Garmin Etrex Legend

mumof2 · Post by **mumof2** » 25 September 07 5:04 pm

Hi all,

I'm looking at buying an Etrex Legend. What is the general consensus for this? Am I making the right decision????? We have a tomtom one for the car, but it just doesn't cut it with finding caches

Geokid is sad when he can't find the treasure!!!

Mum of 2

octagonal · Post by **octagonal** » 25 September 07 5:55 pm

Funny post mumof2.

I have been going through a similar thought process over the past couple of weeks.

Today I bought an etrex legend and I've come back here to do some searching to get some setup & usage ideas.

So - I think you are making the right decision - but I can't back it up with anything other than reaching the same conclusion myself. yet.

Wingaap · Post by **Wingaap** » 25 September 07 6:16 pm

IMHO the legend is a great little unit. I'd still be using mine had it not suffered from an unfortunate accident

mumof2 · Post by **mumof2** » 25 September 07 6:27 pm

what sort of unfortunate accident did it have???

Wingaap · Post by **Wingaap** » 25 September 07 6:29 pm

mumof2 wrote:what sort of unfortunate accident did it have???

The geowife accidently reversed the car over it! Well she said it was an accident

mumof2 · Post by **mumof2** » 25 September 07 6:32 pm

what was it doing on the ground???

Wingaap · Post by **Wingaap** » 25 September 07 6:39 pm

mumof2 wrote:what was it doing on the ground???

dont you start!! I heard those exact words at the time

I was unloading my car...which was beside hers. My gps was in my pack which I placed on the ground. She reversed....end of gps and end of story.

KevL · Post by **KevL** » 25 September 07 7:50 pm

An etrex Legend is what I ended up buying as well.
The mapping capability is somewhat limited by memory and screen size but it is a great benefit in finding "unknown" geocaches nearby when hunting down a target cache. Download shonky's excellent mapset and your ready to go.
As far as the units capability to help find geocaches, mine is spot on most of the time. Quite incredible when you consider the margin of error in the first unit when the cache is placed and the margin of error in my unit when attempting to find a cache.
Reception under tree cover isn't brilliant but is acceptable. A tip if going under tree cover is to get a good solid lock on the satellites first. It seems to help. Often the person placing the cache has had the same problem and may have given a hint.

All in all a great little unit. I'm very happy with mine.

Kev

Keeper of Time · Post by **Keeper of Time** » 25 September 07 10:51 pm

Hi mumof2 and welcome to our passion, I have an Etrex Legend too and together with GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) it has proved to be a most suitable solution.

What ever unit you end up getting I am sure you will have fun getting out in the fresh air and enjoying some quality family time.

chewinprickles · Post by **chewinprickles** » 26 September 07 1:01 pm

I have been looking at Garmin's for a while because having cached with others with them they seem much better than my current Magellan.
There's a new version coming out soon in most of the models which has a H prefix. Apparently a much more powerfull reciever etc. Reputedly better than the Sirf 3 currently in the 60 series.
There's quite a bit of discussion in the GC forums at the moment. Might be worth a look.
I was talking to GPS Oz earlier in the week and the "H" version aren't in Australia yet but I'm considering either getting one from the States or waiting a while.

Eynowd · Post by **Eynowd** » 26 September 07 1:09 pm

KevL wrote:Download shonky's excellent mapset and your ready to go.

I've had my eTrex Legend for over a year now and I'm quite happy with it. I've done over 400 caches with it and it's quite adequate for the job.

Here's a question though: how does one go about loading new maps into it? I'm still using the basemap, and I've never tried to load anything else into it. I wasn't sure if it was worth it, given it's only got 8Meg of memory.

KevL · Post by **KevL** » 26 September 07 1:27 pm

I believe the Windows software you require is img2gps. A google search will reveal download locations. The software is free. For Linux use QLandKarte.
Although limited to 8meg, this still allows me to load all of South east Qld, from north of Bundy , west to Chinchilla and south to and over the border.
Connect your gps to a serial port.
Select all the maps you want to upload at the one time because each upload overwrites previously uploaded maps.You cannot remove/overwrite the base map.
Hope this helps

Kev

Green Team 2 · Post by **Green Team 2** » 27 September 07 10:12 am

I bought the better half an eTrex Vista because of the extra memory. She is enjoying it. Seems to have everything you need as well. At least she can go her way now.

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 27 September 07 10:19 am

check out the shonkymaps thread for free uploadable topographic maps that will work on the legend.

http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=8073

They can be uploaded easily using what they suggest here:

http://www.malsingmaps.com/wiki/index.p ... rce_viewer

Zytheran · Post by **Zytheran** » 27 September 07 2:53 pm

I've had a B&W Legend for nearly 4 years now.
Good points: Has maps (v.good with Shonky Maps); has 1000 way points; small, easy to use.
Bad points: Has issues and dodgy reception near cliffs and buildings, eventually rubber strip comes off around edge; eventually connector between screen and circuits goes dodgy. (Both fixable for nearly no cost, just the hassle and time)

Overall good points outweigh bad points and is probably a pretty good "sweet spot" GPSr. (Price vs. features) Newer units might have fixed the problems I mentioned.