GPX file loaded, how do I increase distance for search

[+Mystery Ink]

I have a 64ST

When loading caches that are out aways, such as maybe 160 to 200 miles when heading to a location, if I do a spell search, nothing shows up, yet they are loaded, it is like there is a distance limit.

 

How do I change the parameters or increase the distance they can be found when I do a spell search. So I want to load a specific cache, route it, and head from the SF Bay area to Mt Shasta

[+StefandD]

1. Sort the list of caches by name, not by distance.

2. Simulate your GPSr to a point near Mt Shasta.

[+Red90]

You need do a "search near". I do not believe you can sort by name. You need to go into Geocaches from the main menu to get the "search near" option. Maybe one day, Garmin will fix it's search code.

[+Timpat]

... it is like there is a distance limit.

In my research with my 64s I've found an 'apparent' distance limit of 90 Min (1.5°) of Latitude which equals about 103 mi. This also can be defined as 90 Nautical miles, as one Minute of Lat equals one Nautical mile. (90 Nautical miles equals ~103.5 mi). Try this for yourself and see if I hit on something. I'd love to hear someone confirm, or deny this.

[+Red90]

When testing this morning, I got results to 196 km (122 miles), so that theory might not be right. Maybe it is 200 km?

[+Timpat]

Thanks Red90. Interesting- I just tried again and hit my limit the same at about 103 mi (~166 km). I'm near N42° 40' W73° 45' if this factors in somehow.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Timpat

[robertlipe]

Having seen variations of this problem many hundreds of times across a variety of Garmins, I just wish they'd fix this UX.

• Super easy string change: Instead of "No points found" just replace the string with "No points found nearby".
• If you have to get a programmer involved: "No points found within" << kSearchDistanceMax << "meters". (Now you have to honor user setts on km vs. miles.)
• Confirm that you know points are there and you're just not showing them. "0 of 1234 points found nearby" Now you know the device has read the points so you know the device didn't lose them.
• Be prescriptive: "No nearby points found. Try searching by name or area." This tells the user why you've not shown results AND leads them to the water of how they may get results.

They likely limit the search for POIs to keep performance up. If you search for "Starbucks", you don't want to see all eleventy billion results. There just aren't that many user waypoints that even if you got zero on the first one that you couldn't double the size of the bounding box and try again or remove the search bounding box and limit the results by quantity. It's a pretty silly limit.

 

Garmin has messed this up on on a wide variety of devices for many years now and it'd be so easy to just eliminate this issue totally. I know that even a string change isn't free (translation, etc.) but in terms of engineering/user experience problems, this one just isn't hard.

[+GeoTrekker26]

Having seen variations of this problem many hundreds of times across a variety of Garmins, I just wish they'd fix this UX.

• Super easy string change: Instead of "No points found" just replace the string with "No points found nearby".
• If you have to get a programmer involved: "No points found within" << kSearchDistanceMax << "meters". (Now you have to honor user setts on km vs. miles.)
• Confirm that you know points are there and you're just not showing them. "0 of 1234 points found nearby" Now you know the device has read the points so you know the device didn't lose them.
• Be prescriptive: "No nearby points found. Try searching by name or area." This tells the user why you've not shown results AND leads them to the water of how they may get results.

They likely limit the search for POIs to keep performance up. If you search for "Starbucks", you don't want to see all eleventy billion results. There just aren't that many user waypoints that even if you got zero on the first one that you couldn't double the size of the bounding box and try again or remove the search bounding box and limit the results by quantity. It's a pretty silly limit.

 

Garmin has messed this up on on a wide variety of devices for many years now and it'd be so easy to just eliminate this issue totally. I know that even a string change isn't free (translation, etc.) but in terms of engineering/user experience problems, this one just isn't hard.

 

I agree Garmin should do a much better job providing info to the user, including error messages, poor manuals, and inconsistent spec among their products.

 

However to correct this message requires more than a change to the text, because they would need to add a message for when there are no points loaded.

[+JohnCNA]

There is no option to sort by name. It's fixed to sort by distance. This is the case on an eTrex 30 and GPSMAP 64s, so I suspect it is this way for all of the newer models.

I have found that the easiest way to check or find caches farther away than the built-in limit is to hit Find, and then select Search Near. You might have to hit the menu button before Search Near appears. I don't have my device in front of me at the moment. Enter a city name that is near your target area. The list will now show the list of caches sorted by distance from that city.

 

Note that if you just pan the map screen to the area you want, it will always show what's in that area. If the area you're interested is pretty far away, it's a lot faster to search for a nearby City and then go to the map or list. There is no distance limitations to searching for Cities.