Need Garmin eTrex Venture HC info--

[+busternfruss]

I've been caching since April, and have been using my Nuvi 350, which has had great accuracy and been totally satisfactory! However, I know the Nuvi isn't water-resistant and probably isn't sturdy enough for frequent geocaching use, and I don't want to damage it; gotta have it for the car.

 

I'm looking for a low-priced Garmin to use only for geocaching. We are not hikers or campers. I don't need bells and whistles, but I do want it to have a satellite receiver that's as good and accurate as my Nuvi's. The Nuvi 350 has some kind of Sirf receiver, but I can't find any specifics on the kind of receivers on the eTrex models. One that's easy to use would be nice, too. (The Nuvi is a breeze to use.)

 

After looking at different models, the Venture HC seems to be my best bet at $120. I know it doesn't have a card slot, but I don't think I need extra maps. I just need to know where the cache is (go to the coords) from where I'm standing, with good accuracy!

 

Is the receiver on the Venture HC as good (holds signal and is accurate) as the Nuvi's and/or the Legend HCx's? The specs just say "high sensitivity receiver" for the eTrex's even on Garmin's site. The eTrex's both have WAAS, are water-resistant, have a geocaching mode, color screen, etc. It appears that the receivers may be the same on those and on the Vista, but the specs don't really say. I don't want to buy something that doesn't work as well as the Nuvi I'm using now.

 

Any big pros & cons on the eTrex Venture HC? Am I totally off-track with this? Any better choices for my geocaching needs? (I know the Colorados & 60Csx or whatever are better, but I don't want to fork over $300 or more; would like to keep it in the $100-150 range, IF a model in that range is satisfactory. If those models aren't good, I may just stick with my Nuvi for now and hope I don't kill it.)

 

All suggestions & opinions are appreciated-- Thanks much!

[+WVRadar]

I believe that the high sensitivity receiver used in the Venture HC is the same as the higher priced models. I have been using one since last year and am very satisfied with it. Although the memory somewhat limits the unit for maps, I've used mine with Topo 2008 and there is plenty of room to load the surrounding area where I generally cache. In my opinion, the Venture HC is a great unit for geocaching, when auto routing is not needed.

[+wasted]

I wouldnt be afraid to get a venture hc, in fact I've been seriously thinking of picking one up myself, for $120(with free shipping) its cheap enough, I have a summit hc and a vista hcx and an extra gpsr to keep the kids from fighting over the summit seems like a good idea...

 

I actually found venture hc's for $109(with free shipping) a couple days ago which was enough to talk me into picking one up but when I went to order one the next day they had the price back up to $120...

 

 

for what its worth I'm going to just copy and repost my opinions of it from another thread(again), just to save myself a bunch of typing...

 

I havent used a csx but I have a vista hcx and theres a never ending debate as to which one performs better, to my knowledge the venture hc is basically the summit hc without the compass, ect., I also have a summit hc that my kids use and is also a work horse/back-up for my hcx and theres no noticable difference in performance between the two... if fact if you put them in a case so you couldnt see the color difference or the labels you couldnt tell them apart with their basic operation...

 

as everyone already knows, the two obvious things I've noticed that the hc falls short in comparison to the hcx are its memory and battery life and even those arent as drastic as they sound... the summit hc has 24mb of memory, I live in wisconsin and I have IBYCUS's maps on my hc and the whole state of wisconsin is just a little over 28mb, so I can load almost the whole state of wisconsin on it, plenty of area unless I plan on an overnight trip somewhere, and even if the situation arises I can reconfigure the maps to whatever I need and download them in about 2 minutes, and then just download the original map when I'm done, so the "limited memory" isnt much of an issue to me...

 

battery life could be better, if I have one gripe with the comparison that would be it, but only when comparing the hc against the hcx, it still isnt bad and wouldnt be an issue at all if I didnt know that the hcx got as good a battery life as it does

 

 

I was looking to go cheaper with the back-up too, although it works good for street use my summit hc is meant mainly for offroad use so I dont need auto routing and all the other "street" features and it gets a little beat up by the kids so I didnt need one that costs a fortune either, I found them for $121 with free shipping and was going to pick up the venture hc myself but my kids like the compass so I got the summit hc instead, walmart had them for $148 which is still over $70 cheaper than any vista hcx I'd run across when I bought the hc

 

I've heard here and there about people having some issues with the venture/summit hc's, but then again I've heard here and there about people having problems with any and every model gpsr... I wouldnt be afraid to get a venture hc, in fact for $121 I was seriously considering picking one up myself anyway, just to have for a spare, thats around $100 less than I paid for my vista hcx and other than the compass it would work just as good for off road use...

[jmundinger]

Based on the description of your needs, I think the Venture HC would be an excellent choice. I have a Legend C, which, based on the description, is just a discontinued version of the Venture HC, without the high sensitivity receiver. I still use it a lot, even though I have since purchased a Vista HCx.

[jmundinger]

Based on the description of your needs, I think the Venture HC would be an excellent choice. I have a Legend C, which, based on the description, is just a discontinued version of the Venture HC, without the high sensitivity receiver. I still use it a lot, even though I have since purchased a Vista HCx.

[+busternfruss]

I believe that the high sensitivity receiver used in the Venture HC is the same as the higher priced models. I have been using one since last year and am very satisfied with it. Although the memory somewhat limits the unit for maps, I've used mine with Topo 2008 and there is plenty of room to load the surrounding area where I generally cache. In my opinion, the Venture HC is a great unit for geocaching, when auto routing is not needed.

 

Thanks! An experienced cacher told me tonight that she has this model and likes it better than the much higher-priced map60CSx, which she also has.

Is the Topo 2008 needed, or is it good as is, for pointing me toward the cache? I don't know anything about loading more maps, my Nuvi works fine with the ones it had. Thanks--

[+busternfruss]

I wouldnt be afraid to get a venture hc, in fact I've been seriously thinking of picking one up myself, for $120(with free shipping) its cheap enough, I have a summit hc and a vista hcx and an extra gpsr to keep the kids from fighting over the summit seems like a good idea...

 

I actually found venture hc's for $109(with free shipping) a couple days ago which was enough to talk me into picking one up but when I went to order one the next day they had the price back up to $120...

 

 

for what its worth I'm going to just copy and repost my opinions of it from another thread(again), just to save myself a bunch of typing...

 

I havent used a csx but I have a vista hcx and theres a never ending debate as to which one performs better, to my knowledge the venture hc is basically the summit hc without the compass, ect., I also have a summit hc that my kids use and is also a work horse/back-up for my hcx and theres no noticable difference in performance between the two... if fact if you put them in a case so you couldnt see the color difference or the labels you couldnt tell them apart with their basic operation...

 

as everyone already knows, the two obvious things I've noticed that the hc falls short in comparison to the hcx are its memory and battery life and even those arent as drastic as they sound... the summit hc has 24mb of memory, I live in wisconsin and I have IBYCUS's maps on my hc and the whole state of wisconsin is just a little over 28mb, so I can load almost the whole state of wisconsin on it, plenty of area unless I plan on an overnight trip somewhere, and even if the situation arises I can reconfigure the maps to whatever I need and download them in about 2 minutes, and then just download the original map when I'm done, so the "limited memory" isnt much of an issue to me...

 

battery life could be better, if I have one gripe with the comparison that would be it, but only when comparing the hc against the hcx, it still isnt bad and wouldnt be an issue at all if I didnt know that the hcx got as good a battery life as it does

 

 

I was looking to go cheaper with the back-up too, although it works good for street use my summit hc is meant mainly for offroad use so I dont need auto routing and all the other "street" features and it gets a little beat up by the kids so I didnt need one that costs a fortune either, I found them for $121 with free shipping and was going to pick up the venture hc myself but my kids like the compass so I got the summit hc instead, walmart had them for $148 which is still over $70 cheaper than any vista hcx I'd run across when I bought the hc

 

I've heard here and there about people having some issues with the venture/summit hc's, but then again I've heard here and there about people having problems with any and every model gpsr... I wouldnt be afraid to get a venture hc, in fact for $121 I was seriously considering picking one up myself anyway, just to have for a spare, thats around $100 less than I paid for my vista hcx and other than the compass it would work just as good for off road use...

 

Thanks so much, lots of good info!! See my reply above, too.

[+busternfruss]

Based on the description of your needs, I think the Venture HC would be an excellent choice. I have a Legend C, which, based on the description, is just a discontinued version of the Venture HC, without the high sensitivity receiver. I still use it a lot, even though I have since purchased a Vista HCx.

 

Thanks!! The Venture HC is sounding real good to me right now! See above also.

Is the high sensitivity receiver better than the older ones?

[+WVRadar]

Based on the description of your needs, I think the Venture HC would be an excellent choice. I have a Legend C, which, based on the description, is just a discontinued version of the Venture HC, without the high sensitivity receiver. I still use it a lot, even though I have since purchased a Vista HCx.

 

Thanks!! The Venture HC is sounding real good to me right now! See above also.

Is the high sensitivity receiver better than the older ones?

 

The high sensitivity receiver is much better than the old ones. I replace my old eTrex with the Venture, and have never had problems with the unit losing the signal. This used to always happen in deep valleys and heavy tree cover with the older unit.

 

As far as the Topo maps, they are not needed to find a cache. However, they can come in handy by giving you an idea of any obstacles (streams, lakes, deep gorges) in the path to the cache.

[+busternfruss]

Based on the description of your needs, I think the Venture HC would be an excellent choice. I have a Legend C, which, based on the description, is just a discontinued version of the Venture HC, without the high sensitivity receiver. I still use it a lot, even though I have since purchased a Vista HCx.

 

Thanks!! The Venture HC is sounding real good to me right now! See above also.

Is the high sensitivity receiver better than the older ones?

 

The high sensitivity receiver is much better than the old ones. I replace my old eTrex with the Venture, and have never had problems with the unit losing the signal. This used to always happen in deep valleys and heavy tree cover with the older unit.

 

As far as the Topo maps, they are not needed to find a cache. However, they can come in handy by giving you an idea of any obstacles (streams, lakes, deep gorges) in the path to the cache.

 

Thanks! We don't do any real wilderness caching, mostly the ones very close to 'civilization.' Maybe we won't need any additional maps. I ordered the Venture HC today, hope it's as easy to use as the Nuvi.

[+wasted]

Thanks! We don't do any real wilderness caching, mostly the ones very close to 'civilization.' Maybe we won't need any additional maps. I ordered the Venture HC today, hope it's as easy to use as the Nuvi.

 

I'm actually not real big on topo maps unless I actually NEED that data, IMO topo maps get a little too "noisey" alot of times and it takes a little more concentration/studying to figure out whats going on on the map than I like to put into it... for general navigation/direction I like the basic street maps better and unless you want auto routing(which you wont need with the venture hc) then I would recommend pretty highly taking a look at ibycus's maps, I have them on my summit hc and really like them, in fact they're about all I see myself needing on that gpsr, they're very detailed, easy to download and load to the gpsr(theres a whole big thread on it) and dont cost anything but a thank you to ibycus...

[+busternfruss]

Thanks! We don't do any real wilderness caching, mostly the ones very close to 'civilization.' Maybe we won't need any additional maps. I ordered the Venture HC today, hope it's as easy to use as the Nuvi.

 

I'm actually not real big on topo maps unless I actually NEED that data, IMO topo maps get a little too "noisey" alot of times and it takes a little more concentration/studying to figure out whats going on on the map than I like to put into it... for general navigation/direction I like the basic street maps better and unless you want auto routing(which you wont need with the venture hc) then I would recommend pretty highly taking a look at ibycus's maps, I have them on my summit hc and really like them, in fact they're about all I see myself needing on that gpsr, they're very detailed, easy to download and load to the gpsr(theres a whole big thread on it) and dont cost anything but a thank you to ibycus...

 

Thanks--Do you have to do anything first to get the Garmin to accept them? I've never added any maps to my Nuvi, and it's the only GPS unit I've ever used. I know nothing about adding maps!

[+WVRadar]

The Venture HC comes with MapSource software. If you purchase the Topo or City Navigator maps from Garmin, you use this software to load the maps into the GPSr. Detailed instructions are in the MapSource manual.

[jmundinger]

Thanks! We don't do any real wilderness caching, mostly the ones very close to 'civilization.' Maybe we won't need any additional maps. I ordered the Venture HC today, hope it's as easy to use as the Nuvi.

 

As another posted mentioned, you don't need the maps for caching. We have several hiking trails in the Helena area and many caches are hidden throughout the trail system. I have used Topo as an aid (a supplement to the trail map) in hiking to some of those caches, but not for actually finding the caches. I also have used Topo (as well as USAPhotoMaps) to help plan some of the caches that I have hidden - but I did that on the computer desktop, not on the gpsr. But, I didn't use Topo in selecting the hiding spot.

 

MapSource, which comes with the Venture HC, is a very basic map that can also be used to transfer data back and forth with the gpsr. However, if you also have GoogleEarth installed on your computer, MapSource will interface with it, i.e. you can plot a location/track in MapSource and view it in GoogleEarth.

Edited June 30, 2008 by jmundinger

[+wasted]

Thanks--Do you have to do anything first to get the Garmin to accept them? I've never added any maps to my Nuvi, and it's the only GPS unit I've ever used. I know nothing about adding maps!

 

you need mapsource, you can use the disc that came with the gpsr to get it or you can download it online, its gotten a little long(10 pages) but everything you need to know to get those maps on your gpsr is in this thread...

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=189762

 

 

it does require a small degree of direction if you've never done before, but its not hard to do at all, and that thread has all the info you'll need...

[+busternfruss]

Thanks--

[+busternfruss]

I read through the thread but still had questions. I replied in that thread. Thanks--