stantastic

Thanks, Robert -- I'll give the "-N" flag a try next chance I get. Responding to my own response, I realized this morning that having to pass the "-N" flag to MacGPSBabel is going to require my getting OUT of the nicey-nice GUI application and INTO the Unix world of Terminal -- isn't it? Ah, well -- I did it before to create a memory "dump" for Babel -- I guess I can do it again...

Thanks, Robert -- I'll give the "-N" flag a try next chance I get.

First I opened the original .gpx file and found a cache in question. It is a Virtual. Then I noticed that ALL the virts were assigned the "same" symbol after being sent to the 60CS -- in this case, the symbol for "Scenic Area" Then I opened the .gpx file generated by GSAK and found the same caches -- they show <sym>Navaid, Green</sym> followed by <type>Geocache|Virtual Cache</type> So, although the <sym> attribute appears correct (i.e., Navaid, Green), it's showing up as "Scenic Area" in the GPSr. Obviously, that's not right -- is there a solution? Thanks, Stan

Sorry for being wordy, but I needed to describe this: With Garmin's new 60CS firmware, my Mac using OS X 10.3.9 can FINALLY talk to the GPSr through MacGPSBabel using ONLY the USB cable (no USB->serial adapters). Yeah!! But, now I notice a problem. Follow me here: Before (under OS 9, Virtual PC, and GSAK), I would generate 3 different Pocket Queries off of geo.com (using my own choice of filters for the PQ). I loaded the .gpx files into GSAK, each going into a different database. I massaged the data, then sent each of those databases to the GPSr, each one having a unique "symbol" to show up on the 60CS (Navaid Green, Navaid Blue, Navaid Red). It all worked. Now, being able to stay in OS X, I tried loading the .gpx files into GSAK, massaging them, and then outputting each of the databases to a GPX HML file using File->Export. Before exporting, I set the "Not Found" cache symbol to Navaid Red, Blue, or Green as appropriate for that database under the Send Wayoints to GPS dialog box (and clicked the "close" box after the setting is correct). I then load each of those .gpx files into MacGPSBabel and sent them to the 60CS. But, when I examine the waypoints on the 60CS, although MOST of the caches have their correct symbol, some now have symbols for Live Theater, Information, Picnic Area, Scenic Area, Stadium, and Toll Booth. (None of these correlate to Traditional, Multi, Virt, etc from the PQ -- they just "seem" to be somewhat randomly placed). How can I get the correct symbols showing for ALL the waypoints coming in from each .gpx file? Is it a GSAK problem/question? Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere? Or a Babel question? Any help from Clyde or Robert would be appreciated -- thanks!! Stan

You don't know how many people don't understand that concept, glad to see you posted it. I agree -- some neophyte geocachers just think they can get to the posted coordinates and the cache should be "right there!!" Obviously NOT SO! You really need to consider YOUR accuracy error ALONG WITH the cache owner's possible accuracy error. Sometimes I get to MY ground zero and DO find the cache within inches -- woo-hoo!! Lucky me!! Other times I end up finding the cache almost 40 feet away (consider my error of about 20 feet on a bad day and the owner's error of about the same). Best way is to just get to YOUR GZ and start looking (experience and honed geosenses help to narrow the search -- sometimes!)

I do know people that have actually velcroed external antennae to their hats -- just don't forget you did that when you take your hat off I too have a Vista and now have the 60CS -- what I find is that on a normal geocache day, I don't really have the need for an external antenna -- the quad-helix model in the 60CS is far superior to the Vista's. I've found myself in "relatively dense" tree cover, and my 60CS STILL picks up a pretty strong signal (accuracy up to 17 feet or so). It depends on other factors as well, of course. In my opinion, having an external antenna would just get in the way. But, to each his own...

I, too, have VP7 running under Mac OS X. My biggest gripe here is that I purchased the Garmin 60CS that has USB (and serial) and it WILL NOT WORK under that configuration in USB mode. This is 2005, and USB and Firewire are becoming standard on most machines. Why should I even consider using the extremely SLOW serial connection when the USB port on the back of the Garmin is staring me in the face? I shouldn't!! But Garmin REFUSES to support the Mac side of the equation by writing the required USB driver for the Mac -- for whatever reason they wish to concoct. Everything works PERFECTLY under Mac OS 9.2.2 using the USB port -- VPC 4.0.x [my latest rev, anyway], GSAK, and MapSource. But it all falls apart using USB under OS X. I'm tired of having to hook up my really slow USB-to-serial adapter every time I want to transfer maps or waypoints under OS X, so I flip over to OS 9 to do the uploads, then back into OS X. What a pain. I blame Garmin. Garmin blames Microsoft (at least they did when I talked to tech support!) Criminy -- just support your consumers. It shouldn't be THAT difficult.

Has anybody had any long-term experience with Gilsson's case? I purchased Garmin's soft protective case for my old Vista -- I kept it on all the time and it DID protect it from accidental drops and bumps, AND protected the screen. BUT -- after a short period of a couple of months, the clear plastic screen would begin to take on a filmy "smutz" that I needed to clean off (probably just "dirt" from handling, etc.) -- but the inside would get just as grungy and "filmy" looking as the outside. I tried alcohol, WD-40, and just plain old soap and water -- it would stay clean for a while, then would get all smutzy again in a few months. I don't smoke, so I know it's not that -- maybe just something in the air? A reaction between air-borne particulates and the plastic? Maybe "static" electricity from the plastic creating air-borne particulates to "stick?" In any case, it was frustrating. Soooo, has anybody used Gilsson's case for a L-O-N-G time and NOT had any ill-effects? TIA...

Yep, I can confirm the bug fix as well -- went out the weekend after 3.8 was posted and ran a good test -- switched back and forth between Off Road and Follow Road in both directions and everything seemed to hold together. Don't know if any other "feature" was introduced in 3.8, but haven't come across any. As an added note (which I don't think was ever mentioned) -- in 3.7 during a Follow Road, the "highlighted" route on the map sometimes actually MISSED the road I was on -- by a good amount!! I was toodling down a main highway and the computed route was overlayed on the map BETWEEN the road I was on and the next street over. But this too seems to have gone away with 3.8.

First, you need to download your files in .gpx format, not .loc -- if you're a premium member, you can create a Pocket Query that will easily do that. Second, not sure what you mean by "icons" from the site -- you mean virtual, traditional, multi? -- if so, no, that kind of info is not transferrable to the 60CS, nor is any travel bug info. Your best bet for all of this is a combination of using GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), and CacheMate (for Palm PDA's) -- using the two, you can do a multitude of different sorting options on all your downloaded data, and all travelbug info will transfer through CacheMate into your PDA. As for the "Geocaching" mode in the 60CS -- personally (my own choice) I don't use it. I just load different waypoint "groups" by using different 60CS waypoint icons (like navaid symbols, flags, etc.), and use the "Find Waypoint" option for geo-searching. Since I used the Vista for two+ years and it never had a "geocaching" mode, I'm comfortable with the way I do it. When I find a geocache, I simply delete it from the 60CS so I won't be finding it on a "nearest search" -- and keeping track of finds, not founds (OUCH!!) and notes and such -- that's all done on my PDA from CacheMate. Hey, everybody has their own way of doing things...

Same with me -- loaded 3.8 yesterday, went out today and flipped back and forth between Follow Route and Off Route -- seemed to work as expected. I think they fixed THIS problem.

I tested it just a little bit this afternoon -- it seems to be working. I might be able to give it a big workout tomorrow, though. And, where is the USB support for Mac OS X (I'm going to mention this every single time -- maybe they'll listen -- ha!)

I agree totally on the vertical <-> horizontal option -- you WOULD think that would be easy to implement on the 60CS, since they can do it on some of their other models. (You'd also think it would be EASY to write a USB driver for OS X on the Mac as well -- I'm going to mention this EVERY time I get a chance!!!!!!) As for an automatic time zone change, that might be a little harder -- not all of the US follows the DST "standards" and not all of the time zone "boundaries" are longitudinal lines down the Earth. I've got the software package StarryNight and it also doesn't take into consideration an "automatic" switch to daylight savings or the different zones. You have to set some manual options. Besides that, there are actually time zone changes that shift not by 1 hour, but by only 30 minutes, depending on where you're located. It gets complicated.

I agree -- my old Vista rarely got 8 hours from a set of batteries, rechargeables or alkalines. I've easily gotten a good 3 full days of caching off my 60CS -- that's about 24 hours!!! (sometimes more) -- off one set of alkalines -- even shifting into the real-time compass as I approach a cache. I've been able to squeeze 2 full days off a set of rechargeable Ni-MH's.

Finally, after a week and a half of being sent e-mails and informed of a lockup problem, Garmin accepts and acknowledges it -- I don't think this has ever happened before -- not quite like this. They denied anything was wrong for days. Not like them...

How To Keep Your Marriage Humming Along 101 -- get a 60CS, assuming that YOU do most of the driving and your not-able-to-read-a-map-really-well wife does the navigating!! When we travel out of state, my wife is usually in charge of the map reading, although she does a pretty poor job of it (not a sexist remark, just the truth in this case!). We went to visit her relatives in St. Louis last year, I loaded up the 60CS with all the local maps I knew we'd be needing and packed it full of geocaches for the area. It didn't take long to teach her how to use the Find function, for waypoints or address, and how to use the Follow Road function for street navigation, and she kept us on course every day of our trip. We NEVER got lost!! Not once! We NEVER argued. In fact, she actually said, "Hon, this is one of the best toys you've bought in a long time!" Ahhhh...good choice!! The GPS -- AND the wife

I rarely use WAAS -- in relation to cache finding, it hasn't helped that much -- and it DOES drain your batteries faster. As for the "Hold Level" notice on screen -- NO, you can't turn it off (I haven't found a way). But you CAN turn off the real time compass

I reported (along with others) the lockup after upgrading to 3.7 -- Garmin's reply to me was that they hadn't heard anything about it, which was days AFTER others reported sending Garmin an indication that they were having problems. I was told to do a hard reset (ha!), which I KNEW wouldn't work, but did it anyway. They also said if it didn't work to send the unit in for repair! (What, me and hundreds of OTHER users?) Sure enough, it didn't work. I went BACK to 3.6 on Friday, cached all day on Sunday, and never experienced a lockup. Appears that 3.7 is just riddled with bugs -- my suggestion. STICK WITH 3.6 until Garmin posts another update...

Hi, b-N-b -- If you DO get MacGPSBabel 1.2.5 working on your system, and have your 60CS connected directly to the computer with just the USB cable alone (none of that USB-to-serial adapter stuff!!), then PLEASE post here or let me know!! I'd like to know what procedure you followed and what settings you made. I already described to Robert Lipe how I went about trying to transfer a .gpx file (into GSAK under VPC, massage it a little, export to a .gpx file, move it out of VPC over to the Mac side, then use it as an import to Babel and export to the 60CS via the USB cable) -- he confirmed I was doing it correctly, but NOTHING HAPPENED (except MacBabel hanging). I sent a Terminal dump to Jeremy, but haven't heard anything back about that. So I'm back to using OS 9.2.2 -- sigh!

Old G4? Yep, that's like mine! A dual processor 450MHz model. Man is it ancient -- I got it about 2 years ago. In our geeky computer world, my machine is OLD (and showing it)!!!!! Sittin' in the closet(s) are an original Mac 128K (serial #2000 something) (with a memory upgrade and a SCSI upgrade to run the $1200 20MB hard drive!!), a Mac IIfx, and a Mac 840AV. I'm running my DP 450 G4. I've got a PowerBook 180 collecting dust. My wife has an iBook G3 that she uses for everything. And oh, yeah -- an Apple II -- with TONS of software, Dan Paymar's lower-case adapter, a kludged paddle controller, two 400k disk drives, two 800k disk drives, a writing tablet that's bigger than our kitchen table, a 9" monitor, a 14" monitor, and only a psychic knows what else!! This is all off-topic!

Obviously from the thread, everybody has an opinion -- as do I I've got the 60CS and use it the same way others have said -- as I approach the cache, I switch the compass on. While I'm walking TO the cache, all my other caching friends are walking in circles to keep the arrow moving. No guarantee that I'm the one who FINDS the cache first, but it sure makes it easier. As for the altimeter, I rarely use it other than just for the sake of having that euphoric feeling of knowing how "high" I am!! Then again, since I bought the 60CS WITH the compass, the altimeter just happened to come along for the ride, so I'll use it "because it is there!" When hiking and backpacking in the Sierra's it seems a lot easier to carry JUST the GPS rather than a GPS, a Silva compass, AND an altimeter -- all around my neck. Then again, everybody knows NOT to depend solely on an electronic GPS when going off into the wilds (nothing beats a REAL compass and a REAL topo map -- and knowing how to use them!!!!)

While waiting for a friend of mine to lead me to Strong (see link in an earlier post) as a source of 60CS screen protectors that are pre-cut to fit, I read about someone placing the unit on their flatbed scanner and going from there. Since I'm in the Computer Graphic Arts biz, I gave it a shot, traced the scan in Adobe Illustrator, made a couple of test runs on paper, and then loaded one of my Palm PDA screen protectors (NOT the WriteRight ones with the "texture" but the "glossy" ones!) into my inkjet and printed the outline on the backside. Some careful cutting with scissors and an Xacto knife and I had it fitting perfectly -- it does have a "slightly" reflective surface, but I've been using it for months now and find that the screen is extremely easy to read even in bright sunlight.

I had the same lockup problem after updating to firmware 3.7 last week. Same circumstances as well -- from a Follow Road to Off Road, or vice versa, using the "Recalculate" menu option. I sent an e-mail to Garmin and received "almost" the exact same reply as above --basically, perform a hard reset and "that will fix it." If not, I should ask for an RMA number and return the unit. I mentioned the fact that I've read similar posts by others over this past weekend describing the exact same problem. Garmin insisted that it was "news to them" and they have not heard of this happening to anyone else (regardless that others said they e-mailed Garmin with the problem)!!! I wish they'd get their heads out from where the sun don't shine and respect their customers. Are they going to tell us all to get RMA numbers and get our units "repaired" because their software has a bug in it -- which they refuse to acknowledge? Yeah, either back off to 3.5 or 3.6, or just wait for 3.7.x or 3.8 -- maybe they'll realize they made a mistake and fess up. Very frustrating...

Hi, b-N-b -- I just downloaded and installed the newest MacGPSBabel 1.2.5 version the other day (which supposedly has USB support), but so far can't seem to make it work. Sounds like you bought yourself a USB cable, but you're REALLY using a USB-to-serial converter (?). I want my 60CS to run totally under USB and NOT thru a USB-to-serial adapter (which I DO have and used for years to connect my old Garmin Vista). I CAN make it work with GSAK and MapSource directly with the USB cable only under Mac OS 9.2.2 and Virtual PC (4.0.2). The dang 60CS HAS USB, I paid for it, and dang it, it SHOULD work! But so far, Mac OS X and Virtual PC 7 and Garmin aren't playing nicey-nice which leaves all us Mac users in the toilet. MacBabel 1.2.5 NOW has a "Garmin USB" option in the port pull-down menu, but every time I try to perform an upload, the program hangs. So, I'm still going back to OS 9.2.2 to do my transfers -- I simply REFUSE to transfer waypoints at 9600 baud...

I've got City Select v6 and have loaded my 60CS to the max with as much of the local maps (Los Angeles, Orange County, Oxnard, Ventura, Palm Springs, etc.) as I can (along with a few TOPO sections from the MapSource TOPO disks) -- I geocache all over the place, and I've only run into ONE instance where the mapset was NOT up-to-date -- a new residential area in La Habra. Other than that, the streets and roads seem to be pretty darn accurate (at least so far). We're planning a trip to Germany in a couple of months and I plan to geocache there as well, plus we'll end up driving all over the northern part of the country. I ended up splurging for CitySelect Europe 7 (waaaay overpriced!!!) and have used MapSource to create a "preliminary" mapset of where we plan to go -- a LOT MORE than my 56MB allotted memory!! Dang it!! This is when a memory card (or twice [thrice, fource, fifthce!!!] times as much memory] would really be appreciated. Seems Garmin doesn't get THAT aspect of their product I don't feel like lugging along a laptop just so I can update my mapsets while travelling.