Not seeing Caches after I load .gpx files to Oregon 600

[+McLov'n]

Hello!

 

I have been messing around with my new Garmin 600 to get it working for geocaching. I downloaded an app for mac called iCaching and it worked at first and I could send right to my GPS. Now it seems to be no more. Even if I download the PQ from Groundspeak and place the .GPX file directly on my gps it only seems to want to show up as a waypoint. Nothing shows up in the geocache app even with all filters removed.

 

Is it because I am not close to the geocache locations I added? I am in texas on work while I added caches for home near chicago.

 

I am a little stumped and all the FAQ's I have read just got me more lost.

 

Appreciate the help!

[+cliptwings]

I think you answered your own question in the second paragraph. I have an Oregon 600 too, and I have discovered that it will not display geocaches outside some specific distance from your present location. I'll bet if you loaded up a PQ from your Texas location, it would work like a charm. If it doesn't work, you might hook up your Oregon to your PC and check to make sure the PQ is unzipped and placed in the correct folder in the GPS. It should be in the "GPX" folder, inside the "Garmin" folder. If you're using a memory card to store your caches (a good idea in my opinion), caches should be stored in the GPX folder, which should be located in the Garmin folder. I hope this helps you more than confuses you.

[+McLov'n]

No that makes sense, I just find it so odd that I can't see them at all from a specified distance. We will know in the morning if it worked or not!

 

Thanks for the reply!

[+kunarion]

I just find it so odd that I can't see them at all from a specified distance.

It's a surprising restriction (evidently not adjustable by the user), and it took me forever to figure out what the issue was. OK, I didn't figure it out, someone else mentioned it.

 

If you scroll the map to wherever the caches are, you will see them. That's a way to tell if they're on the GPSr, before a trip.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

The question of the caches not showing because of distance has been addressed. However... the statement below leads me to believe that you also have a different problem.

 

Even if I download the PQ from Groundspeak and place the .GPX file directly on my gps it only seems to want to show up as a waypoint.

 

Loading .gpx files should not show up as "only as a waypoint", UNLESS you had used (or loaded) the GPSr prior to activating your Premium Membership status.

If such is the case, then you need to delete ALL loaded geocaching data from the unit. Data loaded as .loc files (non-PM data) will cause .gpx files (PM data) to revert to non-PM data status. The two file-types do not interact well within the unit.

 

Solution is fairly simple. Delete all previously loaded data, even data loaded as .gpx files (as it is already corrupted) and start anew.

Your Finds count already listed on geocaching.com will not change.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Gitchee-Gummee

[robertlipe]

Garmins have done this approximately forever. http://www.gpsfaqs.org/faqs/garmin/xseries/g60cx/waypoints.html#far was written for the 60CSx (2006) but it was the same on the 60CS (2004) and the units before that.

 

As a computer guy, I know why they do it; the processing time to compute the great circle distance (and potentially bearing) for hundreds to thousands of points isn't trivial. So they shoot a bounding box for, say, a hundred miles around the search to limit the potential number to compute. This can be done with simple math (if lat > 35 and lat < 35 and lon > 85 and llon < 86) or even in the query to the database and is a LOT cheaper than computing haversine[1] on a unit that may or may not even have a hardware floating point processor. (More likely in, say, the Dragonball-dominated or early days than in the contemporary ARM era.)

 

What I don't understand is why they don't change the text of the blurb that's displayed to convey to the user "yeah, I know there's more stuff and I'm not showing it to you."

 

Found 0 waypoints. BAD.

No waypoints found of the 1,273 present. Better. The user knows their 1,273 waypoints loaded.

0 of 1,273 waypoints found within 100 miles. Better still. User knows their 1,273 waypoints loaded AND they know why they're not shown - they're too far away"

 

I could think about it more and come up with something better, but the fact that this comes up All The Time - and has in at least part of three decades now - and their support team hasn't bludgeoned UX/Engineering into fixing this wart says a lot.

 

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-circle_distance