Garmin Nuvi 660 Help

[+Funbro]

Just bought my first GPS unit yesterday and started geocaching. I find that when I get within where it will tell me to turn in 40', if I pause for a minute it will then say that I've arrived the the destination and stop tracking. I then assume that I'm within 40' of the target. It seems that it should be able to get me closer. Is this common with this unit?

Do I have something set up wrong?

Do I have a good unit?

[+wayfarer222]

I wouldn't say there's anything wrong. It just takes time for the satellites to pinpoint your location. Besides on most days there will be some margin of error. A GPSr is only so accurate. What we do is to rely on the arrow with our older Garmin 12 MAP (they don't make them anymore) until maybe within about 40 feet and then rely on the coordinates. Doing so for us gets us very close if not on top of the cache if the there's minimal tree cover and cloud cover both at the time we find the cache and when it was placed. Good luck!

 

Chris

[+briansnat]

The Nuvi is a great unit for car navigation, but not particularly well suited for geocaching for a number of reasons including durability, waterproofness and battery life. From what you say it also seems to assume you've arrived once you are within 40 feet. It may, or may not have a feature that allows you to count down to 0 feet like a regular handheld. You'll have to check your manual.

 

Moving to the appropriate forum where the experts lurk and may be able to help

Edited July 30, 2007 by briansnat

[+cerberus1]

Though the nuvi660 DOES have a separate touch screen page for coordinates, it really isn't meant to be used as a caching gps. It was built for auto navigation.

 

Little buggers' great for parking coords (roadside micros : little flag's dead-on !), but you simply can't get closer to a cache w/o a road/lane next to it.

 

Also, you're talking a few bucks. Do you really want to take the chance of scratching/bumping that "soft" touchscreen or flip-up antenna ?

 

Ergonomics come into play also. Just isn't built to fit your hand, like a gpsr. You're gonna drop it.

[+The Dirkster]

Funbro, you got a nice little unit there. I just started this sport as well about a month ago after purchasing my Nuvii 680 for auto navigation. I read about geocaching on the Garmin web page and have been hooked since.

 

What your device is doing, assuming you have it setup correctly, is just alerting you to the fact that you're approaching ground zero (gz). If you're using it out on the field, you should have two items set on it, which just takes a couple seconds. Go to the main menu, go to settings, then navigation. You want to change route preference to "Off Road" and change vehicle to "Pedestrian". When it alerts you that you're approaching your coordinates, I find this a good time to zoom in as close as it will go, and let the unit take you right up to about 5-10 feet of the coordinates. Mine has been incredibly accurate and although sometimes I want to doubt it, I find that it hasn't lied to me yet, I'm just not that tune to finding some of these guys' tricky caches.

 

The easiest way to load coordinates is to become a paid "Premium Member" and run your Pocket Queries for a group of points near your house or wherever you plan on visiting. Then download it to your unit and you're good to go.

 

If you just one to check one out and you're in a hurry, you MOST CERTAINLY CAN enter long & lat coordinates directly. From the main menu, choose "Where To", scroll down to the 2nd page of options, and choose Coordinates. Tap the appropriate section of the coordinate that you wish to change, enter the number, press done, and do the same for the latitude. Then choose next and you can either hit GO to start your hunt, SAVE it for future use (this is what I do, give it a familiar name or even the name of the cache).

 

The best part though is after a successfull find, and you're done for the day, go back into car (navigation mode) and have it take you to the closest Starbucks. Doesn't get any better!

[+Funbro]

jondirk, What software are you using to put the pocket querries into your GPS? I am a premium member. I'm only able to get one waypoint to download into my gps. When I try with another it overwrites the 1st. I've checkmarked several and then downloaded a geocache.loc file but can't figure out how to get it onto the GPS.

 

I do switch from "Faster Time" to "Off Road" when I get close to the target. I've not switched my vehicle from "Car/Motorcycle" to "Pedestrian" because I thought that was only selecting the icon used on the map. I'll have to give that a try.

 

Thanks a bunch. Now if I can get the download info working, I'll be golden.

 

I did order a GarminGPSMap 60CSx. I wanted to test these two units side by side and see if the 60CSx works as well or better then the Nuvi 660. So far, the Nuvi is Hands down the more user friendly. If I can only figure out the basics of the GPSmap60CSx so I can make a determination that would be great. I have no idea if the GPSmap60CSx will give verbal directions like the Nuvi660 while on the road or not. I see no speaker on the unit so, I assume if it does, it would have to broadcast on an FM station.

 

I've not had ANY success using it yet. It's much more complicated. And it doesn't seem to have any kind of detailed maps with anything other than major highways. I've not had any luck in trying to determine if it needs "City Navigator" or "City Navigator NT"

 

Funbro, you got a nice little unit there. I just started this sport as well about a month ago after purchasing my Nuvii 680 for auto navigation. I read about geocaching on the Garmin web page and have been hooked since.

 

What your device is doing, assuming you have it setup correctly, is just alerting you to the fact that you're approaching ground zero (gz). If you're using it out on the field, you should have two items set on it, which just takes a couple seconds. Go to the main menu, go to settings, then navigation. You want to change route preference to "Off Road" and change vehicle to "Pedestrian". When it alerts you that you're approaching your coordinates, I find this a good time to zoom in as close as it will go, and let the unit take you right up to about 5-10 feet of the coordinates. Mine has been incredibly accurate and although sometimes I want to doubt it, I find that it hasn't lied to me yet, I'm just not that tune to finding some of these guys' tricky caches.

 

The easiest way to load coordinates is to become a paid "Premium Member" and run your Pocket Queries for a group of points near your house or wherever you plan on visiting. Then download it to your unit and you're good to go.

 

If you just one to check one out and you're in a hurry, you MOST CERTAINLY CAN enter long & lat coordinates directly. From the main menu, choose "Where To", scroll down to the 2nd page of options, and choose Coordinates. Tap the appropriate section of the coordinate that you wish to change, enter the number, press done, and do the same for the latitude. Then choose next and you can either hit GO to start your hunt, SAVE it for future use (this is what I do, give it a familiar name or even the name of the cache).

 

The best part though is after a successfull find, and you're done for the day, go back into car (navigation mode) and have it take you to the closest Starbucks. Doesn't get any better!

Edited August 7, 2007 by Funbro

[+The Dirkster]

jondirk, What software are you using to put the pocket querries into your GPS? I am a premium member. I'm only able to get one waypoint to download into my gps. When I try with another it overwrites the 1st. I've checkmarked several and then downloaded a geocache.loc file but can't figure out how to get it onto the GPS.

 

I do switch from "Faster Time" to "Off Road" when I get close to the target. I've not switched my vehicle from "Car/Motorcycle" to "Pedestrian" because I thought that was only selecting the icon used on the map. I'll have to give that a try.

 

Thanks a bunch. Now if I can get the download info working, I'll be golden.

 

I did order a GarminGPSMap 60CSx. I wanted to test these two units side by side and see if the 60CSx works as well or better then the Nuvi 660. So far, the Nuvi is Hands down the more user friendly. If I can only figure out the basics of the GPSmap60CSx so I can make a determination that would be great. I have no idea if the GPSmap60CSx will give verbal directions like the Nuvi660 while on the road or not. I see no speaker on the unit so, I assume if it does, it would have to broadcast on an FM station.

 

I've not had ANY success using it yet. It's much more complicated. And it doesn't seem to have any kind of detailed maps with anything other than major highways. I've not had any luck in trying to determine if it needs "City Navigator" or "City Navigator NT"

 

Funbro, you got a nice little unit there. I just started this sport as well about a month ago after purchasing my Nuvii 680 for auto navigation. I read about geocaching on the Garmin web page and have been hooked since.

 

What your device is doing, assuming you have it setup correctly, is just alerting you to the fact that you're approaching ground zero (gz). If you're using it out on the field, you should have two items set on it, which just takes a couple seconds. Go to the main menu, go to settings, then navigation. You want to change route preference to "Off Road" and change vehicle to "Pedestrian". When it alerts you that you're approaching your coordinates, I find this a good time to zoom in as close as it will go, and let the unit take you right up to about 5-10 feet of the coordinates. Mine has been incredibly accurate and although sometimes I want to doubt it, I find that it hasn't lied to me yet, I'm just not that tune to finding some of these guys' tricky caches.

 

The easiest way to load coordinates is to become a paid "Premium Member" and run your Pocket Queries for a group of points near your house or wherever you plan on visiting. Then download it to your unit and you're good to go.

 

If you just one to check one out and you're in a hurry, you MOST CERTAINLY CAN enter long & lat coordinates directly. From the main menu, choose "Where To", scroll down to the 2nd page of options, and choose Coordinates. Tap the appropriate section of the coordinate that you wish to change, enter the number, press done, and do the same for the latitude. Then choose next and you can either hit GO to start your hunt, SAVE it for future use (this is what I do, give it a familiar name or even the name of the cache).

 

The best part though is after a successfull find, and you're done for the day, go back into car (navigation mode) and have it take you to the closest Starbucks. Doesn't get any better!

 

Well, I don't know about the software that you need. It definately does not come with the surface street software (City Navigator??). Really geared more for the trail even though it has highways built in. It's waterproof and I know it has a true compass vs. a simulated compass (based on motion), as well as altimeter. Also, takes AA batteries vs. rechargeable. So, neither one's 'better' than the other, just suited to different tasks. Your 660 has more glitzy features (suited for car navigation) and obviously not waterproof. I'd say if you're primary use is the trail, go with the 60 or if you need more for the car with some caching on the side, then the 660 is an awesome unit.

 

As far as downloading caches, now I'm no expert so I'm not sure that this is the best method. What I would do is create a Pocket Query of 100 or more caches which will submit it to your e-mail account. I don't bother to zip it (but note the warning on the web page about this - some e-mail accounts will reject it if it's not zipped) and then I drag the wapoints file to my Garmin unit. I do GPZ because then I have the larger of the two files to go to my PDA for paperless geocaching. Using GPSonar, it looks identical to what you see on the web but miniaturized for your PDA. I suppose if you don't do this part, you could simply choose to use the .loc format instead. Hope this helps.

[+Jenischmeni]

I have a Nuvi (not as fancy as yours, but.....) and a Magellan Explorist 210. This kind of gives me the best of both worlds.

 

I use the Nuvi for in-car navigation. (It's too hard to try and drive utilizing the 210, the screen is too small and not as easy to read.) When I've arrived & parked the car, I switch over and use my handheld.

 

IMHO, the Nuvi just isn't as practical for using outdoors, hiking, etc. Yes, the Nuvi IS wonderful for P&Gs, and those LPCs. But anything off of the beaten path just needs a little more than the Nuvi can provide.

 

A very easy solution would be to just purchase a very inexpensive handheld. But, I'd at least purchase one that can have coordinates downloaded from the computer. It can get very tiresome to hand-enter each and every one. You won't really need to purchase additional road maps for the handheld, the Nuvi is preloaded with the road maps. If you're in a splurging mood, consider buying TOPO maps for the handheld and then you're really, really all set!

 

Addressing the issue of downloading POIs onto the Nuvi:

 

You can get (free) software from Garmin's site called POI Loader. You can move over your PQs using POI Loader. I've read that some were having difficulty loading multiple databases. I've found that if I export my list from GSAK (in gpx format), my Nuvi can take multiple files. It's just a manner of naming them differently. I choose to load them on the sd card, rather than straight onto the Nuvi's. (Only because I read that it's a pain to delete them individually on the Nuvi.) I just go to "Where to", click "Extras", click POIs, and then I can find the cache I need by GC#.

 

If you transfer over a PQ or exported GSAK gpx file, all the caches will be sitting there.

 

Just for the record, I've just purchased a 60CX. I still plan to use my Nuvi. The 60CX does not have the voice guidance that is pretty helpful when you're caching alone. The 60CX's screen is considerably nicer than that of my Explorist, but I like the voice guidance of the Nuvi.

 

These are just my opinions, though.

 

I hope I've explained it well enough.

Edited August 9, 2007 by Jenischmeni