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Rebes

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Everything posted by Rebes

  1. To combat this infamous digitizer drift I would recomend a little program called powerdigi from www.palmpowerups It will realign the digitizer automatically. Beat me to it! This program works great on a TX with digitizer drift, I highly recommend it. I am actually using my TX as my sole caching unit... I have a small bluetooth battery powered GPSr that I throw in one pocket, and use the TX with CacheMate and PathAway in another pocket. It's simple to use... Pathaway guides me right to the spots without a problem. Edit: Unfortunately, with winter in full blast here (It's a blizzard today!), I haven't done much caching. I've actually been working on a 10 part puzzle cache that has us get dates from different locations around downtown to fill in the final location, that's about the only thing I can do in the snow and cold!) R!
  2. If your reset is that long, take a look at "uncache', ( http://www.palmpowerups.com/news.php ) has a trial and costs about $6 if you like. It lets you define which programs need to be loaded into db memory and can really cut down on 1. reset times and 2. dbcache fragmentation. You might get away with better chance of starting TT6 with that. I don't think the T|X is even listed as being supported by TT6, it has such hokey memory problems, but I've heard people running it OK with a combo of off flush and/or uncache. You might also look for "Meminfo", a little known Palm app they made for Treos which works on the T|X to defragment dbcache and other memort pools quickly. See how it compares to OffFlush. http://mytreo.net/downloads/meminfo,959.html My personal experiences; my beef with using these tools was just having to wait to clear the dbcache each time I wanted to run (in my case) Garmin Mobile XT on the Palm, especially when switching back from Cachemate on the same Palm. CM does a nice job of fragmenting the dbcache too =(, and actually doesnt play nicely with T\X sometimes (try loading >2000 caches without something like uncache running and doing a "nearest cache" search) so running the mapping after that was a no-go. Also, sometimes CM could not search for nearest caches due to a dbcache issue! Argh. Sounds petty but but often I just wanted to get a route and drive to the next cache / address and hated having to do the T|X reset / flush / wait for Bluetooth to get talking again (which sometimes needed a restart of the GPSr) / reload mapping / route. If you wanted to check cache details on CM on the way, you're screwed I went back to the handheld GPS everytime. Hey Maingray, I hear you, it can be pretty frustrating... So far I haven't had a problem with Cachemate (Only about 300 to 500 caches loaded) and with Off flush I'm not having a problem with TT6 either... I have it set up as a DA too, so I can launch it quickly before running TT6, force a cache clear, and then go right into TT6... Takes 3 to 5 seconds and I don't have to reset the TX. I'll give those other programs a try... I had actually trialed Uncache once before, but not with this combination of apps, so my trial on that one is expired. Guess I'm outta luck on that one unless I pay... R
  3. Figured I would post this as a heads up: I've been trying a free program called "Off Flush" that (you guessed it) flushes the dbcache when you turn the TX off. You can set it to flush if the cache is below a certain threshhold. I set mine for 50% and to do a fast flush. Since doing this, I haven't had the dbcache error when starting TomTom 6... As long as my dbcache is above 50% it seems to start without a problem. I know it's a bit of a hokey fix, but I'd rather turn the device off, wait 3 to 5 seconds for the flush to finish (it pops up on the screen), turn the device back on and go safely into TT6, rather than reboot it before starting TT6 each time, which can take 30 seconds to a minute to restart. R!
  4. Pathaway comes with a Map Manager that runs on your PC... You can import image files into it, then calibrate points on the map... I used it to import a screen-cap and stitch of my entire city at the highest zoom level on google... Calibrated it using readings from Google Earth, and exported the PRC file... copied the PRC file onto my 1 gb card, and Pathaway picks it up perfectly. I'm truly amazed with the accuracy, I can tell which SIDE of the street I'm on when driving down a 4 lane street... On the freeway, it's dead on accurate, I can see which side of the freeway I'm on. I also have been trying another program (Partnered with the makers of Pathaway I believe) called Touratech... with it, I can import Garmin IMG maps, and export them in PRC format for Pathaway already calibrated. Tested on a topo map of my city and it worked great! What I would really like to find is a GOOD google maps exporter, that would let me export an image file of a selected area at a given zoom level... stitching together all those pieces was very time consuming... R!
  5. There are several factors to consider... In my case I already had a TX, so price was a factor. To get into Geocaching, all I needed was a $70 Bluetooth GPSr, not a $300+ dash mount, autorouting, full featured GPSr. From a price perspective, if you have a TX already, it would be cheaper to just get a GPSr. If you don't have a TX, you might be better to get a full featured GPSr that can do road auto routing, that you can load maps into, and that has a good battery life. Then, look on eBay and get an older Palm just to use for Cachemate (Isn't it possible with some Palms to send waypoints across to some GPSr's? I didn't look into this, but I seem to remember reading it) For convenience, again it's a trade off. Having everything in one place on a TX is handy... You can flip between the different applications, and even use copy/paste to get your waypoints between them. However, with a GPSr that is already taken care of. Hard to say on this one, they both have their convenience points. Where this starts to lean towards the TX is if you wanted to get the TX anyways for other things, such as the PIM capabilities, wireless internet/email, games, listening to music, or watching videos. I would like to mention though, that I have never had Cachemate, Pathaway, or CetusGPS crash or require a reset... I can switch between them at will. The ONLY program that has been a problem is Tomtom6... Before starting it, I often have to reset my Palm, otherwise I get the dbcache error. I've heard this can be solved with a program called "Uncache", but I haven't tried it myself yet (Will try it soon though!). BUT, here's the thing... If you are in the USA, you might be better off to avoid TomTom6 entirely, and go with Emtac Navigator... It gets far better reviews, and doesn't suffer from the dbcache error that TT6 gets. Unfortunately, It's only good in the USA, and I'm in Canada, so that wasn't even an option (sigh). Next, for battery life, Maingray and JohnTee make VERY good points. If you are going to go off the beaten path (hiking) and want whatever you take with you to last the trip, the Palm TX probably is not going to do it. You might get 6 to 12 hours out of it with light to medium usage. If you don't have access to power, this is going to be a problem. The Bluetooth GPSr on the other hand would be fine... the one I got lasts 20 to 30 hours (depending on light) and can recharge if just left in sunlight. You would probably be better off in this case with an all-in-one unit that has 20+ hours battery life. Personally, I can't see myself going on 4+ hour long cache sessions where I don't return to my car, and I have a charger for both the TX and the GPSr in the car, so it's a non-issue for me. Again, your needs will make this decision. Edit: Let me clear one thing up... If I was in your situation, and didn't need a TX for other things besides Geocaching, I probably would buy a dedicated GPSr that can be placed in the car, and pulled out of the cradle for hiking. I would make sure that I could load maps and waypoints into it, and I would find a cheap (less than $50) Palm on eBay to use with Cachemate... It does make a little more sense to go that route, rather than getting a TX if you aren't planning on using the other features of the TX. R!
  6. I'm not really sure about water resistance... It seems like it would stand up to a splash or two, but I sure wouldn't put it out in the rain... Personally I'm not too worried about water resistance. You can actually put this GPSr in one pocket, the TX in another pocket, and it tracks you just fine... R
  7. Hi Chris, What you describe is almost identical to my situation. I just recently got into geocaching, but I've had a Palm TX for about a year now (Great product, highly recommend it!). Just last month, I ordered a Solar Bluetooth GPSr from http://www.blipgear.com/ ... The owner of the eBay store (ipMark) that sells these is a well known member of the pda community at Brighthand (www.brighthand.com) and is very reliable. The GPSr itself has worked perfectly from the start... Connects to the TX quickly, acquires satellites in less than a minute when I have good sky view, and seems to track dead on. On the software side, I've used it with Tom Tom 6 for street navigation, Cetus GPS for general navigation (No maps), Cachemate/GSAK for grabbing and viewing caches (Paperless caching), and Pathaway for map enabled navigation. Pathaway is an amazing piece of software... Of those, the only one that is free is Cetus... If you don't want to spend any extra after getting the TX and the GPSr, you could get away with using JUST CetusGPS for locating caches, and doing everything on paper... I also tried another free GPS app called CotusGPS (sp??) and had some problems with it causing my TX to reset. To sum it up, I strongly recommend ipMark's Solar Bluetooth GPSr at BlipGear, and I highly recommand Cachemate/Pathaway for caching. R!
  8. Pathaway uses raster maps only, correct?? If so, precalibrated raster topo maps are available free from the Government's website at http://geogratis.gc.ca/geogratis/en/produc...rch.do?id=10119 These are "Geotiff" formats scanned at 300 dpi. Hey Red90, that's pretty cool, I've definitely bookmarked that site... Still I find that Ibycus' maps are far better at a similar zoom factor... the raster topos at the above address go blurry when I use them at the same zoom level I'm using Ibycus' maps at. If I bring up one of Ibycus' maps after converting it with Touratech, even scaling it down to 0.1 to 0.2 of it's original size, the lines are much sharper, and there's less "other junk" on the maps. Still, a great resource! It looks like they just scanned a bunch of paper maps! What a nightmare of a job... R
  9. I've never heard of Pathaway. Will it read Garmin IMG files? Another option might be to download Garmin Mobile XT from Garmin's site (or the iQue for Palm Software). They will work with that. Pathaway is a nice mapping software for Palm (And WinCE I think, but can't verify myself)... It has all the features of a handheld GPS, and then some... It's extremely configurable... Anyways, I am trying something to get your maps into it... I'll report on how that goes. I'm trying Touratech to import the IMG files and convert them to Pathaway files. I left it working on the imports this morning, it seemed to be going well... I was able to view the maps in Touratech no prob. Touratech has an option to export a map to Pathaway prc format, so I'll hopefully get a chance to try that tonight. I'll let you know! R Ok, last night I confirmed this... I was able to read all of your maps into Touratech, and I was also able to export the fully calibrated maps into Pathaway prc format for the Palm... Tested this morning on the way to work, and Pathaway tracked my position on your maps perfectly. I did have to scale the maps down to about 0.1, as the resulting raster bitmap from exporting the entire map was HUGE. Even at 0.1, it still had good detail. (Edit: When I say full map, I mean one piece of the map) I did notice that I didn't have any road/street names in Touratech, and the streets were dashed red lines, while back alleys were solid black lines... Is this the way everyone is seeing them, or is this a setting within Touratech? In other words, do your maps include the street names? By the way, thanks for some great maps! R!
  10. I've never heard of Pathaway. Will it read Garmin IMG files? Another option might be to download Garmin Mobile XT from Garmin's site (or the iQue for Palm Software). They will work with that. Pathaway is a nice mapping software for Palm (And WinCE I think, but can't verify myself)... It has all the features of a handheld GPS, and then some... It's extremely configurable... Anyways, I am trying something to get your maps into it... I'll report on how that goes. I'm trying Touratech to import the IMG files and convert them to Pathaway files. I left it working on the imports this morning, it seemed to be going well... I was able to view the maps in Touratech no prob. Touratech has an option to export a map to Pathaway prc format, so I'll hopefully get a chance to try that tonight. I'll let you know! R
  11. Hi guys, Do you know if it's possible to use these maps within Pathaway for Palm? This would be extremely helpful! Thanks, R
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