UI change from eXplorist 500 to 60Cx

[+geo-jenkins]

I was lucky enough to 'acquire' (thru a contest ) a brand new GPS60Cx.

 

I have been using a Magellan eXplorist 500LE for the short 7 months that I have been geo-caching.

I have a premium membership, so that I can build pocket queries of 200 caches, and then process them in gsak, so that I have individual files that I export to my eXplorist, for example: City1, City2.

The User Interface is pretty straight forward with the eXplorist. I just have different files that I load into the Active Setup, depending on where I want to cache that day. One of the good things about it, is that I can delete a city if I don't want those caches to show up any more. One of the bad things is that sometimes I have overlapping coverage of caches from city1 to city2, which messes me up if I don't either mark them as found on both cities, or just process a new query for each city, less the new finds. I'm sure GSAK can probably help me with this, but not sure.

 

Now that I have a new GPS60Cx, it seems so much more advanced as far as the features and functionality of the eXplorist.

 

So my real question is: What is the best way to get out of my old user-interface mindset from my eXplorist. I've already started playing with my 60Cx, and created a GPX file of 500 caches, and have uploaded them. I was surprised to see them immediately on the map. I would have thought that I had some kind of setting that would let me load that particular gpx file when I wanted it. Also, how would I go about deleting the caches now that they are there? Am I limited to how many caches I can have loaded?

 

One of the other items that I noticed is that there is no 'hint' option on the 60Cx, like the eXplorist. I thought that option was pretty useful at times. Is that information still in the GPX file, and for some reason, I'm just not seeing it?

 

I was also a little disappointed that the detail of the maps are not as good on the 60Cx. I haven't purchased any additional software for either GPSr, and the eXplorist seems to show more side roads than the 60Cx.

 

So, I guess I'm just wondering if there is an easy way to learn about my new GPSr, giving the fact that I have to unlearned what I did on my eXplorist.

 

Any assistance / tips/ hints to my new toy would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

[+Miragee]

Congratulations on your new acquisition!

 

You might find this rudimentary GSAK tutorial to be helpful, even though it was created a while ago.

 

If you use GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), you can get useful waypoint names on the 60Cx using the "smart name" codes. You can get most of the Hint in the Comments section, as well. Also, if you use the tips in the thread about "Silly Garmin POI Tricks," you can put thousands of caches on that GPS unit as POIs. There is more room in the comments section for POIs, so you can add additional information when you Export those .gpx files.

 

I include the Hint and the GC Code, as well as the Name and the Cache Owner in the information for the cache POIs.

[+tokencollector]

I recently moved from a Magellan Meridian Color to a Garmin Vista HCx.

 

One of the things that I miss in the Garmin is the ability to save "files" of waypoints. The Magellan essentially has unlimited waypoints (in groups of 500) wheras the Gamin will ONLY hold 1000. (not counting POI tricks mentioned above)

 

Some of that functionality comes back with the software for loading tracks and waypoints into the GPSr. You can hold several things there and load just what you want. (Not as helpful when planning a long trip.) Overall, the waypoint management of the Magellan was slightly superior IMO. But, with time, I've grown acustomed to the limitations of the Garmin. I periodically delete all the caches from my Garmin so it doesn't become too cluttered. I rarely put more than a couple of hundred caches on the unit at any given time.

 

So, to the original question. You become accustomed to the new unit by using it. I really do like my Vista and I'm getting pretty used to it.

[+geo-jenkins]

Thanks for the great advice.

 

I've started playing with the Smart Names in GSAK, and think this will ultimately be superior than the way Magellan would track caches.

 

For the Waypoint Name, I use this:

%typ1-%smart=8-%last4

 

Here are the descriptions of those Special Tags:

%typ1 - letters used are as follows: T=traditional, M=multi, B=letterbox hybrid, C=CITO, E=event, L=locationless, V=virtual, W=webcam, O=Other, G=Benchmark, R=Earth, and U=mystery/Unknown.

 

%smart - uses the calculated unique smart name from your database. This tag also supports the form %smart=nn (but not when used in the maco language, only in the GUI) where nn is the number of characters for the smart name. For example if you only want six characters in your smart name, your tag should be %smart=6

 

%last4 - Last 4 found/not found logs. Found = F, Not Found = N, No log = 0. For example, if the latest log was a not found, the next a found, and there were no more logs this tag would return NF00.

 

It will display names like this:

T-Geocach1-FNFF = Traditional cache, 3 finds out last 4 entries

V-Geocach2-FFFF = Virtual cache, 4 finds out of last 4 entries

M-Geocach3-NNFF = Multi cache, 2 finds out of last 4 entries (I would probably pass on this over another one)

 

For the Waypoint description, I am experimenting with this:

%datelf-%con1/%dif1/%ter1/%hint

 

Here are the descriptions of each of those Special Tags

%datelf - Date last found

 

%con1 - letters used are as follows: R=regular, L=large, M=micro, S=Small, V=Virtual, and U=unknown. If the cache type is not stated, the letter used is U.

 

%dif1 = Difficulty reduced to 1 digit (dif * 2 -1), so 1=1, 1.5=2, 2=3, 2.5=4,

 

%ter1 = Terrain reduced to 1 digit (dif * 2 -1), so 1=1, 1.5=2, 2=3, 2.5=4

 

%hint = The decoded hint

 

Here is how the descriptions would be listed:

12/29/2007-M/2/3/mascot

01/13/2008-R/5/5/magnetic

 

It appears that my description is only displaying 30 characters, which will limit me to about 13 characters for the hint. I might be doing something wrong with my character count, so I'll have to look into that.

 

My next task is to start playing with the POIs to see what I can do there.

 

Overall, the functionality of the Garmin is better than the Magellan. I think the Magellan has a great caching interface out of the box, but am enjoying the wasy to get the Garmin to do what I want.

[+Miragee]

The great thing about the "Smart Name" tags is how you can mix and match them anyway you want to. I use different codes, putting the name first in case I need to look up the cache by name on the GPSr.

 

%smart=9 %con1%typ1%dif1%ter1

 

This includes part of the Name, the Size of the container, the Type of cache (Traditional, Multi, Virtual, Puzzle), the Difficulty and Terrain (based on a 10-point scale).

 

To get part of the hint, I use this code in the Waypoint Description blank:

 

%Name=10 %hint

 

For the POIs, I'm still experimenting. Sometimes having the cache owner's name is helpful if you know their "style." Since some people I cache with use the GC code, I include that in the POI description:

 

%By %Hint %code

[+briansnat]

Moving to the appropriate forum

[+geo-jenkins]

Looks like this got moved to a better location.

 

I have started to play woth the POIs now, and like this feature a lot!

I have a couple other questions pertaining to that.

- Is there any way to display a map icon for the POIs?

 

Also - Twice now, I have had all my geocache waypoints disappear. Has anyone seen this occur. I know my GSAK query had 497 wps, but that was pushed up to 513 with children. I'm wondering if that had anything to do with it.