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Geomate.jr Owners Report


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Will the premium caches somehow find their way into downloads for any premium members in the future? I just upgraded and minutes later I realized the Geomate won't pick them up. :laughing: (this is the only GPS tool I have)

That would be a most Sweeeeeeeeeeeet add on feature.

Sure hope they come out with a Geomate Sr. ( one that has a back light, and the ability to go get my geritol out of the medicine cabinet )

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I'm brand new to geocaching and just got a Geomate. It seems to work quite well, except it doesn't have some of the caches in my area that I expect to be there. I used the update kit and it worked properly. I understand that premium caches won't be listed, but I don't think these are premium. For example, GCHP5X and GC1P5DD are very close to me but neither shows up in my 20 closest list. Any ideas?

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I'm brand new to geocaching and just got a Geomate. It seems to work quite well, except it doesn't have some of the caches in my area that I expect to be there. I used the update kit and it worked properly. I understand that premium caches won't be listed, but I don't think these are premium. For example, GCHP5X and GC1P5DD are very close to me but neither shows up in my 20 closest list. Any ideas?

 

G'day HeiligEQ2

 

My guess is that when you did an update, you went ahead and performed a One Click Update?? Try clicking on the "Select a List" you will have an option to select either East or West US. The One Click Update reads what version of list you have and then loads the latest version of that list - in this case, my guess is that you still have the default factory list (which is filtered and doesn't include all caches) and hence, not the ones you mentioned.

 

However, if you select either East or West, those lists include everything up to a difficulty 4. And once you have either of those, the next time you do a One Click Update, it will give you the latest version of the East or West list.

 

Cheers

 

Warren

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What a great thread! My ten year-old son is asking Santa for a Jr. for Christmas. Up until now we've always bummed a borrowed gps off of my parents, but he said it was time for him to do this himself. He's of the tech generation so I have no concerns about the learning curve with this little gem. Thanks for all of the great information!

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Question: Does the update kit provide caches in Canada (Ontario to be specific)?

Hi. I just checked the update site to make sure and the answer is yes it will update caches for the entire country of Canada and even a lot of the northern states here in the U.S, all in the same update. Enjoy the game! :unsure:

Edited by Michigan Cacheman
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I have taken my new Geomate.jr out, and I am a convert, I went to a couple new areas for long bush walks and found the looked for caches with no worries. Until now I had been using my basic Garmin, but the Geomate.jr has worked flawlessly every time so I did not have to use the GPSr at all.

I did get the Geomate.jr a while back, but I had to wait some considerable time for the update kit to be made and be available for dispatch. That was really the only downside as I could not use it without the update for Australia.

The updating system is painless and straight forward. The whole thing a pleasure to use.

:unsure:

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I have taken my new Geomate.jr out, and I am a convert, I went to a couple new areas for long bush walks and found the looked for caches with no worries. Until now I had been using my basic Garmin, but the Geomate.jr has worked flawlessly every time so I did not have to use the GPSr at all.

I did get the Geomate.jr a while back, but I had to wait some considerable time for the update kit to be made and be available for dispatch. That was really the only downside as I could not use it without the update for Australia.

The updating system is painless and straight forward. The whole thing a pleasure to use.

:)

Geo Jr. is indeed quite the gizmo. Welcome to the fold

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I'm interested in which of the updates (East vs West) contains the midwestern states. I need Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas primarily. Anyone know whcih update I should apply?

It looks like the Western U.S. update is the one you need. Roughly speaking if you were to draw a line straight South from the western edge of the Chicago suburbs then everything to the West of that line would be on the Western U.S. update. Happy caching! :huh:

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I purchased my mate a month ago and have been very happy with the results. It comes in handy when I want to get away while my significant other is shopping.

Today I used my mate to get a ftf on a puzzle cache using the coords screen. I got on site and two other cachers were already there and had been for hours. It was quite a feeling beating two other cachers with full fledged GPSrs and me with my "$70 toy".

 

Questions for Warren, "When is Apispere coming out with a Geomate Sr so I can finally give the Jr to the kids?" :D

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I purchased my mate a month ago and have been very happy with the results. It comes in handy when I want to get away while my significant other is shopping.

Today I used my mate to get a ftf on a puzzle cache using the coords screen. I got on site and two other cachers were already there and had been for hours. It was quite a feeling beating two other cachers with full fledged GPSrs and me with my "$70 toy".

 

Questions for Warren, "When is Apispere coming out with a Geomate Sr so I can finally give the Jr to the kids?" :D

Jr. is indeed " Da Bomb " >>> I too am waiting for Senior <<< A unit with a back-light that is capable of going to the medicine cupboard and getting my Geritol so I can get the old Geo-Motor running. Yahooooooo LOL, LOL

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Are there any Puerto Rico geocaches in the preloaded GeoMate Jr. database? If I get the update kit woudl I be able to load geocaches that I produce using pocket queries?

 

I purchased one for my children as a Christmas pressent. I loaded the batteries for them but haven't tried it out myself yet since it is like 12 degrees here.

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We just got one for Christmas, and my daughter is thrilled - she doesn't have to worry about dropping Mommy's cell phone (I usually use Geocache Navigator on my BB Storm), and she can follow the arrows. We tried it today and she read the numbers out loud as they dropped. She was thrilled to have found one by herself!

4191182405_0a9dc10904_m.jpg4191182545_5aa2283988_m.jpg

Edited by Astabeth
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We just got one for Christmas, and my daughter is thrilled - she doesn't have to worry about dropping Mommy's cell phone (I usually use Geocache Navigator on my BB Storm), and she can follow the arrows. We tried it today and she read the numbers out loud as they dropped. She was thrilled to have found one by herself!

4191182405_0a9dc10904_m.jpg4191182545_5aa2283988_m.jpg

Welcome to the GeoJr. fold what a band of happy folk we are.

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:rolleyes: Ordered the Jr from REI about a month ago, I had wanted one for months after following it on here. I finally had the chance to try it out a couple days ago. The Jr should be the cornerstone of Geocaching as it is almost perfect! Anyone who has anything to say in the way of “it’s bad for the sport and Geocaching.com” should follow their arrow off a cliff. I have the update kit as well, and plan and trying it out for the first SOON. Five star product ***** :ph34r:
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Question on this unit???

 

If it only shows the directional circle with an arrow of the direction of the find and no map, how do you get to the area to begain with???

Same as everyone with a non-mapping GPS does, I suppose."

 

How do those with a non-mapping GPS get to the starting point?

 

thanks

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Question on this unit???

 

If it only shows the directional circle with an arrow of the direction of the find and no map, how do you get to the area to begain with???

Same as everyone with a non-mapping GPS does, I suppose."

 

How do those with a non-mapping GPS get to the starting point?

 

thanks

 

It only shows the 20 closest to wherever you are. So, turn it on & the closest cache will be the first thing you see! We tend to study the map on here, pick an area that seems to have a few caches clustered together, then head to that neighborhood. Its more about spontaneous geocaching over planned-out outings :)

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I'm interested in which of the updates (East vs West) contains the midwestern states. I need Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas primarily. Anyone know whcih update I should apply?

It looks like the Western U.S. update is the one you need. Roughly speaking if you were to draw a line straight South from the western edge of the Chicago suburbs then everything to the West of that line would be on the Western U.S. update. Happy caching! :)

 

That sound inconvienent for someone who lives in the western suburbs, no? Or is there an alternative such as "midwest"?

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Question on this unit???

 

If it only shows the directional circle with an arrow of the direction of the find and no map, how do you get to the area to begain with???

Same as everyone with a non-mapping GPS does, I suppose."

 

How do those with a non-mapping GPS get to the starting point?

 

thanks

 

You start out by looking at the map on GC.com. I think most people start with a non-mapping GPSer

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I'm interested in which of the updates (East vs West) contains the midwestern states. I need Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas primarily. Anyone know whcih update I should apply?

It looks like the Western U.S. update is the one you need. Roughly speaking if you were to draw a line straight South from the western edge of the Chicago suburbs then everything to the West of that line would be on the Western U.S. update. Happy caching! :)

 

That sound inconvienent for someone who lives in the western suburbs, no? Or is there an alternative such as "midwest"?

 

It appears that there is an overlap between the western and eastern sections. If you pick the western maps you can get everything west of the Mississippi River while the Eastern sections you get everything east of central Kansas/Nebraska

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I haven't gotten the update yet, but here's what I've had to do with several other programs using Vista:

Instead of "running" the download, "save" it to your desktop. Then right click on the icon and click "run as administrator." Then proceed as normal. Hope this helps.

 

THank you, but when I right click, I do not have the option "run as administrator". Oh well, back to the drawing board. :)

I hope you got this worked out already, but in case you didn't:

When I first got the update kit I was having the same problem. When I tried to update I got a message saying it couldn't find the software kit, and to be sure I was allowing "active X".

Eventually I noticed a very small note in the middle of the menu bar that said something like:

".... is trying to run a program. Do you want to allow active X? If so, click here."

So I clicked "there" and then tried to run it again, and it worked just fine!

 

The only problem I've encountered is: I cannot turn on jr. with the update cable plugged in (as instructed). I have to take a battery out, put it back in, turn it on first, and then plug it into the computer.

 

As for premium member caches, how would the update list know whether you are a premium member?

I like the idea of eventually adding the capability of hand-entering maybe 5 or so waypoints. That way you can add a few that you know of that are not on the list.

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I've had a GeoMate Jr. for over a month now, along with the update kit. It works perfectly and is a lot of fun. But it sure would be nice if you could update it from your own GPX or LOC file. Seems like that would be fairly easy to do from a programming standpoint. Or, if that is not possible ... how about an update option that allows you to load a database of only the caches you HAVE NOT found. This gets more important once you have found most of the caches in your neighborhood. It's not that fun having to click through all the "found" caches to find one you still need to find.

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Wrong thread I know (kinda)... Anyhow I received one "extra" Geomate Jr and update kit as an Xmas gift. I will sell the extra Jr and update kit for $70.00 Shipped "USA only" if anyone knows anyone that NEEDS one.

 

CVGpilot09@yahoo.com

 

- Mike

 

SOLD, thank you everyone.

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OK I bought one of the GeoMate Jrs for my son for Christmas as he and Dad (me) go caching everytime we go camping or sometimes on the weekends to let mom sleep in. :unsure:

 

Well WHAT A HIT! He absolutly loves it and calls it his own GPS (Which I guess it is of a sorts. LOL) He has already used it to find about 10 caches since Christmas, and we compete sometimes to see who can zero in and find it faster. He has beat me a couple of times!! LOL He is really good at finding the smaller ones.

 

We go to the area of the cache and we turn on both my Colorado 200 and his GeoMate and when we both get signals (his is sometimes faster than mine!) we both head for the same one. Its a gas watching him try and out do me. He loves it.

 

This was one of the best Christmas presents he could get! He loves it, its great excersise and he loves trying to outdo Dad and his "fancy" GPS. LOL Well we will continue to use it and I am sure have to get one for his best friend so tey can compete with each other.

 

Great IDea and thanks for the GeoMate Jr.

 

CWagoner & CJ>

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Sorry if this has been posted before.

 

I am getting the message:

 

geomate.jr DB: bad data

 

when updating. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Hi

 

What has probably happened is that when you tried to update it, the process was interrupted which leaves an unusable list on your device. Because the One Click Update reads the current list type you have (to give you the latest version of that list) this option will no longer work because it doesn't know what type of list you have anymore.

 

The fix is easy, go ahead and update your Geomate.jr again, but this time, use the "Select an Update" option.

 

If you still have problems, please go ahead and email me directly at warren@apisphere.com (Yep, I work for the company).

 

Cheers

 

Waz

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I'm not sure if this has been discussed here yet or not, I searched but could not find anything about it (perhaps I didn't look hard enough). Nonetheless, when you update the Geomate Jr., does it remove archived or temporarily disabled caches??

 

Thanks in advance!

 

The short answer? Yep.

 

The way the update works, is that every 24 hrs we recreate the lists from the geocaching.com site and make them available through the update section on www.mygeomate.com. The new list only includes active caches (no archived caches etc) at that time.

 

When you go to update your Geomate.jr using the One Click Update, we read the type of list you have on the device and then replace it with the latest version of that list - everything will be no older than 24 hrs (depending on exactly the time of day you updated). For example, if you have USA Eastern, it will automatically give you the latest USA Eastern list.

 

Now you can always change to a different list (USA Western or Europe for example) by using the Select a List option.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Cheers

 

Waz

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It is awesome that I have seen some of the Geomate.jr people on here answering questions about their own product. Inquiring minds would like to know what do you have in the future pipeline? It is a great product it looks like and i have been considering picking one up for the kids to play with since we like to go "treasure hunting" when we are out and about some times. BUT since I am a tech geek, I am always trying to see what the next cool thing around the corner is. Any insider information would be awesome.

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By pressing and holding the right button , the Geomate will mark that cache as found with a smiley face. It will also keep track of the number of finds up to 99. As far as past caches, you can't add them unless they're on the screen, then you can press the right button to save.

 

Larry

 

A major flaw that will most definitely keep me from buying this unit. :(

 

Things that the Jr. needs to be fully funtional,

Mark or exclude ALL of a persons found caches (I know I cant keep track of all of my finds anymore.)

Include premium member caches for us premium members.

Allow up to 5 manual coordinates (Pushes for multis)

Edited by hofy67
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By pressing and holding the right button , the Geomate will mark that cache as found with a smiley face. It will also keep track of the number of finds up to 99. As far as past caches, you can't add them unless they're on the screen, then you can press the right button to save.

 

Larry

I think it is 999 finds that the unit will record and it can be cleared (all found caches)

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By pressing and holding the right button , the Geomate will mark that cache as found with a smiley face. It will also keep track of the number of finds up to 99. As far as past caches, you can't add them unless they're on the screen, then you can press the right button to save.

 

Larry

 

A major flaw that will most definitely keep me from buying this unit. :)

 

Things that the Jr. needs to be fully funtional,

Mark or exclude ALL of a persons found caches (I know I cant keep track of all of my finds anymore.)

Include premium member caches for us premium members.

Allow up to 5 manual coordinates (Pushes for multis)

 

I wouldn't call it a major flaw... And i certainly wouldn't let it keep you from trying the unit... There's a reason its got a such a loyal backing going on here! ;-)

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By pressing and holding the right button , the Geomate will mark that cache as found with a smiley face. It will also keep track of the number of finds up to 99. As far as past caches, you can't add them unless they're on the screen, then you can press the right button to save.

 

Larry

 

A major flaw that will most definitely keep me from buying this unit. :)

 

Things that the Jr. needs to be fully funtional,

Mark or exclude ALL of a persons found caches (I know I cant keep track of all of my finds anymore.)

Include premium member caches for us premium members.

Allow up to 5 manual coordinates (Pushes for multis)

 

I wouldn't call it a major flaw... And i certainly wouldn't let it keep you from trying the unit... There's a reason its got a such a loyal backing going on here! ;-)

 

Dont get me wrong, the Jr. has a lot of really good things going for it. That is what caught my eye.

But, when you get into the hundreds or even thousands of caches found, you can not remember every single one that you have found. We cache in several states and it may be a while before we return to an area to cache again. Why waste time going back to a cache that you have already found. (Yes I know there are some really good ones I would like to go back to, and then there are the TB?coin drops).

 

I think the first 2 items could be handled very easily by cross referencing the Geocache database. My finds are all there for everyone to see so there is no need to even provide a password. Same with the premium member thing.

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I am not sure if this question has been answered but I just bought a geomate from amazon to get started. Newbie here. I was wondering what version it will be. Will it have the database of stuff up to 4/09 or will it have stuff more recent on it. I was debating on spending the $$ on an update cord but didn't know if I would need it.

 

Have a great day. :D

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You will probably want to get the update kit. It seems like new caches are being added all the time and older caches are being archived. New software is also available through the update kit.

My hunch is that the Geomate you purchased will have a new database(newer than 4/09).

Have fun with it even without the update kit! One does not need the latest and greatest and most expensive GPS to enjoy geocaching.

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