korimako

try making sure the com port is set to a low number for the update cable - solved the problem for me! see another post I just made

My geomates are currently updating as I write this. After seeing the same error and not finding a fix on the web anywhere, I thought I'd followup with my solution to fix the problem. Symptoms were the same as above, Flash error, cannont open port... the geomate loader program did not recognize the geomate unit either. Long story, but it worked on another laptop which led me to a fix on my orginal laptop. The Geomate cable shows up as a com port, on my do everything laptop it was Com 11. Seems like many programs don't like com ports that are too high, so I changed it down to port 7 (XP- Device Manager, ports, silicon labs cp210x(this is the geomate update cable),properties, port settings,advanced, port 7 (lowest not in use)) and viola, all works as it should. I may have unplugged the USB update cable and plugged it back in again. Glad the geomate update is still available for roadtrips. What other unit can store 250,000 geocaches without being connected?! Hope this helps someone else looking for a solution to the above.

Do a bit of backcountry skiing/hiking here in Oregon. Skiing was great this past weekend, but the trees got a bit thick half way down. One glance at imagery at home later showed a much better route.... If I'm organized, I'll often paste screen shots from Google or ArcGIS onto my phone and take that with or print it out. Oregon is terrible for cell coverage - not an option to use the cell network. So I'm thinking maybe my trusty 60csx could do with a imagery compatible upgrade. Spent the last half hour poking around but thought some real experience might be more direct. - We cache some, pretty much any gps will suite our needs for this. - Not a fan of subscriptions, One off purchase ok, not worried about instant changes in imagery - Like Garmin's openess for creating your own maps... Is there a similar effort for imagery layers: - Anyone have experience with Mobile Atlas Creator? Looks like the Google earth imagery option was just pulled? Any other way of getting Google/ whomever's imagery onto your Handheld? - Any general sites with reviews of imagery overlay handhelds? Thanks.

If there's another way to download the entire US list of caches and store them in something in my hand I'd be happy for a better gps, barring that, having the geomate in the glove box is excellent for wandering road trips. Looks like there was a change of heart and the site is still running for now, For those of you having problems, remember you have to use the 32 bit version of IE and Firefox requires a security adjustment - this was buried in the Geomate Docs somewhere, but can't seem to find it at the moment. here's from another post.. You will need to change some security settings on Firefox. You will need to: 1.Type "about:config" into the URL address field and hit "enter". After saying "yes, I'll be careful", This will open up and new window. 2.Now find the entry labeled "signed.applets.codebase_principal_support" (It’s near the bottom) 3.Change the value to "true" by double clicking "false". You are now ready to go. Lets hope it continues.

yeah, I know technology changes, but... I was unaware of the change, but was able to update on 3/23 before a road trip (just the western US) As Geocaching.com seemed to be a big backer of these originally - would they be interested in hosting the server? Pocket queries are fine, but still not near the numbers you can stuff into these small devices. Plus I don't have to query, convert upload every outing... - my update says 3/24/2012 guess I should look if any newish caches are there. Anyone know? - Can these things hold the entire US (East West, my impression was one update overwrote the other? - Would be great to have a 'info' page as these questions will continue to arise as folks find out.. Thanks for any help

Anyone know if these cables are more than simple cables? I.e. Anyone wired their own? Thanks, 'and off we go'

Hi, I've searched a bit, and haven't found much, sorry if this is a duplicate effort. We're contemplating an cross country trek, and the new Magellan product announcement got me to thinking about caching as we go along. We've found a couple hundred, have a garmin 60csx, lowrance ifinders, and Mio map car unit that's been reflashed with several GPS softwares... My premium membership lapsed over the winter but I'll renew it soon. While caches along a route feature works well, We don't plan on sticking to a particular route, more letting the weather and the sights guide us. So preplanning the entire route with pocket queries is out of the question. Also I don't expect that we'll have internet connection every evening as we will be camping a fair bit. Also am not of the iphone/cellphone mindset. So the Magellan looked nice, but on fine reading, it still seems to hold only a 1000 or so geocaches at once. Seems like the Geomate is about the only solution for having a huge database of caches in your pocket/bag. I guess my question is if anyone had a better suggestion? nice to have the descriptions etc that are missing on the geomate (eg earth caches) Is there anyway get a large GC database on my laptop or such that I could travel with? Pocket queries are still limited to 500... (new units store ~10k?) I could do 5 strategic PQ's per day from now till summer and still not have a great database.. From the there's got to be a better way dept. Thanks for the help.

Anyone know if Lowrance has added a timestamp to the tracklogs yet? Gotta carry a different unit when I need that data... stupid.

Hi just testing out a loaner expedition C. The screen is fine with the backlight on, but without, It's next to impossible to read inside the house this evening (maybe better in the sunlight?) Is this the expected behavior? You have to hit the back light every time you'd like to look at the screen? Thanks for any insights (yes - have played with brightness/contrast/screen modes) Btw, what happened to Lowrance? Few years ago the customer service was excellent. Today I got an email that was very snide, and more than two blatant misspellings per LINE of text. Offshored? Thanks for the help

Was looking for a replacement screen for my ifinder (seems to get scratched way easier than any other device I own) and noticed LEI had clearance on most of the ifinder accesories. So if you ever wanted a reasonably priced RAM mount, spare cable, antenna, or case it's a good time. LEI clearance Now if only the tracks on the ifinder had a time stamp...

I swear when I first used this, it did save preferences, Anyway, in the c/programfiles/.../lowrance/GPXtoUSR directory there is a GPXtoUSR.dat file that seems to have all the settings needed to save. Changing things seems to have no effect (the dat file gets rewritten every time you start the utility it seems. Anyone else have luck saving the preferences? That's true. It only takes a couple boxes to check to set it up though. Something else to email them to ask them to improve.

numbers schmumbers. Is there a way to seek out these quality caches? Maybe some sort of scenic quality ranking (ala feedback?) could allow both higher density and the rest of us to find those new gems in the hills. I do think of caching as a non-green outdoor activity, for many folks. Let folks cruise around town on their bikes or walking and find as many micros as they like, just give me a way to filter them out of the searches. I don't follow the forums here much, Yes, I seek out the 'wow I never knew those petroglyphs were there even though I've driven by umpteen times' places. Has there ever been any discussion about distinguishing caches based on some sort of 'uniqueness' score? Lists are ok, but not very practical.

Hi, so I have a couple visors (palms with the springboard expansion slot in back) lying around and noticed the Nexian HandyGPS modules on Ebay for $10, so I gambled. The module seems to work well enough, gets decent signal,location. But I can't get it to talk to either Cachenav or Delorme Street Atlas. Has anyone had a HandyGPS (Nexian is long out of business) working on a visor? Any one remember settings for Cachenav, or possibly someone with a Magellan module who could tell me what port/baud rate etc settings. Heck if I could get this to work, You'd have a reasonable geocaching gps to give away to kids for <$20! Any help appreciated! Thanks, Rick.

created new ones yesterday afternoon, checked both thurs/friday, "never" have been run. New ones created this morning and same. Leaving in a few hours for the week.... grrrrrr Two day ahead planning, and no results..

Hi, I've had my Ifinder pro for about a week, first unit, so all the newbie flags apply. It was ~$100 for the pro plus package at REI, and I thought at least the kids would get a kick out of geocaching for the summer. Anyway, it works great, but the MapCreate version that came with is the non-Topo map. I find it a little shady that they advertise it as "MapCreate, create maps to upload..." and never mention these are only streets and waypoints... no contour lines. Anyway, Is there any other software besides mapcreate that will produce topo .usr files? or anyone know of a way to talk Lowrance into upgrading my non topo version - haven't opened it yet... Thanks for the help Rick Seems silly that I have all this GIS technology available and I can't get a (topo) file into this GPS, are Garmin/Magellan any better in this respect?