+paul.mano Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 (edited) Hello, I am fairly new to Geocaching and to using handheld GPS. I want to give my quick insight on using my new toy: Garmin 650T. Starting back 2 weeks ago, s.stubbe indoctrinated me to Geo-caching. I was using some free app on my iPhone 4S... after 5 caches I bought the GC.com app. ( Also have a TF700 with c:geo but GPS did not seem to hot on accuracy ). After that weekend I went and tracked down an Oregon 650T. Escalated pretty quickly... [ The 650T looked really nice out of the box, I immediately updated the firmware and figured out PQs and loaded one for each area we were going to be in. ] We went up to Cloudcroft & Ruidoso, NM this weekend. To GC and have some fun with some new tech. s.stubbe ran a GSIII + Garmin 401 and I rolled with iPhone 4S + 650T. As I was using the 650T I evolved the way the different screens were set up on the GC Profile. I had no issues using it minus it crashing once about an hour after I had it while playing around with zooming in and out on some topo maps. The screen itself is AMAZING. Full color and its counter-intuitive since usually you keep your devices OUT of the sunlight. You can see it perfectly with the sun straight on it and you can keep the brightness down to the lowest setting. NOTE: I blinded myself throughout the day by way of the sun reflecting off the still pristine screen... amazing. EDIT ( It just froze again now while I was getting screen captures. I was zooming / scrolling around an area 100km from my actual physical location ) While in the field with the 650T It gave me the same if not sometimes better accuracy than the Garmin 401. I did have to calibrate the compass a few times. The Mountains up there are quite beautiful but also are a factor in the accuracy of the device. While s.stubbe was playing with the 650T he discovered he could send GC's I had PQ'ed over Bluetooth to his 401! Not only that but the range was ridiculous! We measured out 64 feet for the longest xfer. ( I have a Chirp in the mail... should be fun to play with for my future Cache ) By the second day I was quite familiar and comfortable with the way the 650T worked. ( s.stubbe knocked out some sub 10 second grabs without the help of the 650T ) I was however able to make VERY accurate presumptions from the data I was getting, especially in deep wooded areas where I was able to RUN and it lead me straight for the GC. The speed at which this device works at is very pleasing. The 100k Topo was useful to me in more than one GC where I was able to visualize the terrain I was going to be walking/running in before I did so. ( When the Cell signal was out for our phones we still had an idea of what we were up against. I did a demo of the birds eye for a patch of land.... not too happy with it at all. I will be attempting to get Google earth images and custom make map overlays. I am very happy with my investment, overall. ( minus the birds eye, which I used the demo image of ) We made 26 Finds Sat and 50 on Sunday. Totaling 100 for me! Took me about 6 seconds to find from exiting the Jeep's door. (100th find below for me ) edited to hide GC details My setup for the weekend. Commander Clank, having an altercation with a small militia we found in a GC atop a mountain. Here are some images SOOC( Straight out of camera ) from the 650T. direct link to full size snake: http://i.imgur.com/WgLl9nb.jpg I shoot with a NIKON D600 and D700 with FX Glass. I am quite surprised at the quality of the camera. Very simple controls. Not so good inside with low lighting but... who is doing geocaching INSIDE!? [ While trying to get Screen captures of my Geocaching setup of each window... it seems that the 'user' button function is in-op... also there isn't a programmable double-click option for the 'user key' while the 'power key' has this functionality. There is a FIELD for the 'user key' for double click however when you try to select it... nada... Come on Garmin, next firmware update? ] Edited June 17, 2013 by paul.mano Quote Link to comment
+paul.mano Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 Here are some shots of how my GC profile looks. I could not capture the compass screen... the screen capture mode disables the 'user key' ... Quote Link to comment
+Steelenoates Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 What program do I need to download to my lap top so that I can download my PQ's and have them on my 650T??? I just got mine the other day and am having trouble Quote Link to comment
+splashy Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Goto geocaching.com (left upper corner of this screen0 and read the beginners section. Quote Link to comment
+Mineral2 Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 What program do I need to download to my lap top so that I can download my PQ's and have them on my 650T??? I just got mine the other day and am having trouble You don't really need any program. You just navigate directly to your device drive and drop them in the Garmin/GPX folder. Make sure to unzip them first. Quote Link to comment
+paul.mano Posted October 20, 2013 Author Share Posted October 20, 2013 UPDATE: The 3.30 firmware has made the 650t a MUCH better tool. It is now seemingly more accurate and now will go down to 3-4m when stationary. Still .. the compass is quirky. Quote Link to comment
+paul.mano Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 The 650T has frozen and locked up since day one. In the last 3 days it has acted no differently. WED. 5 locks ups. 3 of which were while I was zooming in and out. THURSDAY. 3 lock ups 2 of which while zooming in and out in map mode. Friday 2 lock ups both while zooming in and out in maps while caching. Quote Link to comment
+CEH2000 Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Quick question - are the topo maps on the GPS in the pictures the ones that came standard? If so they look pretty good. What do you think of them? Quote Link to comment
+paul.mano Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 Quick question - are the topo maps on the GPS in the pictures the ones that came standard? If so they look pretty good. What do you think of them? The screen shots are of the 100k TOPO maps that come with the 650T. They are ok, once you zoom in there is no detail. They do look pretty zoomed out... sadly zoomed out and panning usually CRASHES it. You have to remove a battery to get it going again. Quite annoying when you are navigating while running/range walking in the woods. More So if driving. Quote Link to comment
+Red90 Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 Traditionally lockups are caused by certain code in certain GPX files. Have you tried removing all GPX files and seeing if it does the same thing? Have you tried uploading with GSAK as it strips out bad HTML first? Quote Link to comment
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