robotman

I have version 3.2. When I have the screen expanded, the icon to minize the graffitt area (the arrow pointing into an open box) is deactivated and the expanded screen area is only the grafitti writing areas. Is there some other way to minimize the grafitti area that I don't know about? I'm new to Palm. Thanks.

I have a SporTrak Pro and was wondering exactly is DirectRoute? Does it allow you to use your SporTrak as an independent navigating system? If so, what do you need the PC for? Feel free to point me to another thread discussing how DirectRoute works... I couldn't find anything about the basic concept of DirectRoute. Thanks.

Would adding expanded screen capability for the T3 be something you could easily add to CM? It would be nice to utilize the full T3 screen.

Thanks for the links. I can't seem to find any cables for the Palm T series to serial. The Magellan SporTrak Pro already is a DB9 connector. There seems to be several programs / packages for the palm m500 or V series, but I can't find anything about navigating streets with the T-series. Has anyone actually hooked up a palm T-series to a magellan for live street navigation?! If so, how did you do it?! . .

Thanks for all the info. I'll have to look into getting a serial cable that can connect the SporTrak to the Palm. Anyone know of a pre-made one? I think I'm still a little slow on grafitti which may be the problem. I'm probably not writing my characters quite right, so it doesn't recognize them properly. I'll practive a bit more. I still can't find how to file the caches when I import them. My converted GPX file has both 'found' and 'not found' caches in it, but they all go to 'unfiled'. Exactly where do I find the option to file the caches appropriately?! Thanks.

Does anyone know what cable I would use to interface the SporTrak with the Palm? What programs allow you to do live navigation?!

CacheMate is all you need on the Palm as far as tracking caches and logs, but I still use Spinner to change the waypoint names before I upload them to my SporTrak. Spinner can generate a set of HTML pages that can be used by Plucker. Sometimes it is helpful to use the Plucker interface web-like interface, but CacheMate seems a better overall utility since it is a database that you can actually update and still preserve your custom entries.

I just got CacheMate and still trying to figure out how to use some of the features. I did read the README.HTM file that downloaded with the program, but may have missed a couple things. Can someone help me with these questions: 1. When I am in record view and hit the button to sort by Waypoints, the list appears to rearrange to what I guess would be in waypoint alphabetical order, BUT the cache description is still displayed NOT the actual waypoint names. I don't understand why you would want to sort by waypoints if the waypoints names aren't going to be displayed. Is there a way to show the waypoint names in record view? 2. When I used CMConvert and then hot sync, everything works ok, but all the caches come into CacheMate as Unfiled. Is there a way to actually import the caches so they get filed into 'found' or 'not found'? Otherwise I have to go through every single cache and manually file it. 3. Can someone explain how the plugin for Magellan uploads work? What sort of cable would I need? Is there a way to select and send a set of waypoints to the SporTrak? 4. Is there any sort of mapping plugin that would allow you to overlay a waypoint on to a street or topo map on the palm? 5. How does the Graffitti 2 selection work? I can write the first letter and the list goes to that, but the help file makes it sound like you can write up to 20 letters in a name. Maybe it's a timing thing that I'm not getting. Thanks!

I can't figure out how to set up plucker to grab a set of unfound caches. The problem is that when you do a filtered search, the pages are generated by scripts on the Geocaching server. Unless I'm missing something, there's no URL I can plug into plucker to let it spider down. Is anyone using Plucker to grab cache pages? If so, what URL do you enter to get a list of your unfound caches?! Thanks.

I've had a couple days to play with things. I kinda found CacheMate by accident and agree that it's the way to go with a Palm. Plucker with the Spinner file is nice, too. CacheMate is more of a database where Spinner is a very well thought out HTML 'web site' generator. Spinner seems a little more easy to find nearby caches since they are listed at the bottom of each cache, even though CacheMate can generate nearby caches. I also like the scrolling/navigation in Spinner/Plucker a bit more. CacheMate could use some scroll bars, but I understand there's some limitation with the templates in being able to add the scroll bars. I still use Spinner to change the waypoint names and upload them to my SporTrak with ExpertGPS. It would be great to be able to have the ExpertGPS maps on the palm, but I don't think it is possible. I guess I can save the maps as images and view them on the palm. Will have to play with it. What is Mapopolis? Does it allow you to use your Palm for navigation? It would be great if there was someway to interface the SporTrak with the Palm for navigation. Any ideas? . Thanks for all your help. John

Is there any way to grab a set of unfound cache page descriptions with their images into a PDA? I'm currently using spinner and then plucker to my Tungsten T3. This works great unless their are some images that are needed to find the cache. Is there a way to grab the actual web cache descriptions (and their images) to the PDA? Thanks. .

I just got a new Palm Tungsten T3 and was tying to figure out all the ways it can be used for geocaching. Since this is my first palm, I know nothing about how to use it, but it seems like it has a lot of flexibility with bluetooth. So... can someone help me learn the different ways to use the T3 with geocaching? I know that I would need more hardware or software for most advanced GCing stuff, but I'm open to any ideas. Assume I know nothing... because I don't! Some basic goals: 1. Paperless caching. What programs do I use to get the cache information on to the T3? (I currently use spinner to change the waypoint names to upload to my SporTrak.) 2. Internet surfing? What mobile phone and accessories would be needed? 3. Auto navigation? I've seen mention of bluetooth GPSr's. Do these really exist and how would they interface with the T3? ANY ideas on how to use the T3 with geocaching are welcomed! Thanks. . .

I know "good" XML code should do the replacement. I was just a little confused where the substitution was taking place. I think I got it all straight now. As you point out, it's really more of the readers problem in not interpretting the XML code correctly. It would be nice if spinner had a quick replace function to fix something like this, but I agree that it's more of the end XML reader's problem. I've contacted the ExpertGPS authors to let them know that there is a bug with their parsing. Usually Dan is very responsive and fixes any bugs that are pointed out.

OK... I thought I was going crazy because I just reprinted out the maps from ExpertGPS and most of the problems are fixed in the most recent cache files. After a bit of backtracking, the problem isn't with spinner (sorry!)... it's with the GPX file being sent from the GC site... The GC engine is replacing all the '&' with '&" (like good XML code). For example: <name>GCH49B</name> <desc>Dolores Park & Bark by PisoMojado, Traditional Cache (1.5/1)</desc> <url>http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCH49B</url> <urlname>Dolores Park & Bark by PisoMojado</urlname> Evidently several of the cache owners realize that the name of their caches are getting messed up in the GPX files and are replacing the ampersands with the word "and" so they appear correctly in the GPX files now. I suppose GPX spinner could be tricky and filter out the 'amp;' and replace it with a real ampersand during the "smart comment" creation. I'll ask Lil Devil. I'll contact GC and see if there is anything they can do, too. Thanks.

I have a Magellan SporTrak Pro with the v5.0 software. I thought I read somewhere that you can now make waypoints invisible. For example, after you find a cache, you could make it invisible so it doesn't clutter up the map. I can't find out how to do this, though. Did I misunderstand something or can someone explain how to hide waypoints? Thanks.

I'm starting to use GPX Spinner to convert waypoints and their icons to something useful on my Magellan SporTrak. The program works great and has been a big help! One strange thing is that it converts all "&" to ";amp" in the comments. Is there a way to stop it from doing this? I know that the "&" may not be Magellan-friendly, but I don't like how it replaces it with 4 characters ":amp". Anyway to just make it ignore the "&"? Thanks.

Does anyone have a quick way of converting the pocket query GPX file symbols into SporTrak-friendly symbols for the different types of caches?! This is what I'm doing now: 1. Generate a different Pocket Query (GPX file) for each type of cache. 2. Open / resave the file in ExpertGPS (to remove logs and reformat symbol tags). 3. Use a text editor to replace all <sym> tags with the different SporTrak symbols I want to use for each type of cache. For example with my virtual file I have to change all the <sym> tags like this: <sym>Geocache</sym> -> <sym>Sightseeing</sym> Anyone have a great utility or idea to make this process easier?! Thanks. John (robotman) The Robot Family

Does anyone have a quick way of converting the pocket query GPX file symbols into SporTrak-friendly symbols for the different types of caches?! This is what I'm doing now: 1. Generate a different Pocket Query (GPX file) for each type of cache. 2. Open / resave the file in ExpertGPS (to remove logs and reformat symbol tags). 3. Use a text editor to replace all <sym> tags with the different SporTrak symbols I want to use for each type of cache. For example with my virtual file I have to change all the <sym> tags like this: <sym>Geocache</sym> -> <sym>Sightseeing</sym> Anyone have a great utilty or idea to make this process easier?! Thanks. John (robotman) The Robot Family

Does anyone know of a utility to convert the GPX symbols to SporTrak Pro-friendly symbols? These are the steps I currently take just for traditional and virtual caches: 1. Generate a separate pocket query (GPX file) for virtual and traditional caches. 2. Open and resave the file in ExpertGPS (removes the log and resaves the symbol format). 3. Use a text editor to replace for the different types of caches in each of the files. Example... Traditional file: <sym>Geocache</sym> -> <sym>Default</sym> Virtual file: <sym>Geocache</sym> -> <sym>Sightseeing</sym> ...etc. It would be nice just to have to download one GPX file that could easily be modified to SporTrak Pro friendly symbols. Any help?! John (robotman) The Robot Family

Ooops... did I leave out some critical information like the day?! We are planning on going 10:30 AM this Saturday morning! (I'm asleep by 10:30 PM on most days). John The Robot Family

BpSnake and I are planning on caching out some of downtown SF this Saturday (25Oct03). Our tentative plan is to start around 10:30 and cache until we drop. Anyone is welcome to join us. Drop me an email if you're interested! John The Robot Family

So far BpSnake and I are confirmed for the outing. Tentative plan is to meet at 10:30 at the Daly City BART station and then I can drive people into the city for some caching. If you want to come along, drop me an email! John (robotman) The Robot Family

Since there are an abundance of caches in the area, I'm open to a "plan of attack". I was thinking of hitting the ones near the waterfront first since they tend to be the hardest to get to by car. The Robot Family

quote:Originally posted by LilDevil:Did someone forget to flip the page on their calendar? Did I forget to mention that us robots can time travel? It will make for a lovely caching adventure. Well, since most humans don't like time traveling, I guess we should cache in the upcoming weekends instead. The Robot Family

Yes, even robots have dreams... Mine is to eventually find every cache in the SF grid. I generally hate going into the city, but maybe with a couple of fellow cachers, it will be more fun (and efficient). So...anyone interested in caching in San Francsico on the weekends of 18Oct03 and/or 25Oct03? I'm mostly trying to get the caches in SF proper (NE corner of SF). Here's an aerial shot of the goals: http://www.lakemercedcoc.org/SF_caches_10Oct03.jpg I'm flexible as to what caches to get (or not get) if someone already has gotten some of them. I just want to take a bite out of the sheer number of caches to start with. If you're interested in coming along, drop me an email and we'll organize something. I'll also post on the main board. Dreaming... John (no robot kids on this adventure) The Robot Family [This message was edited by The Robot Family on October 09, 2003 at 11:47 AM.]