taking old caches off my gps

[+2cachepotatoes]

Hi all, My wife and I are new to caching, I'm running into a couple of problems. I don't know if I need to do two post's so please be patient with me.

My first problem is I can't figure out how to take the caches I've found off my gps and I don't want to screw it up by just removing what I think is a cache from it only to find out it wasn't. I have a Garmin Oregon 400t.

My second problem is my gps will get me within 40 feet of a cache, but when I get closer I start walking in circles. The only reason I have the few caches I do have are from making an educated guess at where the cache might be and searching hard for easy ones. I just don' know if I'm using my gps to its full potential, and the owners manual was no help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

[+bittsen]

Hi all, My wife and I are new to caching, I'm running into a couple of problems. I don't know if I need to do two post's so please be patient with me.

My first problem is I can't figure out how to take the caches I've found off my gps and I don't want to screw it up by just removing what I think is a cache from it only to find out it wasn't. I have a Garmin Oregon 400t.

My second problem is my gps will get me within 40 feet of a cache, but when I get closer I start walking in circles. The only reason I have the few caches I do have are from making an educated guess at where the cache might be and searching hard for easy ones. I just don' know if I'm using my gps to its full potential, and the owners manual was no help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

 

To get you closer to a cache, go to the cache description in your Oregon and look at the choords. Then look at the choords on the GPS and match them. You can get much closer that way.

As for getting the geocaches off of the Oregon, I have been reading about it (extensively because I was debating between an Oregon and the COlorado I just bought) and come to the realization that its not easy (or not possible) to move them off one by one.

If you use a program like GSAK to load the caches then you can go into GSAK and delete them (or edit them) from the GSAK database and reload the database to the GPS but not load the caches you have found.

[+Walts Hunting]

bittsen is right about GSAK. It is a necessary tool. Since you are a premium member with a expensive GPS (I have that one too) you can probably afford the one time fee for a very valuable program. You have probably been loading individual caches to your Oregon or maybe dropping the PQ in. You cannot delete individual caches on the Oregon. Plug it in and work your way to the Garmin folder where you will find the GPX file(s) and delete it.

 

As to chasing the arrow. A common experience. Think about this. You probably have a error radius of about 15 feet in a good location. If you are only 50 feet from a cache and it recauculates your new location and moves it 10 feet to the right or left the arrow will swing quite a bit. Then it recalculates the other way the next time and since you moved in response to the arrow now it is twice that heding off. It is referred to "chasing the arrow". When you get 50-100 feet away depending on how open the terrain is and you have been walking straight for a sufficient distance for the compass to settle down pick out a landmark further away than the distance and walk towards it while looking at the distance. Start looking for likely spots. The GPS will very rarely take you to the exact location. Also I don't turn on the compass. I find it results in wild swings while with it off it calculates your heading based on the line you are walking and is more stable. Most people I know don't turn on the compass.

 

For the best information on how to use an Oregon go here

 

http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/

 

and look around the FAQ's and general information along the left.

 

Welcome to the club.

[+boda]

Good advice above. Personally, I seldom use GSAK since I got my Oregon. I prefer to just run another PQ, making sure the "I Haven't Found" box is checked. The PQ will filter out all caches you have logged online. I then connect the Oregon, navigate to the GPX folder, delete the old gpx file and copy in the new one. For other needs, I will generally use GSAK-but that is rare.

[+tozainamboku]

With the Garmin Oregon, if you are are going to follow the arrow to the cache, make sure your compass is calibrated and set to Auto. If your compass is turned off, then as you slow down when you get close to the cache the arrow will jump around and won't necessarily point to the cache. As you get practice you many learn how to ignore the arrow and just watch how the distance goes down to get you close to zero. But remember that there is always some variation in the GPS reading, even when you are standing still. You will rarely actually be able to get the distance to zero and have it stay there. And the cache isn't going to be at zero anyhow since the hider has the same random variation in his GPS. When you get to about 30 ft or so you may want to just put away the GPS and start looking for the cache.

 

As far as deleting caches you have found from your GPS. How are you loading the caches on to it? If you are using the Send to GPS button, there is a file created in the \Garmin\GPX directory for each geocache. I think is has the same name as the GC code for the cache. You can't delete geocaches in the field, although you can mark them as found when using Log Attempt. To delete a cache plug the Oregon in to your PC using the USB cable and navigate to the \Garmin\GPX directory on your device. Delete the gpx files you don't want to see anymore. If you are loading a PQ GPX file you can only delete the entire GPX file, not individual caches. The best way to manage caches is to get a new PQ with the caches you want to look for and overwrite the old file. (I find sometimes the Oregon doesn't properly update the old caches when I've overwritten a GPX file. In this case I just delete the file and try again).

 

GSAK is a great tool to manage caches. You can use it to create customize GPX file that the Oregon can use and get even more flexibility of which caches are loaded on your unit.

[+Walts Hunting]

Actually I have the opposite of tozainamboku. I rarely if ever turn on the compass. It works better when it computes your location but as to picking a distant spot and watching the distance good advice.

 

Like I say in my Geocacle class. Geocachers are like lawyers. Ask two of them the same question and you will get three answers except we don't charge.

 

GSAK become more important if you want to puzzle caches. You need to open them up and solve them. Also I delete all caches that have the last two as DNF.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Actually I have the opposite of tozainamboku. I rarely if ever turn on the compass. It works better when it computes your location but as to picking a distant spot and watching the distance good advice.

 

 

I have a Garmin 76Cx, which doesn't have the electronic compass, and primary use the map screen when searching for caches. I use a variation on picking a distant spot and watch the distance. When my GPS is telling me that i"m 200' or so from the cache (actual distance varies with the terrain) I look in the direction my GPS is telling me to go, and look for a possible hiding location that distance away. As I get better at estimating distance by eye, I get better at identifying where I need to go from 200-100' away. If I see something really obvious I head right to it and search there first.

[+geohiker55]

Hi all, My wife and I are new to caching, I'm running into a couple of problems. I don't know if I need to do two post's so please be patient with me.

My first problem is I can't figure out how to take the caches I've found off my gps and I don't want to screw it up by just removing what I think is a cache from it only to find out it wasn't. I have a Garmin Oregon 400t.

My second problem is my gps will get me within 40 feet of a cache, but when I get closer I start walking in circles. The only reason I have the few caches I do have are from making an educated guess at where the cache might be and searching hard for easy ones. I just don' know if I'm using my gps to its full potential, and the owners manual was no help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

 

I purchased an Oregon 400 T as soon as it came out, I found it to place me 50 feet south of where the cache is or 50 feet south of a road I was traveling on. After several complaints to Garmin the agreed to take it back and replace it with a refurb unit. well that unit shows the exact same accuracy, so my Oregon is now on the shelf and useless.

 

I love garmin units I have 2 street pilots, 3 nuvis, 3 different e trex models All of them are extremely accurate Somewhere Garmin has missed with the Oregon series.

 

Also I find the Oregon screen very hard to see, Garmin tells me its the same screen as the nuvi but I don't think so.

 

Good Luck

Joe

[+Curioddity]

I purchased an Oregon 400 T as soon as it came out, I found it to place me 50 feet south of where the cache is or 50 feet south of a road I was traveling on. After several complaints to Garmin the agreed to take it back and replace it with a refurb unit. well that unit shows the exact same accuracy, so my Oregon is now on the shelf and useless.

The roads are a little off on my 400t, but I've found just shy of 200 caches with it now and it led me right to almost every one of 'em. When the caches haven't been near GZ, a check with Google Earth almost always shows that the published coordinates are incorrect.

 

I've also found several dozen USGS benchmarks with it and it takes me right to them as well. 4 to 6 foot accuracy is the rule instead of the exception when I'm benchmarking. FWIW, I keep WAAS active and the magnetic compass option turned off. I also use the compass rose almost exclusively when I get within a couple hundred feet of my target.

 

I agree that the screen can be hard to see in some lighting conditions but otherwise, I'm very happy with my Oregon. I suppose I should add that I also have a nuvi 500 and I like it too, but it's not as accurate as my Oregon is.

 

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

 

Pete

[+fizzymagic]

My first problem is I can't figure out how to take the caches I've found off my gps and I don't want to screw it up by just removing what I think is a cache from it only to find out it wasn't.

I delete all the caches from my GPS and re-load them vefore I head out. That way, I know that I only have "fresh" data. You can use GSAK or some other program for this purpose. I personally don't use GSAK for this, but many do. If you do, be careful not to load "stale" cache info from it!

[+mrbort]

My first problem is I can't figure out how to take the caches I've found off my gps and I don't want to screw it up by just removing what I think is a cache from it only to find out it wasn't.

I delete all the caches from my GPS and re-load them vefore I head out. That way, I know that I only have "fresh" data. You can use GSAK or some other program for this purpose. I personally don't use GSAK for this, but many do. If you do, be careful not to load "stale" cache info from it!

 

This! They're just mass storage devices. Unless you're not a premium member with access to pocket queries, it's an easy thing to replace the data that's old with data that's current! No worries about using GSAK when you've got that oregon. Just toss the pocket query .gpx files in the /Garmin/GPX/ folder and you're set Good luck!

[+Curioddity]

My first problem is I can't figure out how to take the caches I've found off my gps and I don't want to screw it up by just removing what I think is a cache from it only to find out it wasn't. I have a Garmin Oregon 400t.

Your Oregon stores the files you've logged (Found, Didn't find, etc.) in a file called geocache_visits.txt which is in the root of the Garmin folder in the Oregon. To clear this file you can simply open this file with a plain text editor like Microsoft Notepad, delete the contents, and save the empty file back into the Garmin folder. I typically copy it to a folder on my HD before I delete the contents for archival purposes. I also replace the .gpx files in the Garmin/GPX folder each week with fresh Pocket Queries which only contain unfound caches.

 

That seems to keep my Oregon pretty up to date.

 

Pete