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60c/60cs Down And Dirty, How Does Everybody Feel?


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I would like to know everyones opinion (Good or Bad) on the new garmins, 60c/cs.

I am looking very strongly at getting one, but would like to know what everyone thinks. I know this topic has been discused in brief, but I am dedicating this topic on the pros and cons. Let me know what you guys and gals think.. Thanks

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I LOVE my 60C. It is the first 'real' GPSr that I have owned, so I am sorta spoiled I think. Previously I used an old magellan pioneer.

The only problems I have had with the 60 are the freezing while routing problem. I have not upgraded the firmware though!!! the problems I have had should all be fixed in the newest firmware. The autorouting is great. I could NOT imagine a GPS with out it. Bluecharts look nice on it, as do topo maps. Great all around unit! As for waiting for the 76's. You really need to hold one in your hand to tell the difference. Big, clunky, buttons at the top. It is all up to opinion, and I do have small hands....

 

Great unit!!

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For what it is,a handheld,it's the cat's meow. The only things I don't like now is that it lays down more than twice the trackpoints the 76S did. That did a good job with track points on auto. Also some of the vertical trip computer info is not available in the trip computer page as the 76S had. The 76S had all vertical trip computer data available in the trip computer page as well as the data boxs in the other pages. Not so with the 60CS.

 

I like the usb,color and the active trackline that can be highlighted to see better in dim or hard to read conditions.

 

The feel of it and size is good. The buttons are too small for me with big hands but what the heck. I'm not quite sure about the antenna port cover it seems to always be in the way trying to get the jack in.

 

I've had no issues yet with the battery compartment holders.

 

Capt.

 

So I give it a big thumbs up and hope they improve the software in fixes to what the 76S did in the above respects.

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I have not geocached with my previous unit (GPS-III), but I intend to start with my new GPS60CS. It is a fantastic upgrade from my GPS-III. The screen is really close to perfect. The software seems to be well thought out and easy to navigate, although I have yet to really put it through its paces.

 

The unit is very satisfying in the hand. Satisfies the creak test and as a whole seems very tough and durable. The unit feels quality.

 

It is faster aquiring then my GPS-III, but I have yet to compare accuracy.

 

Overall, after two days with it, I am seriously impressed. I had initially upgraded to a Magellan Platinum, but returned it when I ran into the 4 region issue with the maps. I was torn wether to return it as it seemed like a nice unit, but in the end I made the plunge, returned the platinum and got my 60CS.

 

I am VERY happy that I returned the Magellan. The color screen is all that and a bag of chips. I should have learned my lesson when I went to a color Palm. Once you go color, you never go back.

 

Now, I can't wait to go and get my first cache...

 

Cheers.

 

Sgt D

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I really love the 60cs. The autorouting, color screen, increased memory, usb port, antenna, size, and geocaching mode are all great. I used a legend for 2 years and was a great gpsr also, but the 60cs takes it to a whole new level. Make sure you get City Select in order to make full use of the autorouting.

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:( I just upgraded to a 60cs from the gps40 and its awsome.When I got it I decided to start caching and although Ive only done three it put me within a foot of all three and that was inluding a walk down a stream bed covered with trees and heavy folage.I never lost reception once.Two thumbs up!!!!!!!
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I love my 60CS.

 

The only complaint is when I put a tide station as a calendar entry and select that tide station, it forecast tides for the current date versus the calendar date. This is a pain since I use the calendar functions to plan fishing and hunting trips, but one I expect Garmin will fix soon.

 

I have also had the calendar functions "lock-up" the GPS. Again, it is a pain, but doesn't make me in any way regret the money I spent on the unit.

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Well, I love my 60CS too. BUT, I really really would like more memory. I know 56 megs is a great increase from earlier GPSr's, but I just is not enough for me, in the DC area. I can get DC, VA, most of MD, most of WV, but, if I go on a trip a state or two away, I have to download a new mapset. I think the memory of the 76CS would make it quite desirable. Actually, frankly, 10 times the memory (about 512 megs) as the 60CS is what I'd like. So, when Garmin does that, or, better, when it allows SD cards, I'll get a new one. For now, the 56 megs is semi ok, and I'm glad I did not wait for the 76CS. At least for now I'm glad. And, yes, get City Select.

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I've been caching nearly every day for a bit over a month with my new 60c. I'm very happy with it. There are a ton of positive things I like with very few downsides. Some comparison comments:

 

- Reception doesn't really seem better, or the end result any more accurate, than my GPS III+

 

- The extra memory is great and the much faster speed is always noticeable. Very, very nice.

 

- 2 AA batteries vs. 4

 

- Color display is more useful that I had anticipated

 

- A couple of days ago mine developed the dreaded "unexpected shutoff" from the batteries not being held in place tightly enough. I had no problems until this suddenly manifested. I very, very carefully used the Garmin-suggested method of stretching the contacts slightly and it's been flawless since then. I am concerned that since the problem took a good while to appear, it may be that the flimsy contacts are so weak that the problem could return again. Time will tell.

 

- Easy interface, not much of a learning curve after the III+

 

Other than the battery issue, I'm completely happy with the upgrade, and I'd do it all over again as I have confidence that I can solve the battery problem if it returns.

Edited by Team Nazgul
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- A couple of days ago mine developed the dreaded "unexpected shutoff" from the batteries not being held in place tightly enough. I had no problems until this suddenly manifested. I very, very carefully used the Garmin-suggested method of stretching the contacts slightly and it's been flawless since then. I am concerned that since the problem took a good while to appear, it may be that the flimsy contacts are so weak that the problem could return again. Time will tell.

Where did you learn about this Garmin-suggested method? My 60CS is on order and I'm so impatient I might pee myself. I don't think I've wanted a new toy like this since I wanted a new matchbox car as a kid. I played with a 60C the other day at a local REI and I have to say it's the coolest GPS I have ever seen. The 76C is very cool on paper but in reality is quite clunky IMO.

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For the battery problem, put an index card BETWEEN the two batteries. That or use bigger batteries... seriously, there are slight variations in AA battery size between brands. I just use the index card method and hasn't had a problem no matter how hard I knock the unit.

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I've had my 60c for about 2 weeks now and love it. Get's me right on the geocache every time. The display is the best I've seen on a GPS. You will not be disapointed with the purchase of one of these. The memory is sufficient changing mapsets for trips to different areas doesn't take very long at all if you need too thanks to the USB connection. Great unit!

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I have had mine for a couple of weeks. I upgraded from an etrex Summit. I love the maps and the geocaching mode. The antenna is a lot more sensitive than my old summit was. I get much better reception. My only wish is for more memory. Living in Texas I would love to get the entire state but that is not the case. For now I will just have to plan ahead and use another mapset if I am going to a very different part of the state. I do have both topo and city select maps installed.

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I have had mine for a couple of weeks. I upgraded from an etrex Summit. I love the maps and the geocaching mode. The antenna is a lot more sensitive than my old summit was. I get much better reception. My only wish is for more memory. Living in Texas I would love to get the entire state but that is not the case. For now I will just have to plan ahead and use another mapset if I am going to a very different part of the state. I do have both topo and city select maps installed.

Why not use CitySelect for just the large cities and then a different mapset for everything else. From what I have seen CitySelect eats up about 3x the memory as Topo and Roads and Recreation.

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I have had mine for a couple of weeks.  I upgraded from an etrex Summit.  I love the maps and the geocaching mode.  The antenna is a lot more sensitive than my old summit was.  I get much better reception.  My only wish is for more memory.  Living in Texas I would love to get the entire state but that is not the case.  For now I will just have to plan ahead and use another mapset if I am going to a very different part of the state.  I do have both topo and city select maps installed.

Why not use CitySelect for just the large cities and then a different mapset for everything else. From what I have seen CitySelect eats up about 3x the memory as Topo and Roads and Recreation.

And to answer this question, that would be fine, except with metroguide, topo and all others besides city select, you dont have autorouting...

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I have had mine for a couple of weeks.  I upgraded from an etrex Summit.  I love the maps and the geocaching mode.  The antenna is a lot more sensitive than my old summit was.  I get much better reception.  My only wish is for more memory.  Living in Texas I would love to get the entire state but that is not the case.  For now I will just have to plan ahead and use another mapset if I am going to a very different part of the state.  I do have both topo and city select maps installed.

Why not use CitySelect for just the large cities and then a different mapset for everything else. From what I have seen CitySelect eats up about 3x the memory as Topo and Roads and Recreation.

And to answer this question, that would be fine, except with metroguide, topo and all others besides city select, you dont have autorouting...

The base map is suppose to have autorouting. So you can autoroute around a city and find the necessary places and still autoroute between cities just without the special stuff. You also then have your topo maps and what not when you want them.

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B) I've been using my 60C for caching and navigating about a month and a half and I absolutely love it!!

 

I, too, was quite anxious to receive it through the mail. As luck and not-so-good seller research would have it, I bought one through eBay from a fraudulent seller. That episode added about six weeks on to the original delivery time while I settled all the paperwork and purchased a second one from a reputable dealer. Thank goodness for PayPal's fraud policy!

 

One thing I wanted to mention is the 60C's GREAT battery life. I upgraded from a Legend (which I still own and like very much). I compared the two units by starting out the day with a new, fully-charged set of 2100 mah NIMH batteries in both. The Legend only had about 1/2 to 2/3 the battery longevity of the 60C. The batteries last so good in the 60C that I actually run a whole day of caching without even turning it off or plugging it into the 12V. car adapter. Last month, I went from sunrise to sunset with the unit on all the time, and still had one "bar" of charge showing on the battery life indicator at the end of the day. That was with the WAAS enabled, but not using the backlight at all.

 

I'm not familiar with how well other units do on battery life, but I think the battery life on the 60C is fantastic and well worth mention.

 

Hope this helps a little....

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Yes the battery life is amazing. I bought a car adapter with it (actually came in the auto kit) but I've only used it once just to test to see if/how it works. I've been running on 1700mAh battery. I'll probably upgrade to larger (2100mAh+) cells soon but right now there doesn't seem to be a need.

 

I think the main reason why it has such great battery life is because of its screen. I hardly ever have to use the backlight unless I'm in complete darkness. Other GPS/PDA/cellphone screens are horrible in the sun or clouds if you don't turn on the backlight.

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I have both the 60C and the 60CS and I love both units. But the thing that bugs me the most about the 60CS is the tracklog and how it gets filled with up so fast. Even when the tracklog's update interval is set to "Least often", it will fill up in (I'm guessing) about 5-6 hours...and that's just sitting in my room, not even moving and just recording the barometric pressure. My Vista can sit for literally days in the same situation, just recording the barometric pressure before it gets full. I feel something is definitely buggy with the tracklog on the 60CS. For this reason, I drive with the 60C...I make use of my tracklogs after a trip and it does me no good if the tracklog is full after only a couple of hours.

Edited by SergZak
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If you want the track log to fill up much much slower, change the elevation setting: I think its either variable or whatever elevation. One records all the elevation tracklog data and information and uses the tracklog memory which fills that up faster. Anyways, just saying you can mess wit it.

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If you want the track log to fill up much much slower, change the elevation setting: I think its either variable or whatever elevation.  One records all the elevation tracklog data and information and uses the tracklog memory which fills that up faster.  Anyways, just saying you can mess wit it.

I can mess with it but that don't mean it'll fix it :unsure:. On my unit, setting the barometer mode (main menu/setup/altimeter) from "variable elevation" to "fixed elevation" turns the tracklog off automatically, even if it was previously on. When "fixed elevation" is set, you can not go back and enable the tracklog at all. How about you other 60CS owners out there...are you seeing the same thing with the tracklog?

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If you want the track log to fill up much much slower, change the elevation setting: I think its either variable or whatever elevation.  One records all the elevation tracklog data and information and uses the tracklog memory which fills that up faster.  Anyways, just saying you can mess wit it.

I can mess with it but that don't mean it'll fix it :unsure:. On my unit, setting the barometer mode (main menu/setup/altimeter) from "variable elevation" to "fixed elevation" turns the tracklog off automatically, even if it was previously on. When "fixed elevation" is set, you can not go back and enable the tracklog at all. How about you other 60CS owners out there...are you seeing the same thing with the tracklog?

I know I've read many reports of this issue here on these boards but I just want to remind you and others that if you have any problems such as these to report them to Garmin or whoever the manufacturer of your product is.

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If you want the track log to fill up much much slower, change the elevation setting: I think its either variable or whatever elevation. One records all the elevation tracklog data and information and uses the tracklog memory which fills that up faster. Anyways, just saying you can mess wit it.

Yes email them. I did on the same problem. I emailed them twice. Second time was to show them an exact comparison with the 76S with the same hike.

 

I figured it uses more than twice the points than the 76S. And that is with the 60CS set at least and the 76S set at most.

 

Changing baro settings, or setting the points to distance,etc. just doesn't cut it.

 

The auto mode on the 76S gave good results with all settings on auto.

 

Capt.

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If you want the track log to fill up much much slower, change the elevation setting: I think its either variable or whatever elevation.  One records all the elevation tracklog data and information and uses the tracklog memory which fills that up faster.  Anyways, just saying you can mess wit it.

Yes email them. I did on the same problem. I emailed them twice. Second time was to show them an exact comparison with the 76S with the same hike.

 

I figured it uses more than twice the points than the 76S. And that is with the 60CS set at least and the 76S set at most.

 

Changing baro settings, or setting the points to distance,etc. just doesn't cut it.

 

The auto mode on the 76S gave good results with all settings on auto.

 

Capt.

My 60c performs almost exactly like my V when I take them out together. I bet the barometer is more sensitive on your 60cs, it isn't calibrated correctly or was self-calibrating with GPS elevation when you were making the track, or the 60cs is taking more points on purpose to create a better plot for viewing. Have you actually taken a look at the points that were plotted? If the position or elevation didn't change between points then you have a legit complaint about Garmin's track plotting algorithm. Otherwise, that's how the auto mode is supposed to work. i.e change in elevation or position (the degree of change effected by the least,most settings) causes a new track point to be plotted. In the end, more track points is better than not enough and if you're worried about filling up the track log then use the time or distance method. If still unsatisfied, let me know if you want to sell your "faulty" unit.

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I have a 60cs, and it is a great unit! But..

 

1. the tracklog should not be limited by size. If I want to fill up the whole memory with just one log, I should be allowed too.

 

2.When storing an active log internally in the gps, it gets compressed! That means all timedata is lost! This is really stupid for pilots like me who uses logs to confirm flights (elevation,location,time).

 

Garmins code really should be open so groups with different needs could get their own configurations/features, like with linux: If it's not there, somebody somewhere is going to programme a solution.

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If you want the track log to fill up much much slower, change the elevation setting: I think its either variable or whatever elevation.  One records all the elevation tracklog data and information and uses the tracklog memory which fills that up faster.  Anyways, just saying you can mess wit it.

Yes email them. I did on the same problem. I emailed them twice. Second time was to show them an exact comparison with the 76S with the same hike.

 

I figured it uses more than twice the points than the 76S. And that is with the 60CS set at least and the 76S set at most.

 

Changing baro settings, or setting the points to distance,etc. just doesn't cut it.

 

The auto mode on the 76S gave good results with all settings on auto.

 

Capt.

My 60c performs almost exactly like my V when I take them out together. I bet the barometer is more sensitive on your 60cs, it isn't calibrated correctly or was self-calibrating with GPS elevation when you were making the track, or the 60cs is taking more points on purpose to create a better plot for viewing. Have you actually taken a look at the points that were plotted? If the position or elevation didn't change between points then you have a legit complaint about Garmin's track plotting algorithm. Otherwise, that's how the auto mode is supposed to work. i.e change in elevation or position (the degree of change effected by the least,most settings) causes a new track point to be plotted. In the end, more track points is better than not enough and if you're worried about filling up the track log then use the time or distance method. If still unsatisfied, let me know if you want to sell your "faulty" unit.

It's a problem with the barometer in the 60cs. It will plot points until memory is full when sitting still. This is because the barometric pressure is constantly changing so it's saying your elevation is changing as well but we're talking in inches not feet. They need to update the software so that the elevation plot is limited to a certain amount of change in combination with not ploting points unless you are moving.

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I love mine.

I do wish you can connect it to a laptop with USB and Mapsorce still use the GPS Tracking.

I have not taken the time to see the reason the unit cant not be powered by a USB port, but it would be nice to have it draw power from there while connected.

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um, No my button to do that is missing because I didn't take the time to see it or click it to see what it does. :D

About 10 seconds after I posed this I had found it. I was thinking since the new version of Mapsource can auto-detect what unit you were using it would have found the unit connected for tracking. You know what they say when you assume. Thank you for the information anyway though.

 

Anthony

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I have a 60cs, and it is a great unit! But..

 

1. the tracklog should not be limited by size. If I want to fill up the whole memory with just one log, I should be allowed too.

 

2.When storing an active log internally in the gps, it gets compressed! That means all timedata is lost! This is really stupid for pilots like me who uses logs to confirm flights (elevation,location,time).

 

Garmins code really should be open so groups with different needs could get their own configurations/features, like with linux: If it's not there, somebody somewhere is going to programme a solution.

There is a setting in it for amount of points. It's not in the Track setup but I've seen it in the Map setup I think. I haven't tried it yet to see what affect it has on the other end.

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