Hack your Garmin eTrex

There are a number of ways to modify the handy little GPS unit that the TeamWSMF has equiped themselves with.
First off you will need a cable to hook your PC to your eTrex. The Dingos from downunder have a great page showing the possibilities for getting the cable. This .cz based eTrex Fan page will show you how to make your own cable.

The next stop should be an upgrade of your firmware from Garmin’s site, if you need to rev up to the lattest version.

Then there are the hacked firmwares. These add features like new map symbols.
You can also find kits to make your own modifications to the firmware. Careful with that axe Eugene, the unit you turn into a worthless pile of plastic just might be your own. Messing with firmware hacks always has its dangers, so measure twice cut one.

The Palm —- eTrex Connection
Take a handy eTrex GPS unit, most any old Palm Pilot and link them togther with a cable and what do you get?
With these apps for the Palm you can grab the data from your eTrex and have your Palm show you movable maps, routes, traces, and all sorts of views of where you are and just where you are going.
There are apps made just for the eTrex to allow the Palm to store tons of data that you can move into the eTrex’ limited memory when you need it.

Most of the apps do not require the lattest or greatest Palm units, most will run on the older ones that you can pick up on the cheap.

Geocrazy Weekend

Dawn, the baby to be and I took off this weekend to finaly try out our new eTrex GPS unit. It was the first time we have gone Geocaching and man did we ever have a blast.

From late Friday afternoon till early evening on Sunday we were out in the Big Red Beast finding various geocaches from as far northwest as Astoria, down past Canon Beach, deep into the trials on hiway 26 and in various spots in between. Here is a list of the spots with descriptions and even some pictures.