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Garmin Venture HC


jdcb

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Hey Guys,

 

I'm looking for some info on the Venture HC. Bought on today for $200, but before i open it up I'm trying to find out if it does paperless caching. I'm reading that it holds it's signal really well...

 

It says it supports the gpx file, so I think it should give me the description and the clue which is all I would really want.

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Hey Guys,

 

I'm looking for some info on the Venture HC. Bought on today for $200, but before i open it up I'm trying to find out if it does paperless caching. I'm reading that it holds it's signal really well...

 

It says it supports the gpx file, so I think it should give me the description and the clue which is all I would really want.

the ventureHC will not give you the description or the clue. at least mine wont. but it will hold a very good signal though.

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well that's kinda the craps. I think I'm going to keep it anyway. It's in one of those plastic packages, so I can only return it if I don't open the package (so they can re-sell). It's just if I go on any long caching treks, I'll have to carry paper with all the hints, and that will increase my prep time.

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well that's kinda the craps. I think I'm going to keep it anyway. It's in one of those plastic packages, so I can only return it if I don't open the package (so they can re-sell). It's just if I go on any long caching treks, I'll have to carry paper with all the hints, and that will increase my prep time.

 

You can store some information by customizing the GSAK export a bit.

See my post here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry3857284

 

I'm pretty sure that will work for the Venture HC aswell.

 

In fact, you may even have some luck with this GSAK macro: http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=8932

(The offical specs says it does not support custom POIs but the firmware changelog says that support has been added: http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3745)

Edited by kallt_kaffe
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I think I'll keep this unit. Even if I have to keep using paper for keeping my hints, that wasn't that big a bother after the prep work was done. My biggest gripe with the last gps I used (and refused to use further [read: garmin etreks yellow]) was that if you were near a tree, the gps would say 0 with an accuracy of 3m and my friends would walk up to the geocache with their gps about 25-30 meters away.

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jdcb, you'll be very happy with the accuracy of the Venture HC. I started with one before upgrading to the Colorado 300. Your price point, however, is way off. $350-$400 will buy you a Colorado 300 or a GPSMAP 60CSx. The Venture HC goes for as low as $161.95 at gpscity.ca right now. I'm not trying to rib you for paying too much, but researching before buying is certainly a good thing.

Edited by Teddy2k
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I prefer not to buy things online. I would have to put it on my CC and I'm just not that good at paying the thing off. and I did get $45 worth of stuff with it (as per pricing at Garmin.com) so that balances to $150. No shipping.

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I'm using that unit together with a very old Palm handheld for paperless. Lots of threads here on how to do it, something to consider. Others have used smartphones, even iPods for paperless successfully.

 

What I'd really like is to be able to pull out the calendar entries from the Garmin, and open the logging page based on that. Doesn't seem possible though.

Edited by Chrysalides
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yeah, there are some people trying to sell some Palm 100's for like $30 on a local classified site, may pick one of those up in the next week or two if there's an app that will work on that model. what do you use on your handheld?

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yeah, there are some people trying to sell some Palm 100's for like $30 on a local classified site, may pick one of those up in the next week or two if there's an app that will work on that model. what do you use on your handheld?

Cachemate. There are other choices but I don't have experience with them. The only thing it cannot do are images.

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I always used cachemate ($16 or so...) on an 8MB palm m150. A-1, except if you plan on loading a ton of caches, and say, the last 5 logs, you'll be wanting a bit more room.

 

I like to have all the caches in New Brunswick with me when I head out caching, jeeping, etc. I have found 170 something, so that leaves 4413 (active).

 

Those 4413 caches, converted to a palm database (including the last 5 logs) weighs in at 7.30MB.

 

With the last 2 logs, it's 5.19MB, and with no logs, it's 3.70MB.

 

I set Reversing Falls as the center point and filtered out everything except the caches in a 100km radius, and ended up with 1666.

A palm database file, with the last 5 logs for those 1666 caches comes in at 2.93MB.

 

So...keep in mind that a chunk of a palm's memory will be taken up by the pre-installed apps, and cachemate. Depending on how much info you want for each cache, you might want to look into a 16MB model.

 

I know....why would anyone want to have 4000 caches with them? Well, the first time you forget to load up a different area, and find yourself there with a bit of time to kill but no cache info, you'll kick yourself. I know I always did.

 

Anyway....that should give you an idea of how many caches take up what kind of space.

 

If you plan on really getting into this, get GSAK, and a premium membership so you can run queries and stuff. It saves a HUGE amount of time over inputting stuff manually, or editing caches one at a time.

 

You won't regret going paperless, it's much simpler and you always have the cache info, even if you're not where you planned on ending up.

Another option other than the palm, is to use your iPod, and cachemagnet. It creates 'notes' files (like text files), and you can run off (I believe) 500 at a time.

I run them off in batches and then copy all the text files to the same folder, and it only takes a second to scroll through them and have all the cache info on the ipod screen...

If you already have an ipod with a screen, it's no more hardware to buy or lug around, and the text files take surprisingly little space. Plus you don't look attract as much attention scrooling on an ipod as you would fiddling with an antique palm pilot. :-)

 

With GSAK, a premium membership, and some determination (and a lot of reading on these forums) you'll find out that it's crazy the amount of stuff you can do very easily. I think, if I never looked for another cache, I'd still keep playing with the software available, just because it's fun.

 

I'm no expert, but if you have questions or anything, drop me a line.

gcfishguy <at> gmail DOT com

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With my Legend HCx using the 60CsxPOI macro I have loaded just above 17000 POIs. About 2500 of these are speed camera positions, the rest are geocaches.

 

In the macro settings (advanced options) I have configured it to use abbreviations and Smartname. I've only choosed to include the hint and the status of the four last logs. The cachename itself will tell you difficulty, terrain, size and cache type. It's not as paperless as one would like but it includes the most important information.

 

My poi.gpi is 1804kb.

 

Custom POIs will however not show on the map unless zoomed in a lot, but that can be adjusted in the map settings. On "Map Setup - Points" I have changed "Map Points" from "Auto" to "1.2km". That did the trick.

 

I guess that the Venture HC works just like a Legend HCx only with less memory.

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