embra

It does seem that DeLorme's stated policy is a CYA thing so they don't have to honor warranty repairs is someone where to do something dumb with the wrong kind of battery. I haven't explored too many alternatives with the PN-60, but the shorter battery life of the PN-40 inspired several of us to explore alternative R-CRV3 batteries. Most of them worked (and recharged within the PN), although there were one or two that didn't (they either were just a little too big to fit in the compartment or failed to make adequate contact to supply power...no explosions or fired units that I ever heard of). Of the batteries that were available for us to try at the time (this was a couple years ago), the alternatives cost less than the DeLorme offering, but as I recall tended to have a little less run time (I think they were all in the 1200 - 1400 mAh range) and they tended to be less expensive. So I think you're safe enough shopping around, but I would buy from someplace that offers returns just in case you get something that doesn't work. The Cabbat is the gold standard for those who want the best R-CRV3. The developer worked in consultation with DeLorme, so they're certainly aware of it even though their policy keeps them from endorsing it. It's pricey, but IMO worth it. It's what I keep in my PN-60 for everyday use. One drawback with all non-Delorme R-CRV3's is that they will each have their own individual discharge curve. The PN's monitor the remaining voltage of their resident batteries, check it against the profile for the battery type selected by the user, and give an estimate for how much power remains. Since the PN's are using the DeLorme Li-Ion profile, the calculation for a non-DeLorme battery is wrong, wrong, wrong. In the case of the Cabbat, for example, you'll get a power remaining readout of 100% until something like 5 or 10 minutes before the end of the charge cycle. Then the readout plummets like a thermometer in the path of an Alberta clipper. You'll get a graceful shutdown, but there's little warning. It's sort of like driving a car that gets great mileage, but the gas gauge doesn't work except for the low fuel warning. Unless you have a good idea of elapsed time on your charge cycle, you'll have little idea of how much time you have left. (Moral: go out freshly topped up, carry spares and heed the low power warnings immediately). One other thing unique about the Cabbat: it's bigger in girth than other R-CRV3s, so if you want to maintain a watertight seal on the battery compartment you may need to do a little modification on the battery cover (i.e., removing the foam tape and/or carving out the ribs). I've not found this to be the case with other R-CRV3s I have tried. If you dropped a PN-60 in the drink with a Cabbat inside and it leaked, I would not expect DeLorme to honor the warranty.

Usually I will just use the DeLorme Topo data (the Topo9 data will look a lot like the Topo7 data, so you should be pretty familiar with that). If I need more data about water bodies (pond, small lakes) and/or more detailed topo information, then I like to go to the USGS 1:24K quads. Sometimes it's helpful to use the satellite imagery of which the Digital Globe data is the most detailed, but the 2m satellite imagery in the MapPack subscription serves pretty well. One downside to the Digital Globe data is that the more detail you have, the higher the memory requirements run. I guess for my tastes, the 2m imagery in the MapPack is a nice compromise for detail and size (a given file size will cover a larger area). One thing I'm not sure of: can you get MapPack or the DG subs with T7? I don't recall which version they phased that in. I'm wondering if you have to upgrade to T8 or T9 to be able to have the options of the subscriptions (I don't know). Edit to add: in case I wasn't clear enough, if it's a choice between MapPack of DG, I like the versatility of MapPack better.

It is possible (though not certain because of the origin) that DeLorme will honor the free upgrade (actually you have to pay $10 shipping) to Topo NA 9. When you get your package, call DeLorme to see if they'll upgrade you.

I think 3.2 is in the neighborhood of 25MB...I don't believe there are any map updates included on this one.

In the past, TigerGPS has been at least one "official" outlet for DeLorme refurbs. I took a peek over there and sure enough they have refurf PN-40's, although their price is $199. At that price difference, I would be tempted...but cautious. The package on the epay site seems complete. I scanned eBay to see if I could locate their store to see what their seller ratings were like. I couldn't find it (I'm not all that familiar with the eBay organization scheme), but I saw someone else selling PN-40 refurbs also at $199. So the title of your thread is apropos. It might be a great deal...glad you're pioneering it so you can tell us how it turns out.

Could it be a difference of local time vs. zulu? I haven't seen this thing occur, but I'm on the east coast with only 5 hours difference...there would be less chance. (I'm guessing on this one).

Are there any waypoint/geocache files on the PN-40? If so, I'd suggest deleting them so there's a clear landing for them...an indexing problem suggests to me that the new data may not be playing nice with [possibly corrupt] existing data.

I think that DeLorme's current cables leave the loop out, judging by the one that came with my PN-60w. (I'd be interested to hear if anyone is getting a new cable that still has the loop).

Sounds like normal operation. When you are very close to ground zero, the random fluctuations in position calculations will make things jump around like that. Sometimes you might be able to get a more stable fix until you get down to 5 or 10 feet, but you're usually best off getting an approximate idea of where you should search from 20-30 feet away, then put the GPS down and start searching. (And yes, that can make a micro hard to locate.) Metal shouldn't affect position calculations, but it could affect electronic compass readings. Buildings can potentially reflect satellite signals and give multipath problems. But usually that's more a problem in cities where there are lots of large buildings.

I think that's so. DeLorme does seem pretty good about replacing them.

Let us know if you are using CacheRegister, Topo9, or the send to gps plug-in. As Ichthys pointed out, there are a lot of ways to get caches into the PNs, and we can give you focused help if you let us know which way you're trying. I agree that CacheRegister is probably the simplest way to get pocket queries in.

I've walked a known 1-mile loop in the park across the street, and have seen the PN-60 to be accurate to .01%. As MtnHermit implied, the PN-40 uses the same chipset and, presumably, the same algorithms--though I can't say the PN-40 has the same odometer accuracy. I'm a little embarrassed to confess I have no idea about the moving average accuracy on the PNs. I do know that many of us are not very impressed with the way that DeLorme calculates arrival times on routes.

Competition has some clear benefits at times...

You can download a single cache at a time. Go to the cache page, click on "Send to my GPS." The pop-up window will have a tab for DeLorme, and on that tab should be a button to let you download the most recent version of the plug-in. I'm not sure it will work for you at this point, though. If CR is timing out, it sounds like your computer is not able to see your PN-40. Is that the case? I.e., if you try to connect your PN-40 in either SD card or internal memory mode, are you able to view the contents of memory through a Windows Explorer window? Are you getting the sound indicating USB connections made? If you got an offer to format the SD card while the card was in the PN-40, that *does* suggest a connection is being made. So I'm unclear as to what the obstacle is at the moment. Anyway, trying to install and run the plug-in might be a good experiment to run. Edit: I re-read your first post, and it looks like you already downloaded the presumably current version of the plug-in/widget. What step does that process get hung up on? The size of your SD card probably is not the problem...I doubt your card is so full that you can't load a single cache onto it. If you can't connect your PN-40 so the computer can read it, it may be a cable problem, or perhaps you need to try some of the other USB ports on your computer. Try to use one that connects as directly to the motherboard as possible (the back of the computer).

Knowing only the DeLorme data characteristics, I'm not sure what the Garmin maps data is apparently omitting relative to the DeLorme data. A few guesses: 1. Is the Garmin map database routable? The data in the DeLorme map database allows for the creation of street routing...that takes up memory. 2. Does the Garmin database include the topographic contours? That takes up space, too. 3. If both have topo contours, are they the same scale base data? (I'm not sure I'm saying that the right way.) The DeLorme data is based on 1:100,000 scaled data. The Garmin data could be the same, 1:24,000 (I doubt you have that one, since it would take more memory). But if the Garmin data was 1:250,000 then it might make the difference. Maybe there's other stuff I'm overlooking. But my money would be on the first listed as the most likely contributor to the difference, followed by #2 and lastly by #3. This difference has been noted before, and I'd like to know why it exists, too.

I think what goes on in that process is that the almanac (the data telling the GPS where to look for the satellites) became corrupted. The NVM reset wipes the existing almanac out of memory, forcing a download of a fresh, new copy. At any rate, glad to hear you're back on the beam.

Thanks for the tip!

I've not tried that particular battery, but I've been pleased with MaHa's that I have used in the past. Often times, when I measure actual capacity I find it to be well below the stated rating (sometimes as much as only 70% of the claimed value). MaHa's have consistently been above or within 95% of claimed capacity in my experience. If you're looking for a high-capacity slow-discharge NiMH, take a look at these 2400 mAh Imedions (manufactured by MaHa). The set I got averaged 2305 actual mAh (96% of rating). If you plan on promptly using your freshly-charged batteries, then the 2700 mAh batteries could be a good bet. BTW, I consider any battery within 90% of rating to be acceptable. That's a very subjective conclusion I've come to.

OK...looks like I didn't interpret that right. If you are using Topo9 or CacheRegister 2.0, they should be loaded along with the rest of your pocket query in the same file. I *think* it's the same on the PN-40 as the PN-60 that the geocaches display on the geocache page, while all other waypoints show on the waypoints screen (both should display on the map screen, though). If that doesn't make sense, I'd best ask which firmware you are using. IIRC 2.8 is the latest.

If you can read the coords from somewhere (you might have to write them down if reading the cache description from the GPS), just hit the Mark (pushpin icon) button, use the rocker panel to move focus on the waypoint screen to the coordinates, then hit enter so you can change them to what you want.

The drawback of the alkalines is that they offer the least battery life of the available choices, although they are perfectly safe to use as TotemLake said. If you have a bunch of them around, it makes sense to use 'em up. But when it comes time to buying more, I'd consider the alternatives. Rechargeable NiMH batteries usually last longer than alkalines, and are the most economical. But they don't work so well in cold temperatures; the lithiums are superb under those conditions. Many of us find the convenience of being able to charge a Li-Ion battery while in the PNs to be a big plus for that option...it greatly reduces the need to open the battery compartment.

It seemed similar, if lacking a few of the T9 options. One tab offers searching for an address, another selection of map type and area selection, another accesses the pending downloads list. You have to get to zoom level 11 or closer, and there's no option for changing the grid selection size. On my monitor, I could view a rectangle at zoom 11 approximately 6 miles in height and 20 miles in width.

I made a note of my download speeds for those three files. The first (smallest) was 284 KB/sec, the second was 168 KB/sec, and the last (largest) one was 260 KB/sec. That's nowhere near what you were seeing previously, dakboy, but my reference point was about a year ago or more when I saw stuff down to 76 KB/sec or less...so I was feeling ok about these speeds.

Oh yeah...good point. I gave data.delorme.com a spin. I submitted orders for the DigitalGlobe imagery for a pretty small area: the 11 sq km needed to cover my town of Gettysburg (pop. 8000). The 1m coverage was ready for download in 6 minutes, and it took about 30 seconds to download the 10MB zipped file. It took 25 seconds to transfer the unzipped 15MB file to the SD card in my PN60. The 60cm coverage was ready for download in 12 minutes, and it took about 3 minutes to download the 37MB zipped file. It took 70 seconds to transfer the unzipped 60MB file to the SD card in my PN60. The 30cm coverage was ready for download in 22 minutes, and it took about 9 minutes to download the 260MB zipped file. It took 6 minutes to transfer the unzipped 244MB file to the SD card in my PN60. FWIW, this seemed roughly comparable to my recollection of downloading data last weekend in T9. Transfer times to the PN-40 may be slower than on the PN-60; although you can get around that by pulling the card and putting it in a reader for big files. I have read that others have encountered delays in the processing of their orders, so I don't know how representative my experience was. And I'll have to defer to those with Birdseye experience to opine how this compares.

I find the massive memory needs to be the biggest drawback to the satellite imagery, but the actual process of selecting and downloading an admittedly small area for last weekend's geocaching sortie went very smoothly for me. I've not done a lot of downloading in Topo9 yet, but early impressions are that it's using a better setup than Topo8 employed. I'll try to run something tonight or tomorrow morning to give some numbers.