Well, we bought one of these geomate jr. gps units for our son as a Christmas gift. We thought that it would be something that he would like to try and it was fairly inexpensive to purchase. We were not to sure what it was supposed to do or what we were supposed to do with it. After following the directions and going to the groundspeak geocaching website we started to figure it out and we grabbed a few "caches". To make a long story short, my wife and I both purchased one for each off us as well. (that means we own a total of 3 now). All you have to do is plug the gps into the computer with the USB cord (sold separately ) and choose the location (Eastern United States for example) of the caches that you wish to upload and press "update". All of the caches in the area you have chosen , are in this things memory banks, as well as difficulty, terrain, GC codes, longitude, latitude and more. When you turn it on after you have your up to date caches downloaded, it will show you the 20 closest caches in order of distance (closest to farthest). All you have to do is follow the compass pointer to the cache while watching the numbers getting smaller in miles then to feet. Once you are at "Ground Zero" look for and find the cache. Once done with that you can hold down the smiley face button in order to log the find, which will be recorded as "found". Anyway, geocaching is very fun, and this gps a great no frills easy way to help you do it. Enjoy!!! Caching name: Randomcharlie1Read full review
I gave everything a 5 star except ease of use because the device isn't quite as easy to use as it advertises. Everything is done by a combination of the two buttons and it's a little slow to respond making it easy for impatient kids to push the button too many times. I think it would have been better if there was at least one more button on the side perhaps to spread out the menu items. You NEED the update cable for this though to load the latest cache list into the GPSr because this uses a proprietary serial to usb cable. I hope a new device gets built which is standard mini-usb. The cache loading is also proprietary as you load them from the mygeomate.com website so if the company belly's up your device is obsolete, but it sells for less than a hundred so you're not out much.
On our first day we found 4 caches. VERY easy to use for anyone. It will get you really close to where you need to be. Within 1-10 feet. My 11 year-old daughter was the navigator on a couple of the hunts and she led us right to it. The features are great telling you the size of the cache and the terrain. This is a must have for any new geocacher who is just arting out. Very cheaply priced for what you get.
I think for the money, this is a great little unit. It is easier to use than a full feature GPS and easy to keep in the car for when you're bored and take a quick walk/hike and can see what's nearby to hunt for. Also nice since it's preloaded with caches on it. The only downside is that you have to buy the update cable seperatly, it should be included.
This unit is useless without the update cable which is an additional $30 to $40 bucks. It leads you to caches that have been archived and no longer exist. Without a computer and a notebook with all the active caches, it leads you on a wild goose chase. Had I known it would be outdated, I would have choosen a better GPS. For a child (5-10 yrs) with an adult with a real GPS, this unit would be ok. When I invest in the update cable, the unit will be a bit better. But don't believe the box when it says you can use it right out the box. NOPE, not unless you want to roam endlessly which we did.
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in GPS Units
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on GPS Units