entogeek

Downloaded and installed the European firmware for my North American Explorist XL a few weeks ago (available from Maggies support page) and had WAAS restored. Also got the extra screens which apparently you don't get with the North American update. Be sure to back up your basemap first!!!

Try Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK for short). You can download geocaches from geocaching.com directly into GSAK (even easier if you become a premium member and create pocket queries) and then transfer them directly to your Sportrak.

And don't forget those of us who hide caches in the winter. It can be frustrating waiting for enough snowfall to cover our tracks we made while hiding the cache before actually publishing it. Sometimes I just make additional tracks all over the place to add to the confusion if snowfall is not forthcoming.

Try GPS Central in Calgary. Send an email to sales@gpscentral.ca and see if they have any refurbished units in your price range. You could pay by credit card over the phone. Good luck!

Looks like you should be able to update your firmware to 5.34 at http://www.magellangps.com/support/product.asp?prodid=11 (look under the Updates section). You'll have to register with Magellan to download the update. I don't know if the topo software will work without the update (it did before I update the firmware for my Sportrak Colour). I can tell you that I am only able to get the topo software to work under Windows XP SP2 or earlier (will not run under Vista at all for me even if I change the compatibility setting in Vista). If your main pc is Vista but you have access to an XP machine I can help you through the process of creating topo maps that you can then copy into Magellan's Vantage Point software that does run under Vista. Good luck!

Used to have a Sportrak Color and every once in awhile the baud rate would change between the software and the GPSr itself with no explanation. So make sure that they match. If they do, try dropping to a lower baud rate. Failing that have you tried a serial-usb connector? Good luck! entogeek

Not quite an octupus but close! It's a tarantula! Hee-hee-hee-hee You've got a cache octupus!?!?!? And it gets logs????? Ew. ~*

If you purchase a premium membership with Groundspeak then you can build pocket queries which will save the results as a zip file which is emailed to you. Save the resulting zip file to your computer, unzip the file, and drag and drop the resulting GPX files into Vantage Point. Voila! Multiples geocaches into Vantage Point just like that! entogeek

To begin with, GSAK and Vantage Point both have their uses - there is some overlap but each has features unique to them and can be used to serve distinct purposes. GSAK is great for keeping track of found caches, those to be found, those that are unavailable, generating stats, etc (I even use a macro to export notes as text files to my iPod so I can read hints and posted logs while in the field). Vantage Point is good (for geeks like me) for presenting a visual representation of where geocaches are located, to plan routes between those geocaches, and for downloading those routes and geocaches to your Triton. I've created maps from my Magellan software (topo and routes) and downloaded them into Vantage Point to fine tune my routes. Here's how you can make both programs work for you: 1. Download geocaches into GSAK, 2. Mark the ones you want to send to your Triton, 3. Filter on the selected geocaches and export them as GPX files via File -> Export -> GPX/LOC File, 4. Drag the exported GPX files into Vantage Point, plan your routes and download them and the geocaches you want to look for to your Triton 400, 5. When you've found caches, mark them as found in GSAK. Take a look at all of the macros available for GSAK before you decide whether or not to pass it up. This is where I find much of GSAK's hidden strength comes from (and no I'm not being paid by the developers for talking up their software! Hope this helps. entogeek

I own two Magellans - a Sportrak Colour and just recenty acquired an Explorist XL (luv its big screen). I agree that Magellan's support is horrendous - well to qualify it as horrendous is a misnomer since I don't think their customer support actually exists. But I haven't had any problems with their GPS's. I create Pocket Queries, send them to GSAK, refine a filter, export to Explorist format and then use MapSend Manager to transfer to my Explorist. One major problem I encountered involved my MapSend Topo maps not working with Vista nor recent service packs in XP. My workaround was to install my software onto an older XP pc, create regions, convert these to maps which I stored on my USB key, then transferred each map into Magellan's Vantage Point software on my Vista pc. Now I can use each of these topo maps on my Explorist by transferring them to my SD card and can use them in Vista. (and the Explorist XL's large screen provides me with enough light to allow me to tie my boot laces while out night caching) So a few extra steps involved but once I figured everything out, smooth sailing.

And if you order within the next 10 minutes, we'll throw in a second copy at no additional charge. That's right. 2 cool looking scripts for the price of one. For the trackable thing, that is huge! I too hated entering the TB number twice, and if I had more than a few, I'd actually log them from the WAP page (on the PC) just so I wouldn't have to do that. Um, lines are so busy geek can't get through within 10 minutes. Does this mean geek isn't eligible for the freebie? But seriously, geek luvs not having to enter the TB/Geocoin number twice - some of them are so small that they're barely readable. Many thanks for this script... the geek gives it a 6/5 on the geek's approval rating.

It's never happened to me either. I'm pretty careful about making sure there are no caches nearby or other issues before submitting my cache. Why not just ask the reviewer if the location is available? I do that every time now before going any further in developing a cache, particularily since my puzzle caches have involve solving an equation to get you to the final co-ordinates. That way I work out the equation after I know the location is acceptable. I simply ask if my final co-ordinates are to close to any hidden caches or stages of a mult-cache. Haven't had a problem since.

Don't forget geek!

PM sent

How about creating a challenging mystery cache so that one gets double the satisfaction - once for solving the mystery, the second for finding the cache itself!

Current ration is 4.5:1 but that's because I new to geocaching. Like a previous poster stated, I find myself bitten by the hiding bug more than the searching virus (probably cause I get too easily frustrated when I can't find the cache that I've been staring at for 10 minutes). After a couple of simple hides, I'm now trying to put some thought into the mystery caches I make and I especially look forward to the interaction with my fellow cachers who let me know when they get part way through a puzzle and contact me for assistance. And then of course I try to make the cache itself a little interesting, eg. one micro cache has a "guardian" that protects it that freaks out many folks - think creepy-crawly with 8 legs! I love reading what they post about this cache. I especially like the comments folks leave in the on-line log and what they also write in the log book itself. As an owner, I'd probably be a little frustrated if after spending some time putting together a challenging puzzle cache someone simply wrote tftc - but then everyone is entitled to write as much or as little as they like.