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BEWARE! Garmin GPSMap 62S Firmware 3.0 - No Geocaches


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I "upgraded" to the new 3.0 firmware from 2.95 this morning. My 62s would no longer recognize that there were any geocaches loaded, even though I loaded a file of 50 local geocaches via GSAK version 1.42. I verified there was a 570k Geocaches.gpx file in the GPX directory, but the 62s would consistently tell me there were no geocaches loaded and that I should go to garmin.com to download some.

 

I had a copy of the 2.95beta still here and installed that (which reset all user data, grrrrrr), and the geocaches work fine again without even having to reload them from GSAK. The same file that was NOT recognized by 3.00 works fine with 2.95 beta.

 

It appears as if Garmin's testing procedures might benefit from a few small adjustments.

Edited by michaelnel
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Since it reset all my user settings I decided to try the upgrade again from 2.95beta to 3.00, after resetting the unit to factory defaults.

 

Same result. It claims there are no geocaches and now I notice that it also claims there are no waypoints.

 

The geocaches and waypoints both show up when I look at "all data" for the unit in both the production and beta versions of basecamp. Reverting again to 2.95beta firmware restores the unit to normal operations.

 

Near as I can tell, the 3.00 firmware is a stinker

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Delete all your GPXs, restaart your GPS, shut it down, load the PQs again

 

Did that.

 

Having been through this twice already, and having reset all my user settings, I am not loading 3.00 again until / unless several others have done it successfully. I didn't really have any issues with 2.95 anyway, I shouldn't have loaded a Garmin .00 release so quickly.

 

.00 releases are usually not Garmin's best work. ;-)

Edited by michaelnel
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Hmmm... Geocaches show up fine on my 62st and my 78s (both running 3.0). Are you geocaches just not showing up on the map or does it say there are none loaded? I do have mine loaded on the sd card if that makes a difference.

Edited by ryan3295
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OK, I googled it and found the hard reset thing. Did that, moved the *.gpx files off of the device, reinstalled the 3.0 firmware, and then used GSAK to download a PQ to it, and now it DOES see the geocaches.

 

I also copied the Waypoints.gpx file back to the GPX directory and it sees those too.

 

Looks like the problem is solved, thanks, I will let Garmin know.

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OK, I googled it and found the hard reset thing. Did that, moved the *.gpx files off of the device, reinstalled the 3.0 firmware, and then used GSAK to download a PQ to it, and now it DOES see the geocaches.

 

I also copied the Waypoints.gpx file back to the GPX directory and it sees those too.

 

Looks like the problem is solved, thanks, I will let Garmin know.

Okay, I'm exposing my stupidity here so I apologize in advance. But why do you use GSAK to download a PQ onto your 62s? I load directly from geocaching.com. Seriously, I'm unaware of any advantage for me, at least, so again I apologize.

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I use about 5% of GSAK's capabilities. But the main thing I like to do is make my PQ pretty simple (ie: 50 within 10 miles of my house, all difficulties, all cache sizes, that I have not found, don't own, and are available).

 

Then I load the PQ into GSAK so I can slice it and dice it any way I want, or print out specific ones as a batch for that day's caching (paperless doesn't always work if there are critical graphics in the description, or photos you need to solve it, etc.).

 

You don't HAVE to use GSAK, it just gives you so much more control and granularity on what you are doing.

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OK, I googled it and found the hard reset thing. Did that, moved the *.gpx files off of the device, reinstalled the 3.0 firmware, and then used GSAK to download a PQ to it, and now it DOES see the geocaches.

 

I also copied the Waypoints.gpx file back to the GPX directory and it sees those too.

 

Looks like the problem is solved, thanks, I will let Garmin know.

 

Yah, this happens with all the newer units sometimes..... This is why it is best to keep the GPX files on the external card. It lets you hard reset and get them back on the unit without a computer. Letting Garmin know won't help as it is crazy hard to reproduce....

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Okay, I'm exposing my stupidity here so I apologize in advance. But why do you use GSAK to download a PQ onto your 62s? I load directly from geocaching.com. Seriously, I'm unaware of any advantage for me, at least, so again I apologize.

Even on the older units, it is possible to pack a field with additional information. Granted, this isn't a 62 (it's a screenshot off my Oregon 450), but notice how I've packed the name field in such a way as to get the GC code without the "GC", cache size as Micro, Small, Regular, etc., the terrain and difficulty (we abbreviate them as 1=1, A=1.5, 2=2, B=2.5, etc.) and the last 4 found/not-found logs as F or N on the face of the display. That's all a tweak of GSAK where we dump these things into the "name" field before moving the file to the unit. The same kinds of tricks have been used since the 60csx days with GSAK.

 

I also like to take my 1.0.1 PQ data and use one of the many GSAK macros to append the attribute data to the front of the logs as text so that I can see things like "Winter Friendly", etc. in the field.

 

When Clyde called it a "Swiss Army Knife", he wasn't kidding. You may never use the saw blade on that thing, but might be one of those for whom the corkscrew is indispensable. That's what freaks people out about GSAK, lots of things under the hood they don't know about, and probably quite a few they'll never use. It's written such that if you can imagine a tweak, there's a foundation upon which to build a macro or it's already intrinsic to the application.

 

Here's what the face of my Oregon looks like when I'm looking for a cache to find (the info appears on the compass display, too). Note that the last cache is GC19QE3, is a Micro, Difficulty is C (3.5) with terrain A (1.5), and the last four logs were NFFN (not found, found, found, not found). That "S" on the end is the first letter of the actual cache name.

 

2e8f77446c7795fe2369c0a92d5a463b6g.jpg

Edited by ecanderson
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I did update to 3.0 and after first start I saw all waypoints, but no geocaches. So i switched off my unit (62s), deleted all *.gpx files (2) from SD card, copied them again to the same location and switched on. Everything seems to be fine since then. I`m going to find some geocaches today with this new software. I was running 2.95 beta before this update, so I`m curious if there will be any noticeable improvements. I hope so :D 2.95 had tendency to freeze sometimes when i tried to move from one screen to another...

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This is why it is best to keep the GPX files on the external card.

 

How do you do that? I do have a 4GB microsd card that I just installed in my 62S, but other than formatting the card, what do I do? move the whole GPX directory off of the 62 onto the card? Do I have to do some special formatting and directory structure on the card? The card is formatted right now with the FAT32 filesystem.

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Thanks. Did that, and the GPSR finds the waypoints and geocaches fine with them moved to N:\Garmin\GPX from M:\Garmin\GPX (the 62 itself).

 

However, they don't show up on basecamp or the latest basecamp beta. Both of them do show the N: drive and have an "All Data" folder, but unlike the "All Data" folder on the 62S, the one on the N: drive is greyed out (the one on the device is in color). Double clicking on it shows nothing, and selecting All Data on the 62 shows the birdseye imagery files, but no waypoints or geocaches. Strange that the 62 sees them fine on the card but basecamp doesn't.

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Yah, this happens with all the newer units sometimes..... This is why it is best to keep the GPX files on the external card. It lets you hard reset and get them back on the unit without a computer. Letting Garmin know won't help as it is crazy hard to reproduce....

 

The "enter and page key while pressing power" reset will actually force a re-read of the existing gpx files on the unit. Saved my butt couple of times in the field after crashes in earlier beta cycles.

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Thanks. Did that, and the GPSR finds the waypoints and geocaches fine with them moved to N:\Garmin\GPX from M:\Garmin\GPX (the 62 itself).

 

However, they don't show up on basecamp or the latest basecamp beta. Both of them do show the N: drive and have an "All Data" folder, but unlike the "All Data" folder on the 62S, the one on the N: drive is greyed out (the one on the device is in color). Double clicking on it shows nothing, and selecting All Data on the 62 shows the birdseye imagery files, but no waypoints or geocaches. Strange that the 62 sees them fine on the card but basecamp doesn't.

Putting the gpxs on the SD card is no good for preloaded/purchased original map cards from Garmin... and yes you are right they also dont show up in Basecamp either.... Garmin told me a few months ago they are working on a solution.

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I'm having trouble with my 62s not accepting individual geocaches that I download directly from geocaching.com. I like to look at all geocaches in an area I plan to visit and download only those that I plan to attack. So I open the cache page, click on "download to my GPS", wait for the "write" button to light up, click on it and I immediately get a 'geocache successfully loaded" message. I've even loaded it again and get a message that this geocache is already loaded...do I want to override (yes). Yet when I get out in the field the geocaches aren't there. Is my problem related to the one above, or is it something different? BTW, when I look at the setup/system/about page on the 62s it says I have Software Version 3.60. That doesn't sound right based on the discussions above. THANKS!

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Camnpete, I and a couple friends experienced the same disappearing caches issue on our 62s units. After a lot of head scratching and getting a great Garmin techie to help, we think we found our problem a while ago running an older firmware version. We found that getting .gpx files as version 1.0.1 (that contains cache attributes) caused our issues. Below is what Garmin had to say;

 

Pat-Good news, I believe I have found the problem with your caches! I loaded your caches onto my 62s and had the same issue finding the single geocache gpx files. I looked at the code of the xml file of the cache and saw that these were indeed gpx v1.0.1. I then loaded some of the same gc codes onto my device directly from my geocaching account using the gpx v1.0 and was able to find the caches without any problems.I would suggest going into your profile by clicking on your username at the top on geocaching.com and select “Your Account Details” at the very bottom you will have the option to change the version to v1.0. As of right now only 1.0 is officially supported with the device. You will still get paperless information but as of this point you will not get attributes.Let us know if you have any additional questions!Best Regards,-Garmin techie-

 

After changing back to gpx v.1.0 we have not seen this happen again. With the latest firmware v.3.60 perhaps this has been addressed, but I have not gone back to the v.1.0.1 gpx to test it.

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