Importing Files To Magellan Explorist 210

[BelgradeCouple]

OK I received my GPS today in the mail. I downloaded the waypoints from geocaching.com which was an .loc file. I put all of them within 45 miles of my area which amounted to 80. I made them all one file in EasyGPS so it listed all 80 points. When i choose transfer to Magellan 210 it only allows me to write to a file which has a .upt extrnsion. I have tried putting it in the geocaching folder on my gps manually and also imprted them into Magellan Geocache Manager and it said it successfully sent all files. Now I take my GPS outside and go into POI and then Geocaches and I can see the name of a folder I put in there but it looks as thouhg it's empty. I try to search for geocaching points near my location and nothing shows up......I own a computer repair business and thought I would have no problems operating this little device but I need some help, not sure what I'm doing wrong. Please help.

[BelgradeCouple]

Anyone at least know what file format I should be uploading to the GPS ?

[+briansnat]

Moving to the appriopriate forum.

[BelgradeCouple]

OK I figured out what I was doing wrong. I will post an Absolute Newbie Guide for importing geocaches with the Magellan Explorist 210 late tonight or tommorrow.

[kizwit]

Use the Magellan Geocash Manager program which should have come with your unit. Follow the instructions from the online manual (starting on page 69) and you should be able to load all your Geocaches. You can also try The Mapsend Manager program. I havnt tied it yet but it may work for your Geocaches as well as other files you may want to load.

[+embra]

You might find some useful information beyond the manual in the FAQs link in my sig line or this review of explorists.

[+Sanpitch]

I just received my magellan 210 and am having the same problem. So if I can receive that same dummy guide I would appreciate it. I am about to throw this new gps through the wall. I load them in and go to them in the poi and hit enter on them and it looks like there is nothing in there. I am in the same boat.

[+EScout]

If you created a .upt file, this must go in the "My POIs" folder for it to be recognized. When you make a .gs file it should go in the "Geocaches" folder.

I recommend using the GSAK program for making these files.

 

Also, once the files have been transferred, go to active setup and set the POI file and Geocache files you want to show up on the map page. Menu>Preferences>Active Setup and then select files.

[+Prothos]

I have the same gps. I have found the easiest way is to use the software that came on the cd. There is a program designed for adding geocache

[+geognerd]

You mentioned using the .loc files from geocaching.com. The geocaching POIs for the eXplorists are so much more useful if you are a premium member and use the GPX downloads or pocket queries. The geocaching POIs will provide you with difficulty, terrain, date last found, date placed, and the hint. I forget what the maximum length of the hint is. With the .loc files, I think you only get the coordinates and the GCID.

 

Do take note of EScout's reply. What s/he writes is very important and this issue seems to trip up most new eXplorist users. "Regular" POIs (ones that you mark on the receiver or export from the PC to a .upt file) go in the My POIs folder. Even if those Regular POIs were created from geocaching.com's loc files and will be used for geocaching. Only the special Geocaching POIs (.gs files) created from Magellan Geocaching Manager or GSAK should go into Geocaches folder.

 

I don't recommend creating additional folders inside My POIs or Geocaches. That will only add to the confusion. To differentiate between your different batches of POIs, just give the files a different name.

[+Sanpitch]

Thanks everyone has been great. I finally figured it out. Thanks y'all.

[+Prothos]

You mentioned using the .loc files from geocaching.com. The geocaching POIs for the eXplorists are so much more useful if you are a premium member and use the GPX downloads or pocket queries. The geocaching POIs will provide you with difficulty, terrain, date last found, date placed, and the hint. I forget what the maximum length of the hint is. With the .loc files, I think you only get the coordinates and the GCID.

 

 

I load the gpx files on my ipaq. I will try putting them on my gps next time also.

[+ps2gps]

Okay, another newbie with an XL - GCM seems to only take 1 cache at a time. I've d/l'd a couple of .loc files from geocaching.com, then drag & drop ont GCM. Each one loads up as a single line on the display, and the previous one disappears. I don't get it.

 

Any help is appreciated.

[+EScout]

ps2gps:

With the eXplorists, you do not transfer individual waypoints/POIs to the GPSr, you transfer files full of waypoints. You need to combine your waypoints/geocaches and then make one file to transfer. You can use a program such as Easy GPS to combine your .loc files for the Geocache Manager. Better is the program GSAK, where you can File>Load each .loc file and then create a geocache.gs file to transfer.

[+embra]

Okay, another newbie with an XL - GCM seems to only take 1 cache at a time. I've d/l'd a couple of .loc files from geocaching.com, then drag & drop ont GCM. Each one loads up as a single line on the display, and the previous one disappears. I don't get it.

Rather than dropping them onto the GCM icon, open the files from within GCM and check the option to append them to the existing list.

 

GCM is fine to get going, but when you start to tire of its limitations you will probably enjoy the benefits of GSAK. It works very nicely with the explorist.

[+ps2gps]

Thanks, I did the file with append thing - too bad they didn't make that a preference instead of a dialog box option. It did work, though. So now I have 4 geocaches on my XL - found 2 already!

 

I will try GSAK sooner or later - I'm using VPC on my mac for now to run the Magellan tools. It's actually quite straightforward. However, I'd rather run things natively on the Mac (G5, not Intel ) - any Mac based tools that work well with the Magellan?