Pen&Card

Thank you both. Yikes. It works but sucks. - Pen

When I checked the Garmin website for whether or not my GPS V would work with City Nav NA v8, all I could find out was the GPS V was no longer supported (geez, and it was pretty special when I bought it!). Does anyone know? Thanks, Pen

GSAK reported: Total Waypoints Processed: 1 Total Waypoints Added: 0 Total Waypoints Updated: 0 OK, the real problem here is why the summary says that you processed 1 waypoint but nothing was added or updated. It must at least be added or updated to have a chance of being added to your finds. Do you have this cahe locked? Check your database update options on the load dialog - perhaps you have selected "exisiting only" and this cache is not yet in your database. If you still can't work out why it is not being added/updated to your database please send me a copy of this GPX file together with a screen shot of you load dialog. Thanks Clyde, Although the problem was not exactly as you suspected, it was operator error. I had the load control "newer only" selected. Prior to doing my find entry, I had loaded the day's PQ which included this cache. I'm guessing that made subsequent attempts to update this cache fail as GSAK would have read the file as being the same date, hence not a "new" update. Right? In any event, today's files loaded and GSAK processed the cache as a find. Learned something, anyway. Thanks, - Pen

Hello Clyde, You've been very helpful when I've been stumped before, so I'll give it another go this time. Pardon the overly detailed explanation below, but you seem to like detail... I did see the forum entry you provided above. I don't think this is a PQ problem though. Not strictly speaking anyway. The individual gpx dl'd from the cache page does have the finder code right (I think). I upgraded to 6.0.2 today prior to entering a new "find". Upgrade appears to have gone perfectly, so I can't say for certain it is relevant. I went to gc.com and entered the new find. After verifying the log entry went OK, I dl'd the individual gpx file and imported it into GSAK, expecting the new find to be automatically detected by the updated gpx file. GSAK reported: Total Waypoints Processed: 1 Total Waypoints Added: 0 Total Waypoints Updated: 0 The cache in question remained unchanged in GSAK. I assumed the gpx I received from gc.com failed to have the updated information. I opened the gpx with a text editor and it appears it contains the proper information. In part it includes: <Groundspeak:logs> <Groundspeak:log id="10017517"> <Groundspeak:date>2005-08-T07:00:00</Groundspeak:date> <Groundspeak:type>Found it</Groundspeak:type> <Groundspeak:finder id="127157">Pen&Card</Groundspeak:finder> That's me in red above. I don't know enough about gpx files to know if this is properly formatted or not, but the finder id is correct, and so is the name. I compared previous gpx files that have worked, and they appear to be the same as far as I can tell. I had not changed any of my GSAK settings in the general tab for "Method for matching placed (hidden) and found caches. It had always been "Pen&Card" and Wild card match selected. I decided to change that setting to Exact match, 127157. No change. GSAK still does not recognize the find. I'm guessing it is something to do with the gpx file, but the coincidence of upgrading when I did... FWIW, - Pen

ClydeE Posted on Jul 2 2005, 03:45 PM Thank you Clyde, for anticipating the need. It seems to me there is a lot of potential for managing non-cache waypoints. I hope the investment of your time pays off for you. I've looked at GPSBabel quite some time ago and it was a tad over my head then. I'll revisit and see if I can make it work. I'm also still trying to get the hang of macros. I have a little time on my hands this weekend so we'll see. damel Posted on Jul 2 2005, 10:16 PM And thank you, damel. I had wondered about doing the cut'n'paste approach, but I think less of my ability to pull that off in five minutes. If my effort to wrestle macros and GPSBabel to the ground fail, I'll move on to this work around. Thanks again to you both, - Pen

Clyde, This two part request is probably way beyond the intent of GSAK, but if I don’t ask, I’ll never know for sure if it can be done or not. First part: I have a large collection of waypoints that I call “Work Waypoints”. These locations are places my business frequently take me to over a very large geographical area. I exported the 70 waypoints from MapSource to a gpx file. I then created a GSAK database named Work Waypoints (as you can see, I’m very imaginative with nomenclature) and imported them. I would like to send all 70 to GSAK’s “locations”. This would allow me to do quick sorting/filtering of caches nearest my business locations. The intent here is also to have the center points and distances available in the PDA when I export to HTML. Is there a way to send all of the waypoints en masse? Doing them one by one is tedious. But then I may be the only person thinking they need to, or there may be a better way doing this altogether. Second part: Even though these waypoints are not caches, it seems GSAK has a lot of potential for managing waypoints (like those described above). Any chance in the future GSAK could manage waypoints with all the waypoint features, such as icons available on mapping and GPSrs? Maybe add fields for address, parking instructions, phone numbers, etc? I can see a lot of application, particularly for exporting to a PDA. However, just like the first part, it’s unlikely I’m the first person to ever think of this and there’s probably a product out there covering this ground… Thanks for the time. Pen

Just sent you an email requesting 3 brass, 1 silver. Thanks for doing this. This is one handsome coin. - Pen

Well, that's because I gave you the wrong link. Sorry about that. Try http://jdmcox.com/ or this link USAPhotomaps

Macro's and/or automating tasks in GSAK are probably way over my head but thought I would give it a go. Not sure if this is really on topic for macros or if it is something for the "run program" feature of GSAK. I would like to automatically run USAPhotomaps to bring up the individual cache, hopefully with a waypoint icon of my choosing, and the GSAK generated code to label the waypoint (I drop the GC in the code). Anyway to do this? Thanks, Pen of Pen&Card

St. Helens this year, but Grand Coulee Dam, Palouse Falls, Whitman Mission, Steptoe Butte, sagebrush or any icon of the real Washington State next year! - Pen

Regarding the future of GSAK thread - I recommend option 4. Thanks for asking!

Thanks for a great product Clyde, I'm having a little difficulty exploiting smart tags though. The help file and previous discussions don't seem to clue me in if I'm doing something wrong or asking GSAK to do something it can't do. Here's the challenge - I want the html waypoint code to display the same as the gpx and Mapsource waypoint name Here's the settings I've chosen: Under Tools, HTML tab, Waypoint description for HTML view, I have entered the following string: %drop2 %notgc%code In exporting to Mapsource or to gpx, in the export window waypoint name field I entered the same string: %drop2 %notgc%code Which provides exactly what I would expect it to - all cache codes have the "GC" dropped and all of my benchmark codes remain intact. When exporting to html though, that same string when entered in the export to html waypoint code field drops the first two characters of all codes. The only work around I've found is to export to gpx, open that file in GSAK, then export that to html using only the %code tag. A little tedious to be a good solution. Am I missing something? Happy New Year, - Pen

You can't actually customize the "HERE" link, however there is a work around. You sort of stumbled on it when you mentioned custom URL If you prefix any custom URL (see the help file) name with a ! (exclamation mark) that URL will also appear as a link in any GSAK generated HTML page (This includes offline and split screen). So just prefix your custom URL that goes to gc.com and displays more than 5 logs with a !, then you you can just click on that link in the page rather that the "HERE" link. Sorry about the dated quote regarding custom urls. Is there a way to have a custom url provide the nearest benchmarks for each cache (or other benchmark for that matter) in a html export? So far I have guessed my way to: !Benchmarks=http://www.geocaching.com/mark/nearest.aspx? But that just gets the search page for benchmarks. Is there a way to pull the nearest... say 5 benchmarks? Would there be a way to further refine it to nearest 5 less than x miles? Thanks, Pen

I'm for it! Don't know if I could make it work, but I'm for it! - Pen

Outstanding work! Thank you. I'll send you an email. Don't know what an EPS file, is, but if it is needed for making stamps, my wife will put it to good use! Thanks one more time, Pen

Same experience here. But I have managed a work around. Make sure you display the "last update" date column in your db. As these archived caches do not get picked up in the PQs, those caches will retain an old update listing. When I notice a cache does not get updated, I check it on line. Almost always it is due to being archived (permanently or temp). You can dl and load the archived cache's gpx file, and it will then accurately reflect it's status. From that point on, if the cache is ever reactivated, GSAK will alert you the cache has become active when it is included in a future PQ. Works for me, anyway. - Pen

Thanks Clyde, that's great news. A tad more on clarification though... I'm surely missing the obvious, but I don't seem to be able to make that work. Yes, GSAK will open the .mps file and import into the arc filter all of the waypoints, but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with routes. The routing coordinates are not imported, nor are tracks. Maybe I'm missing some feature of Mapsource or GSAK, but it still looks to me creating waypoints one by one in Mapsource or doing the cut'n'paste thing with routes and tracks are the only options. Roads are pretty straight Down Under I take it? You can wander pretty far off a 59 mile straight line in my neck 'o the woods! For instance a drive from Walla Walla Washingtion (don't laugh, I know you got funnier sounding places than that) to Lewiston Idaho will deviate more than 25 miles from the 56 mile straight line between the two. And that's far from unusual. That is good to know though, since the manual creation of waypoints can be significantly less for those stretches that are relatively straight. Oh, by the way, my miserable attempts to get GSAK to accept a .mps file with only a route in it caused GSAK to hang several times. The error messages are on thier way to you. Thanks, Pen

Looking for an easier way to create an arc filter to deal with long distances to be traveled. When trying to construct an arc filter in GSAK, I’ve tried to find a lazy way to plot all the coordinates. So far, the best I can come up with are two work-arounds (I’m using Mapsource North American City Select v4 and MS Word). Neither is a great solution for the truly lazy. I’m hoping there is a better way. 1. Travel the route first and save the track log from the GPSr. I’ve experimented with cut and pasting the track log coordinates into Word, doing a search and replace to properly format the coordinates for the arc filter in GSAK. This seems to work OK, but doesn’t do a whole lot of good if you haven’t traveled the route before. 1a. This creates an arc filter with way more coordinates than needed, but the number of points don’t seem increase the work involved. 2. Create a route in Mapsource and then export the route to a tab delimited text file. Do the routine with Word, cut’n’paste again into the arc filter. But. The waypoints can be great distances apart if Mapsource routing doesn’t see a need to create a waypoint. In a recent example, two waypoints were 59 miles apart. If I set the arc filter to 5 miles, it would mean 49 miles of the route would have excluded any caches in that stretch (wouldn’t it? I hope I explained that right). 2a. The only way I can see to fix this would be to manually create waypoints at less than five mile increments. Since the routing in Mapsource doesn’t display the route waypoints, it would be a guessing game as to where the voids are. A tedious and laborious project, unless I’m missing something. At this risk of making this a terribly over long post, a suggestion for the GSAK arc filter: That a single space preceding the W latitude (with no comma present) be processed as though there was a comma. That would eliminate the whole find and replace routine I’ve described above. Thanks, Pen

I'm glad this came up. Rather than changes in elevation, I've always assumed there had to be some margin of error - always on the short side of measuring speed and distance, when the GPSr is tracking a curve. Although my GPSr reads once per second, there is no possible way the GPSr can measure the true length of distance traveled in the arc between readings, correct? At hight speeds, the curve would have been sampled in a few straight lines, and possibly significantly shorted the GPSr measurement of a 1000 mile or more trip? It would seem to me this would create more inaccuracy than elevation. But that's just me guessing. Am I anywhere near right?

Along similar 'lines' as YeOleImposter's request, I would like to request a simple line drawing that would capture "Pen&Card". It would really 'impress' my wife, who is into stamping in a very big way. Thanks, Pen

Outstanding! Thanks YeOleImposter. Works perfectly. I've just gone paperless with a Palm Tungsten E, so I haven't quite leanred how to put the photos on yet - Sure realize the advantage though. I agree with your wish list, but would also like GSAK to have a customizable toolbar that would allow assigning a custom URL to a button. Maybe in the commercial release? - Pen

YeOleImposter! If you are out there somewhere and want to lend a hand to a neighbor.... The following two lines of code which I stole from an earlier post of yours does a great job of creating a custom URL link to mapmaker, but it lacks the "marker". I assume it is your preference not to display the marker. Is there a way for me to put the marker in? Thanks, - Pen LostOutDoors Topo=http://www.lostoutdoors.com/map.php?map=%lat%2C%lon&t=2&z=1&s=3&id=&mark=%lat%2C%lon%2C255%2C0%2C0%2C,14%2C%code-%name* LostOutDoors Photo=http://www.lostoutdoors.com/map.php?map=%lat%2C%lon&t=1&z=1&s=3&id=&mark=%lat%2C%lon%2C255%2C0%2C0%2C,14%2C%code-%name*

As I explore GSAK further, I'm wondering if someone can help me enter in some custom URLs for LostOutdoors.com? I would like to access http://www.lostoutdoors.com/newmap.html, and be able to do one click mapping of both topo (1800x1800, 2m resolution) and NAAP image (1800x1800, 1m resolution). Actually I know that would be two separate operations, but hopefully you know what I mean. I'm not up on the smart tags or how to cause the necessary fields to be automatically entered. Probably easy and simple, but then I always say, nothing simple ever is. Thanks, -Pen

Hello Clyde, I just dl'd GSAK 3.04 - thanks. I was thinking of registering GSAK, for all the good reasons you provide. Just wondering though. I've lived 51 years without resorting to taking out a paypal account, and I'm determined to live life without it. 'Specially when their privacy policy is two pages of 8pt font (you should tell them to just answer the straight forward questions "Will we spam you? Yes or no. Do we be acknowledge liability resulting from irresponsible management of information you provide? Yes or no"). Anywho. Is there another way to get you your loot? I'll mail you a check if it ain't too technologically obstructive. Thanks again for a great product. Looking forward to being a registered user. - Pen PS - I paid Groundspeak by check. I think they're on to 'em. I'm sure paypal was the backer of the spammer on the grassy knoll!

Thanks, This weekend is shot for working this out, but hopefully I'll find time in the week. I'll let you know how I do. - Pen