kayyak

Thanks for the link, very interesting article. Do you like the La Crosse batteries that the unit comes with? Prefer others?

QUOTE: As far as I know the only GPS that will display enough characters to actually display a real hint is the Colorado. The rest of the units will only display a few characters so you would have to create some abreviations in order to get a hint in there. The Delorme PN-20 will display up to 800 characters on its comment screen. You can use GSAK to put the hint near the beginning of the comment field, so that it is not cut off at the end when the description exceeds 800 characters. This is one of my favorite features of the PN-20. I also use GSAK to note cache size at the start of this field. My Comments start off wiht the Cache name in full, difficulty ratings, cache size and hint. Pretty nifty. Those 800 characters go a long way.

Hi, i have followed some of the info on using these chargers on other threads and looking to buy one, but it seems there is a new version of the La Crosse....900 vs 700 on the Thomas-distributing website. Does anyone who has used these chargers have comments on the features of the 900 vs 700? It appears that the 700 is newer, but it has fewer choices on charging power and does not come with any batteries. They have phased out the ability to do the fastest charges, i think, is that an important limitation or a feature not often used or needed anyway? Any help on which one would be more useful? Or is the Maha the best, even though more expensive? They appear to accomplish the same thing. Thanks. http://www.thomas-distributing.com/index.htm

Hoping someone can benefit from my mistake: I installed an InvisibleShield on my Earthmate PN-20 screen…with imperfect results. I think the problem is that I took the ‘spray lightly’ advice in the instructions too seriously. In retrospect, I am thinking that those instructions are universal….and some people are putting these shields on devices that are NOT waterproof, hence the caution, I guess. For the waterproof GPS, it does not seem that the caution should apply. Anyway, apparently I did not put on enough spray to make the shield really slide to adjust its position. I added more, but still had to use a peel and replace method to adjust. It was just very, very sticky. Finally, thinking I had it positioned correctly, I did some squeegee-ing. At that point, I saw that it was positioned just ever so slightly cock-eyed, with maybe a one inch long section of the edge of the shield rucked up against the raised lip surrounding the PN-20 screen. When I tried to peel the shield up, it was stuck down pretty tightly and I could tell that I was stretching the shield by trying to remove it. If I stretched the shield and tried to put it back on, I thought I might end up with an even worse fit, so I made the decision to just leave it alone and get it stuck down tight where it was. I was not pleased with the bubble where the shield spanned the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the screen and lip, but tried as best I could to get the shield in there tight. I do have to say that they are right about time healing imperfections…the rucked up edge did not look nearly so bad the next day and after 2-3 days there was marked improvement. It looks good enough that I won’t worry about replacing it unless it peels up or has other problems down the road. I don’t think someone else would even notice it unless I pointed it out. So, in general, the screen is bright and clear, the shield looks good……just be sure to use enough spray and get it positioned well before you start with the squeegee. If you have a device that does not have that raised lip around the screen, I think the shield would be a piece of cake to put on. This link is from the Delorme forum, thanks to WhereAmI. Half price on the invisible shield, don’t know for how long. They have them that fit many different devices. www.shieldzone.com and www.invisibleshield.com take you to the same site, but perhaps not the same price. http://www.zagg.com/showspecial Excellent review of two shields at the following thread if you have not seen it: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=187182 .

If you are near a Cabela's STORE, they have a bundle with Garmin 60CSx, TOPO 2008, carry case and 12 volt adapter for $349 in their newspaper flyer this week. Not the same price online, tho.

Wow, these look like very versatile chargers. How do you decide what setting to use for charge mode and how fast does it charge batteries? I mean, like at the 200 mA rate vs the 1800 mA rate (and all those inbetween), there could be quite a different charge time. Can you give any examples? Lots of variables to consider, i know.

Very clever suggestions. I love the ‘right one’ vs ‘none left’ idea for batteries in a box. The other orientation suggestions would work in the pouches. I think what I could remember the easiest would be to put spent batteries oriented with + in the same direction….ready to charge, since that is how they would be oriented in the charger. Poles opposite directions would be for charged sets, since that is how they are oriented when i put them in the GPS. I might give up my little red and green papers for that one, IF my kids can remember the same ‘code’ that I am using. I like the first in first out rack thing, too. RE pouches: craft stores also carry small zip lock bags that they sell for storing small items like beads, but I don’t know if they are as sturdy as the pill pouches. Walgreens has pill pouches for $3 for a package of 50, other places may be cheaper. Walmart had 2” x 3”craft pouches for $0.99 but the rack was empty when i looked, don’t know how many come in the package. Interesting ideas. Whatever works!

This is from the Delorme forum, thanks to WhereAmI. Half price, dont know for how long, bought one for the PN-20 and my digital camera, available for many many devices....... http://www.zagg.com/showspecial

We use AA NiMH rechargables for a digital camera and an Earthmate PN-20 as well as various other electronics my sons own. Keeping track of charged/dead batteries was frustrating, until I came up with this solution. At the local pharmacy, I bought I bought a package of small zip lock bags that are meant to be used for pills (EZY Dose Pill Pouch is the brand I got). They are inexpensive, durable and just the right size for a pair of AA batteries and not as bulky as a plastic battery storage box. I glued a red and a green sheet of construction paper together, cut the resulting bi-colored sheet into pieces and put one piece into each pouch that I was going to use for batteries. When I put fully charged batteries into a pouch, I do it so that the GREEN side of the paper is showing on the exterior of the bag. Dead batteries would go in so that the RED side shows to the outside. Easy to see which ones need recharging and which are ready to use. The pouches are cheap, so if one is lost or bursts a seam, no problem, the package I bought contained dozens of pouches (handy for other things, too..... including pills). In order to keep pairs of batteries together when I buy a multipack of identical looking batteries, I use different colors of highlighters or markers to color code pairs. One stripe down the side of each of a pair of batteries makes that pair distinguishable from the rest. That way, two batteries that are of equal age, frequency of use, charge/ discharged level or whatever, stay together as a pair even if they do escape the pouches. Hope this helps someone else out there!

I have seen some info that the downloading of cache info from the geocache website to the Delorme Earthmate unit is 'tedious'. I am a completely inexperienced geocacher, but in exploring the geocache website i see that when i click the 'send to gps' icon on the info for a geocache (way over to the right on the page), it pops up with a message that this feature can support only GARMIN units. Does this mean i cant easily download geocache info to the Delorme PN-20 unit from the Geocaching website? Or not as easily as if i had a GARMIN??? Is there a way to download to Delorme units easy also?? I want to purchase the Delorme unit, but am leary of purchasing a unit that is harder to use, as automatic downloading is a feature i very much want.

Quote: Our next firmware update will allow 800 characters to display on the PN-20. Please explain how this will work for new owners of the PN-20 with the 256 character display. Will they be able to get some sort of upgrade to the 800 character display or does that require buying a whole new unit?? (Sorry, new user of site, have not figured out how to do the quote thing yet, note my previous edit.....)

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