ottoandnatashia Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Hello all, We're new to Geocaching and my wife and I were wondering if our antique GPS 320 is up to the job. We hope to begin this weekend - should we upgrade or will the Magellan get us started? It's a GPS 315/320 Rev 3.07 Copyright 2000 Best regards, Otto Quote Link to comment
+Knight2000 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Technically you could but you would most likely never find a thing. You would have a better chance if you used google maps. Way too inaccurate. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 (edited) The 320 should work fine as long as it displays down to the DD MM.MMM level, rather than DD MM.MM as in some older units. If it displays in the latter mode then I think there is an upgrade available out there to fix it. That or you can convert to UTM and find caches that way, but that might be a bit complicated for a novice unless you are GPS savvy. Bottom line is that it should work fine for geocaching, but you may need to make some adjustments or upgrade the software. If it displays coords in DD MM.MMM then it should work nicely right now. You may have problems with reception under trees but geocachers have been dealing with that and still finding caches for years - until the latest generation of high sensitivity receivers came out. Edited September 2, 2009 by briansnat Quote Link to comment
+Knight2000 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Bottom line is that it should work fine for geocaching, but you may need to make some adjustments or upgrade the software. If it displays coords in DD MM.MMM then it should work nicely right now. It only does DD.MM.MM Quote Link to comment
+patned Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Technically you could but you would most likely never find a thing. You would have a better chance if you used google maps. Way too inaccurate. Given time to settle down, the 315 is very accurate. The main difference in the newer units isn't accuracy, it is sensitivity (good lock in bad conditions) and speed. My old 315 will get me within 15 feet consistently. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Bottom line is that it should work fine for geocaching, but you may need to make some adjustments or upgrade the software. If it displays coords in DD MM.MMM then it should work nicely right now. It only does DD.MM.MM I know the 315 does DD MM.MMM. If it's a 320 and only does DD MM.MMM then he should convert the coords to UTM and use UTM on the unit and it will be fine. Quote Link to comment
+patned Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 (edited) Bottom line is that it should work fine for geocaching, but you may need to make some adjustments or upgrade the software. If it displays coords in DD MM.MMM then it should work nicely right now. It only does DD.MM.MM Per the manual, you can change the coordinate display in the setup menu. The 315 came with major cities and small towns and was intended for land use. The 320 came with major cities and navigational aids and was intended for nautical use. They are the same hardware. Edited September 2, 2009 by patned Quote Link to comment
+Knight2000 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 I stand corrected. Quote Link to comment
ottoandnatashia Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share Posted September 3, 2009 Thanks all! We're going to try the 320 this weekend and a friend of mine is probably going to pick up a Garmin 550 so we'll have some old and some new hardware to compare. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Thanks all! We're going to try the 320 this weekend and a friend of mine is probably going to pick up a Garmin 550 so we'll have some old and some new hardware to compare. It will be quite a difference. Automotive GPS units like the Garmin Nuvi series are usually poor choices however for geocaching. The 550 is a rare exception, in that its an automotive unit that has many features found in a hand held. Quote Link to comment
+Team Cotati Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Thanks all! We're going to try the 320 this weekend and a friend of mine is probably going to pick up a Garmin 550 so we'll have some old and some new hardware to compare. It will be quite a difference. Automotive GPS units like the Garmin Nuvi series are usually poor choices however for geocaching. The 550 is a rare exception, in that its an automotive unit that has many features found in a hand held. It could be that the OP is referring to this unit: Garmin Oregon 550 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera. Found on amazon.com. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Thanks all! We're going to try the 320 this weekend and a friend of mine is probably going to pick up a Garmin 550 so we'll have some old and some new hardware to compare. It will be quite a difference. Automotive GPS units like the Garmin Nuvi series are usually poor choices however for geocaching. The 550 is a rare exception, in that its an automotive unit that has many features found in a hand held. It could be that the OP is referring to this unit: Garmin Oregon 550 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera. Found on amazon.com. True. Forgot about the 550 model in the Oregon line. Quote Link to comment
zulutime Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 It should do UTM and I'm pretty sure that you can update the firmware to get DD.MM.MMM. Quote Link to comment
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