garmen oregon 550 help

[+4thnoel]

I have a fairly new garmen Oregon 550 unit and I cannot get it to charge with the car charger. I do not have a home charger. I also cannot figure out how to find a cache close to my location. It only shows me the ones close to my home. Anyone know how to fix either problem. Thank you very much.

[+4thnoel]

sorry, by fairly new I mean it is a year old and used 6 times.

[+kunarion]

I have a fairly new garmen Oregon 550 unit and I cannot get it to charge with the car charger. I do not have a home charger. I also cannot figure out how to find a cache close to my location. It only shows me the ones close to my home. Anyone know how to fix either problem. Thank you very much.

The 550 doesn't have a "car charger". You need to use rechargeable batteries, and put them into a charger, or use ordinary batteries instead.

 

One easy way to get a bunch of caches for any particular area, is to use Pocket Queries. You'll plug the GPSr into the computer, and the GPSr becomes a USB drive, move two Pocket Query GPX files (one with caches, the other with parking coords) into the [Drive]:GARMIN/GPX. When you want to hunt a new area, delete old PQs, load new.

 

Select the starting location for the Pocket Query by filling out the "From Origin" box. Type a zip code, for example.

 

This is a good place to find info about Geocaching and the Garmin Oregon:

http://garminoregon.wikispaces.com/Geocaching

Edited June 20, 2013 by kunarion

[+Great Scott!]

The Oregon 550 does not charge batteries within the unit.

Your "car charger" is only a power source for the gps.

[snowfleurys]

Unless something has recently changed, the batteries can not be recharged while in the unit.

This is to avoid the possibility of accidentally trying to recharge non-rechargeable batteries which could damage the batteries and possibly GPSr unit.

[+Mineral2]

I have a fairly new garmen Oregon 550 unit and I cannot get it to charge with the car charger. I do not have a home charger. I also cannot figure out how to find a cache close to my location. It only shows me the ones close to my home. Anyone know how to fix either problem. Thank you very much.

 

Have you loaded any caches close to "your location?" The GPS doesn't come pre-loaded with geocaches. You have to add them yourself. It should, by default, list the caches in order of distance from your location, but if you haven't picked up a signal yet, it doesn't know where you are and thus shows your last known location, which might be home.

[+kunarion]

I have a fairly new garmen Oregon 550 unit and I cannot get it to charge with the car charger. I do not have a home charger. I also cannot figure out how to find a cache close to my location. It only shows me the ones close to my home. Anyone know how to fix either problem. Thank you very much.

 

Have you loaded any caches close to "your location?" The GPS doesn't come pre-loaded with geocaches. You have to add them yourself. It should, by default, list the caches in order of distance from your location, but if you haven't picked up a signal yet, it doesn't know where you are and thus shows your last known location, which might be home.

Yes, that may be the OP's issue!

 

You need fresh batteries. Then turn the GPSr on, and place it out in the open outdoors for about 15 minutes, or until it shows the correct location. It will find the location much faster next time.

[+4thnoel]

I have a fairly new garmen Oregon 550 unit and I cannot get it to charge with the car charger. I do not have a home charger. I also cannot figure out how to find a cache close to my location. It only shows me the ones close to my home. Anyone know how to fix either problem. Thank you very much.

 

Have you loaded any caches close to "your location?" The GPS doesn't come pre-loaded with geocaches. You have to add them yourself. It should, by default, list the caches in order of distance from your location, but if you haven't picked up a signal yet, it doesn't know where you are and thus shows your last known location, which might be home.

Yes, that may be the OP's issue!

 

You need fresh batteries. Then turn the GPSr on, and place it out in the open outdoors for about 15 minutes, or until it shows the correct location. It will find the location much faster next time.

 

Thank you for all the help. I feel very embarrassed that I forgot it had batteries. I downloaded them for different areas that I visit and by my house. Now my main problem is how to set it up to tell me how close I am to the prize.... Like a countdown of yards and feet so I have some idea that I am going the right way.

[+Mineral2]

Thank you for all the help. I feel very embarrassed that I forgot it had batteries. I downloaded them for different areas that I visit and by my house. Now my main problem is how to set it up to tell me how close I am to the prize.... Like a countdown of yards and feet so I have some idea that I am going the right way.

 

For that, you just need to display "distance to destination," though I prefer to have the Geocaching Active dashboard at the top of my map while in my geocaching profile which will also give you a small compass to point you in the right direction as well as easy links to the cache description and menu (log find, hints, etc.). When you're not actively navigating to a cache, the name, compass and distance simply point to the nearest cache.

Edited June 22, 2013 by mineral2