Proximity Alerts - Bug? [Bug 108]

[GPSrChive]

Well, now we have a work around while Garmin gets it sorted out.

Thank you!

[CheminerWill]

I was out with my 66sr today and played around with this feature. After being notified of the first cache, you can turn the alarm off and turn it back on once you are outside the distance to the first cache. That's a little easier than turning the gps off and back on.

Thanks! That is probably a helpful clue for Garmin to quickly fix this. It is easier to go to Menu>Setup>Geocaching and turn off and back on the Proximity Alarm slider for sure! Plus it is a extra pain for me to cycle the power while hiking as I am always recording a track. I try this work around on my next hike.

[CheminerWill]

Was out in the woods today and verified this work around. Kind of a pain to have to do over and over and to make sure you have moved far enough away from the last point before doing it, but better than power cycling. A couple of times I was far enough, so reset it, then a switchback put me within the distance again so the same one was triggered again. Once Garmin fixes the proximity alerts, this realerting won't be an issue as you will be able to ignore and just keep moving, but since you now have to reset after every alert, it does add to the annoyance.

But now that I can make the proximity alerts sort of work, I find another issue, at least an issue for me.

Until recently when an alert did not happen I could not be 100% sure of the reason. Because of this work around, I can be pretty sure. I have envisioned that once Garmin gets the bugs out, this alert would notify you whenever you got within your set distance of any cache. Today, as long as I had manually turned off and on the alerts, I was always alerted to the proximity of the next unfound cache. However, I approached three different caches I had found in the past, no alert. When I approached a cache that I had hidden, no alert. I can think of several reasons this should alert you when you are near any cache, not just unfound ones. Maybe I have missed a filter specifically for the proximity alerts? If so, please someone explain the error of my way and how to turn these alerts on for all caches.

[asprin624]

I do it a different way when Geocaching.
We layout where we are going and what Geocaches we are going to look for.
In most cases we do a loop of 10 to 30 caches. Even if I do not get a sound that I am near a cache I look on the 66 to see how close I am. I make a list of the caches in the order I am walking in.
As of yet I have not missed any caches I set out to find.
When this bug is fixed will be great but it has not stopped me from Geocaching.
Plus I do not keep the caches I have found I remove them at the end of the day after logging them.
Small side note:
The wife is with me running her eTrex 22x and that always beeps. But I get to the cache long before the eTrex 22x sounds off. Then let here find the cache if she wants to..

These are work around that I use and they work.....

I am sure Garmin will fix this little bug soon......

[CheminerWill]

We layout where we are going and what Geocaches we are going to look for.
Even if I do not get a sound that I am near a cache I look on the 66 to see how close I am. I make a list of the caches in the order I am walking in.

I am usually on a hike with others that are not geocaching and often the exact hike is determined on the fly. And often I am talking to someone, not watching my GPSr screen. So I have many times walked right by caches that I would have looked for, not noticing them until too late.

Plus I do not keep the caches I have found I remove them at the end of the day after logging them.

Even so, my finds and hides do show up in my ggz file and on live geocaching so they display on the unit. And, I do want that. Yesterday as noted, I approached a couple of caches I had found and one I had hidden and did not get an alert. When approaching unfound caches yesterday, as long as I had cycled the alert setting, I got the alarm just not on the hidden and found ones. Maybe GPSrChive will opine on what I saw yesterday to let us know if it makes sense. I could have something set wrong, I suppose. Or the found and hidden caches could have not alerted for some other reason or bug. I will pay attention to this on my next outing and see if I get the same results.

[GPSrChive]

We have confirmation that the Geocache Proximity Alert feature only alerts for unfound geocaches.

Initially we thought this might be a bug or oversite, but in reality, what >95% of users will want to be alerted to is unfound geocaches, not their own finds or hides, so our opinion is that this is OK as implemented.

All GPSrChive wiki pages have been updated to reflect this new information (you may have to refresh some pages to see the updated version).

We appreciate all user input to help make this wiki the best it can be.

Thank you!

[CheminerWill]

We have confirmation that the Geocache Proximity Alert feature only alerts for unfound geocaches.

Initially we thought this might be a bug or oversite, but in reality, what >95% of users will want to be alerted to is unfound geocaches, not their own finds or hides, so our opinion is that this is OK as implemented.

Thank you!

Agree that for most people that is what they would want but it is unfortunate for the 5%, (or maybe more) of us others who would use a filter for this feature. But once they fix the current bug, I will be happy to finally have the feature working. I am likely unique in that I am often hiking with people who don't really know about geocaching. I like to inform them when we happen to hike by a geocache even though, on local hikes at least, I have probably found 75% of those already. That way if it grabs their interest, I can encourage them to try to find it. I have recruited a few new people to the game this way. But there have been way more times when I did have the attention of a "not yet" geocacher and we walked right by caches.

[CheminerWill]

Another use I would have to be notified of all caches is: When hiking, if I happen to get near one, I usually try to check on any of my hides or other people's that I have previously found. I do this just to see if there are any issues that can be quickly fixed and to post a note if all is good. On caches that are out in the woods and that don't get a lot of activity, this can be helpful for other owners or future searchers to see especially if it has been years since the last find. (Not that uncommon in the Oregon woods).

But as I noted, I will stop worrying about the finer points of this feature and once fixed, move on to just being really happy to have it!

[mpistora]

I also observed the problem described in this topic, but I did not have time to document it as CheminerWill. Thanks.

I have a request for this dialogue:





It should have two buttons:
ENTER to Go
QUIT to Dismiss

[Mongo]

Great piece of diagnosis CheminerWill.
I have found exactly the same problem, and would very much hope it's fixed, definitely for unfound caches, and like you, I hike on the fly and often have GC newbs with me that would want to find GC's I've found.

On another note, know any way to change the found icon for a GC? That massive treasure chest is horrible. I filter found caches to get rid of that icon!