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hi, i have the garmin etrex 10 gps. it is pretty much perfect for how i geocache however i was wondering if there was a way to load multiple caches at once. for instance if i'm going to my parents who live in a town called new windsor, is there a way to just load all of new windsors caches on to my gps so that when i'm there i can look at my gps and be like o theres one 2 miles from here? thanks

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Become a premium member and run a pocket query. Drop that (unzipped) into the /garmin/GPX folder.

 

 

 

um... i'm sorry, i am super technologically unadvanced (i still use my first cell phone from 8 years ago a nokia flip phone haha) i don't know what you are saying, could you dumb it down for me.

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Become a premium member and run a pocket query. Drop that (unzipped) into the /garmin/GPX folder.

 

 

 

um... i'm sorry, i am super technologically unadvanced (i still use my first cell phone from 8 years ago a nokia flip phone haha) i don't know what you are saying, could you dumb it down for me.

 

There is little point in giving you details on something you cannot practice. Everything Walts described is dependent on being a premium member. So do that, read about Pocket Queries and then ask more questions.

 

Click here to read about Pocket Queries.

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Become a premium member and run a pocket query. Drop that (unzipped) into the /garmin/GPX folder.

 

 

 

um... i'm sorry, i am super technologically unadvanced (i still use my first cell phone from 8 years ago a nokia flip phone haha) i don't know what you are saying, could you dumb it down for me.

 

There is little point in giving you details on something you cannot practice. Everything Walts described is dependent on being a premium member. So do that, read about Pocket Queries and then ask more questions.

 

Click here to read about Pocket Queries.

 

ok, so if i become a premium member, there is a way to load a whole city/town's geocaches to my gps?

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2,000 caches will almost certainly not fit on the Etrex 10 without using something like GSAK to reduce the size of the file.

Emphasis added :)

 

In practice it's hard to get more than a few hundred loaded. Even when I stripped logs, hints, and descriptions I ran into memory problems around the 500 mark. Rule of thumb, don't worry about how many caches are in it, just keep the GPX file size under 3 megabytes.

 

Wrote about that over a year ago, here:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=288825&view=findpost&p=4952268

Edited by user13371
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That's interesting. And the specs don't show the ability to add an sdcard. Kind of strange to have more cache capacity than the memory can hold

 

Not sure what you mean by that. Garmin doesn't seem to list the cache capacity of their eTrex units.

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={0b02f820-03db-11e0-e050-000000000000}

 

Your fast I was just going to post that so he could see what every garmin geocache capacity is.

Edited by Walts Hunting
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i don't really know what anyone is talking about but i get the impression it can't be done so i'm not going to upgrade

 

Give it a go. Try > http://www.geocaching.com/garmin/freetrial.aspx for a 30 free trial

 

Most Garmins (I know older ones do!) have 3 limits:

Number of caches

Number of (GPX) files

Size of file/files

 

It IS possible to hit one, before you hit one of the others. eg You max out on the file size, before you get the maximum number of caches on.

 

Edit to add:

Just checked out the link!

eTrex 10

 

500 GPX files

1,000 waypoints

2,000 geocaches

50 routes, 250 points per route

100 saved tracks

500 archive tracks*

10,000 points per track

 

Loading caches one at a time will give you 500 caches. -maxed out as number of GPX files-

 

You can (as a Premium Member) load 2 PQ's as 2 GPX files and get 2,000 caches. -Maxed out as number of caches-

 

I was always advised to load fewer than the maximum number of caches... Especially if you do multicaches. Why? You may need to add a couple of waypoint coordinates to find the cache, or even waymark your car!

Edited by Bear and Ragged
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The restrictions of the etrex 10 come down to memory. The most memory you can free up on the Etrex 10 is about 8 Megabytes. A gpx file with 1,000 geocaches is around 5 megabytes roughly, however you must have some memory on the unit in order for it to function.

 

If Garmin simply increased the memory to 256MB (that wouldn't cost more than a quarter to the cost), the Etrex 10 would be able to do so much more.

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That's interesting. And the specs don't show the ability to add an sdcard. Kind of strange to have more cache capacity than the memory can hold.

Not strange at all. Just a little obscure.

 

The eTrex 10 has no card slot.

The database engine built into it for holding geocaches has a limit of 2000 entires.

The memory available on the unit is (d'oh, I don't remember exactly) a few megabytes.

 

All of that IS documented. What they cannot document is how big any given GPX or collection of GPX fles may be, or what else you have on the device taking up space, That's why it's difficult difficult to say how many geocaches will fit a variable matter.

 

Upgrading to an eTrex 20 adds a microSD card slot, and expandable memory lifts all those limits out of the way for most practical uses. Simple product differentiation.

Edited by user13371
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That's interesting. And the specs don't show the ability to add an sdcard. Kind of strange to have more cache capacity than the memory can hold

 

Not sure what you mean by that. Garmin doesn't seem to list the cache capacity of their eTrex units.

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={0b02f820-03db-11e0-e050-000000000000}

 

Thanks for the link. I've always searched the product pages and the compare pages to no avail. One would think they would put the information in the unit specs listing but I guess those pages are done by the same folks who write the manuals. :sad:

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hi, i have the garmin etrex 10 gps. it is pretty much perfect for how i geocache however i was wondering if there was a way to load multiple caches at once. for instance if i'm going to my parents who live in a town called new windsor, is there a way to just load all of new windsors caches on to my gps so that when i'm there i can look at my gps and be like o theres one 2 miles from here? thanks

Since you find your present way of doing things perfect (without a premium membership) then the answer to your question is "yes".

 

The premium membership is specifically designed to give you more options regarding data; that is why so many are advising this route.

 

But if you know you won't go that route, then you can still do what you want with your style of geocaching. You can use the geocaching.com website to show caches nearest New Windsor and you can then select the checkmarks for the ones you want in the GPSr. At the bottom of the search results pages is a button "Download Waypoints" for sending up to 20 on that page as a LOC file into your computer (the browser should ask you where you want the file or show you the location). This is not a gpx file (which is what your gps needs); so use Windows software like EasyGPS or GSAK to combine these into one database and then transfer all that as one GPX file into the GPSr. You will then see them on the map when you are in New Windsor and you will be able to geocache just like you do now.

 

Note that if the total number of geocaches that you would have in your gpsr is less than 500 then you could also just click the "send to gps" icon for each cache individually. It would take a bit of time, but ought to work. The problem is that this will create one file per geocache so you are limited to 500 rather than 2000.

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hi, i have the garmin etrex 10 gps. it is pretty much perfect for how i geocache however i was wondering if there was a way to load multiple caches at once. for instance if i'm going to my parents who live in a town called new windsor, is there a way to just load all of new windsors caches on to my gps so that when i'm there i can look at my gps and be like o theres one 2 miles from here? thanks

Since you find your present way of doing things perfect (without a premium membership) then the answer to your question is "yes".

 

The premium membership is specifically designed to give you more options regarding data; that is why so many are advising this route.

 

But if you know you won't go that route, then you can still do what you want with your style of geocaching. You can use the geocaching.com website to show caches nearest New Windsor and you can then select the checkmarks for the ones you want in the GPSr. At the bottom of the search results pages is a button "Download Waypoints" for sending up to 20 on that page as a LOC file into your computer (the browser should ask you where you want the file or show you the location). This is not a gpx file (which is what your gps needs); so use Windows software like EasyGPS or GSAK to combine these into one database and then transfer all that as one GPX file into the GPSr. You will then see them on the map when you are in New Windsor and you will be able to geocache just like you do now.

 

Note that if the total number of geocaches that you would have in your gpsr is less than 500 then you could also just click the "send to gps" icon for each cache individually. It would take a bit of time, but ought to work. The problem is that this will create one file per geocache so you are limited to 500 rather than 2000.

 

thank you this is the answer i was looking for. i will give it a try. i have a mac so i will see if there is a mac version of easygps, thank you so much!

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