Jump to content

PN-60 freezes up


Recommended Posts

Started having problems with our PN-40 freezing up and rebooting it the middle of the woods. Called Delorme and was told that the SD card was probably corrupt and we needed to mail it in for service.

 

So we got a PN-60 for Christmas. Haven't had the time to test it out until recently. Took it out Friday, Saturday and by Sunday it was freezing up on us also. Called Delorme and they don't know why and said that it is very uncommon. Anyone else had this happen with their PN's? Any suggestions or tips. The 60 only has about 20 caches loaded on it and was only used for 3 days so I doubt that the SD card is corrupt.

 

Love the delorme's but very frustrated at this point. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Link to comment

Started having problems with our PN-40 freezing up and rebooting it the middle of the woods. Called Delorme and was told that the SD card was probably corrupt and we needed to mail it in for service.

 

So we got a PN-60 for Christmas. Haven't had the time to test it out until recently. Took it out Friday, Saturday and by Sunday it was freezing up on us also. Called Delorme and they don't know why and said that it is very uncommon. Anyone else had this happen with their PN's? Any suggestions or tips. The 60 only has about 20 caches loaded on it and was only used for 3 days so I doubt that the SD card is corrupt.

 

Love the delorme's but very frustrated at this point. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Oh bummer.... Does it need the sd card to work? If not, remove the card and use it . See if it reboots on you. If not, just mail them your card for replacement..... Or have you tried updating/reloading the firmware on the device? Have you tried a factory reset? Cleared all your caches, maps, routes, tracks and waypoints? I Don't have a delorme.... But thought I would toss out some ideas.

Link to comment

Thanks for all of the tips. Yes we have updated with the latest firmware. We have done everything they said to try. It doesn't happen right away but after caching for maybe an hour or so. It just decides that it has had enough and freezes. We were driving closer and closer to a cache. It's .30 mile away, then it's .28 mile away and then it just freezes on .28 mile and we drive and drive and drive and it just remains frozen in time. After only using it for a weekend and having very few caches loaded on it I sure didn't expect the same thing as the PN-40. With that we had it for about 2 years and found 450 caches with it so I could see how something could have gone wrong, but with only 3 days of caching and not power caching by any stretch of the imagination I didn't expect it to just freeze and stop working.

Link to comment

Thanks for all of the tips. Yes we have updated with the latest firmware. We have done everything they said to try. It doesn't happen right away but after caching for maybe an hour or so. It just decides that it has had enough and freezes. We were driving closer and closer to a cache. It's .30 mile away, then it's .28 mile away and then it just freezes on .28 mile and we drive and drive and drive and it just remains frozen in time. . . .

It may be that "drive by" geocaching is not the best method with a Delorme PN-60 in Drive routing mode under the best of conditions. Do you also experience similar problems after parking the car and walking in the general direction toward the cache coordinates from a 1/4 mile distance? Does the device eventually hang up so that it will not event point correctly towards a newly created waypoint, if routed in Hike mode? Is this in open country with a clear view of the sky.

Link to comment

This has happened to me, also - twice.

 

I bought a PN-40 for my sister and niece, to get them interested in geocaching. The Unit seized up and sits idle on a shelf. Sister and niece don't geocache.

 

Ignoring this experience, I bought a PN-60 at GeoWoodstock. I used it for one day of hiking. On the last cache of the day it froze up and is now unresponsive. It sits idle in a closet. I've been geocaching maybe five times since then, mostly with my cellphone.

Link to comment

This has happened to me, also - twice.

 

I bought a PN-40 for my sister and niece, to get them interested in geocaching. The Unit seized up and sits idle on a shelf. Sister and niece don't geocache.

 

Ignoring this experience, I bought a PN-60 at GeoWoodstock. I used it for one day of hiking. On the last cache of the day it froze up and is now unresponsive. It sits idle in a closet. I've been geocaching maybe five times since then, mostly with my cellphone.

Ignoring the PN-40 problem for now, you might get the PN-60 operational by going into the support mode to delete All routes from internal memory. Deleting All routes may permit successful geocaching with the PN-60 again with no further problems, but updating the firmware to the latest version is also recommended.

Link to comment

My PN-60 functioned for maybe eight hours before turning into a brick. I don't know what a "route" is or how to create one. Would auto-routing (turn by turn driving directions) cause this? I did that two or three times on the day when I used my new GPS.

 

I have no idea how to do what you are suggesting. How do I "go into the support mode" and "delete all routes" if I cannot get the unit to turn on?

Link to comment

My PN-60 functioned for maybe eight hours before turning into a brick. I don't know what a "route" is or how to create one. Would auto-routing (turn by turn driving directions) cause this? I did that two or three times on the day when I used my new GPS.

This suggests a heat or low-power issue, assuming that you were using it continuously. Regardless, you should still be under warranty, so call up & get it taken care of.

 

I have no idea how to do what you are suggesting. How do I "go into the support mode" and "delete all routes" if I cannot get the unit to turn on?
Support can (and should) be able to walk you through this over the phone. It may be the same steps as for the 30/40, which are at http://support.delorme.com/questions.php?questionid=37

 

But really, if it won't even power on, just call tech support and get an RMA.

Link to comment

If you turn it off, take out the batteries, turn it back on, it will behave nicely again for an short period of time. Yes I do have the latest firmware version, etc. Because when I call tech support I have taken the batteries out, etc and it is working just fine they can't guide me on what to do. Yes it has happened in the hiking mode. We are in the middle of the woods. Hiking it's .10 mile away, drops down to 520 feet, keep going it's 300 feet. Then suddenly it just freezes and is done until you turn it off and take out the batteries. It can happen with brand new batteries, etc. It can happen in the middle of a field with no canopy cover. It can and will do it just about anywhere it dang well pleases.

 

I guess next time it decides it's done for the day I need to have tech supports number on my cell phone and call from the middle of the woods? I am beyond frustrated at this point. But I am very glad to hear that I am not the only one that has a 40 and a 60 that at times can become very expensive paper weights.

 

Last night a new geocach came up close to my house and I plugged in my 60 and was off to grab my first, first to find of the year so for now I am happy, until the next time I am soooo close to the cache when my PN-60 decides it's done for the day.

Link to comment

When geocaching to a set of coordinates, the users of either a Delorme PN-60 or PN-40 are enabling the "routing" features. There is a "right click" menu button option in Routing mode that permits editing of either Drive (road) or Hiking (direct to geocache) settings.

 

If one is trying to geocache in Drive (road) mode with default settings, the Automatic Back on Track recalculation occurs at the 500 foot Threshold! A 500 foot threshold for recalculation to kick in can cause problems even for city driving at 25 mph. If you miss a turn, the recalculation may not kick in until you have passed the next cross street. Even in Hiking mode, 500 foot recalculation threshold is unacceptable for geocaching.

 

Be sure to check Edit Track Settings (Right Click Menu button) as well. For Geocaching, Restore to Default 10 feet/2 seconds, whichever occurs first. This alone could get the PN-60 out of the continual recalculation mode which could by itself cause a memory hangup under worst case conditions.

 

Be aware of the "Activities" Icon in the PN-60. A pre-programmed Geocaching Activity is provided to select applicable dsplay pages. But the user still needs to pay attention to the Edit settings for Tracking and Routing recalculation.

 

If all is working well with the Delorme PN-60 on a clear day, the device should recalculate the geocache routing arrow at no greater distance than 20 feet from the gps satellite derived cache coordinates of perceived ground zero.

Edited by 39_Steps
Link to comment

[End of Day PN-60 battery issue]

The PN-60/40 devices should attempt to save the Waypoint data (humongous geocache file?) in GPX format to either the SD card or to permanent user memory partition (PN-60 only)upon low battery warning. It is important to heed this warning and let the "Save As" to permanent GPX file(s) occur before shutting down. Geocaching should then cease, or a spare set of 2xAA cells should then be installed if any data important to the user is involved.

 

Note: Unnoticed and unrelated saving of a large track files to permanent memory, and automatic switching to a newly opened track file internally could also cause issues with low batteries. It is better not to try to stretch battery life at the end of day.

 

[Firmware update issue]

PN-60 users who experience unexplained direct to Geocache or Waypoint Hike routing "hangups" with sufficient battery power should be certain that they have installed a recent version of the PN-60 firmware. There are rare issues that can corrupt the internal routing memory. Using the latest firmware may alleviate these corrupted geocache routing memory hang issues.

 

Note 1: Local city Road Routing "failed to calculate" issues are more likely to be related to having large quantities of maps (over 16GB) stored on SD card, and/or to having 500 foot threshold distance selected for automatic road routing recaculation in urban areas.

 

Note 2: The PN-60 issues described above are worst case scenarios but are all listed here as food for thought for those who having continuing unresolved problems. The Delorme User Forums are a better source for seeking answers to Delorme specific problems.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...