I currently have a Vista HCx and am to receive a PN-40 for Christmas. My primary interests in upgrading to the PN-40:

1) Mapping data updates. Fessing up to my neocaching nature: As far as I can determine, Garmin does not update their maps very often. Their map packages are $100 each, equivalent to three years of the Delorme subscription. That Delorme was offering a very reasonably priced subscription is very compelling. I like Delorme’s offering subsections for when I travel to new areas.

2) Supplement the mapping capability of the HCx. I have roads and Dairy Queens and Courthouses and stuff, but what I *really* want are bike trails and help with finding ways to get to a geocache. Delorme’s overhead views seemed like they would be helpful to determining an approach to a cache.

It was serendipitous that I stumbled upon your excellent trails maps a few days ago. (Issue solved a completely different way.)

3) Better handling of the different types of geocaches. I’ve made the classic neocacher mistake of seeing a nearby cache, then not finding it because it was, in fact, a mystery cache “not at the posted coordinates” or, a multi whose description is key to computing the other waypoints. Now I filter these out with GSAK.

As a visual cue, I’ve done some cache type remapping in GSAK, but found I couldn’t always remember that “a blue flag” meant microcache. Allanon pointed me to the use of customized icons. These are now happily mapped to the ones on geocaching.com.

(Issue sorta solved.. I need to tweak the colors for better contrast. I would *love* to go to paperless caching, especially in the Pacific Northwe’t.)

4) Improved user interface. I find I have to do a *lot* of clicking on the HCx to get to functions. The PN40 has a “find” button.

5) Competition. I’d like to see Delorme succeed in generating competition to Garmin (just because some competition is good).

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In your first posting about the map transfer times (“Of course, it took a while…”), I wonder if there’s something *I’m* doing wrong with my use of Garmin MapSource. Loading the northwest Metroguide maps, topos and your trail/building maps onto my Garmin HCx takes at least 90 minutes (despite Mapsource’s user interface dissonance that there are “5 minutes remaining”) for whatever processing Mapsource does to package it. (If I were to load, say, Texas from the DVDs, that part of the process would take *hours*. I usually start it before going to bed.) Once packaged, transferring takes at least 20+ minutes as it has to upload everything again. It sounds like your experience with the Colorado has been completely different?

(The loooooong transfer times with the Garmin have been tolerated only because I don’t frequently travel beyond the tri-state area. If I did, wiping the maps out each time – which I agree is a lame implementation – would force me to seek alternate solutions. (Maybe another $15 mSD card?))

Something I missed when I gave the heavy gift hints leading to the purchase was that the PN40’s geocaching mode is a *planned* firmware upgrade. I haven’t seen an estimated ship date. As I write this, there is a December 17 firmware update (v2.4) posted, but no mention of geocaching features. (They do mention improvements in connection.) The not-so-early-adopter in me wants to wait until other, more experienced people have put it through the wringers.

So right now, I have an unopened PN40 sitting under the tree. I’m not sure if I should return it and wait until it’s matured.

A side note, I don’t think I received any questions from you in e-mail, let me know if I’ve missed something. As I said at GC.com, I’m here to help if you need any info for creating PN-Series versions of your trail maps.

Thanks,
Chip Noble
Team DeLorme