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frefel

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Everything posted by frefel

  1. Thanks for your comments PokerLuck. Your idea that the algorithms are most likely different makes sense. Why would they be the same since Garmin and Google are competitors in some ways? Nevertheless I was hoping that someone had found a "workaround" to make the wonderful Google Maps data play well with my Garmin device. Your adding WPs is a good suggestion but it would be ideal to not have to do any custom manual additions. A related question then is why does the GPSr unit have to "calculate" the Route transferred from even MapSource? Why can't the Route be compiled entirely on the desktop, if desired, and then uploaded to the unit without further massaging (assuming the same settings and maps in both)? Seems like an easy and useful option to me but then I am not a programmer.
  2. garmin etrex vista c, openstreetmaps, google maps I have had this GPSr for more than a few years and and finally am getting around to learning about some of it's amazing capabilities. What I am exploring is the auto routing function and combining that with Google Maps. So I sucessfully obtain a GPX file that contains the map and driving direction using GMapToGPX. I load it into the Vista and view the receiver's map and all looks perfect; the roads and the route line. I review in Route the individual waypoints comprising the route and eacn is correct with the proper turn instructions exactly as given by Google Maps. Now the problem: If I follow the route "Off Road" I am led from WP to WP in straight segments having nothing to do with the actual road (as expected) and the instructions are simply the bearings from one to another - not those from Google Maps. Not very high tech! If I follow the route by "Follow Road" the unit immediately goes into "calculating" mode, sets up a route that is different from google Maps (and incorrect) and creates turn instructions that are completely unusable. So my question is why is the unit messing up the perfectly good Google Map route by it's calculations and is there a way to circumvent that step (if I cancel it it says 'ready to navigate" but there is no route on the map and there seems to be no way to start it up)? Bottom line; I am getting all the necessary data into the GPSr but it then messes with it.
  3. It is somewhat ironic to be complaining about the Feedback tab and then to have to use it to submit feedback. I have already submitted and hope others will also.
  4. Thanks everybody - we found it today. What worked was to enter the given coords into the Old Hawaiian datum setup on the eTrex then change to the usual WSG 84 format. The result was a different set of coords that led us to the prize. All just like dfx and others suggested. And yes the distance from the WSG 84 bogus site to the Old Hawaiian find was certainly hundreds of meters. I had tried a NADCON (NAD 27 to NAD 83) conversion app but the results were quite a bit off. I assume that is because the Old Hawaiian datum is not exactly the same as NAD 27 even though it was stated to be derived from it.
  5. Thanks to all of you who have supported my displeasure at the feedback tab. I am on vacation with my Acer Aspire One netbook. It has quite a small screen so that must be the reason the feedback tab is so obnoxious on my computer. I could resize the landscape but it would be ¨robbing Peter to pay Paul¨ on this tiny laptop. Therefore I´ll stick with my complaint that Feedback should not occupy any more prime real estate on my personal geocahing pages than many of the other functions relegated to the sidebar.
  6. I am looking for a cache in which the coords are given in the normal WSG 84 datum which leads to a bogus site. To find the real cache site the datum has to be converted to Old Hawaiian datum and searched with it. I have the Old Hawaiian datum as a choice on my eTrex Vista C but changing to it does not alter the obviously incorrect location. How do I use the datum selections in the GPSr to convert from one to another? Thanks in advance.
  7. Thanks for the edit. I tried to do that but couldn´t figure out how to alter the title so I resigned myself to permanent shame.
  8. This is truly embarrassing - yes it is a ¨Feedback¨ tab, not a facebook one. Nevertheless it blocks text and doesn´t need to occupy so much valuable space.
  9. I haven't logged into geocaching.com for a while and was recently unpleasently surprised to see a facebook button/tab/whatever right in the middle of the page I was trying to read - requiring me to shift the page up and down to uncover the contents. I do not use facebook but I do pay for my Premium membership here so I hope someone can help me get rid of that obtrusive "in my face" obstacle. Thanks.
  10. I have been following this thread for a long time, hoping and waiting for a ¨user friendly¨ Linux GUI interface for geocaching. In the meantime I have converted from Ubuntu to Puppy Linux as my primary Linux OS. I suppose that will complicate things a bit if and when easy to use apps arrive for Ubuntu users and then have to be reformatted to Puppy - something I do not know how to do. Presently I use Puppy for everything except geocaching and then I have to revert to Windows.
  11. Kevin; What version of Linux are you using and are there any suggestions for someone like me who is not very computer savy, especially regarding the setup and use of GPSTurbo? Fred
  12. Wow; there is a lot of talent out there! I hope some of it will get channeled into writing easy-to-use GUIs for Linux dumbells like me. I have been using Linux for routine web browing for years but without the computational skills background I find command line use more challenging than learning a foreign language; and since I am learning Spanish it would be impossible for me to add another.
  13. So Yamar how about identifying those good and bad distros from your perspective? That might be helpful to those of us who are trying to make Linux work for geocaching.
  14. I appreciate your reply roberlipe; if you feel I was ¨lashing out¨ at you I apologize since that was not my intention. I know you are a respected contributor to the world of geocaching (and more) with with your GPSBabel. I did not want to be critical of you or your work - that would be nonsense; I simply wanted to express my frustration at not being able to take advantage of programs like GPSBabel because of my inadequacies with terminal commands and I´m convinced there are many more like me. It´s not your responsibility to have to make my life easier but that still doesn´t preclude my right to complain about the fact that after all these years there still isn´t a novice friendly GUI to facilitate a connection between a gpsr and Ubuntu, for example. It wouldn´t even have to be GPSBabel. As for the copy/pasting of lines of script being a ¨dealbreaker¨, you are probably right because that doesn´t sound feasible for use in the field where I spend most of my time geocaching. I´m depressed to hear of the pathetic download numbers you are seeing from Linux users but I reiterate, that may have a lot to do with the complexity of GPSBabel for someone like me who has no problem using Ubuntu for almost every other need but, after multiple attempts including soliciting help on various forums, can´t make it work with my eTrex. You mention the development of a new GUI -great, I can hardly wait; I´m looking forward to using GPSBabel. You might want to ¨beta¨ your work to me first because if there is a weakness I´ll certainly gravitate to it (not by choice) to the point of not being able to make it work.
  15. ¨Any Linux Users out there?¨ is a thread above with 102 responses so you know it has a lot of pertinent info.
  16. ¨Any Linux Users out there?¨ is a thread above with 102 responses so you know it has a lot of pertinent info.
  17. Quote from this thread: ¨I rely on gpsbabel. The author (Robert Lipe) expressed a concern that he wasn't seeing or hearing much from Linux users anymore, but in my case it's because it's packaged in the distro's repository and it just works for my needs. Thanks very much for doing it.¨ I don´t have any doubt about why he is not seeing much from Linux users: 1) To effectively employ Gpsbabel one needs a substantial knowledge of command line terminology which is arcane, complicated and completely unnecessary to master in the modern world of GUIs. Why do I need to learn a foreign language (use of ¨code¨) to be able to geocache with Linux? Why did people gravitate to Windows from DOS? Duh? 2) Check out the web site for Gebabbel, the supposed GUI for gebabbel. It is also arcane and loaded with warnings about crashes when used with Ubuntu. 3) I have spent hours googling sites for a single place where I could learn how to connect my Garmin eTrex to my computer running Ubuntu and be able to reliably move WPs back and forth. There is no such place, I still can´t do it, and that includes the GPSBabel site which requires more Linux expertise than I have. 4) With all the Linux distros and different ¨kernels¨ floating around somebody´s explanation for Fedora will probably not solve my Ubuntu needs. In order tor it to work for me with the command line I need a ¨recipe¨, a step by step account from start to finish that works, or better, a GUI that both I can understand and works.
  18. I assume the ¨front end for gpsbabel¨ you refer to is Gebabbel here but reviewing the source data it looks like an unstable program. Does anyone have any experience with it, particularly in Ubuntu?
  19. On many Linux issues Google is your friend. You'll either find it discussed on one of the many forums, or someone has a web page will helpful hints. FYI -- in most cases you can type man <program_name>, where <program_name> is the program you want to know about, and the man pages for that program will be displayed. If you type the program name (and remember, filenames are case sensitive in Linux) followed by --h or --help you will typically get a list of valid command line options. If you're young enough to have missed out on DOS and Windows 3.xx, you probably don't have any command-line experience. Most Linux distros have utilities to do all the stuff we used to do from the command line, but sometimes the command line is a necessary evil. Thanks for the reminder that there are help resources at hand but yes I do remember the DOS format for Windows and I refused to deal with computers until the GUI interface came out. I was learning Spanish at the time and one foreign language at a time was enuf.
  20. Let us know how things go as I, and more than a few others, are having trouble dealing with the command line format of Linux in order to make the apps work.
  21. I was having ongoing problems with the computer (Thinkpad T22, Ubuntu 8.04) seeing my GPSrs. Finally I installed the Garmin_gps module (thanks to help from this forum), viewed a working connection with dmesg and then managed to get GPSMan and my usb eTrex to see each other. Next I tried to do the same with my serial eTrex but no go. Now I go back to the usb unit and nothing is working again. This is from ¨dmesg¨: 1314.296316] usb 1-1.3: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4 [ 1314.346885] usb 1-1.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice [ 1315.664827] usb 1-1.3: USB disconnect, address 4 [ 1322.629239] usb 1-1.3: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5 [ 1322.649988] usb 1-1.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice [ 1347.925860] usb 1-1.3: USB disconnect, address 5 [ 1348.032685] usb 1-1.3: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 6 [ 1348.052720] usb 1-1.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice [ 1364.786221] usb 1-1.3: USB disconnect, address 6 [ 1560.225370] usb 1-1.3: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 7 [ 1560.354420] usb 1-1.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice fred@fred-laptop:~$ There is no mention of a Garmin device at /dev/ttyUSB0. I have no idea what is going on but I´d sure like to know if someone has experience with this issue. Thanks.
  22. Maybe I´m being greedy but now I´d like GPSMan to also see my serial eTrex Venture. Here is what I get with ¨dmesg¨: 2301.061001] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial [ 2301.061625] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for generic [ 2301.062084] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic [ 2301.062093] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core [ 2301.113790] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for Garmin GPS usb/tty [ 2301.113908] usbcore: registered new interface driver garmin_gps [ 2301.113916] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/usb/serial/garmin_gps.c: garmin gps driver v0.31 [ 2330.051630] usb 1-1.4: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5 [ 2330.085557] usb 1-1.4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice [ 2330.094740] garmin_gps 1-1.4:1.0: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter detected [ 2330.095120] usb 1-1.4: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter now attached to ttyUSB0 [ 3799.794064] usb 1-1.4: reset full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5 [ 4712.860833] usb 1-1.4: USB disconnect, address 5 [ 4712.861593] garmin_gps ttyUSB0: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0 [ 4712.861626] garmin_gps 1-1.4:1.0: device disconnected [ 4718.276613] usb 1-1.3: USB disconnect, address 4 [ 5341.331214] process `skype' is using obsolete setsockopt SO_BSDCOMPAT fred@fred-laptop:~$ It looks like it saw the serial connection, opened it but then disconnected. I have no idea why. Thanks in advance.
  23. As root or "sudo" load module garmin_gps: "sudo modprobe garmin_gps" now connect the usb cable to your Garmin and the computer. Turn the Garmin on. Now at the command line: "dmesg" The last part should show something like: usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 10 usb 5-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice garmin_gps 5-1:1.0: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter detected usb 5-1: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter now attached to ttyUSB0 Now start gpsman, go to "Options", select the GPS Model to Garmin, select the Receiver Parameters / Default Protocol to Garmin USB, and in the Serial Port and Files, set Serial Port to /dev/ttyUSB0 (..or what your ttyUSB showed). Exit gpsman again, start gpsman, go to menu GPS Receiver and press check, hopefully working now Brgds Harry Here is what I get after dmseg: [ 2330.094740] garmin_gps 1-1.4:1.0: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter detected [ 2330.095120] usb 1-1.4: Garmin GPS usb/tty converter now attached to ttyUSB0 So it looks like I´m connected to the eTrex alright. I assume the USB0 is a zero and not a small letter O. It also seems strange to be entering USB data (dev/ttyUSB0) in a Serial box. I select the USB protocol > exit > restart GPSMan > Message/GPSManager - cannot open serial port dev/ttyUSB0. Foiled again. I take that back! I just realized I had typed ¨dev/ttyUSB0¨ instead of ¨/dev/ttyUSB0¨. It´s working! Whee!! And thanks to Harry.mj
  24. Thanks harry.mj. I am out of town right now so I do not have access to my gear but early next week I'll give your suggestion a try.
  25. Does anyone have any experience with GPSMan? I think it is a relatively new open source app that looks like a winner for Linux users. The interface is GUI and the instructions seemingly clear but I just can´t get ti to recognize my 2 GPSrs, one a serial eTrex Venture and the other a usb eTrex Vista C. I am using the default settings, including those for the location of the ports since I don´t know anything to do differently, but here gpsman is mention of successful use with Garmin units in Ubuntu. I want do badly to be able to use this program so I can begin to do something useful with Linux and geocaching. Thanks in advance.
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