Styk

I have another question regarding power. My old 60Cx could be set for different action when external power was lost, ie, stay on, shutdown or prompt for desired action. This feature is missing on the Oregon and I cannot for the life of me figure out why Garmin would have dropped that feature and replace it with a prompt screen that defaults to shutdown if you don't respond in time. How does the Montana do when external power is lost? Is it programmable like the 60Cx?

So has Garmin re-introduced the night mode to the Montana. I really liked it on the 60Cx and my nuvi 550 but ity wasn't on the colorado 300 or Oregon 450.

DId you try opening the gpx in mapsource, Could be an empty file or the caches in the file are located far enough away that they won't show in a geocache search on the 550.

My province is almost set to put in effect a distracted drivers law that will hopefully improve safety on tht road. Currently infomercials are being played on TV and the radio informing residents of the new law. For geocachers the most important thing to remember is NOT to touch the GPS if you are driving. Same goes for cellphones 2 way radios(unless your a profesional driver) and portable entertainment devices. I have been checking out the voiceactivated GPS's, namely the 2360/2460 models that feature voice activation and bluetooth for hands free usage of the GPS and cellphone. Would like to hear comments regarding their preformance in the handfree operation from current owners. TIA

GPS signals are transmitted on Electro Magnetic waves at 1.575 GigaHertz.

Now that it's working would be a good time to make a backup copy off the map image file. Note, if it's a licensed to one unit only, it will only work in your current GPS.

Now that it's working would be a good time to make a backup copy of the map image file. Note, if it's licensed to one unit only, it will only work in your current GPS.

Couldn't be much worse then Navteks, parts of Canada are missing roads that have been in existance for more then 5 years and are present on google maps.

On the etrex HCx model and on the 60Cx models the USB connector is on a small circuit board. So if you could find a unit that was broken in another manner, you'd be able to fix it very easily. Surface mount USB connectors that mount flat on a circuit board are available from most electronic parts suppliers such as digikey but the perpendicular model that is used on a eTrex models and many Nuvi models seems to be single source, IE available to Garmin only as I have never been able to track one down.

Not true, at least on my Nuvi 205W, I tried. Perhaps this is a firmware issue, I'm at ver 6.40. Edit: Just did a series of tests. I upgraded to v7.10 then tried various .img file names. Unequivocally, the Nuvi 205W will ONLY read maps using the file name gmapsupp.img. Of course CN has its own file name. Bummer. OK, noted, I'll amend my statement, the Nuvi 550 has this nice feature and pretty sure the 500 will as well.

A nice feature that extends to the Nuvi series, maps no longer have to be combined in one file. you can create them on your computers harddrive, rename them to a meaningful name and copy the file to your Nuvi. Much nicer for updating maps.

I first read about it I believe in a thread here but it also shows up on the Oregon wiki but it needs verification as there are reports on the 450 of bigger file sizes being used.

Yah, hardware, CPU horsepower, battery consumption, they all play into the mix. However, an easy fix would be to add a file manager, load cache files with unused or reserved dummy extension, ie ".bac". Then using the built-in file manager, rename the current gpx file extension to .bac, select one of the other cache files and change it's extension to .gpx and reboot, viola, new caches in old caches out. I have a work around for this scenario, I have a old iPaq PDA, which conveniently has an SD card slot. I power down my GPS, remove the microSD card, insert it in a full size SD adapter, plug that into the PDA and do the same thing as described above, change extensions, shutdown remove adapter and microSD, place it back in the GPS and power it up. Viola, new caches on the GPS. Now, there is also a GPS file size limit, around 10 megs in size and things start misbehaving. I find, if I want to hit close to the upper limit of 5000 caches (oregon 450) I have to limit the logs to 1or 2.

When you connect the external power, you have about 30 seconds to respond to the "Do you want to connect in mass storage mode" if you don;t use the Garmin auto power cord. watch the screen and respond to the prompt. The mini-USB connector is not the most robust connector sa many people are finding out. The fit is a bit sloppy and the electrical connection area is small. neither feature lends itself well to a good reliable contact in a mobile setting. If the power gets interrupt for to long, it will shut down unless you answer the action prompt, ie, stay on or continue to shut down. I use my Oregon on an ATV, major PIA. Glad I kept my old 60 Cx, the old round serial/power plug is much better, not to mention, action on power loss is configurable.

nuvi will hold 500 caches

I blew my Oregon when a light rain got into the works while I had it powerd via usb on my motorcycle. It just stopped working. And the next day when I tried to use the same power connector for my 780, it blew as well. So I wouldn't do it. The 62 doesn't have the 4 pin connector, but the 78, 60, 76 do. It may not be completely waterproof but it isn't likely to blow up your gps if it gets a little wet in there. The USB connector has 5 pins very very close together, a water droplet can easily bridge all of them. Sadly, GARMIN designed the 4 pin serial/power connector out of the 62. The 4 pin connector has pins that are spread out more plus they have a tight fit in the case material so unlikely water is going to enter there or accumulate enough to cause a problem not to mention it is also a more robust connector.

How do you know if you are displaying the correct altitude? I did not think cabin pressure followed the actual outside pressure otherwise there probably would be no point in pressurizing the cabin.

The 200 also accepts memory cards. Here's the comparison on Garmin's site (link) my bad, was thinking of the limitation of the Dakota 10

No, the electronic compass will dance around also when close to GZ. As you move towards GZ, make note of the direction to the cache as your moving and at about 20 meters, start looking for hiding spots at that distance. the difference between the motion based compass of the 200 and the electronic one is that over 30 meters away, the 450 will still point fairly reliably to the cache where the 200 will start drifting. There are other feature that make the 450 well worth the extra $$, wireless transfer, ability to add a memory card, 5000 geocaches, better screen, etc.

Not sure why you'd want to (most of us wish we could get more than the 5 that gc.com sends us!), but you can use GSAK to adjust the number of logs per cache before sending them to your 300. As for lowering of the count from another Garmin unit per this thread, I don't know of any way you can do that. You'll get however many logs are associated with each cache on the sending unit. Even though the newer units hold thousands of caches, the gpx file size(s) provide the next limit, As you approach 5000, the file size exceeds 10 megs.

Does it exhibit the same behavior when powered through the USB plug?

Finally got my replacement 450, came with s/w 3.2, f/w 3.70.

Can you copy any gpx file to the GPS? I'm waiting on a replacement unit because my Oregon 450 wouldn't allow any kind of write action to the internal memory.

Yup, done that, card out, in, even the simplest action, deleting a file in the GPS's internal memory fails. I would say that it is just coincidence that these issues started after the 3.61 beta upgrade. In any case, its going to the Canadian repair depot, last time it took 6 weeks to get a new unit back in my hands. Thankfully, I still have my 60Cx I made my opinion of this repair shop very clear to the Garmin support rep

Grrrrrr.... looks like any write action results in an error, guess it's Garmin repair depot bound.