+Phil&Phil2008 Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Hello, The Etrex Vista my dad and I recently ordered uses a serial connection cable. Were can you buy Serial-USB adapters? Secondly, will it make a HUGE difference using serial besides USB? Quote Link to comment
+proimion Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 You can get a usb to serial connector at most computer stores or even office supply stores. I've used this one from keyspan successfully with my old etrex Vista. Yes, it does make a big difference if you are going to load maps from your PC to the etrex. Serial is many, many times slower. If you aren't going to download maps, no worries. Quote Link to comment
+Phil&Phil2008 Posted February 23, 2008 Author Share Posted February 23, 2008 Do you need maps to geocache? Quote Link to comment
+M&M and Daddio Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Hello, The Etrex Vista my dad and I recently ordered uses a serial connection cable. Were can you buy Serial-USB adapters? Secondly, will it make a HUGE difference using serial besides USB? There is no problem using a serial connection if your computer is equipped. More and more laptops are being sold without serial connections. This is a real problem with many industrial applications. You can purchase a Serial to USB connector at Radio Shack or any similar tyipe store... Just be warned, not all work. Quote Link to comment
+proimion Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Do you need maps to geocache? Well, no. If you have the coordinates you could just leave the house and start walking. Some people like to download topo maps, or detailed city maps so that they can route themselves appropriately to the cache. Somtimes this costs extra money, although there are a few people on this forum that make custom maps they give away for free. Look at any post from the user "IndyJpr" for example. Before I started using maps on the GPS, I would just use the internet maps on the geocaching web site to at least figure out how to get to the cache area. Once you get to the cache area, though, the map becomes less helpful and your compass pointer plus your "geosense" will guide you to the find. Quote Link to comment
+Phil&Phil2008 Posted February 23, 2008 Author Share Posted February 23, 2008 Thanks... Was it important that my Vista have a basemap? (not that it doesn't, at the time I thought you needed maps to GC) Quote Link to comment
vaq45 Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 You do not need maps to geocache--however,the vista has no memory card to load a lot of map segments on-it only has internal memory-the serial port is a little slower than a usb but not bad considering you have a limited amount of memory to use anyway--i loaded 7MB of 2008 topo onto a lengend (which only has 8MB of memory) and it only took a couple minutes wheras a vista hcx with a usb port and a lot of memory on a sd card only took me a few seconds to load(256 card and loading 225mb of maps--your vista is a great unit to start with,don't try to make it do more than it was designed for--when you're ready--upgrade Quote Link to comment
+Phil&Phil2008 Posted February 23, 2008 Author Share Posted February 23, 2008 thanks! Quote Link to comment
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