hairball45

I've been caching since the first of the year using an Etrex Legend C that my sweetie gave me for Christmas. I have absolutely no complaints with it (well, memory size maybe, memory being like money, you can never have too much). Anyway I have taken my 11 year old niece out with me couple of times and she has enjoyed it greatly. I'd like to get her her own GPS and I think I can get a real deal on a yellow Etrex that a friend has little use for. I have a couple of questions about it though and I'm sure somebody out there in forum land knows. It has the 2.4 software. Can it be flashed with the newer 3.5 package? Looking at the manuals it appears to add some geocaching functinality that the original lacks. PC cables are freely available on Ebay so that's not a problem, but once we have one can my copy of GSAK talk to that GPSr? It will likely fall to Uncle hairball to keep her supplied with waypoints and such. Paperless would be WAY beyond her abilities (and my generosity runs out before getting her a Palm too) so paper printouts will be the order of the day. Actually this is part of my ulterior motives. Her reading skills can be charitably described as a bit below grade level. She has some learning disabilities coupled with the idea that she can just watch the movie and get the information, so I'm providing her with motivation to do some reading. I've let her write some log entries in the field and she just glowed when she did it. Anyhoo can anybody tell me a bit more about this unit? (yup, I know the go for about fifty bucks used) Thank you Gentlemen (and Ladies) hairball

Yeah, I kind of figured that was the case, but I was hoping of the mother lode of caching geeks and geekesses that populate the forums perhaps someone might know a trick, a workaround, a cheat, a way........ Oh well, thanks anyhoo. h

The topic has probably been covered before and I'm just too dense to find it so I apologize in advance if this is the case, but I need a bit of help with notifications. I am currently having them sent to my cell. It works quite well, except I was hoping that there would be coords in the message. I'm sometimes nowhere near a web connection and my sweetie draws the line at having the web on said phone. Is there a way to add 'em? Thanks for your able help. hairball45

Hmmm. sounds like a good reason to stay with XP for a while. Heck, I don't trust SP2. It took nearly an act of Congress to get Win 95 off the box I had at the time. Went with ME and I LIKED it. Well after getting it running that is. hairball

OK, I stopped at Wally World on the way home, no single cable, only a set with four connectors and a retractable cable for laptops. This jogged my memory and I went to Odd Lots, a local close out and junk merchant where I remembered seeing a set of cable and ends for the princely sum of $9.99 - 3ft cable, 6ft cable, seven assorted ends. Seems to work just fine, and even powers the GPS which the original didn't do. As to contacting Garmin I tried several days ago - hung on the phone for ever, got busy signals, etc. My e-mail last Friday was never returned so I tend to think they just don't much care. The problem appears to be solved in any case. hairball

Given the fact that the damage is to the outside of the cable end which of course is at ground potential my assumption is that it hit something with an open 120v current source (it blew the breaker), but the cable itself seems damaged at the mini plug only, and my camera works just fine plugged into the port. Again, Icould find no open metal anywhere. Beats the heck out of me what it could be or have been, but I think get another and go on will likely be the solution. Thanks for the help folks.

robertlipe - this is/was a concern for me too, knowing that it should be a low voltage, low amperage cable. I have looked all through the nest and can't find anything at all that has an open contact or any exposed metal for that matter. I can't imagine esd of a sort that would cause a visible discharge like that either. Kill a chip sure, but not a cable end.... The port seems to work ok for other uses so no apparent computer problems yet. I guess I'll pick up a new one and hope for the best. Best Buy had a 6 foot mini-B for $28.99. I don't think so. Thanks.

Wow, that was quick. Thanks. Wally World will see me tomorrow. hairball

A few days back I picked up the usual bundle of assorted cables that sits on the floor in front of my computer and was "shocked" to see a quick flash and a spark from the business end of my Legend C's USB cable. I don't know if it contacted something else, if the cable it self just decided to fry or what, but there is now a pretty good sized burn on the outside of the GPSr's connector (the cable that is). I am very unwilling to try to use it again, but have a bit of a problem replacing it. It doesn't exist on the local market as far as I can tell, and there is no click to buy button for the cable on Garmin's web page. I can buy darn near anything else there that I don't need, but no cable. So far my e-mail to Garmin has not been answered. I would like to know if I would be safe in using a standard USB cable with the appropriate 5 pin mini USB adaptor. Can one of you hardware gurus help me out here? Thanks. hairball.

I hunted "Gem of a Geocache" at Flint Ridge, an OHS site a Sunday or two ago. Nice little cache, not a real tough find, and nice things inside. There was a card documenting their requirements for placement of an official OHS cache. The State parks allow caches too. The Feds could take a lesson. hairball45

It'd be Koilady who has been my boon companion and best friend for the past 31 years. No other would even pass consideration. Well, my 24 year old daughter would be welcome to keep us company, but she doesn't much care for the out of doors and finds GCing profoundly uncool. HG

CSI: Cache Scene Investigator is on to something here. It's simple, they climb on to you to become Travel Bugs. Give 'em a number and drop 'em off someplace. (Like the toilet or a nice campfire). HG

No problems here. Koilady mostly stays in the car due to some physical limitations, but she enjoys navigating, managing the paperless logs, and picking through the cache swag if I can get it back to her easily. Hey, Impala Bob, are we maybe brothers-in-law or something? hairball45

Last Sunday I was headed to a cache near the campground that my wife and I have camped at for the last 21 years. It's located in a sandstone cave very near a highway. (The cache, not the campground ) High ratings on difficulty and terrain, mostly I think because there is some scrambling around the rocks to do. As I got to about 30 feet away from the cache, two huge turkey vultures - the real name for the buzzards around here, came blasting out of the cave. After I went back to the car to change.........nah, it was't really that bad, but they sure did give me a thrill. Also caught and released a little snake after showing it to my sweetie who had stayed in the car. She thought it was cute. and no, I don't have a clue why buzzards would be in a cave. There was nothing dead in there. hairball

Well lessee. If I'm by myself it will be my lifted 93 Wrangler. If Koilady is riding shotgun, most likely her 96 Grand Cherokee, and if we have the time on our lunch hour (we work together transporting foster kids, her real job, my part time job) we go in a 15 passenger Ford van. No, we don't do much muddin' in that one. Hey, that's always urban stuff, hardly wet streets even. HG

Wow, that's just too cool. Another new toy.............. HG

I guess I'll have to say "Hi" too. I'm here in the great metropolis of St. Louisville, about five miles north of Newark.