Finger on the buy button

[+CacheOCD]

I just can't decide. Please help me as tomorrow I am going to take the plunge and I want the best GPS for geocaching.

 

OSes: OSX and Linux

Marine use needed: no

Use as a car GPS: maybe sometimes

 

I am a first time geocacher. I am very technical but I value the opinions of you experienced cachers!

 

Thanks and sorry for yet another "What to buy" thread..

 

[savant9]

Was that a Colorado 400t or an Oregon 400T?

[+jbar]

I just picked up an Oregon 300. I had a 60 csx and a Colorado 300. The Oregon is very impressive, I had a hard time with the display brightness on the Colorado when in the sun. Dispite what people are saying the Oregon is very readable in the sun. You need to adjust the view angle but I find it easy to read than the Colorado. I have the entire Eastern Seaboard topo loaded, it loads quickly, is very easy to use. The paperless cacheing is great. The battery life seems better than the Colorado. I've only been out once so far but so far I'm impressed. I perfer the 300 models, I like to have the maps on the PC.

 

 

 

I just can't decide. Please help me as tomorrow I am going to take the plunge and I want the best GPS for geocaching.

 

OSes: OSX and Linux

Marine use needed: no

Use as a car GPS: maybe sometimes

 

I am a first time geocacher. I am very technical but I value the opinions of you experienced cachers!

 

Thanks and sorry for yet another "What to buy" thread..

 

[+CacheOCD]

I just can't decide. Please help me as tomorrow I am going to take the plunge and I want the best GPS for geocaching.

 

OSes: OSX and Linux

Marine use needed: no

Use as a car GPS: maybe sometimes

 

I am a first time geocacher. I am very technical but I value the opinions of you experienced cachers!

 

Thanks and sorry for yet another "What to buy" thread..

 

 

Sorry, Colorado 400t

[+Paul_Aris]

I love my Colorado 400T. If you are coming from a lower end model or never owned a GPS before you will love the Colorado. If you have had a 60 CX you may not like it as well because it is different.

[+TotemLake]

I wouldn't use the PN-40 as a car navigation tool. Screen is too small to focus on quickly enough to keep your attention on the road. If you have someone in the navigator's seat, this would be best.

 

The PN40 also communicates with the Topo7 software to transfer files and data. So if this is something you can't do with the OS you have, then you would probably end up being frustrated by it.

[+embra]

A Windows emulator would be needed to run Topo7 (RRLover should be by in about 20 minutes to fill you in on the Mac perspective). I'll give a higher rating on the autorouting capabilities of the PN-40 than TotemLake; I think it's fine for occasional street routing although a good dedicated street GPS with touchscreen and text-to-speech is the best. I saw a refurb Garmin c330 for $79 on buy.com today.

[robertlipe]

There are countless threads contrasting the models and companies in these forums. I'll fixate just on the OS line.

 

Linux has has never really caught the attention of the GPS makers. So for things like firmware or map updates, Linux just doesn't work for any of the GPSes.

 

The Garmins you ask about have reasonable-ish Mac support. http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/ - it's not without excuses, but you can do pretty much what you need to do with them on OS/X. The CO shows up as a disk on Mac. Drag & drop the PQ in Finder to the mounted volume, eject it, and go caching. It's reasonable. (The device itself has well-documented frustrations...)

 

There is no Mac support for the PN40's. Reports under Fusion/Parallels (which aren't really Mac support at all....) are spotty. Allegedly geocache xfer is coming with "Cache Register", but things like firmware and map updates have a less clear fugure in Delormesville.

[+RRLover]

A Windows emulator would be needed to run Topo7 (RRLover should be by in about 20 minutes to fill you in on the Mac perspective). I'll give a higher rating on the autorouting capabilities of the PN-40 than TotemLake; I think it's fine for occasional street routing although a good dedicated street GPS with touchscreen and text-to-speech is the best. I saw a refurb Garmin c330 for $79 on buy.com today.

Ain't telepathy great? Just wish I had more control, and it wasn't so fleeting.

 

I used the PN-40 for some auto routing the other day, as it stands the old TomTom

Nav. 5 on the LifeDrive does better, I'll stick to that for auto routing for a while.

It (lifeDrive) has a screen very much like the 'G' Oregon big and $_X in sunshine.

The Jury's still out on the PN, as I didn't have the time to really un-hurriedly adjust

the PN's settings and I think I had it set to too short of deviation before re-calc.

 

It may have been the threshold setting I chose on the PN, but if you miss a turn you

can have an adventure if you don't stop and let it gather it's wits about it.

 

I loaded the DeLorme supplied 'Pre-cut' maps to an SDHC card. I put the card in

the PN-40 and it built the folder "Maps". Removing the card I installed it to a card

reader and "Drag 'n' Dropped" the maps for several states (everything but AK & HI)

from the Western Region (blue) DVD in one swell foop to the card. < 20 min. later

they were done. I chose at this time to also create a folder "screenshots" (note, plural)

on the card. This folder caches a screenshot every time the power button is pressed.

There's a fallback feature, whereas after pushing the power button one must accept

with a press of 'enter' to actually turn it off, so if one takes a screenshot either let

it timeout, or press 'delete' and the unit stays on.

 

I tested the OS10.4.11 (Tiger) ability to recognize the device and all seems well, finder

saw both EM (internal to device) & SD memories by choosing on the device at start up

after connection, be warned there's a very short window in which to turn off

device after you eject (you do eject don't you). I could just as easily foregone the

card reader in the map loading, but it had already been done.

 

To be honest loading up Topo 7 is still on my "To-Do" list. I really don't have

much in the way of a tutorial, about all I can add is some have had no problems

and others have had problems, emulators, are kind of notorious for having connection

issues, and they seem to have neither rhyme nor reason. We're expecting

a couple of arrivals from Sea-Tac Airport tomorrow, one we're ready for, the Mother-

in-law we're not quite dialed in for yet. Come Wednesday I'll have some time to

start playin'.

 

Norm

Edited December 16, 2008 by RRLover

[+RRLover]

I'da made the window if I didn't edit and spell check . . . ;^)

 

Norm

[+OldA'sFan]

I just can't decide. Please help me as tomorrow I am going to take the plunge and I want the best GPS for geocaching.

 

OSes: OSX and Linux

Marine use needed: no

Use as a car GPS: maybe sometimes

 

I am a first time geocacher. I am very technical but I value the opinions of you experienced cachers!

 

Thanks and sorry for yet another "What to buy" thread..

 

I just bought a PN 40 for my grandson as a Christmas present. Thought I better "fire it up" before giving it to him. Low and behold I can't get it to turn on. I went to the DeLorme forum and found that several others are having the same problem. Reading through the forum it seems the PN 40 has great potential, but it also seems to have a lot of "bugs". I'm thinking about returning the PN 40 to REI and getting a Garmin Vista HCx. I know they work and are simple to use.

[+RRLover]

I just can't decide. Please help me as tomorrow I am going to take the plunge and I want the best GPS for geocaching.

 

OSes: OSX and Linux

Marine use needed: no

Use as a car GPS: maybe sometimes

 

I am a first time geocacher. I am very technical but I value the opinions of you experienced cachers!

 

Thanks and sorry for yet another "What to buy" thread..

 

I just bought a PN 40 for my grandson as a Christmas present. Thought I better "fire it up" before giving it to him. Low and behold I can't get it to turn on. I went to the DeLorme forum and found that several others are having the same problem. Reading through the forum it seems the PN 40 has great potential, but it also seems to have a lot of "bugs". I'm thinking about returning the PN 40 to REI and getting a Garmin Vista HCx. I know they work and are simple to use.

Did you press and hold until the second 'greet screen' came up?

 

<edit>

I see by your other posting at Forum DeLorme that you did.

Some devices shipped in the default to LiIo rechargeable mode, and in that

condition one gets a very short window to get through the menus to change

to alkeline, either blast through the menus to get to and change that option,

or hook it to a USB cable on your computer so USB power will over ride the

condition and change setting then. USB power gives a more forgiving

"window of opportunity".

 

From the sat. screen touch menu, toggle up once, enter, enter, toggle down

twice, select battery of choice.

 

Norm

Edited December 16, 2008 by RRLover

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

I'm thinking about returning the PN 40 to REI and getting a Garmin Vista HCx. I know they work and are simple to use.

]

Just in case you do, the Vista HCx is $165 at Walmart.com today!

[+twolpert]

I own a Colorado 400t and am pleased with it. At the right firesale price (with 2.8/2.8 firmware and maybe a baggie in the rain), I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. But I hope Santa will bring me a PN-40.

[Dosido]

I have a CO 400t, and got to play with the PN-40 for a few minutes at a geomeet the other day. I love my CO, and once you're used to the bigger display, and larger text, it's tough to look at the PN-40 without some disappointment. The PN-40 was very fast in screen redraws, and looked nice, but it felt like I should get a magnifying glass to read the cache listing, etc. after being used to the CO screen/font size!

[+CacheOCD]

I went with the etrex vista hcx. I figured if I stick with this hobby (I have a problem switching hobbies a lot) then down the road I can get something more advanced

 

Thanks guys

[+Maingray]

GREAT choice. Its far more advanced than you think, you can get the garmin "X" models to a lot of stuff that only the "nextgen" models apparently can do e.g. geocaching information, custom icons etc