Garmin Etrex 30

[+Bob Kitten]

Someone please help!

I have had my Etrex 30 for a couple of years and it has served well.

This weekend, I loaded, as usual a few geocaches on and off we went.

At the location, there was no sign of the caches on the list, so we used the Iphone and carried on.

When we got back, I connected up to basecamp and the caches were there, look on the Etrex and they are not.

To cut a long story short, if I load a bundle of caches on, some appear in the list, some don't.

The one that are in the list appear on the map as a green icon, the ones that don't appear on the list are on the map, but as a broen box icon.

I have spoken to Garmin, but they blame geocaching.com.

 

Anyone any ideas?

[insig]

Delete all the GPX files off of your device (make backups on your computer first). Disconnect the device and start it up. After it starts up and takes you to the main menu, plug it into your computer again. Copy all the GPX files back over to the device. Unplug it and start it up again.

[+BlackRose67]

This is a well known "feature" in the newer Garmin GPS devices (i.e. bug they can't or won't fix).

Blaming geocaching.com is a cop out IMHO.

 

Storing the GPX file(s) on an external microSD card allows you to resolve this issue in the field.

 

In a nutshell, power off the GPS, remove the SD card.

Power up the GPS then power it off again after it has fully loaded.

 

Re-insert the SD card and power it on again.

 

The GPS will reindex the new GPX file and you should then be good to go.

[+Bob Kitten]

BlackRose67,

Thank you, I shall try that and see how it goes.

I did try downloading the contents onto Basecamp and reloading it back, that seems to work, what I dont understand is why now?

 

Anyway, Hi to Ontario, great place, great country.

[+Bob Kitten]

Delete all the GPX files off of your device (make backups on your computer first). Disconnect the device and start it up. After it starts up and takes you to the main menu, plug it into your computer again. Copy all the GPX files back over to the device. Unplug it and start it up again.

[+Bob Kitten]

Insig,

Thank you for that advice, I shall try, but I still wonder, whay now?

[+ADKer]

Insig,

Thank you for that advice, I shall try, but I still wonder, whay now?

 

I'm Not Sure, but I think for some reason, the eTrex series has a limit to the number of Geocaches that can be on the device, regardless of the amount of memory left.

 

Blaming geocaching.com? ...Garmin....I love you, but....that's just immature!

[+BlackRose67]

BlackRose67,

Thank you, I shall try that and see how it goes.

I did try downloading the contents onto Basecamp and reloading it back, that seems to work, what I dont understand is why now?

 

Anyway, Hi to Ontario, great place, great country.

For the longest time my etrex 20 worked fine and I never encountered this problem for well over a year.

 

Earlier this year, after one particular firmware upgrade, it started to happen more regularly.

I reload the caches on my GPS at least once a week. Sometimes it works fine and other times it fails.

 

Sometimes simply restarting the GPS without removing the SD card works, other times I have to pull the SD card out.

[+GeoTrekker26]

Insig,

Thank you for that advice, I shall try, but I still wonder, whay now?

 

I'm Not Sure, but I think for some reason, the eTrex series has a limit to the number of Geocaches that can be on the device, regardless of the amount of memory left.

 

Blaming geocaching.com? ...Garmin....I love you, but....that's just immature!

 

Of course they do. Both the e20 and e30 can hold 5000 caches. That is not the cause of the issue being discussed.

[tr_s]

Insig,

Thank you for that advice, I shall try, but I still wonder, whay now?

 

I'm Not Sure, but I think for some reason, the eTrex series has a limit to the number of Geocaches that can be on the device, regardless of the amount of memory left.

 

 

Yea i think it is 5000 on the 20/30.

 

Maybe not that bad a design decision, considering that parsing even 1000 takes a few minutes.

It's not like the system framework they used seems to be efficient, unfortunately...

[+BlackRose67]

Apparently the problem does not happen on the new GPS units that support the GGZ format.

 

Considering how slow the 20 is parsing a GPX with 1200 caches in it, I don't think the eTrex 20 & 30 have enough CPU power to process GGZ files.

[+Saved by God's grace]

Hello all...

My etrex 30 is doing the same thing, and it's driving me crazy! I have found (although slightly unrelated) that its a good idea to add the date to the file name of the PQ GPXs. If anyone figures out a real solution to this, please let me know! []

[+Bob Kitten]

Thank you to all who have posted.

I have tried the various suggestions, but no success.

What does work is, if I load onto the Etrex as per normal, then transfer from the Etrex to My Collection in Basecamp, then transfer back, hey presto, they appear on the list, but a Faf!

 

However, Garmin have emailed with this:

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe.

 

I will be happy to assist you with your enquiry. If this is the case then it would appear that the issue is with the files themselves. Can you please confirm if these were loaded as separate caches or as pocket queries? If possible can you please also provide the files in question so we can look into this further and offer additional assistance?

 

If there is anything else I can help you with then please let me know. Alternatively you can search for a solution here: http://www.garmin.co.uk/support

 

So I have sent the file.

 

I have also had a response from Groundspeak:

 

Hello!

 

 

We are happy to help you, but will need some additional information please. Please respond with the answers to the following questions.

 

What operating system are you using? (Windows, Mac or Linux)

a. Which version and service ? (Example: Windows 7, Service Pack 1)

What Browser are you using? (Chrome, Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, Firefox 3.0, 3.15x, 4.0)

What URL are you having difficulty with?

Can you provide steps to duplicate this problem?

 

We look forward to hearing back from you, and hope to have answers for you soon.

 

I am determined to get an answer and shall keep posting.

[+Bob Kitten]

Right, I think I have worked out part of the cause.

 

Here is my theory:

 

If I download a cache that I have already found, it will not appear in the list, but will appear on the map as an open brown box.

If I get the pointer over the box on the map, I can click on it and get the cache details.

If after I have first loaded the cache on the gps I transfer it back to basecamp and then back to the gps, it will be on the list.

 

So in my case, it appears to be something to do with found caches and Basecamp.

 

Garmin have still have not got back to me since my last posting and I have not got back to Groundspeak.

[insig]

The GPS think you have found them. This happens one of two ways: the GPX file containing the cache lists it as found or geocache_visits.txt lists it as found.

 

Check the GPX file containing the cache. Open it up using Notepad (or another text editor). Look for something like this:

<Groundspeak:cache id="3546139" available="True" archived="False" xmlns:Groundspeak="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0/1">

 

The available="True" tells it that you have not found it yet. If that is false, then it is reporting to the GPS that you have previously found it. The other thing you can check is geocache_visits.txt for the GC number of the cache. If it is in that file and it says "Found It", then that explains why the GPS thinks it is found.

 

When you are viewing the list of caches on your etrex, you can also hit the menu button to bring up the options menu ans setecl "Show Found" to get a list of found geocaches.

[+MartyBartfast]

 

Check the GPX file containing the cache. Open it up using Notepad (or another text editor). Look for something like this:

<Groundspeak:cache id="3546139" available="True" archived="False" xmlns:Groundspeak="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0/1">

 

The available="True" tells it that you have not found it yet. If that is false, then it is reporting to the GPS that you have previously found it.

 

That's not right, the "available" field is whether it's been temp disabled , not whether you've found it.

[insig]

 

Check the GPX file containing the cache. Open it up using Notepad (or another text editor). Look for something like this:

<Groundspeak:cache id="3546139" available="True" archived="False" xmlns:Groundspeak="http://www.Groundspeak.com/cache/1/0/1">

 

The available="True" tells it that you have not found it yet. If that is false, then it is reporting to the GPS that you have previously found it.

 

That's not right, the "available" field is whether it's been temp disabled , not whether you've found it.

 

My apologies -- I was mistaken there. The <sym> tag is what tells the device if it has been found or not. an unfound cache will contain <sym>Geocache</sym> while a found cache will contain <sym>Geocache Found</sym>. Thanks for letting me know that. It's been awhile since I figured out how the GPX file tells the device this, and my memory was a little fuzzy.

[+ShaunEM]

IF Groundspeak and garmin can't tell you what the problem is, you aren't going to figure it out.

 

I have had this happen on my etrex 20. It has to do with reading/parsing the GPX file. The device just goes "belly up".

 

This would happen with gpx files directly from Groundspeak PQs as well as GSAK imports.

 

I keep my GPX on an external SD card for that reason now.

 

Shaun