Loading caches in Oregon 400t

[+KICT Balloons]

I have been searching through the past posts and have not answered my question YET. "How to load the maximum # of caches in my Oregon 400t w/3.2 software & North American plug & play street maps."

I understand I can load up to 2000 GPX caches in my G:garmin/gpx file. Can I put more GPX caches into the H:(which is my other Oregon drive)? If so, where in that drive do I put them?

 

If I can put more GPX caches into my H: drive, do I need to do anything special to access them?

[+sduck]

You can load up to 200 .gpx files, with 2K different geocaches in them total. This is a bit confusing at first, but once you understand the concept, it's easy. The unit can hold 2K geocaches (less if you have stored waypoints also). You can have these in 4 500-cache .gpx files, or 200 10-cache .gpx files. Doesn't matter where you load them, those are your limits.

 

This is covered in lots of detail here - http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/

[+KICT Balloons]

You can load up to 200 .gpx files, with 2K different geocaches in them total. This is a bit confusing at first, but once you understand the concept, it's easy. The unit can hold 2K geocaches (less if you have stored waypoints also). You can have these in 4 500-cache .gpx files, or 200 10-cache .gpx files. Doesn't matter where you load them, those are your limits.

 

This is covered in lots of detail here - http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/

 

Sorry, been there understand that, my origional question stands unanswered.

Thanks for playing.

[+fegan]

I have been searching through the past posts and have not answered my question YET. "How to load the maximum # of caches in my Oregon 400t w/3.2 software & North American plug & play street maps."

I understand I can load up to 2000 GPX caches in my G:garmin/gpx file. Can I put more GPX caches into the H:(which is my other Oregon drive)? If so, where in that drive do I put them?

 

If I can put more GPX caches into my H: drive, do I need to do anything special to access them?

 

Yes, if it's not a pre-loaded SD card containing maps from Garmin, you can put GPX files on your SD card (your H: drive) in the \Garmin\GPX folder (you may have to create that folder). If the SD card in your GPS is a pre-loaded map from Garmin, don't try to write anything to it...those cards are read only and you run the risk of losing your maps ($$$). You don't have to do anything special to access them other than putting them in the correct folder.

 

However, the limits of 200 GPX files and 2,000 geocaches (as documented on the wiki) still stand...doesn't matter if all the files are on internal memory, the SD card, or in both places. To load the maximum 2,000 geocaches you must remain under the 200 GPX file limit. You can do this by loading Pocket Queries (which can contain up to 500 caches in each GPX file), or by loading your Pocket Queries and other GPX files into something like GSAK and exporting a new GPX file which should contain no more than 2,000 geocaches (as the extra caches will be ignored and I'm not sure anyone has determined which caches get ignored if you exceed the limit).

 

You can load up to 200 .gpx files, with 2K different geocaches in them total. This is a bit confusing at first, but once you understand the concept, it's easy. The unit can hold 2K geocaches (less if you have stored waypoints also). You can have these in 4 500-cache .gpx files, or 200 10-cache .gpx files. Doesn't matter where you load them, those are your limits.

 

This is covered in lots of detail here - http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/

 

That's not accurate...the waypoints have nothing to do with geocaches regarding the limit of geocaches. You can have 2,000 geocaches and 1,000 waypoints...a total of 3,000 points. This is different than previous GPS models from Garmin (e.g. 60Csx) where the waypoints and geocaches shared the same memory space.

[+KICT Balloons]

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.... sounds like we have a winner. Thanks fagen! That all makes sense.

Happy Caching!

[+sduck]

 

That's not accurate...the waypoints have nothing to do with geocaches regarding the limit of geocaches. You can have 2,000 geocaches and 1,000 waypoints...a total of 3,000 points. This is different than previous GPS models from Garmin (e.g. 60Csx) where the waypoints and geocaches shared the same memory space.

Thanks for updating my knowledge - I was mistakenly thinking the waypoints and geocaches shared the same set of memory spots.

[+Chrysalides]

To add to what has been said above : if you need more than 2000 geocaches, save them as custom points of interest. It's not quite as convenient as a geocache, but it beats not having the information with you when you're out.

[+KICT Balloons]

To add to what has been said above : if you need more than 2000 geocaches, save them as custom points of interest. It's not quite as convenient as a geocache, but it beats not having the information with you when you're out.

Now I have to know. Can you save your GPX files this way and if so how?

[+fegan]

To add to what has been said above : if you need more than 2000 geocaches, save them as custom points of interest. It's not quite as convenient as a geocache, but it beats not having the information with you when you're out.

Now I have to know. Can you save your GPX files this way and if so how?

 

You can; however, there is something you should keep in mind. Unlike the older 60-series GPS, you can't convert a POI to a Geocache on the unit. So, you lose all the cool/neat/useful features of Geocaches if you load them as POIs. They're there on the GPS, but you can't mark them as Found, you can't wirelessly send them to your friend's Colorado/Oregon and they don't show up with the same icons as Geocaches (e.g. Traditional, Multi, Virtual, etc.).

 

You can use the Garmin POI Loader, or you can use GSAK, to load geocaches or waypoints as POIs.

 

The major advantage of POIs is you're only limited by memory (think about City Navigator, it has millions of POIs included with it). I have all my Finds (3,500+) and Hides (only 40) loaded as POIs so I can have that information with me everywhere I go. I used to load my Finds as Waypoints, back when I only had a few hundred. The more Finds I made, the more I realized that I needed to figure out a better way to have that info on my GPS. Waypoints wasn't going to be an option for long as they're limited to 1,000...and I didn't want to load them as Geocaches either. POIs was the solution as it doesn't rob any memory space from Geocaches or Waypoints.

 

There is a GSAK macro that will automatically load your Finds and Hides as POIs when you load Geocaches (Colorado/Oregon Export)...check it out on the GSAK website.

[+SamSpade47]

Another option is to have several micro SD cards loaded with alternate cache information. Swap the SD card to see different caches. It's not really very convenient, but it does work.

 

I have a related question and thought I'd toss it out here:

 

Hypothetically, if you are in Florida and you loaded 4000 caches... 2000 from Florida and 2000 from Alaska.

 

If you are in Florida, would the Oregon show the 2000 closest caches (the 2000 from Florida)?

 

Then say you fly to Alaska, reboot the Oregon, would the unit now show the 2000 closest caches (the 2000 from Alaska)?

 

Just wondering.

Edited February 23, 2010 by SamSpade47

[+sduck]

Yes. The "find a geocache" list is sorted by distance to your current location. You can also search by name, and perhaps some other ways (my oregon's out in the car).

[+fegan]

Another option is to have several micro SD cards loaded with alternate cache information. Swap the SD card to see different caches. It's not really very convenient, but it does work.

 

I have a related question and thought I'd toss it out here:

 

Hypothetically, if you are in Florida and you loaded 4000 caches... 2000 from Florida and 2000 from Alaska.

 

If you are in Florida, would the Oregon show the 2000 closest caches (the 2000 from Florida)?

 

Then say you fly to Alaska, reboot the Oregon, would the unit now show the 2000 closest caches (the 2000 from Alaska)?

 

Just wondering.

 

Since you can't actually load 4,000 caches there's no telling what you would see...some from Florida and some from Alaska might load, so in theory you might see caches when you're at either location.

 

The GPS has an internal database and it only loads 2,000 of the 4,000 caches you put on it. It doesn't re-load the database based on your location...it only re-loads when the file(s) are refreshed.

 

So, bottom line, you won't have 2,000 caches at each location...sorry.

[+sduck]

Another option is to have several micro SD cards loaded with alternate cache information. Swap the SD card to see different caches. It's not really very convenient, but it does work.

 

I have a related question and thought I'd toss it out here:

 

Hypothetically, if you are in Florida and you loaded 4000 caches... 2000 from Florida and 2000 from Alaska.

 

If you are in Florida, would the Oregon show the 2000 closest caches (the 2000 from Florida)?

 

Then say you fly to Alaska, reboot the Oregon, would the unit now show the 2000 closest caches (the 2000 from Alaska)?

 

Just wondering.

 

Since you can't actually load 4,000 caches there's no telling what you would see...some from Florida and some from Alaska might load, so in theory you might see caches when you're at either location.

 

The GPS has an internal database and it only loads 2,000 of the 4,000 caches you put on it. It doesn't re-load the database based on your location...it only re-loads when the file(s) are refreshed.

 

So, bottom line, you won't have 2,000 caches at each location...sorry.

Well, he WAS asking hypothetically. And what if one hypothetical part of the question (that he left out because it was...hypothetical?) was that he's upgraded to a 550? They hold 5,000 geocaches! Boggles the mind... hypothetically.

[+KICT Balloons]

Thanks again fegan!

[+Chrysalides]

You can use the Garmin POI Loader, or you can use GSAK, to load geocaches or waypoints as POIs.

The last time I tried to convert a GPX to POI using the Garmin POI Loader, I noticed that a lot of information was left out - specifically, the Groundspeak extensions which holds the information of interest to us. Is this fixed with a more recent version of POI Loader? The GSAK macro doesn't have that problem.

[+fegan]

You can use the Garmin POI Loader, or you can use GSAK, to load geocaches or waypoints as POIs.

The last time I tried to convert a GPX to POI using the Garmin POI Loader, I noticed that a lot of information was left out - specifically, the Groundspeak extensions which holds the information of interest to us. Is this fixed with a more recent version of POI Loader? The GSAK macro doesn't have that problem.

 

Since I only use the POI loader to load my own custom POIs (friends, family, etc.) and use the GSAK macro (Colorado/Oregon Export) to load POIs of my Finds and Hides...I can't answer that question. I only know that POI Loader is supposed to read both CSV and GPX files as input.

 

Sorry I can't be more helpful...perhaps somebody else knows.

[+g-o-cashers]

This might be a little out of date but there are GSAK macros that will convert caches to POI's preserving a lot of the cache specific information. Start here:

 

http://garmincolorado.wikispaces.com/POIs#GCasPOI