Garmin eTrex note feild limt?

[+Skeptic1970]

I just got my Garmin eTrex Venture Cx last night and after finding 2 caches last night(woot) I ahve down loades a 100 or so caches into it that are with in 5 miles of my house. I have noticed that the note feild has a very small text limit. seems to be about 30 charactors. Is there anyway to make this text field a bit larger

? I would like to load in the size of the cache or a hint in the notefield.

 

Also is there a way to turn off the cache icons when i do not want them to be cluttering up my screen?

 

Thanks alot in advance.

[+Jeff in Pa]

Your size limit is 30 characters and I was wondering the same thing, yesterday I bought a Vista CX... as far as the icons, go onto the map screen, push the lower left button and click setup map, in there there is a text size area that you can use.

[+Miragee]

If you become Premium Members, you can create Pocket Queries. You can also download the individual .gpx files from each cache page. These files have more information in them. Then, if you use a program like GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), you can have it change the name of the waypoint to something useful that tells you the Size of the container, the Type of the cache, the Difficulty and the Terrain. GSAK will also put the hint in the Note field.

Edited May 12, 2007 by Miragee

[+Chuy!]

Yep, character limit is 30. The problem with using GSAK to download hints is it cuts off the info after 30 characters; so, you may miss useful info.

 

There are two ways around this: you can update the hint field yourself. EasyGPS is much more user-friendly in this endeavor.

 

2nd way is to use POIs which your X's support. This thread has lots of useful information. Essentially, you download POILoader from Garmin's website and using gpx files created by MapSource or GSAK, you transfer the POIs into your GPS' external card. Each waypoint can hold 44 characters in the name and 88 characters in the description. This is where GSAK shines 'cause you can configure it to put all the info you need into these two fields. MapSource works also, but you will be manually adjusting each waypoint.

[+Skeptic1970]

Thanks for all the help.

 

But I am a mac user so some the advice doesn't apply to me. Still some valuable advice.

[+Red90]

You can use custom POIs, which allow 88 characters in the note field. There are GSAK macros built that will put the entire hint in to custom POIs.

[+briansnat]

Also is there a way to turn off the cache icons when i do not want them to be cluttering up my screen?

 

You can change the zoom level that they display at, so when you are zoomed in, they will show and when you zoom out to a certain level they will disappear. This way they don't cover the whole map when you are zoomed out.

Edited May 13, 2007 by briansnat

[+dcvchicago]

But I am a mac user so some the advice doesn't apply to me. Still some valuable advice.

 

Upgrade to an Intel Mac and run Parallels--it won't hurt that much!