| | |  | Electronics | Home » » Geomate Jr. Geocaching GPS | | | | | | | Description: | | The easiest and quickest way to get in on the geocaching fun, the Geomate.Jr is an incredibly affordable and amazingly easy-to-use geocaching GPSjust switch it on anywhere in the United States and be directed to your closest geocache. Its really that easy. With over 250,000 pre-loaded geocache locations covering all 50 U.S. states, its an outdoor adventure just waiting to happen anywhere, anytime, straight out of the box. No downloads, Internet connection or typing in coordinates necessary. | | | Features: | |
• Clear distance and direction to the closest geocache along with information like size, terrain, difficulty, and GC code
• High-sensitivity GPS performance with core GPS functions like current position, height, and heading
• A "found" list allows you to mark geocaches as found and review them later
• Set a "home" waypoint so you can always navigate back to where you started
• Updatable with the latest U.S. geocaches and caches for other countries with the optional Geomate.jr Update Kit (sold seperately)
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 10.75 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.25 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.26 pounds | | Package Length:
| 10.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 4.7 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.25 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 72 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 72 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
160 of 164 found the following review helpful:
 Fantastic supplemental geocaching toolOct 18, 2009
By AlexCartermom
I purchased two of these, one for my kids and one for a friend.
THE GOOD
For my kids, this is the perfect unit. We use the geocaching app on my Iphone as our main geocaching tool to get us into the vicinity and then the kids use their Geomate Jr to get them to the cache. My 6 year old can run into trees with it, fall on it, etc and it takes a licking and keeps on ticking (much better than him doing that with my iphone!) Because we have already been geocaching, we were able to understand how to use this tool after a few button pushes. We did a side-by-side test with my iphone and the Geomate jr and the Geomate updated faster than my iphone and was more accurate under heavy tree cover conditions. Under normal conditions, both the Iphone and Geomate Jr updated at similar times and had readings within 2 feet of each other.
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
This tool is billed as the Grab and Go geocaching tool, so easy that it will encourage everyone to get in the game. Well, not quite. If you aren't already very familiar with geocaching, trying to figure out what these buttons mean will just be confusing. You will need to read a book or go on the [...] website before you'll understand what a GC code is or have any clue what those coordinates mean. After you do make a find, you can only mark 20 caches as found. You need the update kit to mark up to 99 caches as found (though they represent that it will eventually be up to 1000 found). However, these issues are not a big deal because after you buy the update kit and do some reading, you're as good as gold.
NO MAPPING
But perhaps the biggest feature that is lacking that truly prevents this unit from being a true Grab and Go unit is the the lack of a mapping capability. For this reason, this is best as a supplemental unit. Mapping is important in geocaching because trying to find a geocache by going 3.6 miles NNE is about impossible to drive to. Roads generally don't travel in the direction that your compass happens to be pointing. And by the time you take a road in that general direction, the compass will be pointing .6 miles West. You could drive around like this all day. The Iphone app shows the map of the area and where the geocache is located on the map so that you can drive to the general vicinity and then get out and hunt. The work around for this lack of a mapping feature on the Geomate Jr. is to go to the geocaching.com website and print out the maps to the geocaches you want to seek. Of course this relegates you to only planned geocaching trips instead of geocaching on the go because you happen to have a few extra minutes like you can do with the Iphone.
SUMMARY
This is a great supplemental unit and a must have for kids in a family of geocachers. However, unless and until they provide a mapping capability on the Geomate Jr., this is not a true Grab and go unit and may not be the best choice as a stand alone unit.
36 of 41 found the following review helpful:
 Didn't work AT ALL for us!Jul 04, 2010
By Kristin Tosello
"Ryans Mom"
I read an article in a kid's magazine about Geocaching and thought my daughter would be into it. The magazine suggestions the Geomate Jr as a good starter. We were so excited when it arrived in the mail! We got it out of the box, read the directions (which is really just a tiny piece of paper with 3 steps on it) and set out on an adventure! What I found is that it is completely unreliable. It would get us in the general location (within 100 feet) and then go haywire. It would say 18 feet in one direction, you would walk that way, and then all of a sudden, it would say to go 25 feet behind you. We thought maybe it was the location we were at (which had some tree cover) and decided to try the next cache. The next one was over a mile away, which sucks when you're doing this with a 5 year old and the first one produced no results. So we walked on to the next one. The same thing happened. It claimed we needed to go 85 feet in a direction, that lead right through someone's backyard, so we walked around the box. Once we got there, it said we needed to go over 100 feet in the opposite direction. We tried the 3rd cache, and had the same problem. When we got home I went to [...] and checked to see if maybe they are no longer there. They're still there! They had all been found in less than a week! We literally walked over two of them and had no idea, because the Geomate told us we had another 50 feet to go!
The Geomate jr is a great concept. It seems unintimidating for newcomers. It was perfect for my daughter to hold, I didn't worry that she would break it. It was easy for her to read and see where we were going. On our way to the first cache she LOVED it and I thought we had a new hobby. The problem is that it is just not reliable.
I would NOT recommend buying this. It seems like a lot of people have had success, but if it fails to work like ours did, it is going to be hard to get your kids out to try again.
21 of 24 found the following review helpful:
Perfect for spontaneous adventures!Oct 28, 2009
By Skippy Jay
"SkippyJ"
This is the perfect device for on-the-fly geocaching.
I travel alot with work, and I used to find myself wishing I could go geocaching but I didn't have the time or the means to upload caches. With the Geomate.jr, I can just pull it out, turn it on and go. It travels everywhere with me, in fact it has a permanent place in my bag. I would be more upset if I left it behind, than my cell phone!
I have found over 100 caches with the geomate.jr, it is a shame it doesn't give the description of the cache, but with the "found' list, I just log online and read about interesting caches after I have been there. The information it does provide, such as cache size and difficultly is very helpful. I still shy away from small caches! Sometimes I am just not up for the challenge!
I found the navigation to be very accurate, I have never been mis-directed, even in the woods where you would expect coverage to be spotty.
I really would recommend this product to anyone who wants to start geocaching, anyone who has kids and to any seasoned geocachers for the moments when you haven't planned. It is light weight, small, inexpensive and so easy to use! This would make a fantastic gift for young and old!
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Don't waste your cash.May 30, 2010
By Trish
"live, love, laugh, and teach often from smoke and pet free home."
It was a sunny pleasant day when we tried this puppy out. We tried five different locations. All of which implied that the geocache was not what we were looking for. We would stand still and the geomate jr would say we were jumping and moving sixty feet. We went into woods and we lost signal the GPS unit seemed to have given up. We set the home base standing next to the car door, outside the door, took three steps (that of a nine year old)and it was up to 61 feet away from home base. Save yourself some money and do not invest in this one. Our scouter was very unhappy with it.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Great device to startMay 27, 2010
By Lisa Kay Devane
This is a great GPSr to start geocaching with for two reasons:
1. This s an inexpensive piece of equipment nessessary for the hunt, so if your'e not sure it's a hobby you are going to stick with it's not to much of an investment.
2. I was having a difficult time learning how to use a traditional GPSr. I bought a Megellan and ETrek, I am sure it was me but had a difficult time learning how to use them..anyway the GMjr is literally a plug, update and go. Very simple to use and understand.
There have been very few caches in what ever area we happen to be in that was not preloaded into the GMjr. We had one situation that coordinates were updated on the Geocaching website but didn't get updated thru the GMjr update website. dont know how that works either;)
All in all we really love the Geomate Jr. and we plan to stick with it but dont have plans at this time to do any further investing in a GPSr as we feel this is all our family needs. We are not the survivalist type and dont plan to do any hard core mountiain/valley terrain type of hunting.
It's a great way to get your kids outdoors (our kids are 8 and 11)
See all 72 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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