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Comparing Garmin eTrex10 and 20 - a few questions


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I have recently learned of geocaching and it sounds like loads of fun. We have only a basic cell phone and don't use it often and don't have a GPS in the car. So we are not very techno-savvy. We need to purchase our fist GPS and, in reading about the various units, have narrowed possibilities down to the Garmin eTrex10 and possibly the 20.

 

From what I can tell, the most obvious difference between the two is the #10 doesn't have an internal memory and one cannot download maps to it. Although it will download cache info from gc.com (which may be all we need as we won't be wanting to find any caches on hiking trails due to some disability) . The #20 has an internal memory, which I assume is where the maps would be housed. This feature could be used for regular travel, although paper maps have been adequate for us all our lives.

 

My question is for users of the eTrex10 - are you satisfied with it and its limitations? Do you feel you really NEED the extra maps. Is the limit of 50 routes and 1,000 waypoints a problem, or not?

 

Would you have forked out the extra bucks for the #20 if you had it to do over again?

 

Thank you for your help in this. We are excited to begin our geocaching experience (although, with a foot of snow everywhere right now, it's going to be a while before our first cache search)

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Have owned both - I bought the 10 first, and decided to get a 20 instead.

 

Originally bought the 10 for bicycling. Limitations on track and route points was not a problem, and a plain black track line marked with turns made a fine cue sheet.

 

But it really disappointed for geocaching. Although it can In theory hold a couple thousand caches, in practice it would get low memory errors with just a few hundred. That and the lack of decent maps made the upgrade to the 20 worthwhile.

Edited by user13371
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The maps are definitely worth it and good free ones are available online.

 

Why 100s/1000s of caches in a GPS at once? Convience. Rather than loading caches every time I go caching I load about once a month.

 

Also, the 1000 waypoints limit may include both caches and other waypoints - trailheads, parking, stages, your saved coords, etc.

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Just curious - why would one want several hundred/thousand caches in the GPS?

 

Say you're going on a vacation and know little about the area or what caches you'll want to hunt for while you're there. ("But we go on vacation to do other stuff, not to go Geocaching!"....wait and see about that 😜). It sure is nice to know you have ALL the caches in the area loaded on your GPS, so no matter where you find yourself it's easy to check to see if any caches are nearby.

 

Even if you're only caching around your home locale, it's still great to have the flexibility of knowing that all the caches in the area are available to you, rather than being tied to a short hand picked list

 

With Premium membership, using Pocket Queries, it's almost as easy to load 1,000 caches as it is to load one.

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Thanks for your replies and helping me figure this out.

 

ANOTHER QUESTION:

 

In the specs for these units is an indication of the number of "routes" and "waypoints"

 

I understand what a waypoint is, but could someone clarify what routes are, and why this might be something separate from the a waypoint. I'm thinking that this is a series of waypoints - is this correct? And how is this used when geocaching?

 

Bear in mind that I've never held a GPSr in my hand nor seen one in action. It's unfortunate that one has to make decisions in ignorance - but thanks to this forum, some of the fog has cleared.

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A route is a number of points joined together. As a walker I set up routes on my Etrex to follow when I'm out hiking. Bear in mind there are other uses for a GPS apart from geocaching :)

 

More info should you want it on routes/tracks here

 

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7B67ef9980-50c4-11dc-4ec8-000000000000%7D

 

Thank you, that was helpful.

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A route is a collection of straight line legs between waypoints, that leads to a final waypoint or destination. As you said a series of waypoints.

A track is where you or someone else actually walked or went and recorded it. A track is kind of like a more complex route. I don't think routes are really too use full for geocaching, but you can download tracks from Garmin adventures, and follow them to a cache if you want. But you would have to sort through the adventures to find a geo-cache as most adventures probably are not caches. Usually for geocaching all you need is the co-ordinates of where you want to go and you go there your own way.

There you go 3 replies seconds apart.

Edited by Forkeye
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A route is a collection of straight line legs between waypoints, that leads to a final waypoint or destination. As you said a series of waypoints.

A track is where you or someone else actually walked or went and recorded it. A track is kind of like a more complex route. I don't think routes are really too use full for geocaching, but you can download tracks from Garmin adventures, and follow them to a cache if you want. But you would have to sort through the adventures to find a geo-cache as most adventures probably are not caches. Usually for geocaching all you need is the co-ordinates of where you want to go and you go there your own way.

There you go 3 replies seconds apart.

 

That's helpful, and interesting about "adventures". I could see this being a fun thing to do apart from geocaching. It appears there's a whole world of techy activities that I was unaware of.

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A route wil bring you with indications from A > B > C if you have a routable map in the Gps, a track is a line on a screen you can follow on the screen ALWAYS, even without any map in the gps.

 

Still in these times there should not exist Gps models without an SD slot, if you buy a gps without SD possibilities your next will be with SD.

With all those free maps, in my opinion it's a must to buy WITH an Sd slot.

 

Be aware the Oregon 450 (discontinued) is on sale on the moment. This is a very nice model and does paperless caching.

Edited by splashy
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My original GPS didn't have maps (the original yellow Etrex), and I decided to upgrade to a mapping GPS (a Vista) after one too many occasions where I ended up the wrong side of a stream with the cache only feet away but requiring a long walk round to find a crossing.

 

Last year I lost my Vista and had to resort back to my old Etrex for a while, and I found it really hard going, and eventually bought the Etrex 30.

 

So I would say, yes the maps are definitely worth having if you can afford the extra. Decent OpenStreetMap maps can legally be obtained for free.

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My original GPS didn't have maps (the original yellow Etrex), and I decided to upgrade to a mapping GPS (a Vista) after one too many occasions where I ended up the wrong side of a stream with the cache only feet away but requiring a long walk round to find a crossing.

 

Last year I lost my Vista and had to resort back to my old Etrex for a while, and I found it really hard going, and eventually bought the Etrex 30.

 

So I would say, yes the maps are definitely worth having if you can afford the extra. Decent OpenStreetMap maps can legally be obtained for free.

 

Thank you. Your experience confirms our leaning toward the eTrex 20 so we can have maps.

 

Forkeye - thanks for telling me about the "adventures" .

 

We are retired and would like to take some short road trips, but, to be frank, I'm really tired of tourist destinations and shopping gift stores, and if I have to walk through another museum I'm going to scream.

 

So with geocaching and adventure routs, I can see some good times ahead with some purposeful trips.

 

PS: we did decide on having map capability and have ordered the eTrex 20 from Cabellas. We'll pick it up at the store next week - so we can take it out of the box and "feel" it before committing.

Edited by Ranger-Eyes
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Thanks, sussamb

 

Yes, it does seem very daunting. But I've been researching and reading on this forum and feel at least like I know a little something and am becoming familiar with the vocabulary.

 

We'll be experimenting with the unit when we get it because we are fair-weather people and it's still very much winter here. By the time milder temps are here, we should be more than ready for our first cache hunt. Actually, there are two near our home that really don't need a GPS since they are each in a small area and the hints are all we need.

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We are retired and would like to take some short road trips, but, to be frank, I'm really tired of tourist destinations and shopping gift stores, and if I have to walk through another museum I'm going to scream.

 

Then you should really love Geocaching. One of the great things about this game is getting away from the tourist traps and finding all the neat little hidden treasures that only the locals know about👍. Even in your own home town I guarantee you'll find a few neat things like little parks and historic sites that you never knew about even though you've lived there all your life 😊

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My question is for users of the eTrex10 - are you satisfied with it and its limitations? Do you feel you really NEED the extra maps. Is the limit of 50 routes and 1,000 waypoints a problem, or not?

 

I own a Etrex 10 and actually returned my Etrex 20. I use it with my Automobile GPS (and now my smartphone) so I don't need mapping so much on my unit. It will hold more then 1,000 geocaches but starts to hiccup with "low memory" errors when I put in a lot of geocaches. Since I have found only 2,000 caches in 11 years, geocache memory isn't an issue with me.

 

I returned my Etrex 20 because my odometer and other settings like average MPH were very flawed. I could have had a bad unit. My Etrex 10 hasn't had those problems. I love how my Etrex 10 looks in the sunlight. It has become my default geocaching unit as my Dakota 10 screen is dying and scratched.

 

Now in saying that, for most people, I would recommend the 50 bucks or so more and get a 20. Just a lot more features for the money. 5,000 cache limit, mapping, more bells and whistles, much quicker loading off the USB cable then the Etrex 10 and other things.

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