Geocaching Waypoint Managers On Handhelds

[Slyder6]

I am just about to buy my first GPS. This summer I plan on mainly using it for Geocaching, but it the future I'll be hiking and travelling plenty. My question is whether it's worth jumping up a price bracket to get the "Geocaching Waypoint Manager" feature in handheld GPSs. The Magellan eXplorist is an $85 jump between the 210 and 400 (the 400 also comes with a rechargable battery, SD card capability and a bunch of tother goodies). Considering I will be using it heavily for geocaching at first, do the managers actually make geocaching more enjoyable?

[+YuccaPatrol]

If you are going to be hiking/camping for more than a day, consider how you will recharge the rechargable battery in that Magellan. The fact that those units do not accept standard AA batteries automatically disqualifies them from my shopping list.

 

As you are making your first purchase, also consider one of the Garmin units that also have geocaching functions and accept both alkaline and rechargable AA batteries that can be purchased almost anywhere you can buy a cold can of soda.

Edited April 26, 2006 by YuccaPatrol

[+geognerd]

If you are looking at the eXplorist 210 and 400, wait until Apr 28th. That's when a new rebate promotion will kick in. You will be able to get the 210 for $120 and the 400 for $160 after rebate. The rebate for the 200 (skip it) and 210 will be $30. The 4/5/600/XL will have a $50 rebate.

 

The 210 allows the use of geocaching POIs, just like the 4/5/600. Not too familiar with Garmin's implementation of geocaching POIs, but it sounds like Magellan's solution is better. The eXplorist geocaching POIs include the cache name, date placed, date last found, cache owner, difficulty/terrain, cache type, and the hint. Not quite what you'd get if you were viewing descriptions on a PDA, but definitely better than just a set of coords.

[Slyder6]

Thanks for the tip! How do you guys get information like that?

[+geognerd]

Thanks for the tip! How do you guys get information like that?

What information? Do you mean the cache name, date placed, difficulty/terrain, etc. in the geocaching POI file? That kind of information and much more is in a GPX file. These files are available to premium members (US$30/yr or $3/mo). A GPX file can be downloaded from the cache page individually or it can be the result of a pocket query (up to 500 caches) that gets e-mailed to you. The file is run through GSAK or the Magellan Geocache Manager and exported to the geocache POI format. If you use the .loc file from the cache or search page, you will only get the name of the cache (or is it the GCID?) and the coordinates.

[+Jamie Z]

If you are going to be hiking/camping for more than a day, consider how you will recharge the rechargable battery in that Magellan. The fact that those units do not accept standard AA batteries automatically disqualifies them from my shopping list.

I find this to be a baseless argument. I personally used my Explorist on a seven-week back-country trip. I brought with me a sack of Li-ion AA batteries and a small charging box.

 

My traveling partner brought a GPS which used traditional AA batteries. He brought along a sack of Li-ion AA batteries.

 

I got to start each day out with a fully charged battery. My friend's GPS would often die in the middle of the day and he'd either have to stop and dig batteries out of his pack, or just leave the GPS off the rest of the day.

 

And really, it's the rare geocacher who is away from a power source longer than the typical battery life of the Explorist. How many of you do 17-hour hikes and plan to keep the GPS on all the time?

 

You can also purchase additional battery packs for the Explorist series for <$10 on ebay. Bring two battery packs with you on a hike and I bet you can't run them both dry in a week's worth of hiking.

 

There are a number of reasons to decide against getting an Explorist. The Li-ion battery pack is not one of them.

 

Jamie

Edited April 28, 2006 by Jamie Z

[The Man]

As for your original question, Yes! The geocaching mode on the explorist is great. Especially since they upgraded the firmware. I rarely need to consult my PPC for the cache page. I just use the info on the GPS. You can also mark a cache as found, so when you get home it is easy to pull up a list of all your found caches.

 

I would hold out for the 400, the SD expandability especially when you travel a lot is something I could not do without. I currently have a 1 gig card and have about half the country in maps along with topo's for the states that I need topo info.

 

Jamie is right about the battery. It is a non-issue. I have a charger from Boxwave, like the one Jamie mentioned and it works not only with the GPS but also the PPC and most anything that can charge via a USB port. I could not find the charger on the Boxwave's web site but here is one that is similar.