+Hellfire1917 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 My etrex 20 arrived this morning and as I had a long train journey this afternoon, I downloaded the full manual onto my iPad and read it on the train. I learned a lot about using the unit for geocaching and I'm looking forward to trying it out. But there's something I can't find. I'd like to use the 20 to help me place caches, but what I can't seem to find is - how do I get the etrex 20 to give me the co-ords of the location where I'm standing? Can anyone help? HF Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ragged Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Don't have one of the newer units, but there must be a way to Mark your location? (Used to be function on some units called MOB as in Man Over Board. ) Quote Link to comment
+SageTracey Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Create a waypoint and select current location. Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 On the eTrex 30, from the main screen, second down, left side: Mark Waypoint. That will create a waypoint at your current position and number it with the lowest number available. Just marked my position: 050. Then if you go to Waypoint Manager, it will bring up waypoints. With your waypoint on the screen, push the lowest button on the left side. That brings up a screen, including Average Location. (Oh! That's where Project Waypoint is hiding!) Quote Link to comment
Pup Patrol Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 My etrex 20 arrived this morning and as I had a long train journey this afternoon, I downloaded the full manual onto my iPad and read it on the train. I learned a lot about using the unit for geocaching and I'm looking forward to trying it out. But there's something I can't find. I'd like to use the 20 to help me place caches, but what I can't seem to find is - how do I get the etrex 20 to give me the co-ords of the location where I'm standing? Can anyone help? HF Pages 9 & 10 -- Waypoints B. Quote Link to comment
+Hellfire1917 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Thank you very much, all. Waypoints. It's all dropped into place. Let the learning curve continue! HF Quote Link to comment
+GeoTrekker26 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I go to the satellite page and watch the coordinates there. That way I can tell when the GPS has settled in and is happy with where it is sitting. When it has settled in, mark (create) a waypoint. You could customize the dashboard to so one of the fields displays current location but that is something you might want to do when you are more familiar with the unit. Or you could, as H. Dolphin suggested, create a waypoint then have the system average it, which is essentially what I do manually in the first option. It is a good idea to revisit the location later, perhaps the next day, and let the GPS guide you to the location using the numbers you derived on your first visit. That should give you an idea how good the numbers are. Quote Link to comment
+Hellfire1917 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Thanks, GeoTrekker. I'e looked at the satellite page and I see what you mean. I'll experiment with that. HF Quote Link to comment
+MartyBartfast Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Rather than using the satellite screen use waypoint averaging. Go into "Mark Waypoint", then press the menu button on the left and select "Average Location", when you press start it will collect multiple positions and average them giving a better location. Quote Link to comment
+Hellfire1917 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks again, all. Waypoint averaging is now part of my knowledge base. Great fun learning all this. Quote Link to comment
+Seaglass Pirates Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Once you have your average waypoint as another check for your coordinates you can navigate to those coordinates to make sure they actually work as you intended. Things like high hedges and trees will (no other way to describe) - skew - your readings. As will the car if you park right next to it. We call it GPS bounce. If the GPS leads you to the right hand gate post - it wil be on the left lol. Within your settings you will have a dashboard. Geocsching has its own. But (and it's probably something we are doing wrong) when you try and navigate to your waypoint you don't get the geocachjng dashboard come up and see the countdown in feet. You get a basic map with a small red arrow. It's not terribly helpful. We found a work around but sure there is a better way but this works. Choose find geocache (pick a multy or puzzle cache) and then navigate to it by pressing go. Click on the geocache details and change its coordinates to your waypoint ones. Then click go. This will now replace the existing ones with yours and you will have the geocaching dashboard with feet and direction to the cache showing. Like i said there is probably a way of doing this which shows the better geocaching dashboard, from waypoint manager. It's just we do it so infrequently we use the above work around to show us what other cachers will see. If it points to the other side of the road than you need, you can play with coordinates to shift you a few feet each time, back towards the actual location of the cache. But you will soon be told if your coordinates are out lol so make sure you know how to alter them on the cache page. Don't just post a note saying what the new ones are like some people do. Welcome to hell .... Ooooops .... I mean geocaching. Quote Link to comment
+colleda Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 My etrex 20 arrived this morning and as I had a long train journey this afternoon, I downloaded the full manual onto my iPad and read it on the train. I learned a lot about using the unit for geocaching and I'm looking forward to trying it out. But there's something I can't find. I'd like to use the 20 to help me place caches, but what I can't seem to find is - how do I get the etrex 20 to give me the co-ords of the location where I'm standing? Can anyone help? HF Pages 9 & 10 -- Waypoints B. Go to Waypoint Averaging. It will give a more accurate postion placing a cache than just taking a waypoint. Quote Link to comment
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