And the journey begins... (newb)

[+Ashmai]

I am a web developer in the Scottsdale Arizona area and have been looking for an activity for the last few months that me and my son could participate in. While browsing the forums at work, a friend showed me Geocaching.com and I was blown away... This is the perfect activity for me and my 5 year old to start doing. A modern day treasure hunt... WOW...

 

Anyways, I ran down to Fry's and bought a Magellan CrossoverGPS because I wanted one I could use in the car, and also use for Geocaching. The guy at Fry's swore up and down this would allow me to do Geocaching although I can't say I trust this guy, so I hope I made the right choice... There are so many different GPS devices!

 

Anyways... I sign up for a premium membership to geocaching.com and start poking around, dabbling in a new world. I was so surprised to find 15+ caches in my immediate area that I started downloading all these files to my desktop... .loc, .gpx, etc. I click the "Read about waypoint downloads" and start reading up on how to manage these files. Since I don't know the difference between the programs, I just randomly click on the GPS Swiss Army Knife one and load'er up. It prompts me for my Geocaching member number or something (I wasn't sure what that was, so just put my account name?) and was staring at a blank screen. I opened my first chache and was feeling great. I felt like Indiana Jones gazing upon a map for the first time. I quickly clicked the "GPS" menu options and my eyes fixated on the words "Send Waypoints"... I knew at that very moment the treasure map was being sent to my new GPS, that was currently plugged into my laptop with its shiny new USB cable.

 

ERROR...

 

Now my son wants to go searching for caches, and to be honest, I am not really sure what I should do next... Could someone perhaps help me out here? Does my GPS allow me to geocache? Was I lead astray from Fry's? Do I have everything I need, but simply don't know what I am doing? Programming in php is one thing, but figuring this stuff out... wow, quite another story

 

Thanks for your help, I am happy to be a part of this community.

 

-Ash

[+briansnat]

I'm pretty sure you can enter the coordinates of the caches you want to find manually in your unit. It usually involves marking a waypoint, then editing the coordinates to match those of the cache you are looking for.

 

If you can't do this with your unit, then it really isn't appropriate for geocaching.

 

Anyway, you started with GSAK which is a fairly advanced app. It does way more than you need at this point, but once you've gotten your feet wet you will find it to be a powerful tool.

 

For now however, dowload EasyGPS, it's free and a cinch to use.

[+Ashmai]

After doing a bit more reading, people are saying it is not compatible with GSAK? Perhaps the only way to add points is to manually enter coords?

 

I really have no clue... I have not even went out looking for one cache yet, not until I figure this thing out keep the comments coming, and thank you

[+Knight2000]

Ive been fooling with GSAK for a while now and still cant figure it out. LOL. Yeah- i know, read the FAQs. (Theres like a million of them!)

 

I second the EasyGPS application. It works great and is easy to use.

 

I am not sure if that is such a great unit for caching. Isnt it for a car? You want something rugged and durable. Most seem to be waterproof with a nice protective shell.

 

Its tough once you want to go and arent sure where to start. Be patient and have fun!

[+Knight2000]

If i have the right model and info try this:

 

It may be easier when first starting to just enter the waypoint/coordinates manually.

 

Please let us know how it goes!

[+Haffy]

Maybe you should have done some more research on these forums before you went out and bought the Crossover GPS. Just my opinion but I think I would have bought a more rugged outdoor unit like the Garmin 60CSX or a Magellan Explorist unit. I believe they both have autorouting capabilities which would have been the better of choices. As a couple of others have mentioned as well Easy GPS is a much easier application to download your files to but GSAK is the top of the line cache management tool. I would say go back and trade in your GPS for one of the ones mentioned above. JMHO

[+Ashmai]

Maybe you should have done some more research on these forums before you went out and bought the Crossover GPS. Just my opinion but I think I would have bought a more rugged outdoor unit like the Garmin 60CSX or a Magellan Explorist unit. I believe they both have autorouting capabilities which would have been the better of choices. As a couple of others have mentioned as well Easy GPS is a much easier application to download your files to but GSAK is the top of the line cache management tool. I would say go back and trade in your GPS for one of the ones mentioned above. JMHO

 

I felt I did as much research as I could before actually having to just break down and buy one. The ones you mentioned above WOULD be better for a master geocaching ninja, but like I said, PRIMARILY I want to use this in my car. In my car, I wanted a touch screen for ease while driving, I wanted voice prompts, and ease of use... I was hoping as a side toy for use with geocaching. The best bet, when I save up a bit more money and perhaps get a bit more into geocaching, have a seperate car unit, and seperate unit for just geocaching

 

Knight2000, thank you for the advice! That worked perfectly fine, and I was able to go find my first cache Thank you!

[+Knight2000]

Knight2000, thank you for the advice! That worked perfectly fine, and I was able to go find my first cache Thank you!

Already? You move fast!

 

Make sure that you log the find online after you find it.

Edited June 1, 2007 by knight2000

[+GrateBear]

I checked this unit out on the Magellan web site, and seems to me it should do what you want it to. Interesting concept, a crossover. My first unit was a Magellan Roadmate for the car only, then when I found out about geocaching, bought a Garmin Legend Cx. The Roadmate is great for long trips, but when we go on vacation, I take the Garmin, and find it works quite well in the car. Nowhere near as much detail as the Magellan, but if your crossover provides what it seems to do, sounds like a good choice.

Have fun!

[+Ashmai]

Just for anyone in the same situation as myself, now that I have one geocaching under my belt, Ill try to explain my experience with the Magellan CrossoverGPS

 

First off, this is my first GPS so I can't compare it to another one...

 

Driving with this guy is awesome. Bright screen, easy to use, touch screen and acurate! It talks to me and tells me when to turn, etc... Very nice volume, clear voice.

 

When you switch to the "Outdoor" mode there is a "Waypoint" button. There I added my first geocache! I went back into Driving mode, and got as close as I could, then switched modes again to Outdoor and went by foot the last 100 yards or so. It was dead on accurate and a pretty dang fun experience for my first time.

 

I guess the downside would be that I have to manually enter my waypoints? From what I gather, you can't at this time import them or automate that process. (If I am wrong, someone let me know!)

[+Arndtwe]

Just for anyone in the same situation as myself, now that I have one geocaching under my belt, Ill try to explain my experience with the Magellan CrossoverGPS

 

First off, this is my first GPS so I can't compare it to another one...

 

Driving with this guy is awesome. Bright screen, easy to use, touch screen and acurate! It talks to me and tells me when to turn, etc... Very nice volume, clear voice.

 

When you switch to the "Outdoor" mode there is a "Waypoint" button. There I added my first geocache! I went back into Driving mode, and got as close as I could, then switched modes again to Outdoor and went by foot the last 100 yards or so. It was dead on accurate and a pretty dang fun experience for my first time.

 

I guess the downside would be that I have to manually enter my waypoints? From what I gather, you can't at this time import them or automate that process. (If I am wrong, someone let me know!)

sweet, congrats on finding a cache! since i know nothing avout this GPS i cant help you, but keep on caching, dont worry, lots of us have entered waypoints in by hand for LOTS of caches

[wvnewbie]

congrats on your first find!

 

I am glad the advice given here helped - you will find that there are many helpful and nice folks on this site!

 

Enjoy geocaching with your son - and don't forget to take pics at each of the caches you find so you have something to look back on in addition to your logs!

 

(PS: great job helping Knight2000 !!!)

[+BarneyBrookers]

I bought a Magellan Crossover 2500T too and have been using it to find Geocaches... I'm on here looking for a way to add gpx files as waypoints in Outdoor Mode too. I figured out how to add them as "Enhanced POI's" for Vehicle Nav mode, but when you're geocaching, you really need to be running in Outdoor mode with topo maps.

When you go on Geo-binges like I did yesterday and find 7 of them, it'd be much easier to just add the gpx files as waypoints and see them all on the Outdoor mode topo map. If anyone finds software to store gpx files as waypoints on the Crossover GPS, please post in this thread!

[+BarneyBrookers]

Check out this thread... at first glance it looks like it could be useful... says "It can be done" anyway!

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...amp;mode=linear

[+BarneyBrookers]

Well I'm not sure how often someone replies to their own question, but here I go.

 

Many had mentioned that in order to get waypoints into the Crossover, you simply needed to convert the files to a UPT file. But I was getting frustrated from that not working and not knowing if these files just needed to be placed in a certain folder on the card. So I had the brilliant idea of creating a waypoint in my Crossover and then exporting it. I noticed that indeed the file was a UPT, but the name and extension were all cap. So here ya go:

 

1. Place SD card in an SD reader.

2. Convert your files to UPT using GPSBabel or some other converter.

3. Rename the file so that the name and extension are all caps

4. Place the files in the root directory on the SD card

5. Insert the SD card into the Crossover and use the Import feature under OutDoors and Options.

 

There does seem to be a limit of 500 which seems kind of low.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks to Bentley from the other thread! I tried this just now and it works perfectly. You will need an SD card reader for your computer to do this, though. Note, that once they're on SD card, you insert in Crossover and Import from the bottom of Options menu in Outdoor Mode.

[+Ashmai]

Well I'm not sure how often someone replies to their own question, but here I go.

 

Many had mentioned that in order to get waypoints into the Crossover, you simply needed to convert the files to a UPT file. But I was getting frustrated from that not working and not knowing if these files just needed to be placed in a certain folder on the card. So I had the brilliant idea of creating a waypoint in my Crossover and then exporting it. I noticed that indeed the file was a UPT, but the name and extension were all cap. So here ya go:

 

1. Place SD card in an SD reader.

2. Convert your files to UPT using GPSBabel or some other converter.

3. Rename the file so that the name and extension are all caps

4. Place the files in the root directory on the SD card

5. Insert the SD card into the Crossover and use the Import feature under OutDoors and Options.

 

There does seem to be a limit of 500 which seems kind of low.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks to Bentley from the other thread! I tried this just now and it works perfectly. You will need an SD card reader for your computer to do this, though. Note, that once they're on SD card, you insert in Crossover and Import from the bottom of Options menu in Outdoor Mode.

 

... going to get a SD card now... lol