Garmin Nuvi

[Dradicus]

I have a new Garmin Drive 50LM. Is there any way to upload a gpx file to it to navigate to caches? Can I dump the files onto a micro SD card and just plug and play from there or is not that simple? Going on a road trip next week to places I haven’t been in a very long time and I’d much rather use that than my phone. Thanks!

[zekester]

Dradicus are you asking about loading a GPX file that contains a track from cache to cache, i.e., a route plan, or are you asking about loading individual GPX files for caches downloaded from Groundspeak? I highly recommend you go with the later approach, as it is much less problematic.

Here's the workflow we have followed in the past with much success with a variety of Garmin Nuvi units:

1 - On a desktop computer, use Groundspeak's site to identify the group of caches you'd like to go after. You can use the "cache along a route" feature if you are a premium member, or just manually search by whatever filters suite you. We've generally used "cache along a route" for transit portions of a trip, filtering for the time vampires (multi's, puzzles, high terrain etc.). We then do a search based on a given radius around the coordinates of where we're staying, and sort by favorites, and reduce that to a short list. Download all the GPX files for each of those caches.

2 - Plug the Garmin into the desktop computer via USB, and look at it like a hard drive. On a Mac, it should appear on the desktop. On a PC, I think you have to use Windows Explorer.

3 - Open that hard drive and loo at the file structure. In the "Garmin" folder there will be a sub folder called "gpx." Place all of the gpx files you downloaded there.

4 - The files you down loaded are now on the Garmin unit, and can be seen as Points of Interest (POIs). They are likely under the "Saved" category on the Garmin, and will be listed by their GC code. You can then click on one and the unit will provide you turn-by-turn directions to the cache, or as close as it can get you to it. Be advised that this will also likely load all additional waypoints for any given cache, so, parking, trailhead etc.

5 - We still keep paper notes, so I'll build a quick spreadsheet that shows all of the hides in the order that I'd do them, so we can quickly select the next one while we're driving around. If you provide me an email address (you can reach me via Groundspeak) I'll be happy to send you a sample of such a spreadsheet.

Loading actual routes to a Garmin varies unit by unit and is much more problematic and involved.

Hope this helps -

Z

[lpaulriddle]

I have a Garmin Oregon 450T that I'd say I use about 90% of the time when I'm caching. Not sure how the driving-specific models work, but on the Oregon, you can put GPX files on the SD card and it will recognize them. You just need to manually create the directory structure that the Garmin expects to see. At the root of the SD card, create a directory called 'Garmin', and in that directory, create a subdirectory called 'GPX'. Drop your GPX files into this directory, install the card in the unit, and it should recognize the GPX files. You can also do this with the card installed -- just plug the GPSr into the USB port, and two volumes should mount (the card and the unit's internal storage).

To load multiple caches in a given area, I usually create and run a pocket query for the area I'm interested in. Once the query runs, I then download the .zip file, expand it, and copy the resulting directory onto the SD card (same directory as above). The 450T can hold several thousand geocaches. I forget the exact limit, but I did exceed it one time. A pop-up came up that said "maximum number of geocaches exceeded", or something similar to that.

Though not a "car" GPS per se, the Oregon can do turn-by-turn directions if you install a routable map on it. When navigating to a cache, I hit "where to", then "change route activity", and select "automobile driving". Again, I'm not sure if any of this applies to the driving-specific models...

Hope this is of some help. I do this kind of thing all the time, so if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

[Dradicus]

Well I’ve never really messed with gsak until now. I was able to take a gpx file and use a macro to change it to a gpi file and load them as “custom points of interest” in the nuvi. I have an Oregon 600 but the only maps I have are in this mid Atlantic region. We are heading to New England. Thanks for the help! I really need some good hands on lessons on this gsak stuff...