WestbrooksByTheSea

Tutt, tutt...If I had just two finds under my belt, as you have, I'd suggest you need all the advice you can get...before going out and buying a GPS'r THEN finding you've 'cocked-up', excuse the british slang for 'making a mistake'! But please, go ahead and spend your cash! I had well over a 1000 finds when I lived in Ca so I am by now way a newby at this. I was not trying to come off rude I just felt the input really was not helpful I was looking for a GPS not advice on getting a membership. If I came off rude sorry I was just pointing out this is a wanted ad for a GPS not needless inputs. I changed my email due to changing ISP and did not want to deal with acct changes so I started a new profile a few years ago. I have been busy restoring classic mustangs and just got the bug to GEOCACHE againg. I guess my attitude may have been on the rough side but really I am a nice person. Not that anyone should care what I think, but I thought your original response was apropo.

I'm finally succumbing...I want to combine my ipod, my palm 515, and my phone. Tired of synching everything all the time. Is anyone using a Treo with GSAK/cachemate or any other product with success? I'll still use my gps to actually find the cache, but would like to store the cache data/logs etc. in the phone if possible. Any comments or suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

And I'm sure they'll jump on it right after they deal with the 150,000 backlogged customer complaints about simple things like frozen screens and dial-an-Indian. I love my Magellan GPS, but I HATE Magellan! If I treated my customers like they do, I'd have to close the doors. Just my two cents

Argh, Never mind, I just saw the little "log date" field on the cache page in my PDA. I was expecting them to be listed on one long page like on geocaching.com. What a cool little program, what was I doing before this?

This is probably an easy answer for someone who's been doing this for a while, but I've just switched to Cachemate so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm loading caches from a Pocket Query into GSAK. I can see all the relevant logs in each cache. When I do my export to Cachemate file, I select "No Limits" on the number of logs. Now, when I view the caches in Cachemate on my PDA, I can only see one log on each cache. What am I doing wrong?

Just found out through the grapevine that I'm getting a pda for Mother's Day, so I guess I'm out of the market now!

I thought I already posted this Want Ad, sorry if it's a dupe. Would like an M515 without scratches on the face and preferably with all accessories that came in the original box. Please email price and details, or post here Thanks!

Great. Just tried to power up my Explorist XL (no I haven't dropped it or gotten it wet) and it does nothing but bring up a blue screen. Frozen. Anyone else experience this, and have a fix? TIA!

I just picked up a travel bug at a cache that I now wish I hadn't because it's attached to a heavy, big and clunky thing that will only fit in ammo cans or larger...Now I've gotta lug the goofy thing around until I find the right sized cache for it. Just my 2 cents.

Read about it in a family magazine; they touted it as a great family hobby (which it is). It sounded like a blast, so I asked for a GPS for Christmas. Got one, loved it, but can't convince anyone else in my family (except my darling 3-year-old minicacher) that this is a fun hobby! No worries, my mini-cacher is up for a good treasure hunt any time any place, so we have our own fun!

Help! I grabbed a TB at a local cache and dropped him 180 miles away, and forgot to note his tracking number. I tried to log the find and the drop, but when you do that it asks you for the tracking number. I tried using the reference number that appears on that TB's description page, but that doesn't work. Any suggestions? PS - I have emailed the TB's owner using Groundspeak's "send message to" process, but haven't heard back so I thought I might try something else (if there IS anything else). Thanks!

Worked like a charm, thank you so much! Woohoo, I'm paperless! Yeah! Thank you everyone who took the time to put in your 2 cents!

Thanks for the warning...there are a few bridges at this park and I thought I heard a loud belch coming from underneath one the last time I was there!

There's a beautiful spot in my town that's just perfect for a multi-cache, but it's managed by the parks and rec department. How does one figure out whether certain departments/gov't agencies prohibit cache placement? I can't imagine calling the front-desk clerk at the local office and asking them if they've ever heard of geocaching!

GSAK exports each cache as it's own HTML file, however it also generates index files that allow you to navigate through them. Each cache page can also have links to nearby cache's pages, so even though you have a lot of files, you'll never really interact with them individually. Sunrise XP takes that index file and will retrieve all the separate cache ad image files on its own, you just tell it where to start. Plucker is a program for the Palm, you can probably find it using Google if the Sunrise link didn't work. Hope this helps. It does help, thanks. But I still can't get it quite right. I've taken a pocket query and exported it to html using GSAK. Then I went to Sunrise XP and did a run choosing what I assume is the correct file (the one called "index") in the group of html files created by GSAK. When I do my Hotsynch, it flies right through the process (I assume if I'm doing it right it would take a while since it's loading 75 caches). Then I open the library in Plucker (on the Palm) and there's nothing there besides the User Guide. Has anyone got the patience to type out detailed instructions for how to do the Sunrise--->Palm process? Also, is anyone willing to explain to my husband why it makes sense to spend countless hours just trying to GET READY to go geocaching?

As much as I love this technology, I find myself cross-eyed when I try to figure out what all the various pieces of software are doing. Does GSAK export the caches as individual pages of html, or is it one long script? Hopefully you understand what I am trying to ask, since I may not be using the right terminology. I'm just hoping I can index and search by individual cache rather than having to scroll through a long page. Another question -- I downloaded Sunrise XP, do I need to download Plucker separately? I followed the link from the Sunrise site to the Plucker site, but couldn't find a download link there. I'll try again. Thanks for all the insight, everyone!

I was just checking out the cachemate website and I can't tell if you're able to download logs with the cache. I'm still a newbie by most standards, so I still like to print out the logs just in case I need added info once I'm out there (try telling a 3-year-old minicacher that there's no treasure 'cause you can't find it!). Is there a way to do this with cachemate and the palm? Thanks for the info!

I'm getting tired of carrying my little printouts with me on my hunts, but I'm not sure whether the Palm I have is up to the task. I bought it several years ago for my husband who never used it. For that matter, I've never used it either, so I thought I'd see if anyone has an opinion as to whether this model is even worth firing up and using for paperless caching. Any comments would be welcome! Thanks!

How do people get those little quotes to post at the bottom of all of their messages on the boards? TIA 'Kay, never mind, obviously I've figured it out, since there's a little quote at the bottom of my post

Each USB port is assigned a "com" port number...just like older serial and parallel ports. So Com 3 could be a USB port somewhere. I had the same problem with mapsend topo (the old version) my front panel USB ports were com 10 and 11...while my rear ports were 3 and 4. My Mapsend only let me use com 1-4....I changed my port number assignments through control panel. My laptop is the same way. One USB port is com 4, and then other 2 are like com 8 and 9, so I have to use the same usb hole every time. Heres how you check in XP - plug in your GPS. Go to control panel, system, hardware, and click device manager. go down to ports and click the + to expand the menu. You should see one entry saying something like "Magellan GPS (comX)" or whatever windows calls it. For mine, it says "Prolific USB to Serial Comm (COM4)". Prolific is the company that made my cable. If you arent sure which it is, like if you have a bunch of USB stuff plugged in, pull the GPS cord out of the PC and see which item disappears. Plug it back in to confirm. Try several different usb holes to see which MIGHT be Com 3, or another port you can use. Now here is where you can really do some damage: Lets say you have to use com 1-4, and your USB port is com 12. Right click on the gps' port, and hit "properties". Go to "port settings" and hit "advanced". You can CHANGE the port number of that particular USB "hole". Two holes cant have the same port number... and it will warn you to this. What I did was change two ports, so the one on the rear of the PC is now COM12, and the one on the front is COM4, so I can use my serial-usb without having to do a reach-around on my PC every time. If I remeber correctly...if you assign two ports the same number, whatever gets plugged in first will work, while the other one will not. You COULD assign a couple the same number, as long as you only use one at a time. Dont mess with your keyboard and mouse ports though... leave those alone. Argh, my device manager doesn't show any ports. I tried this on my pc to see what it SHOULD look like, and the ports show up no problem, so there must be something wrong with my laptop. I've tried installing every driver I can find on the Toshiba website, but nothing has worked so far...I guess I'll have to break down and take it to the local pc pros. Thanks for all the help!

I've been seeing a lot of travel bugs, but I've only taken one because I was going to be dropping him off a few hundred miles away. The rest, I've left behind because it seemed silly to only move them a few miles, since I'm just caching around town now. What is the general viewpoint on TB's? Take and drop even a little distance, or save it for people who are on the road and can take 'em on an adventure?

Assuming you've successfully run a query and have saved it to your harddrive: Extract the files from the zip folder (duh, I know that's a given, but thought I'd put it all in here). Open Magellan Geocache Manager program (software should've come with your gps) click File Click Open Navigate to where you extracted the file highlight the file you want to access click Open The geocaches will now show in the window To transfer them to your Magellan, Plug the gps into your usb port. It should ask you what type of usb connection you want - choose "usb file transfer" Back to the Magellan Geocache Manager software - click on Transfer Click Send Geocaching Points to gps They'll quickly load to the gps. Once the transfer is complete, you should be able to use the Active Setup on the Magellan to activate that set of geocaches into your active map. That's how I do it!

Thanks Brian, it helps tremendously, but I'm already stuck. The problem I'm having is that I can't get past the comm settings. When I choose gps options, it defaults to COM3, and when I try to autodetect, it says that it failed to detect a gps receiver. Now this is stupid, because as soon as I plugged the gps into the usb port, windows detected it and installed the appropriate driver from the Magellan software. The GPS settings screen doesn't give me a drop down to select a usb port, it's like it's assuming I'm going to use com3, and won't give me any other option. Pretty stupid, considering the machine only came with a usb cable!

Maybe I'm too lame or too lazy to figure it out, but I need help! I have been able to create pocket queries, load them into Magellan cache manager, and then download them to my Magellan Xplorer GPS. What I CAN'T figure out how to do is to load them into my Topo USA software so that I can view them on the 3-d map on my pc. When I try to use the magellan conversion manager to convert them into the required Magellan format, they are not "convertible" (i.e. not the right file type). Can anyone give me simple instructions for this? Thanks a million!