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Okay, I'm a newbie with a couple of questions


theplatypus

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Hi,

 

Okay, I'm not used to saying it for any type of electronics, but I'm a newbie when it comes to geocaching.

 

Sorry for what may be some really dumb questions, but although I'm learning quickly, I still have not figured everything out.

 

Okay, first off, I have a Magellan Triton 400, now when I go through the listings I notice the link that says. "load directly to garmin gps unit"... so right away I wonder, is there a way to directly upload to a magellan unit?

 

Second and probably a more important question, today I entered some coordinates to find a geocache near where I was, and according to all the info I know aproximately where I am supposed to be... although when I walked there, my coordinates were quite a bit off. Am I doing something wrong, or am I entering my numbers wrong?

 

Let me give you more info... I was looking up geocache GC1E5MT it says the coordinates are N 43° 33.892 W 080° 16.159

 

But when I got into the area, my coordinates read 43.56387N amd 080.26946W... how come I'm that far off?

 

Thanks, I hope that in a few weeks I'll be able to talk the lingo a little better, but I have to start somewhere. :lol:

 

Thanks everyone and I hope you are all having or had a great Christmas break.

 

Frank

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Hi,

 

Okay, I'm not used to saying it for any type of electronics, but I'm a newbie when it comes to geocaching.

 

Sorry for what may be some really dumb questions, but although I'm learning quickly, I still have not figured everything out.

 

Okay, first off, I have a Magellan Triton 400, now when I go through the listings I notice the link that says. "load directly to garmin gps unit"... so right away I wonder, is there a way to directly upload to a magellan unit?

 

If by 'load directly to' you mean electronically transfer the data, then yes. There is, but you have to download a coordinate file first, and then send that. GSAK is a great program for this kind of thing.

 

Second and probably a more important question, today I entered some coordinates to find a geocache near where I was, and according to all the info I know aproximately where I am supposed to be... although when I walked there, my coordinates were quite a bit off. Am I doing something wrong, or am I entering my numbers wrong?

 

Let me give you more info... I was looking up geocache GC1E5MT it says the coordinates are N 43° 33.892 W 080° 16.159

 

But when I got into the area, my coordinates read 43.56387N amd 080.26946W... how come I'm that far off?

 

Actually you're not that far off. Notice the set of coordinates on gc.com is in degrees decimal minutes format (which is the default coordinate format for many (most?) gps units. The coordinates you presented are in decimal degress.

 

To convert between degrees decimal minutes format (dd mm.mmm), and decimal degrees (dd.dddddd) divide the minutes portion by 60 and add to the degrees portion (60 minutes in one degree), so 43°33.892N=43+33.892/60=43.56486°N. To go the other way, just multiply the decimal fraction by 60, so 43.56387N=43° 0.56387x60N=43° 33.832N.

 

Yet another format, used less commonly in the GPS world, but you might see it on maps, or in programs is degrees, minutes and seconds (dd mm ss.s). To go from dd mm.mmm format to dd mm ss.s format, take the decimal portion of the minutes, and mulitply by 60, so 43.56486°N = 43° 33.832'N = 43° 33' 49.9'N (note as an alternative, open the windows calculator, put it in scientific mode, punch in the coordinate, and hit the dms button, to go the other way, hit inv-->dms.)

 

HTH

 

Dale

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1) You probably should set your Magellan to display co-ordinates as degrees, minutes and decimals, -at least while you are geocaching.

2) Also, make sure that the Magellan's datum is set to WGS84. It probably is that by default already.

3) Always be very careful, and double check any manually entered co-ords. We have all learned the hard way after being directed far off into private property, our mistake. They are especially easy to get wrong when in the field, entering re-directs.

4) To change any co-ords format to any other: click on any convenient cache listing, then click just to the right of the listed co-ords: Other Conversions. Then, besides being able to view the listed co-ords in all the other formats, you can use this page to convert any other co-ords that you are interested in (e.g., co-ords that have nothing to do with geocaching). Click just under the bold co-ords at the top, to change the format to whatever you want, enter any co-ords you want, and click the Change Waypoint button just below.

4) If you ever click the MyTopo Maps link that is on all cache-listing pages, the default there is deg. and decimals. Click, and click again if necessary, the word 'format' at the bottom of this topo map. The pointer must be moved back to the map to view locations in either of 2 other formats.

5) Ibycus, by the way, has an excellent topo map. I don't know if it is downloadable for Magellans. I haven't tried it yet for my 'Garmin map 60Cx', because I really don't know enough about computers.

 

Hope this helps.

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We have both the magellen explorist 500 and triton 400. The triton is not quite as user friendly so can understand where you are coming from.

 

With the triton magellan provided software called vantage point - it takes a bit to get used to. But it does work well.

 

The triton can hold a maximum of 1000 "geocaches", of which you can upload automatically.

 

geocache.com allows you to create your files one of 2 ways, we find that paying the $3 a month for the premium membership was the easiest. This allows you to create a pocket query. In the pocket Query you can pick and choose exactly which caches you want to load in.

 

Once you have generated that and sent it to your e-mail, it will arrive in a zip format. Unzip it and in there will be a file that ends in .gpx - this is the one you want to use.

 

hook your magellen up through vantage point (which you likely have done if it's working as the firmware would have updated)

 

Make sure that it is "connected", then click the "VP" symbol at the top left hand corner and you will have an option that states "load gpx file to my gps"

 

there you will select the pocket query that you created.

 

That will load them in the correct datum for you.

 

Now the challenge with the triton's is that you can't save them (at least last I checked) in individual folders so they will all end up together even if you upload multiple files. The benefit of the triton is that You will get the full hints, cache page description which is a great help without having to manually enter all the details and it helps remove the human error element. Once they are on there you can not update them and if you want to "refresh" your caches you have to delete them all and reload them. I'm hoping for a firmware upgrade in the near future. You do not need GSAK to do this

 

Now the challenge here in the Vancouver area - finding caches that are accessible to parking and not under 4 feet of snow.. lol

 

GSAK is handy but so far have not found a way to get it to bypass the need to use vantage point.

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Unofficial Speculation - but as an ex and still disappointed Magellan user - about par for them as of late...

 

DD

 

The "Send to GPS" button you see on the cache listing page only works with Garmin GPS units, to the best of my knowledge. Garmin wrote the interface and Magellan declined to do so.

 

 

ooooo, that sounds like unofficial speculation... :):rolleyes:

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