Palm GPS navigator 3380na with garmin

[allieandowen]

I have a Palm Centro and recently purchased the Palm GPS Navigator 3380NA with Garmin. It's a 2gb sd card with preloaded maps. Palm and Garmin have been completely useless in helping me set this up for geocaching. Through reading the posts i have been able to figure out that i can import a gpx file and have tried to download a gpx converter. I have no idea how these things work or how to get the two to work together! I can't simply enter the coordinates into the gps, it won't let me. My son is dying to go geocaching, please help!! I have done geocaching before but it was with someone who already had the whole thing set up. I would pay for the premium membership but I'm not even sure the gpx import function on my phone works because the phone and gps receiver are two separate units. Any ideas would be appreciated

Edited November 15, 2009 by allieandowen

[Ken in Regina]

Have you actually got the Mobile XT application working? And is the GPS functioning with it so you can view the map and have it show your location on the map?

 

It's impossible to tell you what to do next without knowing exactly where you are now. Sorta like navigating with a GPS.

 

If you have Mobile XT working, you just need to place a GPX file in the GPX folder on the SD card and Mobile XT should see it.

 

As for learning how to use Mobile XT, let me Google the Mobile XT User Manual for you..... Here it is:

 

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GarminMobil...wnersManual.pdf

 

To enter coordinates you need to create a new "My Location". TOOLS (the little wrench icon) > MANAGE MY DATA > MY LOCATIONS > MANAGE > NEW LOCATION .... Use the buttons to give it a name and a location. In the "Change Location" button you can enter the coordinates using the "Edit Coordinates" button.

 

At least that's the way it works on my Palm T|X.

 

...ken...

[allieandowen]

Yes, I have the Mobile XT working, can see myself on the map, and have used it for going places in the car. Thank you for showing me the manual, i think it will help, and i was able to enter the coordinates of some geocaches in our area and assign an icon on the map. Is there a way to access the hints, or information about the cache without manually typing everything in? and if i purchase access and get the gpx file, do i just drag that into the expansion card on the palm install and do a hot sync and the map will automatically read it? Or I put the sd card in the card reader, I just tried that and saw a gpx folder. Do you have premium membership and use the gpx files that way? Sorry if I sound so dumb....

[allieandowen]

ok i converted a .loc file to a gpx file, put it into the gpx folder in the garmin card and then went to tools/manage my data/ options/ import gpx file. I don't see it anywhere and it isnt in "my locations". did i miss a step?

[Ken in Regina]

I'm afraid you are about where I'm at with Mobile XT now. I've never used it for geocaching, just navigation. And not even a lot of navigation. I mostly just bought the Palm to see if it would be a good replacement for my favorite nav device, which Garmin discontinued a couple of years ago. So I just play with the Palm and Mobile XT a bit every now and again.

 

I don't have a premium membership but I've never used a .LOC file. The cache information that I've used I got through Garmin's MyGarmin site. I have a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx. I just connected it to my computer and the caches load directly into the Legend using the MyGarmin account. A premium account isn't worth anything to me. I have to admit to being a bit of a phoney. I'm not much of a cacher. I haven't done any caching since early this summer. I'm more interested in learning about the new handheld technology and this forum section is one of the best places on the internet to do that. The people here are very knowledgable about using handhelds. I dabble a little with caching just so I can understand when experienced users are discussing some of the handheld features that are only really applicable to caching.

 

My Legend doesn't support all the hint info so I just cut and pasted the text into the Palm Desktop memopad on my PC and synced it into my Palm memopad.

 

Wish I could be more help.

 

...ken...