What I Don`t Like About my Garmin 62s

[+Hill677]

I have had my Garmin 62s for a few months and I noticed a few things I Don`t like;

 

1. On my old Etrex Vista cx I could pick & choose which symbol i won`t to delete ie found cache, all caches, etc

On the 62s I have to connect to a computer to delete caches !!! WHY ???

 

2. The other day I placed a new map on my SD card ( City Navigator North America NT 2011) & I wanted to see if I have installed it right. ( I`m a Canadian & I will be traveling to Arizona )

So I select Find - Cities -Menu - Spells search - Yuma,AZ select Yuma & the only option I have is " GO" I don`t want to GO I wont to select MAP & see the map !! On my old Vista I had this option of selecting the Map!!

 

3. This is generic to all GPS... Why are you limited to 500,1000 or 2000 caches.. Why can`t you create a folder on the GPS or SD card & have as many as the memory will take ??? The 62s have 1.7 G`s & my SD card has 4G`s

 

Your thoughts

[Blue_Stone]

I've only had my 62s for a couple weeks, with maybe 15hrs of use on it total.

Theres a TON of things I dont like about it....and 95% of them are with the user interface.

 

Here's a good review that I wish I had read BEFORE deciding on the 62, (ESPECIALLY Part 3): http://freegeographytools.com/2011/still-looking-for-a-good-fieldwork-handheld-gps-a-review-of-the-garmin-62s-part-i

 

One of the major things I dont like off the top of my head, is the Name search function. You can search caches or waypoints by name, but the search is based on "CONTAINS letter", instead of "BEGINS with letter"...

ie if I have 2000 caches on it, and I want to find one that is called Especially SupercalafragilisticExpealodocious, the first letter you would put in is "E", thinking it will narrow down your list immediately to just caches that start with "e"...

WRONG!!...It gives you a list, in no order whatsoever, other than ALL the caches that CONTAIN, the letter "E"....Well, "E" is the most used letter in the alphabet....So you end up basically spelling out at least half if not more of the specific cache your looking for...

 

I guess I must be in a REAL small minority of people who find the menus and interface illogical, and un-intuitive, and frustrating enough to have already thought about throwing it off a cliff several times already. Just about all the reviews and forum posts I've read, people seem to LOVE the interface, and find it easy to use....Makes me think I'm the only sane one who owns one of these...lol

 

It may be a great unit as far as form factor, hardware, reception, tons of functions and bells and whistles, but if its SOOO frustrating to use any of it, it's almost a deal killer. I'm still on the fence about selling it and switching to a PN-60, or possibly an Endura. I'm REALLY trying to like my 62, but doing the simplest thing with it, that used to take about 1/2 a second, and only a couple button presses with my old units, much less being able to FIND the correct menu/page, has been frustrating as heck.

Edited February 26, 2012 by Blue_Stone

[+L0ne.R]

It's great to read that others are also frustrated with their 62s, for the same reasons I am. I had a 60Cx and was hoping the the 62 was going to be the same except paperless and with newer maps (and was hoping for lifetime maps).

 

I'm frustrated that it didn't come with Mapsource for my laptop. I use to download my caches to my laptop Mapsource software to see my driving tracks with the caches I found that day. It helped me remember the order I did them in and where I was - which was useful when writing up the online logs. I didn't want to pay

 

It took me about 6 months before I stumbled on the Calendar (never needed the feature on my 60Cx) it lists the caches I've found. With the 60Cx I could list the caches by filtering for the found cache (open treasure box) icon. Also caches are listed by their title not by their GC number. It would be nice if they could be searched by title or GC number.

[+New Jersey TJ]

 

1. On my old Etrex Vista cx I could pick & choose which symbol i won`t to delete ie found cache, all caches, etc

On the 62s I have to connect to a computer to delete caches !!! WHY ???

 

There has been a fundamental change in how caches are loaded to a GPS. In new units like the 62, caches are loaded via .gpx files, which contain 1 - many caches. Caches are deleted by deleting the .gpx files which contain them. The WHY you can't delete them on the GPS is because the GPS does not have the capability to let the user browse its file system on the device itself. Why Garmin hasn't implemented this I can't answer. Maybe there is something posted on a GARMIN forum.

 

 

2. The other day I placed a new map on my SD card ( City Navigator North America NT 2011) & I wanted to see if I have installed it right. ( I`m a Canadian & I will be traveling to Arizona )

So I select Find - Cities -Menu - Spells search - Yuma,AZ select Yuma & the only option I have is " GO" I don`t want to GO I wont to select MAP & see the map !! On my old Vista I had this option of selecting the Map!!

 

I have an Oregon, which has a touch screen. To see a distant map, I do what you did above, but instead of hitting "GO", I just touch the map and can then just explore that area. Can you just move the cursor off "Go" and then hit enter? That should be pretty close to what I do by touching the map.

 

 

3. This is generic to all GPS... Why are you limited to 500,1000 or 2000 caches.. Why can`t you create a folder on the GPS or SD card & have as many as the memory will take ??? The 62s have 1.7 G`s & my SD card has 4G`s

 

 

You sort of answered your own question but didn't realize it. I think that cache limits are limited by memory. When you said memory, you were referring to the amount of storage space on the card. Memory is the temporary working space on the GPS (think RAM on a computer). The GPS has to load all those stored caches into it's memory, which is limited. So it's the GPS' memory (and to an extent its operating system) that is likely dictating the limits, not the amount of storage space internally or on the card.

[gps_dr]

 

1. On my old Etrex Vista cx I could pick & choose which symbol i won`t to delete ie found cache, all caches, etc

On the 62s I have to connect to a computer to delete caches !!! WHY ???

 

There has been a fundamental change in how caches are loaded to a GPS. In new units like the 62, caches are loaded via .gpx files, which contain 1 - many caches. Caches are deleted by deleting the .gpx files which contain them. The WHY you can't delete them on the GPS is because the GPS does not have the capability to let the user browse its file system on the device itself. Why Garmin hasn't implemented this I can't answer. Maybe there is something posted on a GARMIN forum.

 

 

2. The other day I placed a new map on my SD card ( City Navigator North America NT 2011) & I wanted to see if I have installed it right. ( I`m a Canadian & I will be traveling to Arizona )

So I select Find - Cities -Menu - Spells search - Yuma,AZ select Yuma & the only option I have is " GO" I don`t want to GO I wont to select MAP & see the map !! On my old Vista I had this option of selecting the Map!!

 

I have an Oregon, which has a touch screen. To see a distant map, I do what you did above, but instead of hitting "GO", I just touch the map and can then just explore that area. Can you just move the cursor off "Go" and then hit enter? That should be pretty close to what I do by touching the map.

 

 

3. This is generic to all GPS... Why are you limited to 500,1000 or 2000 caches.. Why can`t you create a folder on the GPS or SD card & have as many as the memory will take ??? The 62s have 1.7 G`s & my SD card has 4G`s

 

 

You sort of answered your own question but didn't realize it. I think that cache limits are limited by memory. When you said memory, you were referring to the amount of storage space on the card. Memory is the temporary working space on the GPS (think RAM on a computer). The GPS has to load all those stored caches into it's memory, which is limited. So it's the GPS' memory (and to an extent its operating system) that is likely dictating the limits, not the amount of storage space internally or on the card.

The DeLorme PN60 (and PN40 with 2.8 or 2.9 firmware) allow you read in waypoint/track etc files from memory, I believe it is a 2,000 waypoint|cache limit per file though. The Garmins allow you to load multiple files with an overall limit.

 

My issue with newer Garmin units is area calculation. The new method is a "user friendlier" read "single/simple minded" method that is more apparent to the user. Simply start the function, walk the boundary and complete it to get result. Older method was to start a tracklog - walk the boundary (mark corners etc as averaged waypoints) - save track and view area.

• New Method is simple, more visible
  
• Old Method allows you to mark boundary corners etc as you go.
  

Have had a number of people complain about having to walk the boundary multiple times to get the information they need.

May not be an issue on smaller parcels, but out west with large boundaries and steep terrain, it is an issue!

An option for them is to try to manually create a waypoint based on tracklog information, but that position is up to 52.7 feet off without averaging based on distance settings. (This is without considering GPS errors) Time settings for plotting closer points won't work and you can't change this mid process on newer units. (You might get some results by walking a around the point on an auto more/most setting hopping fences/cliffs as you go?)

Edited February 28, 2012 by gps_dr

[+Egnix]

One of the major things I dont like off the top of my head, is the Name search function. You can search caches or waypoints by name, but the search is based on "CONTAINS letter", instead of "BEGINS with letter"...

ie if I have 2000 caches on it, and I want to find one that is called Especially SupercalafragilisticExpealodocious, the first letter you would put in is "E", thinking it will narrow down your list immediately to just caches that start with "e"...

WRONG!!...It gives you a list, in no order whatsoever, other than ALL the caches that CONTAIN, the letter "E"....Well, "E" is the most used letter in the alphabet....So you end up basically spelling out at least half if not more of the specific cache your looking for...

 

I like how it searches. I list my caches by GC code, so when I search I start searching with the first character after the GC. Since it sorts by closest-first, I generally only have to enter 2 or 3 characters and the cache I'm looking for is displayed in the list.

Even if I did have the caches listed by name, I think I would be frustrated having to enter the whole names. I've done a lot cache series where the first word or two in the cache name are all the same and just end with a different number. It could be a pain to have to type out the who cache name instead of just the last couple letters and number.

[+Egnix]

2. The other day I placed a new map on my SD card ( City Navigator North America NT 2011) & I wanted to see if I have installed it right. ( I`m a Canadian & I will be traveling to Arizona )

So I select Find - Cities -Menu - Spells search - Yuma,AZ select Yuma & the only option I have is " GO" I don`t want to GO I wont to select MAP & see the map !! On my old Vista I had this option of selecting the Map!!

 

I don't have my 62s with me at the time, but there is a way to do this... I believe when you're at the screen where you can select "GO", hit your menu button. That lets you go to a Details page where you can select something to see the map. Something like that. It's a few extra steps and not intuitive at all, but I'm almost positive there is a way to do this.

[+Egnix]

1. On my old Etrex Vista cx I could pick & choose which symbol i won`t to delete ie found cache, all caches, etc

On the 62s I have to connect to a computer to delete caches !!! WHY ???

 

 

I just saw this in the release notes for the new 3.90 firmware: "Added symbol filtering to FIND > Waypoints and Waypoint Manager". Does this help you do what you're trying to do?

[+Egnix]

2. The other day I placed a new map on my SD card ( City Navigator North America NT 2011) & I wanted to see if I have installed it right. ( I`m a Canadian & I will be traveling to Arizona )

So I select Find - Cities -Menu - Spells search - Yuma,AZ select Yuma & the only option I have is " GO" I don`t want to GO I wont to select MAP & see the map !! On my old Vista I had this option of selecting the Map!!

 

I don't have my 62s with me at the time, but there is a way to do this... I believe when you're at the screen where you can select "GO", hit your menu button. That lets you go to a Details page where you can select something to see the map. Something like that. It's a few extra steps and not intuitive at all, but I'm almost positive there is a way to do this.

 

I guess what I was thinking isn't the case. Though, when you select the city, it takes you to a screen with a map and the "Go" button. Once you use the arrow keys, the "Go" button disappears and you and scroll all around. You can also zoom in and out, select points, etc. What else do you need to do?

[+Night Stalker]

I have a new 62s and am trying to get used to its interface. On of my major issues is switching from on road to off road. On the 60cx I had the option of switching the way I wanted it to give me directions any time I wanted. I haven't figured out how to do this with my 62s. Can anyone enlighted me?

[tttedzeins]

 

3. This is generic to all GPS... Why are you limited to 500,1000 or 2000 caches.. Why can`t you create a folder on the GPS or SD card & have as many as the memory will take ??? The 62s have 1.7 G`s & my SD card has 4G`s

 

 

[can of worms]

That really irritates me. I used to, and now do again, use a MeriCol (Magellan Meridian Color). It has a limit of 200 waypoints, BUT you can have as many files of 200 waypoints each on the card and then load and unload then as you need. 200 is a bit limiting but my next holiday is going to be over 6 weeks 2000 caches just does not cut it either.

 

Why do the manufacturers assume that you want to load every cache on the card, this really slows booting the unit which is not that quick in the first place.

[/can of worms]

[+BAMBOOZLE]

 

3. This is generic to all GPS... Why are you limited to 500,1000 or 2000 caches.. Why can`t you create a folder on the GPS or SD card & have as many as the memory will take ??? The 62s have 1.7 G`s & my SD card has 4G`s

 

 

[can of worms]

That really irritates me. I used to, and now do again, use a MeriCol (Magellan Meridian Color). It has a limit of 200 waypoints, BUT you can have as many files of 200 waypoints each on the card and then load and unload then as you need. 200 is a bit limiting but my next holiday is going to be over 6 weeks 2000 caches just does not cut it either.

 

Why do the manufacturers assume that you want to load every cache on the card, this really slows booting the unit which is not that quick in the first place.

[/can of worms]

 

You've gotta love those Meridians.

Actually , they will hold 500 caches per file ( I make mine 490 ) but over 200 and you're not guaranteed to get all the cache names spelled as you select them. I have at least 1 of the whole line including 2 Colors and 8 Platinums. A 2G card in these units will hold detail maps of the whole U.S. and over 14,000,000 caches in files of 500 each. Until recently my wife and I both used Platinums and Sony Clie's for paperless. I would load about 40 or so files for a trip and we could travel around the country caching for a month and never need a computer. Why in the world can we not do this with newer units ?

[+L0ne.R]

I have a new 62s and am trying to get used to its interface. On of my major issues is switching from on road to off road. On the 60cx I had the option of switching the way I wanted it to give me directions any time I wanted. I haven't figured out how to do this with my 62s. Can anyone enlighted me?

 

I too had trouble figuring out how to switch between on-road/off-road. I finally stumbled upon it after checking every setting. Here's what you do:

 

Main Menu > Setup > Routing > Prompted

Edited February 29, 2012 by Solitario R

[+Red90]

Cache quantity limit is 5000 on a 62, is it not?

 

You should be able to view found caches directly. There should be a "show found" option somewhere.

 

You select the map in the map setup.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Red90

[+Klatch]

I have a new 62s and am trying to get used to its interface. On of my major issues is switching from on road to off road. On the 60cx I had the option of switching the way I wanted it to give me directions any time I wanted. I haven't figured out how to do this with my 62s. Can anyone enlighted me?

 

I too had trouble figuring out how to switch between on-road/off-road. I finally stumbled upon it after checking every setting. Here's what you do:

 

Main Menu > Setup > Routing > Prompted

That's the way it was always done on the routing handhelds, including the 60Cx.

[+L0ne.R]

I have a new 62s and am trying to get used to its interface. On of my major issues is switching from on road to off road. On the 60cx I had the option of switching the way I wanted it to give me directions any time I wanted. I haven't figured out how to do this with my 62s. Can anyone enlighted me?

 

I too had trouble figuring out how to switch between on-road/off-road. I finally stumbled upon it after checking every setting. Here's what you do:

 

Main Menu > Setup > Routing > Prompted

That's the way it was always done on the routing handhelds, including the 60Cx.

 

Interesting, I never noticed. Maybe the default on the 60Cx is "prompted".

[+Night Stalker]

On the 60 I could tell it to recalculate while driving and change from on road to off road. This allowed me to park where I wanted to or where the terrain was better for climbing. I am not sure how to accomplish this in the new gps. When the weather becomes a little better I am going to have to play with it and see how it works on the 62s.

[tttedzeins]

You've gotta love those Meridians.

Actually , they will hold 500 caches per file ( I make mine 490 ) but over 200 and you're not guaranteed to get all the cache names spelled as you select them. I have at least 1 of the whole line including 2 Colors and 8 Platinums. A 2G card in these units will hold detail maps of the whole U.S. and over 14,000,000 caches in files of 500 each. Until recently my wife and I both used Platinums and Sony Clie's for paperless. I would load about 40 or so files for a trip and we could travel around the country caching for a month and never need a computer. Why in the world can we not do this with newer units ?

 

Not to stray too far off topic, but, Magellan should never have stopped making them. They should have just ironed out a few of the bugs and improved processor speed as it became available.

Best units ever

[+DaveEllen]

I have a new 62s and am trying to get used to its interface. On of my major issues is switching from on road to off road. On the 60cx I had the option of switching the way I wanted it to give me directions any time I wanted. I haven't figured out how to do this with my 62s. Can anyone enlighted me?

[+dakboy]

Until recently my wife and I both used Platinums and Sony Clie's for paperless. I would load about 40 or so files for a trip and we could travel around the country caching for a month and never need a computer. Why in the world can we not do this with newer units ?

You can with the DeLorme PN-series devices.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

As you can with the latest Garmins ... some will load up to 5000 geocaches and 200 gpx files, ample surely?

 

Its my understanding that my 62S is limited to 5000 caches and I need a computer to remove that set of 5000 and install another. 5000 is not ample for coast to coast trips.....I put about 20,000 on my Platinum for those.

[+riffraff9000]

I load "caches along a route" PQs when I travel, and take the USB cable. Even if I don't take a laptop, someone I'm visiting will have one that I can update from, and there's always the public library. But the separate SD cards idea is a good one, too.

Edited March 2, 2012 by riffraff9000

[tttedzeins]

Its my understanding that my 62S is limited to 5000 caches and I need a computer to remove that set of 5000 and install another. 5000 is not ample for coast to coast trips.....I put about 20,000 on my Platinum for those.

 

And that's what not many people get. You can put, literally 100 000's of caches on a Meridian.

 

Wow ... you do want to load a lot, how many of them do you actually visit

 

Guess a way around it is to have separate sd cards with them all on, and swap cards as appropriate?

 

It is not about visiting them all, it is about having them if you need them. When doing long trips in remote locations with not even a phone line let alone internet it is extremely handy, especially if there are no roads or you do not know where you are going to be exactly.

 

Having seperate SD cards is a pain and you stand the risk of losing them.

 

On 1 128MB card I have maps for all of Switzerland, Australia, England and some maps left over from Canada, I also am able to load caches for all the areas I am going to go to.

Edited March 3, 2012 by tttedzeins

[+Cacheoholic]

You can load 1,000,000’s of geocaches as POI’s on newer Garmins. The only limit is available memory. Or you can get a Montana with 12,000 geocaches loaded as geocaches. I’ve found 12,000 caches sufficient for me because new caches are published every day so I need to update PQ’s every few days.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

Wow ... you do want to load a lot, how many of them do you actually visit

 

Guess a way around it is to have separate sd cards with them all on, and swap cards as appropriate?

 

For my 62S I use GSAK to load the caches and it puts them in the units memory and not on the SD card. I bought City Nav on a Micro SD card and thats whats in the unit ( its a 2G card but all thats available is 340 MB because of the maps ) I guess they weren't going to put a card much bigger than they needed . Cards are so cheap now the swap cards idea would be a good one. But, again, I have almost 2G available on the unit....why won't it let us save dozens of gpx files under diff. names and call them up when we need them.

 

If I create a GPX sub directory in the Garmin directory on my SD card ( containing City Nav )would GSAK put the caches there or would I have to delete the GPX directory on my handheld first ??

 

As has been said, I like to load tons of caches because I don't know weeks in advance exactly which ones I want to go for.

 

I've always traveled with a computer to check mail and create GPX files I hadn't planned on . Now I carry a netbook as a backup......both have GSAK loaded and all the GPX files I've created so I can load them in the field as needed, no internet needed........again, with the Meridians none of that was necessary.

[+Maingray]

I have a new 62s and am trying to get used to its interface. On of my major issues is switching from on road to off road. On the 60cx I had the option of switching the way I wanted it to give me directions any time I wanted. I haven't figured out how to do this with my 62s. Can anyone enlighted me?

 

Either use different profiles with different route methods, or simply press "find" and select the routing option you want. Its very easy on the 62. I used to use profiles, no I just toggle using the Find button.

 

-

I prefer the closed gpx file system... I never used to delete found caches off my the unit anyway.

 

Now it's ,... load new GPX file ...go caching....use field notes to log (either manually or via GSAK v8)...refresh new gpx file which are obviously missing the found caches.much simpler than trying to delete caches off the unit.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

Wow ... you do want to load a lot, how many of them do you actually visit

 

Guess a way around it is to have separate sd cards with them all on, and swap cards as appropriate?

 

For my 62S I use GSAK to load the caches and it puts them in the units memory and not on the SD card. I bought City Nav on a Micro SD card and thats whats in the unit ( its a 2G card but all thats available is 340 MB because of the maps ) I guess they weren't going to put a card much bigger than they needed . Cards are so cheap now the swap cards idea would be a good one. But, again, I have almost 2G available on the unit....why won't it let us save dozens of gpx files under diff. names and call them up when we need them.

 

If I create a GPX sub directory in the Garmin directory on my SD card ( containing City Nav )would GSAK put the caches there or would I have to delete the GPX directory on my handheld first ??

 

As has been said, I like to load tons of caches because I don't know weeks in advance exactly which ones I want to go for.

 

I've always traveled with a computer to check mail and create GPX files I hadn't planned on . Now I carry a netbook as a backup......both have GSAK loaded and all the GPX files I've created so I can load them in the field as needed, no internet needed........again, with the Meridians none of that was necessary.

 

O.K. , I copied the GPX file from the units GPX directory to the GPX directory I created on the SD card then deleted the units GPX file.....when I re-booted all the caches were there so carrying extra SD cards with GPX files would work ( thanks for the info )

I've always liked buying City Nav on the SD card for ease of use and ability to move it from unit to unit but I see now it limits what you can do with the card. There is still tons of room considering I have 350 MB available and GPX files are small.........you could store dozens of files of 5000 caches max. to the card and just name them something other than Geocaches.GPX ( say Houston.GPO )....when you're ready to cache Houston just put the card in your computer and rename it

[+scubiecim]

The GarminMap62s is a piece of junk. What a waste of money. It would be nice that the thing would load all the caches that are downloaded into it. I have on numerous occasions traveled a long distance and when I turned on the Maps62s it would not load the caches where I am at. It usually loaded the caches in the area I was on a pervious day.

 

I have downloaded the latest fix for this. Hopefully it works. It's been okay for the last three weeks. It is getting old that I have to carry 2 gps's with me at all times.

 

The only good think to say about the Map62s is that it is very accurate. When it beeps you are where you want to be.

[+BurgeoGull & MrsGull]

I too own a 60cx for a few yrs now.I went and bought the 62s last fall expecting it to be nothing but improvments over the 60cx...I was disappointed in that respect.While some things on the 62 are better some are not.I just wish they would have improved the 60cx.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

The GarminMap62s is a piece of junk. What a waste of money. It would be nice that the thing would load all the caches that are downloaded into it. I have on numerous occasions traveled a long distance and when I turned on the Maps62s it would not load the caches where I am at. It usually loaded the caches in the area I was on a pervious day.

 

I have downloaded the latest fix for this. Hopefully it works. It's been okay for the last three weeks. It is getting old that I have to carry 2 gps's with me at all times.

 

The only good think to say about the Map62s is that it is very accurate. When it beeps you are where you want to be.

 

I too own a 60cx for a few yrs now.I went and bought the 62s last fall expecting it to be nothing but improvments over the 60cx...I was disappointed in that respect.While some things on the 62 are better some are not.I just wish they would have improved the 60cx.

 

I think if you hang in there you will LOVE this unit. Be sure you install the latest firmware and then configure it the way you like.

This is a great,accurate,easy-to-use, paperless unit with a nice bright display. I don't think its wise to load 5000 caches ( on the 450 either) as their have been some boot-up issues.....I usually load 1000-2000 caches on mine.

[+Labrador Wild Man]

Hi all a great read

 

i must admit it has take me a long time to learn on the 62s stil looking for the tips and tricks on the net ther is one for the 60csx

 

but getting better just hope i can remmber it all when i need it

 

thanks

 

LWM

[Blue_Stone]

 

That really irritates me. I used to, and now do again, use a MeriCol (Magellan Meridian Color). It has a limit of 200 waypoints, BUT you can have as many files of 200 waypoints each on the card and then load and unload then as you need. 200 is a bit limiting but my next holiday is going to be over 6 weeks 2000 caches just does not cut it either.

 

Why do the manufacturers assume that you want to load every cache on the card, this really slows booting the unit which is not that quick in the first place.

[/can of worms]

 

Actually the limit is 500, but you are limited to only having NOTES with only 200 of them. (I'm assuming you have a shorthand of cache info that you put in the waypoint notes?...lol)

[Blue_Stone]

 

Not to stray too far off topic, but, Magellan should never have stopped making them. They should have just ironed out a few of the bugs and improved processor speed as it became available.

Best units ever

 

ABSOLUTELY!!

[Blue_Stone]

As you can with the latest Garmins ... some will load up to 5000 geocaches and 200 gpx files, ample surely?

 

The problem with having that many all at once on the 62S is that for some of us, the search, filter, and select functions STINK!! Its frustrating to find what you need quickly, and to move around the menus, and sometimes different screens you shouldnt have to. And it takes my Garmin a couple solid minutes to boot up and load them all...and I dont even have anything but the basemap (disabled) and a small map of northwestern PA & western NY on it...I could be wrong, but I can only imagine how long it might take to load up more/bigger maps.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

As you can with the latest Garmins ... some will load up to 5000 geocaches and 200 gpx files, ample surely?

 

The problem with having that many all at once on the 62S is that for some of us, the search, filter, and select functions STINK!! Its frustrating to find what you need quickly, and to move around the menus, and sometimes different screens you shouldnt have to. And it takes my Garmin a couple solid minutes to boot up and load them all...and I dont even have anything but the basemap (disabled) and a small map of northwestern PA & western NY on it...I could be wrong, but I can only imagine how long it might take to load up more/bigger maps.

 

Maybe its your maps......I have a couple thousand caches loaded and I'm using City Nav of the whole U.S. , including the basemap......mine takes about 15 seconds to boot up. Haven't tried 5000 caches.

Using the old firmware and almost 5000 caches my Oregon 450 would take a while to boot on the initial boot and on occasion would lock up and on a re-boot it would be O.K.

The page and quit buttons allow fast toggling between the map and compass ( " pointer " ) screen and cache logging is fast......don't forget you can configure the unit to your own liking.

[sviking]

Its my understanding that my 62S is limited to 5000 caches and I need a computer to remove that set of 5000 and install another. 5000 is not ample for coast to coast trips.....I put about 20,000 on my Platinum for those.

 

You actually do 5000+ caches in a single coast-to-coast trip?

 

At any rate, after reading all this, looks like even more reasons to hang on to my old 60CSx...

[+L0ne.R]

At any rate, after reading all this, looks like even more reasons to hang on to my old 60CSx...

 

If I knew what I know now I would have kept the 60Cx and upgraded the maps. I have the iPhone app (for paperless caching). A 60 and an app does the job nicely.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

Its my understanding that my 62S is limited to 5000 caches and I need a computer to remove that set of 5000 and install another. 5000 is not ample for coast to coast trips.....I put about 20,000 on my Platinum for those.

 

You actually do 5000+ caches in a single coast-to-coast trip?

 

At any rate, after reading all this, looks like even more reasons to hang on to my old 60CSx...

 

The most I've found on a long trip is around 400 ( I hope to do better this year )

I like to be prepared for each stop along the route plus caching along the route. I like to be able to use my PQ's on my Nuvi and older handhelds so I limit the caches to 500 per PQ. For our up coming trip I have 50 ( 20,000 caches) or so ready to put in GSAK. All 50 of these can be put on my Meridians card and called up when needed....on NEW units I load them as needed. I doubt I'll look for over 500-600 but I prepare just as though no internet will be available ( sometimes it isn't )

 

Re. the units, we have a 60CSx w/ Sirf III and I much prefer the 62S, my wife prefers the Oregon 450 to the 60 as well.

[+khumbu_calypso]

The learning curve is steep for pretty much all Garmin units, but if you are looking at getting into GPS orienteering, mapping, geocaching, etc., I am pretty sure that there is a rather steep learning curve in general, regardless of what brand/model of GPSr you choose. I will definitely agree that the Garmin documentation provided with the units is quite basic, and to learn how to do many things, you have to rely on these kinds of forums. I haven't had a lot of experience with other brands/models, but have definitely fiddled with most brands and a few models from each brand and find the Garmins to be overall the best from an all-around perspective. If you are looking for Apple/iPhone like simplicity, you might be better off to try using an iPhone for geocaching.

 

Like someone else has mentioned, when you search for and find a data point (waypoint, geocache, POI, etc.) the only option displayed, front and center, may be "GO", but if you hit the menu button you will be presented with a bunch of other options. To me, that is about as Apple/iPhone-like as it gets. Present the one most obvious option as a large button at the bottom of the screen, with other available commands hidden. Once you figure out most of these things with the Garmin, it becomes much more intuitive, but like any gadget, there is a learning/adaptation process involved.

 

I have found the 62s to be an incredibly powerful and adaptable tool, and while it wasn't always self-explanatory or intuitive in its approach to many things, once I learned how to use it, there is virtually nothing that I have wanted to use it for that it does not handle quite well. Considering how much technology and capability is packed into such a robust, compact unit, it is really hard to match the 62s.

Edited May 11, 2012 by khumbu_calypso

[+L0ne.R]

When I'm driving the map pointer will be pointing in the direction I'm going. When I stop at a red light the pointer spins and usually rests pointing down.

 

When I'm hiking to a cache the pink line often goes off in the opposite direction to where the cache is. I follow the numbers instead of the map. The numbers get smaller then I'm going in the right direction. Even the compass often points in the wrong direction but the meter countdown is correct. I have tried calibrating, but 80% of the time it doesn't work. I have to try 4 or more times. I have removed the clip carabiner when calibrating which helps.

Edited May 13, 2012 by L0ne R

[+coman123]

I have a new 62s and am trying to get used to its interface. On of my major issues is switching from on road to off road. On the 60cx I had the option of switching the way I wanted it to give me directions any time I wanted. I haven't figured out how to do this with my 62s. Can anyone enlighted me?

 

Find button, is a shortcut to onroad/offroad

[tr_s]

Does this device remember the destination (goto -> waypoint, track, route whatever) after it is rebooted?