teamhillside

Selected this device for my brother-in-law as a useful starter GPSr. He's very happy with it so far. One thing I haven't been able to work out though is how to get alternative maps onto the device. Mapsource doesn't seem to want to play. Can I use something like MobileAtlasCreator to achieve what I want? Thanks! Matt

This was probably a deliberate oversight, but the "nominate L&F" option isn't available for trackable logs. There is one log (http://www.geocaching.com/track/log.aspx?LUID=c0f342c6-fcaa-4606-9696-7158546ae384) which I would have liked to have nominated, but I can't!! Matt

I've used a basic eTrex yellow (H or non-H). Handle-bar mounting is superb; a screwed on mount which is very small when not in use, and this attaches to a replacement battery compartment cover which has the necessary clips on it. Really secure, submergibly waterproof. I suspect the rest of the eTrex range have similar mounting solutions. Matt

Seconded. Though if you can't work out how to answer the phone, perhaps these two apps might just be a step too far!!! Matt

You haven't set the date range from 1st June to 31st (sic) of June by mistake have you? System will let that happen, and strange things then occur by all accounts!! (Noticing that March, August and December all have 31 days in them) Just tried this for myself - 1st June 2008 to 30th June 2008 returned 7 caches (all with valid placed dates), 1st June 2008 to 31st June 2008 returned over 1000 caches. Matt

And PQs > 1000 *plus the my finds PQ irrespective of number of caches* are downloads only, not emailed. Its only the my finds change that I'm slightly irked by, as all of my PQs return less than 500 caches anyway so won't be affected, but I manage my PQs through GSAK with an automated download. But praise be to TPTB for making changes which the community wants. Just because it doesn't fit with my way of working doesn't mean that it isn't a welcome improvement for the vast majority of users. Matt

Ref PQ1K - am I the only person that is disappointed about this? I *love* the way that I can have my PQs delivered by email and then a couple of clicks with GSAK and they are all downloaded. I personally don't need 1000 caches in a PQ, so I'll live with the 500 limit on email-able caches (very grateful that you've not changed that!), but I would have thought that a lot of people would be in a similar boat to me, and be disappointed that they can't have 1000 caches in their inboxes. I might be out of step, and I'm only just over 1 year in here, so I don't think I should be taken too seriously (!), but thought I would at least log the point! Cheers! Matt

I thought I'd magically solved things when I saw my own post in the feed! However, 24 hours later I've only got two more posts in the feed - "Map 60Cx...." & "Wild West Cache Bash" - and checking the forum directly there are both replies to my thread (thank you tiiiiim) and other threads. Definitely I'm missing something! Matt

I've subscribed to the RSS feed for this sub-forum, but was surprised that I only had a few posts. Checked back here and there are many many more on the forum itself than appear to be coming through the RSS feed. For example. today I've had just one post come through. Am I missing something (technical!)? Matt

Me too for trekbuddy, on an ageing k750i with a bluetooth GPSr. A bit "self service"; you have to put your own maps on, and it doesn't connect to the internet to pull down cache details. But it works, and is a very cheap solution which is certainly better than my old eTrex. Matt

I bought something like this (in the UK) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GLOBALSAT-BLUETOOTH-...23#ht_500wt_956 Don't necessarily need a data bundle for the phone (I don't have one), all of the apps / downloads can be made from your PC. Trekbuddy is free (though I suspect you can donate), other tools are similar. I'll be honest and say its not the most simple way of doing things, but for a limited outlay I personally think it delivers sufficient bang for my "bucks". Of course, YMMV! Matt

Just a thought - do you have a bluetooth enabled phone which can run java apps? If you are urban caching, walking around looking at your phone is much more discreet! For £10 I picked up a bluetooth GPSr which has 11hour battery life, far far superior accuracy (compared to my non-WAAS old eTrex) and I have the choice of user interfaces from a few apps which are free / very cheap. Personally I use Trekbuddy, free (and legal) maps using the Mobile Atlas Creator on an old Sony Ericsson K750i and it works fine for me. Certainly if I was a noob I'd think about going down this very low cost route first of all! HTH! Matt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday Interesting, I may amend the article as it implies that the UK (which is "predominantly a Protestant nation" also) should not choose to observe GF as a public holiday. Thanks! Matt

Good Friday / Easter is not a holiday in most U.S. companies. I know it is observed in some countries but it didn't even occur to me until you mentioned it. Wow, you amaze me - I think of the US as being the Christian heartland, so assumed Good Friday would at least be a holiday to allow individuals to recognise the most important period of the Christian calendar! Good Friday is a bank holiday in Britain as is Easter Monday (particularly useful for consuming large quantities of chocolate eggs!). Happy Easter!! Matt

Don't know whether this is a UK only issue, but taking the site down / upgrading the day before a holiday weekend (4 days without work) might not be considered to be the "best" time to perform scheduled maintenance!! (Mind you, there are worse times, and the warning in advance is appreciated!!) Matt

With your "one cache" test though aren't you at the mercy of whether the cache owner had accurate coordinates in the first place? Not sure what you have in the US, but we have "trig points" in the UK - places where the mapping authorities have definitively concluded what the coordinates are. Only at that sort of location could you be certain that you are comparing an "accurate" reading with either of your two devices. Matt (too)

How accurate do you want it to be?!? Average MPH = Total distance / total time. Let's assume that its clock works to a fairly high degree of accuracy, then only the total distance element could possibly be "wrong". Given that it is GPS, provided it has got a decent signal it will be significantly more accurate than any device attached to the wheel of the bike (tyre pressure, heat etc will all affect the distance rolled by the wheel). Or am I being dense? Matt

No, the iPhone is deliberately crippled in many, many ways. It's not that it couldn't do it technically, but Apple have imposed many political/commercial restrictions designed to prevent you doing anything that isn't expressly approved and authorised by them. The bluetooth support is exceptionally limited, and it doesn't support GPSr. Furthermore, because it doesn't support a GPSr, all the programs that use a GPSr use the internal GPSr and have no way to select any other. Rgds, Andy Aw, shame - saw http://www.roqy-bluetooth.net/wp/ but noted that this requires "jailbroken" iPhone. Why do they lock it down so much - opening up blueooth GPS hardly costs Apple any lost revenue, and potentially encourages more people to use it as a "proper" GPSr. Matt

This might be a dumb question, but can the iPhone not use an external bluetooth GPS instead of its built in aGPS functionaility? I've got a Sirf chip bluetooth GPSr which I bought on ebay for £10 - it you could pair that with the functionality of the iPhone app surely you'd have the best of both worlds for a very small outlay? Matt

Your experience may differ from mine, but I had a usb/serial adaptor which used the "prolific" chipset (also known as PL2303) to use with a Etrex and couldn't make it work (or at least, not reliably). In the end I found a different cable that used the FTDI chipset instead, and that has worked reliably for me. I'm not rubbishing prolific based adaptors by the way. There is a recognition that these usb/serial adaptors are very sensitive to what they are being plugged into, and some people find prolific work well on their machines, others find that FTDI work etc. See my posts on http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=12678&hl= for my tale of woe. From what you've posted above though it seems like you've not installed the PL2303 device driver first. Deal with that before you can assume that the cable is dodgy. "Aten" made the one that I used, which used the PL2303 chipset. Therefore the drivers listed at the foot of this page may be of some use - http://www.aten.com/download/download.php?...iver#showResult Cheers! Matt

My personal response (and thanks, btw, for asking!) - I don't care what time of day they are run / received. Though it would be preferable if they arrived at the same time. Speaking as someone from "across the pond", it would seem to me that the most sensible solution to spread server load would be to run based on my home location TZ. Say, starting at 2am for each TZ so that the data is as "fresh" as you can realistically make it. Cacheing worries me slightly - though by their nature, offline DBs or GPX files are stale from the moment they are published, we do at least expect the GS data to be accurate. If you're talking about cacheing data so that in the "worst case" scenario the data is 30 minutes out of date, that would be fine. If the data was 24 hours out of date, not fine. Somewhere in between is the fine line to be drawn. I would then also stress that it would make SOOOOO much sense to show my local time on the various pages that display it, so that if I want to schedule a cache for Saturday, I don't have to think about what time that means in Groundspeak-terms. Sure you'd still get some peaks and troughs depending on cacher density around the world, but you wouldn't be trying to run all of the european PQs at the same time as all of the US. HTH! Matt

Can I add a "me too" - http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC24N0J was not notified to me (and, I note, to at least one other cacher who has found the cache in the last few days). Matt

Because I'm an adult and can do it myself in the 99% of cases it's required and not do it in the 1% it's not required? There is an exception to every rule? In a GPX file it is not capitalized so when I'm talking about the guts of a GPX I want it to display as is. I detest things being done for me because someone thought it was a good idea. Automatic headlights in cars are a prime example. In my old car they'd come on in the dark and stay on even if I was parked waiting for someone. My new one is smart enough to turn the DRLs off in park and lets me decide wether to turn on the headlights. Although I wish the DRLs would shut off when the fogs are turned on.... Also, its a pointless use of server resources, which from time to time have appeared to have been stretched when supporting this forum! Matt

I suppose it would be stupid question from me to ask how you knew that the cache was there? Where did you get the coordinates from, or did you watch a video of someone else finding it and you found it by going to the same place? If so, where did you see the video?!? Matt

I wasn't aware of it not automatically centering on home upon startup, so thanks for that info. That could well be the issue. I have to say, i only downloaded it last night, but what a cracking bit of kit. the ability to filter and print multiple cache info on a page is wonderful. I'm sure I have only touched the surface at the moment, but its great. it gets a 10/10 from me. Just read about East Grinstead, and noted that it is on the greenwich meridian. And then wondered, how far is that from Greenwich observatory? Is it about 24.7 miles or so?? I think that GSAK auto-centres on the observatory by default (certainly the very useful GSAK101 help document says "Unless you live on the Greenwich meridian in England (very few of us do!), you’ll need to set up a “home location” that reflects where you live.") Its a good piece of software, no doubt about that! I recommending reading the GSAK101 doc, and also the GSAK forums (which incidentally might be a better place to ask basic GSAK questions than here?)! Enjoy! Matt