Dan_Edwards

I just read some updated info on Visor Central that shows the new add ons that include a lanyard and carabineer clip. They also have a link to the previous review. Dan A = A

quote:Originally posted by jhwf4: So know the rest of the world says geocaching is an "unusual hobby"!!! Not right!!! So using a multi-billion dollar satellite system to search for cheap stuff hidden in the woods does not strike you as a little unusual? That is part of what makes it fun! A = A

quote:Originally posted by jhwf4: So know the rest of the world says geocaching is an "unusual hobby"!!! Not right!!! So using a multi-billion dollar satellite system to search for cheap stuff hidden in the woods does not strike you as a little unusual? That is part of what makes it fun! A = A

quote:Originally posted by Wander Lost: I also just got something real cool in the mail today for my visor/magellan combo. It's a rubber protective cover that is designed to accommodate springboard modules. The company is called http://www.activearmor.com Here is a picture of how it looks with the GPS module. http://www.activearmor.com/index.2.gif Cool, I had wrote about it, but have not ordered one yet. Now that I have decided not to get a stand alone unit I think I will get one. So does it still allow easy access to the visor buttons and touchscreen? Dan A = A

Check out this news story about Geocachers coming to the aid of a person who got stuck after a clerk stole/sold her bike.

If you already have a PalmOS handheld, I guess I would have to say the Magellan is a pretty good deal. I spent some time this weekend looking at various GPS units thinking I was going to buy one. I kept having problems with each one I looked at. Either I liked the way my Visor combo worked better, or it was too expensive, or it did not have enough features. I also found some that had all the features I wanted, but were ment for a car. I really did not think I would have this much trouble. I still think that for most people the best solution would be to buy a inexpensive Garmin and hook it up to a Handheld when you need more power, but since I already own one that plugs into my Visor I just figured I would stick with that for now. Of Course having GeoNiche was what made the problem harder. If I did not have it I would have liked the handhelds a lot more. I think what I really would like is something like PocketPC with Bluetooth. Then have a Bluetooth GPS, and a Bluetooth Cell Phone. Internet access, GPS access all at once without any cables. And I could put the GPS right on top of my backpack for excellent signal. Wish on... Dan A = A

quote:Originally posted by Ray Dar: Here are the improvements: + Added GPS position accuracy information + Added target ETA and ETR display capability + Added battery voltage and percentage display capability I loved the other stuff as well, but as soon as I had time I was going to ask for these three things. You have to love the fact that it was added before I even had time to ask A = A

quote:Originally posted by Ray Dar: Here are the improvements: + Added GPS position accuracy information + Added target ETA and ETR display capability + Added battery voltage and percentage display capability I loved the other stuff as well, but as soon as I had time I was going to ask for these three things. You have to love the fact that it was added before I even had time to ask A = A

I would give them a call and see if you can get permission to leave it. Of course you want to be as nice as possible when you talk to them. Maybe explain that you could place in your cache description that while you have permission for the cache, the contents of the cache are not under your or the parks services immediate control.

On many nights I am up and 1 or 3 in the morning going, this would be a good time to go Geocaching. Then I remember what idiots people are about controlling what goes on off their property. I was caching once in the daytime on a paved public trail, looking mighty strange I am sure with my GPS and looking in the brush. I got some strange looks from the neighbors but no one asked what I was doing. I could tell they were itching to ask, and I would have been more then happy to talk to them, but they never got close enough to make that easy. I half expected the police to show up, because one of the dogs was going nuts over me as I walked in a dry creek bed. All I was doing was walking around with a GPS and never said one word except hello to some joggers and mumbled under my breath because I could not find the cache. If this is how panicky people are at 5pm, I don't want to be out at 2am much because I will probably get shot just because I was within range and that should make it ok, right? So I just sit on my computer most nights wishing I could be outside more.

As I noted in one of the other groups I looked on the United site and found it listed as appoved so I did not bother asking on the plane. I did not hide what I was doing as I talked to a flight attendant about my meal while using it and they could have cared less. I also got picked for the extra security search, and they thought it was cool. As noted earler, it is the captains plane, once your inside the plane the captain has the final say for better or worse. Company policy becomes a suggestion at that point. How strong a suggestion depends on the company. My personal opinion is check company policy and if allowed, use it. If not ask the captain, he may have a more liberal view. And always... If asked, turn it off without question.

If you want the short version, just read the last paragraph.

I just got XMap this last weekend from Delorme for my Handspring Visor Pro and I thought I would write a review of it. My first handheld was a WindowsCE 3.0 device, so I will talk about how I expect it XMap would run on PocketPC device, but I only actually used it on my Visor Pro. The previous handheld software from Delorme was Solus, and while XMap is somewhat based on Solus the two programs take a very different approach to mapping software. Solus would link wirelessly to the Delorme servers, if you had a subscription, and download maps and direction directly onto your handheld. But this of course required you to be in range of a signal or have access to a wire modem. You could also download directions for free from your desktop, but this required that you know your route in advance. XMap takes a different approach. With XMap you download the map data onto your handheld, and then plot the routes from there. In a world where memory expansion is cheap and wireless access in the U.S. is spotty, expensive and limited to urban areas this makes a lot more sense then the Solus approach. While XMap will use a GPSr if you have one attached to your handheld, it would still be a very useful program without one. Many of the XMap features are enhanced with a GPSr though. When you order the software you get a CD that installs a desktop Street Atlas USA that includes features to sync to your handheld. If you have used any Delorme desktop software, this program is very similar to others from Delorme with the exception of a tab for transferring data to and from the handheld. Delorme claims on the web site that you can download the entire USA to your handheld if you have the memory. I do, but I doubt you would want to do it with the interface included. So far, after reading the manual that is included on the CD as an Adobe Acrobat file, the only way to export maps that include routable data is in small 6-mile X 6-mile chunks. You then can then link the multiple chunks into one map. Uh yea, I will just keep exporting the USA in 6 sq. mile chucks till my eyes bleed. If there is a better way to do this, and someone knows what it is, please tell me. Non-routable maps can be exported in 25 sq. mile chucks and don’t present as much of a problem. You can also plot routes on the desktop software to export to your handheld. While we are talking about desktop software, XMap also connects with Topo USA 4.0. This function is much improved over Solus with Topo USA 3.0. Topo can download multiple GPSr logs from your handheld and then plot them for you. This is great for adding new plot-able roads and trails to Topo USA. You can also transfer waypoints to and from Topo USA 4.0. Last, you can also download Topo maps to the handheld, you do this by choosing which quad you would like to dowload. You can also transfer waypoints to and from the handheld. This is the first software from Delorme that you could find a Geocache with from start to finish, just not easily. The interface is more geared to getting you within couple of dozen feet from what the GPS thinks is ground zero. It updated you at the bottom of the screen with text as to what direction you need to go to get to that waypoint, but the updates are not that frequent and constantly reading text which way you need to go is fine for a hiker, but not for the precision of geocaching. I suppose for the last few feet you could switch into its GPS monitor mode, which gives basic GPS info and use that to find ground zero. I would recommend switching at that point to something like GeoNiche or Cetus GPS on the Palm platform. On the handheld the interface is good, but certain functions take getting used too. Once your used to it, the interface is fast and effective. Most activities are intuitive, but a couple here and there will have you scratching your head for a second. The saving grace of this is the excellent help available throughout the program. If you have a question about the handheld software, it is probably answered in the help section of the area your in. If you have a GPSr the button to turn it on and off is right on the main map screen. This is much improved over Solus, which made you dig for this common feature. On the main screen you will see a map of the area you’re centered on. If you have your GPSr activated this will be your current location. From here you can zoom in and out, see the route you’re currently tracking, which direction your going. One of the options for the main map is to have it track the orientation of the top of the map to your current direction of travel. While this works ok on the palm when your moving in one direction for short periods of time, I don’t recommend this if your hiking and constantly changing directions. This is a limitation of the Dragonball processors in the current PalmOS handhelds, and I would expect the PocketPC version to be able to do this feature much faster. Perhaps the most powerful and useful feature of XMap is the find feature. The maps you download to your handheld contain much more information then just roads; Restaurants, Shopping, Banks, Entertainment and much more are available for searching. Want to find the 10 closest restaurants to your current location. Need to get cash for that meal? Do a search on the closest banks. You can then click on one of your finds, make that your destination and plot a route from your current location to that item you found. If you have a handheld with or without a GPS I think this is a pretty good program if just for the find feature alone. Having a TOPO map where you can measure distances with just a couple of taps is nice too. The routing feature is pretty good, but the trouble it takes to download large cities is unbearable at the moment and needs to be addressed by Delorme. The routes plotted on the handheld are very good overall. Like most routing programs it has a little trouble with crowded neighborhoods, but other then that I have found the routes generated to be very good. If Delorme places a better interface for downloading maps, I would recommend this program for nearly all handheld users. Until then, know in advance you will have to spend some time in order to download routable maps.

quote:Originally posted by CourtneyP: You know that any outdoor geek will bring his laptop with. Well then to add that extra outdoor geek touch, you need a case for it that can survive a wild geocaching trip.

quote:Originally posted by CourtneyP: You know that any outdoor geek will bring his laptop with. Well then to add that extra outdoor geek touch, you need a case for it that can survive a wild geocaching trip.

quote:Originally posted by seneca: This looks pretty geeky to me. Yea, gotta admit if I saw someone wearing that and wandering around doing the drunken bee dance and holding a GPS I would give fair distance!

quote:Originally posted by Bushwhacker: Dan: Why don't you bring along one of them cool light pens, they sell for about 150 clams. I would like to find that one when I open up the Lions Ridge Cache. Well if I had one of those I don't think I would put it in a cache. Well maybe if I had two :-)

quote:Originally posted by Bushwhacker: Dan: Why don't you bring along one of them cool light pens, they sell for about 150 clams. I would like to find that one when I open up the Lions Ridge Cache. Well if I had one of those I don't think I would put it in a cache. Well maybe if I had two :-)

If you have a tool that if for the geek outdoors person, this is the place to list it. I will start of this Solar Power Gadget Power Station from ThinkGeek.com. The more outragous and questionably useful the better.

I have not seen one, but I think it would be a interesting idea to put that into a hat. If someone does this, it would be nice to disguise the antenna a little. I mean, come on, I look goofy enough as is sometimes walking around with a GPSr doing the drunking bee dance. I really don't need to add to my geekyness, I pretty much have that covered already!

I have a friend thinking about getting a HandyGPS Pro . At the I think I will probably just tell him to get a standalone GPSR and a cable to connect to Visor, but I just thought I would find out if anyone had used one and what they thought.

quote:Originally posted by Warm Fuzzies - Fuzzy: Note, though that "chew up batteries pretty fast" is not a feature of the GPS Companion for Palm V, since it uses its own batteries. As noted here, the Visor Companion also uses its own batteries. The reason why all PalmOS based units start eating batteries is because the serial port needs to be powered and the CPU can not go into sleep mode because it is constantly getting info over the serial port. This basicly makes the handheld use batteries nearly as fast as a standalone GPSR. So instead of 21 days of battery life that I got before I found Geocaching and Word Processing on my Palm, I now get 2 to 6 days. I have found that if I use NiMh batteries I get 12 hours life on the companion and 24 hours on the Visor Deluxe (constant on time). Dan

Just to put a new spin on the topic. From what I can tell the Magellan GPS is by far the most popular for the Visor. Has anyone used the HandyGPS Pro? The new one that has external antenna inputs and such? I know a friend who was thinking of getting one for use in his Range Rover. We have used a couple of GPSR units inside that beasty and it is pretty effective at blocking GPS signals unless you keep it kinda close the windows. That is the reason in the HandyGPS Pro so he can slap a external ant. on the top of his rig.

quote:Originally posted by Eric O'Connor: If a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half then how long does it take a monkey with a wooden leg to kick the seeds out of a pickle? It's doesnt matter, because were doing a money trick :-) From Harry Anderson's Hello Sucker

I work nights and half the weekend, so I tend to go Geocaching on Thursday or Friday's. So I usually end up by myself on most trails, which is nice if a little scary. Sometimes I will have my dog with me, but after I tried to lose him on one hike, I only take him if I know a little about he hike in advance. So what I am trying to say is, I think this is a useful idea. It might make a good service for more then just Geocachers. This could make a good side business for Groundspeak.