Socal ZukiCachers

PQs from GC.com are often compressed in ZIP format. Are you uncompressing (unzipping) them before copying them to your GPS? If you're running at PC to can also use Magellan's free Vantage Point software which will help you with the process. David Magellan Insider

That sounds like the exact opposite of what s/he did to me... faulty information on the product website = manufacturer or reseller the only one to blame. The poster should at the very least be able to return it for a refund no questions asked, or alternatively get the missing maps for free. jjpooter, If you will email me at Zukicacher@gmail.com I'll send you the phone number for a national rep. that will help you out. David Magellan Insider

Have you asked the manufacturer of your device if they can provide you with a fresh copy of those caches? For anyone else: I've seen this happen with MP3 players and ereaders too. Make sure you backup anything before downloading new info and read the manual so you can avoid such problems. The original 1000 Geocaches that where loaded on the unit are just a sampling across the nation; however, they're not meant to be kept on the unit and there is really no reason to keep them on the GPS because they will just get in your way when you start using the unit. Also, the Magellan Communicator is a great tool for loading a few caches on your GPS in a hurry; however, it is not recommended to be used for more than that. The best thing for you to do is to upgrade to a Premium Membership account. If you didn't get a card with a free month of Premium Members please email me at Zukicacher@gmail.com and I'll send a Magellan code and link to get your free month. Once you have a Premium Membership you can then create Pocket Queries that can contain as many as 1,000 caches and you specify the location, which will allow you to load large numbers of caches to your GPS in a hurry. Since your 610 will hold 10,000 caches you load it with enough caches for very large part of area where you live or for a long trip. Also, if you have a PC and not a Macintosh I would recommend taking a look at the Vantage Point software which you can download from Magellen's website: http://www.magellangps.com/VantagePoint this software will allow you to easily download the pocket queries and then copy them to your GPS. If you would like a video tutorial to help you with this check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ZsZhlY_MU I hope this helps, David Magellan Insider

Have you tried deleting the caches manually? Connect the unit to your computer and delete all of the .gpx files from the Geocache directory on the unit. This should clear the problem. If you need any more help, feel free to email me at zukicacher@gmail.com. If I can't help, I'll get you in contact with the Magellan Rep. for the West Coast. David Magellan Insider

Most all GPSrs get 3 to 5 meters (approx 9 to 16 feet) accuracy with a clear view of the sky. There is purely anecdotal evidence that if both the CO and the Finder are using the same brand of GPSr then that Finder will be closer to cache location than a Finder using a different brand. Glenn is exactly right. The GC uses the same GPS receiver as the high end units and is just as accurate as most other consumer based Outdoors GPSs on the market. It just has less features, like not having the electronic compass and a barometer and it has a lower end processor, which is really doesn't need because it doesn't have as much to compute as the higher end units. David

Awesome...

There is a problem with on of the prior versions of the Communicator that caused it to keep coming up and asking the user to update the software, but it never updated. Try downloading the latest version of Communicator from the MagellanGPS.com site. I'm running Windows 7 and have two GCs as well as several other eXplorist and it now works fine with all of them. David Magellan Insider

So which class does the Garmin Montana fit into? David Both ... but then if you select auto mode you're presented with a nuvi-like GUI, so I guess at that point it is just like a nuvi Thanks, I've used the MOntana and I know that is works great, but I was hoping Geo Jedimeister would tell me which one it fall under, because the eX710 is basically the same way. When in Hiking or Geocaching mode it is a standard point-to-point GPS; however, when switched to Nav Mode it is just as much a Turn-by-Turn units as the Nuvi because it is actually running the Magellan Roadmate/Maestro software. John Vegas - This is David, Mac's caching buddy from Barstow. I do have a couple of questions for you. I spoke to the guys as Magellan's HQ about your and they asked if you're running the turn-by-turn map on the class 4 SD card like they recommend. If not, they informed me that the problem your having with the delay will occur. Also, if your SD card locking with place, slide the clip down until it snaps, when you put the card in or is the clip damaged. If it is, give me a shout and we can see about getting your GPS replaced. I'm asking this because I have the eX510, 610 & 710 and although I did have a clip come out of one of the units, I was able to replace the clip; but I haven't had any problems with the SD cards coming loose when their locked in correctly. David Magellan Insider

If you loaded 500 caches on your GC then the 1/100 is correct because that is showing the page number that you're looking at an each page on the GC contains 5 caches. Therefore 100 pages of caches would be 500 caches... So everything is fine... David Magellan Insider

The GC is a good little entry level GC for the money. No, it doesn't have the electric 3axis compass, but then again you do appear to be looking for a high unit, higher cost unit. If you are I would suggest the Magellan eX610 or eX710. The GC is easy to use and easy to load if you have some basic computer know how and is a rugged little unit. I personally own two of them and haven't had any problems with them. Although the GC is not my prior GPS, because I use a Magellan eX710, I've take people out caching that range from beginner to high end cachers and they've all had a great time using these little units. David Magellan Insider

So which class does the Garmin Montana fit into? David

Yeah - when I was using my old GPS I did some Geocaching. Actually, I found something like 23 the first year and didn't do any caching the next year, because it was to big of an issue to load the GPS and finding them with the old GPS was crazy. I sometimes found the unit to be as must as 150 feet off and it sometimes took multiple trips and many, many hours to find a single cache. The next year I decided to give it another try and found another 23 that year. Then came Christmas and I decided to set all of the Christmas money aside for a new GPS at which time I bought a Magellan Triton. To say that it changed everything is an understatement. To be able to download several hundred caches into the unit in a matter of minutes and having the paperless caching made caching a whole lot more fun. Then when I went to grab the caches the 15 foot accuracy make Geocaching a whole different experience. Today, with Magellan's new eXplorist line you can have a new GPS with paperless caching, 15ft accuracy and a whole lot more and have three different models to choose from for under $150.00 If you want a simple starter unit that will lot 500 caches, does paperless caching and also handles the basics of a standard GPS for hiking and son on, the eX110 is available for $119.99 on Amazon. If you want a unit that is dedicated to Geocaching and will hold 10,000 caches and even downloads the pictuers for the cache descriptions the eXplorist GC is $129.99. If you want a unit that will handle the 10,000 caches, but also has most all of the functionality of a high end unit and will handle additional maps and so on - the eXplorist 310 is $149.99. And of course, if you really want to have power in your hand when you go out caching, the eXplorist 510, 610 and 710 are available - ranging in price from $250.00 to $400.00. Anyway, I hope this helps and if you have any questions about the Magellan products please feel free to give me a shout. I've beeing using Magellan GPSrs for almost 10 years and I'm extremely happy with their performance. Yes, I've used other GPSrs, but always find myself back to caching with Magellan. Happy Caching, David I used to cache (well, still do sometimes) with my Garmin Forerunner 305 watch. I used to load the .gpx files using GSAK but it's becoming a pain. I'd also manually input my found caches into geocaching.com. My wife got me a explorist 310 for CHRISTmas last year and I'd like to try the paperless caching thing. Problem is I'm not sure how to do it--any hints? Thanx... Sure thing - it is very easy to do the paperless caching with the eX310, but first of all I would invite you to join us at http://www.exploristforum.com, which is a community of Magellan eXplorist GPS users that work with Magellan to both assist each other and help make Magellan the best GPSrs possible. Ok, for paperless caching the first thing to do is to setup a pocket query for the area you want to cache in specifying the types and number of caches you’re wanting to load. Since the eX310 will handle 10,000 you can setup the pocket query up to the max. of 1,000 if no problem. Once you created the pocket query and told it to run then you have a few options. If you’re running a PC you can load the free Vantage Point software that you can download the latest version from the Magellan website and install it on your computer. Once you have it installed on your computer you can then enter your GC.com account information in Vantage Point and download your pocket query straight into VP. Once you’ve done this you can then connect your GPS to your computer via USB cable and transfer the caches from VP to your GPS. Or, if you’re a GSAK user, you can also do the same steps in GSAK. If you’re a MAC user or want to do it manually you can download the GPX/ZIP file from GC.com, uncompress it if it is zipped, and copy the gpx file into the Geocaching directory onto the unit. Whenver you connect your GPS to your computer and select the “Connect” option on the GPS when the corresponding message pops up on the GPS , the GPS will appear like a usb/flash drive on your computer that you can copy to and from; but please be careful not to corrupt the software on the device. One note – if you’re using VP or GSAK to load the caches onto the GPS they will also download the images (pictures) contained in the caches descriptions online; however, manually dragging and dropping the GPX file onto the unit will not provide the images. Then, once you’ve been caching and have made it home, having logged your finds on your eX310, you can then connect the GPS to your computer and upload the log.txt file, from the geocaching directory on the GPS, onto the field note portion of the GC.com website and this will load all of your field notes onto the website for you. Then all you have to do is click through the field notes online to log your caches. I hope this helps, if you have any questions please feel free to give me a shout… David I have no problem DOWNloading pocket queries to GPSr--what I'm curious about is UPloading found cache info (not just field notes but changing status of caches to "found") WITHOUT having to enter each found cache manually! I'll look on the explorist site for more info. There is no functionality built within the unit or the Vantage Point software to be able to do this at the church time, only the uploading of the field notes and please understand that this was under the direction of Groudspeak. However, with the new API that has been released from Groundspeak, this does possibly open the doors for something like this in the near future. There is going to be a meeting with Groundspeak in August, so I'll make a note of this and pass it on. David Magellan Insider

This is correct. Those caches weren't "automated." They were just pre-loaded at the factory, and they were probably out of date by the time you got your unit anyway. Deleting them when you received the unit was the correct thing to do. The GPSr doesn't have any way to get caches on its own. You have to plug it in to a computer and load it yourself to get up-to-date cache information and more caches in your own area rather than all over the world. The thing you need to do, if you're a premium member, is the setup a pocket query on Geocaching.com. Then you can delete all of the preloaded caches on the unit, which is only loaded on the unit as a sample. Once you've setup the pocket query and had to run here on the Geocaching site you can then load it to the unit in a number of ways. You can download the pocket query onto your computer and then connect your GC to your computer and drag and drop the unzipped file into the geocaching directory on GC or you can use an automated softare program like Magellan's Vantage Point Software or the GSAK software that is available at http://www.gsak.net. If you would like some instruction on this, I have a video on Youtube , please understand that creating videos isn't my thing, but I made this to help people out. Please forgive the quality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ZsZhlY_MU Hope this helps, David Magellan Insider I cannot seem to figure out where I can find Vantage Point for my MAC computer. Do they make it? I am stuck on that part of your video, David. Sorry, I should have included that in the instructions. Neither Vantage Point or GSAK is available for the MAC. With the MAC you will need to create the Pocket Query(PQ) and have it run. Then you can download the PQ from the Geocaching website, which can be found on a "Pocket Queries Ready for Download" tab on the Pocket page. Once you've downloaded the pocket query, if you had the site compress it into a ZIP file, you'll need to unzip (uncompress) the file. Then you can connect your GSP to your MAC and drag-n-drop the .gpx file into the Geocache directory on the GPS. If the PQ came in ZIP format, it will have two files included in it. I would only drag-n-drop the one that does not have the "wpts" added onto the end of file name. If you do want to use the child waypoints contained in the file with the "wpts", which sometimes does add useful information, i.e., suggest parking locations and the such, you can drag-n-drop the file with the "wpts" into the waypoints directory on the GC. I hope this helps, David Magellan Insider Perfect! Where do I drop it? I tried the Maccaching.com APP but it seems to limit Magella caches to 200 & isn't recognizing my Explorist. I am still trying to get my MAC to recognize the Magellan, IN the meantime, how do I log into the geocaching website on the Magellan? I see I can view stats and everything but no idea how to make them mine. The MAC should see the GC as a standard USB drive, just like a thumb/jump drive. Also, you will NOT log into the Geocaching website with the Magellan. The unit does not have a way to connect to the site and does not do so through your computer. Your computer is your go between for the unit and the site. David Magellan Insider

This is correct. Those caches weren't "automated." They were just pre-loaded at the factory, and they were probably out of date by the time you got your unit anyway. Deleting them when you received the unit was the correct thing to do. The GPSr doesn't have any way to get caches on its own. You have to plug it in to a computer and load it yourself to get up-to-date cache information and more caches in your own area rather than all over the world. The thing you need to do, if you're a premium member, is the setup a pocket query on Geocaching.com. Then you can delete all of the preloaded caches on the unit, which is only loaded on the unit as a sample. Once you've setup the pocket query and had to run here on the Geocaching site you can then load it to the unit in a number of ways. You can download the pocket query onto your computer and then connect your GC to your computer and drag and drop the unzipped file into the geocaching directory on GC or you can use an automated softare program like Magellan's Vantage Point Software or the GSAK software that is available at http://www.gsak.net. If you would like some instruction on this, I have a video on Youtube , please understand that creating videos isn't my thing, but I made this to help people out. Please forgive the quality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ZsZhlY_MU Hope this helps, David Magellan Insider I cannot seem to figure out where I can find Vantage Point for my MAC computer. Do they make it? I am stuck on that part of your video, David. Sorry, I should have included that in the instructions. Neither Vantage Point or GSAK is available for the MAC. With the MAC you will need to create the Pocket Query(PQ) and have it run. Then you can download the PQ from the Geocaching website, which can be found on a "Pocket Queries Ready for Download" tab on the Pocket page. Once you've downloaded the pocket query, if you had the site compress it into a ZIP file, you'll need to unzip (uncompress) the file. Then you can connect your GSP to your MAC and drag-n-drop the .gpx file into the Geocache directory on the GPS. If the PQ came in ZIP format, it will have two files included in it. I would only drag-n-drop the one that does not have the "wpts" added onto the end of file name. If you do want to use the child waypoints contained in the file with the "wpts", which sometimes does add useful information, i.e., suggest parking locations and the such, you can drag-n-drop the file with the "wpts" into the waypoints directory on the GC. I hope this helps, David Magellan Insider

This is correct. Those caches weren't "automated." They were just pre-loaded at the factory, and they were probably out of date by the time you got your unit anyway. Deleting them when you received the unit was the correct thing to do. The GPSr doesn't have any way to get caches on its own. You have to plug it in to a computer and load it yourself to get up-to-date cache information and more caches in your own area rather than all over the world. The thing you need to do, if you're a premium member, is the setup a pocket query on Geocaching.com. Then you can delete all of the preloaded caches on the unit, which is only loaded on the unit as a sample. Once you've setup the pocket query and had to run here on the Geocaching site you can then load it to the unit in a number of ways. You can download the pocket query onto your computer and then connect your GC to your computer and drag and drop the unzipped file into the geocaching directory on GC or you can use an automated softare program like Magellan's Vantage Point Software or the GSAK software that is available at http://www.gsak.net. If you would like some instruction on this, I have a video on Youtube , please understand that creating videos isn't my thing, but I made this to help people out. Please forgive the quality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ZsZhlY_MU Hope this helps, David Magellan Insider

The GC comes loaded with what Magellan feels are worldwide great caches. I deleted all of them and loaded those nearby with a PQ and GSAK. GrateBear, Are you having this problem as well?

Please tell me the process you used to load the caches onto the unit so I can help? David Magellan Insider

If you could, please try running the update on the unit again just to make sure something wasn't corrupted during the update. If that doesn't work, please contact me at Zukicacher@gmail.com and I'll give you a link to download a copy of the files off of my GC and you can try copying them over the files on your unit. We've had some luck with doing this, though it isn't 100% guaranteed. David Magellan Insider

If you run into any more problems after having the unit replaced, please feel free to contact me at Zukicacher@gmail.com so we can make sure that you're a satisfied Magellan customer. David Magellan Insider

What have you tried so far? Is the unit totally powering off? I'm asking because sometimes the unit can get caught in a bootup loop which is caused by improper HTML in the GPX files, which should be fixed in the coming firmware release. If so, how long have you had the unit? Please don't take that to mean that I'm saying there should be a limit to the life of these units, I just need to know in order to follow up on this! David Magellan Insider

I suspect that Navitel use a proprietary map format. See For creating maps for Navitel Navigator from OpenStreetMap data You could also try Googling free navitel australian maps You might also talk to Alex over at http://www.maps4me.com, because he produces maps and might be able to help... David Magellan Insider

If you need help learning how to load the Pocket Queries to the GC using the Vantage Point software, take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ZsZhlY_MU I know that it is somewhat cheesy, but it will give you the basic idea... David Magellan Insider

Hello, There are a number of ways to create maps for the units; however, you will have to use Magellan's Vantage Point software to load them to the unit. Unfortunetly the 300 does not have an SD Card slot so the memory is very limited. To create maps you can purcahse an copy of Mapsend TOPO 3D or check out http://www.map4me.com. There were also maps available from Magellan produced by AccuTerra, but they're not longer available for the Triton units. David Magellan Insider

You could use it for paperless cachine, but since the Nook doesn't have a GPS in it like some of the higher end Androids and like the Android cell phones, it isn't going to be able to use a larger number of the Android apps that are written for caching. I've tried to get several of them to work with my Kindle Fire and I run into the same thing. I'm sure there is somethat out there that you will be able to get to work, but most of the better known Android caching apps aren't going to work for you. David

David Magellan Insider