Organizing Caches on an Oregon

[+Ginblue]

Hi all, just a quick question from newbie. Just received my Garmin Oregon 550t and have downloaded some local cashes onto it. I also want to download some cashes from another region I will be visiting; is there a way to organize the two regions separately on the Oregon?

 

thanks in advance, Ginblue

[+Nils-Olov]

Do you mean organising the gpx files from the PQ? they will, as you know, be named with a number and the suffix .gpx. You can put several such files in the Oregon without problems. I have sometimes changed the names from the number to the city name or something more easily understandable. It seems that the file from a stored PQ will always have the same name every time you run it so eventually you might learn the file name for the most used PQs.

[+Ginblue]

Thanks for the reply.

 

But no, I don't think so anyway. What I want is that when I navigate from the “Find a Geocache” button, instead of a list of all caches I can somehow have list of areas which then contains the caches I have stored for that particular area. Like this Button “Geocaches” - “Find a Geocache” - “Geocache Area 1 Geocache Area 2” “List of caches” if you see what I mean.

 

If I create file on the Oregon will they then show up as buttons on the screen?

[+burtsbodgers]

Thanks for the reply.

 

But no, I don't think so anyway. What I want is that when I navigate from the “Find a Geocache” button, instead of a list of all caches I can somehow have list of areas which then contains the caches I have stored for that particular area. Like this Button “Geocaches” - “Find a Geocache” - “Geocache Area 1 Geocache Area 2” “List of caches” if you see what I mean.

 

If I create file on the Oregon will they then show up as buttons on the screen?

Hi

If you load caches from area 1 which is where you are! these will be shown closest to you while area 2 10 miles away will be further down the list.

when you go to area 2 these will be listed as the next ones that are closer to you, with area 1 being listed 10miles away further down the list.

in other words the oregon always displays the caches you have in it in order from the location you are searching from.

 

Tip when searching for a cache some distance away with a lot of caches surrounding it, use the ABC button at the bottom of the screen and spell the first few characters of the name. This will bring up a shorter list to scroll through.

[+Ginblue]

Ahh right. Not been able to take it out yet, so did not know it lists dynamically (though would still like to divide the lists).

 

Thanks

[+bunkerdave]

Best way to do it is to use the 'search near' function (when you see a button at the bottom of the screen that looks like a bullseye, touch it and it will give you a list of all the kinds of waypoints and POIs you have in your GPS. As long as you have a location in area 2, you can find which caches are there.

 

Of possible interest might be the GSAK macro for CO/OR/Nuvi that will load a database of caches as POIs. I just loaded 13000 caches into my 550T yesterday, and it breaks them out by type, including separating traditional caches into micro, small, regular, and large. You can't use the geocaching functions with POIs, but you still have ALL the cache information.

[+Ginblue]

bunkerdave, thanks for the suggestions. Love the 550t, and still exploring - getting to grips with – it. Does all I want of it, but a custom file management system would be nice.

[+keehotee]

bunkerdave, thanks for the suggestions. Love the 550t, and still exploring - getting to grips with – it. Does all I want of it, but a custom file management system would be nice.

 

I agree.

Love my 550 - but some kind of file explorer, with an option to select which PQs were active, would be ideal.

[+bunkerdave]

Go to the GSAK forums and get comfortable with PQs and the macros for the Oregon. They are really quite simple to run, most of them are plug n play. You can probably find a way to do what you want with some of those.

 

You might also consider getting a nuvi...I am finding that I really like having all the caches for my state loaded on my Nuvi AND my Oregon as POIs, so that I can have BOTH and and off-road going simultaneously. Since the nuvi automatically moves the nearest caches to the top o the list without needing a refresh, it's nice to just have it on the dash showing direction and distance to caches as I drive around. Nuvis are cheap...you can easily get one for around $100.

[+Chrysalides]

One way to do this is to rename your geocaches to prefix the name with (for example) "@01@" for area 1 and "@02@" for area 2 and so on. That way, if you want area 1 only, you search for "@01@".

 

If the microSD card is not so inconvenient to get to and so easy to lose, another possibility is to load different sets on different cards.

[+Walts Hunting]

I never understood this desire of some to organize their caches on a GPS. Wherever I go it shows the closest. What else to you need to know?

[+webscouter.]

One way to do it is to load the caches as POI's in addition to loading them as caches. Then you can use the search POI function. Different file names will show up and can be filtered based on file name.

[+keehotee]

I never understood this desire of some to organize their caches on a GPS. Wherever I go it shows the closest. What else to you need to know?

 

Usually I use gsak to simply load a PQ with my closest 2500 or so caches, and that's fine.

But there are also times when I'd like to switch to a PQ that, for example, didn't show micros - or a custom PQ showing only the caches I've chosen to hunt that day.

 

At the moment the only way I have to do this is to take the micro sd out of my oregon, slot it into my pda and organise them that way.

[+jeepdelfuego]

I never understood this desire of some to organize their caches on a GPS. Wherever I go it shows the closest. What else to you need to know?

 

Usually I use gsak to simply load a PQ with my closest 2500 or so caches, and that's fine.

But there are also times when I'd like to switch to a PQ that, for example, didn't show micros - or a custom PQ showing only the caches I've chosen to hunt that day.

 

At the moment the only way I have to do this is to take the micro sd out of my oregon, slot it into my pda and organise them that way.

 

I usually do the same thing in the field. I have all 35 of my PQ's with me all the time on my 8gb micro sd. For some reason, we never seem to travel to the same areas all the time and I get out of range of the closest 2000 geocaches to my home. So, when I do, I take out the micro SD and move the files around with my Palm Centro. Problem solved. But, the Oregons (all Garmins GPSr's) should have a file manager on them, or the ability to load an unlimited amount of geocaches.

[+Odyn]

Sorry to revive this old post, but the reason I want to organize my caches is I have a pocket query that is only Night Caches/Available 24/7. Sometimes when we our out later in the evening I would like an easy way to find those caches. I currently only have a GPSMap 60csx, but I would consider upgrading to get the ability to search by cache attributes.

Thanks in advance.

[+dfx]

Sorry to revive this old post, but the reason I want to organize my caches is I have a pocket query that is only Night Caches/Available 24/7. Sometimes when we our out later in the evening I would like an easy way to find those caches. I currently only have a GPSMap 60csx, but I would consider upgrading to get the ability to search by cache attributes.

unfortunately the oregons are totally oblivious towards attributes. not only can you not search or filter by them, they aren't even shown in the cache descriptions.

 

so, the only way is to filter for them before transferring the GPX files to the unit, for example in GSAK. give those caches a special name (for example prefix the name with N* or something like that, then you can search for that), or change the cache type to something you normally don't see, like webcam cache. note that you need the latest beta firmware to filter by cache type.

[+New Jersey TJ]

Hi all, just a quick question from newbie. Just received my Garmin Oregon 550t and have downloaded some local cashes onto it. I also want to download some cashes from another region I will be visiting; is there a way to organize the two regions separately on the Oregon?

 

 

I haven't tried this yet, but the latest Oregon firmware (still in beta, I think) adds filtering. I'm not sure how the filtering works . . . I suppose it could be by cache type and not by area as the OP was asking about. Maybe someone running the beta firmware can comment on the filtering?

 

Here are a links to firmware downloads. They are specific to the series:

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloads...904&ra=true

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloads...5&pID=26876