DOWNLOADING INFO TO GPS

[+creveling5]

I am not new to geocaching itself, but new to downloading information from geocaching.com....For the past few years I had a very basic gps and had to enter each set of coordinates in.... I now have a garmin Oregon 550 and am trying to figure everything out. I have figured out how to send one cache at a time to the gps, is there a way to send several at once? I know how to set a waypoint (like home) on the gps, but the website gives the option to mark all and download.... did they save to my computer? gps? help! what exactly is a pocket query? I am sorry for all the basic questions, just trying to figure it all out and get the most out of the gps.

[+geodarts]

As a premium member you wil want to start using pocket queries, which allow you to download a thousand caches at a time. Markwell has a guide to pocket queries and Groundspeak provides help for it as well.

 

Start simple. Do a basic search. Once you create a pocket query, you can unzip the file and transfer the .gpx files to your gpsr (the garmin/gpx folder on the unit or an sd card).

Edited April 25, 2014 by geodarts

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Have a look-see at this link: http://www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk/resources/gps.html .

 

Hover your cursor over "Paperless Caching" in the red banner >

Click on the bottom selection in that drop-down (Show me how to do paperless caching) >

Click on the first arrow (Garmin)

 

It's put together so most anyone (beginner) can follow it through.

[+creveling5]

As a premium member you wil want to start using pocket queries, which allow you to download a thousand caches at a time. Markwell has a guide to pocket queries and Groundspeak provides help for it as well.

 

Start simple. Do a basic search. Once you create a pocket query, you can unzip the file and transfer the .gpx files to your gpsr (the garmin/gpx folder on the unit or an sd card).

ok, I have created the query, but I am stuck on unzipping and transferring

[+msrubble]

As a premium member you wil want to start using pocket queries, which allow you to download a thousand caches at a time. Markwell has a guide to pocket queries and Groundspeak provides help for it as well.

 

Start simple. Do a basic search. Once you create a pocket query, you can unzip the file and transfer the .gpx files to your gpsr (the garmin/gpx folder on the unit or an sd card).

ok, I have created the query, but I am stuck on unzipping and transferring

 

What kind of computer do you have? (Mac, Windows, Linux etc.) How do you usually unzip .zip files?

 

You can unzip the .zip file directly to your GPS. The unzipped file(s) will be .gpx and should go in the Garmin\GPX directory of your Oregon.

 

If you are loading pocket queries to a memory card instead, you will have to create a Garmin folder on the card, then a GPX directory inside of that, and place the .gpx file(s) in there.

 

Or you can take the belt-and-suspenders approach. Unzip the .zip file on your computer, then copy the .gpx file(s) to the Garmin\GPX directory of your GPS or memory card.

 

There may be one or two .gpx files inside each .zip pocket query file. One will have the caches that matched your search. If there are additional waypoints included in the listings (parking coordinates, trailheads, etc.), you will also get a file ending with -wpts.gpx that contains these extra waypoints.

 

If your pocket query resulted in a .gpx file, not zipped, you can copy that .gpx file directly to the Garmin\GPX folder of your GPS.

[+Chief301]

I also have the Oregon 550. What I do is create a folder on my computer where I save all my pocket query downloads so I'll be able to find them. Once I've generated the pocket query, I download it to that folder. I'll usually rename it something I'll be able to recognize. You should actually have two files for each pocket query....one for the caches themselves and another for any additional waypoints associated with the cache (parking, etc)

 

Now all you have to do is plug in the Garmin...it will appear as an additional drive on your computer. Just drag the GPX file over to the Garmin folder and you're done. You shouldn't have to perform any additional steps to unzip it.