PN-60

[+Lake Elmo Kid]

I'm planning to buy the PN-60. Those of you who own one, please give me your feedback on the PN-60.

Thanks

[+embra]

I'm liking mine a lot. I had a PN-40 and liked it, too; the PN-60 brings better base battery life, better power-saving modes that extend battery life in a useful manner, activity profiles to remember and recall combinations of settings, and a nice graphical interface that makes it easy to navigate to different screens.

 

The biggest complaint that I think most people would have about it is the relatively small screen. It's good quality and highly readable under most all lighting conditions, but it's at the lower end of the handheld screen size range. The other ding is that it's a notch or two below Garmin handhelds in road routing capabilities--although many of us find it acceptable for incidental routing. I find it most convenient to use it for road routing to geocaches, for example, though I prefer my Nuvi with its voice directions for most other things.

 

International map coverage (i.e., beyond US, Canada, and Mexico) is problematic at the moment, but is expected to improve later in the year.

 

Got any specific questions?

[+The Yinnies]

Like Embra I like mine a lot the road routing and recalculating is faster than the PN-40 but that ia also a great unit. I also use my Nuvi for driving and to get to caches. When my Wife has the Nuvi I use my -60 and have no problems. I have had the Oregons and a Dakota 20 and they are nice and have a big screen, but what good is it if you have to keep moving it to see it. The -60 does have a smaller screen but I have mine in my truck all the time and can always see it. I also like the way it is set up for caching.

Thanks

[+Lake Elmo Kid]

I'm planning to buy the PN-60. Those of you who own one, please give me your feedback on the PN-60.

Thanks

Is it easy to load caches? Can you down load field notes and log visits?

[+The Yinnies]

It is really nice with topo 9.

[LinXG]

I recently purchased a PN-60 and use it for some geocaching but mostly for wilderness hiking here in Canada. It is ....

 

- Quite easy to use

- Probably the best price point in the recent gps crop

- Excellent Delorme customer service

- Very accurate and locks onto satellites quickly

- Appears as a disk drive when connected to computer, this makes gpx file handling ultra easy

- Canadian vector and raster maps not as good as they could be.

- Battery life is very good

- Nice bright red so it's easy to find if dropped

- Included topo software is easy to use, sync feature is very nice

 

Prior to purchase I was a bit concerned about all the comments on screen size. Having had the unit in daily use for about a month now I can safely say it's not an issue for me.

 

Is it easy to load caches? Can you down load field notes and log visits?

 

I haven't used any pocket queries but for single cache downloads just use the Delorme plugin and it's as easy as pie. As far as I can tell it downloads everything, cache name, coordinates, difficulty, description, hints and log entries that cachers have left.

 

I'm quite happy with my purchase so far. Hope these comments are helpful to you.

[+embra]

Is it easy to load caches? Can you down load field notes and log visits?

You can log in to your geocaching.com account from Topo9 and automatically download pocket queries into T9 whenever you start it up. Then you only need to connect the PN-60 and hit the Sync button to update your pocket queries on the GPS.

 

If you have logged finds on your PN-60, then T9 will automatically upload your field notes from GPS to your geocaching.com account on Syncing. I'd be hard put to imagine anything easier.

[+Gp30sieb]

Like Embra I like mine a lot the road routing and recalculating is faster than the PN-40 but that ia also a great unit. I also use my Nuvi for driving and to get to caches. When my Wife has the Nuvi I use my -60 and have no problems. I have had the Oregons and a Dakota 20 and they are nice and have a big screen, but what good is it if you have to keep moving it to see it. The -60 does have a smaller screen but I have mine in my truck all the time and can always see it. I also like the way it is set up for caching.

Thanks

[+Hank30721]

I have a PN-60wSE with Spot. I have been satisfied so far with its performance. Paperless caching is amazing and so easy with this device. I like the map subscription to download aerial photography and detailed 24k topo maps and view them on the device.

 

I also like the triple axis compass that works no matter how you hold the device.

 

When fall arrives, I plan on some long hikes and putting it through it paces.

[+Marky]

You can log in to your geocaching.com account from Topo9 and automatically download pocket queries into T9 whenever you start it up.

Too bad T9 is windows only. I wonder if we'll ever see a OSX native mapping app from Delorme. I'm not interested in running windows on my Mac just to be able to run the mapping app.

[+Lake Elmo Kid]

You can log in to your geocaching.com account from Topo9 and automatically download pocket queries into T9 whenever you start it up.

Too bad T9 is windows only. I wonder if we'll ever see a OSX native mapping app from Delorme. I'm not interested in running windows on my Mac just to be able to run the mapping app.

 

I'm having a hard time loading caches on the PN-60 with the topo software. Help! The software is very hard to figure out. I think I might need a couple of days to work with it.

Edited October 5, 2010 by Lake Elmo Kid

[+gabi&beecharmer13]

I'm having a hard time loading caches on the PN-60 with the topo software. Help! The software is very hard to figure out. I think I might need a couple of days to work with it.

 

Are you trying to load individual caches or pocket queries?

Topo is not the easiest software to figure out at first, but with some practice things get easier.

A great place to get answers about PN-XX and Delorme software is their forum.

[+Team CowboyPapa]

I'm having a hard time loading caches on the PN-60 with the topo software. Help! The software is very hard to figure out. I think I might need a couple of days to work with it.

 

Are you trying to load individual caches or pocket queries?

Topo is not the easiest software to figure out at first, but with some practice things get easier.

A great place to get answers about PN-XX and Delorme software is their forum.

Additionally, the Version 2.0 of their Cache Register widget is now available:

http://support.delorme.com/questions.php?questionid=114

It downloads PQ results directly to your PN-60 bypassing Topo North America 9.0 in the process.

I find it easier to use for that function than Topo NA 9.0.

[+embra]

Here's the Topo9 down and dirty for geocaches:

 

Go to the Map Files tab, click the Geocaching button.

Log into your geocaching.com account.

Either click the update button to manually download your pocket queries, or toggle the Auto-Update option to automatically update whenever you open the project.

 

Sync to your PN-60.

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Or, to use Cache Register, here is a "how to" video:

 

However, the Cache Register widget will only transfer PQ results to a PN.

To exchange of types of files or data, non-cache waypoints, routes, tracks, and maps, the Sync function can be used instead.

[+Lake Elmo Kid]

Or, to use Cache Register, here is a "how to" video:

 

However, the Cache Register widget will only transfer PQ results to a PN.

To exchange of types of files or data, non-cache waypoints, routes, tracks, and maps, the Sync function can be used instead.

 

It seems to sync however the caches don't show up in the gps.

[+TotemLake]

Or, to use Cache Register, here is a "how to" video:

 

However, the Cache Register widget will only transfer PQ results to a PN.

To exchange of types of files or data, non-cache waypoints, routes, tracks, and maps, the Sync function can be used instead.

 

It seems to sync however the caches don't show up in the gps.

When in the Waypoints or Geocaches section, do you press Menu>File>Open to see if the files are there? It looks like you're expecting to see them loaded in memory when you still have to do that extra step.

[+MaliBooBoo]

I have a couple of questions:

 

Do the maps display shaded relief on the unit?

 

And I get the impression that it is fairly onerous to load the unit with maps. Is this true? For example, how hard would it be to put say all of BC, WA, OR, CA, and NV on it? Or to update Northwest Trails on a monthlyish basis?

 

Thanks!

[+Team CowboyPapa]

 

Do the maps display shaded relief on the unit?

 

Yes, the shaded relief shows. However, it may be supressed if you want to customize the map display.

 

 

And I get the impression that it is fairly onerous to load the unit with maps. Is this true? For example, how hard would it be to put say all of BC, WA, OR, CA, and NV on it?

 

The difficulties that some encountered are no longer relevant. The PN-XXs now come with 5 DVDs which contain the Detailed maps for the USA, Mexico and Canada regions. The process is far less involved and much quicker as it bypasses the usage of the included Topo North America 9.0. I would say less than 1/2 hour and then one is done with it. Kind of like Ron Popeil's chicken cooker: "Set it and forget it."

 

I'll defer on the question of monthly updates for Northwest trails as that is something of which I am not aware.

Edited October 6, 2010 by Team CowboyPapa

[+MaliBooBoo]

Thanks Team CowboyPapa. I was just wondering about the shaded relief because I have never seen a screenshot that showed it. I assume the Canada Topo maps have it as well?

 

Delorme seems to be making an interesting product now. Particularly the unit with the Spot. And the addition of Canadian/Mexican mapping.

[+user13371]

A specific question for those who can test a PN-40 and PN-60 side by side:

 

Create a pocket query of the 500 caches nearest your home, load it to the PN and make that your active waypoint file. Then CREATE one new waypoint. Turn off the PN -- and time how long it takes to save the active waypoint file.

 

Let me know how long it takes on the 40, and also the 60.

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Continued below

Edited October 6, 2010 by Team CowboyPapa

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Thanks Team CowboyPapa. I was just wondering about the shaded relief because I have never seen a screenshot that showed it. I assume the Canada Topo maps have it as well?

 

Delorme seems to be making an interesting product now. Particularly the unit with the Spot. And the addition of Canadian/Mexican mapping.

Regarding the combination of the PN-60w with the Spot, here is a guy obviously with out that combo lost in the Mojave Desert for 6 days:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010...oshua-tree.html

[+embra]

Thanks Team CowboyPapa. I was just wondering about the shaded relief because I have never seen a screenshot that showed it. I assume the Canada Topo maps have it as well?

 

Delorme seems to be making an interesting product now. Particularly the unit with the Spot. And the addition of Canadian/Mexican mapping.

To minimize the chance of a misunderstanding, let me add to my esteemed colleague's statements that AFAIK there will be shaded relief in the desktop Topo9 program's display, but I don't recall ever seeing shading in the vectorized topo data on the PN devices. The rasterized USGS 1:24K maps (available through subscription) *do* seem to show shaded relief that can be seen on the devices, but I think that's it (screen shots viewable at the PN-60 product page). I don't know for sure what any Canadian data will look like, but the sample on the linked site doesn't seem to show any.

 

I'm in 100% agreement that it's a cinch to copy the pre-cut vectorized topo maps from the DVD to the GPS or SD card...drag and drop stuff. It's a bit more complicated downloading the subscription map data and compiling files for use on the GPS, but once you grasp the process it's not hard. It takes a while to download larger quantities of data, so patience can be desirable.

 

I *think* it's pretty easy to keep updated with Northwest Trails--TotemLake, who posted immediately before your question, has done some conversions for the PN series and made it fairly painless--although as an east coast resident, I haven't messed around personally with the fantastic collection of trail data at that site.

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Good catch, Embra, I was thinking of "shaded" in my reply as being the diagonal striping, or cross hatching without the cross, which appears over CA State Park lands.

[+EScout]

Since the OP says he is planning to buy one, I will add that I see that it is on sale at REI Oct 8-17, for $289.99, which I believe is a good price.

[+TotemLake]

Since the OP says he is planning to buy one, I will add that I see that it is on sale at REI Oct 8-17, for $289.99, which I believe is a good price.

In case it matters, that is for the non-wireless version.

[tubemonkey]

Since the OP says he is planning to buy one, I will add that I see that it is on sale at REI Oct 8-17, for $289.99, which I believe is a good price.

Also, if you use an REI Visa card to make the purchase, you'll receive a 5% rebate of $14.50 when the annual dividend check is paid out. Plus, Visa will double the warranty to two years.

 

REI is definitely the place to get this GPSr. Excellent price, additional rebate, 2-year warranty (as above), no time limit return policy, and no restocking fees.

Edited October 8, 2010 by tubemonkey