"geocaching Garmin Style"

January 19, 2005

I noticed today that Garmin has a page explaning GeoCaching on their site. I am pretty sure that they didn't have that there before. You can also submit your own GeoCaching storys to the site.

Garmin GeoCaching

3.8k · January 19, 2005

They had it there last year, at least when the 60 series came out if I remember right. Nice page though.

22k · January 19, 2005

Ya know, I've always wondered if Garmin lurks in this forum. I don't mean Garmin employees enjoying the sport, but rather lurking for Marketing and PR reasons.

2k · January 19, 2005

Ya know, I've always wondered if Garmin lurks in this forum. I don't mean Garmin employees enjoying the sport, but rather lurking for Marketing and PR reasons.

1.6k · January 19, 2005

If they are listening, perhaps they can do something about my #$%#$% legend. I swear, if I clip it to my pack or belt for more than 10 seconds, it loses the satellites.

If this doesn't get better, I may have to go back to the Magellan series.

(OK, for the slow class: this was a reference to any lurking Garmites. Please deal with the antenna issue. Yours are not very good.)

January 19, 2005

Ya know, I've always wondered if Garmin lurks in this forum. I don't mean Garmin employees enjoying the sport, but rather lurking for Marketing and PR reasons.

Without a doubt they are. It is one smart and cheap way to stay in touch with their customer's needs.

My Legend (and presumably most newer Garmins) have two icons for 'geocache' and 'geocache found'. I don't think that just occurred to them. Either someone from here told them or they decided it would sell more GPSs from lurking here.

HI GARMIN PR GUY!

22k · January 19, 2005

Without a doubt they are. It is one smart and cheap way to stay in touch with their customer's needs.

It's like a virtual one-way mirror on a focus group.

Now I'm starting to feel a little paranoid

3.8k · January 19, 2005

I have met one Garmin engineer that was a geocacher although he said he doesn't get much time to do it. I met him in a park doing firmware testing to check the speed of aquisition for a change he had made.

22k · January 19, 2005

You can also submit your own GeoCaching storys to the site.

I wonder how often those 'stories' are updated. It's been a while since I read them, are they the same ones from six months ago?

1.1k · January 19, 2005

Garmin lurking they would be dumb not to and very smart if they did. That way they know what cacher's need are, not just a bunch of engineers sitting around making more *(&(*& that looks good but wouldnt job. I know of a number of equopment manufacuters that hung out on Backpackers forums and were scared to say so. It is a good PR move.

cheers

January 19, 2005

If they are listening, perhaps they can do something about my #$%#$% legend. I swear, if I clip it to my pack or belt for more than 10 seconds, it loses the satellites.

If this doesn't get better, I may have to go back to the Magellan series.

(OK, for the slow class: this was a reference to any lurking Garmites. Please deal with the antenna issue. Yours are not very good.)

It's a patch antenna, what'd you expect? It prefers a horizontal orientation, not vertical as I'm sure you know...also likely affected by being that close to your RF-blocking self & pack.

2k · January 19, 2005

I made a reply once to this same type of topic that was started in a knife forum about Leatherman Multi tools.

A day after I posted a guy from Leatherman emailed me about my post.

Same thing happened on a flashlight forum I post on. Someone brought up if Surefire watches the forums as they did not have a section on the forums like the other dealers.

I made a reply to the post and someone from Surefire emailed me asking were in South Dakota I was located. He was from Soiux Falls South Dakota and now worked for Surefire in CA.

I would guess that Garmin is watching our every move. :smile:

1.6k · January 19, 2005

If they are listening, perhaps they can do something about my #$%#$% legend. I swear, if I clip it to my pack or belt for more than 10 seconds, it loses the satellites.

If this doesn't get better, I may have to go back to the Magellan series.

(OK, for the slow class: this was a reference to any lurking Garmites. Please deal with the antenna issue. Yours are not very good.)

It's a patch antenna, what'd you expect? It prefers a horizontal orientation, not vertical as I'm sure you know...also likely affected by being that close to your RF-blocking self & pack.

Yeah, I know its a patch antenna, but geez, after how many years of failure, what does it take for Garmin to do some thing about it? (like a different antenna geometry?)

1.5k · January 19, 2005

If they are listening, perhaps they can do something about my #$%#$% legend. I swear, if I clip it to my pack or belt for more than 10 seconds, it loses the satellites.

If this doesn't get better, I may have to go back to the Magellan series.

(OK, for the slow class: this was a reference to any lurking Garmites. Please deal with the antenna issue. Yours are not very good.)

It's a patch antenna, what'd you expect? It prefers a horizontal orientation, not vertical as I'm sure you know...also likely affected by being that close to your RF-blocking self & pack.

Yeah, I know its a patch antenna, but geez, after how many years of failure, what does it take for Garmin to do some thing about it? (like a different antenna geometry?)

I found the results with my Legend to be very good in all but heavy tree cover. That said, I see a lot of people with them dangling by neck-straps, clipped on belts or some other signal masking location. When I was walking for a bit and did not need to look at it every two seconds, I would clip it to the top of the shoulderstrap of my backpack. That way it sat horizontal, and got maximum sky exposure.

January 19, 2005

A number of us have been wondering when the replacement to the Garmin V would be coming out. Color, more memory, compass, altimeter, and the same form factor would make what is hands-down the best geocaching GPSr made even better. Garmin is mute. They tell us nothing. if they are lurking, WTF people?

22k · January 19, 2005

You can also submit your own GeoCaching storys to the site.

Sooooooooooo

Anybody ever submit any geocaching stories to them?

7.2k · January 19, 2005

If they are listening, perhaps they can do something about my #$%#$% legend. I swear, if I clip it to my pack or belt for more than 10 seconds, it loses the satellites.

If this doesn't get better, I may have to go back to the Magellan series.

(OK, for the slow class: this was a reference to any lurking Garmites. Please deal with the antenna issue. Yours are not very good.)

It's a patch antenna, what'd you expect? It prefers a horizontal orientation, not vertical as I'm sure you know...also likely affected by being that close to your RF-blocking self & pack.

Yeah, I know its a patch antenna, but geez, after how many years of failure, what does it take for Garmin to do some thing about it? (like a different antenna geometry?)

I can offer a solution for your current GPS at least. I use the carrying case with the belt clip (yes, ironic since if you put it on your belt it won't pick up satellites) and put it on my pack as shown in my profile picture. It is flat and level so the patch antenna works and it gets my body out of the way of most of the satellites.

January 19, 2005

Since Garmin might be "lurking", here's one for them:

Why do the Rino units only hold 500 waypoints? The Legend and Visata hold 1000 and they *are* similar in function....

January 19, 2005

I am pretty sure that they didn't have that there before.

I'm not 100% sure what they used to have but they had something similar back in 10/02. I found out about Geocaching while I was surfing the Garmin site. I do remember the Geo + Cache squares but I really don't remember what else it had back then.

E

January 19, 2005

If they are listening, perhaps they can do something about my #$%#$% legend. I swear, if I clip it to my pack or belt for more than 10 seconds, it loses the satellites.

If this doesn't get better, I may have to go back to the Magellan series.

(OK, for the slow class: this was a reference to any lurking Garmites. Please deal with the antenna issue. Yours are not very good.)

It's a patch antenna, what'd you expect? It prefers a horizontal orientation, not vertical as I'm sure you know...also likely affected by being that close to your RF-blocking self & pack.

Yeah, I know its a patch antenna, but geez, after how many years of failure, what does it take for Garmin to do some thing about it? (like a different antenna geometry?)

I can offer a solution for your current GPS at least. I use the carrying case with the belt clip (yes, ironic since if you put it on your belt it won't pick up satellites) and put it on my pack as shown in my profile picture. It is flat and level so the patch antenna works and it gets my body out of the way of most of the satellites.

Glad it wasn't just me. I recently acquired the Legend myself and took it out for the first time last weekend for a good long walk - I intended to transfer the track of a new trail to a topo. Lo and behold I discovered that every time I clipped it to my belt it lost the sats so my track was sadly lacking.

So I jumped on the Garmin web site to order a clip on antenna - oops - they don't offer one. Guess I check into the backpack strap application idea.

Yours aye,

The Prospectors

"Roads? Where we're going we don't need - roads!" Dr. Emmett Brown

2.6k · January 19, 2005

Garmin, or at least its Finnish importer has definitely lurked in the Nordic & Baltic countries forum.

January 19, 2005

So what if Garmin is lurking in the forums. I say its smart, good feed-back from their customers and, if they are smart, I think they probably are, they'll put the knowledge to good use. Better GPS units.

Funny no one mentioned Magellan. Seems to me Magellan has some cute new low priced units. Then again they may have seen the Garmin Gecko series.

So, what is everyone afraid of? I'm more afraid of my Government. :smile:

January 20, 2005

Funny no one mentioned Magellan. Seems to me Magellan has some cute new low priced units. Then again they may have seen the Garmin Gecko series.

No doubt Magellan would be as well. It just makes sense. In most industries, you rarely hear the good feedback - Only the bad ones come back to you. Lurking on forums like these without announcing it means you see all feedback, and get to see what features people are talking about, and liking.

I remember an RC aircraft forum I used to post on, where a techie from Hi-Tech used to hang out, and advertise the fact that he hung out on them, and would often answer questions and problems regarding their gear. Great PR! He would drop in every couple of days, and would have a thread going purely for questions regarding their gear.

Hi Guys! :huh: Love my GPS72 - loved the look of the Magellan Explorist, but it didn't have PC link capability, and the 72 was on sale with a car power adapter, and car mounting bracket, for a good price, so I went the 72. Buttons on the Explorist 200 looked pretty small and awkward as well, but I couldn't open the blisterpack to play with it.

Oh, and my 72 gets great reception when shoved in my shorts / jeans back pocket - though it does have a quad-helix antenna, not a patch... It preffers vertical.

January 20, 2005

Yeah, I know its a patch antenna, but geez, after how many years of failure, what does it take for Garmin to do some thing about it? (like a different antenna geometry?)

GPS 72, Rino series, GPSMAP 60 series...etc. Trade off your Legend for something in a Quad Helix antenna if you want a unit that will receive preferentially in the vertical orientation.

January 20, 2005

edited to remove duplicate post

Edited January 20, 2005 by Vic303

"geocaching Garmin Style"

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