How to setup my Garmin c550 for Geocaching?

Question

I have the Streetpilot c550 and was told about geocaching but don't know how to set this up. I downloaded GeoBuddy and downloaded geotargets and it is on my GPS and comes up on my favorites list but doesn't seem to be working right.

Answer 1

The c550 is a pretty poor choice for geocaching.  You would be much better served by purchasing a Garmin eTrex H for $85 or an eTrex Venture HC for $115.  Programs like EasyGPS and the geocaching.com website can better interface with those units than StreetPilots and nuvis.  Automotive units like the c-series are too bulky and most automotive units are too fragile for geocaching.  You *will* drop your GPS receiver while caching.

If you really want to use your c550, look to see if the unit has the ability to accept coordinate entry.  Like how you can enter an address into the unit, you should be able to enter coordinates.  You would then save the coordinates as a Favorite.  You put the unit into Pedestrian mode.  Then you go to that favorite you just entered.  I know there are people who geocache with nuvis, so I know it is possible to do and actually not that difficult.  The only problem with those units is that you have to constantly refresh the coordinate readout screen and compare it with the geocache's coordinates, since the nuvi doesn't have an arrow page to guide you to the cache.  The nuvi 500 series does have this feature and it comes out in Fall 2008.

Looking back at your question, it looks like you need to get your unit into pedestrian mode so it doesn't try to route you on the roads when you are walking through a park to the geocache.  You also need to find out if there is a way to get a coordinate readout.  On the nuvi you can get a coordinate readout by tapping on the cursor on the map screen.  The c550 might work the same way.