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Help with Garmin eTrex 20


campbelj

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Could someone please help me? I have recently bought a Garmin eTrex 20. This is the first time I have used a GPS receiver. Before I was using the iPhone App. I have only a vague understanding of how to work this gizmo.

 

My question is this. I have been working on solving a puzzle cache where you answer questions and end up with a set of coordinates. I have done this, but now I do not know how to enter these coordinates into the eTrex. Is this called waypointing? I knew how to enter it in the iPhone but the Garmin has me beat. I have downloaded the geocache to the Garmin. I can see how to enter a waypoint from my current location, but that will not be of any use to me in this particular situation. I appreciate any help you can offer.

 

Thanks.

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If you're trying to enter it as a waypoint, create a waypoint based on the current location, then edit it.

 

I tried to check the manual to see if there's an easier way of doing this, but Garmin manual still continues their long tradition of being somewhat less than useful. On my Oregon, I can select "Go To" / "Coordinates" and enter the coordinates I wish to navigate to.

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If you're trying to enter it as a waypoint, create a waypoint based on the current location, then edit it.

 

I tried to check the manual to see if there's an easier way of doing this, but Garmin manual still continues their long tradition of being somewhat less than useful. On my Oregon, I can select "Go To" / "Coordinates" and enter the coordinates I wish to navigate to.

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Thanks. I'll give that a shot. I agree. The Garmin Manual might as well be written in Mandarin for all the good it does me.

Garmin's eTrex20 is probably one of the most user-friendly GPS receivers made. I enjoy using it and do so a lot of the time. You have the coordinates? Okay, push the top right button. Using the thumbstick, select "where to". Push the thumbstick and highlight "Coordinates". Push the thumbstick again and modify the coords you see on the screen. Thumbstick down to "done" and push the thumbstick again. Select the guidance method you wish to use and away you go. Did you download the manual from Garmin's website? The quick-start leaflet you got with your unit is not the manual.

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Could someone please help me? I have recently bought a Garmin eTrex 20. This is the first time I have used a GPS receiver. Before I was using the iPhone App. I have only a vague understanding of how to work this gizmo.

 

My question is this. I have been working on solving a puzzle cache where you answer questions and end up with a set of coordinates. I have done this, but now I do not know how to enter these coordinates into the eTrex. Is this called waypointing? I knew how to enter it in the iPhone but the Garmin has me beat. I have downloaded the geocache to the Garmin. I can see how to enter a waypoint from my current location, but that will not be of any use to me in this particular situation. I appreciate any help you can offer.

 

Thanks.

 

You want to learn how to create and then edit waypoints.

 

Full owner manual, page 9:

 

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/eTrex_10-20-30_OM_EN.pdf

 

 

B.

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Everyone enjoys having a chuckle at the expense of a newbie, so here go....oh, I guess with 500+ caches we aren't exactly newbies ... feel free to laugh anyway.

 

Went out this afternoon, fired up the Garmin eTrex 20 after a few weeks not using it and it appears some setting got messed up. Specifically, the GEOCACHE screen works just like it used to - see your cache in the list, pick it and GO. The map then automatically comes up, but we are missing the top bar or section which used to show the compass/pointer, distance to cache, size of cache, etc.

 

We must have messed this up somehow ourselves but I am both embarrassed and frustrated that I can't find how to reset it to the previous display format ... it is probably a really simple step or two, but I have been in and out of the menus for at least 30 minutes and I simply can't seem to find the right settings.

 

Can anyone stop laughing long enough to help me out? :)

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Everyone enjoys having a chuckle at the expense of a newbie, so here go....oh, I guess with 500+ caches we aren't exactly newbies ... feel free to laugh anyway.

 

Went out this afternoon, fired up the Garmin eTrex 20 after a few weeks not using it and it appears some setting got messed up. Specifically, the GEOCACHE screen works just like it used to - see your cache in the list, pick it and GO. The map then automatically comes up, but we are missing the top bar or section which used to show the compass/pointer, distance to cache, size of cache, etc.

 

We must have messed this up somehow ourselves but I am both embarrassed and frustrated that I can't find how to reset it to the previous display format ... it is probably a really simple step or two, but I have been in and out of the menus for at least 30 minutes and I simply can't seem to find the right settings.

 

Can anyone stop laughing long enough to help me out? :)

 

Don't feel so bad, the Etrex menus aren't very intuitive and the Garmin manuals are really poor. From memory (my Etrex is at home) go into the map screen, then setup (left menu button) then Setup Map > Data Fields and choose "Dashboard" I think.

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Can anyone stop laughing long enough to help me out? :)

Don't feel so bad, the Etrex menus aren't very intuitive and the Garmin manuals are really poor. From memory (my Etrex is at home) go into the map screen, then setup (left menu button) then Setup Map > Data Fields and choose "Dashboard" I think.

Thanks very much for the pointers - problem solved! I was pretty sure it had something to do with the Dashboard, yet for some reason I simply could not find the option for selecting that.

Glad to hear someone else finds the manuals poor and the menus unintuitive. I do a lot of computer/spreadsheet related work, including building "applications" that others will have to work with and I am usually considered to have a pretty logical, organized mind. I like our Etrex20 very much for using it, but when it comes to "programming" it I feel like I am going crazy - I am obviously not tuned in on the same wavelength as the designers (or users) who thought they had developed an intuitive menu system - to me a better description would be a random menu system <_<

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For multis and puzzles where you answer questions in the field, you can enter new coordinates (next stage) right from the geocaching options as long as you are currently navigating to the cache.

 

For puzzles that you solve at home, you can modify the coordinates at the listing on geocaching.com, and when you download the cache to your GPS, either one at a time or using pocket queries, the puzzle's location is updated with the solved coordinates.

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