DogFleazJR

WGS84 (unless otherwise stated on the cache page, but datums other than WGS84 are very rare.) North as true or magnetic won't affect your ability to find a waypoint. Also, make sure you are using the correct units (lat/lon hddd mm.mmm) and not decimal format.

Wow! I'd like to watch you explain that to the TSA guy!!

I had this problem once when the unit wanted to send me back an entire exit on the NJTP, just to come back to the exit I was getting off at - a useless detour of nearly 30 miles. Even after I exited the highway, and headed away from the turnpike, it STILL wanted me to go back. I turned the unit off and back on again and reselected the waypoint. It was fine after that. I only ran across this that one time. I'm still using my old CS v4 from 2002. I chalked it up to that. Maybe something else is going on...

I am a frequent business traveller and I take my 60CSx with me always. I carry the Garmin suction cup mount. It is easy to stick on, easy to remember to take with, and is light weight. I "unfold" the mount so it is long but thinner and stick it in the end pocket of my carry on. With the new Garmin design, it has not fallen off yet. RAM mounts are also very popular and have a very loyal customer base. There are recent threads on the forum that outline the specific parts you need to buy. For me, the Garmin was just an easier purchase. Windscreen mounts are illegal in California and Minnesota. I have never tried the vent attachments.

What you describe is not unusual. The 60CSx is an excellent GPSr, but all GPS units have limitations and are affected by a number of variants that can cause confusing results. You don't describe the conditions of where you were at the time, but 30 ft is getting close to the accuracy of the unit. One suggestion, make sure the compass is turned off by holding the Page button down. The compass does not work if you are holding the unit up at an angle as is typical when walking. I find the compass is handy when I'm within 100 ft or so of the destination, I then turn it on to get a bearing and then off again. I then use the GPS to narrow down the distance. If you use the compass, make sure it is calibrated and make sure you hold the unit flat and level. I have also found it helpful to stand still for a few minutes when I get close to the cache location to let the unit settle down. Happy trackin'

The link you posted is a screen shot from MapSource, probably CityNavigator or City Select. Sorry, I can't help with Mac software advice. But others here probably can. Also check the FAQ section at the top of the forum. Under Other you can find links to track mapping software.

I use the Garmin suction cup mount for the 60CSx. The suction cup really sucks. The good kind of suck when you are talking about a suction cup. Hasn't fallen off once and it was an easy purchase, no different parts to select, blah blah blah. I also have a 2+ yr old Garmin suction cup mount for my ol' GPS V. It blows (not really, but it doesn't really suck the way you would want a suction cup mount to). It falls off the windscreen every once in a while - very bad thing. The quality of the Garmin mounts has improved over the years. RAM are also very good and obviously have very loyal customers.

Are you sure you can't position it better? You should be able to turn the cradle, and stick the mount to the windshield on an angle. That should allow you to angle the GPS in whatever way you want. It may depend on which suction mount you have. The Garmin suction mount for my GPS V (about 2 yrs old) will not rotate, so it just points straight ahead. The new Garmin suction mount I bought for my 60CSx allows the unit to rotate so you can attach the suction cup to different angled windscreens. This also allows you to mount it to the window at a slight angle so it is pointing at you and then rotate the unit so it is straight up and down as you describe above. I take my mount with me when I travel on business to use in rental cars, so I'm frequently putting it up and taking it down. It is a pain to try and get the angle just right each time so I just stick it back up. To be honest, it is never really an issue, the screen is bright and very readable and from experience I know which button is which without having to read them. I double NightStalker's comment about not searching for POIs while driving. I will pull over if I need to search for anything. It is a great unit, but it's real power is when it is off the highway.

Spyder8, you are correct, the base map is very basic - major bodies of water (e.g. oceans, great lakes), Interstate hiways, US hiways. The renditions are rudimentary straight-line, point to point. If you want to auto-nav, you will need to purchase detailed maps that are auto-nav capable such as Garmin's City Navigator. You can see the levels of detail on Garmin's web site. Also correct, the map sets are unique to each vendor, although there are ways to "hack" maps to make them auto-routable.

Strumble is correct, you need to make sure that Guidance Method under the routing set up is set to Prompted. Then you should get the pop up window that asks for Follow Road or Follow Tracks. The Follow Road Method and Follow Road Options should not affect your ability to TracBack. I have Follow Road Method set to Faster Time and I use TracBack frequently with no problems. Let us know if this is the problem

Bob, try the following: MENU / MENU / TRACKS Highlight tracback and press Enter When the screen comes up you will have the map with your active track log displayed and the message at the botton will say "Select the point you want to TracBack to. Use the toggle to move the pointer to the beginning of your track. If you started your hike by marking a waypoint, you can select that waypoint. You may need to zoom,/pan to find your desired return-to point. A window will open with the choice: Follow Road / Follow Track and a check box for "Don't ask Again." Select Follow Track The map will come back up. Go to the compass screen. The bearing pointer will point you to the next track point. Start following the pointer and it will take you back on the path you came. Sometimes it can be tricky getting yourself and the GPS synched up to get the track back started, but once in motion it will keep pointing you to the next track point. You may notice that the pointer may not point you EXACTLY on the same path on the return. Remember that the GPS recorded your position with error when it recorded your track log and on the track back it is reporting your position with error - so twice the error. It is generally a minor affect. Hope this helps. Happy tracking.

Your post got me thinking. Why leave the altimeter on auto-cal when you have a known elevation to calibrate to? By leaving in auto-cal you will effectively overwrite the known elevation with a “corrected” GPS elevation. But then I started thinking about the effect of changes in barometric pressure on the reported elevation from the altimeter. At elevations below 5,000 ft, each 100 ft increase in elevation is roughly equivalent to a 0.1 in/Hg drop in barometric pressure. Average ranges in barometric pressure are about 0.25 in/Hg vs standard atmospheric pressure of 29.92 in/Hg (with the extremes at +/- 0.5 in Hg). Therefore, if you calibrated your altimeter when the barometric pressure was at standard, and during the course of the day it increased to the top of the typical range, the altimeter would be reading “too low” by 250 ft. What about the GPS? I have read that reported GPS uncertainty in the vertical can be 10X the uncertainty in the horizontal plane. In the bush, the typical EPE of my 60CSx is +/- 18 ft. Sometimes it is better, sometimes even worse. That implies a vertical uncertainty of roughly 180 ft too high or too low. Good news for those in the Mile High city of Denver – at elevations over 5,000 ft each 0.1 in/Hg change corresponds to a smaller elevation change, so barometric pressure changes will have a smaller effect on the altimeter’s reported elevation. My conclusions: 1. If you want accurate elevation data in your tracks you must calibrate the altimeter every time you use the GPS to account for changes in barometric pressure. If you don’t like this hassle, get the Cx rather than the CSx. 2. If you have a known elevation to calibrate to, use it. Leaving the auto-cal on is a toss up between accepting bias as the weather changes or accepting uncertainty by incorporating the GPS signal. 3. A corollary to the point above would be, on “steady” weather days, leave auto-call off, on “changing” days leave it on. 4. If you don’t have a known location to calibrate to, the auto-cal will give you reasonably reliable elevation data for most situations.

Not likely. Air is a mixture of about 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, the balance argon, CO2, organics, and traces of neon, krypton, xenon. The oxygen concentration remains essentially fixed thoughout the troposphere and stratosphere. The only way the oxygen concentration could be higher is if the airline "goosed" it. They don't offer peanuts anymore, good luck with added oxygen. I suspect that the airlines will allow the internal pressure of the cabin to drop because 1) it burns fuel to boost the pressure and 2) lower pressures will help make customers lethargic and a little sleepy. I doubt they will let the pressure drop to a point that it puts ANY customer's health in danger, the liability is just too great these days.

It is true, the S units record barometric elevation in the track log, which is why I like having the barometric altimeter. If the barometer is properly calibrated, it provides a smoother and more realistic representation of elevation changes over the length of the track. Other units (including my ol' GPS V) record GPS elevation as that is the only elevation data available. GPS elevation data is typically very "noisy." As Hurley point out, it is fairly easy to shift elevation after the fact, but correcting for a noisy signal is more challenging. Not sure what you mean by "the barometric elevation is the one that gets "Corrected" by the GPS." Unless I have the unit set to auto calibrate as Apersson suggests, the elevation data is not corrected - it is what the barometric altimeter records.

Technically, only half-way to space. Standard atmospheric pressure = 14.7 psi = 760 mm Hg = 29.92 in Hg Therefore, a 15 in Hg differential would represent half the mercury column or half the height of the atmosphere. I'm not sure the point of this, but there it is.

My two cents (and that is all it is worth) You will want some detailed maps with the 60C series to get the most out of the unit. I suggest the CityNavigator which has detailed street maps and which supports auto navigation. The navigation capability of these units is pretty impressive considering they are hand held and portable. If you spend a lot of time in the back country, especially in the mountains, the TOPO software may be useful to you. If you read through other threads here you will see that a lot of users complain about the lack of detail in the USATopo maps.

You are in a common dilemma. You will get a lot of different advice and the right choice depends on how you will use your GPS the most. Sputnick provided a nice overview of the two most popular choices. My suggestion, for what it is worth, get CityNavigator so that you can auto-route. This will get a lot out of your GPS that you just can't get without the navigation maps. You can still geocache just fine and CN will contain basic info on larger rivers, lakes and streams and will contain most parks and lot of points of interest (POIs). Later, if you find that Topo maps would be helpful you can add the topo CDs. There are other options for auto-navigation maps: older versions of MetroGuide, apparently you can even "trick" your GPS into using the new versions of MG to autoroute. My opinion, FWIW, the low hassle approach is to buy CNv8. I still use CitySelect v4 that came with my GPS V five years ago. It is missing all road changes and additions from the last 6-7 years, but 97% of the time it works just fine and the other 3% it eventually works itself out. Eventually I will update it to CN for the $75. Happy exploring!

I use the track back feature often when hiking to follow previously collected tracks. As BlueDuece says, I typically have the compass screen up which points you to the next track point. But I also changed my default track color to Red as Red90 suggests. To do this: MENU / MENU / Tracks / Set Up / Color.

I could see doing this cache with my son. We find the key, find the cache. We sign the log, put everything back in the cache, lock it up and rehide it. Then I ask J to put the key back where we found it and he tells me, "I already put it back - I put it back in the cache before we locked it up." Got spares?

As my Dad taught me, "locks only keep honest people out." Obviously, caches with locks can be quite successful, and caches where the lock becomes part of the puzzle can be quite clever. But if the idea is to to keep muggles out, I agree with BrianSnat - I think you are better off looking for a better way to hide the cache to protect it. A lock only challenges the less-than-honest to find out what is inside. The utility box is clever, but I suspect it would be just as successful without the pad lock. What are the chances that someone randomly walks up to a utility box, decides to open it, discovers a geocache, and then walks off with the cache? How about the scenario where a geocacher finds the cache and is miffed that it has a lock on it and they didn't bring the combo. Rather than logging a DNF, they just take the cache. That would be a real shame, but is it really less likely than the previous scenario? I'm not suggesting that you can't use a lock, for the majority of caches I just don't see the point.

Follow the link in Sputnik 57's post above to the post by Neo Geo. Neo Geo provides simple, step-by-step instuctions on what to do. Editing the registry "points" the software to the location on your hard drive where you copy the topo files rather than to the CD drive as is the default.

Remove your current Topo installation using Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Create a directory on your harddrive and copy the folders/files from the TOPO cd's to it...run setup. I started down this path last night (before I saw your post today). When I selected Topo and remove program, it removed all of MapSource including CS and I had to reinstall everything. I also had to reinstall the MapSource update. I did not expect that to happen! What a PITA. After reinstalling CS and updating MS, I finally just edited the registry as described by Neo Geo in the linked thread. I hate messing around with registries, but this was quite painless and I would recommend it to other not-at-all computer savy neophytes. If you have already installed Topo, I would definitely edit the registry. If you haven't installed it yet, then rws's approach above may be a good way to go.

I confirmed this at lunch time today as well. Had Lock on Road On the entire trip. Started out from the car and walked down a road for several hundred yards, then cut 90 deg down a foot path for a mile. Came back the exact same route using Track Back. Track back worked wonderfully until I got back to the road, where the GPS insisted I should be far off to the left and off the road. Indeed, once I uploaded the tracks to MapSource, the track on the way out from the car follows the mapped road exactly. The track on the way back to the car is 87 ft to the east of the road! GPS accuracy was consistently +/- 12 to 18 ft. Once I made the cut away from the road, the tracks in and out agree with each other to within the GPS accuracy. So it is true, LOR affects the position reported by the GPS and the track log, not just the display of your position. (It's ok, Red90, we still love you) Once your bearing deviates from the road, the Lock On Road gives up fairly quickly and stays off until you again select a point to navigate to. (it didn't snap me back to the road on the return but logged my "true" position). It is hard to believe one feature could cause so much confusion. In the spirit of better understanding the tool so that it can be used most effectively, however you choose to use it I have summarized the trade-offs of the Lock On Road feature below: For improved reliability while auto-navigating, LOR should be ON. Your tracks will be inaccurate to the extent that your maps are inaccurate, but this generally won't be an issue while auto-naving For accurate track logs along or in close proximity to mapped roads, LOR should be OFF When searching for a waypoint along or in close proximity to mapped roads, LOR should be OFF The rest of the time it doesn't really matter. Select whichever option, ON or OFF, that makes you feel intellectually superior Like Strumble, I have learned something new. Thanks.

When you select Send to Device or Receive from Device under the transfer menu, are you getting the pop up window where you can select Find Device? I use Mapsource with a serial connection with my GPS V and with the USB connection to my CSx.

Thanks. That's it.