Oregon 450t bis
In my previous blog, I’ve unboxed my new Orgeon 450t. Now I’m going into the filed with it.
But before one can do that, one needs to feed the GPSr with geocaching data. I do this with GSAK and the Garmin Colorado/Oregon Export Macro. I was rather happy when the specs of the 450t mentions that you can save up to 5000 caches on the internal memory of the device. So I selected all my Belgian not found trads, multis, earthcaches and eventual parking waypoints and transferred it to the GPSr. All seemed to work fine, until I wanted to find a location based on coordinates. When I click on that icon, nothing happens and no error msg is shown either. When I go to the waypoint manager, it indicates that the waypoint memory is full. The catch seems to be that, despite the fact that it can hold 5000 caches, only 2000 waypoints can be saved. This is a rather strange philosophy in my eyes. Each cache needs at least one waypoint and, since Belgium is a typical multi country, a lot more for multi caches and eventual child waypoints like parking coordinates. The solution to this is to export all caches as POI. There is also another issue I’ve discovered whilst looking at the logs, but more on that later.
Ok, we’re set to find our first cache. That goes rather quickly, you select the geocache icon and the cache you want to find. The user interface is really self explaining. Sadly enough it is not completely flawless. First of all, there are a lot of icons and as said with the Dakota, the menu structure is sometimes odd and it’s not always easy to find things back, certainly when the page navigation is (still!) not rotary. The UI provides you an arrow to go left/right when you are at the first/last screen, but you can’t use is it. Instead of showing some animation (as if you hit a wall) it would be nice if you could navigate to the desired page or at least dump the useless arrows. The good thing is that you can create you own menu structure and I’ve put the geocaching specific icons I use on the first page.
So I selected the cache and it was time to navigate. The question know is I use the (default) compass or the map, just like with the 60Cx. Well, none of both. One option is to use a so called profile. It’ll show all the info you need in order to find the cache. This works very well as long as you stick with trads. If you want to go to a waypoint or an entered coordinate of e.g. a multi cache, you’re in trouble. Whilst navigating to it, it’ll show the information of the nearest cache instead, even if you didn’t select it.
A much better option is to use the map and add you own data fields. I’ve choosen 4: distance, compass, deviation and time. This works very well. The accuracy is very good, at least I don’t see any difference with the 60cx machines of the people I’m caching with. It is clear that Garmin has been working on the initial accuracy problems of the Oregon.
Battery life time is average compared to the 60cx I had. Or should I compare with the 60csx, due to the compass? I understand that touch screens need more power, but I’ve set the battery saver option (which blanks out the screen) to the minimum time. The screen saver has an oddity: when you tap on the screen in order to bring it back to life, it’s shows the initial situation (before blanking the screen out) for a split second. As if it stopped navigation upon blanking screen, but the device still bleeps when the destination is reached. Speaking of, I really don’t understand why a popup is shown upon arrival. One needs to tap on the OK in order to make it vanish, which is silly. I know that I arrived at the spot where I need to be, so why do I need to confirm this?
We arrived at the spot where the cache should be, but you aren’t able to find it. Since the 450t enables you to cache paperless, you can consult the previous logs. And there is something strange. Despite I’ve set my language and time zone, the 450t shows the log dates in mm-dd-yyyy instead of the dd-mm-yyyy format. Strange, since all dates in GPX files are in a standard ISO 8601 format. As if Garmin doesn’t know that a lot of people use this dd-mm-yyyy format (blue on the map).
Map by Gadren, GNU Free Documentation License.
![350px-Date[1]](http://searchjaunt.idizaai.be/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/350pxDate1.png "350px-Date[1]")
I’ve reported this to Garmin, but all I got so far was a request to install the latest software and/or do a factory reset, which doesn’t bring any change. The 400t of my fellow cacher has the same issue, so it can’t be tagged as a single incident related to my GPSr only.
Having said that, when you (did not) found the cache, you’re able to log things in the field. I like the feature that you can use these field notes for logging online in a later stage. That’s yet another nice example of paperless caching with this device. That doesn’t count for multi caches though. It is clear that some important features are missing here and you still need to use paper and pen or an external apps like Geoscout. The latter enables you to keep record of formulas and letter values in order to find the next/final waypoint.
Strange that Garmin doesn’t provide anything for this nor API which enables you to create your own application for this or goodies like conversion tools (A=1; Z=26), etc. A missed chance to make this an all-embracing device.
It’s time for a conclusion. First of all, I want to indicate that this isn’t a professional review and only a reflection of my experiences so far. Yes, it’s far from perfect if only to my broken English – which is my 3rd (or even officially my 4h language) – which prevents me from having the aspiration to write litterature. I deliberately compare things with my previous device, which is a 60cx. Owners of other Oregon types will not find anything new I guess, since a 450t is often stigmatize as a 550t without a camera. I didn’t test things like Whereigo yet though, but I guess that much of my possible remarks will be more Groundspeak related instead. Another things are the so called proximity alarm capabilities which the Oregon seems to lack compared to the 60 series. I have to admit that I’ve never used that feature in the past, so I don’t know what to look for as an alternative.
Having said this, I like the device so far. It has nice maps – version 3 is available on the 450t, which includes countries like Switzerland now – which enables you to do basic navigation without buying maps for each country you will do occasional caching. If do some extensive caches, specific topos are a must, since the scale of the included maps aren’t suitable for this. A second highlight is the touch screen UI. Once used to it and you’ve customised it to your needs, it’s fairly good (not considering some oddities). The main use is of course navigation which passes my requirements brilliantly.
The problem with this device – and thus all the Oregon types I guess – the focus on Traditional geocaches only. It shows not only whilst navigating using the geocaching profile settings, but also with the lack of an application supporting the typical ‘on the field’ work involved with a multicache. This prevents to device to be a true paperless caching device, which is a pity. If Garmin isn’t able/willing to support this, I suggest to make its system open and provide an API for external developers.
