Triple Crown
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Posts posted by Triple Crown
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Does the topo maps for iPad allow importing of GPX files? I'd want to drop my caches from GSAK (or maybe just PQ's) into it...
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I have the Dual Electronics XGPS 150A and I really like it. I've been using it with the GeoBucket app, but mostly to give a big-picture view while in the car...great for power trails.
I haven't tried to use it in the field since I don't have that cool gumdrop case, but there have been no connectivity issues. The biggest problem has been mapping. Since my iPad is also wifi only, I only get the maps that have been cached by the apps I use. There are some great offline map programs, but none that support geocaching directly. (MotionX GPS HD works but with a limited number of caches & limited info in the GPX file)
Check out iPlunder HD, it works pretty well, but usually I go with GeoBucket. I've been using Dropbox to get my GSAK files onto the iPad, and then using FoxFi on my android phone to make it a wifi hotspot when I need to update the map on the iPad if I get outside the area of my cached maps.
Does iPlunder support offline map caching?
Def. think about getting the gumdrop case. I love it.
iPlunder has the same map caching as GeoBucket...it remembers what you've looked at recently, but you can't tell how big of an area you have stored onboard. I believe it's an iPad default setting. I wish Garmin would sell a map package like City Navigator or their 24K Topo package for iPad...then it could be linked to other apps.
Definitely looking at the gumdrop case...I want the red & black one.
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I have the Dual Electronics XGPS 150A and I really like it. I've been using it with the GeoBucket app, but mostly to give a big-picture view while in the car...great for power trails.
I haven't tried to use it in the field since I don't have that cool gumdrop case, but there have been no connectivity issues. The biggest problem has been mapping. Since my iPad is also wifi only, I only get the maps that have been cached by the apps I use. There are some great offline map programs, but none that support geocaching directly. (MotionX GPS HD works but with a limited number of caches & limited info in the GPX file)
Check out iPlunder HD, it works pretty well, but usually I go with GeoBucket. I've been using Dropbox to get my GSAK files onto the iPad, and then using FoxFi on my android phone to make it a wifi hotspot when I need to update the map on the iPad if I get outside the area of my cached maps.
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My first receiver was a Garmin ETrex Venture HC and I love it. Very simple and basic, very user friendly. I got a Garmin Oregon 450T for Christmas and while I love using it, I still don't know how to get found caches off of it. The owners book is absolutely worthless on how to do it. My friend tells me things about my Oregon but I don't understand a word he says. Why does Garmin think that the more you pay, the less user friendly they have to make it?
There's a great Oregon Wiki Which should answer most of your questions. It's the manual Garmin should have made.
The short answer to your question is that you have to delete the GPX file for those caches from your Oregon while connected to a computer. They are stored in your Garmin/GPX folder.
There is also a geocache_visits.txt file which keeps a list of all the caches you have marked as found (or not found) and contains your field notes. You can delete those entries as well, if you wish.
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This is a known problem. Several other threads discuss it. When adding a new GPX file, first delete the unneeded ones, then disconnect and reboot the GPSr, then reconnect and add the new GPX file. Otherwise, you will frequently find random caches (or sometimes all of them) missing...even though you can see the files on there.
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So when I see a new cache pop up, I get the coordinates from my phone and put them in my GPS. Which of the compass modes is the best to use. I can't use closest geocache or active geocache cause its not in the gps. But when I try the other modes it still does not seem to post towards the coordinates?!? I used my phone also today and it said I was 400 feet away when my gps said 1.6 miles away. Not sure what coordinates it was pointing towards, I did double check then so I know I entered it right. I hope this makes sense.. Help please!
When you input coordinates that way, you create a Waypoint, which is handled a bit differently than a geocache. On the compass page, select the little ruler icon thingy in the lower right, then I recommend using the Small Data Fields. You can choose what to put in each of the 4 data fields by pressing them. I have Bearing, Dist to Dest, Time of Day and Waypoint at Destination as my 4 fields.
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I've been out caching today, and I normally take a pad to make note, for example where I left TB's etc. I left the pad in the car today but remembered I could leave comments on the Found Log section of my Oregon 550. But, How do I read them back?
cheers.
You have to download them with your field notes. They are stored in the geocache_visits.txt file on your GPSr. Silly as it seems, there is no way to view them on the unit itself.
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Why would you take two GPS's out. If you get the 550 sell the 450 for a few bucks to help pay for the upgrade.
Also I think it only transmits basic info. Not hints, description, etc.
The Oregon 300 only sends coordinates for Geocaches, the 450 & 550 send the complete cache info with description, hint & logs.
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Hello all: After just purchasing a new Montana, mostly for topo use while hunting, thought I might as well use for auto use as well. My question is: Can I purchase just the North America lifetime maps and install to Montana,(Download to pc, then install on Montana) or do I first need to purchase City Navigator, then Lifetime maps subscription? I also have a Garmin Nuvi in my other car, and both are registered with Garmin.
Thanks!
You'll need to get both. The maps are locked to each individual GPSr by serial number. The City Navigator gives you the routable street maps, the lifetime updates gets you 4 updates per year. The Garmin product is quite good, but you might also look at the FREE Open Street Maps which are also routable.
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Perfect! This is great. So I'll have to try logging from GSAK and see how that goes. From poking around on in the program it looks like there is a way to delete the cache from the GPSr while publishing, is that the case? Without deleting found caches from the unit, eventually it will get full.
Thanks again for the help!
I don't think you can do that automatically. The 'delete after fetching' option only deletes your field note, not the original cache GPX file. You can store up to 200 GPX files before the unit is full. Since you're exporting individual caches, you'll need to individually delete the ones you find from your Garmin/GPX folder while you're connected to a computer.
Using the GSAK database functions, you could send each of those individual caches to a single database, then send them all to the unit as a single GPX file. The advantage is that you can store up to 5000 caches on an Oregon 450 as long as you have less than 200 total GPX files. Also, once you mark caches found, you can easily filter them out of your database and resend the updated single GPX file (containing only unfound caches) to your GPSr.
The GSAK help forums are a great way to learn other tricks, and the users are really friendly & helpful...definitely worth checking out. You can get there from the help menu at the top right of the GSAK window.
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So I tried again, no luck, anyone out that can tell me how to pull caches right off the GPS with GSAK?
To update your GSAK database with your finds do this:
Connect your GPSr to the computer & open GSAK.
At the top, select GPS/Receive Waypoints -- The default is to just update finds. GSAK will then take all the caches you have marked found on your unit and mark them found in the GSAK database. You can filter to show those by double clicking on the yellow 'found' tab of the counts section on the bottom right of the screen.
To just grab the caches on your GPSr that you marked as found so you can log them, do this:
After connecting your GPSr to the computer and opening GSAK, if you wish to log directly, select Geocaching.com Access/Publish logs -- then right click in the middle, select Fetch/From GPSr and this will grab all the caches you have marked as found and put them in order for you. Then just double click on the first cache listing and the logging template pops up...
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When you're ready to start measuring, go to Setup/Reset/Reset Trip Data -- This will reset your trip computer to zero. When you are finished measuring, take a screenshot by going to Setup/Display/Screen Capture-On then go to your Trip Computer page and press the power button. The screenshot is stored on the Oregon in the Garmin/scrn folder, which you can view on your computer.
Another method is to download your tracks into MapSource or BaseCamp or the MyGarmin Dashboard so you can see all the stats for your hike and edit the beginning & ending points.
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I recently bought 2 etrex venture hc units. I cannot figure out how to read cache notes on handheld. I have tried downoading pocket queries from gsak or just single caches from geocaching.com. I changed my settins to 1.0.1 and still nothing. all I get in comment fields is name of the cache and who hide it.i borrowed a friends pn40 and got spoiled with the base maps, but no hints or size of cache info is rough, and forget about a puzzle cache. Any advice on what to check would be great. I've spent hours checking settings on the web sites and the hand held with no luck.
The older units don't support paperless caching. There are some workarounds using GSAK macros, but you won't get the whole page.
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oops, double post
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boy is the compass on this thing a slug. Half the time is stops moving alltogether even when I'm rotating away from the heading. Any ideas? I've tried multiple profile and dashboard settings. I also find that no matter how I set the backlight timer, it dims after 15seconds.
After 2 days of use I'm considering returning it... for $11 more I could have gotten a 62. as it is I have to revert back to my fone to double check the garmin!!!!
Each profile setting can have its own backlight timer setting but I find the timeouts annoying, so all of mine are set to 'Stays On' which uses more battery power but I just carry spares.
Not sure what's up with the compass though...is the Compass set to Auto in the Setup/heading/compass field? That should allow the electronic compass to work when you're not moving.
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For the Garmins, I like the Oregon 450 much better than the Dakotas because I prefer the larger screen.
The DeLormes generally give you a little more bang for the buck on features, but in my opinion, the Garmins are more intuitive & user friendly out of the box, especially for geocaching.
Some retailers (like REI) have demos of all of them that you can hold and play with...definitely worth doing!
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I have recently purchased a garmin oregon 450 for geocaching and having an issue that makes me want to take it back to the store, I go to geocaching.com, upload caches to my gps, it says they upload successfully but they are not on the gps, I've also tried to upload from opencaching.com and again, it says they are uploaded successfully but again it is not on the gps. When I try to go into the geocache function on the unit it says you have no caches and to go to gamin.com/geocache
any ideas would be greatly appreciated, (waiting for a call back from garming support but I want to get going ASAP)
Confirm the GPX files are on your GPS, in the GPX folder, if you send them as .LOC files, check for them under Waypoints. Also, are the caches close to your current location? They won't show if they're too far away.
Sometimes it helps if you delete all the caches from your GPX folder, then disconnect and reboot the GPSr. Then reconnect and add your GPX files back in.
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New App!
Geo Bucket 2.0 just came out today. It works really well with the iPad2(wifi only) & XGPS150. So far it's my favorite caching app.
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Hello all,
I bought my geo-sweetie a DeLorme PN-60w for Christmas and it's been very frustrating. After thinking I'd finally gotten everything figured out (TOPO 9, GSAK, getting the device to connect to the computer and getting PQ's to load to the device), I thought I was finally set. Nope. All of a sudden, the device decides it doesn't want to 'route' anything, anywhere, anytime! Previously, I was able to manually program in coordinates (Mystery caches) and navigate to the waypoint. Now, it won't route to a manually entered waypoint or a geocache from a PQ. I'm not certain, but I believe the trouble started when I tried to use the device to route to a geocache that I'd imported as part of the first PQ I loaded.
I think the device firmware version is 3.3.665680?? Also, when after that string of numbers it reads "/ OFF" (I added the quotes.) And finally, I switched my GPX setting to 1.0.1 as was suggested on a DeLorme tech support thread.
Help? Anyone? Anyone?
It's been awhile since I had my PN-40, but seem to remember that most of the default settings were not geocaching friendly. I think you need to turn the auto-routing on in one of the many sub-menus. The DeLorme forums are really terrific and you might get a more definitive answer over there.
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I'm buying the new external XGPS150 Universal Bluetooth GPS Receiver for my Girl tonight. Thought it might be a nice addition to her Valentines Day gift. She already owns a Oregon 550t and I must say it does a good job or should I say a great job as a paperless device. I recently bought her an IPad2 WiFi only. She just loves the way it works, most importantly the large screen format, we have been using it with the Geocaching APP when we travel to see the descriptions or hints if we're stuck, then use the Oregon 550t to find the exact location.
I thought I would come back and post an update after we test drive it. I chose the XGPS150 because she's not very savvy on the Jail Brak'n and I've tried the RoqyBt with the iTouch 2nd Gen the app was decent but can be aggravating to re-sync a GPS device. I wanted a device to work as simply and reliably as her IPad 2.
Currently Own and use the following devices
XGPS150 this Feb 11
Itouch 3rd gen
IPad 2
Oregon 550t
Nuvi260w
I have the same setup. I really like how easily the XGPS150 integrates with the iPad2, but I wish the apps were a little better.
I really like iPlunder HD for the true paperless geocaching experience...except you can't download maps for offline use, so you need a 3G connection to see the maps. (some maps can be cached, but you don't know for sure which ones) If this one allowed you to download maps for offline use, it would be perfect.
I also really like MotionX HD for the great offline maps. It allows you to import GPX files (but the current limit is 505 caches) and you don't get the full cache page...just 2 lines...so I use the cache name (Terr/dif) in line 1 and Hint in line 2
I'm also looking at GaiaGPS and Galileo, but they're also primarily about mapping and using GPX files for tracks, not caches.
Let me know how it goes for you guys...
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As noted, the Oregons, Dakotas and new eTrex series all operate this way. You can still manually enter coords, but you have to navigate to them as a Waypoint.
The idea is that you pre-load the units and then can use them in places without cell coverage. With the Montana you can store 12,000 caches on the unit, which would cover a huge geographic area! So you can cache without your iPhone and still have all the info that the Geocaching App would provide...complete cache description, hint, logs...everything. It even does cache filtering...for example, show only traditional caches with a terrain rating of 1.5 or less and difficulty of 2 or less...or whatever settings you choose.
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I just got my new garmin 650 and we decided to go out and try it out. We drive to an area we like and use the iPhone to see caches in the area. From here we manually enter the way point and off we go. This worked well with our old 60csx but the 650 does not recognise the way point I entered as a geocache. What am I doing wrong?
You're not doing anything wrong. The new breed Garmin units make Geocaches a special type of waypoint. When you manually enter coords, you are creating a generic waypoint instead of a geocache. You can use the Waypoint Manager to modify the points you enter, or navigate to them via Where To?/Waypoints but they are handled differently than Geocache Waypoints.
The way to use all of the cool paperless geocaching features is to load caches as GPX files either individually from the cache page (Send to GPS) or in batches via Pocket Queries.
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Thanks for the input.
I have the Groundspeak app on my android phone & I use it occasionally, but they need to update the app to take advantage of the the bigger iPad screen. In my case, I have a wifi only iPad, so I'm hoping to add a bluetooth GPS receiver but will still need to preload my cache database. I like the MotionX app, but I'm having problems loading big cache files...I'm still experimenting with it.
Update: I think I've found what I wanted. It's an app called iPlunder HD available in the app store. It allows you to download your GPX files for offline viewing. To test it I used GSAK to generate a GPX file of almost 6000 caches and then uploaded them into Dropbox, then downloaded them into the app. Pretty slick!
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Is there a way to download GPX files so the caches are displayed on the iPad maps?
Dakota 20 - Hide/Deactivate certain GPX-files
in GPS technology and devices
Posted
You can filter the caches on your unit by type, size, difficulty, terrain or status, Unfortunately you can't yet filter by attribute, but you should send that to Garmin as a suggestion.