New Garmin GPSr - Oregon "Touchscreen"

Roaming Man · Post by **Roaming Man** » 05 October 08 9:32 pm

Super-T wrote:Had it just 4 days and already has 3 very substantial scratches on the screen due to a single wayward branch - though actually "twig" would be a more accurate description, it sure didn't take much to do the damage.
<p>
I personally would only recommend this unit for driveby caching. If you actually get out and start searching - or even worse, do caches that require some hard searching - then steer clear of it. I doubt it's up to serious hiking or the like from having come off so badly from a very minor brush with a very small branch.

Sorry to hear that you have scratches on your screen. We have recently been to Tasmania. We had both the eTrex HCX and the Oregon 300 with us when we do walks and caching. We have a case for the HCX but the shop did not have a hard case in stock for the Oregon.

I didn't think that the carabiner clip will offer any protection so I kept the Oregon in a camera pouch. The camera pouch was quite effective in keeping the Oregon from being scratch even in difficult situations. You might want to give that a try.

Map Monkey · Post by **Map Monkey** » 23 October 08 7:31 am

A new Firmware update is available which adds numerous handy fixes/features to the Oregon:

Software 2.6

Fixed issue that caused a shutdown during power on
Added support for marine fishing, nautical, and off modes
Added tide and current charts
Added ability to access marine point information on the review page
Made marine POIs available when panning the map
Fixed issue when marking waypoints in the W Malayan RSO position format.
Added GDA 94 datum.
Added NAD 83 datum.
Improved user interface for waypoint location editing
Added 'Coordinates' option to the 'Where To?' menu
Improved position accuracy calculation
Improved static position accuracy

A quick play with this new update and those features bolded are brilliant additions and make the Oregon much more usable and coordinate-friendly.

mm

delboy1203 · Post by **delboy1203** » 24 October 08 9:26 am

Garmin Oregan on special for those of you wanting to buy from the US:
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http://bestgpsdeals.net/garmin-oregon-4 ... s-100/163/

Map Monkey · Post by **Map Monkey** » 24 October 08 9:41 am

delboy1203 wrote:Garmin Oregan on special for those of you wanting to buy from the US:
<br>
http://bestgpsdeals.net/garmin-oregon-4 ... s-100/163/

Apart from the slightly useless UNITED STATES topographical maps on it

, the current exchange rate brings the price to AU$742 at least.....

400C are available for less than AU$600 with warranty in Australia.

With the Australian dollar so low at the moment, and with Garmin Australia reducing their wholesale prices to major retailers, it is cheaper lately to buy locally in Australia than from the US.

The best prices in Australia generally seem to be Ryda.com.au, normally cheaper than Ja-gps.com.au.

mm

Ksix · Post by **Ksix** » 24 October 08 2:35 pm

The latest firmware update for the Oregon has made some great improvements.

One of the biggest negatives for the Oregon was the process you had to go through just to enter co-ordinates for a new location (very cumbersome

).

The latest update, has totally changed how co-ordinates are entered and it has improved significantly

making this great unit now even better !!!

Ksix · Post by **Ksix** » 24 October 08 2:36 pm

The latest firmware update (version 2.6) for the Oregon has made some great improvements.

One of the biggest negatives for the Oregon was the process you had to go through just to enter co-ordinates for a new location (very cumbersome

).

The latest update, has totally changed how co-ordinates are entered and it has improved significantly

making this great unit now even better !!!

McPhan · Post by **McPhan** » 24 October 08 6:28 pm

Got to agree with that.

It was a really pleasant surprise to find and use the new process.

Pity I can't say the same for the cache that I was using the process for

setsujoku · Post by **setsujoku** » 28 October 08 3:49 pm

Well i just purchased a nice shiny new 300 (thanks to Alex), now for the fun of learning all about it, and the best way to do things

First up is the firmware update, and after that will be exporting from GSAK i think. Any preferred way that people do that for the GPX files, or do you just use the GPX export function in GSAK?

McPhan · Post by **McPhan** » 28 October 08 7:58 pm

There is a macro for the Colorado that works with the Oregon as well. I've used it exclusively now that I figured out how to use GSAK more.

Go to GSAK homepage and look in the macro library, there's some top stuff in there.

setsujoku · Post by **setsujoku** » 29 October 08 3:12 pm

24 hours in, and I'm loving it

Managed to grab a handful of caches last night, though getting it out of Anja's hands wasn't an easy task. So much for boys and their toys

First thing i did yesterday was update the firmware from 2.2 to 2.6. Next thing was some city navigator, shonky, and tracks 4 aus maps

A nice quick export from GSAK using said macro (minus the error that i receive when i run the macro, as there isn't a micro SD card in there yet), and all my caches were set to go, including notes

This is where i finish my part of the story though, as i haven't really had the Oregon in my hands since then

I notice that my profile has been changed to Geocaching, which has shuffled the menu's around a bit. I got a quick glimpse at how to bring the hint up.
I did notice that it picks up the satellites very quickly, and has good accuracy. The maps are nice and clear, but the screen could do with being brighter when driving, as it can be hard to see clearly

A whereigo cache could be created soon, as I'm keen to give that a run.

The RAM mount got added to the car this morning as well. It sits nicely, and doesn't look like its going to move far. The Oregon goes in and out of it nicely.

A memory card will be added shortly, probably 2 gig, as they are dirt cheap.
More caching will be done over the weekend (and tonight), but so far this purchase seems more than worthwhile

setsujoku · Post by **setsujoku** » 30 October 08 3:54 pm

Driving around last night and today, it seems that the best way to go is to set the back light to stay on whilst driving, and that resolves a fair bit of the issues. Will wait to see how that effects battery life

Today's purchase was a 2GB card, which ill eventually find the use for, but in the meantime it stops the error that i receive when you run the GSAK macro

team unicycle · Post by **team unicycle** » 31 October 08 8:30 am

setsujoku wrote:Driving around last night and today, it seems that the best way to go is to set the back light to stay on whilst driving, and that resolves a fair bit of the issues. Will wait to see how that effects battery life

Can't you just plug a USB power source into it whilst driving?

Skippy · Post by **Skippy** » 31 October 08 8:52 am

Don't know about the Oregon's but the Colorado's have a special 12v power lead going into the USB

Map Monkey · Post by **Map Monkey** » 31 October 08 9:21 am

Skippy wrote:Don't know about the Oregon's but the Colorado's have a special 12v power lead going into the USB

The Oregon is the same type as the Colorado (pin 4 and 5 bridged) however it is reported that the Colorado will not fit into the Oregon, however an Oregon one will fit into the Colorado.

I have found that the Gilsson version works well, and it will act the same as the Garmin version (stays in GPS mode rather than asking about "mass storage mode").

mm

March Brown · Post by **March Brown** » 24 December 08 7:06 pm

Use garmins Web updater often to check for new updates.
The software version is currently at 2.8