tomm2

I think the GPS units are more reliable than your (or at least my) speedometer. I currently own two Honda automobiles and previously had a third. Every external device that I have ever used to measure my speed in a Honda ( several GPS units as well as many radar speed readout installations on the side of the road ) has indicated my speed was about 4-5 MPH slower than what my speedometer indicates. I'm curious if others have done similar "calibrations" and if this is just a Honda thing or if other manufacturers have similar issues. TM

I discovered this Lowe sunglasses case (see link below) exactly fit my GPSMap 60CS as well as my old Garmin GPS V. It's not very expensive and has belt loops for horizontal and vertical wear as well as a clip to go on a belt loop, D ring or carabiner. I found mine in a local bike shop, but BeyondBikes has one too at this link http://www.beyondbikes.com/BB/ItemDesc.asp?IC=ch1-lowecase TM

Since the 60csx is waterproof (An IPX-7 designation means the GPS case can withstand accidental immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes), I filled a big mixing bowl with water and put the 60csx underwater and applied the Invisibleshield underwater. Pulled it out with no air bubbles and then let everything dry out.

I recently bought a Garmin c340 and it is great. I wrote a review on Amazon.com Since the link above isn't directly to my review you'll need to click on the reviews link and then look for the title, which is "Very easy to use and quick to acquire satellites, November 16, 2006"

I recently bought a Garmin c340 and it is great. I wrote a review on Amazon.com Since the link above isn't directly to my review you'll need to click on the product reviews link and then look for the title, which is "Very easy to use and quick to acquire satellites, November 16, 2006"

I too have had excellent service from GPSDiscount.com. I have purchased my last two GPSr units from them as has a good friend of mine.

No, I removed the first and last parts of the track log in MapSource for purposes of hilighting the offending area. This section of the track log was squarely in the middle of the 6-hour long >100 mile track. TM

Start CG1 Old Cabin Balancing Rock GCQOWY (Bright Star Cache) CG2 CG1 End TM

Here is an image of the track log as it came from the 60CSX internal memory into NG Topo: Here is an image of the track log as it came from the memory card into MapSource: Pay no attention to the renamed or missing waypoints.

I thought of that - maybe I hit the wrong button at some point, but the track prior to the missing off-road segment and the track after the missing segment were intact on the internal memory log. It's like the off-road segment never happened for the internal log. Twilight Zone material...

Track logs in excess of 10000 points aren't necessarily rare. I was recently on a daylong excursion and had my 60CSX set to log track data to the microSD data card. On that ~6 hour trip of 108 miles - mostly auto travel with some hiking - the track log stored on the data card had more than 13000 track points. TM

I don't understand this. There is no setting I can discern that allows independent viewing or configuration of internal track logs -vs- external track logs. There is only a Track Log screen with a settings button. There used to be a specific setting to enable track logs to be stored on the external card, but since upgrading to SW version 2.7, I can't seem to find it.

Background: I was recently on a combined car/hike adventure in the Paiute mountains between the Mojave desert and Tehachapi, CA. I had my 60CSX along with me and had enabled the track log at the beginning of the daylong trip, storing the log on the 512MB microSD card. Here's the issue... Part of the day included a couple of hikes off the road. When I got home and downloaded the track log to Mapsource (and NG Topo) one of the off-road hiking segments was missing, the second one was shown in the track log. I finished with the track downloading and removed the track logs from the 60CSX. I then took the microSD card out of the 60CSX and plugged it into the card reader on my PC. The raw track log data was still there in the form of a file named "20060429.gpx" (the filename corresponds to the date of the track log) - it hadn't been deleted even though the logs were no longer visible on the 60CSX. I copied this file to my PC and imported into MapSource and there was the entire track, including the missing off-road hike segment. I originally thought that this was caused by my not having disabled "Lock on Road". But then I realized that the second off-road hiking segment had not dissappeared from the track I originally downloaded. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas why this might be happening? I'm using the 2.62 Beta SW from Garmin. TM

I have used both of these products. I have long hated the Delorme user interface. It is probably the single most unintuitive, obtuse interface I have ever encountered - except for an astronomy program by the name of SkyTools (which overall is a good application, BTW), but that is a topic for elsewhere. Since NG Topo and Google Earth both have the very cool 3D capability now, I will likely not be getting the new Delorme Topo release. Regarding NG Topo - a fundamental flaw in the NG Topo! application affects users who also want to use Pocket Topo! on a Palm or Pocket PC PDA device. Specifically, there is no way to transfer waypoints from the PC-based Topo! application to Pocket Topo!. For example, say you have used GSAK to take a whole nest of geocaches in a GPX file and convert them to a nest of Topo! compatible waypoints so you can see them on a PC-based Topo! map. Great! However, if you then want to transfer those waypoints to your PDA to take with you - you are out of luck. This has been a known issue for a looooong time. Frankly, I'm amazed with this glaring omission, especially since it severely limits the usefulness of NG Topo!. I've had email correspondence with Topo! support regarding this issue, but they are pretty insistent that they won't fix it. Alan2 in this forum has a slightly convoluted but usable workaround for this limitation in NG Topo which will work for a few waypoints but is tedious for an more than a handful. TM

This past weekend I travelled several hundred miles from my normal haunts to go camping in the Mojave desert. My 60CSX achieved a good WAAS 3D positiion within a few seconds but as I was navigating to a geocache, the direction of travel arrow cursor shown on the map tended to be 180 degrees off (pointing opposite to my direction of travel) about half the time and was pointing in random directions for the remaining 50% of the time. Recalibrating the compass fixed the problem. I don't know if this issue was caused by me upgrading the software on my unit or was caused by me using the unit in a location that was a significant distance from my previous location, but if you notice a wild direction of travel arrow then recalibrate your compass.

If you want to see someone get the simplest thing wrong - tell it to a journalist. TM

I discovered this Lowe sunglasses case (see tinyurl link below) exactly fit my GPSMap 60CS as well as my old Garmin GPS V. It's not very expensive and has belt loops for horizontal and vertical wear as well as a clip to go on a belt loop, D ring or carabiner. I found mine in a bike shop, but Campmor has one too at this link http://tinyurl.com/4xkx4 TM

Ditto on the fantastic Garmin customer service. My story: When the 60CS unit was introduced a couple of years ago I got one and convinced a friend of mine to get one too. Mine always worked well but he was always complaining about his not acquiring satellites or losing signal when walking under even a light leaf canopy. I figured he was mischaracterizing the conditions or was using the unit in canyons or some such thing. Then he happened to be in town and brought his 60CS with him. I tried it out and he was right! His unit's signal acquisition was miserable. Side by side with my unit, when my unit was tracking 12 satellites with strong signals, his would be tracking 5 with weak signals. I called Garmin on his behalf and explained the situation to the Tech Support person and that the unit had performed like this since it was new 2 years ago. They extended the warranty period, we sent the 60CS in for service and Garmin replaced the unit with one that performs just like mine. Garmin is fantastic at standing behind their products! TM

That's for sure. I used to have a Garmin GPS V that I loaded with topo maps of the Mojave desert. My friends and I were out on a free-form hike (aka "wandering around the desert") and found ourselves far away from any known place. We were faced with a choice of backtracking to get back to the car or to keep going and hope to hit a road. Luckily, when looking in one particular direction, I spotted what looked like an "extra" contour line on that black and white display. I surmised that it might be a road, so we went in that direction and, sure enough, intersected a road that eventually took us back to where our car was parked. Subsequently, looking at detailed maps of the area, I discovered that we intersected that road at the only possible place we could ever have seen it, as it looped around the point of a ridge. There were *no* other roads for miles in any direction that we could have walked to unless we backtracked. So, the net-net is that the GPS led us to where we wanted to be along the most interesting and convenient route, but it pays to know your GPS unit. It was only because I was familiar with the display of topo maps on the unit that I was able to discern a possible road from just another contour line. TM

One feature I pinged Garmin about a year ago or so was the ability to set proximity alerts not just on individual waypoints, but on entire classes of waypoints (like geocaches). So far though, no show. TM

... Any idea what "alert circles" are?

Beware of using power tools for this kind of buffing. Depending on the buffing material, pressure and RPM's, powered buffing can quickly (faster than you can react) generate significant heat - enough to melt plastic. TM

I've never used this technique on a GPS unit, but I've successfully used metal polish (specifically, brass polish) on other clear plastic screens to get rid of scratches.

They've already had a lot of time on this one. I (and others) have been beefing to them about it for at least a year and a half. TM

Just a note of warning regarding NG Topo! - A fundamental flaw in the NG Topo! application affects users who also want to use Pocket Topo! on a Palm or Pocket PC PDA device. Specifically, there is no way to transfer waypoints from the PC-based Topo! application to Pocket Topo!. For example, say you have used GSAK to take a whole nest of geocaches in a GPX file and convert them to a nest of Topo! compatible waypoints so you can see them on a PC-based Topo! map. Great! However, if you then want to transfer those waypoints to your PDA to take with you - you are out of luck. This has been a known issue for a looooong time. Frankly, I'm amazed with this glaring omission, especially since it severely limits the usefulness of NG Topo!. I've had email correspondence with Topo! support regarding this issue, but they are pretty insistent that they won't fix it. TM