Etrex Or Explorist 200. Please Help!

[flintflicker]

I live in northern Arkansas and am new to geocaching. I have found 2 units at walmart a Garmin etrex for $99.00 and an explorist 200 for $117.00. I will use this unit strictly for geocaching in no. AR and So. MO. Which unit would be best for this?

[+Airmapper]

I'm pretty sure that the e-Trex has a port for a data cable, allowing you to download waypoints into it. That a big plus if you want to find several caches in an area.

 

Other than that I'd say either unit is fine for caching.

[+sbell111]

The etrex is easy to learn to use. I have no experience with the other.

[+briansnat]

Do not get the eXplorsit 200, there is no data port. If you get even semi serious about this sport you will find yourself uprading soon.

 

Moving this to the appropriate forum.

[SPKr]

I have the Explorist 200. Granted, there is no way to connect it to a PC, but I can manually load waypoints (POI's in Magellan terms) and have found several caches with it. I may upgrade if I feel the need for more features, but it works fine for me at this point in my geocaching obsession....

 

That, and the fact that my wife bought it for me for Christmas and I would NEVER have her believe I didn't appreciate it.

 

Scott

[+gpsblake]

If you are strictly going to use this for geocaching AND have no need to upload waypoints to a computer AND care less about mapping, get the cheapest unit you can find, it will still be as accurate as any unit on the market. I think the Lowrance GO (the red one) is the cheapest GPS out there followed by the Explorist 100.

 

One thing to remember when manually putting in waypoints manually is to make sure you put in the correct numbers. I used to manually put in each geocaching manually but transposed a number and hiked 3 miles out of the way to find nothing.

[vagabond]

And a good Carpenter measures twice and cuts once.

[+MetroGT]

Actually you can connect the Explorist 200 to a pc, but it requires an aftermarket cable and learning how to transfer the data. Check here for more info: http://pc-mobile.net/mex100.htm

[+ricstone]

i would go with the Etrex yellow because it is very easy to use an like the others say you can get a cable to send waypoint to it. this is what i started with an had very good luck with it. i have never used the Explorer GPS so i cant help you there. good luck

ric

[bisenberger]

I have a Garmin GPS 60 and Magellan eXplorist 400. The Magellan accuracy is a lot better than the Garmin, especially if there is any canopy. Magellan has a $50 rebate on some of their receivers. I got my Magellan eXplorist 400 from Newegg.com. With the $50 dollar rebate it brought the price down to the range of the Garmin GPS 60.

 

Want to buy a Garmin GPS 60 cheap?

[+hogrod]

I bought an explorist 200 the day before I took it back and bought the explorist 210. the reason I took back the 200 was all the posts online about how the unit would sometime loose all its waypoints(a really bad thing since it has no pc connection and you have to enter them manually)

If I had to choose between the cheap GPSr out there, I would choose the ifinder go or the etrex yellow.

[+wolfmanrobby]

I had a 200 I got at Wal-Mart for about 2 weeks. I got tired of manually entering the Waypoints and Cache info. I loved everything else about it.

 

Took it back, got my $149.99 (That was before the price drop) and ordered a 210 from GPSmarketplace.com for $153.00.

 

I love it.

 

-Runs on AA Batteries

-USB connection and Geocaching management software for importing the .loc files.

-Fits your hand nicely

-Controls are well laid out

-Consistently get good signal from Sats.

-Can run on USB power (I have a standard Cig Lighter to USB power adaptor I use for my PDA and MP3 player and now my GPSR)

-Menus are clean, simple.

-Even loads the Cache Logo's from GC.com (Cache box, ghost,"?" Multiple boxes...) on screen for the Geocache.

[+briansnat]

I bought an explorist 200 the day before I took it back and bought the explorist 210. the reason I took back the 200 was all the posts online about how the unit would sometime loose all its waypoints(a really bad thing since it has no pc connection and you have to enter them manually)

If I had to choose between the cheap GPSr out there, I would choose the ifinder go or the etrex yellow.

 

I'd skip the iFinder GO for the same reason I'd skip the eXplorist 100 or 200. No easy way of downloading waypoints or detailed maps.

[+Monkey Toes]

...ordered a 210 from GPSmarketplace.com for $153.00.

 

I love it.

 

-Runs on AA Batteries

-USB connection and Geocaching management software for importing the .loc files.

-Fits your hand nicely

-Controls are well laid out

-Consistently get good signal from Sats.

-Can run on USB power (I have a standard Cig Lighter to USB power adaptor I use for my PDA and MP3 player and now my GPSR)

-Menus are clean, simple.

-Even loads the Cache Logo's from GC.com (Cache box, ghost,"?" Multiple boxes...) on screen for the Geocache.

 

Amen, brother. I've been using my 210 for maybe a month now, and I love it as well. In addition to the above, it locks on to those satellites in less than a minute, and once the WAAS kicks in (a few minutes later I've found) it gets me right on top of the cache. I got mine of Amazon for $160 and free shipping.