Paperless with only a Garmin 60CSX?

[+adamthole]

I have a Garmin 60CSX and I would like to view the description, hint, and possibly logs on the GPS unit itself. I have only began toying with the idea and the general way to do this. Is there any software that does this, or something similar already? I did some searching, and didn't find anything that did exactly what I am looking for, GPX Spinner perhaps getting the closest.

 

Does anyone know the limit for characters is in a waypoint note?

[+ThePropers]

I have a Garmin 60CSX and I would like to view the description, hint, and possibly logs on the GPS unit itself. I have only began toying with the idea and the general way to do this. Is there any software that does this, or something similar already? I did some searching, and didn't find anything that did exactly what I am looking for, GPX Spinner perhaps getting the closest.

 

Does anyone know the limit for characters is in a waypoint note?

 

I don't remember the exact characters, but it's not enough to hold the description, and won't even hold a very long hint.

 

There are more characters available using POIs, but again, not nearly enough to do what you're asking.

 

Other than that, I'm not aware of anything. It would be nice though.

[+Timpat]

I have a Garmin 60CSX and I would like to view the description, hint, and possibly logs on the GPS unit itself. I have only began toying with the idea and the general way to do this. Is there any software that does this, or something similar already? I did some searching, and didn't find anything that did exactly what I am looking for, GPX Spinner perhaps getting the closest.

 

Does anyone know the limit for characters is in a waypoint note?

The 60CSx can have 30 characters in the note section.

 

The best way to accomplish what you hope for is to create Custom POIs and use the Garmin Custom POI Loader to send them to your unit, which are stored on its card. A custom POI can hold 132 characters- 44 in the waypoint name field, and 88 in the comment field. It's a far cry from going paperless, but it is pretty cool to have all your POIs along to help this much. I currently have over 20,000 custom POIs loaded of various databases of mine. Do a search for this as there has much written on this subject already.

Edited September 24, 2006 by Timpat

[+adamthole]

Thanks for the quick replies! That is too bad a POI can only contain 88 characters in the comment field, I thought (was hoping) they could hold alot more.

 

Sorry to get slightly off topic, but you say that you have over 20,000 custom POIs loaded. I assume these are retail stores, hotels, etc. Do you reccomend and certain site to download these POIs? I just recently started getting into them and haven't found a quality site for them yet.

Edited September 24, 2006 by adamthole

[+Timpat]

Hi adamthole. Much of what I have are my own POIs I created. I work in the GIS field so I find it easy to export and work with various database files. For example I downloaded all the NGS benchmarks for the eastern half of NY State and used these as one large database (about 6,000 benchmarks) for POIs. I survey using GPS too so these come in handy to have along.

 

I keep all my weekly PQs in one large database for another 1,500 geocaching waypoints. For these I simply used GSAK to manage the waypoints and export them as a .gpx file. I keep a copy of all the caches I have not found for a huge area of New England saved as a POI database in case work or travel takes me to places I might like to cache in. I also keep a file for all my Found caches, and all my Owned caches with all their child waypoints such as parking spots and all the stages of multis. I don't know why, maybe just because I CAN with my 60Cx! Then I have all sorts of others, like all the airports of world that a fellow cacher shared with me.

 

I still carry my trusty PalmIIIxe with all the caches loaded to have ALL the info, but the custom POIs on my 60Cx do quite well on their own. I get enough info to find caches for the most part.

 

Good luck, and check out the custom POI Loader, I think you'll like it.

[+GPS Derek]

knowing nothing about Palm pilots but interested in the paperless thing I have been reading all I can about. Been chcking out Ebay for these things.

 

One unit that keeps coming up is the Palm IIIxe that Timpat mentioned in this thread. When I look on the specs listed on the Ebay page they always list the PC requirerment at Win 95/98 or win NT.

 

Do these work with Win XP?

 

TIA

[+Timpat]

Yes, that's what (WinXP) I'm running and all is well!

[+DustyWalker]

Most of the time I use only my CSx with the cache waypoint and the hint in the comments. Too simple.