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Need Help Upgrading GPS Unit After 5 Years


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Posted

I am finally being forced to upgrade after having good luck with my B&W Garmin Vista for 5 years. My baby flew out of the window last year when I made a hard right turn and it slid across the dash and right out onto the highway. It landed on the center yellow line and wasn't crushed but the screen goes wonky at the slightest bump now.

 

So I was wondering what are all of the new bells and whistles I should look for. I was hoping there might be something that has a color screen now and possibly a way to upload the complete cache page as it appears on geocaching.com (hints, cache descriptions, logs, etc.) to the unit.

 

Please help :rolleyes:

Posted
I am finally being forced to upgrade after having good luck with my B&W Garmin Vista for 5 years. My baby flew out of the window last year when I made a hard right turn and it slid across the dash and right out onto the highway. It landed on the center yellow line and wasn't crushed but the screen goes wonky at the slightest bump now.

 

So I was wondering what are all of the new bells and whistles I should look for. I was hoping there might be something that has a color screen now and possibly a way to upload the complete cache page as it appears on geocaching.com (hints, cache descriptions, logs, etc.) to the unit.

 

Please help :rolleyes:

I would take at look at the new Garmin HCX models that just came out. :rolleyes:
Posted

I have the same 5 yr old unit and upgraded to the Vista HCx (I got it Monday). What a difference!! You will absolutly love this GPSr coming from an old Vista B&W...

Posted

I would also recommend the Vista HCx. Then, I would recommend becoming a Premium Member, so you can download the .gpx files and create Pocket Queries. Using GSAK, and Garmin's POI loader, you can get quite a bit of information in the Comments section of the POI.

 

You cannot get the "(hints, cache descriptions, logs, etc.)" on the GPSr however, so you might want to get an inexpensive, older, monochrome Palm (easier to see in bright sunlight). Then you can have the cache description and Past Logs with you. :rolleyes: On my Palm M500, I use Cachemate. :rolleyes:

Posted (edited)

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll probably get the HCx when I can afford one. Probably not for awhile yet as I just checked the price and it is a wee bit out of the price range of a starving student. Maybe I'll keep my eye on craigslist.

 

ON A RELATED NOTE: My old Garmin will still power up but the control stick has issues where it won't respond to clicking and occasionally won't move in some or all of the 4 directions. When the backlight is on, the screen will get moving vertical lines across the screen or go blank altogether.

 

Everything else seems fine though. I could set the backlight to stay off on the rare occasion the stick will let me click/select options but the unit is pretty much unworkable without a functioning control stick.

 

I just checked the Garmin site and they want $125 to fix it, yikes!!!

 

I am hoping someone knows of an easy quick fix that even a non-techie guy might be able to pull off or maybe an alternate repair site that is a little bit cheaper yet trustworthy. (fingers crossed x{

Edited by Team Altrusia
Posted

That is a pretty common problem and I think it has to do with the "ribbon cable" on the inside . . . :ph34r: Seems like I vaguely remember something like that from posts in this Forum. Some people have been able to fix their units.

 

I had problems with the Click-Stick with my old Vista when I was using off-brand, rechargeable batteries. It worked fine once I started using 2500 mA Energizer batteries. :(

Posted (edited)

That is a pretty common problem and I think it has to do with the "ribbon cable" on the inside . . . :o Seems like I vaguely remember something like that from posts in this Forum. Some people have been able to fix their units.

 

I had problems with the Click-Stick with my old Vista when I was using off-brand, rechargeable batteries. It worked fine once I started using 2500 mA Energizer batteries. :laughing:

 

Those are the same batteries I use so I'm guessing the problem with the vertical lines/control stick is more related to my unit playing stuntman and jumping out the car window :(.

 

On a related note, for those posting about using palms and pdas to do paperless caching, are you using the ones with gps built in or do you just bring them along in addition to your regular gps unit? If you do have gps functionality built in how well do they work?

Edited by Team Altrusia
Posted

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll probably get the HCx when I can afford one. Probably not for awhile yet as I just checked the price and it is a wee bit out of the price range of a starving student. Maybe I'll keep my eye on craigslist.

 

ON A RELATED NOTE: My old Garmin will still power up but the control stick has issues where it won't respond to clicking and occasionally won't move in some or all of the 4 directions. When the backlight is on, the screen will get moving vertical lines across the screen or go blank altogether.

 

Everything else seems fine though. I could set the backlight to stay off on the rare occasion the stick will let me click/select options but the unit is pretty much unworkable without a functioning control stick.

 

I just checked the Garmin site and they want $125 to fix it, yikes!!!

 

I am hoping someone knows of an easy quick fix that even a non-techie guy might be able to pull off or maybe an alternate repair site that is a little bit cheaper yet trustworthy. (fingers crossed x{

 

 

My old Vista was having the exact same problems you are describing. I followed the instructions from this website to disassemble it and cleaned the click stick contacts and the ribbon cable with some electrical contact cleaner, and now it works like new.

 

Here are instructions for disassembling your eTrex:

 

Garmin eTrex Repair

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