New Garmin 62st

[+ventura_kids]

I just loaded all of California and Nevada..... that's a great improvement from my previous gpsr.

I just loaded 1700 geocaches into it too.

So far, after a day of testing, I see the software will need a bit of tweaking.

 

Where do we post our suggestions and issues? Does Garmin have a blog for the 62S unit?

 

I'd like to get the accuracy field to be viewable on the compass screen, rather than a second tiny compass. That little second compass serves NO use to me.

 

Overall, it seems to be MORE accurate than my old 60CS was. Once it settles down to zero, I don't need to keep looking at it. The old 60CS would sometimes jump 30 feet or so.

[+Treknschmidt]

I preorderd my 62s back in June and had it in hand just days after the release at the end of July. I didn't notice the squeak until someone pointed it out to me after reading this forum. I've been told my squeak is much worse than other units but I don't see it impacting my use of the unit so am not concerned with it. I do have a problem marking caches as found and navigating to the next with this unit.

 

Here is what it does:

 

Navigate to and find a geocache, hit log attempt, then found (or next closest) it takes you back one screen that reads "show description, show logs, show hint, log attempt," etc .... but I can't do a thing on this screen the unit has no response what so ever when hitting enter. I have to exit the screen using page or quit, wait for it to acknowledge I've changed screens and then go back into geocaches to search another cache. My friends unit also does this ... anyone else? I upgraded software to vs 2.40 with no impact on this issue.

[ba9rn]

I upgraded software to vs 2.40 with no impact on this issue.

Are you aware that 2.6 is now available for 62S? Probably will not help you though! I haven't tried Geocaching yet. Soon will!

[Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide]

These 'squeaking' 62s - has anyone tried just submerging theirs in water to see if that has any effect? The reason I ask is that my 62 has been rained on often, pretty much since day one, and it has never squeaked.

[+Treknschmidt]

Are you aware that 2.6 is now available for 62S? Probably will not help you though! I haven't tried Geocaching yet. Soon will!

 

No I wasn't, Thank you for pointing this out. I'll try upgrading and post whether it had an impact on this issue or not.

[ba9rn]

Are you aware that 2.6 is now available for 62S? Probably will not help you though! I haven't tried Geocaching yet. Soon will!

 

No I wasn't, Thank you for pointing this out. I'll try upgrading and post whether it had an impact on this issue or not.

Any luck? It looks like 2.5 fixed your problem, so you should be happy @ 2.6!

[+Treknschmidt]

My apologies it looks like I forgot to respond. I upgraded to 2.6 and that seem to fix the bug. I upgraded again to 2.7 and still working well. Thanks for pointing out the upgrade.

[+sammydee]

I upgraded my 62st from 2.60 to 2.70 tonight, and had nothing but trouble afterwards. The upgrade appeared to go well, but all the geocaches loaded into the GPS were gone. I confirmed that the GPX files were still on the internal storage and were still just fine, but the GPS wouldn't show any data from them.

 

I also had trouble getting the GPS to mount as drives on the PC, and had to reboot both the PC and the GPS numerous times before it would appear.

 

I eventually got the GPS mounted on the PC, and then deleted all the GPX files. I then rebooted the GPS and powered it back down. I then mounted the GPS again and copied my PQ GPX files back onto it. After that the GPS would finally display the cache info.

 

SO ... I would be quite careful when upgrading from 2.60 to 2.70.

 

...Sam

[+sammydee]

Check out my track from today's hike vs. the trail imagery from Google Earth:

 

 

I promise, I stayed on trail. Really!

 

There's no tree cover, the GPS was on my shoulder in the proper orientation. I've seen cases before where the 62 seems to have inappropriately dumbed-down the recorded track, but this is the worst example I've seen to date.

[sviking]

Check out my track from today's hike vs. the trail imagery from Google Earth:

 

 

I promise, I stayed on trail. Really!

 

There's no tree cover, the GPS was on my shoulder in the proper orientation. I've seen cases before where the 62 seems to have inappropriately dumbed-down the recorded track, but this is the worst example I've seen to date.

 

Wow, are you sure your "bread crumb" settings are correct for "more crumbs"? Every recorded point looks to be actually on the trail, but the "connect the dots" part filling in the gaps sure isn't. Looks like you just need more data points. My 60CSx sure doesn't do that, even went set to the "lazy" setting of "auto" and not "time" or "distance".

[+sammydee]

This was with "Track Log Record Method" set to "Auto".

 

On the GPS itself the track clearly shows that I walked all of each switchback, so the GPS itself recorded the complete track. But when exported into a GPX file it chose to really over-simplify it.

 

As an experiment I've now set the unit to record based on time (one point every 20 seconds), and will walk the same switchbacks in a week or two. But I would have hoped that "auto" would properly mark the turns on the switchbacks without making me do the work for it....

 

...Sam

[+Wirtz]

We played with the Garmin GPSMAP 62st at GW VIII. Anyone else look at it and what is your opinion?

 

Can any one tell me who has this device if it has a field notes option so you can upload them directly to gc.com?

 

Thanks

[+CondorTrax]

The field notes are saved in a file within the GPX subfolder. You'll need to attach the unit to your computer to access that file from within GC.com. Once you access the file and upload it to GC.com, you can then see your field notes and edit them accordingly.

[+The Ravens]

We played with the Garmin GPSMAP 62st at GW VIII. Anyone else look at it and what is your opinion?

 

Can any one tell me who has this device if it has a field notes option so you can upload them directly to gc.com?

 

Thanks

 

Yes it does and see post above for "how to".

[PloddinPedro]

This was with "Track Log Record Method" set to "Auto". On the GPS itself the track clearly shows that I walked all of each switchback, so the GPS itself recorded the complete track. But when exported into a GPX file it chose to really over-simplify it.

 

...Sam

Sorry if this is a dumb thing to say - I'm a bit of a novice at this - but if the whole Track data seems to be retained in the unit could it be the download/export process that's filtering down the data? Which software do you use to get the Track off the unit into a .gpx file?

[PloddinPedro]

I've not had my 62st very long so I'm still learning my way around it. One change I've noticed, compared to the Map60CSx, is that when entering Proximity Alerts, it no longer enters a default warning radius of 1.6km/1 mile. Instead, each point has to be reset from "000.0 miles" which can take quite a few button presses and is tedious. Why would they change the default from the sensible 1 mile? Who'd want a warning of zero distance?

 

Does anyone know if the default can be altered?

[sviking]

Sorry if this is a dumb thing to say - I'm a bit of a novice at this - but if the whole Track data seems to be retained in the unit could it be the download/export process that's filtering down the data? Which software do you use to get the Track off the unit into a .gpx file?

 

Yes, I've heard this as well. Supposedly, no matter how many points you've recorded, the .gpx file on the micro SD card is watered down to only 500 points.

 

Not sure about the 62, but my 60CSx automatically saves/records the track as a .gpx file to the micro SD card and the filename is the date. No conversion software needed. To get it off the card/GPS, you just hook it up via USB and copy or cut/paste it to your computer.

[Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide]

This was with "Track Log Record Method" set to "Auto". On the GPS itself the track clearly shows that I walked all of each switchback, so the GPS itself recorded the complete track. But when exported into a GPX file it chose to really over-simplify it.

 

...Sam

Sorry if this is a dumb thing to say - I'm a bit of a novice at this - but if the whole Track data seems to be retained in the unit could it be the download/export process that's filtering down the data? Which software do you use to get the Track off the unit into a .gpx file?

 

If you have the latest software on your 62 it does a good job of auto-archiving the tracks to an archive folder in the unit.

 

And the 62 tracks can hold 10,000 points, 200 saved tracks

 

Use Garmin's Basecamp to get tracks from the gps to the computer.

 

Here's an example of Basecamp while connected to my 62S showing an auto-archived day of riding.

 

Edited November 29, 2010 by Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide

[sviking]

And the 62 tracks can hold 10,000 points, 200 saved tracks

 

But, does it truncate the tracks down to significantly less points when copied and imported into something like Google Earth? My 60CSx does this, for some reason, and it can have 10,000 points per track as well. I see all the fine detail on the unit itself, but it's lost when used in Google Earth.

[The Stoned Wookie]

I got a 62s a few weeks ago and I'm not happy with it at all. You can't use a standard USB cable to power it in a vehicle. It goes into "data transfer" mode even though it is just plugged into a cig lighter adapter.

 

I tried loading caches using a pocket query. They load fine through mapsource. The problem is that they don't show up under geocaches on the device. You can still navigate to them as a waypoint but you can't log it as found that way. They show up just fine if you go to garmin.com/geocache though.

 

It also seems to eat up batteries even if you do turn it off. Trust me, I know the device was off.

 

I'm not a fan of the way it goes though the pages either. I like how the 60 series goes to the next page when you press page. The 62 series has the scroll menu thing. You press page until it gets to the page you want. Then it takes a few seconds to actually show the page. I haven't messed with the device enough to find out if that can be disabled.

 

Overall, I'd give the 62s a 0 out of 5 stars. That's how much I hate it. I think this thing will go for sale once I get back home. Then my 60CSx will get some love again.

Edited December 4, 2010 by The Stoned Wookie

[Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide]

I got a 62s a few weeks ago and I'm not happy with it at all. You can't use a standard USB cable to power it in a vehicle. It goes into "data transfer" mode even though it is just plugged into a cig lighter adapter.

 

I tried loading caches using a pocket query. They load fine through mapsource. The problem is that they don't show up under geocaches on the device. You can still navigate to them as a waypoint but you can't log it as found that way. They show up just fine if you go to garmin.com/geocache though.

 

It also seems to eat up batteries even if you do turn it off. Trust me, I know the device was off.

 

I'm not a fan of the way it goes though the pages either. I like how the 60 series goes to the next page when you press page. The 62 series has the scroll menu thing. You press page until it gets to the page you want. Then it takes a few seconds to actually show the page. I haven't messed with the device enough to find out if that can be disabled.

 

Overall, I'd give the 62s a 0 out of 5 stars. That's how much I hate it. I think this thing will go for sale once I get back home. Then my 60CSx will get some love again.

 

Don't use Mapsource to load queries - just copy the whole file into the Garmin/gpx folder.

 

There's no way it can kill batteries while it's off.

 

If you don't like the way pages work switch to the 'Classic' profile for 60/76 style menus/pages.

[The Stoned Wookie]

I got a 62s a few weeks ago and I'm not happy with it at all. You can't use a standard USB cable to power it in a vehicle. It goes into "data transfer" mode even though it is just plugged into a cig lighter adapter.

 

I tried loading caches using a pocket query. They load fine through mapsource. The problem is that they don't show up under geocaches on the device. You can still navigate to them as a waypoint but you can't log it as found that way. They show up just fine if you go to garmin.com/geocache though.

 

It also seems to eat up batteries even if you do turn it off. Trust me, I know the device was off.

 

I'm not a fan of the way it goes though the pages either. I like how the 60 series goes to the next page when you press page. The 62 series has the scroll menu thing. You press page until it gets to the page you want. Then it takes a few seconds to actually show the page. I haven't messed with the device enough to find out if that can be disabled.

 

Overall, I'd give the 62s a 0 out of 5 stars. That's how much I hate it. I think this thing will go for sale once I get back home. Then my 60CSx will get some love again.

 

Don't use Mapsource to load queries - just copy the whole file into the Garmin/gpx folder.

 

There's no way it can kill batteries while it's off.

 

If you don't like the way pages work switch to the 'Classic' profile for 60/76 style menus/pages.

 

Thanks. I'll give that a try. I'm not sure why it's eating abtteries. I know it's turned off though.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

I got a 62s a few weeks ago and I'm not happy with it at all. You can't use a standard USB cable to power it in a vehicle. It goes into "data transfer" mode even though it is just plugged into a cig lighter adapter.

 

Use Spanner mode... More info here.

 

It also seems to eat up batteries even if you do turn it off. Trust me, I know the device was off.

 

I don't know if it draws much power if you have it set to track barometric pressure changes when off, but I guess that is a possibility. BTW, what kind of batteries are you using?

[+BRAMAG]

Having waited a week for my 62ST to be delivered, I was disappointed, nay, aghast, to discover that no matter how hard I squeezed the unit, it would not squeek.

I have a good mind to return the unit to Garmin and demand that they install the squeek as a matter of urgency.

[Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide]

Having waited a week for my 62ST to be delivered, I was disappointed, nay, aghast, to discover that no matter how hard I squeezed the unit, it would not squeek.

I have a good mind to return the unit to Garmin and demand that they install the squeek as a matter of urgency.

 

Give it time. It's as they mature that they develop the function.

[The Stoned Wookie]

Don't use Mapsource to load queries - just copy the whole file into the Garmin/gpx folder.

 

There's no way it can kill batteries while it's off.

 

If you don't like the way pages work switch to the 'Classic' profile for 60/76 style menus/pages.

 

Got those to work. Thanks for the help.

 

I got a 62s a few weeks ago and I'm not happy with it at all. You can't use a standard USB cable to power it in a vehicle. It goes into "data transfer" mode even though it is just plugged into a cig lighter adapter.

 

Use Spanner mode... More info here.

 

It also seems to eat up batteries even if you do turn it off. Trust me, I know the device was off.

 

I don't know if it draws much power if you have it set to track barometric pressure changes when off, but I guess that is a possibility. BTW, what kind of batteries are you using?

 

Got the spanner mode working. I haven't figure out the barometric pressure stuff yet. It says "save when power on" setup>altimeter>under pressure trending.

Edited December 4, 2010 by The Stoned Wookie

[The Stoned Wookie]

Got another question. How can you view the comments you put in for a cache after logging it as found? I put in some comments for some caches that I wanted to add to the log on gc.com.

[Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide]

Got another question. How can you view the comments you put in for a cache after logging it as found? I put in some comments for some caches that I wanted to add to the log on gc.com.

 

Go to the GC site and find "Access your field notes", or go through this link: http://www.geocaching.com/my/fieldnotes.aspx

 

Once you upload that way, you'll see your notes. That link saves a huge amount of time in logging your caches.

 

One more tip, the cache notes are a file in the root of your gps, as seen in this screen shot of my gps.

 

Edited December 6, 2010 by Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide

[Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide]

If anyone's looking for a good mount for the 62 series, the RAM version is out now.

 

It's been available for a week or two, depending on if you're in Canada or the US, and mine showed up in the mail today.

 

Here are a few pics of it.

 

 

This will be much more secure when I mount the 62 on my motorcycle. The stock mount system is pretty good, but I think this one will be safer.

 

Not bad for $9 (not counting the RAM ball and mounting arm)

 

Here's what I paid at GPSCity.ca

 

Ordered Item Shipped Price Subtotal

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1ea RAM Mount Garmin GPSMAP 62 62S 62ST Mount Cradle RAM-HOL-GA41U 1ea $9.95ea $9.95

1ea RAM Mount Diamond Plate with 1 inch Ball RAM-B-238U 1ea $5.59ea $5.59

1ea RAM Mount Medium Arm B-Socket RAM-B-201U 1ea $11.95ea $11.95

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edited December 7, 2010 by Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide

[+THE RED FOX RAIDERS]

Good looking mount, think I buy one. Thanks for posting the pictures

[+Lil Devil]

If you don't like the way pages work switch to the 'Classic' profile for 60/76 style menus/pages.

Better yet, go to Setup >> Page Sequence >> Menu >> Page Ribbon Display >> Off.

 

This way you can still use the different profiles, although you need to set the Page Ribbon Display to off in each profile you use.

[Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide]

If you don't like the way pages work switch to the 'Classic' profile for 60/76 style menus/pages.

Better yet, go to Setup >> Page Sequence >> Menu >> Page Ribbon Display >> Off.

 

This way you can still use the different profiles, although you need to set the Page Ribbon Display to off in each profile you use.

 

Interesting. Didn't know that one, but it helps to say that the sequence you need to follow is Setup>Page Sequence>Menu (Button)>Page Ribbon Display.

 

Until I realized that I was looking for a Menu option on the screen.

[weyes]

Hi (I am new in this forum)

Is it possible to save GPX tracks in the memory card instead of the device memory?

 

I think I have to create a Garmin/GPX folder into the memory card. But after that, how do I tell the GPS where to save tracks?

[+simplyred]

I have this mount and hate it. I had the old 60csx with the ram mount and liked it, so I pre ordered this mount hoping it would be great, but am totally disappointed in

it. It's hard to replace and remove and even worse if you want to connect a power cord. The rubber cover needs to be opened enough to grab it, but not so much so that you can't place in the holder. Once in place in mount, then the power cord can be attached. It has to be removed (power cord) before GPS can be removed from mount. Very poor design. Now after some use, my GPS moves around in the holder, so it needs a paper shim to stop it from rattling. Another problem is the bottom of the mount blocks the 2 bottom buttons, you can still get to them, but you need to remove gloves or have small fingers.

The worst part is they should of just incorporated the stock belt clip holder to mount it. Garmin uses it and it's much better, it can remained plugged in when removing/replacing.

 

If anyone's looking for a good mount for the 62 series, the RAM version is out now.

 

It's been available for a week or two, depending on if you're in Canada or the US, and mine showed up in the mail today.

 

Here are a few pics of it.

 

 

This will be much more secure when I mount the 62 on my motorcycle. The stock mount system is pretty good, but I think this one will be safer.

 

Not bad for $9 (not counting the RAM ball and mounting arm)

 

Here's what I paid at GPSCity.ca

 

Ordered Item Shipped Price Subtotal

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1ea RAM Mount Garmin GPSMAP 62 62S 62ST Mount Cradle RAM-HOL-GA41U 1ea $9.95ea $9.95

1ea RAM Mount Diamond Plate with 1 inch Ball RAM-B-238U 1ea $5.59ea $5.59

1ea RAM Mount Medium Arm B-Socket RAM-B-201U 1ea $11.95ea $11.95

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[+Geokashers]

My 60CSx died today (starts to power on but then slowly fades away). Bummer. Was thinking of having at the 62S...and have spent a lot of time reading through the first part of this thread. Are folks that are getting the 62s nowadays still having the squeaking issue? Seems like Garmin would have had plenty of time to fix the issue so I'm hoping current units being shipped are ok. Would love to hear from those that have been receiving the units recently! Thanks!

[yogazoo]

I had a unit exchanged back in February because I broke it. The unit I sent in to Garmin had the squeak issue (early unit) my replacemnt unit didn't. I think the squeak issue was prevelant only in the early production units. If you order one today from a major retailer I would expect it not to have the squeak.

[+khumbu_calypso]

I am also getting rather annoyed with my squeaker. As far as all of the other issues of reliability, accuracy, altimiter, etc. discussed here, my 62s has been trouble free and very accurate, but I will echo the feelings of many others that for north of $400 I expected a top-of-the-line rugged handheld as advertised and although performance is top shelf, the build quality does not seem to be.

 

I actually have a commitment from my retailer to exchange the unit no questions asked, but my concern is what happens to my BirdsEye subscription which is tied to this unit? Will Garmin somehow migrate that to the replacement unit and has anyone had to do that? Is that a major hassle, or relatively painless?

 

I am also tempted to crack it open myself as I have little faith that a replacement will be any different so why go through the trouble?

[+IthacaDoodle]

I have noticed this recurring problem since I bought a 62st in 2010 (now out of warranty) but it is more of an issue now because of the way I am using my GPS: when following an Active Route with turn-by-turn directions, when you deviate from the given route, it freezes the entire GPS leaving no buttons functional. I have to take the batteries out to give it a hard restart. I thought it might be a software bug issue, but I updated to version 4.4 yesterday and then confirmed today that this issue has not been resolved. It renders the GPS essentially nonfunctional for automobile driving guidance to get to a cache. Is anyone else having this issue? is it unique to my device or a fundamental design flaw?

[+JBnW]

I frequently take numerous detours from the route our 62s sets, it just recalculates and recalculates. I sometimes wonder if it gets annoyed with my many detours and inability to follow directions, but it has never frozen as described.