Is there a "Stupid Mistakes with my GPS" thread?

[+JSWilson64]

Stupid Mistake:

When playing with your new GPS receiver, don't forget to latch the MicroSD card slot closed, or you might spend a while reinstalling your unlock codes because you get a "Your GPS does not support map transfer" message. And then get frustrated because it doesn't work. And then spend a while with Google until you smack yourself in the head when you figure it out.

 

Don't ask me how I know. ->

Edited November 17, 2006 by JSWilson64

[+markp99]

Don't lay your GPS on the ground when you go to grab your camera from your pack - you might strp on it! Actually there is some law of nature that says you WILL strp on it.

 

$93 later, I have my eXp500 back in with a brand new LCD display - ugh!

[ossumguywill]

stupid mistake- don't put your gps on a slippery rock in the middle of a creek while looking in your pack. But it's okay. It drifted a little farther up the creek but I got it and it worked fine... thank goodness for waterproofing!

[+Night Stalker]

Don't purchase an after market belt clip for your Garmin 60CS when the factory belt clip breaks. You might be cashing on a hillside along a river and have it come out and bounce all the way down the hill and into the river. I was glad that the 60CS doesn't float. It stuck in the mud in the water so I was able to climb down and retreive my GPS. It survived which surprised me since it also bounced off of a number of trees on the way down.

[+Kabuthunk]

Daaaaamn. And I thought I had bad luck. Well... added bonus, at least I always use actual Garmin belt clips and the buttons to go with it

 

But the worst I do is... more times than I can even count at this point... when looking at the GPS, I turn to follow the cache, and end up walking in the exact opposite direction than I'm supposed to

 

Daniel Boone I'm not

[+GPS Derek]

You should actually read what your reseting when you "reset all" on your new garmin 60cx. If you don't read what's reseting as your in a hurry and doing it while walking then you could reset your newly entered waypoints.

 

Luckily I was going on a hike not geocaching. No computer in the campground so I had to manually enter them from the paperlogs... before paperless.

[+geognerd]

If you set your GPSr on the roof of your car for a moment, remember to pick it up before driving off. I forgot, and it flew off the roof at a stop sign and landed in the intersection. Got run over by a Ford Explorer. The unit got scuffed and the display had two black lines going across the bottom. Otherwise everything worked fine. Magellan kindly replaced the display for no charge.

[+hukilaulau]

along the same line... Don't sit down by an open cache you've just found and talk to your wife on your cell phone, then close the cache and carefully put it back, then walk back to your truck and wonder where your cell phone is (Yes I really did. Fortunately it was a short walk back to the cache.)

[+knoffer]

Don't go out and hide a cache and set down your unit and take notes.

 

This actually happened to a cacher friend of mine. He got back to his truck and realized he didn't have his GPSr. He went back to where he thought he hid the cache and couldn't find the cache or his GPSr.

 

He went to the store and bought another GPSr entered the coordinates from his notes, gets to GZ and there is his GPSr sitting on top of the cache.

 

So what does he do?? He puts the new GPSr he just bought into the cache as a FTF prize..

[+EraSeek]

Don't ever, ever, put your GPS on the roof of your car, unless it is a Garmin 12 because those things are bulletproof!

 

Don't forget to zip up your GPS carrying case while you are walking to an island or you might just lose your Map76 forever!

[Christopher Columbus]

Don't leave your 1 month old "state of the art" 60CSx in your van while you are at work, not knowing there is a hungry mouse lurking around inside. It will chew all the rubber off the antenna and leave you very p@!!%# off!

You will then have to send it back to garmin and listen to the tech support guy's laugh in the background about the incident.

Your only consolation is when you catch the culprit in a live trap the next morning and drive over it with your car. Ahhhh...revenge is sooo sweet!!!!!

 

[+embra]

Don't get me going on rodents...we have had multiple expensive repairs involving squirrels and catalytic converters and fuel lines. But that's another thread.

 

Along the lines of the GPS on top of the car...I have learned to put it--and anything else I may be carrying--on the hood, where I can see that I have once again forgotten to stash them inside.

 

And as a contribution to stupid mistakes (I'm glad to report I have learned from the experiences of others on this one): dinna leave your expensive electronics baking on the dashboard of your solar oven while you go do something else.

[+markp99]

I've left my Leki trekking pole stuck in in the ground at a cache (twice!), only to realize my mistake AFTER I was back at my car, or had begun to embark on my next cache hunt miles away.

 

Do'h!

[Castanea]

I left my old legend on top of a friends truck and didnt realize that it was lost until we were about 20 miles down the road. We'll my buddy turned around and we found it in a ditch with a small scratch on the housing and having a strong signal.

[+ShutterBug98027]

When ever you are out caching, do not for any reason, ever, absolutly never, set the unit down. Finding that particular "Cache" was very difficult. It is amazing how that neutral gray of the E-500 blends in with everything.

[4DWUDS]

Dont ride your bike down a sidewalk with low hanging tree branches and try and read you gps display at the same time. You will suddenly find your self at a stop and sitting on the ground with out a bike under you and the GPS will read 0 MPH. Kinda along the lines of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

[+hkps1]

Don't ever forget to zoom the GPSr in on a cache and bushwack a trail for two miles only to find the cache within sight of a nice parking area. And don't do this more than once, like I did/do.

[+Night Stalker]

Don't lose your cell phone while caching in a strange area. I was caching somewhere in California and the company cell phone became dislodged from its belt clip. (Another after market belt clip. You'd think I would learn). I drafted a coworker to return to the cache with me since he had a cell phone. This cache was a bit of a hike, and every so often he would call the lost cell phone and we would listen to it ring. Luckily this cell phone lit up when it rang. It was getting dark when we found it. It had dislodged right by where the cache was hidden.