nemethmik

If you want to get correct ETE or ETA you should restart your goto.

Go for MetroGuide USA 4 on eBay, it's much better (I mean uptodate and detailed) than TOPO for the same money.

The problem with this cable is that it has no car charger adapter portion, which is very useful when using the GPS tethered to an iPAQ in a car.

What GPS receivers has Finnish maps? I searched for Garmin maps but I found not any. If I visit Finland (now I live in San Diego, CA) what tracking maps can I use with my Garmin eTrex Legend, Compaq iPAQ PocketPC or notebook?

- Make sure no applications block the serial port. For example if you have keyboard (e.g. Stowaway) disable the keyboard driver when you wan to use the Legend with the iPAQ. - NG TOPO! for PocketPC cannot be active when you want to use Pocket Streets. These are the two issues I found so far with my iPAQ 3650 used with my Legend. BTW: I prefer RS-232 Serial Cable (Part Number 236251-B21) for my H3650. It may not be compatible with your iPaq model. Miklos

quote:Originally posted by Anders:Which firmware version are you using? 2.39 (eTrex Legend) quote:Besides, if you measure a distance on the map, and find the figure is varying, it's probably because you are measuring from your current position, and that varies all the time, even if you don't move, due to measurement inaccuracies. It's OK. Thanks.

I have an eTrex Legend. I changed to the metric system and I still have only one digit after the decimal point. It does not matter what is the unit systems, or the distance range: my Legend has only one decimal precision However, (thanks brdad!) when entering distance on the Project Waypoint screen I have two decimal digits Thanks a lot for the help to all of you! [This message was edited by nemethmik on August 21, 2002 at 02:57 PM.]

I have an eTrex Legend. I changed to the metric system and I still have only one digit after the decimal point. It does not matter what is the unit systems, or the distance range: my Legend has only one decimal precision However, (thanks brdad!) when entering distance on the Project Waypoint screen I have two decimal digits Thanks a lot for the help to all of you! [This message was edited by nemethmik on August 21, 2002 at 02:57 PM.]

Have you noticed that when measuring distance with your eTrex in the range of 1.0 - 9.9 miles it shows only two digits? Which is quite bad accuracy (ca 500 feet). A couple of multicache gives the location of the final cache as a bearing degree (e.g. 45) and distance (e.g. 1.25 miles); you cannot find these caches with an eTrex. On the other hand, a Garmin GPS Map 76 shows three digits (1.00 - 9.99), which is way much better accuracy. Why do you think Garmin has introduced this discrepancy? BTW, I upgraded my eTrex with the latest firware but, despite its promises, it helped nothing.

- Used iPAQ H3650/70s are available on eBay for $200 - $300. The iPAQ is the only PDA having a color screen that is still visible outdoor in direct sunlight. All other color-display PDA are only for indoor use. - You should buy (1) either National Geographic TOPO! Sync and one or more item from the TOPO! State series (for example TOPO! Texas) ($90 - $120), or (2) Maptech Pocket Navigator + a Maptech state/regional maps ($180 - $200). Pocket TOPO! supports Magellan GPS receivers. Try eBay, Amazon and http://trailexplorers.com/outpost/maps.shtml

- Used iPAQ H3650/70s are available on eBay for $200 - $300. The iPAQ is the only PDA having a color screen that is still visible outdoor in direct sunlight. All other color-display PDA are only for indoor use. - You should buy (1) either National Geographic TOPO! Sync and one or more item from the TOPO! State series (for example TOPO! Texas) ($90 - $120), or (2) Maptech Pocket Navigator + a Maptech state/regional maps ($180 - $200). Pocket TOPO! supports Magellan GPS receivers. Try eBay, Amazon and http://trailexplorers.com/outpost/maps.shtml

quote:Originally posted by EraSeek:you can't stick a Mapsource map on it You can use National Geographic TOPO! Sync USA with the TOPO! State maps on your Palm. quote:The Avantgo progam to get web-info seems to be an excuse to dump advertising your way and takes up too much Hotsync time. What am I missing? I think nothing You should not have a PDA just only for Geocaching. However, since you have geocaching as a hobby, possibly you are fond of hightech gizmos. Regard your Palm as an additional totally useless, but cute toy

quote:Originally posted by EraSeek:you can't stick a Mapsource map on it You can use National Geographic TOPO! Sync USA with the TOPO! State maps on your Palm. quote:The Avantgo progam to get web-info seems to be an excuse to dump advertising your way and takes up too much Hotsync time. What am I missing? I think nothing You should not have a PDA just only for Geocaching. However, since you have geocaching as a hobby, possibly you are fond of hightech gizmos. Regard your Palm as an additional totally useless, but cute toy

quote:Originally posted by Olar:http://www.pathetique.com/geocaching/ Wow! as many American friends would cry. I say hoppaa! Thank's a lot for the link.

quote:Originally posted by mighkel:I haven't really explored the map features in my Legend, so uploading maps isn't a priority to me at this point. I'm also a fan of maps, I use iPAQ, laptop connected to a Legend, just like you. You are right (if I understood correctly) that the PC/PDA base (topo) maps are much superior to maps in standalone GPSrs. The base map of the Legend is really ridiculous, however, MapSource TOPO could be quite useful is certain circumstances.

- Download waypoints from GPSr - Delete all waypoints from GPSr - Delete unwanted waypoints in EasyGPS - Upload waypoints into GPSr I use similar techniques to transport waypoints from EasyGPS to NG TOPO.

quote:Originally posted by phantom4099:I found microsoft Streets and Tips horrible in accuracy, they have the streets names off by more than 5 miles, the address look up feature is terrible and only works in towns. I never experienced these problems neither with MS Streets & Trips (S&T) 2002 nor Pocket Street (PS) 2002. I enter the lat/long coords of caches in S&T and it displays the location perfectly. There are a lot of things which I do not like in S&T and PS, but the accuracy of its maps are the best, at least here in California from Mendocino to San Diego.

quote:Originally posted by Idaho Ron:what scale ofmap will the PT support? It supports Level 1 - 5 (Reference, Atlas, 500K, 100K, 24K) maps.

quote:Originally posted by Idaho Ron:If the PT can not accept waypoints what is the good of hooking them together? You can enter waypoints on PT but it cannot import them directly from a GPSr nor when a map is downloaded from TOPO! Sync. I think this is only a stupid bug in PT 1.1 quote:I assumed that the PT would be have the same features but slimmed down a bit. Today, PT was of great help for us twice. We were hunting for caches around Escondido, CA where there are a lot of mountains. One cache was a multicache where the first point contained the coordinates of the real cache around 1.5 miles away among mountainos area. I entered the coordinates to PT and I managed to analize the details of the topographic area to find our best way. The other situation was similar, the detailed maps of on PT was of great help to find the best way. We were connecting the Legend only occasionally to find our exact location on PT's detailed topo maps. Here is a list of when we use what: Pocket Street connected to GPSr - when in car to find the best road to the cache area Garmin Legend alone - when in the area, close to the cache to follow the "litle arrow". Pocket TOPO! alone - to analize the topographic structure of the cache area Pocket TOPO! connected to GPSr - to find out our exact location on a detailed topo map. quote:When you move the pointer over a area will it give the Lat/Long? No. However, you can create a temporary waypoint, route or anchor that tell you everything about the locations and distances. quote:Can it be changed to do UTM? Yes, and it seems to be working. quote:CAn you change the map datum? Yes. In the Options you have "NAD Display:" NAD27 and NAD83/WGS84 quote:PT is starting to sound not so good or a I just not following. What other option could we have, if we wanted reasonably priced, (very) detailed, interactive, mobile topo mapping solution quote:I found some of the PDA's you mentioned in Ebay. What is a good price? 1.5 years ago, I bought my iPAQ H3650 for nearly $600, today you can buy one on eBay for $200, can't you? These iPAQs are the best bargain PDAs today, IMHO. [This message was edited by nemethmik on June 23, 2002 at 09:33 PM.]

quote:Originally posted by Idaho Ron:If the PT can not accept waypoints what is the good of hooking them together? You can enter waypoints on PT but it cannot import them directly from a GPSr nor when a map is downloaded from TOPO! Sync. I think this is only a stupid bug in PT 1.1 quote:I assumed that the PT would be have the same features but slimmed down a bit. Today, PT was of great help for us twice. We were hunting for caches around Escondido, CA where there are a lot of mountains. One cache was a multicache where the first point contained the coordinates of the real cache around 1.5 miles away among mountainos area. I entered the coordinates to PT and I managed to analize the details of the topographic area to find our best way. The other situation was similar, the detailed maps of on PT was of great help to find the best way. We were connecting the Legend only occasionally to find our exact location on PT's detailed topo maps. Here is a list of when we use what: Pocket Street connected to GPSr - when in car to find the best road to the cache area Garmin Legend alone - when in the area, close to the cache to follow the "litle arrow". Pocket TOPO! alone - to analize the topographic structure of the cache area Pocket TOPO! connected to GPSr - to find out our exact location on a detailed topo map. quote:When you move the pointer over a area will it give the Lat/Long? No. However, you can create a temporary waypoint, route or anchor that tell you everything about the locations and distances. quote:Can it be changed to do UTM? Yes, and it seems to be working. quote:CAn you change the map datum? Yes. In the Options you have "NAD Display:" NAD27 and NAD83/WGS84 quote:PT is starting to sound not so good or a I just not following. What other option could we have, if we wanted reasonably priced, (very) detailed, interactive, mobile topo mapping solution quote:I found some of the PDA's you mentioned in Ebay. What is a good price? 1.5 years ago, I bought my iPAQ H3650 for nearly $600, today you can buy one on eBay for $200, can't you? These iPAQs are the best bargain PDAs today, IMHO. [This message was edited by nemethmik on June 23, 2002 at 09:33 PM.]

- Download the geocaching waypoints into an EasyGPS loc file. - Start EasyGPS and open the loc file just downloaded - Export the waypoints to your GPS receiver - Start TOPO! Sync (TS) and import the waypoints from your GPS receiver - Export a map from TOPO! Sync (TS) onto your PocketPC - Open the map in your Pocket TOPO! (PT) - Scroll the map in TS to display a waypoint to be copied to PT - Using the "hand" tool, scroll the map in PT to the same area - Using the "pin" tool in PT, place a waypoint icon on the map in your PocketPC on the spot near to the location. - Click on the waypoint icon, select "Properties ...", then "Location ..." - Correct the latitude and longitude data, then click OK and again OK in the top right corner of the screen - Select the "A" tool on PT's menu bar and click on a spot near the waypoint - Enter the waypoint name or whatever text describes the waypoint, then click OK - You can fix the position of the label by dragging - Repeat the above procedure for all waypoints you wish to have on your PocketPC. Unfortunately, PT 1.1 does not have a list of waypoints or labels you entered. They are only accessible via the map, and you cannot export the waypoints neither into a GPSr nor back into TOPO! Sync [This message was edited by nemethmik on June 23, 2002 at 09:38 PM.]

- Download the geocaching waypoints into an EasyGPS loc file. - Start EasyGPS and open the loc file just downloaded - Export the waypoints to your GPS receiver - Start TOPO! Sync (TS) and import the waypoints from your GPS receiver - Export a map from TOPO! Sync (TS) onto your PocketPC - Open the map in your Pocket TOPO! (PT) - Scroll the map in TS to display a waypoint to be copied to PT - Using the "hand" tool, scroll the map in PT to the same area - Using the "pin" tool in PT, place a waypoint icon on the map in your PocketPC on the spot near to the location. - Click on the waypoint icon, select "Properties ...", then "Location ..." - Correct the latitude and longitude data, then click OK and again OK in the top right corner of the screen - Select the "A" tool on PT's menu bar and click on a spot near the waypoint - Enter the waypoint name or whatever text describes the waypoint, then click OK - You can fix the position of the label by dragging - Repeat the above procedure for all waypoints you wish to have on your PocketPC. Unfortunately, PT 1.1 does not have a list of waypoints or labels you entered. They are only accessible via the map, and you cannot export the waypoints neither into a GPSr nor back into TOPO! Sync [This message was edited by nemethmik on June 23, 2002 at 09:38 PM.]

- When you export a map onto a PocketPC, the waypoints are not copied. Because PT itself cannot import waypoints from a GPS, the only way to get a waypoint on a PT map is entering it manually. A waypoint entered in PT holds only the coordinates and icon style, no name, no description. However, you can add text labels (treated as separate objects) next to the waypoint icons. - However, routes are exported to a PocketPC along with the map. What a weird decision: routes are exported but no waypoints - Whatever changes I made to the maps that I had exported on the storage card of the PocketPC are not imported back to TOPO! Sync. [This message was edited by nemethmik on June 22, 2002 at 10:37 AM.]

- When you export a map onto a PocketPC, the waypoints are not copied. Because PT itself cannot import waypoints from a GPS, the only way to get a waypoint on a PT map is entering it manually. A waypoint entered in PT holds only the coordinates and icon style, no name, no description. However, you can add text labels (treated as separate objects) next to the waypoint icons. - However, routes are exported to a PocketPC along with the map. What a weird decision: routes are exported but no waypoints - Whatever changes I made to the maps that I had exported on the storage card of the PocketPC are not imported back to TOPO! Sync. [This message was edited by nemethmik on June 22, 2002 at 10:37 AM.]

quote:Hooking my etrex to a palm unit is also a concern. I wish I could actually see one working.