did I buy the right unit?

[TnT98]

ok, so last night, I went over to walmart and picked up a GPS. I got a magellan explorist 100, but had a choice of getting a garmin etrex yellow for the same price. We ventured out for our first shot at geocaching once I got home, but unfortunately, we didnt have much success. Using the explorist, I would get within 250ft if the coordinates and wouldnt update any further. My question is, should I try tracking the coordinates by keeping them on the screen instead of using the little route map, or should I just return this one and expect that I can get a more accurate reading out of maps on the garmin??

 

any help or opinions would be great...thanks,

tina

Edited September 21, 2006 by TnT98

[+geognerd]

There's a trade-off between these two receivers. The eXplorist has a superior receiver, so it will perform better in wooded areas and other signal-challenging environments. However, the yellow eTrex can be connected to a computer for coordinate downloads.

 

On whatever GPS receiver you end up with, you should be using the compass page when searching for a cache. Do a GOTO for the cache's waypoint/POI and the compass page will have an arrow pointing to the cache and will give you a distance readout.

 

The map page isn't accurate enough or of a scale large enough for you to successfully find the cache by trying to get your location cursor right on top of the cache point. And using the coordinate screen is difficult too because you constantly have to check how your latitude and longitude compare with the cache's. Much much easier to just follow an arrow.

 

As for the coordinates not updating on your eX100, I have not seen that happen and am not sure what would cause that. Could you describe what you were doing and what was appearing on the screen? Were the coordinates actually stuck and not changing? Was there a message on the screen saying you had lost the GPS signal? Was there a value in the Accuracy box on the coordinate page (when signal is lost, there is no value in the Accuracy box)?.

[+VO2WW]

I cannot comment on the Magellan Explorist 100, but the Garmin eTrex Yellow is a great start out GPS. I would suggest reading the manual, twice. I would venture a guess the Magellan Explorist 100 will get you a lot closer after you figure it out.

[+Images4U]

I started out with the Explorist 200 (Father's Day Gift). It worked really well for finding the caches. But I soon learned that not being able to download from the computer was going to be a problem. So I got me an Explorist 210. With the 210 I can use GSAK to manage my caches & download & print out the caches. Great advantage. So, I'd recommend spending $50 more & getting a 210. I don't know much about the Garmin.

 

When I first start looking for the cache I use the map screen. I can see visually where it is located from where I'm at. As I get closer, I keep zooming in until I get to the 100 FT scale. Then I switch to the compass screen for the final approach. On the compass screen the distance to cache & the accuracy are displayed.It's helpful to know the accuracy once you get to ground zero.

 

If you're walking towards the cache & the distance is not changing, you probably don't have a good signal. The 210 has an alarm that flashes "Poor GPS Signal". That helps me to know what's happening. Also, if you are 250 FT away & walking at a tangent to the cache (think 250 FT radius circle), the display will stay on 250 FT for sometime, before it will start to increase.

 

I'm no expert here, but I hope this helps a little.

[TnT98]

thanks for all the advice!! I think I figured everything out now and figured out what how to use it the RIGHT way...I think that was the whole problem...I was using the "map" feature and therefore made it harder on myself. Ill try again tonight! thanks!

 

~tina