Manitoba Geocaching Association

[KeeGee]

My Legend and my Nuvi 260 have been my trusty GPSrs for several years. But since I picked up an iPhone this spring, that's about all I use. Now that I'm preparing for another big roadtrip to New Jersey/New York, I pulled out the old gear - assuming I can't afford a data plan to keep using the iPhone throughout the trip. Both GPSrs work, but the desktop won't recognize the Nuvi anymore, preventing me from loading it up. Spent a couple hours trying to fix it without success. The Legend will get me to a GZ, but it won't get me to the neighbourhood in a strange state and it won't have any cache description, etc. I have a netbook with GSAK on it to load fresh caches throughout the trip.

So, what're my choices:
a) Get a new Nuvi
b) Get a pricey data plan for the iPhone
c) Get a new handheld GPSr that holds cache data
d) ???

Any thoughts on US roadtrip gear?

[Yogi®]

What OS are you using on yourt PC and which Nuvi are u using???

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=592

http://www.osmmaps.com/

[KeeGee]

Yeah, I came across that download but it didn't do the trick. I'm using Vista and Nuvi 260. Message says device malfunctioned and is unknown. Same message on another desktop I tried. Yet the Nuvi works on its own. And the cable works on a different device.

[Yogi®]

The Oregon 450 holds 3000+ caches and is a good little GPSr Unit... Costco has them for $197.00

[glacier_ice]

Option 1:
I understand that, like my Blackberry, the iPhone App will work without data. You can find and log all your caches 'offline' and then when you hit a wifi hotspot, it refreshes and uploads all of your logs. This would enable you to put in a whackload of caches. You can test this out by putting it in airplane mode, find a cache and see if that works.

Option 2:
If you're looking for a new handheld, I just purchased the Oregon 600. Great machine. (Though it does lack Whereigo functinality) but it does have a Nuvi mode (no voice). A bit more cash at around $400, but it features unlimited geocaches. (The Oregon 4xx series is limited to 5,000) Not that you'd find that many in a trip, but putting all of your PQs into the machine saves a LOT of hassle. I just did a trip and had (still do) about 6,000 caches loaded. (Probably up to 7,000 now.)

I put Open Street Maps on the machine and it actually didn't do too badly with the Nuvi turn by turn navigation. I still had to pay attention to occasional oddities, but still good.

I also had an Oregon 450 on my Spring Break trip to South Dakota. For power trailing, they work great. Then just power log later using GSAK (if you have a PC).

The 600 is lightning quick, boots very quickly, sports pinch to zoom. Does have a few quirks that I attribute to early software glitches, but those are bound to be worked out in future updates.

[GentlePurpleRain]

I can vouch for the "offline" mode of the iPhone. I have used the geocaching app on an iPod Touch (only wifi -- no phone), and I can write logs anywhere. As soon as I connect to wifi, they are automatically sent.

You would need to load all your PQs into the app ahead of time, though, since you won't be able to search for caches without a connection. You can "save" caches/PQs in the app, but it's sometimes a bit of a pain to search through them, depending on how many caches are in each PQ.

[glacier_ice]

However, a drawback to the offline phones is the lack of mapping ability unless you can download scalable maps to the app. (Forgot to mention that.)

[KeeGee]

Didn't get a chance to check in here before the trip. Back now so I'll tell you how it went.

Muggle wife liked the idea of getting the new 7" Nuvi so we did, and I inherited her old 1350. She quite likes the bigger screen. The 1350 had troubles talking to the computer, too, but I managed to get past that. It also had problems with the Nuvi macro in GSAK. Can't get it to work consistently, so it was the cause of some frustration and wasted time on the road. I got it to work though.

I got my iPhone unlocked and picked up a Roam mobility sim card. Not a bad price for talk text and data while in the US. I mostly used the iPhone for caching. But problems accessing the site through the app were a regular problem. And not just due to signal issues - plenty of times I could access other websites without problem while the app was telling me I had no network access.

A new handheld like the Oregons mentioned sounds like a good idea. Load thousands of caches along most likely route and it can also talk to netbook by USB and act as Nuvi for watching caches along the highway. And then use the iPhone for updates or logs. Next year.