Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx Geocache Settings

[+Yellow Team]

We just got a new Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx and took it on it's maiden voyage yesterday. We had problems with it calculating the destination. It would attempt to calculate and progress very little, beep then start over repeatedly. Also, the option buttons for the geocache mode (Found - Note - Stop) are gone. We had tried it out previously finding a few caches locally and it worked perfectly. I thought maybe there were some GPSMAP 60CSx Veterans that could offer some advice!

Thanks so much!

Yellow Team

[AbercrombieHollister]

maybe its defective??

[+find waldo]

Were you on follow road? If so, do you have maps loaded?

[+Yellow Team]

Were you on follow road? If so, do you have maps loaded?

Yes we were. Just the base map that came with it. We have city navigator on the way. I just switched to off road and those buttons showed up - Yey! But using the follow road mode is really nice especially in an unfamiliar area. What mode do use? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[+find waldo]

I have Navigator with a 1 GB sd micro card. I have half the US maps in it. If you try to navigate On Road with no maps, the GPSr will behave as you described. Geocaching is much easier if you use the maps and auto - routing.

[+Yellow Team]

I have Navigator with a 1 GB sd micro card. I have half the US maps in it. If you try to navigate On Road with no maps, the GPSr will behave as you described. Geocaching is much easier if you use the maps and auto - routing.

We ordered City Navigator NT on sd micro card. The place where we ordered it recommended it as opposed to buying the disc and manually loading it. Can you follow road instructions and still have the cache options (Found etc.) available when using these maps and the auto - routing mode?

I really appreciate your help!

[+Yellow Team]

I have Navigator with a 1 GB sd micro card. I have half the US maps in it. If you try to navigate On Road with no maps, the GPSr will behave as you described. Geocaching is much easier if you use the maps and auto - routing.

We ordered City Navigator NT on sd micro card. The place where we ordered it recommended it as opposed to buying the disc and manually loading it. Can you follow road instructions and still have the cache options (Found etc.) available when using these maps and the auto - routing mode?

I really appreciate your help!

[+Miragee]

Hmmmm . . . I would not have purchased the maps on the card. I would have purchased the DVD . . . Is there anyway you can change your order since the item hasn't arrived yet?

 

If you get the maps on the DVD, you can put them on as many computers that you use. Then you purchase whatever size card you want, if you need a card larger than the one that came with the GPSr, and put the map segments on that card. If you travel, and take a laptop with you, you will have the maps on that, as well as on your GPSr.

[+Yellow Team]

Hmmmm . . . I would not have purchased the maps on the card. I would have purchased the DVD . . . Is there anyway you can change your order since the item hasn't arrived yet?

 

If you get the maps on the DVD, you can put them on as many computers that you use. Then you purchase whatever size card you want, if you need a card larger than the one that came with the GPSr, and put the map segments on that card. If you travel, and take a laptop with you, you will have the maps on that, as well as on your GPSr.

It has already shipped but I could probably exchange it. I have a new computer at work with all sorts of media slots so I guess I could plug the sd card in and transfer to a disk. Does the info on the sd card work with the base maps already on the GPS?

[+Miragee]

I don't think the maps on the card work that way . . . I think they only work on the GPSr.

 

I don't know the answer to your other question. I still have a non-'x' Garmin.

[Motorcycle_Mama]

...so I guess I could plug the sd card in and transfer to a disk...

You can't copy the information from the pre-programmed SD cards to a disk or anything else.

Edited May 27, 2007 by Motorcycle_Mama

[+rdaines]

I'm confused - I've been using my 60CSx for 5 months now and have no idea what y'al are talking about. What is Geocaching Mode? I have topo maps loaded and use Mapsource to add geocaches as waypoints. I never use the GPSr to route me to a cache but, rather, just use the map and walk/drive towards it. Zoom is manually adjusted until 20 ft. If there is a better way to do this I'd love to know.

[+Miragee]

If you have the City Navigator maps loaded, the GPSr will auto-navigate you to the cache location, or to the trailhead, or the park where the cache is located. If you have it set to "Prompt" you, whenever you say "Go To," it gives you two options, Follow Road, or Off Road. If you use the "Follow Road" option, if you don't do another "Find/Go To/Off Road," you could end up looking in the wrong place, which is what happened to me, and to a few other cachers, judging from the Past Logs on a cache I "auto-routed" to.

 

The "Geocaching Mode" is probably what you have been using if you are loading your waypoints with the Geocache icon. That mode gives you the "Found/Note/Stop" buttons at the bottom of the arrow page. If you are getting the caches as .gpx files in your Pocket Queries, then the Treasure Chest icon is on the waypoints. If you are still using the .loc files, I think you have to manually change the icon, but I'm not sure. I use GSAK to manage the data from Pocket Queries and to send the waypoints to my GPSr, and to Export data for my Mapsource maps.

[+Lil Devil]

I'll let y'all continue the current discussion about maps and routing, but one setting I find useful on the "S" units is when it switches from navigational compass to magnetic compass.

 

Setup >> Heading >> Switch to compass heading when below 2 mph for more than 5 seconds.

 

This makes it so it only uses the magnetic compass when you actually STOP moving. The default settings have it using magnetic even when walking, which I don't find to be as useful, since it's not as accurate when you don't hold it level.

[+rdaines]

I guess the difference is that I don't use my 60CSx for car navigation, got a Nuvi for that, just hiking and caching. Using the topo maps is great when hiking is involved.

[+SidAndBob]

I find Geocache mode just a gimmick to hook in a niche market. All it does is

1. Change the icon when you select "found". Quite useful.

2. Offer to go to the next nearest geocache once you've made a find. Nearly always useless in my experience and saves about a nano second anyway.

3. Writes timestamp in the calendar. Never found anyone who's ever used this data.

The biggest problem with it is that you can only use one icon. Most of us have custom icons for different cache types. Geocache mode won't work in this scenario.

 

In my experience most new CSx users use Geocache mode for the first few weeks, then ditch it when they get into customised icons.

 

On the SD front I would imagine that the card only holds a subset of the US, whereas the DVD contains the whole country. That's how Topo UK works anyway. The preloaded SD thing has always seemed a bit of a rip off to me. Sorry.

 

Navigating to an off road location using on-road routing is a bad idea. I did make this mistake once and got taken to a crazy location which the GPSr thought was the nearest spot. Well it probably was, but being on the wrong side of a cliff isn't very helpful.

[+Miragee]

I use the Smart Name feature in GSAK to let me know what kind of cache I am heading towards, so I don't need the customized icons for caches I haven't found yet.

 

However, I have set up customized icons for other instances, like when I load caches I have already found. The ones that are Archived have the little "Tombstone" icon . . .

[+SidAndBob]

I use icons to denote all cache types. I find the standard GC.com style icons easier to use. I replace the last character of the name with %bug to denote if a TB is present or not. The icon also indicates if I own it, have found it, not found it, or it's disabled/archived. I've recently started using a micro icon too, so I can avoid them if there's any option. Very useful.

[+greywynd]

I'm confused - I've been using my 60CSx for 5 months now and have no idea what y'al are talking about. What is Geocaching Mode? I have topo maps loaded and use Mapsource to add geocaches as waypoints. I never use the GPSr to route me to a cache but, rather, just use the map and walk/drive towards it. Zoom is manually adjusted until 20 ft. If there is a better way to do this I'd love to know.

 

I too have a 60CSx, when I'm going for a cache I select 'on road' while driving to the area, then when you get there, hit 'menu' -> 'recalculate' -> 'off road'. This gives those folks a Mapping GPS to use while driving, and a handheld for caching offroad.

 

One common error for caching, shows up sometimes while looking for caches close to roads, is you need to turn "Lock On Road" to Off. 'Menu' -> 'Setup' -> 'Map' -> 'Lock on Road' -> Off to do this. I believe that 'On' is the default setting.

 

I don't use geocaching mode either, I also use custom icons. I'm hoping that Garmin will recognize this sometime and have it so that the custom Icons will work in geocaching mode, best of both worlds!!

 

Greywynd

[+Yellow Team]

I use the Smart Name feature in GSAK to let me know what kind of cache I am heading towards, so I don't need the customized icons for caches I haven't found yet.

 

However, I have set up customized icons for other instances, like when I load caches I have already found. The ones that are Archived have the little "Tombstone" icon . . .

How is GSAK better than downloading from the Garmin website directly to your GPSr? I am learning alot today!

Edited May 27, 2007 by Yellow Team

[+Miragee]

Since you are a Premium Member, you can create Pocket Queries. Those contain as many as 500 caches in each zipped file that is emailed to you.

 

For all that data, GSAK works very well. You can filter by type or size of cache, direction you are traveling, as well as distance. In a cache-rich area like this, it is especially helpful if you still have a GPSr like mine that only holds 500 waypoints.

 

Here is a little rudimentary GSAK tutorial that might help familiarize you with some of the features of that program.

[+rdaines]

I use the Smart Name feature in GSAK to let me know what kind of cache I am heading towards, so I don't need the customized icons for caches I haven't found yet.

 

However, I have set up customized icons for other instances, like when I load caches I have already found. The ones that are Archived have the little "Tombstone" icon . . .

How is GSAK better than downloading from the Garmin website directly to your GPSr? I am learning alot today!

 

GSAK is great and a very useful tool. When used along with pocket queries, it allows you manage and track many caches and many databases. These can be sent to Mapsource or the GSPr as gpx files whicj contain more info than the loc files. Once you have a databses of caches, for example let say you want to find only micros one day, GSAK which search for those and you can download them to your unit. It's hard to describe all the features but the program can be used for a period of time for free, Try it.

[+greywynd]

Actually, unless it's changed, GSAK is free for teh first 30 days, then you get a nag (delay) screen when you start it.....it can still be used though. Most people though like it so well, generally they buy a license soon after using it, it's a small price to pay for a great program!!

 

Greywynd

[+Yellow Team]

The biggest thing I've learned today is that I am a "Rookie"! Someone needs to write a book with all of this insider info. If you use GSAK with all of the icons and info, do you still need a PDA or is all the info you need loaded into your GPSr? I thought I was on the cutting edge because I no longer had to enter coordinates manually!!! One problem I have found with the Garmin website for downloading caches is that it only displays traditional caches - no virtuals, multis etc. Of course I could be missing something there too!

[+find waldo]

Yellow Team, I bought the DVD so that I could load and change maps in the GPSr whenever I want. I can also load the Topo maps for the areas on the same card. Like Miragee said, it just gives you more options. Once you get the preloaded card, you're stuck with what you have. Just a thought, but if you can change it I would. Also, GSAK is a very good program and coupled with pocket queries, invaluable. Also, you can send waypoints to a PDA using a little program called Cachemate. With all that, geocaching is a hole lot easier!!

[+rdaines]

If you want to go paperless or even if you don't, a PDA is the way to go. You can use GSAK to create filtered GPX files and then save all that data to your PDA. If your PDA is web enabled you can use the embedded link for see the web page for the cache. If not, you'll see the all the data that was available when you saved the file.

[Keystone]

Moving from the Geocaching Topics forum to the GPS Units and Software Forum.

[+Red90]

3. Writes timestamp in the calendar. Never found anyone who's ever used this data.

 

You have just found one!!! I use it all the time. On a big caching day it is the best way to keep track of which ones that I did.

 

Anyway, the Found/Note/Quit options only show when navigating "off road". When in "follow road" mode, the normal waypoint screen shows up. Recaclulate to "Off road" when close and it will all work properly.

[+Sputnik 57]

Were you on follow road? If so, do you have maps loaded?

Yes we were. Just the base map that came with it. We have city navigator on the way. I just switched to off road and those buttons showed up - Yey! But using the follow road mode is really nice especially in an unfamiliar area. What mode do use? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I think most cacher use the "prompted" setting. The pick a cache and select "follow roads" to get close. Then hit MENU->Recalculate->Off Road->ENTR (or FIND->FIND->ENTR->Off Road->ENTR) to tell the unit to go to Off Road mode.

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". A forum discussion can be found here.

[+yourpad2mn]

Hmmmm . . . I would not have purchased the maps on the card. I would have purchased the DVD . . . Is there anyway you can change your order since the item hasn't arrived yet?

 

If you get the maps on the DVD, you can put them on as many computers that you use. Then you purchase whatever size card you want, if you need a card larger than the one that came with the GPSr, and put the map segments on that card. If you travel, and take a laptop with you, you will have the maps on that, as well as on your GPSr.

[+yourpad2mn]

I thought you could copy and paste the files off a SD card. For example my Palm Pilot "had" an Atari retro Asteroids game, I put it into my PC jack. Then opened that card then I deleted all the files. Then I had another blank SD card with a free 64 Mb of unused space. Just like a new one. Just be sure to unlock it before attempting. Now, This may be an unusual circumstance. I've only done this once and of coursed i'm no pro. So, If it was me I would try to copy the file or files off the card, Not move or delete. Make a folder for it and save it to desktop or your place of choice. Then from there you can e-mail or burn to a CD, DVD, flash drive, or another SD card. I think it should work, But if it doesn't check the lock if you don't see one it may be under the label. Good Luck and let us know If that worked...

[alandb]

You have dug up a really old thread here, but just to clarify ...

 

As Motorcycle Mama stated in post #11 above, Garmin maps preinstalled on SD card are locked to the card they are purchased on. You can copy the files off to another card or flash drive, but the copied maps will not work on the Garmin device or the computer.

Edited January 20, 2013 by alandb