Gpsmap 60 CSx - Minor Annoyances

[+Tharagleb]

There a just a couple of things that annoy me:

1. The dashboard mount: You have to put the clip on the GPS, plug in the power, attach the whole thing to the mount. You need to reverse the process to get the GPS out. You can't just mount the GPS to the dash and then add the power because the cord goes on top of the clip.
   
2. When you route "off road" it goes to the map. I think it should go to the compass page, at least as an option.
   
3. Need an easier way to switch to "off road". It would be nice if it tried to figure this out by itself. Lots of times I have searched for caches with it still doing road routing. This doesn't work
   
4. There is no way to mark a geocache as "unfound" once you find it. It is easy to push the wrong button and mark a cache as found.
   
5. The calendar does not include the time you found the cache. This would be useful for reconstructing a day's worth of caching.
   
6. If you have topo and CN loaded then when you find nearest cities they are all listed twice. Even if you have the topo maps turned off.
   

Not an annoyance but I wish it had a "Favorites" waypoint feature so that I could always have my home coords, work coords etc. They could have then have an option to delete all waypoints except favorites.

[+hurley_108]

I own this unit too, and share many of your frustations. However, there are a couple things I've found out to mitigate a couple of the ones you mention.

 

4: It is, in fact, possible to remark a cache as unfound. Simply open it up, and change the icon back to the closed chest icon. It will now again apear in your unfound caches list.

 

5: True, no time, but it does seem to list them in the order in which they were found, rather than some other order.

[+Tharagleb]

4: It is, in fact, possible to remark a cache as unfound. Simply open it up, and change the icon back to the closed chest icon. It will now again apear in your unfound caches list.

 

Great, thanks. I was hoping I was wrong on at least one of these.

 

5: True, no time, but it does seem to list them in the order in which they were found, rather than some other order.

 

So i can mark this one as "very, very minor" now.

[+Red90]

1. Well it is designed as a hiking handheld GPS, not a car GPS.

 

2. Personally, I think the map is better. You don't want the compass screen until you are very close. I keep "distance to next" as a data field on the map screen.

 

3. From the map screen Menu/recalculate, choose "off road", press enter. Not sure what is hard about that.

[+CJOttawa]

There a just a couple of things that annoy me:

1. The dashboard mount: You have to put the clip on the GPS, plug in the power, attach the whole thing to the mount. You need to reverse the process to get the GPS out. You can't just mount the GPS to the dash and then add the power because the cord goes on top of the clip.
   
2. When you route "off road" it goes to the map. I think it should go to the compass page, at least as an option.
   
3. Need an easier way to switch to "off road". It would be nice if it tried to figure this out by itself. Lots of times I have searched for caches with it still doing road routing. This doesn't work
   
4. There is no way to mark a geocache as "unfound" once you find it. It is easy to push the wrong button and mark a cache as found.
   
5. The calendar does not include the time you found the cache. This would be useful for reconstructing a day's worth of caching.
   
6. If you have topo and CN loaded then when you find nearest cities they are all listed twice. Even if you have the topo maps turned off.
   

Not an annoyance but I wish it had a "Favorites" waypoint feature so that I could always have my home coords, work coords etc. They could have then have an option to delete all waypoints except favorites.

 

Dashmount: I've bought a spare "belt clip" and bolted it to my dash. (theoretically, you could attach with some kind of sticky tape) It's easier to attach the power cable before clipping in but it can be done after. Gotta get a photo of my install one of these days...

 

Set your routing preference to "always ask". When you get near your cache while navigating, hit "recalculate" and select "off-road" when it prompts you for a method. It only adds one more keystroke to a recalc and it's super convenient.

 

I've found some annoyances with maps too. One that really stumped me the other day: it wouldn't find a POI (a restaurant I'd been told about) until I specifically guided it to "use THIS map". I would think it would check all the installed maps. Odd.

 

I'm with you though - all minor annoyances. The CSx is fantastic despite all that.

Edited August 3, 2006 by af895

[jay11]

There a just a couple of things that annoy me:

 

3. Need an easier way to switch to "off road". It would be nice if it tried to figure this out by itself. Lots of times I have searched for caches with it still doing road routing. This doesn't work

 

 

Set the unit to prompt you for either "off-road" or "follow road" when calculating a route in the setup menu.

[+Tharagleb]

Thanks. I do have it set up to prompt. That is not the problem. The main problem is forgetting and leaving it doing on-road routing.

[+Tharagleb]

1. Well it is designed as a hiking handheld GPS, not a car GPS.

 

Gee, thanks for that. Any more obvious observations? My Etrex Legend (which fits in the same mount) does NOT have this problem. It is a hand-held also.

 

2. Personally, I think the map is better. You don't want the compass screen until you are very close. I keep "distance to next" as a data field on the map screen.

 

I find road maps useless in the woods.

 

3. From the map screen Menu/recalculate, choose "off road", press enter. Not sure what is hard about that.

 

Not sure why you think I think that is hard.

[+Miragee]

 

<snip>

 

Not an annoyance but I wish it had a "Favorites" waypoint feature so that I could always have my home coords, work coords etc. They could have then have an option to delete all waypoints except favorites.

I use the Delete By Symbol option to delete the Geocaches and Geocaches Found from my GPSr. Anything I want to keep on the GPSr, like my Home or the final waypoint to a Multi-cache I didn't get to finish, get a different icon. That way they stay on the GPSr all the time.

[+Tharagleb]

 

<snip>

 

Not an annoyance but I wish it had a "Favorites" waypoint feature so that I could always have my home coords, work coords etc. They could have then have an option to delete all waypoints except favorites.

I use the Delete By Symbol option to delete the Geocaches and Geocaches Found from my GPSr. Anything I want to keep on the GPSr, like my Home or the final waypoint to a Multi-cache I didn't get to finish, get a different icon. That way they stay on the GPSr all the time.

 

Okay I will have to play with changing the symbols. Thanks. [is there a Heart symbol?]

[8mmag]

 

2. Personally, I think the map is better. You don't want the compass screen until you are very close. I keep "distance to next" as a data field on the map screen.

 

I find road maps useless in the woods.

 

 

Topo maps are useful in the woods, even if they do occasionally have a road on them

[+Red90]

2. Personally, I think the map is better. You don't want the compass screen until you are very close. I keep "distance to next" as a data field on the map screen.

 

I find road maps useless in the woods.

 

It is not for the map data itself (although Topo maps are usefull), it is to see where you have gone to plan the best route to your destination (not just a straight line). You can see the contour of the trail you are on to see if it looks like it will go to the cache.

[+Red90]

Not sure why you think I think that is hard.

 

Umm because you said........

 

[*]Need an easier way to switch to "off road".

[+Tharagleb]

2. Personally, I think the map is better. You don't want the compass screen until you are very close. I keep "distance to next" as a data field on the map screen.

 

I find road maps useless in the woods.

 

It is not for the map data itself (although Topo maps are usefull), it is to see where you have gone to plan the best route to your destination (not just a straight line). You can see the contour of the trail you are on to see if it looks like it will go to the cache.

 

I will keep that in mind. I do use the map page to back-track to the trail and/or my car. So far my experience with topo maps has been that they never have the trail I am on. I guess when I am more experienced with them the contours will be helpful. (I can read the contours but I don't get that much out of them.)

 

I use the compass in the woods to try and determine the correct trail to take, it works about 30% of the time so I guess flipping a coin would be better.

[+Tharagleb]

Not sure why you think I think that is hard.

 

Umm because you said........

 

[*]Need an easier way to switch to "off road".

 

 

I could have meant it was already easy but I wanted it to be easier. I did not use the word "hard".

 

The fact is I just don't like the way it works although I am not sure how I would change it.

[+CheshireFrog]

2. Personally, I think the map is better. You don't want the compass screen until you are very close. I keep "distance to next" as a data field on the map screen.

 

It would be hot if when you opt to route off-road it automatically switched to the topo map rather than CN. Otherwise, I'd rather use the compass page.

[+Red90]

If you don't choose "prompted" and force it to go to off-road always, it goes straight to the compass page.

[+hurley_108]

4: It is, in fact, possible to remark a cache as unfound. Simply open it up, and change the icon back to the closed chest icon. It will now again apear in your unfound caches list.

 

Great, thanks. I was hoping I was wrong on at least one of these.

 

The more I think about it, the more i'm convinced it's a little disingenuous of Garmin to advertise these units as "geocaching ready." What they've done is given us two icons for caches, one "find" category which finds those waypoints with one of the two icons, and added a couple of macros, essentially, to do thinks like change the icon from unfound to found for you, make a calendar entry for you, and find-the-next-nearest-waypoint-with-a-specific-icon for you. They don't allow for multiple icons to represent the multiple inds of caches (trad, multi, unknown, virtual, waymark, etc). They don't give you much room to store, on-unit, info like type, size, terrain/difficulty, let alone descriptions and hints, you've got 14 characters of waypoint name and 25 characters of waypoint description if I'm not mistaken.

 

I don't even think it would be that difficult for them to add a lot of useful capability. Instead of just one pair of icons, give us, say 8. We can make our own custom icons and chose which ones suit our hunting styles best. Give us, say, 1000 characters of description in a scrollable field. We can use GSAK or whatever other software we want to configure the description to our liking. I'm not asking for ebook, html, look-like-the-cache-web-page type function. Just a small expansion of current capabilities. Move waypoints over to map memory if they have to.

 

Eh. Sometimes I wonder if I'd be happier with no geocaching mode at all, then at leat I could say to myself "I'm using this unit oustide of the manufacturer's intentions, any limitations on that use are my problem to sove." Instead they give us the bare minimum so they can get another sales pitch in.

 

\vent

[+Prime Suspect]

They don't allow for multiple icons to represent the multiple inds of caches (trad, multi, unknown, virtual, waymark, etc). They don't give you much room to store, on-unit, info like type, size, terrain/difficulty, let alone descriptions and hints, you've got 14 characters of waypoint name and 25 characters of waypoint description if I'm not mistaken.

You can store type, size terrain and difficulty right in the cache name. In my GPX loader, I have it set to create names like GCZB4H-TR2.2+

That a Traditional cache, Regular size, Difficulty 2, Terrain 2½

[Neo_Geo]

Not an annoyance but I wish it had a "Favorites" waypoint feature so that I could always have my home coords, work coords etc. They could have then have an option to delete all waypoints except favorites.

My solution to this is to name my most frequently used waypoints as addresses:

123 Main St

7654HicktownRd

 

Or simply put a 0 (Zero) in front of the name:

0 Home

0Work

0 Watering Hole

 

They always come up 1st in the list!

 

When it comes time to clear out the waypoints, save them to MapSource, clear the GPSr's waypoints, delete the un-numbered waypoints in MapSource (leaving the ones at the top of the list), then send the numbered ones back up to the GPSr.

 

Also, if you press the "Find" button twice, you'll get a list of most recently used waypoints.

Edited August 4, 2006 by Neo_Geo

[+LandRover]

"Not an annoyance but I wish it had a "Favorites" waypoint feature so that I could always have my home coords, work coords etc. They could have then have an option to delete all waypoints except favorites."

 

Use the Custom POI feature and create a catigory called Home. As long as you leave the Home.GPX file in your Custom POI folder on you PC the Home POI will remain in your GPSr. Or name the catagory "Favorites" instead of Home.

[+Hynr]

[*]The dashboard mount: You have to put the clip on the GPS, plug in the power, attach the whole thing to the mount. You need to reverse the process to get the GPS out. You can't just mount the GPS to the dash and then add the power because the cord goes on top of the clip.

I find the unit gets great reception anywhere in the car so I generally have mine on my lap or in the cup holder. I don't mess with the power cord; I can have the unit on all day and change batteries once at most. That's much simpler than changing the power cable 40 or 50 times

[*]When you route "off road" it goes to the map. I think it should go to the compass page, at least as an option.

I concur. I found that in those instances, as the map comes up, if I push the Quit button, it switches to the compass page. That's pretty quick, but since I want it on the map page about half the time and the compass page the other half, I guess that mind-reading would be the requested feature

[*]Need an easier way to switch to "off road". It would be nice if it tried to figure this out by itself. Lots of times I have searched for caches with it still doing road routing. This doesn't work

Here is my method: Find, Find, Enter, Enter, DownArrow, Enter That may not seem a faster, but I can do that without looking at the unit.

[*]There is no way to mark a geocache as "unfound" once you find it. It is easy to push the wrong button and mark a cache as found.

I gave up on the "geocache feature" - it's too primitive for my needs

Not an annoyance but I wish it had a "Favorites" waypoint feature so that I could always have my home coords, work coords etc. They could have then have an option to delete all waypoints except favorites.

The custom POI features is perfect for this, but even before that came along I always had a few extra waypoints (including home) in my GSAK database that always get included.

[+WxGuesser]

This topic will be really awesome for me when I win my new 60cx... you know the jeep tb contest..

[+Hynr]

WxGuesser, I note your sig line and I am going to go out on a limb and say that it is just a matter of time before you will convince yourself (and perhaps a significant other) that you NEED a 4th GPSr in your arsenal. I mean... ...what are you going to do if you have 3 friends along; it would be downright asocial not to have another GPSr. You can't just sit around and wait for some silly contest when you really havn't had a decent new toy since Christmas. Am I right?....

[+hogrod]

There a just a couple of things that annoy me:

 

1. When you route "off road" it goes to the map. I think it should go to the compass page, at least as an option.

 

2. Need an easier way to switch to "off road". It would be nice if it tried to figure this out by itself. Lots of times I have searched for caches with it still doing road routing. This doesn't work

 

3. There is no way to mark a geocache as "unfound" once you find it. It is easy to push the wrong button and mark a cache as found.

 

I totally agree with number 1, I also own a legendC and this does goto the compass screen when routing offroad.

 

number 2 on the other hand can't be much easier... it's three button pushes, you obviously just need to use the unit more. when navigating on road, hit menu, recalculate, choose offroad.

 

number 3, I stopped using the not so great geocache features that garmin uses. I prefer to use my own custom icons that reflect cache type, and I include the hint in the note section(well at least what will fit). the first MAJOR issue I had with the garmin geocache feature was the layout of the compass page with note/found..... found is highlighed by default which is the most annoying thing when you bump a button..... come on garmin at least make the note default!

also as others have said they should allow more than two icons for the geocache features. I can set my custom icon for regular cache for use with geocache features, and also one for a found regular cache, then none of the other cache types can use garmins geocache mode. I guess another thing is why do I have to go through the trouble of uploading custom icons for cache types, shouldn't garmins geocache manager already have them? open/closed treasure box? lame if you ask me.

[+hurley_108]

You can store type, size terrain and difficulty right in the cache name. In my GPX loader, I have it set to create names like GCZB4H-TR2.2+

That a Traditional cache, Regular size, Difficulty 2, Terrain 2½

 

Uh huh, and how do you put the cache description (long OR short) into your GPSr? How do you put the hint in? The default description loading with MapSource is cache name and owner, but even that usually runs out of room somewhere in the middle of the owner's name. How do you get it to display a list of only traditional caches?

[+CJOttawa]

You can store type, size terrain and difficulty right in the cache name. In my GPX loader, I have it set to create names like GCZB4H-TR2.2+

That a Traditional cache, Regular size, Difficulty 2, Terrain 2½

 

Uh huh, and how do you put the cache description (long OR short) into your GPSr? How do you put the hint in? The default description loading with MapSource is cache name and owner, but even that usually runs out of room somewhere in the middle of the owner's name. How do you get it to display a list of only traditional caches?

 

You don't, at least not as a waypoint.

 

Custom POI's give you 88 characters for the description and another 44 in the title I believe. Plenty for BASIC descriptions - at least better than a waypoint. Back to the problem with custom POI's though: can't view directly on the map unless zoomed WAY in. If it weren't for that, they'd actually be useful for caching - even better, you can store an unlimited amount of them up to your memory limit.

 

Still relying on an old Palm m130 here for now.

Edited August 4, 2006 by af895

[+WxGuesser]

WxGuesser, I note your sig line and I am going to go out on a limb and say that it is just a matter of time before you will convince yourself (and perhaps a significant other) that you NEED a 4th GPSr in your arsenal. I mean... ...what are you going to do if you have 3 friends along; it would be downright asocial not to have another GPSr. You can't just sit around and wait for some silly contest when you really havn't had a decent new toy since Christmas. Am I right?....

 

Yeah but I've recently picked up another hobby... that is much more expensive than caching. i need more gear for this new hobby. I already have plenty of gear for caching, but not enough for my photography.

 

check out some of the pics i've taken lately

 

www.kevinchurch.smugmug.com

[+Tharagleb]

Thanks to all for the comments. Very helpful.

[+Prime Suspect]

You can store type, size terrain and difficulty right in the cache name. In my GPX loader, I have it set to create names like GCZB4H-TR2.2+

That a Traditional cache, Regular size, Difficulty 2, Terrain 2½

 

Uh huh, and how do you put the cache description (long OR short) into your GPSr? How do you put the hint in? The default description loading with MapSource is cache name and owner, but even that usually runs out of room somewhere in the middle of the owner's name. How do you get it to display a list of only traditional caches?

Oh, sorry. Apparenty if there's not a solution for all problems simutaniously, then you don't want any solutions at all. Got it. I'll file that away for future reference.

[+Miragee]

You can store type, size terrain and difficulty right in the cache name. In my GPX loader, I have it set to create names like GCZB4H-TR2.2+

That a Traditional cache, Regular size, Difficulty 2, Terrain 2½

Uh huh, and how do you put the cache description (long OR short) into your GPSr? How do you put the hint in? The default description loading with MapSource is cache name and owner, but even that usually runs out of room somewhere in the middle of the owner's name. How do you get it to display a list of only traditional caches?

I use GSAK to put the coordinates in my GPSr. Using this code,

 

%smart %con1%typ1%dif1%ter1

 

I get a shortened version of the cache name. Then I know the Size of the Container and the Type of the cache, followed by the Difficulty and Terrain based on a 10-point scale.

 

In the "Waypoint description format" blank, I use the code '%hint' to get the cache hint.

 

Unless I am looking for a Multi-cache, or a Virtual, I usually have enough information on my GPSr to find the cache.

 

For the cache descriptions, I have in inexpensive Palm M500 loaded with Cachemate.

[+cachedasher]

I use GSAK to put the coordinates in my GPSr. Using this code,

 

%smart %con1%typ1%dif1%ter1

 

For the cache descriptions, I have in inexpensive Palm M500 loaded with Cachemate.

 

I think the guy who was showing his idea earlier was using:

 

%code %typ1%con1%dif%ter

 

to get the waypoint name instead of wasting space on the %smart name. Also, in YOUR case, I would recommend using %shortname rather than %smart because the descriptions don't have to be unique.

 

Anyway, you guys have been GREATLY helpful with those ideas. I never thought about putting that info in the description before. I always forget about those tags and how much cool stuff you can do with them.

 

Having the typ, con, diff and terr in the description will be fantastic when I forget to bring my Zire 31 with Cachemate on it, or if I forget to keep that baby charged...

[+hurley_108]

Oh, sorry. Apparenty if there's not a solution for all problems simutaniously, then you don't want any solutions at all. Got it. I'll file that away for future reference.

 

That's not what I meant. Certainly GSAK and/or other programs can be made to include type/size/terrain/difficulty info in the name or description, and that would be very useful. It's a good suggestion, and a pretty good solution. I've got custom POIs going which give me size/type/terrain/difficulty, and however much hint fits in the rest of the space.

 

My issue is that it seems as though Garmin basically wrote a couple of scripts to perform certain actions for you, called it "geocaching mode," slapped a "geocaching ready" graphic on the pages of new units, and thus advertised them as "geocaching units." Sure, they're timesavers, and I'm thankful for them. I'm also thankful for Garmin's generosity in providing lifetime free firmware upgrades (at least as long as they keep selling the unit, then the upgrades stop).

 

My beef is Garmin's disingenuous claims. Your suggestion, I would argue, supports my position, since it will work on even those units that predate Garmin's "Geocaching Ready" stuff. GSAK and whatever other programs do MORE than Garmin, and yet Garmin is making these claims. There's a lot more to geocaching than found vs unfound, and when you found it (two icons that they change for you and auto calendar entry), and their geocaching capabilities don't do much for the rest of it. Check out their sales pitch here. They say "Garmin manufactures several lightweight, rugged, waterproof GPS handhelds perfect for geocaching." I say the abundance of addon programs illustrates the lack of perfection, and the limitations in whay they've offered us.

 

I just think that there's an element of misleading advertising going on here.

[+Tharagleb]

I am wondering if anyone has other minor annoyances (not bugs) that they would like to add to my list.

[+justbob]

I just got my 60 csx last night. I used Easy GPS to load the caches. They now show up as waypoints. Can someone point me to info on how to import the caches as geocaches? On a related subject the whole geocaching function confuses me. When I go to geocaching setup nothing really happens.

 

As with most poeple, my initial impressions have been quite positive. I zeroed out right on top of ac ache, while the eTrex Vista was pointed 26 feet away!

 

thanks - justbob

[+Prime Suspect]

I just got my 60 csx last night. I used Easy GPS to load the caches. They now show up as waypoints. Can someone point me to info on how to import the caches as geocaches? On a related subject the whole geocaching function confuses me. When I go to geocaching setup nothing really happens.

 

As with most poeple, my initial impressions have been quite positive. I zeroed out right on top of ac ache, while the eTrex Vista was pointed 26 feet away!

 

thanks - justbob

Geocaches are waypoints. If you want to use the geocaching functions, you need to upload them using the geocache waypoint symbol.

[+Sputnik 57]

Can someone point me to info on how to import the caches as geocaches? On a related subject the whole geocaching function confuses me. When I go to geocaching setup nothing really happens.

 

thanks - justbob

Take a look at the Geocaching Section in the FAQ. Not mentiones there, but you need to have the unit set to "off road" for the geocaching function to work.

 

 

To get the GPSr to prompt you for "follow road" or "off road" Press MENU » MENU » 'Setup' » ENTR » 'Routing' » ENTR, and set Guidance Method (the first drop down) to "Prompted".

 

[+CJOttawa]

I am wondering if anyone has other minor annoyances (not bugs) that they would like to add to my list.

 

I wouldn't have thought of this one until today.

 

I needed to calculate "sun's true bearing" for a local cache and then project a shadow from the top of a air navigation beacon tower to the point where the cache was.

 

I found it but had to do the calculations at home using dead-reconing altitude and azimuth tables.

 

My annoyance: the 60CSx has the ability to find this information; it's simple math and you can already enter a date, time and position and have it tell you sunrise/sunset, position of sun in sky etc. I'd REALLY like that page to have the option of a sun's true bearing display. All the underlaying data should be the same but it just shows an illustration of the sky, nothing numeric. Grumble.

[+justbob]

Can someone point me to info on how to import the caches as geocaches? On a related subject the whole geocaching function confuses me. When I go to geocaching setup nothing really happens.

 

thanks - justbob

Take a look at the Geocaching Section in the FAQ. Not mentiones there, but you need to have the unit set to "off road" for the geocaching function to work.

 

 

To get the GPSr to prompt you for "follow road" or "off road" Press MENU » MENU » 'Setup' » ENTR » 'Routing' » ENTR, and set Guidance Method (the first drop down) to "Prompted".

 

 

Thanks for the advice. I do have it set it up with Prompted for the Guidance Method. I guess my question really is how to upload the waypoints so they are listed when I go Find, Geoaches? I used Easy GPS (an older version).

Edited August 6, 2006 by justbob

[+Miragee]

As Prime Suspect said here, you have to upload the cache waypoints as Geocaches with the Geocache symbol.

 

Are you getting .gpx files in Pocket Queries and opening them in EasyGPS and then sending those to your GPS? They should have the Geocache Treasure Chest icon.

[+Prime Suspect]

And the "geocache icon" is not necessarily the geocache icon. You can define it to be whatever you want in the GPS. So if you've mucked around with that setting, and changed it to, say, the Trailhead icon, the geocaches you upload won't show up when you use the geocaching apps in the GPS, since it now thinks that only those waypoints with the Trailhead icon are geocaches.

[+justbob]

And the "geocache icon" is not necessarily the geocache icon. You can define it to be whatever you want in the GPS. So if you've mucked around with that setting, and changed it to, say, the Trailhead icon, the geocaches you upload won't show up when you use the geocaching apps in the GPS, since it now thinks that only those waypoints with the Trailhead icon are geocaches.

 

OK. Now I understand a little more. For some reason, the icons that EasyGPS assigned are not all the same. Many of them are the geocache icon, but not all. And I had changed the default icon on theGPSr. Once I got the icons in alignment it seems to work.

 

Thanks all for the help - Bob