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Garmin Nuvi - True Paperless Geocaching


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Do they show up on the Nuvi 500 series zoomed out?

 

Correction to the above post. The do show up zoomed out but only as far out as the alerts are set. For example, mine are set to .5 miles. Therefore, when I am .5 miles away, the cache icon will pop up and an audio ding will be heard.

 

OT: This worked WONDERS in the field. I tried the alerts in the field today for the first time! It was great knowing you were getting close to a cache you may otherwise have passed up. :)

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:) Thanks for this Tute PilotSnipes, I've referred back to it a number of times, but finally getting there. The biggest thing for me was to stop the "dinging" when I wasn't caching, so solved this by putting in a Datacard, save waypoints to card and only insert when I need it.

 

Your tute is so well explained, and the pics help make something's just that bit clearer. Thanks for all your effort. :anibad:

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I geocached one day last year and I want to try it again. I finally bought a Garmin Nuvi 500 a couple of weeks ago and I added POIs, updated the software to add TTS, transferred Favorites from MapSource, addeda 4 GB micro SD-HC, etc. Now I want to focus on trying to geocache with it. Where do I start? Are there any certain books, on line articles, etc that I should read first?

Edited by Jim1348
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I'm currently shopping for my own GPS (since I can't always borrow my husband's Nuvi 250W), and stumbled on this forum. This looks like a fantastic solution with my current hardware. I definitely want to try this out before I put a few hundred down for something else.

 

My question is, how many satellites does a Nuvi typically look for? I will assume that, regardless of this making paperless caching possible with a Nuvi, wouldn't you still have serious issues with canyon-effect and tree cover that hand-helds seem to address (according to my research)?

:rolleyes:

(Sorry if this has already been covered, I have not read all 900+ logs in this thread.)

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Well... maybe my wish list for a new GPS has changed. I've just installed GSAK & the POILoader, and tested this on the 250W I've been using for all my caching to date. All I have to say is - Wow! And I haven't even used it yet! I had recently resurrected my PDA so I could go paperless, and since doing that, haven't gone on a caching safari (just the occasional one while running errands). Now I can put my PDA to sleep again, as long as I can "borrow" the 250W. :D

 

My only question now is about the satellite access. Sitting at home, where I generally can NOT get a signal on this unit, I can see that it might not work, but shouldn't I at least see a different screen, one that might say "hey, dummy - no sats!" :D

 

Thanks for the great work and tutorial, Pilotsnipes!

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I've been using your wonderful macro since Jan. I have a couple different data bases in GSAK to keep separate cache areas well separate. I have one for my home radius (20 miles out) and one for the nearest city. For awhile I had no problem using the macro to upload both databases to my Nuvi 200. Recently it only will hold one. I know memory is not the problem because I use POI loader to periodically wipe out all CPOI. I recently reinstalled the macro and got the same results. Is it my nuvi???

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Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

You saved me about $500. I loved my Nuvi 760 but found it a little lacking with geocaching abilities. I was looking at getting a new GPS unit that could handle paperless caching. I was also getting frustrated with the Nuvi staying locked on the street when we were away from streets searching caches.

 

Thanks to a fellow geocacher at an event with a Nuvi and your programs he showed me how simple I could get paperless on my Nuvi as well as how to turn off the darn street-lock when nearing a cache.

 

It's like getting a new toy. Thank you very much for the effort you put into making this all come together in the Nuvi.

 

Royal Dubs

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Thank you very much for this. My etrex finally died earlier this year and I had not tried my Nuvi 250 until this weekend. I decided to try pocket queries when I found this thread and your site. It has made the setup portion of geocaching much simpler. I can't wait to try it out this week and further. With so many things going on and with so many caches in our area that I don't have time to get the paperwork and plan each trip. Thanks again for what you have done. I can't wait to get our family back out searching.

 

SEBN_XR

 

One quick addition, with a 250 nuvi I have been able to access the satellite page by holding down on the signal strength indicator bars for 3 seconds.

Edited by SEBN_XR
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I have a nuvi 255W. How do I delete all or some of these cudstom POIs stored under extras from my nuvi?

 

You just need to run POILOADER again and select the remove poi option during it's option screens.

 

My question is, how many satellites does a Nuvi typically look for? I will assume that, regardless of this making paperless caching possible with a Nuvi, wouldn't you still have serious issues with canyon-effect and tree cover that hand-helds seem to address (according to my research)?

(Sorry if this has already been covered, I have not read all 900+ logs in this thread.)

 

I've found the Nuvi holds it's own when searching in tough areas. It is NOT the best one out there under heavy tree cover, between very high builds (eg newyork) but it does a fair job at it. My handhelds gps's (vista hcx etc) to be honest are not that much better.

 

only question now is about the satellite access. Sitting at home, where I generally can NOT get a signal on this unit, I can see that it might not work, but shouldn't I at least see a different screen, one that might say "hey, dummy - no sats!" :D

 

On all of my Nuvi's if it can't detect any satellites after about 4-7 mins, it pops up with a question "Are you indoors?" which I can then tell it to either keep searching or go into GPS simulation mode. Does this not occur for you?

 

One quick addition, with a 250 nuvi I have been able to access the satellite page by holding down on the signal strength indicator bars for 3 seconds.

 

That must be a wide screen 250? AFAIK that feature has not been added to the normal small screen 250, unless I'm getting confused with the Nuvi's 205?

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Thank you very much for the tutorial on how to go paperless. I am very eager to get out there and try it out. I was able to follow all the directions you listed. My goal was to go paperless, as I was feeling guilt about all of the paper I was using, despite it being 100% recycled. I'm hoping to see a numbers boost too b/c I can get caches a little further out that were not on my paper radar before.

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Thank you very much for the tutorial on how to go paperless. I am very eager to get out there and try it out. I was able to follow all the directions you listed. My goal was to go paperless, as I was feeling guilt about all of the paper I was using, despite it being 100% recycled. I'm hoping to see a numbers boost too b/c I can get caches a little further out that were not on my paper radar before.

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Hi.

I'm new to all this, have been using a mac computer but have an old pc laptop with windows XP now for geocaching and to make use of the much touted GSAK.

I used the macro to load 1200+ geocaches and their associated child waypoints to my new NUVI 855 micro sd card. My old unit was stolen out of the vehicle, but that's another story.

I was on a roadtrip, approx 370km roundtrip, open skies and fairly straight roads. During this trip the unit froze 4 times and I had to restart it to get it functional again. Each time it froze it had just signaled that there was a cache within the 1000m circle that I had set.

Is this a problem with the macro and this unit or the Nuvi unit software itself?

 

Thanks. rovers3

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only question now is about the satellite access. Sitting at home, where I generally can NOT get a signal on this unit, I can see that it might not work, but shouldn't I at least see a different screen, one that might say "hey, dummy - no sats!" <_<

 

On all of my Nuvi's if it can't detect any satellites after about 4-7 mins, it pops up with a question "Are you indoors?" which I can then tell it to either keep searching or go into GPS simulation mode. Does this not occur for you?

 

One quick addition, with a 250 nuvi I have been able to access the satellite page by holding down on the signal strength indicator bars for 3 seconds.

That must be a wide screen 250? AFAIK that feature has not been added to the normal small screen 250, unless I'm getting confused with the Nuvi's 205?

Yes, I get a message that sats can't be found, and can answer to continue searching or not. I'm not quite sure now exactly what I was asking on that. Will have to get my hands on the Nuvi and go out and test.

 

I have tried to press the signal strength indicator on the 250W, and absolutely nothing happens. Maybe this function wasn't a part of the the 250 series? AFAIK, there's been no firmware update done on my 250W; bought it 2 or 3 Christmases ago.

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Thanks for the How-to and macro. I Just found it by accident while out looking for icons.

I have been using a rather manual process for adding caches to my 760 without all the cool info yours puts in just to warm me of caches along my route.

This is much better. I will be making a trip from MA to OH next week and coupled with exports from caches along route this is perfect for picking up rest area micros along the way :)

 

Thanks again!

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For some reason, I cannot access the GPX file. I followed all of the steps of the tutorial, but the folder C:\ProgramFiles\gsak\garminpoi is never there. I have looked all over for the GPX file and it is shown as being exported to my "User" folder, but when I open that folder it is not there either. Could it be that I need a firmware update for my Nuvi? I did not think that was the challenge as I have not even gotten to the point where I can upload to the Nuvi anyway. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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:)

 

This thread is to be used for all help/support/bug fixes for the tutorial at the website above.

 

So, for all help/queries/support/requests, please post away here.

 

All I ask is a few simple requests

 

* Be polite.

* Don't demand anything, I do this in my spare time and will help when I can.

* If you discover something good or find a better way to do things, please share it with us!

 

Enjoy the hunt.

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:)

 

This thread is to be used for all help/support/bug fixes for the tutorial at the website above.

 

So, for all help/queries/support/requests, please post away here.

 

All I ask is a few simple requests

 

* Be polite.

* Don't demand anything, I do this in my spare time and will help when I can.

* If you discover something good or find a better way to do things, please share it with us!

 

Enjoy the hunt.

 

Many THANKS! I just purchased a Nuvi205W and was getting pretty frustrated about using it for GeoCaching. Your tutorial was fantastic and not only made things much easier and paperless...but answered a multitude of questions I had about the use of the Nuvi. Priceless!

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O wow this is great....thank you so much for this macro :cool:

 

It took me ages to find it though..in the end we found the link hidden away on the GSAK forums.

This is almost exactly what we was looking for.

We have the NUVI 205W and have been GeoCashing for about a month with it, we found it to be very good, but loading the caches was time consuming, the problem was that when you download them they went to favourites, and you just got the GCXXXXX for the cache..We had been trying GSAK to fix this, and of course it did but what was missing was the co-ordinates shown under the cache name, like you get with saved addresses, the only way was to manualy edit the file in wordpad to get the desired effect, (this we have found very useful when trying to close in on a cache and the sat location jumps about), but this macro adds that for me and so much more.

So once again we thank you for your time and effort.

 

Happy Caching to you

 

:unsure:

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Hey, I really enjoy this macro for my nuvi 260w, and had it running like a hot darn on my XP machine.

I'm trying to get it working on my new Vista machine and it's not.

 

I have all the software loaded, from the links on your site. (except gsak itself, which is the latest copy from the website)

 

I run the macro, and it seems to work fine. I have it set to export the gpx file to c:program files/gsak/garminpoi - a folder that I made up for it.

The macro runs, says that the .gpx file is in the folder, and then it auto-starts the Garmin POILoader.

 

The POILoader finds my nuvi, and is already to load the gpx file,

but the folder that is supposed to hold the new gpx file is empty.

 

Where did the new .gpx file go?

 

Help!

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I'm hoping someone can answer this for me. I did the software change in this thread so I could use my Garmin Nuvi 350 for geocaching and as a hand held GPS. All went well but I have encountered one problem. I didn't do a search for this because I didn't know how to word my search.

My problem is now when I want to enter info in order to use it for roadmapping and driving instructions, the alphabet screens don't type out what you are touching. For example, when I want an "A" it comes out "B" unless I touch the screen in the extreme upper left corner of the "A" square. It seems to be worse on the left side of the screen or around the edges. It is maddening. I tried a 6 times to spell out "GRASS" and couldn't get past the "GRA". It kept trying to take me to "GRB" which of course doesn't exist. I have to use something very pointy like the tip of a ballpoint pen and even that is very touchy. Has anybody else had this happen? Is there a way to reset my unit back to factory specs?

 

Thanks for any help or suggestions,

Ray

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Thanks for your help. I went to the Garmin WebUpdater and did an update to whatever had changed since the last update and it seems to have solved the problem. At least I can now use my stubby finger to touch the letters and they respond correctly. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all you have done on this thread and also for your fast response to questions. Please keep doing what you have been doing. We all thank you.

Ray

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Wow, what a powerful program! I have been caching for a year now and have 671 finds. WHY didn't I read this a year ago!? I have not used this yet, but just from the install I know I am going to like it. Thanks for all your hard work! We are going to test it out this weekend!

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A fellow cacher gave me the website for this paperless caching for the Nuvi and I can say as of now - :lol: WOW :ph34r: Great and :D Thank you this is what I have been looking for and will save around $200 of the purchase of an ipod touch to do the same thing. I have the Nuvi 255W. Thanks again

'Printmaster1952

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OK, total newb question here (and I don't want to sort through 20 pages!), but lemme get this straight...

 

I've been looking at an Oregon 200 for the papreless capabilities. So with this, I could convert a Garmin Nuvi to be able to look for a geocache with paperless abilities? So I'd end up with a road GPS and a paperless geocache one too?

 

Hmmm... now I'm wondering if I should even bother with the Oregon 200? I know a website where I can get some refurbished Nuvi's from.

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As a public note, I would like the say the following.

 

I regret Groundspeak's decision as described by Robert Lipes's post above. I think it is wrong, short-sighted and not in the spirit of geocaching that most of us would *assume* should be the norm.

 

I shall not fight the decision, I have better things to do with my life, but I would formally - and respectively - ask that Groundspeak reconsider their position and allow this very well behaved, well contained thread continue.

 

I would suggest any supporters of my stance should email Groundspeak directly, not post in this thread as that would probably only weaken my argument about a well behaved thread.

 

Thank you. (Especially to the all the users of the script).

 

Happy hunting.

Edited by pilotsnipes
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:) Thanks for this Tute PilotSnipes, I've referred back to it a number of times, but finally getting there. The biggest thing for me was to stop the "dinging" when I wasn't caching, so solved this by putting in a Datacard, save waypoints to card and only insert when I need it.

 

Your tute is so well explained, and the pics help make something's just that bit clearer. Thanks for all your effort. :P

What do you mean by, "When I wasn't caching?" I don't understand the concept.

:P

Seriously, good idea about the datacard, I'll have to try that. the dinging drives my wife nuts.

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Seeing as it has been decided for us that we are no longer to stay with Groundspeak, Clyde England (owner of GSAK) has kindly offered to allow this support thread to continue on his forum.

 

Please refrain from posting any further items here (so that new people can see this last post and know where to head to)

 

The new site for support questions is:

 

Pilotsnipes Garmin Nuvi - True Paperless Geocaching Support: http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=12382

 

Also for reference:

jjreds Advanced Nuvi Macro support: http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=12382

Edited by pilotsnipes
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