Garmin Montana 650

[+tuxster]

I just got my new garmin 650 and we decided to go out and try it out. We drive to an area we like and use the iPhone to see caches in the area. From here we manually enter the way point and off we go. This worked well with our old 60csx but the 650 does not recognise the way point I entered as a geocache. What am I doing wrong?

[+Triple Crown]

I just got my new garmin 650 and we decided to go out and try it out. We drive to an area we like and use the iPhone to see caches in the area. From here we manually enter the way point and off we go. This worked well with our old 60csx but the 650 does not recognise the way point I entered as a geocache. What am I doing wrong?

 

You're not doing anything wrong. The new breed Garmin units make Geocaches a special type of waypoint. When you manually enter coords, you are creating a generic waypoint instead of a geocache. You can use the Waypoint Manager to modify the points you enter, or navigate to them via Where To?/Waypoints but they are handled differently than Geocache Waypoints.

 

The way to use all of the cool paperless geocaching features is to load caches as GPX files either individually from the cache page (Send to GPS) or in batches via Pocket Queries.

[+tuxster]

Well that's just retarded. We use my iPhone with geocaching app to see which ones we like then enter coordinates manually. Are all newer garmins like this?

I could return it for an Oregon?

 

Mike

 

I just got my new garmin 650 and we decided to go out and try it out. We drive to an area we like and use the iPhone to see caches in the area. From here we manually enter the way point and off we go. This worked well with our old 60csx but the 650 does not recognise the way oint I entered as a geocache. What am I doing wrong?

 

You're not doing anything wrong. The new breed Garmin units make Geocaches a special type of waypoint. When you manually enter coords, you are creating a generic waypoint instead of a geocache. You can use the Waypoint Manager to modify the points you enter, or navigate to them via Where To?/Waypoints but they are handled differently than Geocache Waypoints.

 

The way to use all of the cool paperless geocaching features is to load caches as GPX files either individually from the cache page (Send to GPS) or in batches via Pocket Queries.

[yogazoo]

It's not that "retarded". You can still enter coordinates manually and navigate to those coordinates, just like on your iPhone. All Garmin handhelds do it the same way, returning it for an Oregon will do you no good. Groundspeak has a free 30 day subscription for new Garmin purchases, I suggest that you take advantage of the free period and download a pocket query. Then you won't have to enter them manually and they'll all be handled like geocaches.

[+dfx]

The main difference between regular waypoints and geocaches on modern Garmin units is that geocaches have extra information associated with them, such as ratings, full description and hint. Since you'd have to enter all that manually, and it makes no sense to do that because you have that info on your phone already, you're not losing anything. Another difference is that you can log field notes on geocaches (e.g. mark them as found etc). Again, since you can do that on your phone, it makes no sense to do it on the Garmin. I don't see what the big deal is.

[+Triple Crown]

As noted, the Oregons, Dakotas and new eTrex series all operate this way. You can still manually enter coords, but you have to navigate to them as a Waypoint.

 

The idea is that you pre-load the units and then can use them in places without cell coverage. With the Montana you can store 12,000 caches on the unit, which would cover a huge geographic area! So you can cache without your iPhone and still have all the info that the Geocaching App would provide...complete cache description, hint, logs...everything. It even does cache filtering...for example, show only traditional caches with a terrain rating of 1.5 or less and difficulty of 2 or less...or whatever settings you choose.

[+Doodlez_N_Crewser]

A way I found to enter the coordinates on my 650 was to have at least one gpx file for a cache, click geocache then find another. When you get here select 'next stage' to enter the coordinates. I figured this out after going to an area I thought I had loaded the needed gpx files into the gps only to find out I had not. I am still trying to figure out a quicker way to upload the cache info in an easier method using my Mac togps.