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After getting lost a few times driving to cache locations, I feel it’s time to get a road GPS to go with my handheld.
I’m looking at the Garmin Nuvi 200 series (200,205, etc) because they are on the low end of the price scale and I’m on a budget.
My question is this: Do any of the Nuvi 200 series import cache files (I do have GSAK to export them with) and do any of them have an SD card slot?
Do any have updateable maps to account for road construction? The Peshtigo and Oconto bypasses are good examples of this when they are completed at the end of this year and I assume an update will be put out next year for that.
Thanks to those that reply 🙂
I have the nuvi 250 and I really like it – caching is MUCH easier when you know where you’re going. 😆
Mine DOES hold an SD card. I’ve actually put my digital camera card in it to view pictures as a slide show.
Since I don’t have a USB cord for it (yet) I don’t know about the GSAK capabilities but I know that you can download new road maps for free from Garmin (with a USB). Also, there’s a “detour” button you can press to get around construction.
Hope that helps! Happy shopping!
I use a 200 series for the road portion of my caching (ie getting to and from via the road but not the actual caching) and it works great. I use a Garmin 60 series for my caching.
If you have GSAK you can download your caches into your Nuvi with the same cord the 60 series uses. Additionally you have the information that you normally would have via a printout in the Nuvi (by using a Macro from GSAK). I have found this to work very well, however about 50 % of the time my initial upload form computer to Nuvi fails so I have to run it a second time (newer GSAK updates appear to have corrected this problem)
For details please see: http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html
I know it is not perfect solution but it works very well for us
Updates are available thru Garmin, but it will be once the construction is done (ours went mental with the Marquette Interchange work in Milwaukee), the cost is like $80 for one year or $120 for the life of the machine with up to 4 downloads a years, cant give you details on the 1 year plan, we did the lifetime (and the Marquette Interchange is right in the Garmin now)
There is a better macro for the Nuvi than the pilotsnipes one.
See my post on this thread: http://www.wi-geocaching.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=9368
The 255W model is currently priced at 149$ at American if you have one of these around where you live. I paid much more than that a month ago. It’s a wide screen and speaks the navigation and allows the custom POI’s. I would highly recommend this over the cheaper 200 series nuvi’s.
I put an SD card in the 255 but so far, the internal memory has been enough for every PQ that I have loaded to it. Of course I clear out prior database files from it that I won’t use again (like 1 time trips to wherever). The “near home” database of 500 caches remains on it with plenty more room for additional trip PQ’s on top of that without even needing the SD card capacity.
As I have said before, using the Nuvi has totally changed caching for me for the better. Especially in areas I am not familiar with driving in.
-cheeto-
I have not tried Cheetos macro, but I am intrigued. In fact I have downloaded it and will try it, if it works better for me I will switch.
However I think the important thing to remember is regardless of how you get the caches in the Nuvi, it is a great tool to use
We have a nuvi 200. We also use GSAK and have no problems with it. We have loaded over 1500 custom POI”s without an SD card and my cousin has loaded over 2000 without the card. If money is tight a 200 does the job! We did get one free upgrade upon registering it on garmin.com, which did update the roads. The private road we live on was not on the original map that it came with, but was on the update. We’ve been here over four years!
I got a Nuvi 200 free last year from a Discover Card promotion, but last Christmas I saw some going for under $120. You can get one free update in the first year I believe. It works great with GSAK…except when GSAK comes out with newer versions. Then it gets a little fussy with the change-over. I’ve learned to stick with an older version. I rarely resort to paper caching anymore…that’s a HUGE plus[:D]
Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)
Thanks all for your replies.
I should be able to get the Nuvi next week. Bartrod showed me his in action when I was caching with him last week and I was impressed. I then borrowed my ex-wife’s nuvi when I went to Pike Lake. While I didn’t use any macros, I still did the plain Garmin export on GSAK and it did the job well enough for me to visit random caches in the Hartford-Slinger area as well as a few caches around my hotel in Milwaukee and it did a good job locating those caches, even finding a good parking spot for me.
So, many thanks to all of you for your posts on the Nuvi.
Bartrod, what macro did you use to export the cache database to your nuvi on that day we went caching together? I tried Pilotsnipe’s macro and it looked nothing like the one I saw on yours.
All I saw was GC numbers on the list. I have no idea what cache is on the list.
For now, I’ve been using the plain Garmin export on GSAK and it seems to be working ok, but still does not give me the same list that I saw on your nuvi.
Thanks.
It was the Pilotsnipes version 2.0 that came with my GSAK program…I have GSAK 7.5.1.28. GSAK has come out with a newer one but the last time I upgraded, I had all sorts of problem so I’m sticking with my old one. If you have questions, try the GSAK forums…that’s where I resolved my problems…their techs are go-o-o-d 😀
Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)
If anyone wants to see the internals of the Nuvi series, the software side, I wrote a post describing the BSD and GPL licensed software these devices use: Garmin GPS Source Code and Platform
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