cwichura

This is more a marketing thing than real functionality. If you send waypoints to the GPSr tagged with the "unfound cache" symbol (a closed treasure chest) then when you find a cache and have the waypoint as the active "goto", there is a "found" button you can select that changes the cache's symbol to the "found cache" version (an open treasure chest). Notes, comments, hints, etc., are not processed by the GPSr (though waypoints do have a comment field that some of the geocaching assistant programs like GSAK can populate for you with information from the GPX files downloaded from geocaching.com). For full paperless caching, you'll still need a PDA of some sort running one of the various geocaching programs. FWIW, I see a lot of people recommending Cachemate for PDAs, but I don't have a PDA (or do geocaching, for that matter -- I use GPS for navigation and hiking) so can't attest to it.

If they really want to do it properly from an international standpoint, they should report it as YYYY-MMM-DD...

Comments about GSAK->Garmin positions being slightly off come up regularly. I've never looked at the GSAK forums, but I'd bet there is more detail over there. In general, the differences seem to be .001 off (so likely a rounding error) which I believe someone said translates to about a 5 foot position inaccuracy -- considering the innacuracy of GPSr units general, this should still be close enough to locate a cache. One way to test if this is really a GSAK issue is to load a GPX file downloaded from geocaching.com using MapSource and upload the waypoints that way, rather than via GSAK, and see if the coordinates match correctly or not.

True, but it would be nice if Waypoints in general were extensible on the memory card. That way you can have more than 1000 "real" waypoints which you can edit/modify while in the field (such as to mark a cache as found). Plus, then the "real" waypoints would benefit from the larger name and comment field storage. The POI system is a nice addition, but it is not a true replacement for real waypoints.

It would really be nice if the companies stopped deliberately crippling the printed output from their mapping programs. All of them seem to do it. DeLorme lets you print big with the Plus version of Street Atlas, but you don't have the option of a Plus version of Topo USA. To print big, you more or less are stuck with using high-end GIS programs like ESRI.

I would also be interested in a detailed Topo map for the Chicagoland region. For sharing maps, I would suggest MapCenter.

Driving: Trimble Placer 455 DR, currently feeding location fixes to a laptop running DeLorme Street Atlas USA. I had the Trimble installed about two weeks after purchasing my SUV some 8 years ago, and it still works great. Back then, the in-car moving map units were absolutely terrible. Hiking/all-other: Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx. Prior to that was a Garmin 12XL.

There are two main considerations: 1) does the unit itself support route calculation, and 2) you need the map data for the region(s) you will be driving. The routing function is becoming more common even in handheld GPSr units, rather than only in GPSr units purpose-built for car navigation. I am not familiar with the Magellan line of GPSr units, but it should be fairly straight-forward to check this on the spec sheet for the unit(s) you are considering. As to map data: most GPSr units have a built-in "basemap" which is very low detail. For driving, they have major highways and roadways only. The basemap will not have street-level detail. The GPSr vendors make a lot of their money by selling you map data, so to get street-level detail, you will likely have to purchase additional map data packages which you can then load into the GPSr. (In the case of the purpose-built car navigation products, they often include the map data, but the price of the GPSr unit is correspondingly higher.) So you'll need to research what stree-level map data is available for Magellan units and how much it costs. The other option is to go with laptop routing software. You connect the GPSr to your laptop to provide it with your current fix, and the laptop does the turn announcements, etc., for you. Advantages are 1) a much bigger/better screen, 2) voice prompted navigation [some purpose-built GPSr units have this now too], much better tools for creating/tweaking your route before you go on your trip, and 4) the software packages can usually be had for less money than map data that you can load directly into your GPSr unit. The big con, of course, is you have to lug around a big ol' laptop with you when you want to do road navigation. (Including things like a car power adapter for the laptop...) For the USA & Canada, the two most popular packages are DeLorme's Street Atlas USA (new version due next month, which adds full coverage for Canada finally) and Microsoft Streets & Trips (already contains full USA and Canada coverage). Which one is better amounts to more of a religious war than any real significant differences. A more expensive option is ALK's CoPilot Laptop (also has USA+Canada), but it has some features that DeLorme and MS do not have (though probably not of great important unless you are driving an RV).

TopoUSA v6 has direct support for importing GPX files. Hopefully the new SA2007, due next month, will have this as well. In the mean time, your best option is to use GPSBabel to convert the GPX files to an an1 draw layer file.

The 60C(S)x and 76C(S)x accept all sizes of microSD cards; I imagine the Legend Cx will too. It is accessed as a FAT-formatted filesystem, so in theory cards up to 2GB should work. Has anyone tried formatting a card as FAT32 to see if the Garmin units recognize it?

DeLorme's TopoUSA v6 natively supports GPX files, and has a (slightly) more up-to-date road layer than SA2006. It also has topo info, which may be handy in planning your final approach to the cache. But it does not have voice navigation prompts. SA2007 is due sometime in August (assuming DeLorme follows their usual release pattern), and will hopefully inherit the native GPX support that was added to TopoUSA v6.

I don't have any info on alternative map data sources for Norway, but as to your POI question: it seems it is a little of both. I have CN Europe v8 and looking at London, things like hotels seem to be bound to their posted address. So, for example, the Grange Holbourn (a hotel I stay at when travelling to London for work) is listed as 50 Southampton Row which is the official address. However, the entrance to the hotel is really off of Old Glouchester Street. But when creating a car route to the hotel, it ends up bringing one in southbound on Southampton Row creating some needless going round in circles because it is bound to the 'official' street address. Other POIs, like entryways into the tube stations, are shown at their 'correct' geoposition (and they have no real street address associated with them). My guess is that most POIs are simply geocoded street addresses, though.

Greetings, I am looking into options for a GPSr for my father to use. He does a lot of bicycle riding, but isn't particularly interested in hiking. He didn't really seem interested in the idea of geocaching, either, when I mentioned it to him. I have been thinking about either one of the Quest models, or a 60/76Cx. I own a 76CSx myself, that I use for hiking, but have never seen a real live Quest (2) unit. From the Garmin website and the Quest manual (same manual covers both the Quest and the Quest 2), it looks like the main difference between the two Quest units is that the Quest 2 has additional voice languages, and that it has its City Select NT map in ROM (sort of like an enhanced 'basemap'), leaving its memory free for other maps (e.g., Topos). The base Quest model only has a regular basemap in ROM, so its memory must be used to load all detailed maps. With my copy of City Navigator North America v8, I have confirmed that the area where he lives and a fair bit of the surrounding states will fit within the Quest's 115MB of internal memory. I don't have Garmin's Topo maps, though, to check how much they would take up, but I believe it should fit as he doesn't really need all of the surrouding states loaded in detail from City Navigator. To start with, he probably won't even need the Topo maps -- Illinois is pretty flat after all. My thinking on the Quests is that they have a larger screen, and it is landscape oriented, making the maps perhaps nicer to use while riding his bike than a 60/76Cx would be. The 20 hour lifetime of the internal rechargable battery will be more than sufficient, too. Although it looks like I'd have to get the AC charger accessory for it, as the web/manual indicates it only comes with a car charger. I would also get the bicycle mount accessory for it as well, of course. The car mount it comes with would be useful as well in case he wants to use the unit in the car when driving to a new bike trail, or going on a road trip. Does either of the Quest units have the SiRF III chipset, or are they an older chipset? I have been very impressed with the receiption of my 76CSx, and some of the bike trails he rides are under heavy tree cover. From the manual, it looks like the Quest line is pretty similar if functionality as a basic GPSr, although I didn't see an option in the manual for it to average waypoint readings when marking a location. Has this averaging feature been left out on the Quest series, or is it something that a later firmware update added? Do the updated Quest firmwares also support the 60/76 features such as 'act as a USB mass storage device" and allow tracks to be recorded to memory for long detailed tracks? In general, can anyone who uses GPS for cycling give any pros/cons to the Quest series vs. a 60/76Cx? Things I am overlooking that a cyclist would find important. (The cadence sensor stuff available for the sport training GPSr models is not of interest to my father, he rides recreationally.) He likes the idea of being able to find nearyby resturants, bicycle shops (in event of a flat while out riding, etc) and the 'Find Nearest' in general. He also likes the idea of the moving map, so he doesn't have to cary around paper maps and stop periodically to check them when riding through unfamiliar areas. The auto-route support I think will also be helpful to him in this regard as well. And finally, when he's riding through bike paths in a forest preserve/etc and has a problem, he can always relay his exact coordinates to someone by phone in an emergency. Thanks for any insight!

Is there a posting somewhere that lists all the WAAS ground station locations?

Waypoints will always only go into Internal memory, for which the unit has a specified number it will accept (500 as you found out). If you want to load stuff onto the microSD card, you have to load them as POI using the POILoader tool available from Garmin's website. You then access them through Find->Custom Points of Interest rather than Find->Waypoint.

If you want the auto-routing for when you are driving, and you own a laptop, then you can purchase one of the inexpensive auto navigation programs like DeLorme's Street Atlas USA (which, if past history repeats, the 2007 version is due sometime in August) or Microsoft's Streets & Trips. Another option is Garmin's City Navigator North America v8, which while more expensive, haps maps that you can also upload into your GPSr. With Garmin's City Navigator, you will have to download Garmin's nRoute application from their website, as the included MapSource program does not provide the auto navigation features such as voice alerts, etc. (I believe nRoute only works with USB-based GPSr connections, and I am not familiar with Garmin's entire line so I am not 100% sure if your unit is USB and would support nRoute -- can anyone else confirm/deny this?) You may also need to purchase a cable to connect the GPSr to your computer if it didn't come with one, but the cables are cheap. Using your existing laptop by connecting the GPSr you purchased to it for car navigation will be much cheaper than any of the units that come with built-in routing capabilities. And to this day, I find the laptop based routing programs (even the inexpensive ones) to be much more powerful and flexible than using the GPSr for routing. Plus, you can load the entire USA onto your laptop, something you cannot do with ANY Garmin GPRr at this time (City Navigator North America requires over 1.5gig, while the largest microSD cards available at this time are only 1gig). Also, if you go with a laptop solution, it helps to purchase a power adapter for your laptop that connects to a cigarette lighter in your car. That way the laptop doesn't run out of power during the trip, or try to go to sleep all the time. The power adapters are also inexpensive, around $20 or so. FWIW, I've been a long time user of DeLorme's Street Atlas program for my road routing needs.

Silly question, I must be overlooking this now because I've spent so much time looking for it I no longer even see the option. I didn't see this in the Garmin GPS FAQ, either. But how do I cancel the "Goto Waypoint" feature? I was unable for the life of me to do it today while I was out hiking with my new 76CSx.

Plus, even with a card reader, you still have the index generation step that seems to take nearly as long as it does to actually copy the file to the card directly through the GPSr's USB connection. It would have been nice if Garmin had given these units real USB2 support for a higher transfer speed, though.

Is there a standard messaging format for depth readings and water temp? Like a NMEA stanza? If so, it's possible the GPSr knows how to understand this is you feed it the appropriate NMEA stanza via its serial port. True these days they want to sell you an integreated all-in-one wonder Marine unit, but perhaps dedicated depth sounders can provide this information.

In all honesty, in this day and age, I don't think it really matters. Even though the US government could turn SA back on if something like a war happens, I think they too came to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter anymore and thus they allowed SA to be deactivated. For one, there are plenty of alternative guidance systems. Secondly, if you are off by 100m vs. 10m you still probably end up damaging your target (especially for terrorist behavior, which doesn't really care much what it hits so long as it causes death and, well, terror). For a "precision" stike against a military facility surrounded by civilian facilities, yes, it will be off, but the counties you are implying with your statement aren't of the nature to do "precision" stikes. And if they did, again there are other guidance systems available that are more reliable. And then there's the whole "big boom" factor of someone launching a nuke or other "large" warhead and then it really doesn't matter if they are 10m or 100m or even 1000m off...

Yes, MapSource (which came on the CD with your 76CSx as well as with CN8 and all the other Garmin mapping software) allows you to select and transfer maps to the GPSr, etc.

Good to know. I've yet to purchase any of Garmin's Topo maps. I have DeLorme's TopoUSA v6, which all the comparisons I've read vs. the Garmin Topo USA indicate DeLorme is more detailed. But with the drawback you can't download it to the GPSr. My home state of Illinois is pretty flat, though, so Topo maps aren't really that necessary on the GPSr itself. If I ever get to go to a real park that is covered by one of the Garmin 1:24,000 packs then I'll probably get the appropriate pack at that time. But with the way work is, that just isn't likely to happen anytime soon... I haven't found much info on the quality of the Garmin 1:24,000 map packs in my searches, though -- seems every mostly just talks about the Topo USA pack (and bash it).

Why not just update your version of MapSource? You can download the update from their website, and it should still read your existing Topo data. That will give you USB support for talking to the new GPSr without having to re-purchase your Topo data (unless you've already used up the two unlocks you get on other GPSr units).

It won't stop flashing until it has downloaded all the Ephemeris data for that sat. Each sat sends its own Ephemeris data only, you can't get it from any of the other sats. From what I've read, there are three separate 'pages' of Ephemeris data, but I don't know how many bytes are in a single page. However, they update their Epphemeris data once every 30 seconds, so in theory with a good signal you will not need more than 30 seconds to download the data. You might notice a sat flashing for many many minutes, though. This usually happens when it is very low on the horizon, or perhaps because you are getting a lot of multipath reflections causing data errors. In this case, you might have a 'strong' signal, but the bit errors still prevent the GPSr from downloading the Ephemeris data (it won't use corrupted data, so has to again wait for the page to come around again in 30 seconds if it detects a checksum error).

Also, if someone has both the USB and PC Interface cable for a 60/76 unit it would be interesting to see concurrent serial port captures for the native NMEA stream from the GPSr and the Spanner-generated NMEA stream to see how closely they match (e.g., are all the same stanzas sent, or are there any field ommissions in one stream or the other, etc).