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Gps Longevity


Bjorn74

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I thought it would never die, but in the middle of a planned 20 find day, my garmin eTrex Venture dropped while I was helping some new cachers with a tough cache. The once scarred and lined screen is just DOA now.

 

However, this was just after finding my 401st cache and since I hadn't ordered a GPS when I found my first couple it lasted me about 399 caches and over 2 whole years. Not bad, I'm thinking. I had been planning to get a new one in a week, so I just have to bump that up a bit. not much of a problem, since that new cacher can help me get one quick.

 

How many finds did you have with your GPS when it died and what kind was it? Please just list if you had one die or have a phenomenal number of finds with the same GPS. 400 is nothing, just ironic. 1000 is quite a feat for any ruggedized device.

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My Magellan GPS315 died after about 40 caches (stopped picking up sats; tried everything, including complete re-boot, updating firmware, speaking with Magellan employees, etc. Since that unit is glued together, service would have cost more than replacing it, so I cut it open to see if there was something loose inside. No luck).

 

I had owned it for a number of years prior to discovering Geocaching, in fact a few years before SA was turned off. It also had many miles on a hand-made handlebar mount on my highly-modified ATC250R, running through the sand dunes of Glamis. I think that geocaching was probably the "easiest" usage that it got from me, and the vibration on the ATC is what ultimitely led to it's demise!

 

I now use a SporTrak Pro, and my son uses an ETrex, but I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the old 315 :blink:

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I've not yet killed any of mine since starting in Dec of '01, but I tdon't know that it's phenomenal. I found probably 1100 with my 330. The buttons are starting to show wear and are a little finicky. I've done only a couple dozen so with my SporTrak Map. Add in the latest 300 or so with a 60CS. By the calendar, I'll say I've done 1200 with a Plat and toss in a hundred with various units borrowed from friends.

 

Then there are days like today when I left the plat in the car, using DirectRoute to get from cache to cache, but the 60CS in the field for testing. I credited days like that to the 60 count in the list above.

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652 with my GPS V. The buttons are fine. The screen has one slight scratch, then I put a screen protector on it. It's beat up from being dropped of my truck while driving. The wire latch in the battery cover is slightly bent. Maybe from falling off the truck. The antanea swivels easier than I'd like but that's an easy fix.

 

Right now unless I drop it off the truck again so that it gets ran over, it should last me another 600+.

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I thought it would never die, but in the middle of a planned 20 find day, my garmin eTrex Venture dropped while I was helping some new cachers with a tough cache. The once scarred and lined screen is just DOA now.

 

However, this was just after finding my 401st cache and since I hadn't ordered a GPS when I found my first couple it lasted me about 399 caches and over 2 whole years. Not bad, I'm thinking. I had been planning to get a new one in a week, so I just have to bump that up a bit. not much of a problem, since that new cacher can help me get one quick.

 

How many finds did you have with your GPS when it died and what kind was it? Please just list if you had one die or have a phenomenal number of finds with the same GPS. 400 is nothing, just ironic. 1000 is quite a feat for any ruggedized device.

I've never had a GPS die on me.

 

Had my GPSV for 3 years. Sold it recently to get a 60CS.

 

Hopefully this one will last another 3 years.

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My Vista never died after 500 or so finds, but after ricocheting off of cliff walls and drowning in gulleys, it is so scratched and dented that I use it only as a backup now.

 

I only mention it because it was purchased BEFORE a similar Vista was acquired by The Outlaw. His looks pretty pristine after over 1850 finds (many of them more than once-- helping other cachers the way that you mentioned).

 

Then again, he has six eyeballs and a 12-volt battery implanted in his head....so maybe it's just a coincidence...

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I think I qualify as the victim of the worst failure of GPS equipment in the past month. I have had to send 2 brand new Garmin 60CS units back for warranty repairs. Neither of them lasted 2 weeks before something went wrong. The first had a faulty power button. The second one lost the ability to find satellites.

 

I only pray that my experience is a random isolated event in which I was the sole victim of the 60CS curse. . . .

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Well, I was reminded of this again. I think my GPSMAP 60CS is now worn out. This is 500 caches later. In September (one year after my Venture died) I sent it in to Garmin to replace the buttons (they'd worn through) and the power button pieces. Now, it powers itself down randomly and has some weird display issues.

 

I guess I'm tough on these things.

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