CAR GPS

[cachbanker]

They say that no question is a "dumb" question... Well lets see if this question falls into that catagory?

I have a Garmin GPS unit for my car that is pretty much dummy proof. I plug in the address and a beautifully selected female voice tells me where to go. (maybe its my wife in the unit?) Can I use this unit to go geocaching? Or do I have to buy a new unit that allows me to plug in coordinances? C'mon, help a guy out here will ya? Signed... lost in a round room

[FlagFinder]

first you must tell us what unit you have and if you can load maps and waypoints into it through your computer (this is the best way and most auto gps' have this feature.)

[nXtIak]

I have a Garmin C530 (auto gps) And just started geocaching a week ago.

 

It does support POIs and Locations and when driving around you can see them on the map.

 

Since it is an AUTO GPS, it will only mark your location on roads. So it's a bit hard when trying to find a cache that's not near a street. You just have to drive close to it, and zoom into the map and see where it is and go hunting

 

I'm now looking for a handheld "outdoor" GPS for my geocaching activities.

[+Tank22]

I have a Garmin Nuvi 350 that works fro both.

[+AtoZ]

It would have to have off road capability as not all geocaches are on a road. Most autorouting GPS will get you to the closest location to the cache, which in it's own is not really where you want to be. But you will have to be able to disconnect the GPSr from the car and then tell it to go to offroad to find the cache.

 

cheers

 

They say that no question is a "dumb" question... Well lets see if this question falls into that catagory?

I have a Garmin GPS unit for my car that is pretty much dummy proof. I plug in the address and a beautifully selected female voice tells me where to go. (maybe its my wife in the unit?) Can I use this unit to go geocaching? Or do I have to buy a new unit that allows me to plug in coordinances? C'mon, help a guy out here will ya? Signed... lost in a round room

[+Tank22]

The nuvi 350 boes on road, off road, pedestrian, and much more. I have been told though that it is not good to get dirt between the screen and housing. But all around I have had great luck with it. And it is a little bigger than a deck of cards with a small flip up atena on the back. Some of the navigation gpsrs are a little bulky. The only complaint that I have about it is that there is no good way to stow it once you get down to the location. Yes it does have a leather pouch but that is it.

[Son of Rhodesia]

They say that no question is a "dumb" question... Well lets see if this question falls into that catagory?

I have a Garmin GPS unit for my car that is pretty much dummy proof. I plug in the address and a beautifully selected female voice tells me where to go. (maybe its my wife in the unit?) Can I use this unit to go geocaching? Or do I have to buy a new unit that allows me to plug in coordinances? C'mon, help a guy out here will ya? Signed... lost in a round room

Reccomend a Nokia 6600 series or E61/E70 series with GlobalSat SirfIII chipset, N70 or best of all Nokia N95 which have gps system built in. The others are brilliant little pieces of hardware that have an Operating System onboard like a PDA called Symbian. Software is available for Geocaching from Viewranger.com. GPS units are available from NAVICOREtech.com and others. Stay in touch and get online info on the move and real-time updates from GPS unit. PAPERLESS! Cheap! Accurate (To 2 meters/6 Feet).

[+TrailGators]

I would recommemd getting a handheld to cache with.

[+roogie]

They say that no question is a "dumb" question... Well lets see if this question falls into that catagory?

I have a Garmin GPS unit for my car that is pretty much dummy proof. I plug in the address and a beautifully selected female voice tells me where to go. (maybe its my wife in the unit?) Can I use this unit to go geocaching? Or do I have to buy a new unit that allows me to plug in coordinances? C'mon, help a guy out here will ya? Signed... lost in a round room

 

It depends on the unit, if it's a StreetPilot that only works with 12v power, then you will need to get a handheld unit. If yours can run on it's own battery power then you can use that, you just need to look up how to input coordinates for your specific model.

 

I use a Quest and an eTrex Vista for geocaching.

 

roog

[+~NotMe~]

Sorry to reply so late - I have a Garmin Streetpilot that I use for EVERYTHING and absolutely cannot live without it - including getting me as close to caches as I can get with a car. The Garmin auto unit although it doesn't like it - IS capable of tracking off-roads. One way to do this is change your user preferences (look under 'settings' or 'tools' and then vehicle type, or enable for off-road use. To date I haven't seen a Garmin that doesn't allow for this in some way. The only difference is what the function is called or how you get to it using the user screens. There also may be an option to enable 'snap-to' routing.

 

When I turn into an area where there are no roads on the basemap (new road, parking lot, etc.), it takes about 30-50ft for the Streetpilot to recognize I'm REALLY off the road. It helps to zoom in when you get closer to the cache area as well.

 

Using only the car GPS, you can do some geocaching, but combined with a handheld is where the really fun stuff begins!

 

Good luck and happy caching!

~NM~

 

They say that no question is a "dumb" question... Well lets see if this question falls into that catagory?

I have a Garmin GPS unit for my car that is pretty much dummy proof. I plug in the address and a beautifully selected female voice tells me where to go. (maybe its my wife in the unit?) Can I use this unit to go geocaching? Or do I have to buy a new unit that allows me to plug in coordinances? C'mon, help a guy out here will ya? Signed... lost in a round room

[+gsmX2]

I have a StreetPilot 340, which after looking at the owner's manual for your unit, seems to be reasonably compatible.

 

Like mine, I didn't see any way for you to manually punch in coordinates. All is not lost. If you are a premium member at geocaching.com, you can use the SEND TO GPS feature on a cache page to send the waypoint to your GPS.

 

Once in, you can follow the map to the cache by removing it and carrying it around....with some success. However, like someone else said, and I agree, the real joy comes from owning two units. I let the 340 lead me on the streets, while my Etrex LegendC is set for OFF ROAD to give me some additional guidence in the car and take me right to the cache area out of the car.

 

Have fun.

[Keystone]

Moving thread from the GPS Garage Sale Forum to the GPS Units and Software Forum.

[bbsher]

I have a StreetPilot 340, which after looking at the owner's manual for your unit, seems to be reasonably compatible.

 

Like mine, I didn't see any way for you to manually punch in coordinates. All is not lost. If you are a premium member at geocaching.com, you can use the SEND TO GPS feature on a cache page to send the waypoint to your GPS.

 

Once in, you can follow the map to the cache by removing it and carrying it around....with some success. However, like someone else said, and I agree, the real joy comes from owning two units. I let the 340 lead me on the streets, while my Etrex LegendC is set for OFF ROAD to give me some additional guidence in the car and take me right to the cache area out of the car.

 

Have fun.

Get a nuvi 650, you'll be happy with it!