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Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 03 April 11 4:29 pm
by Agent Basil
Either I am doing something wrong, or I have a faulty unit (and in either case, crap user manual doesn't help.

Upload a GPX file from GSAK with local unfounds - about 3 MB worth. Add another GPX file, direct from PQ of 200 KB for a road trip plus a few individual caches. All good so far!

Ran another PQ for another forthcoming trip. 5 MB worth. Directly after uploading, I ejected Oregon from PC and looked for a cache in the locality of next trip - it was there on the Oregon!

Hop in car, plug Oregon in, go for a drive. Search for geocaches and I get a screen saying "No geocaches found - visit www.Garmin etc to learn about downloading geocaches". Good thing I had the iPhone with me. Get home and plug Oregon into PC and all the GPX files are in the GPX directory on the Oregon but I can't access any of them ! Has anyone experienced this before ?

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 06 April 11 7:51 am
by Big Matt and Shell
Never seen is but what was the sum total number of Geocaches in all the GPX files?

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 06 April 11 8:49 am
by Cached
Did you send them out as waypoints rather than as geocaches?

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 06 April 11 9:19 am
by Agent Basil
From memory, about 1600 caches. They couldnt have loaded as Waypoints unless there is some new trick I am not aware off

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 06 April 11 4:16 pm
by EuDes
I've had an Oregon 300 for nearly two years now and this is my biggest bugbear with it. I usually have to load the PQ GPX file at least twice before it 'takes'. I learnt the hard way too but since that time, I try and make sure I check to see if the caches are 'visible' before leaving home. The bizarre thing is that if you load the GPX file from the unit's directory into something like Mapsource, all of the caches are actually there; they just don't show on the unit!

Originally, I thought it was a problem with overwriting the existing file in the GPX directory but it does it even after I've deleted that file. It also does it when adding a new file with a different name! It's not the number of caches that seems to be the problem (the 300 takes 2000, the 450 takes 5000), it just seems to be some sort of bug :(.

It's a real nuisance as it adds that much extra time to loading caches in before heading out into the wild, blue yonder as you need to extract the GPX file to the directory, unplug the unit from the computer, restart the unit, (sometimes remove the batteries to cold start it because it freezes at that point :shock:) and if you find there's nothing showing, you need to go through the whole routine again.

I'm running the latest unit software version (4.16) with the most recent GPS software version (5.00) but as it has been doing it since very early in its lifetime, I figure it's an inherent bug :shock:. That said, I've had a look at the Oregon Wiki and no-one seems to have mentioned it until this post.

This has never been a problem (touch wood) with using the "Send to My GPS" function on the GC cache page or from the GCA site. It only seems to be a problem with the GC GPX files (including the old 500 cache/PQ limit).

I know one other 300 user who has experienced the problem but it's interesting to hear that it has also occurred with a 450. Good luck and if I hear anything, I'll post again!

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 07 April 11 5:12 pm
by solomonfamily
EuDes wrote:I've had an Oregon 300 for nearly two years now and this is my biggest bugbear with it. I usually have to load the PQ GPX file at least twice before it 'takes'. I learnt the hard way too but since that time, I try and make sure I check to see if the caches are 'visible' before leaving home. The bizarre thing is that if you load the GPX file from the unit's directory into something like Mapsource, all of the caches are actually there; they just don't show on the unit!

Originally, I thought it was a problem with overwriting the existing file in the GPX directory but it does it even after I've deleted that file. It also does it when adding a new file with a different name! It's not the number of caches that seems to be the problem (the 300 takes 2000, the 450 takes 5000), it just seems to be some sort of bug :(.

It's a real nuisance as it adds that much extra time to loading caches in before heading out into the wild, blue yonder as you need to extract the GPX file to the directory, unplug the unit from the computer, restart the unit, (sometimes remove the batteries to cold start it because it freezes at that point :shock:) and if you find there's nothing showing, you need to go through the whole routine again.

I'm running the latest unit software version (4.16) with the most recent GPS software version (5.00) but as it has been doing it since very early in its lifetime, I figure it's an inherent bug :shock:. That said, I've had a look at the Oregon Wiki and no-one seems to have mentioned it until this post.

This has never been a problem (touch wood) with using the "Send to My GPS" function on the GC cache page or from the GCA site. It only seems to be a problem with the GC GPX files (including the old 500 cache/PQ limit).

I know one other 300 user who has experienced the problem but it's interesting to hear that it has also occurred with a 450. Good luck and if I hear anything, I'll post again!
K. I have had similar issues with my O300 - so you are not alone - after loading the caches via gsak the O300 will take a long time to boot on next startup - even as you say start again after removing the batteries. One thing I can suggest though is to cut down on the number of logs downloaded for each cache - this seems to get better results (marginally).

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 07 April 11 6:11 pm
by gd___
I've had this problem a couple of times in the past with my Dakota 20. It happens if the unit is interupted when loading the caches from the GPX file into the GPS unit memory (or atleast the index listing), I've had it hang up when it couldn't get sat fix (and I said not to keep looking) and when I've had lots of logs for some of the caches in the GPX file and some times that I could not explain.

The problem is that when you turn the unit back on it looks at the GPX file and says I've already loaded this one so I don't need to do it again. You need to reload the GPX file with a later creation time, same thing if you load too many caches in (can't just delete one of the GPX files.
solomonfamily wrote: One thing I can suggest though is to cut down on the number of logs downloaded for each cache - this seems to get better results (marginally).
and make sure the unit loads completly before leaving the computer.

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 07 April 11 6:17 pm
by oz lurker
I have the O550 w/ WinXP and was having similar issues early on, however, in my case, the issues were resolved by ensuring that I used the 'eject USB device' option in XP before I disconnected the O550.

For me, the issue seemed to be a combo of a known 'dicky' USB port and the old WinXP issue of the OS failing to write the whole data buffer unless I forced the eject.

So, as long as I do the right ejection process, it's not been an issue since - touch wood (taps head).

The only time I now get the dreaded 'No caches found' message is when I search for a cache and don't get the name correct ](*,)

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 07 April 11 11:15 pm
by squalid
We have an O300 and O450t. The capacity issue seems to be more related to the number of logs associated with the caches you are loading. For the O450t I send 1800 caches with 3 logs each, while the O300 gets 1500 caches and 3 logs. These numbers seem to be borderline too - sometimes one of them won't finish booting. The fix is to connect to the pc and delete geocaches.gpx from the device, disconnect and reboot - it seems to clean itself up at this point, then turn it off, reconnect it, and try to load a smaller number of caches. Very tedious, but once you tune your numbers down, the problem starts to disappear

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 07 April 11 11:28 pm
by EuDes
Hmmm, I might try a few of those. As the only person in the world who doesn't use GSAK though :oops:, I just dump my Friday night PQ of the 1000 closest active caches to home that I haven't done from GC into the /Garmin/GPX directory via a 'holding' directory. There are about 5 logs on each cache I think. Most weeks, the only other caches I have in there are about 120 Burke & Wills caches from GCA so I'm not even getting close to the 2000 limit of the O300.

If I'm going away somewhere, I might get close to the 2000 limit with an extra PQ but it doesn't seem to matter either way as to whether the caches 'take' or not.

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 08 April 11 3:20 pm
by nibbler
can anyone explain or send link to how to load GPX files onto the SD card . I have always loaded these onto the device not SD card
I was wondering if you could load GPX file via a PQ to both the device and sd card at the same time .
What I want to do is run a PQ for local caches and then when travelling do a seperate PQ for the region that I am visiting and load this to my sd card.

Is this possible or have I got it all back to front an upside down.

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 08 April 11 7:01 pm
by EuDes
Try this link to see if it answers your questions. That link applies to the x00 series but I think it's the same for the x50 series anyway. (Simply navigate that Wiki site to get to the version you need.)

By my understanding, the unit and the micro SD card are simply seen as other directories (e.g. F:\, G:\ etc.) by your computer so, like any other directories, you can't load the files simultaneously (although someone who knows more about computers might be able to correct me if I'm wrong).

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 08 April 11 7:25 pm
by The Explorer
nibbler wrote:can anyone explain or send link to how to load GPX files onto the SD card . I have always loaded these onto the device not SD card
I was wondering if you could load GPX file via a PQ to both the device and sd card at the same time .
What I want to do is run a PQ for local caches and then when travelling do a seperate PQ for the region that I am visiting and load this to my sd card.

Is this possible or have I got it all back to front an upside down.
Hello
Create two folders on the SD card called Garmin and inside that GPX (ie Garmin\GPX) and place gpx file in there. However I think you will find that the contents of all gpx cache files on the SD card and internal memory will be combined and listed as one on the GPS. You cant turn off one file and look at the contents of another...though taking the SD card out would let you look at files on internal memory by themselves.

Cheers
Greg

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 10 April 11 3:34 pm
by gmj3191
or use the GSAK macro which will load the caches you select directly to the SD card if you ask it to.

Re: Oregon 450t - loading GPX files

Posted: 10 April 11 11:20 pm
by nibbler
Thanks everyone I willl give both a go when I have sometime :D