Best Handheld GPS for GeoCaching

benmar2000 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 10, 2006 7:17 pm

What is the best GeoCaching GPS handheld for the money?

Thanks,

Ben

Guyute1210 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:57 pm

I've used eTrex Legend and Venture models, and currently use a 60CS. It's hard to answer your question w/o knowing if you would be using it for navigation as well, but two of my friends bought a referb Legend from www.getfeetwet.com for $120. It's not color, but does maps (both topo and street), unlike my dad's Venture.

My 60CS has all the bells and whistles including color except the newer 60CSx which has a micro-SD slot instead of internal memory.

bthomas · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:27 pm

Pretty much all of the power cachers cache with the 60CS, and many of them are reluctant to upgrade to the 60Cx because they don't think the improved antenna and SD card with only map space but not waypoint space is worth it. Turns out having maps on a card for half the country is probably a good thing though.

I upgraded to the Legend-C and am happy with it. Antenna is almost as good as 60CS, wypt space is 500 instead of 1000, has autorouting if you download the area mapsource, color screen is big enough, and the unit is a pocketable size. Legend-Cx has the SD card for maps. Both Legend and 60CS have dash mounts.

Guyute1210 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:15 pm

bthomas wrote:

Pretty much all of the power cachers cache with the 60CS, and many of them are reluctant to upgrade to the 60Cx because they don't think the improved antenna and SD card with only map space but not waypoint space is worth it. Turns out having maps on a card for half the country is probably a good thing though.

Right now, I have all of Western PA, and all of Ohio street Maps, and topos for all of western PA on my 60CS and still have a more room for maps. I'm mostly in Western PA, but do travel sometimes for work into Ohio and add Ohio Topos when I need them.

LuckeyDuckey · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:18 pm

i have not heard good things about the garmin 60 CSX--for starters they took away the parellel port so it's just USB which is fine, except for people like use there the USB port went bad. i guess the interface is a little different and not as nice. if you have to choose between the cs and the csx, i'd just get the cs. plus they might be little cheaper now since they have new model.

benmar2000 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:10 pm

Thanks for what to look for... I currently have a Magellan Roadmate 360 for road trips and stuff so having highway maps aren't needed.. But topo maps would be very useful... I have been looking at the Garmin Vista Cx.. I just like the idea of being able to expand with memory cards if I need too...

Ben

GUTomek · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:26 pm

I picked up the Garmin Vista some time back and like it alot. The 24mb seems like a good amount to memory. Only gripe is that it eats through batteries a little faster then I woud like.

They have changed a lot over the year, USB connection instead of serial, the expandable memory, better battery life and color is now cheaper.

Cacher123 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 11, 2006 8:28 pm

I have a garmin V which is like indestructible. On my 3rd one! (1st was actually a 3+ and I traded up, 2nd one was stolen 2 weeks ago).

LibertyN8 · **Posted:** Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:40 pm

benmar2000 wrote:

. But topo maps would be very useful... I have been looking at the Garmin Vista Cx.. I just like the idea of being able to expand with memory cards if I need too...

Ben

That is is one I'm using now, It comes with a 64mb card. I have topos loaded for Utah(where i live) and it used most of the space on the card. but the topo maps do add more street detail and tons of way points like schools,church,parks ect... Plus I upload 400+ Geocaches at a time, thats what I use it for anyway!

corwyyn · **Posted:** Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:38 pm

Cacher123 wrote:

I have a garmin V which is like indestructible. On my 3rd one! (1st was actually a 3+ and I traded up, 2nd one was stolen 2 weeks ago).

Another vote for the GPS V. I had a Legend which my brother now uses for caching and travel, and I also have a Lowrance I-finder GO that a friend got me for christmas, but I really like the V. As far as the new Garmin units with USB interface, I think the main problem with them may be that Garmin decided to write their own driver for the USB support (rather than going with standard stuff). So if you are trying to set it up on non-Garmin software it may be buggy. But the V uses the good ole serial interface which has no problems at all. Main reason I don't use the Lowrance unit much is I haven't bothered to get an interface cable for it.

LibertyFever · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:50 pm

I happen to have a Garmin Geko 201 which is a nice small size & accurate however because its powered by two AAA batteries I find I'm changing them often. I bought a second GPS device last week, another Garmin device called an eTrex which runs off of two AA batteries. It should have longer battery life than the Geko.

Both are 12 channel GPS devices and seem to be quite accurate providing it can find enough satellites. I have a serial cable for the devices but have yet to find affordable software to allow me to manage my way points & routes.

One thing I have found useful is using my GPS device with Microsoft's Streets & Trips software. It can tell me exactly where I am, providing I am actually on a road. :lol:

Pablo · **Joined:** Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:06 pm **Posts:** 1201

I bought a Magellan Explorist 600. It was not cheap, but has a nice color screen, antenna, 1GB SD card, 3axis compass, barometer/altimiter, the works.

The antenna is very very acurate (WAAS) and has great reception for such a tiny unit, but it takes a bit when you turn on the unit to find where it is at, as opposed to the Garmin's which are quite a bit quicker. Once it gets reception and triangulates-- it does a great job of holding its lock.

I choose it instead of the Garmin because when you plug it in your USB port you can tell it to be a USB drive-- so your computer can see it like a regular hard drive. This lets you use any program (open source too) to load waypoints. You can also use it as a usb drive and store whatever random files and documents on it you want and create your own directory structures.

The only thing I don't like about it is the topo maps are slightly out of date and the way the software maps sync from your computer is WAY too clumbersome and proprietary. If I had to do it over again, now that the Garmin has an SD card slot, I would consider going that route, but I would miss the features of this unit very much.

Summary: great features, crappy software.

performancechef · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:28 am

LuckeyDuckey wrote:

i have not heard good things about the garmin 60 CSX--for starters they took away the parellel port so it's just USB which is fine, except for people like use there the USB port went bad. i guess the interface is a little different and not as nice. if you have to choose between the cs and the csx, i'd just get the cs. plus they might be little cheaper now since they have new model.

the csx does still have the serial connection, it is the same 4 pin plug used for power. it also powers off the usb too. They do not however include a serial cable with the unit. I just got it a month ago before leaving for Poland and also bought europe topos and city nav dvds and the 2gb micro sd chip. it is nothing short of amazing. the only complaints about this the CSX are very minor nit-pick kind of stuff. As for the antenna, lets just say that i get at least 3 sats in the basement of my house and the altimiter is sensitive enough to register 2ft elevation changes, sometimes even 1ft. As for me, i cannot be happier with the CSX and for my money, i do not think it gets any better.

I bought mine new for $325.00 from www.compuplus.com/ and the maps from amazon.com.

05kjrenny · **Posted:** Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:02 pm

I use the magellan 500 and love it. I have found 444 caches 20 first to finds and it hasnever let me down. Idont even use the cables. Use the sd card and a card reader in the laptop and good to go.I also have a 1 gig sd card and have about 2000 caches and 5 states worth of streetmaps in there with room to spare, cant get all that on the garmin. I have alot of cacher friends using the over priced 60csx and sometimes they go one way and I go the other to make the find. What software do you use to put on your caches? I use the Magellan geocache manager but most use the GSAK.

DryBones · **Posted:** Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:24 am

I just ordered the Magellan eXplorist 210 with the TOPO software/accessories bundle. $179 to my door. I wanted to give this a try for under $200 before I buy one of those big dawgs!

Only thing I didn't like about buying this is that was $179 I now can't spend on the KJ

Uffe · **Posted:** Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:07 pm

performancechef wrote:

LuckeyDuckey wrote:

i have not heard good things about the garmin 60 CSX--for starters they took away the parellel port so it's just USB which is fine, except for people like use there the USB port went bad. i guess the interface is a little different and not as nice. if you have to choose between the cs and the csx, i'd just get the cs. plus they might be little cheaper now since they have new model.

the csx does still have the serial connection, it is the same 4 pin plug used for power. it also powers off the usb too. They do not however include a serial cable with the unit. I just got it a month ago before leaving for Poland and also bought europe topos and city nav dvds and the 2gb micro sd chip. it is nothing short of amazing. the only complaints about this the CSX are very minor nit-pick kind of stuff. As for the antenna, lets just say that i get at least 3 sats in the basement of my house and the altimiter is sensitive enough to register 2ft elevation changes, sometimes even 1ft. As for me, i cannot be happier with the CSX and for my money, i do not think it gets any better.

I bought mine new for $325.00 from www.compuplus.com/ and the maps from amazon.com.

I second the 60CSx loving there. If it had just a bigger screen I would love it for road wayfinding. Had my CRD not come with an in-car installed GPS system with GPS computer and many neat thingies I would have been using my Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx every time.

I have no problems with the interface and I find it easy to handle maps and waypoints on using the software.

501 · **Posted:** Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:10 pm

Geocaching friends of mine swear by the 60 CSX and some of them have the Garmin Nuvi for a car mounted unit. I haven't up graded to that yet. We still use the plain and simple Etrex yellow and for maps we use our Dell Axium with pocket streets & trips.

Jeep Jim · **Posted:** Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:16 am

I had a Rino 110, but its now 5-6 years old. It's been beat up, abused but still works flawlessly. But it was time replace it and I liked the quality of the Rino I currently had. I ended up buying a 60CSX so we'll see how I like not having the radio interface...

05kjrenny · **Posted:** Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:05 am

The garmin 60csx is one of the top runners for cachers in Maryland. I use a Magellan Explorist500 and love it. We also use the Garmin Nuvi660 for Navigation. Great combo in my opinion

Best Handheld GPS for GeoCaching

Who is online