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Garmin Oregon 650T For Dummies?!?!?!


infiniteMPG

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Many, many moons ago we got an eTrex for geocaching and got a handle on it pretty well and then upgraded to a MAP60C, a little learning curve but quickly up to speed. Then upgraded to a MAP60CSx and no learning curve, got the handle of interfacing with Mapsource and GSAK, could do it blindfolded. Then Santa was super nice to me (I think) and found an Oregon 650T under the tree.... and pretty much lost in the woods. Got introduced to GSAK GarminExport.gsk macro via the GSAK forums and "thought" I was getting the hang of that but not really.

 

Went to a caching event today and luckily was just mentoring my son so not really caching for myself. He was using my MAP60C, I was hauling my Oregon 650T and my MAP60CSx. Took forever to get my found caches to display on the 650T and kept loosing them and having to refilter to get them back. The MAP60CSx, flawless. I was marking all the caches we found on both but when we got home, I spent 20 minutes and STILL cannot figure out how to read the the caches I marked found with the 650T on my computer. Used Mapsource, Basecamp and GSAK, tried opening all the GGZ and GPX files, searched all around. Ended up shelving the 650T and using the data from my trusty ol' MAP60CSx :(

 

Sorry for the long intro, but my question is, where can I go to learn the simplest way to load caches on the 650T, read them back off, and keep track of everything? As in the post title, where is Garmin Oregon 650T For Dummies?!?!?!

 

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Edited by infiniteMPG
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Many, many thanks for the info and I'll be checking out all those links (hopefully today). I was told to use the GGZ format for the geocaches (from the GSAK forums) because of some size limitations with GPX files. But dealing with GGZ files in the computer world is a tough nut to crack. Sounds like that was my first wrong turn and the rest was running down the wrong fork in the road.

 

Time to punt and start over B)

Thanks again!

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Continue to use the Macro that you are using and export the caches as a GGZ file into your Garmin. Don't let this confuse you, its just the same as a GPX file with more compression.

 

Make sure your dashboard is set to Geocaching.

 

After that, don't mess with the filters. Make sure that all types are slected, along with all Difficulty, Terrain and Awesomeness.

 

Choose the Found and DNF status, do not choose Found

 

Choose all cache sizes.

 

You should now be good to go.

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The Oregon 6xx Wiki might be a good resource

 

When I click on OREGON on the wiki page I get this message :

 

Subscription Expired

This wiki's subscription has expired. The wiki will be reactivated once one of the wiki organizers renews the wiki's subscription. For more information, please visit this blog post.

 

The link to the Oregon on that page may have for previous models. The menu and all the pages for the 6xx work fine for me.

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Thought I was getting a handle on things but today it went downhill fast. I was using a GPX file rather than a GGZ file and seemed to be doing good. Actually combined a bunch of geocaches and waypoints into a single GPX file with 3,378 waypoints. Went out today about ten miles from my home, was walking around a nice preserve I knew had several caches I hadn't found so pulled out the 650T and guess what.... no geocaches showed up anywhere near me. Ack!!! Found one but had to use the GC app on my phone. Also, everything on the 650T was c-r-e-e-p-i-n-g and I mean SUPER slow, hit a screen button and 5 seconds later it responds. Powered it off and back on, still super super slow. Got home and plugged the 650T into my PC, pulled the GPX file into MapSource and guess what, all the geocaches showed up including the ones that DIDN'T show when I was hiking.

 

So now why didn't the geocaches show up? Is there a limit to what the 650T can handle in a GPX file? I had intended on loading it up with all the geocaches around the area we usally trek around in, but that's more than double what I already have on there. If we're limited to 500 or something like our old MAP60CSx, I'm starting to get less and less confidence in the 650T. And why was it super super s-l-o-w????

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Sounds like the old story ...

 

If the file is on a card, remove the card, reboot the GPS, then switch it off, reinsert the card and reboot ... this causes it to do a fresh index of the card and then the caches should show.

 

If they were on the device then remove the .gpx file rather than the card, and reload the file after you've rebooted and switched off the GPS.

That's what I was thinking too sussamb. As common as the corrupt index problem is, and on multiple models of Garmin handhelds, I wish they would just add a "Rebuild index" selection on the reset menu. But then I suppose that would be an acknowledgment by Garmin that the corrupt index issue exists, and we couldn't have that!
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Removed the GPX file from the Garmin GPX folder, disconnected the GPSr, powered it on and let it rebuild, powered it off, plugged it back in and copied the file back. Disconnected it, powered it on and saw the unfound geocaches and seemed to be responding a lot faster. Sooooo, I will assume all is well but will check in the wild again. But thank you VERY MUCH for the help. Every time I reach the point of total frustration someone throws me some knowledge and pulls me back from the edge.

 

Now the question that came out of that exercise.... how many geocaches/waypoints can be or should be in a single GPX file? And is it okay to just have ALL the geocaches showing at once or should they be broken up into separate GPX files? And if they are broken up into separate GPX files can you pick which it displays at any one time? Or am I asking too many questions? <don't answer that last one>

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If you switched back to GPX, remember to nuke your GGZ files.

This is good advice in most cases, to prevent the possibility of the same cache being in both a GGZ and GPX file. However, having more than one record for a cache (one in a GGZ file and one in a GPX file) won't do any harm, there's just no straightforward way to know which version of the information the unit will actually use if the two records have different data.

 

However, GGZ and GPX files get along together perfectly well on the unit. I've had combinations of both in my unit many times and never ran into any problems because of it.

 

--Larry

Edited by larryc43230
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Make sure your dashboard is set to Geocaching.

 

After that, don't mess with the filters. Make sure that all types are slected, along with all Difficulty, Terrain and Awesomeness.

 

Choose the Found and DNF status, do not choose Found

 

Choose all cache sizes.

 

You should now be good to go.

I have the geocaching dashboard up but can't find where to select all types, found, caches sizes - where (exactly!) is that on my 600?

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