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Debating on a GPS


Cprince90

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Well i picked up the Garmin Legend HCx on black Friday at Sports Authority for around $150. Got it out of the box, put brand new batteries in it and it wouldn't turn on...go figure right. So long story short I took it back and exchanged it for a new one that works.

 

I am wondering if there is anyway to download caches to it and it actually have the hints and recent logs or anything like that on it. I know you have to be a premium member to get the GPX files required for the hints and such, but I would like to know if it actually supports them and will show them to me.

 

The base maps on it are also very very limited. Only major highways. Since I live out in the country, the nearest road it shows for me is about 10 miles.

 

I am debating returning it and picking up the Lowrance Safari outback. I have seen the post where it shows the hints and such for the loaded up GPX files. Also the touch screen would be nice for entering coordinates if I lose the cord or something like that.

 

I would have to throw an extra $50 or so for the Lowrance, so just wanted to hear some opinions if it was worth it or not.

 

Thanks,

Chris

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At your price point $200 I would recommend the Delorme PN-40. Amazon.com has them for $199 as I type. You can use the POI loader on the garmin and use GSAK to get the terrain difficulty and most hints (character limits). But with the Delorme you would get the Difficulty, Terrain, full cache description, hint, and the last 5 logs. Plus you'd get routable street maps for the entire u.s.

Edited by sanramonhunter
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With the HCx and GSAK you can have a fair amount of info at your disposal. Load your caches with one of the excellent POI macros from GSAK and go caching. Although not fully paperless, (no long descriptions) you will still have lots to use. I would purchase a larger sd card for this unit, also free maps can be had from gpsfilesdepot.

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Hi, my sister has a legendHGx and I have PN40 and also the lowrance xog, I really don't like the legend at all, it is really terrible, for me, anyway. The lowrance, after I learned how to load the PQ's in it is a really sweet turn by turn easy to use out of the box crossover gps. It also has the hints and size and rating, no logs. But the PN40 is for geocaching! It is really really nice it has a page just for geocaching. And the help here is really good and I talked to a tech guy the other day and although he seemed kind of irrated that I called, he was actually some help. That is my 2 cents, I would throw the garmin in the trash if it wasn't my sisters.

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With the HCx and GSAK you can have a fair amount of info at your disposal. Load your caches with one of the excellent POI macros from GSAK and go caching. Although not fully paperless, (no long descriptions) you will still have lots to use. I would purchase a larger sd card for this unit, also free maps can be had from gpsfilesdepot.

 

Hi, my sister has a legendHGx and I have PN40 and also the lowrance xog, I really don't like the legend at all, it is really terrible, for me, anyway. The lowrance, after I learned how to load the PQ's in it is a really sweet turn by turn easy to use out of the box crossover gps. It also has the hints and size and rating, no logs. But the PN40 is for geocaching! It is really really nice it has a page just for geocaching. And the help here is really good and I talked to a tech guy the other day and although he seemed kind of irrated that I called, he was actually some help. That is my 2 cents, I would throw the garmin in the trash if it wasn't my sisters.

 

mr007s: I will download that and try it out really quick.

 

highlandmike: the PN-40 is looking like a better choice. Gonna keep doing some searching on it.

 

Gonna take the legend HCx out for some caching tomorrow to see how it performs.

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Hello. All GPSr's will have both pros and cons so make sure to read the reviews for whatever you end up buying (actually I should say if you decide to buy a different GPSr). Personally I own a Delorme PN-40 and I love it. If you'd like to view a list of what I see the pros and cons of owning a Delorme PN-40 you can CLICK HERE .

 

As a couple folks above have pointed out you can use GSAK to get the information you seek to to your current GPSr, but from what I've read it will be fragmented and kind of clumsy to access. On a paperless geocaching GPSr (like a Delorme PN-40 or one of the Garmin paperless models) you'll get everything you see on the cache page except for images right on your GPSr screen. It really is a huge step up from not being paperless. With both Amazon.com and Walmart.com having the Delorme PN-40 on sale right now for only $199 there are some fabulous deals out there. Good luck regardless of which way you end up going. Happy caching! :D

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Lets not forget the aerial Imagery for the PN's. But just so you know it maybe only $199.00 for the PN, you will want to get the power kit, add almost $40.00 and the Library subscription,add$$ and maybe cache register, add$$ so you are looking at more just to get what you are going to want for the PN. Just so you know. Now I don't know about the enduras but the xog has all the maps on it, but not aerial imagery, I don't know if it would even be availiable. oh and a bigger SD card add$$ just so you know!

Edited by highlandermike
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...stupid how all don't come with the street maps.
A marketing choice you disagree with is not necessarily stupid.

 

Garmin doesn't actually make their own maps, they license the data from others. The maps a hiker or geocacher wants might not be the same ones a pilot, boater, driver, or bicyclist wants. Selling maps separately lets Garmin hit price points and feature sets for different shoppers while trying to maximize their profits. All good reasons why some units don't come with the street maps you want.

 

In contrast, DeLorme is primarily a MAP company, so it makes a lot of sense for them to bundle the maps with the GPS!

Edited by lee_rimar
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...stupid how all don't come with the street maps.
A marketing choice you disagree with is not necessarily stupid.

 

Garmin doesn't actually make their own maps, they license the data from others. The maps a hiker or geocacher wants might not be the same ones a pilot, boater, driver, or bicyclist wants. Selling maps separately lets Garmin hit price points and feature sets for different shoppers while trying to maximize their profits. All good reasons why some units don't come with the street maps you want.

 

In contrast, DeLorme is primarily a MAP company, so it makes a lot of sense for them to bundle the maps with the GPS!

 

it's always about the profit for big companies

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.

it's always about the profit for big companies

 

 

Actually small companies are pretty concerned about profit also. In fact, I would be willing to bet that all companies care about profit.

 

If they didn't have profit you wouldn't have anything to buy

 

any business is concerned about profit :D or else it wouldn't be a business. it would be a failure.

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Lets not forget the aerial Imagery for the PN's. But just so you know it maybe only $199.00 for the PN, you will want to get the power kit, add almost $40.00 and the Library subscription,add$$ and maybe cache register, add$$ so you are looking at more just to get what you are going to want for the PN. Just so you know.

Power kit - not mandatory. Plenty of people out there running PN-40s on AAs.

 

Library Subscription - Very nice to have, can be had for under $30 if you shop around some. But not required.

 

Cache Register - If you already have GSAK, not needed. It's $10. Let's be realistic here - we're talking about ten dollars when you're spending $30/year just for the premium membership, who knows how much on gas wandering to far-flung caches, and a few hundred on a GPS. That's like arguing over having to pay a few extra bucks to get an ashtray in your new car. Brown-bag lunch 2 days this week instead of buying a sandwich at the deli and you've saved that $10 and then some.

 

By contrast, someone in this thread said to spend $100 more on the Colorado 300, then save up pennies to get the Topo maps to add on and no mention of street maps. Those will cost even more. As opposed to $199 for the PN-40 which comes with 1:100K topos and street maps, then only $30 more for the library subscription which will get you 24k topos (not routable though).

 

Just so you know.

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Lets not forget the aerial Imagery for the PN's. But just so you know it maybe only $199.00 for the PN, you will want to get the power kit, add almost $40.00 and the Library subscription,add$$ and maybe cache register, add$$ so you are looking at more just to get what you are going to want for the PN. Just so you know.

Power kit - not mandatory. Plenty of people out there running PN-40s on AAs.

 

Just so you know.

I agree with db's advice, above.

However, another opinion here.

I don't go for extended, multi-day backpacking trips.

I love the Power Kit and keep my PN-40 charged up in my Jeep.

With the rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack in it, I take the back off rarely, and then to access the SD card.

 

Yes, I am familiar with AAs. Now, where did I misplace my Walkman and its cassettes? :D

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Hi all,

 

Firstly, let me say that I have only been geocaching for just over 10 months. This does not make me an authority of GPSr's, but I can relate my experience.

 

For what it is worth, I too am using a PN-40 and am quite satisfied with it. Of course, I started looking for caches with a Garmin 255 automobile unit and almost any dedicated handheld would probably be a step up. I got mine last summer before the prices started to go down and it cost $325 directly from DeLorme. This was discounted from $400 because I am a long term DeLorme customer. I have recently given some thought to buying a second one as a backup.

 

I have seen forum comments talking about small screen size and a higher learning curve than other units by other manufacturers. I don't have any basis for comparison with other units, but I didn't find anything difficult in learning the operation of the PN-40 and I find the screen size adequate to the purpose. I do know that it puts me on the coordinates very successfully unless there is an extreme amount of overhead interferene. I don't know the upper limit or how it compares with other brands, but I know that I have loaded as many as 400 caches in the unit and have not reached the upper limit of what it can hold. One thing I like about the PN-40 is that it uses "push-button" operation rather than "touch-screen". I am rather hard on equipment and have a tendancy to scratch touch-screens. Incidently, I checked with DeLorme and if I scratch the screen up too much, they will replace the case for about $40.

 

Another thing that I like is that when you buy the PN-40 with the topographic maps, you also get the United States topographic map for your home or laptop computer that I find very useful in planning my excursions. I do wish that DeLorme would produce TOPO maps for Canada, but perhaps that will come with time. I simply download the cache locations from Geocache.com into my home computer and import them into TOPO 8. Then I can readily see which ones are within a given area instead of going from one "closest" to the next "closest" which can have me criss-crossing my trail all day.

 

I do have some 2GB SD cards that will allow me to enter TOPO maps for 2 or 3 states at a time depending on which states I am currently in. I have also purchased a 16GB SD card that I believe will hold probably half of the US at a time. If I find myself east of the Mississippi very often, I will probably get another 16GB card. The price of SD cards keeps coming down so I don't consider this to be a major expense.

 

Other extras that I have are the Car Kit which, in addition to a rechargeable lithium battery, provides me with a 12V power cable so that I can keep rechargeable batteries on the charger while in the car moving from one cache to another. Also, I have the bicycle adaptor to hold it on the handlebar when I choose to go out on the bicycle.

 

I am not in a position to say whether the PN-40 is better or worse that other units, but I think it should be included in any discussion of which unit is the better one to get.

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I stopped by Bass Pro Shops today on the way back down to college and played with a couple of the GPS's there. The PN-40 definitely seemed to be favorite for what I could do with it inside a tin roofed building. Also talked to the Sales rep there and he said alot of people are getting it just for Geocaching. Made me smile some since I didn't mention to him why I was looking until after he said that :D. Also they had a nice fancy price tag on it of $399.95.....had to laugh at that one some.

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Lets not forget the aerial Imagery for the PN's. But just so you know it maybe only $199.00 for the PN, you will want to get the power kit, add almost $40.00 and the Library subscription,add$$ and maybe cache register, add$$ so you are looking at more just to get what you are going to want for the PN. Just so you know.

Power kit - not mandatory. Plenty of people out there running PN-40s on AAs.

 

Library Subscription - Very nice to have, can be had for under $30 if you shop around some. But not required.

 

Cache Register - If you already have GSAK, not needed. It's $10. Let's be realistic here - we're talking about ten dollars when you're spending $30/year just for the premium membership, who knows how much on gas wandering to far-flung caches, and a few hundred on a GPS. That's like arguing over having to pay a few extra bucks to get an ashtray in your new car. Brown-bag lunch 2 days this week instead of buying a sandwich at the deli and you've saved that $10 and then some.

 

By contrast, someone in this thread said to spend $100 more on the Colorado 300, then save up pennies to get the Topo maps to add on and no mention of street maps. Those will cost even more. As opposed to $199 for the PN-40 which comes with 1:100K topos and street maps, then only $30 more for the library subscription which will get you 24k topos (not routable though).

 

Just so you know.

WOW what is that for? did I say something wrong?

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Lets not forget the aerial Imagery for the PN's. But just so you know it maybe only $199.00 for the PN, you will want to get the power kit, add almost $40.00 and the Library subscription,add$$ and maybe cache register, add$$ so you are looking at more just to get what you are going to want for the PN. Just so you know.

Power kit - not mandatory. Plenty of people out there running PN-40s on AAs.

 

Library Subscription - Very nice to have, can be had for under $30 if you shop around some. But not required.

 

Cache Register - If you already have GSAK, not needed. It's $10. Let's be realistic here - we're talking about ten dollars when you're spending $30/year just for the premium membership, who knows how much on gas wandering to far-flung caches, and a few hundred on a GPS. That's like arguing over having to pay a few extra bucks to get an ashtray in your new car. Brown-bag lunch 2 days this week instead of buying a sandwich at the deli and you've saved that $10 and then some.

 

By contrast, someone in this thread said to spend $100 more on the Colorado 300, then save up pennies to get the Topo maps to add on and no mention of street maps. Those will cost even more. As opposed to $199 for the PN-40 which comes with 1:100K topos and street maps, then only $30 more for the library subscription which will get you 24k topos (not routable though).

 

Just so you know.

WOW what is that for? did I say something wrong?

You implied that the PN-40 wasn't going to be suitable for use without spending upwards of $100 on accessories & software after buying the unit, which is incorrect.

Edited by dakboy
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Lets not forget the aerial Imagery for the PN's. But just so you know it maybe only $199.00 for the PN, you will want to get the power kit, add almost $40.00 and the Library subscription,add$$ and maybe cache register, add$$ so you are looking at more just to get what you are going to want for the PN. Just so you know.

Power kit - not mandatory. Plenty of people out there running PN-40s on AAs.

 

Library Subscription - Very nice to have, can be had for under $30 if you shop around some. But not required.

 

Cache Register - If you already have GSAK, not needed. It's $10. Let's be realistic here - we're talking about ten dollars when you're spending $30/year just for the premium membership, who knows how much on gas wandering to far-flung caches, and a few hundred on a GPS. That's like arguing over having to pay a few extra bucks to get an ashtray in your new car. Brown-bag lunch 2 days this week instead of buying a sandwich at the deli and you've saved that $10 and then some.

 

By contrast, someone in this thread said to spend $100 more on the Colorado 300, then save up pennies to get the Topo maps to add on and no mention of street maps. Those will cost even more. As opposed to $199 for the PN-40 which comes with 1:100K topos and street maps, then only $30 more for the library subscription which will get you 24k topos (not routable though).

 

Just so you know.

WOW what is that for? did I say something wrong?

You implied that the PN-40 wasn't going to be suitable for use without spending upwards of $100 on accessories & software after buying the unit, which is incorrect.

ohh, well that is what I spent after I got mine, but I got mine for $229.00 at Amazon, and cache register is so nice I wouldnt want to be with out it,and gsak isn't free if you don't want the nags.I figure I would spend $40.00 on AA batteries in not to long and end up buying the power kit sooner or later. And the library is for the aerial imagery which is one of the big selling points for me. I didn't buy the case yet, but have it in my sights, another $18.00 that I could do without, but don't really want it all scratched up banging around in my jeep. And I think the 8gb card would be enough and I see them at Walmart right now for $20.00. But you are right DAK if you want just the gpsr it will work by itself. So cprince, I myself think you got a really nice unit, I hope you enjoy it.

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WOW, thanks so much what a awesome product, I never heard of that. I will check out my local Radio Shack tomorrow and get that, Thanks Cowboy. well I think I will order it at this site, my Shack won't have it, we are in the middle of nowhere. Cool $14.oo plus $3 shipping, very nice it should be here soon.

Edited by highlandermike
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I do wish that DeLorme would produce TOPO maps for Canada, but perhaps that will come with time.

Hi. If you are a subscriber to the Map Library in addition to aerial imagery and other types of maps they have recently added topo maps for Canada. Granted Canadian topo is not included in the price of the GPSr, but for a very nominal fee it can be downloaded from the Map Library just like lots of other neat optional things for your GPSr. Happy caching! :D

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