+The kins Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I am considering purchasing a "Premium" membership, however I do not know whether my Etrex H is up to accepting multi downloads. At the moment I can download one cache at a time, then have to disconnect and start again. Does anyone have experience and/or could advise me please? Quote Link to comment
+MartyBartfast Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I am considering purchasing a "Premium" membership, however I do not know whether my Etrex H is up to accepting multi downloads. At the moment I can download one cache at a time, then have to disconnect and start again. Does anyone have experience and/or could advise me please? Yes the Etrex H can accept multi downloads. I used mine for several years with GSAK and would frequently download 500 caches at a time. If you're only able to download one at a time then it's going to be a problem with your software, or the PC, or (forgive me) you're doing it wrong. Give us some details and someone might be able to sort it out for you. Quote Link to comment
+Cornell Finch Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I am considering purchasing a "Premium" membership, however I do not know whether my Etrex H is up to accepting multi downloads. At the moment I can download one cache at a time, then have to disconnect and start again. Does anyone have experience and/or could advise me please? Martybartfast is quite right, the eTrex H is fine for multi-downloads. As you're not yet a premium member you will only be able to send one cache at a time to the unit. With GSAK and a pocket query (PM only benefit) you will be able to send multiple caches to the unit at once. Quote Link to comment
+The kins Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Thank you both for the quick and helpful replies. I am planning to go away for the Bank Holiday and it would be handy to download multi caches before I go as I won't have internet access. Quote Link to comment
+MartyBartfast Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) Thank you both for the quick and helpful replies. I am planning to go away for the Bank Holiday and it would be handy to download multi caches before I go as I won't have internet access. I think I misunderstood your OP, and I thought you were enable to send more than one waypoint to your Etrex because of some technical problem. Put simply, once you've signed up for premium membership you can then: set up one or more pocket queries to search for caches in the area you're interested in, these can be automated on a daily/weekly schedule. Download the GPX files generated by those PQs and load them into GSAK, you can get GSAK to automatically collect them by Email. Use GSAK to choose which caches you want to do and it will upload all of those to your GPS. FYI GSAK is a Windows program which is free initially, you then get a nag screen until you register for a modest one off fee (caveat - all from memory as I don't use it any more). You can get it (and more info about it) from here Edited May 22, 2011 by MartyBartfast Quote Link to comment
+FuzzyBears Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Just an idea... we have 2 ETrex H and we only download 480 caches not the max 500 so as to leave room for 'worked out' multis and marking where you leave the car etc Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ragged Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 If the unit only takes 500 waypoints, and you load a multi-cache with additional waypoints -or even a cache with parking co-ords- that will be 2 or more waypoints per cache... 500 waypoints is not 500 caches. GSAK will tell you how many waypoints you are trying to load. Quote Link to comment
QUANDRAY Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I am considering purchasing a "Premium" membership, however I do not know whether my Etrex H is up to accepting multi downloads. At the moment I can download one cache at a time, then have to disconnect and start again. You should be able to download the details for multiple caches (at the same time) to an eTrex H without being a Premium member. If you go to a screen displaying multiple caches, you can select the caches you want, then download a single .loc file containing details of the selected caches. It's not as good as being a premium member and being able to create PQs, but it may be of use to you. Quote Link to comment
+Cardinal Red Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I am considering purchasing a "Premium" membership, however I do not know whether my Etrex H is up to accepting multi downloads. At the moment I can download one cache at a time, then have to disconnect and start again. Does anyone have experience and/or could advise me please? All those helpful responses and NOT ONE CACHER MENTIONED THE 6 CHARACTER WAYPOINT LIMITATION of the Etrex H ! ! ! Find some caches with the first 6 GC code characters identical. Such as GC1234 and GC1234A and GC1234B. Download all of them. How many of them can you find on your GPS? I can't believe you have not run into a problem with this already, even though you download relatively small numbers of individually selected caches. Wait till you try to gobble up large chunks of data through a PQ. There is a work around for the problem but you can't fix the problem if nobody even bothers to warn you about it. And I really can't help you because I mostly only keep my old junk GPS units in my GPS museum and use the more modern ones for Geocaching. Do yourself a favor. Keep using the Etrex H as a basic member. Save your money. Get something with an 8 character (or bigger) waypoint field and a USB communication port (and cable). Then buy the premium membership. Just my opinion. Quote Link to comment
+MartyBartfast Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 All those helpful responses and NOT ONE CACHER MENTIONED THE 6 CHARACTER WAYPOINT LIMITATION of the Etrex H ! ! !. . . There is a work around for the problem but you can't fix the problem if nobody even bothers to warn you about it. . . . If you use GSAK to manage your PQ downloads it will deal with this with a very simple setting on GSAK. I would disagree with Cardinal Red's implication that the Etrex H is a museum piece and you should be looking to upgrade, IMHO it's a perfectly adequate GPS for caching so I would say stick with it (unless you have £100+ burning a hole in your pocket, or you have a real need/desire for maps or paperless caching). Quote Link to comment
+look4box Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) I too am a newbie with an Etrex H and keen to get out caching soon But someone on GAGB Forum, mentioned a 30-day trial of Premium membership @ Geocaching.com when you register your Garmin GPS I'm just waiting for the Garmin PC cable to arrive: couldn't believe my vista PC has a serial outlet ! only found out after I ordered a USB-Serial connector Have so far loaded EasyGPS but not yet signed-up for the Premium membership trial - so as yet, don't know how straight forward running PQ's and uploading to Etrex will be. Also looking a trialing Cachesense on my BB Edited May 22, 2011 by look4box Quote Link to comment
DeeInDevon Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 (edited) I am still having trouble knowing exactly what leads I require to connect this unit to my PC. Would anyone be able to help me with that please? Edited June 3, 2011 by DeeInDevon Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ragged Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I am still having trouble knowing exactly what leads I require to connect this unit to my PC. Would anyone be able to help me with that please? If you don't have one yet, it's this one from Amozon Garmin PC interface cable (RS232 serial port connector) Which will need one of these to connect to a computer via USB Amazon or USB to Serial 9-Pin Male Adaptor from Maplins Or someone else may suggest somewhere else, or even somewhere that supplies as one lead... Quote Link to comment
+MartyBartfast Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I am still having trouble knowing exactly what leads I require to connect this unit to my PC. Would anyone be able to help me with that please? See my reply to your other post. Quote Link to comment
+look4box Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 (edited) I am still having trouble knowing exactly what leads I require to connect this unit to my PC. Would anyone be able to help me with that please? If you don't have one yet, it's this one from Amozon Garmin PC interface cable (RS232 serial port connector) Which will need one of these to connect to a computer via USB Amazon or USB to Serial 9-Pin Male Adaptor from Maplins Or someone else may suggest somewhere else, or even somewhere that supplies as one lead... Got that lead from amazon - thankfully my PC (which I couldn't believe until I poked my head around the back) actually has a serial connection. I found it really easy to upload the pocket queries using easyGPS into my Garmin Etrex. I must say that Cachesense for the blackberry worked a treat too. I tended to use both GPS units - but the battery life is going to be better with the etrex My own silly mistake - I uploaded geocache locations ONLY on the etrez and forgot to upload the waypoints. Thankfully all were on the blckberry. Edited June 7, 2011 by look4box Quote Link to comment
DeeInDevon Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I am still having trouble knowing exactly what leads I require to connect this unit to my PC. Would anyone be able to help me with that please? If you don't have one yet, it's this one from Amozon Garmin PC interface cable (RS232 serial port connector) Which will need one of these to connect to a computer via USB Amazon or USB to Serial 9-Pin Male Adaptor from Maplins Or someone else may suggest somewhere else, or even somewhere that supplies as one lead... Hi Bear I'm really sorry to sound so dense but please could I ask you a few questions so that I fully understand what I need to buy? Above you've mentioned 3 leads and I cannot understand how they all connect together. Which one connects the Garmin to the PC and what do the other two do please? I appear to have a blue serial port at the back of my PC so what else do I need please? Thank you ever so much (in advance) for your help. Quote Link to comment
DeeInDevon Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I am still having trouble knowing exactly what leads I require to connect this unit to my PC. Would anyone be able to help me with that please? If you don't have one yet, it's this one from Amozon Garmin PC interface cable (RS232 serial port connector) Which will need one of these to connect to a computer via USB Amazon or USB to Serial 9-Pin Male Adaptor from Maplins Or someone else may suggest somewhere else, or even somewhere that supplies as one lead... Got that lead from amazon - thankfully my PC (which I couldn't believe until I poked my head around the back) actually has a serial connection. I found it really easy to upload the pocket queries using easyGPS into my Garmin Etrex. I must say that Cachesense for the blackberry worked a treat too. I tended to use both GPS units - but the battery life is going to be better with the etrex My own silly mistake - I uploaded geocache locations ONLY on the etrez and forgot to upload the waypoints. Thankfully all were on the blckberry. Hello there, I'm glad you've managed to get yours sorted. We tried our first cache yesterday and didn't manage to find it. Just couldn't find a way around a farm to get to it. Walked about 4 miles out of our way trying to get to it, lol. I have left a query for Bear below on the leads as I've looked at all the pics and I can't see how the three leads all fit together or, if I only need one, which I need. I appear to have a blue serial port at the back of my PC but I still can't work out which leads I need and what connects to what. I'm really not very good with electronics as you can probably tell, lol. Quote Link to comment
+t.a.folk Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 (edited) If you don't have one yet, it's this one from Amozon Garmin PC interface cable (RS232 serial port connector) just this one will do the job plug one end into your "Blue" connection on your PC & the other end into your Etrex. Edited July 12, 2011 by t.a.folk Quote Link to comment
+eusty Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I appear to have a blue serial port at the back of my PC but I still can't work out which leads I need and what connects to what. I'm really not very good with electronics as you can probably tell, lol. A blue one is probably for a monitor, most PC's don't have a serial port these days. You want one of these Quote Link to comment
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