Bought new etrex 30x now I'm stupid

[+n2AZ]

I have finally upgraded my magellin explorist 210 with the garmin etrex 30x. So I know how to use this site and download lists and queries but I'm confused about the newer capacity and file format on the etrex30x.

My old gps would only take .gs files of no more than 200 caches so I had all these queries by zip codes and I would convert the gpx to gs with easygps then choose which geocache file I was nearest to on the old gps receiver. Whenever I had found a few or was planning an outing, I would hook up the gps to my computer and delete the .gs files off the gps and replace them with the new ones converted off this site.

Now with my new machine, I can have a file of up to 2000 caches. This covers all of what I do so I have one query. But, given that I can filter out found caches on the new machine there's no reason to filter them in my pocket query anymore? But it looks like I should still filter for enabled?

Then, when new caches are added on this site, how do I update the gpx file I already have in the garmin etrex30x??? I can't really delete it cuz garmin pulls all the files into it's current.gpx file and, if I delete that, I'll delete any waypoints I've put in there I think including my home. If I just delete the gpx file and put the new one on there, will that replace the ones the garmin has pulled into current,gpx or will it make duplicates?

I have a garmin nuvi for my car and it has a menu item to clear all waypoints then I put a new file on that but this etrex30x doesn't seem to have that???

I don't know if I need to clear anything out of the etrex before putting a newer version of my pocket query in.

Really hard making the change to this new unit. I hope to get over this hump soon!

 

 

 

 

 

[+HHL]

The 2000 limit is for Waypoints only. Geocaches and Pois are unlimited.
Updating Gpx files: Delete the old ones. Upload the new ones.

Hans

[+StefandD]

Garmin doesn't put all the new files into it's current.gpx file. The current.gpx file is for recorded tracks which aren't saved yet.

Your eTrex does have a menu option to delete waypoints, it's called Waypoint Manager. Only geocaches cannot be removed in the unit itself, so you have to hook it onto your PC/Mac. Caches are stored in the \Garmin\GPX\ folder, so if you want to delete old geocaches, navigate to that folder and delete the appropriate files. Be aware that waypoints and tracks are also stored in that folder.

[+n2AZ]

Thanks that helps a lot. That current.gpx file made me nervous cuz it is a bit of a pain on the nuvi and has to be cleared on the unit.

So far, as I've been trying to set up the new unit, I've been deleting the Current/current.gpx file. I will try to not do that and see how it goes.

Now I'm seeing I can only query for 1k caches at a time so I will have to have a few separate queries instead of one.

If I can just delete the gpx files from geocaching and replace them with new ones (like I did with the old .gs files) and not worry about the current.gpx file then I'm feeling MUCH better about the new machine!

[+StefandD]

Another tip I forgot to mention: after you deleted one or more GPX files, be sure to start up your eTrex at least once before you put new file(s) onto it. This allows the unit to purge the deleted caches from its internal memory. Sometimes, especially when file names are the same as the old ones, Garmins fail to detect a difference and keep showing the old caches, ignoring the new ones.

[+noncentric]

On 3/25/2018 at 0:05 AM, HHL said:

The 2000 limit is for Waypoints only. Geocaches and Pois are unlimited.

Geocaches are not 'unlimited' on the eTrex series. The 30 had a limit of 5000 caches, and I believe the 30x has the same limit. If you load more than 5k on the device, then the GPSr will display a message on the screen during startup to tell you that you've exceeded the limit.

It doesn't matter if it's 5 .gpx files that contain 1000 caches each or 100 .gpx files containing 50 caches each.

 

On 3/25/2018 at 10:51 AM, StefandD said:

Another tip I forgot to mention: after you deleted one or more GPX files, be sure to start up your eTrex at least once before you put new file(s) onto it. This allows the unit to purge the deleted caches from its internal memory. Sometimes, especially when file names are the same as the old ones, Garmins fail to detect a difference and keep showing the old caches, ignoring the new ones.

This is a great tip. When I "refresh" caches to my eTrex 20, I will first delete the .gpx files while connected to the computer, then disconnect and turn on the GPSr, then reconnect the GPSr and copy the new .gpx files to it.  Following this process has eliminated instances of missing caches that I'd had on the device before.

[+HHL]

1 hour ago, noncentric said:

Geocaches are not 'unlimited' on the eTrex series. [...]

Right. I confused the eTrex 30x with the eTrex touch series (which has unlimited geocaches).

Hans

Edited March 27, 2018 by HHL
corrected series name

[+noncentric]

17 minutes ago, HHL said:

1 hour ago, noncentric said:

Geocaches are not 'unlimited' on the eTrex series. [...]

Right. I confused the eTrex 30x with the eTrex 30 touch (which has unlimited geocaches).

You mean the eTrex Touch 35, not 30.

Yep, that 35 comes with the 250k pre-loaded and then let's the user load a ton of geocaches. The Touch 25 shares the same capacity.

[+n2AZ]

That is a good tip to delete the obsolete .gpx files and reboot it before putting new ones on. I am following that procedure and it's very clean

I thought a touch screen on a gps would be terrible but now I'm kinda wishing I would have given it a chance!

I won't put anymore than 2k caches total on this machine cuz I read somewhere a person put more on it and bricked it and had quite a bit of trouble getting back into a working state. It's too hard to sort through so many out in the field anyway.

Now I wish there was some way to lock the receiver in compass mode. I keep having to hit back and choose compass and I'm never going to use the tiny, dark screen in map mode when I have 2 large, bright easy to read and follow car navigation systems.

I did find 25 geocaches with the etrex30x today which is a personal record for me so I've accomplished something....

It's great to finally leave that .gs file type behind! I don't miss it. .gpx ftw.