Garmin Montana 680t issue

[+Eyedoc]

I own a Garmin Montana 680t. I've loaded about 2500 caches onto it via creating PQ's on the GC website, loading those into Garmin's Basecamp program on my MacBook Pro.  I've done the same method for years with my old Montana 650 that unfortunately died and I didn't want to invest the $ to repair, but rather upgrade.

 

I've noticed that when I scroll thru the list of geocaches on the unit the device freezes after maybe 20-30 scrolls with either the down arrow or finger flicks (it is a touch screen model). The whole unit becomes inoperable and the only way to shut it down is to remove the battery and replace and boot up. Garmin replaced the unit with a new one after I complained and it does the same thing.

 

I called them to ask for insight and all I get is that it maybe a GPX file that is corrupt.  They asked me to zip the files I recently uploaded and email it to them, but beyond that they have no solution.  Sounds like they are passing the buck.

 

They also stated to use Garmin Express to upload the caches instead. I find if I do that I get too much extraneous data in addition to the cache icons on the map--parking coords and blue flags among them which make for a cluttered map.

 

Anyone else having this problem?

 

Andrew

aka Eyedoc

[+Atlas Cached]

Yes.

 

Just copy the unzipped *.gpx from your PQ directly to the Garmin/GPX directory. Remember there are limits to the total number of gpx files on the device, so remo e any that you no longer need.

 

No need to use BaseCamp or Garmin Express.

[+Mineral2]

So... some insight.

 

1. Don't bother loading your pocket queries into Basecamp first. Just throw them directly on the GPS (unzipped of course) in the GPX folder. Basecamp includes its own Garmin gpx header tags for geocaches rather than Groundspeak's and it results in some missing information from the description. It's not the end of the world, but it's an unnecessary step that you're taking. The PQ contains two GPX files, one for the geocaches, and one for the waypoints. If you don't want the extra waypoints, just don't load the file that ends in -wpts.gpx

2. Number 1 is more just a formality. It's not the cause of your problem, which is likely some special characters that the GPS doesn't read well. Those characters could be written poorly by Basecamp too and maybe loading the GPX files directly will solve your problem. But if not, GSAK has an option, on export, to ensure that all characters are compatible with the GPS. Since GSAK is now free, it's worth installing and playing around with, unless you have a MAC. It's not really Mac compatible.

[+lee737]

On 7/4/2019 at 11:57 AM, Atlas Cached said:

Yes.

 

Just copy the unzipped *.gpx from your PQ directly to the Garmin/GPX directory. Remember there are limits to the total number of gpx files on the device, so remo e any that you no longer need.

 

No need to use BaseCamp or Garmin Express.

Do you know what that limit is??

[+Atlas Cached]

10 hours ago, lee737 said:

Do you know what that limit is??

See GPSrChive