSCentral also went on back-order at the same time, so it probably wouldn't have made much difference who I ordered from. GPSCentral does mention they will price match authorized Canadian distributors -- does anyone know if that includes GPSCity? Scott

Anyone know how to get a route or track from an eXplorist 600 into Google earth? There doesn't seem to be any compatible format. I've looked at GPSbabel as well, and can't find any right filters for input or output (probably mostly due to the input format) Thanks! Scott

Cool, so I'm not the only one who feels this way. I had trouble switching between two gs files last night. I might give that a try. But as long as I can turn off the display of all the caches in the file, which I can do now -- somewhat kludgy as it may be -- I don't mind just seeing my GOTO... although, it would be nice to have its name or GC code displayed. Scott

No. While mine also shows 56% of Internal Memory usage, it IS showing 3% of the 512 SD card usage. Doc I'll remove it from the list on the next update if I don't get anyone else reporting this bug, thx for the confirmation. My SD card also shows a blank bar in the About screen. (eXplorist 600 and a 64MB SD card) As with the original poster, I also have very little on the card. I don't see it as being a big issue, but perhaps it should default to 1% when there's something on the card, even if it's barely taking up any space? Scott

Make sure that you chose a Geocache waypoint for the GOTO and not just a POI. If it's not a Geocache, you won't see "mark as found" at the bottom of the list. Scott

I thought that might be to list only the caches marked as Found... I could be wrong though -- I haven't tried that either. Scott

I'm going from memory here... after you've chosen your GOTO point, if you press GOTO again when you're looking at the map screen it will give you a menu with options like cancel and some others, including mark cache as found.

I don't think you're missing much. That helped a lot, thanks. It works rather strangely, though. I followed those steps and loaded my geocache file, then backed out to the map. No caches displayed. I used GOTO and picked one from the list. Then ALL of the caches displayed, along with my GOTO route. I went back into the Active Setup and disabled the geocache file. All of the caches remained displayed on the map, until I zoomed in or out THEN they turned off. Another oddity is when I went into the GOTO to pick a cache. At first, none displayed, although the geocache file was active. I pressed the menu button to change how I FIND the right cache and then the list displayed. Is that normal?

I just got my eXplorist 600 last night (upgraded from the 200) and was playing around with it for a few hours. I've read the manual (printed and PDF) but a couple of things are still a little unclear to me. 1. How do I display and then NOT display Geocaches on the GPS map? I put a 100 cache .gs file on it last night, created with GSAK. It seemed that I'd get them to display and then couldn't, for the life of me, make them go away again. Then after messing around with it a little more, they no longer displayed, and then I had trouble getting them to display again. I could never quite pin down exactly what I was doing to get them all displayed on the map and then turned off again. I know I can customize the map screen to hide the icons and names, but that wasn't what I was doing to hide/remove them from the map. Ideally, what I'd like to see most of the time is just the cache (and GCXXXX name if possible) that I'm GOTOing (nice word) But I would like to display all of them at times to see if there are any in the area, and then quickly turn them off again. (Did any of that make sense???) 2. Is there any way to display JUST the GCXXXX name on the GPS map along with the cache icon when I select a particular cache for my GOTO? I'm guessing that it may have something to do with the way I'm exporting the .gs file from GSAK. I played around the the codes on export and the eXplorist always seems to display the abbreviate name and cache author on the screen, no matter what I choose. (I tried %code, but maybe I'm not changing the right field in GSAK?) 3. Is there any way to have the brightness turned down automatically when I power up the eXplorist? The default full-bright seems a little unecessary, imho. I always turn it down one notch. 4. Are there any free maps that I can load up? This is probably a shot in the dark, but couldn't hurt to ask. Otherwise, I'm probably going to have to wait until summer before my wife lets me spend any more money on my hobby.

I just got my 600 yesterday, and I'm not seeing that problem. I hadn't even let it charge for 2 hours (new toy... anxious big kid wanting to play with it!) and it showed nearly a full charge after being on for a few minutes. Scott

I was going to mention this as well. Google is your friend. Scott

Call off the search when you're satisfied that you've look everywhere for it. I don't see a problem with contacting the hider for a hint, or to ask if you were in the right location. You could also just post a note on the log asking anyone for a hint. Scott

I took my eXplorist 200 on a bike trek/cache hunt last summer, sitting comfortably in its bike mount. The ride back was one of THE bumpiest rides I've ever had in my life, on the way down a steep and rocky path. My bike has no shocks. It was a pretty crazy ride. The eXplorist remained in the holder. However, I don't think I'd do it again without a lanyard or perhaps a strip of Velcro in the older and on the back of the GPS. Scott

I use an eXplorist 200 on my bicycle. It can show current speed and distance travelled. Scott

I have the 200, and yes, you can use other menus while it's searching. I do it all the time to manage waypoints, etc. while I'm in the house. Scott

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Agreed. I have the 200 and after 6 months of geocaching, I'm tired of manually entering coordinates. Not to mention that mis-entering coordinates on at least two occasions, didn't help my blood pressure. It's amazing how far off you can be with just one little number error. I now await the arrival of my 600. Scott

Hehe yeh mine zeros out AFTER I find the cache. I can spend hours walking in circles, chasing a waypoint... then after I give up looking at the GPS and search the area, I'll find he cache... look down at my GPS and it says "DUH, RIGHT HERE!" Scott

My first hunt last summer ended up being a DNF after an almost an hour's worth of searching. It is pretty discouraging, but you can't let it get to you. I also brought my son along, and he was ready to give up after 10 minutes. I've went out a few more times last summer. I've come to accept the fact that I'll probably like one or two DNFs on each outing. As long as I find at least ONE each time, I'm happy. Some of my enjoyment from this hobby comes from adding various caches to my watch list and reading other peoples logs as they find them. It's not all hunting for me. Scott

I ordered an eXplorist 600 for myself to replace my eXplorist 200. There's only so much one can take of manually entering waypoints. I await its arrival. Scott

Displaying the tracks in Google Earth looks very cool. I gotta get a new GPS with PC connectivity! I mainly use Google Earth to get a look at the surrouding area for access points and/or parking. It also helps me plan my route if I'm going out for multiple caches that day. Scott

I picked up a cache this summer while camping. We knew where we were going camping, so I got the coordinates of the campground and did a search for caches in the area. I found one about 2kms or so away from the camp ground, at one of the rest stops along the highway. Scott