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GPSMAP64 Help


mikeamykyle

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For Christmas I received a GPSMAP64 to replace my Etrex which has seen better days.  However, I'm struggling to use this thing and need help.  So when I go out geocaching, i will just download the 10 or so caches i want to find onto my old Etrex, send the caches to basecamp then load them onto the GPS.  I then would hit "Find" and go out and have fun.  The 64 unit is not that easy for me.  I'm 100% sure it's user error, but here are my questions:

 

1.  It comes loaded with these 250,000 caches, most of which that are near me I've either found or they don't exist anymore.  So these are kind of useless.  Should I delete them?  Is there a way to delete them?  When i've tried to load caches onto the devise and I click on the Geocache button, I only see these preloaded ones.  

 

2.  What is the best way to load caches to the GPSMAP64?  (I use a MAC).  Should I download them to Basecamp then drag them to the 64, similar to what I've done with the old Etrex?  Should I just drag them straight to the GPS unit in "Finder" on the mac?  

 

3.  How do I find the caches that I've downloaded?  Where is the "Find" button?  Like I said  before, I click on Geocaches and there are the 250,000 caches that I don't want to see.  Where are the few that I just downloaded??

 

4.  How come when I plug the 64 into my Mac, all that I get is the word Garmin and a connected symbol, but nothing else?  Is this normal?  Can I load caches when this is up?

 

Thank you in advance for any help and suggestions.  I'm close to giving up on this unit and selling it for pennies on the dollar and just getting another erred.

Mike

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16 minutes ago, mikeamykyle said:

For Christmas I received a GPSMAP64 to replace my Etrex which has seen better days.  However, I'm struggling to use this thing and need help.  So when I go out geocaching, i will just download the 10 or so caches i want to find onto my old Etrex, send the caches to basecamp then load them onto the GPS.  I then would hit "Find" and go out and have fun.  The 64 unit is not that easy for me.  I'm 100% sure it's user error, but here are my questions:

 

1.  It comes loaded with these 250,000 caches, most of which that are near me I've either found or they don't exist anymore.  So these are kind of useless.  Should I delete them?  Is there a way to delete them?  When i've tried to load caches onto the devise and I click on the Geocache button, I only see these preloaded ones.  

 

 

1. Either A. Delete or B. Rename the 'preload.ggz' file in the /Garmin/GGZ/ directory on your GPSMAP. If renaming, just rename the '.ggz' suffix to '.old' or something similar. The next power on event will require some time while the GPSr purges all those records from internal memory, so be patient!

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20 minutes ago, mikeamykyle said:

For Christmas I received a GPSMAP64 to replace my Etrex which has seen better days.  However, I'm struggling to use this thing and need help.  So when I go out geocaching, i will just download the 10 or so caches i want to find onto my old Etrex, send the caches to basecamp then load them onto the GPS.  I then would hit "Find" and go out and have fun.  The 64 unit is not that easy for me.  I'm 100% sure it's user error, but here are my questions:  

 

2.  What is the best way to load caches to the GPSMAP64?  (I use a MAC).  Should I download them to Basecamp then drag them to the 64, similar to what I've done with the old Etrex?  Should I just drag them straight to the GPS unit in "Finder" on the mac?  

 

2. Easiest method is to download the '.gpx' files from Geocaching.com to your MAC and then copy them directly to the /Garmin/GPX/ directory on your GPSMAP.

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22 minutes ago, mikeamykyle said:

For Christmas I received a GPSMAP64 to replace my Etrex which has seen better days.  However, I'm struggling to use this thing and need help.  So when I go out geocaching, i will just download the 10 or so caches i want to find onto my old Etrex, send the caches to basecamp then load them onto the GPS.  I then would hit "Find" and go out and have fun.  The 64 unit is not that easy for me.  I'm 100% sure it's user error, but here are my questions:

 

3.  How do I find the caches that I've downloaded?  Where is the "Find" button?  Like I said  before, I click on Geocaches and there are the 250,000 caches that I don't want to see.  Where are the few that I just downloaded??

 

3. The Garmin GPSMAP will always show the closest geocaches to your current location (within ~100 mile radius) in the geocache list (by default). If you remove or rename the 'preload.ggz' file as mentioned in #1 above, your newly loaded geocaches should show up here, provided the are within 100 mile radius of the current location, and provided you have correctly copied the '.gpx' files to the /Garmin/GPX/ directory as mentioned in #2 above.

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1. Yes, you can delete them. You'll find them in the /Garmin/GGZ folder. Just delete the file in there and we'll start anew.

2. The best way to load caches to the 64 is to simply save GPX files directly to the device. You never specified what eTrex model you used before, but I'm guessing it was one of the Legend or Vista models (that predate paperless caching - not the eTrex 10, 20, or 30). These models didn't work well with GPX files directly, so you went through basecamp to make the data compatible with the unit. With the 64, there's no need to use Basecamp for geocaches. Basecamp is great for managing waypoints, tracks, and routes, but not geocaches.

If you're still all about loading  up to 10 geocaches to go have fun, simply use the "Download GPX" link on the cache page and save the file to the /Garmin/GPX/ folder on your device's drive. Keep in mind that there is a maximum number of GPX files that your device will read, I think it's 2000, so you'll want to delete these files as you find them so that you don't reach this limit. You can also use the "Send to Garmin" feature from the new map, which requires that you have Garmin Express installed, but will essentially do the same thing as manually saving the file to the GPX folder.

If you're interested in bulk loading caches, you have two options. Pocket Queries let you create automated searches based on desired criteria. For example, you might create a query that grabs all caches that you have not found in a 20 mile radius from your home, and it will return results with up to 100 caches that match. Pocket queries are very powerful, but useful if you like having all caches of a certain criteria in a particular area. If you prefer to manually pick and choose your hunt, bookmark lists are also helpful. You can then send the list to your GPS in bulk using "Send to Garmin" or by building a pocket query from that list. I use PQs to send me all unfound and unowned caches that are enabled in my home area, except for mystery/Unknown caches. I have bookmark for all mystery caches that I have solved that gets sent with another PQ. 

Pocket queries return a Zip file with two GPX files within - one that holds the caches, and another that holds associated waypoints such as parking areas, etc. so you'll have to unzip these files before installing them on your device.

Finally, if you really like keeping a large collection of caches, there are cache management programs. For mac, iCaching works great. I use it to manage caches in my wider region, as well as caches for places that I'll be visiting for vacations and other trips. For my weekly updates, I have 10 pocket queries that run and import into iCaching. I then have a folder filtering caches that I have not found in a 120 mile radius from my home location. Areas not covered by the 10 PQs I import with either additional PQ's on other days, or with some API searches. Each week, I can update the results of the 10 PQ's, and update the rest via the API, and send a total of ~ 8000 geocaches to my device in a single file. Do I really need that many caches? no. But 120 miles covers an area that I might decide to drive to on a whim, and so the caches are there just in case I head anywhere in that range.

 

3. Go to the geocaching "app" and you can get a list of the caches on your device. They'll be displayed either by distance from your current location, or by name. It may be easier once you delete that GGZ file.

 

4. These new GPS devices mount as mass storage drives allowing you to load/unload data directly. The drive name is defaulted to "Garmin." Open that up and there is a folder called "Garmin," and in that, all the directories containing the data on your device. The folder you will be using most is the GPX folder, and the GGZ folder if you use iCaching to save your set of caches as a GGZ file (good if you want to keep 8000 caches on your device like me). 

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25 minutes ago, mikeamykyle said:

For Christmas I received a GPSMAP64 to replace my Etrex which has seen better days.  However, I'm struggling to use this thing and need help.  So when I go out geocaching, i will just download the 10 or so caches i want to find onto my old Etrex, send the caches to basecamp then load them onto the GPS.  I then would hit "Find" and go out and have fun.  The 64 unit is not that easy for me.  I'm 100% sure it's user error, but here are my questions:

 

4.  How come when I plug the 64 into my Mac, all that I get is the word Garmin and a connected symbol, but nothing else?  Is this normal?  Can I load caches when this is up?

 

 

4. This is an indication that the unit is in what is referred to as 'Mass Storage Mode', and should be visible as a removable drive on your Mac (or PC). This is perfectly normal, and this is when you will add/remove data from the GPSr.

 

NOTE: Remember to always 'empty the trash' on your MAC before you disconnect the GPSr if you have deleted any file on the GPSr, or they will not be removed and may cause you issues later....

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FWIW

I would also recommend having a micro SD CARD inserted in the unit , 4-8gb is usually ok

Setup the card with same folders as main device eg GARMIN/Gpx. Etc

In mass storage mode the card will appear as a separate folder

I always put my Pq and third party OSM maps on the card

Why?

Having gone through device versions 60-66  there are odd occasions when one adds a corrupt file , say a PQ, And the whole device freezes and / or bricks

I have found that if this happens,  card removal then reboot without generally fixes the problem. The bad file can easily be removed. Then return SD card as before

If the bad file is on the main unit you can be stuck 

Call it an insurance policy/action

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3 hours ago, mikeD said:

FWIW

I would also recommend having a micro SD CARD inserted in the unit , 4-8gb is usually ok

Setup the card with same folders as main device eg GARMIN/Gpx. Etc

In mass storage mode the card will appear as a separate folder

I always put my Pq and third party OSM maps on the card

Why?

Having gone through device versions 60-66  there are odd occasions when one adds a corrupt file , say a PQ, And the whole device freezes and / or bricks

I have found that if this happens,  card removal then reboot without generally fixes the problem. The bad file can easily be removed. Then return SD card as before

If the bad file is on the main unit you can be stuck 

Call it an insurance policy/action

 

I agree, and like to keep all my extra data on a USD card, reserving the GPSr memory for Garmin OE mapping and track log data etc.

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First let me say thank you for all the great information!!  Very appreciated.  I made great progress.  Was able to get rid of the pre-loaded caches, and loaded some using the save to the Garmin / GPX file.  Is there a way to delete caches from the GPS itself, just like with my old Etrex (Venture)?  I've played around and could not find a way to do this.  I went into Finder on the MAC and deleted from the GPX file.  Also, was able to use Basecamp to load and delete the caches.  Is this just the way it is?

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Unfortunately, that's the way it is. On your old eTrex, geocaches were simply just another type of waypoint. In the modern GPS units, geocaches are treated as their own class of waypoints, which is why they have their own interface to work with. I'm not entirely sure why Garmin chose to exclude the ability to delete geocaches directly from the device, but since the 64 can handle unlimited geocaches, deleting found caches isn't a huge concern. You can simply filter them out.

You can use Basecamp to delete geocaches, but it's just as well to delete or overwrite the files directly from Finder. I would discourage you from using Basecamp to load geocaches as the program writes the geocaches in Garmin's own format which causes some minor issues in how the information is displayed on the GPS. 

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