Buttons Brigade

Your TomTom should either come with software or downloadable software from TomTom to let you load custom Points of Interest. Check out tomtomforums.com

I love TomTom, and think it is one of the best Car Nav systems for geocaching. I can download geocaching POIs from GSAK directly to TomTom and even have TomTom alert me if I'm driving along and happen to be near a geocache. I don't know of any other units that can do this. --Marky We were using a TomTom in California and wanted to go to our nearest Performance Bike store. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! We had to wade thru menu's and couldn't select the name of a store. You had to go thru categories. It never told you how far or what direction the store was in. Useless.

Stay away from TomTom. Their software and their hardware units are completely retarded with regards to POI's from their cheapest to most expensive models.

I'm trying to see if I can use my TX and a bluetooth GPS for my geocaching, cycling and in-car use since there's nothing out there that satisfies all 3 well. My Palm TX won't pair with my Holux GPSlim 240 unless I do a hard reset on my Palm. It'll pair the 1st time but then when I turn the Palm off or move out of bluetooth range it won't pair again. It searches and searches in the bluetooth utility for things near me but I get nothing. I've tried turning the Holux on and off several times. I can get an instant pair between my Blackberry Pearl and the GPSSlim. Should I just leave my TX in a cache somewhere or what? I haven't found an update to bluetooth for the palm tx.

I've had my eTrex Vista for a few years now that I got from GpsDiscount.com and it's served me real well. The only complaints I have with it is the small screen when driving with it in my Jeep - I often have to take it off the mount and pan/zoom in when I'm driving in an area that I'm not familiar with. When GeoCaching or hiking in the woods it sometimes loses it's signal under tree cover that really isn't that bad. I'm not sure how often I used the barometric altimiter. I've used the electronic compass when walking in circles when getting within 50 feet of a cache but using my head and thinking like the cache owner hiding it usually works better. I have some MapSource products so I'd like to stay in the Garmin line. I also like the small size of my Gpsr - it's tiny size lends itself to being taken many places just so that I can document that I was there... So I was thinking about getting the Legend C or Vista C and giving my Vista to my little sister who is an outdoor freak and likes to geocache as well. I would mostly use its replacement for hiking/geocaching but I would use it for a fair amount on the city. The autorouting feature is especially nice in the concrete jungle. I just want to make sure that the higher resolution screen is more readable at arm's length - if it's not then I may just have to get a 2nd GPSR strictly for the Jeep. Thanks.

I guess they mistake my Vista for a cellphone, esp when I have it in the carrying case. Never seen a cellphone with a lanyard, though I usually put my Vista on the handreset between me and the window and kind of put my arm out so that its obscured from view. I figure I don't need the extra attention from an ignorant stewardess if its seen - esp since they might think its a cellphone. I've successfully used my GPSr about twice on a trip from Kansas City to Houston. It was pretty cool seeing exactly where we went. It was definately not where the maps in the back of the flight magazines say they go. Unfortunately on several trips from Houston to Newark I couldn't seem to get enough satellites to do anything but waste batteries. I tried putting it in all different angles, "aiming" it at satellites, etc. Maybe if I were on the other side of the airplane. All flights were on Continental airlines, FWIW. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

Just don't eat the food, whatever you do Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

If everyone starts leaving "valuable" things in caches then non-geocaching people are probably more likely to loot the caches. Like many others, I could really care less what was in the cache. We like to geocache for the hunt and to just sign the logbook and put a little something about today's news in the log. We think it makes the log book the most valuable thing in the cache box (outside from its hidden location). The "stupider" the stuff in the cache the better. We don't have kids but we sure do love the little green Army men and Spongebob stuff. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

quote:Originally posted by Rygel:She was also high. I think one could tell the difference btw a restuarant fromnt and an insurance company office building. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. There were 4 employees of the insurance company eating in the restaurant (my g/f watches it but I think I caught that bit). Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

quote:Originally posted by wingryder:"Larry" seems to have this problem solved. Lots of high praise for his usb/serial converter. http://pfranc.com/usb/usb.shtml If this link doesnt work.. do a search in google for Larry's usb wingryder I read somewhere on the internet that this adaptor only supports 1 or 2 of the methods of communication. The one at gpscentral smells much like this one. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

quote:Originally posted by -=(GEO)=-:I'm running Windows XP Pro. The installation of the driver went w/o any problems. Everything was up and running with my Meridian Platinum in about 3 minutes. For details go to http://www.startech.com http://img.Groundspeak.com/user/82972_1100.jpg Looks very much like the Hawking and the IOGear. Almost too much like it! Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

quote:Originally posted by arrowroot:I'm using a Belkin FSU409, and I can't say I'm totally happy with it. Map uploads won't work at 115K, and at 57K it's as like as not to hang up after a couple of minutes. On top of it, it can no longer be found on the Belkin website, and the existing drivers aren't XP certified. _I am Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt. I have many names, you know_ I purchased one of those things yesterday because I wanted to upgrade my Vista to the latest software. I tried everything but couldn't get it to talk to my GPS any faster than 9600 baud in either Mapsource or EasyGPS. Many times the driver crapped out and popped up a error message (same popup in EasyGPS and Mapsource so I'm assuming it's the actual driver software) and I had to reboot the GPS to get it to see it again (so I could try the upgrade over and over again). This afternoon I went to Fry's and got a IOGear GUC232A. It doesn't have certified WinXP drivers but it's been working great at 115200. I even tried upgrading the software just for the hell of it. Man what a difference! No errors and it was 2 minutes instead of 22 minutes (no kidding!). Plus this thing is MUCH smaller than the Belkin. I couldn't find any of the other brands - Sakar or Keyspan. I looked in the Mac section, too. No dice. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

No one's really talked about size yet. For me, if it's too big, I won't take it anywhere. So I got the eTrex Vista and am happy with it. I have no experience with the new Gecko's. Regardless, don't get one that you can't connect to your computer. At the very least, you need to have the ability to upgrade the software as your manufacturer puts new/better versions out and as a convenience, you'll want to download and upload information to/from your receiver to your computer for analysis or just fun. As you get into the sport and the hardware and software more you'll definately find more uses for your gpsr than geocaching. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

quote:Originally posted by hinds2010:Get a Jeep Wrangler with a rag top. Works like a charm (excepting under heavy tree cover). The Jeep or the GPS? Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

quote:Originally posted by Brangwyn, Holly and Cindy:I find it easy to use the bearing pointer, head in the "right" direction on a beaten trail, and wait till the pointer aims perpendicular to the cache, then I turn in that direction and bushwhack. Bzz LOL Ain't that the truth! We do that when we feel very lazy and try to drive to a 1/1 cache. Drive past it, do a u-turn, and park the Jeep and start bushwhacking. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

We've had one for several months and like it a a lot. I guess I need to update my cache finds. If it ain't small then its not coming with me. Sometimes I have a hard time distinguishing my cellphone, gps-r, digi-cam in my pockets cause they're all about the same size and weight!! The only complaint would be reception. But then again I've never owned any other gps-r other than a eTrex yellow and when reception starts getting bad, I go out into a good area, take a rough estimate of the distance, find something stationary that is roughly that far away, and follow the electric compass (i.e. the same as you'd do if you had an analog (paper) map and an analog (magnetic needle) compass, right?). Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

Which "version" of Easy GPS were U using? There's a link in this website for a different "Edition" than the plain vanilla one at easygps.com. They're both version 1.2.2 at the time of this writing. Actually I downloaded both Editions just now. The differences only seem to be when you right-click a waypoint (Control-click on Mac?) the last few menu options are slightly different. The Groundspeak one appear to have some items added specific to Geocaching. The Topografix Edition seems to only have a link to "Print Waterproof Topo Map" which goes to a website to let you instantly pay for the waterproof map. You can run both side by side and they read each others files. Both editions seem to read the same registry settings (I opened up a file in one and it showed in the "recent documents" section of the File menu in the other). I think they should probably have different version numbers and read different registry settings - or just extend one instead of taking away 1 feature. I'll never order a topo map but if I did then I'd think it was stupid to have to run 2 free programs instead of 1 [This message was edited by Buttons Brigade on March 23, 2003 at 10:15 AM.]

I have TLC show on Worlds Best Treasures that has Jeremy and GeoCaching in it if anyone wants a copy on Windows Media Video format.. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

quote:Funny thing about my dog; she went the first few times we took the Jeep offroad but , now, if I so much as open the door of the Jeep, she runs the other way. Oh well. You must have a YJ.. get a TJ (Sorry - couldn't resist. I heard someone say it in the Jeep newsgroups). Of course, I wouldn't know as I have a XJ (Cherokee). Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

I successfully recorded the whole show. Pretty good. One thing that kinda worries me is how many people that aren't into Geocaching are going to look for caches since the cache they found had a $200 gift certificate in it. The show makes it seem like there is buried treasure (i.e. very high *monetary* value) in the caches. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

http://www.garmin.com/products/geko201/ Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

The other 1/3 of Buttons Brigade apparently was watching our local NBC station tonite and 1/2 caught that they were going to have a news segment on Geocaching. She didn't get the time but it's probably Saturday night at 10PM CST. If you go to the station's website you'll see that they already have the link up for Feb 1. http://www.click2houston.com/hou/station/seenon2/stories/kprc-seenon2-120061220020122-100142.html (it's in the links section) Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

http://travel.discovery.com/schedule/anthology.jsp?anthology=5725 It looks like the episode was called "Worlds Best Lost Treasures" and is on again Feb 02 2003 7:00 PM Eastern Time. I'm going to record it off my TV card in my computer to my hard drive Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

Some people don't do things if it's not free. Some people thing something's better if they pay an exorbinant amount of money for it. Some people WANT to pay money to experience something. Some people like/need the hand-holding. There are a lot of things many people can do/experience cheap or free but they'd rather pay for it because it makes them feel better that they did. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...

It's a way for nerds to get away from the computer and outside, therefore geocaching is the anti-nerd. Opinions based on experiences with eTrex Vista...