Amberel

Anyone got an Asus P750 and used it for geocaching? I'm thinking of replacing my XDA Stellar with one of these, but it's very hard to tell from advertisements and reviews how good it is for caching because none of them cover this aspect of GPS use. Rgds, Andy

Got to GZ in Richmond Park yesterday and found a girl had pitched a tent about 2 feet from the cache and was breast-feeding her baby there! Rgds, Andy

I think the problem is you have all the tools, data and knowledge for flashing ROMs and either did not realise or have forgotten how long it took you to aquire them. Rgds, Andy

It would take more than 20 minutes to purchase SPB Backup, install it and do the backup. And I have insufficient personal experience of it to know whether I could trust it. One of my previous PDAs came with it installed, but it was too cumbersome for normal use so after an initial trial I didn't use it. That was some years ago, maybe it's better now, but it would take a long time to find out. And then I would have to find somewhere to get hold of my original ROM, and be able to assure myself that it was indeed exactly the original and not a hacked version. I'm afraid I think 20 minutes is absurd to the point of being ridiculous. If you already have the knowledge and all the data and tools to hand, and everything goes according to plan, it may be possible, otherwise it could easily be more than an order of magnitude wrong. I have neither the knowledge or the tools, nor the time or inclination to aquire them for what I fear is likely to be a fruitless exercise. Rgds, Andy

20 minutes! You're joking? I'm not at all in to the business of trying different ROMs and would have to start from scratch working out which one to try (or were you meaning that the ROM in your phone is freely available from somewhere?). I would have to find out how to go about it. I would have to spend time satisfying myself that I had a guaranteed means to safely revert to the original. Then the time to actually do it, the time to try it out, the time to reinstate the original, and then a few more hours to reinstall and reconfigure all my software. And if it didn't work I still wouldn't know if it was just because of the alternative ROM I chose. Rgds, Andy

> Maybe it's a problem introduced by O2's branded ROM? That's not impossible, but I would have thought unlikely - I can't see why they would want to bother to change that. And some of the things I observe, such as low signal levels, are not likely to be due to misconfiguration. > I assume you've tried different ROMs? No. If I knew it would make a dramatic improvement I might consider that, otherwise not. I've got loads of other GPSrs that work just fine, the only imperative for getting this to work better is being able to take one less piece of kit out with me when caching. > The GPS on mine is very good, it will keep a fix even in the car glovebox. I've not tried it in the car glovebox, it's not really a sufficiently rigorous test. I've put mine back to back with other receivers and observed the signal strengths, DoPs, and accuracy against surveyed points, in good reception conditions. I've taken several units into more difficult conditions - woods/urban canyon - and observed the relative performance. Rgds, Andy

The Stellar is a Kaiser. I'm still investigating this, as it may not be a SN issue but something else altogether. On my unit it sometimes does change slowly as I walk slowly, and sometimes it doesn't. This is unaffected by the registry change. The GPS performance of the unit is so poor (compared the the other half a dozen GPS receivers I have) that I wonder if it is a QoS issue and it simply doesn't update when it has a less than perfect signal. I'm fairly sure it's not just a problem with a single unit because I have two XDA Stellars and they are the same. BTW, In case you wonder why I have so many GPS receivers, I'm a professional programmer and have been writing GPS programs for 20 years. I want to understand this issue for professional reasons as well as to turn it into a more usable caching device. Rgds, Andy

I use xda-developers quite a bit, but you have to be very careful to filter out the good material from the rubbish. At least 75% of it is people talking complete nonsense but with great confidence The suggested fix makes no difference to my system (even after a soft reset), nor from the name of the registry entry would I have expected it to. I suspect the symptoms may also be affected by the QoS settings, making it difficult to work out exatly what is going on. I wonder if I can get a chip datasheet from Qualcomm. Rgds, Andy

As far as I know, THIS software can turn it off. Some people have reported problems with it, so be careful (google sirftech and check out the forum threads). Andy Regrettably it can't, nor can any of the numerous similar programs. I don't mean it doesn't work on any GPS units, just that it doesn't work on XDA Orbit 1 and XDA Stellar, and it's likely that it also doesn't work on the Orbit 2. One of the problems is that we can't get access to the GPS port. It's no use trying to talk back to the Windows Intermediate Driver on COM4, and there is no way we can get COM3 (which we think is the "real" GPS port) to open. I can't even open it in my own programs. The suspicion is that the WID is holding the port open, even if the WID is disabled in the setup. A second possible problem is that, while the Orbit 1 used a sirf chipset, it is by no means clear if the same applies to the Stellar or the Orbit 2. I'm a professional programmer and I've spent a LOT of time on this . Rgds, Andy

Only just spotted this. Can you tell me if the Orbit 2 has a static navigation filter enabled on the GPS? I have both an XDA Orbit 1 and an XDA Stellar, and in both cases the filter is enabled, making it more or less useless for geocaching. Unfortunately it is not possible to disable the filter on these units (though I'd love to be proved wrong). If you haven't come across the term before, a static navigation filter is a part of the software that prevents updating of your position while you are stationary or moving very slowly. It was used in the early days of GPS because the deliberate errors introduced by the system caused your position to wander about when you were stationary, which was considered undesirable. It has no real place under modern conditions, but the XDA implementors obviously didn't realise this . It's not a problem when you're using it for satnav, but it stops you slowly homing in to a precise location when caching. You can test it by marking a waypoint (or just going to an existing one) and moving slowly away for about 15 feet. Ideally you should see the distance change a foot at a time, if it doesn't change until you are some way away, then does one big jump, the filter is enabled. If the Orbit 2 does not have the filter enabled I'll get one like a shot. Rgds, Andy

Only just spotted this. Can you tell me if the Orbit 2 has a static navigation filter enabled on the GPS? I have both an XDA Orbit 1 and an XDA Stellar, and in both cases the filter is enabled, making it more or less useless for geocaching. Unfortunately it is not possible to disable the filter on these units (though I'd love to be proved wrong). If you haven't come across the term before, a static navigation filter is a part of the software that prevents updating of your position while you are stationary or moving very slowly. It was used in the early days of GPS because the deliberate errors introduced by the system caused your position to wander about when you were stationary, which was considered undesirable. It has no real place under modern conditions, but the XDA implementors obviously didn't realise this . It's not a problem when you're using it for satnav, but it stops you slowly homing in to a precise location when caching. You can test it by marking a waypoint (or just going to an existing one) and moving slowly away for about 15 feet. Ideally you should see the distance change a foot at a time, if it doesn't change until you are some way away, then does one big jump, the filter is enabled. If the Orbit 2 does not have the filter enabled I'll get one like a shot. Rgds, Andy

That is what I expected. Have you tried mscape yet? How does it compare to Wherigo in stability and features? Rgds, Andy

I didn't see the BBC program, but have looked at the web site. As anyone reading the Wherigo forums will realise, my experience with Wherigo has been (much) less than positive. I love the idea, but it's by far the flakiest piece of software I have ever used. To be fair, it is gradually getting better, but it should never have been released in the state it was. I'm also concerned about the way the cartridges are branded and the possibility (liklihood?) that this will turn into a chargeable system. The galling part is that, as a programmer myself, and one who has been programming GPS applications for nearly 20 years, this looks a pretty straightforward task. I have been considering whether I should produce my own equivalent and guarantee both the code and data will remain open. Problem is that I have no marketing clout, and there would be no Groundspeak listed cache at the end of it. I had a look at the mscape offering, and apart from finding out that it belongs to HP I have been unable to ascertain if that is likely to be as proprietary as Wherigo. Rgds, Andy

I'll echo what everyone has said. It were a crackin' event . Rgds, Andy

Maybe they couldn't find the cache and got fed up with the game, and this is the geocaching equivalent of "hanging up your boots" Seriously, though, good luck re-uniting it with it's owner. Rgds, Andy

I've posted to this one because E is "my" reviewer, who yesterday published 3 caches within 5 minutes of me submitting them, as he almost always did, but it applies equally to Lacto. Thank you both very much indeed for everything you've done ever since I started this pastime. It is difficult to guess the direction we may be taking in the future, after such a sea change. I was vaguely aware of a few apparently heavy handed actions here and abroad, but was completely unaware of the extent to which things might have been bubbling under the surface. Whatever happens, I wish you both good luck and express the hope that you may now have some time to actually do some caching yourselves. I would also wish to not forget Deceangi in all of this, we are equally grateful for his efforts and I'm sure we will all try to minimise his workload until this all settles down again. Rgds, Andy

Next stage in the saga. You may recall that my last experience had improved to the point I was able to complete half a cartridge before the PDA locked up. Today I downloaded the latest version of the player and tried again. Firstly, for the first time ever the auto configure worked without locking up the machine. Good progress. I then completed three quarters of the cartridge,at which point I had to enter an answer to a task question. I wasn't sure of the answer and I entered several different ones, none of which were correct, and it just asked again. Then, as the clues suggested it might be a long code I entered a long answer (about 10 words, 80 characters?). That wasn't correct either, and it asked again. For 10 seconds I looked for more possible answers, then went to enter another try and .... Wherigo had gone! It had terminated with no warning or error message and the PDA was displaying the Today screen. I'm absolutely certain that I did not press any buttons or tap the screen in between entering the incorrect long answer and having the program disappear. I'll try again with a new version in 3 or 4 weeks. Rgds, Andy

I just tried logging on from my phone to make sure there was no problem with the site and it worked fine. I've no idea why it might be machine dependent. Can you log in to the wap site OK from your broadband connection? Might it be something to do with spaces in your logon? You can tell I'm casting round for ideas here Rgds, Andy

Hi David, Thanks for that. I didn't think it was causing a problem but obviously it's better only installing the one copy, not least because 410Kb of main memory is a fair chunk of a somewhat scarce resource I think Wherigo is a great concept and I think you will get it sorted, but I do feel it was put on public release too early and that a period of controlled beta testing would have been advisable. I have yet to successfully complete a "real" cartridge without it locking up and have put everything on hold for the time being - I'll try again in a few weeks. I have been planning a cartridge, walking the area, taking photos, etc, but I won't be releasing it until I have a reasonable degree of confidence that I can complete it at least 20 times in a row without any bugs showing themselves. Rgds, Andy

Thanks, that was very useful. I've now gone over all my caches and handicache rated them (took an hour and a half!) and tried to make relevant notes on the cache page. Rgds, Andy

OK, I've now had the chance to install this on a rather older machine, an XDA IIs running Windows Mobile 2003. It's completely clean, i.e. prior to the install it has had a hard reset back to the factory supplied condition. And it's done exactly the same thing, installing 2 copies of the player. On this OS I am offered no options at all during the install. Here is a complete list of what it has installed in Program Files. I'm taking this from File Explorer on the device and so no extensions are reported. Note that dates are in UK dd/mm/yy format. Groundspeak/Wherigo/Player/AW_logo 03/01/08 5.30K Groundspeak/Wherigo/Player/Player 07/03/08 410K readme 07/03/08 1.92K WherigoPlayer/Player 07/03/08 410K I haven't been able to run the Player on this machine because it requires a newer version of the .NET runtime than is installed, and I suspect that the amount of RAM on the machine may be insufficient to hold the .NET runtime and run the Player. However, it does suggest the "double player" installation oddity is not confined to the XDA Orbit. Rgds, Andy

I wonder if a wheelchair user could give me some advice, please. When reporting a cache I set the wheelchair attribute if appropriate. However, there are so many possible factors governing wheelchair access that often I am unsure if it is appropriate or not. Recent factors (not all on the same cache) have included: The (tow)path leading to the cache had a restricted width access from the most convenient end (about 30 feet from the cache) and open access from the other end (a mile from the cache). I think the restriction was to prevent motorcycles from using the towpath. Unfortunately there was nowhere to site the cache the other side of the width restriction. The path from the suggested parking to the cache could get very muddy in wet weather. The last few feet to the cache is on grass, which could become soft in wet weather. Access to the cache from one direction only requires crossing a footbridge with fairly steep approaches. The cache is hidden near a river. The cache is hidden at a height of 5 or 6 feet. Discussion on these, and other factors, would help me be more accurate in setting the attribute. Rgds, Andy

That was using all the defaults. The only thing I get asked is where I want it put, and whichever answer I give it, I get 2 copies of Player.exe. It is bizarre, as you say, and I can't explain it. I have another PDA, an old one I no longer use, I'll try it on that and see what happens. Thanks, unfortunately it doesn't work on this machine for the same reason the SiRF program doesn't work and for the same reason I'm unable to write a program to do it myself, i.e. the Windows Intermediate Driver holds the GPS port open and we have been unable to find any way to make it relinquish the port As far as we can tell, the GPS is on COM3, but no commercial program I have will open that port and I can't open it myself from either a .NET application or through the native C API. This is not a Wherigo problem in any way shape or form. Today I tried to do my first Wherigo cache. It found the start and explained what I had to do. It took me to the first waypoint where I completed the first task. It then took me to the second waypoint, at which point it locked up solid and required a soft reset. I suppose there is no way of getting a post mortem dump or other post cessation debug to find out what caused it? Rgds, Andy

Hi David, For reasons I can't explain, I'm definitely getting different results to you. I have now uninstalled and reinstalled 4 times, each time I have checked that there were no files remaining, and each time the reinstall placed 2 copies of the player.exe on my machine. If I specify the storage card it puts one on the card and one in main storage. if I specify main storage it puts 2 copies in main storage (in differently named directories as reported previously). And the uninstall procedure automatically removes both files. I have repeated this process again since reading your last post, being extremely careful to confirm the files had been deleted after the uninstall, and they were, and they have both been replaced when I did a reinstall. I tried 57600 and I do get green bars, but that was just sitting outside in the car. It's still pouring with rain here and I'm not going to go marching up the street to see if the bars stay green while I'm moving. Maybe tomorrow . If you know of a way to turn off static navigation filter on the internal GPS device I would be forever in your debt. Unfortunately the SiRFDemoPPC program won't run on the PPC because of this pesky Windows Intermediate Driver in Windows Mobile. I, and many others, have tried unsuccessfully to disable this driver and access the GPS port directly, but we have all failed. That's why I have to use an external bluetooth receiver instead of the internal unit for geocaching. Rgds, Andy

Sorry to keep coming back to you on this, but you recall I said I had reinstalled into main memory because of the duplicated Player.exe when I installed into card storage. Well, I've just noticed that it still has 2 copies of Player.exe, now both in main memory. One is in the WherigoPlayer directory and the other in the Groundspeak/Wherigo/Player directory. I'm going to try running with it set to 57600 to see if it makes any difference to the red/green bars. I thought it would only work at 4800 but it seems to connect up whatever speed I have in the config file. However, it is throwing it down here tonight so it will have to wait a while Rgds, Andy