
11:28 pm

March 20, 2010

wolf9545 wrote:
So far the GC seems to be working fine via the list of things I wrote about in an earlier post. We have gone caching to a few caches and the unit turned on and off fine. One question though, with the copy of the software that I re-loaded on the unit, it now states that I have done 1,000 caches; the GC unit awards not geocaching.com. Does anyone know of the file/files that contain the awards listing? This way I can copy it back over from my old backup to the new working unit.
Check out this thread...
https://www.exploristforum.com/.....id=401#405
David
11:07 pm

March 20, 2010

You can download sql-lite and edit the file, though I'd have to check to see which .dat file it is and set it to the correct number or you can just reset the number from the menu in the Geostat screen and start back at zero... I normally reset mine everytime I go out so that I know how many I've found that day. It has been a couple of month, however, when I go on a big caching day to find 50+ or 100+ caches it is nice to be able to keep up with the finds for the day...
David
7:16 pm

October 22, 2010

So far the GC seems to be working fine via the list of things I wrote about in an earlier post. We have gone caching to a few caches and the unit turned on and off fine. One question though, with the copy of the software that I re-loaded on the unit, it now states that I have done 1,000 caches; the GC unit awards not geocaching.com. Does anyone know of the file/files that contain the awards listing? This way I can copy it back over from my old backup to the new working unit.
2:21 am

March 20, 2010

It shouldn't be hard. I don't have the time to write the macro, but someone could easily that the Triton macro and write the code into it to delete everything between the "
|
"nwpatext">NWPA Geocachers : Northwestern Pennsylvania's Geocaching
Organization : "http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NWPAGeocachers/"> "nwpatext">Learn More.
|
I have seen this type of problem with about a dozen caches that have a table in the description section of the cache page.
When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout
11:32 pm

October 22, 2010

Well I backed up everything that was on the unit, then I deleted everything that was on it. I copied over the downloaded file that dwcarr1 had uploaded to my GC unit. Then I copied over my copy of the map folder to my GC; ran the update to 1.6. After that was all done and verified that my unit would turn on with what I had loaded I re-ran my 7 PQ's and loaded them into GSAK. When I loaded them into GSAK I made sure to delete all of the caches in GSAK first to be sure nothing would interfere. Sent over the caches, with the "download images" box checked to be sure I also got the images. Unit turns on fine and really quickly too. Everything seems to be working fine.
One of the caches does cause my unit to "restart" (shows a black background and just the spinning hour glass). The cache is, "Dove78's 2000 Finds". I don't know if this also happened before my unit froze up because I have over 5,500 caches on the unit and that one is about 60 miles away.
edit: Well this is odd. After I successfully got my unit working I was turning it on and off a few times to make sure that it worked and to get a satellite lock on. My wife came home from work and we decided to test it out so we went to one cache near us. We parked, turned on the unit and ... still stuck at the hour glass. Tried turning it on a few times and the same thing. After about 5 minutes of driving back to our house and leaving the unit on, it came back to the main screen. So we did three caches in the area while leaving it turned on. I did try turning the unit on and off a few times and it seems fine again.
10:36 pm

October 22, 2010

What software are you guys using to transfer over the PQ's / caches from geocaching.com? I am using GSAK mainly because it takes over 1.5 hours to transfer the 7 PQ's I have. The reason I ask is I wonder if Vantage Point has something built in that detects the "corrupted" GPX cache and fixes it?
edit: I too have just experienced the "hour glass" problem and I am on version 1.6. Currently I am removing everything off of my GC, made a backup first, and then going to re-load the software from dwcarr1's file. Then I will see if that works. If it does I will re-send my 7 PQ's over and see if it still works; will keep you updated.
12:33 am

March 20, 2010

Guwapo,
Yes, Magellan is on these forums and they've also allowed people like myself, S1G and Miniwhip (our Awesome Forum Op.) to have contact with them so that we can forward issues directly to them, so yes they are very aware of these issues and they are working to correct them. Actually, just a couple of months ago I sat in a conference room at the Magellan offices down in San Dimas and spoke directory with the Product Manager, Marketing Manager, GIS Specialisty, Support Manger, Software Manager and a couple of other people that I can remember what they do. However, I say this to let you know that we do have their ear and they are more than willing to listen. Yes, they also know that there are still some issues with their support as well, but they're working that issue as well and it is getting better.
David
12:02 am

April 12, 2011

My GC developed the hour glass on Sunday 10th just as I was about to go caching. 🙁
Can't recall if I'd loaded any GPX files just before hand but it is possible.
Did the standard exercise and upgraded from 1.4 to 1.6 but no difference.
Contacted Magellan support and while they were prompt at replying there weren't very helpful in the end. They asked me to do the usual power off and hard resets which were to no avail.
They also asked me to put it in to mass storage mode and upgrade, something I'd already explained to them that I had done.
It was after their last email suggesting a method to put the unit in to "Connect to Power Only" mode that I started looking online for similar experiences which led me to this forum.
Went home last night and copied and deleted the Geocaches and Waypoints directories.
Yeehah Success!! :cheer: :cheer:
I tend to agree with others posts that the issue is in the GPX files and how they are formatted. I had many GPX files on the device. Many were downloaded from PQ's using GSAK, some were also done directly from the gc.com website using Magellan Communicator.
What surprises me most is that there are threads in here about the issue that go back over 11 months and yet Magellan support seemed to know nothing about the problem. It begs the question - do they not participate in the forums? If it is a common enough problem - and from reading the posts here that seems to be the case - it should be one of the first things that the support centre should be suggesting rather than hard resets, etc.
Kind wish,
Guwapo
Get Out and Play
http://www.kiwicachers.co.nz
11:27 pm

February 19, 2011

I don't know if that could cause a problem or not but you might want to change to version 1.0.1
To change GPX version, on your profile page on GC.com click on Your Account Details - scroll down to Your Preferences - it will show GPX Version: click on 'change' to change it.
The main difference I know of is version 1.0 will not send attributes to GSAK, I don't know if it could cause any other problems.
Before you load your PQs back to the GC try doing just one at a time, not all at once. Then if it causes a problem you have just the one PQ to find the problem in.
Phild31 , thanks alot for the advice, I haven't noticed that difference on GPX version. I'll change that on my account! 😉
PS: Oh yeah, save those files David sent you, you might need them again! 😉
Yeap, already done that... and made a backup too of my GC after update! 🙂 Backups are always welcome and never too much! 😉
10:10 pm

April 6, 2010

I just thought I would point out that your PQs are in GPX version 1.0
I'm loading them to GSAK to see if I can find a problem when/if I have the time.
I don't know if that could cause a problem or not but you might want to change to version 1.0.1
To change GPX version, on your profile page on GC.com click on Your Account Details - scroll down to Your Preferences - it will show GPX Version: click on 'change' to change it.
The main difference I know of is version 1.0 will not send attributes to GSAK, I don't know if it could cause any other problems.
Before you load your PQs back to the GC try doing just one at a time, not all at once. Then if it causes a problem you have just the one PQ to find the problem in.
Good luck.
PS: Oh yeah, save those files David sent you, you might need them again! 😉
When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout
7:20 pm

March 20, 2010

At this point I wouldn't be afraid to mess up the firmware or anything else so here is what I would do. Take every file that you downloaded from the backup of my GC and copy them over the ones on your GC. But as you do it, I would also make sure that there are no extra files that are not found in my backup - except the map files. You see, the firmware updates don't always replace all of the cofiguration files on the unit and one of them might be corrupt.
David
1:14 am

March 20, 2010

Well, I don't think the problem is with using your MAC. Personally I do believe that the problem is coming from GC.com, however, I don't believe the problem is Ground Speaks issue. I believe that it is probably and issue that is being uploaded into the descriptions of the caches and is being passed down through in the GPX files. I’ve seen too many problems with the HTML in the GPX to discount it as the problem. So, thank you for the GPX file because I’m going to try it out and see what I can find and I’m going to also forward to Eric and Magellan.
As far as fixing your problem. I’ve upload the entire contents from my GC for you to download – minus the Map files because they’re too large to deal with, so you can download the file at:
Hope this helps,
Later
David
12:13 am

February 19, 2011

Hi again!
I've copied the files of GC.zip to the Geocaches folder but no luck on the reboot! 🙁 I wonder if Explorist doesn't come originally with Waypoints and Tracks files too...
The PQ files I've used so far are all the Portugal geocaches, almost 10000 caches, but splitted in 999 caches max. on each file plus the waypoint files. I don't believe the problem could be from the GPX files, since they're generated by the GS website.
It's the 2nd or 3rd time this happens to me, so I guess the problem might be from me using the Mac to drag'n'drop the files on the Explorist...
Any advices? Thanks in advance, once again! 🙂
UPDATE: here's the GPX files I've used before the crash: excer_gpx.zip
Let me know when you've downloaded the file, so I can erase it! 😉
11:02 pm

March 20, 2010

eXcer wrote:
David, thanks alot for the quick reply and also for the files. I'll let you know if they worked!
The GPX I've used before the crash, were pocket queries I've made on GC.com.
Once again, thanks for all the help!
If you could send me a copy of the GPX files from GC.com that crashed your GC I would greatly appreciate it. We're trying to track down some of these GPX files so we can figure out what is causing the crash.
David
10:19 pm

March 20, 2010

Ok, grabbed my external while at lunch... Try downloading:
These are from the original load that came with my GC. If you want a working copy of the files off of my GC with the new firmware try:
Hope this helps, but if you need more files just let me know.
David
8:53 pm

March 20, 2010

I believe I have a backup copy of my GC as it came original, however, it is on my backup drive at home, so if someone else doesn't jump in before I get to it let me know and I'll get you whatever you need off of it.
However, I have a favor. I need you to send me the GPX files that caused the crash... If you would send them to me at [email protected] I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
David
7:48 pm

February 19, 2011

Bad luck, the "hour glass" strikes back! 🙁
After updating my GPX files using drag'n'drop on my Mac, when I rebooted the device, the "hour glass" curse haunted my GC again!
I've manage to acess GC memory (using the info on my previous post) and deleted all the GPX. After reboot, no luck again! :S
I wonder if I can work this out using the original GPX files that came with the device. Does anyone have a backup of them? Or even the "newwaypoints.gpx" and "newgeocaches.gpx" files?
Thanks in advance!
3:04 am

February 19, 2011

This is what I've found... and it worked! 🙂
1. Pull the batteries and replace with fresh ones.
2. Connect the USB (with the explorist turned off) to your computer
3. Hold menu+up+power (or power up and then hold menu+up) and the unit will start up in disk access mode (keep them all pressed in until you get a menu on the screen).
4. Once it starts up, browse the device in the windows explorer (or mac equivalent)
5 Go into "Geocaches" folder and move all the files in there to your pc (make a folder in your my documents to store them).
6.Go into the "Waypoints" folder and move all these file as well (keep them separate from the geocache files from above)
7. Eject the device and pull the USB plug and hopefully the unit will reboot normally
After the normal reboot, just checked if everything was ok. Then updated firmware to 1.6, rebooted and place my caches and waypoints in their directories.
5:25 am

February 19, 2011

6:19 pm

February 19, 2011

Hi there!
I was a happy owner of the Explorist GC until last night, when I uploaded some GPX files (PQ) to my GC and after reboot, it went on loop on "Hour Glass"! 🙁
After checking some websites, I've manage to start up GC in disk access mode and, because I've thought the problem could be from any of the GPX files I've copied to the device, I deleted them (waypoints included).
Now the device won't complete the boot up. Before I got an error message "Applicatio error. Restarting in mass storage mode." when powering up. I even tried the reset button some times, but with no effect! 🙁
And I can't event start the GC on disk acess mode again, it just keep on loop when I start it up! :S
Any thoughts or ideas how to fix this? All feedback is welcome! 🙂
P.S: I've always placed the GPX files through my Mac, just drag-n-drop them to the device, like it was a USB pendrive. I've found out that it Mac support is not at 100%! :/ Could it be the reason?
P.S.2: Using the firmware 1.5!
7:41 pm

January 29, 2011

8:33 pm

March 20, 2010

If anyone has an eXplorist GC that is having the Hour Glass lockup problem upon boot-up and it is running version 1.4 of the firmware, please let me know. Also, if you or anyone that you know has this problem - please DO NOT send it in for repair or replacement! If you contact me, I wil get you in direct contact with one of our friends inside of Magellan that wants the unit and will replace it with a new one.
Thanks,
David
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