Geomate.jr

I hear ya, I'm not a huge fan of micros myself. Two comments on this front. First, the Geomate.jr always shows the size of the cache that is selected. If it shows micro, all you need to do is press the big NEXT button and it will show you the next cache. Keep doing this until you find a cache you like! Another comment here is that we are thinking about placing a cache list option that a user can select and load onto their Geomate.jr that has no micros at all! We're thinking about calling it the "Micro free zone" or something... Does anyone like the sound of this at all?? Cheers Waz

G'day Waz here - I work for the company that makes the Geomate.jr. Just thought I would jump in here and provide a bit of info. As it ships from the factory, the Geomate.jr contains about 250,000 tradition caches that have been selected using stuff like: only caches that have been in place for about 6 months (for staying power), nothing over a difficulty 3 (family friendliness) and only micros with a difficulty 1 (who would send a newbie after a difficulty 4 micro??). However, if you get access to an Update Kit, you can then load a US list that does not have the above filtering applied. So you can get all the micros, caches that have been placed up to about 24 hrs ago, etc. I hope this helps! Anyone can email me direct at warren@apisphere.com - I'm happy to help with any questions or problems, and we always love hearing from users and anyone with any comments or suggestions! I'll also be watching these forums and will chime in when I think I can help. Cheers Waz

You bring up a good point here. Now that the Geomate.jr has been out for a little, we have a sizable list of things we could do better - including better communication about what the unit comes with etc. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I would love to hear them! Feel free to email me direct at warren@apisphere.com Cheers Waz

G'day TravelingGeoTrio Waz here - I work for the company that makes the Geomate.jr. I noticed your initial comments (and the responses) and I thought I would jump in just to clarify our thinking and what's going on. As you know, the Geomate.jr comes preloaded with about 250,000 traditional geocache locations. This is both a great thing, and also a problem. It's great in the sense you have a ready to go, all in one solution - you can be out geocaching in no time! However, caches change and go missing. As such, we are very careful about what we preload the unit the with. The criteria we came up with goes something like this: we only include caches that have been in place for about 6 months (for some staying power), we only include difficulty 1 micros (to give the newbies a fighting chance), and only up to a difficulty 3 for everything else (for some family friendliness). We also do a quick sanity check to ensure the cache has been found relatively recently. For someone who wants to get up and running straight out of the box, this works really well. But if you are seeking out specific caches, then the factory default list may not include the ones you are looking for. And it looks like this is what you have experienced. Now if you get access to the Update Kit, then you can load a different version of the list that includes all of the latest and greatest traditional caches and does not have the "time since placed" etc filtering applied. You can also then view the GC code to select the cache you are after. The focus of the Geomate.jr is really to create something that is affordable, fun, and awesomely easy to use - so you and the kids can head off down the park for a bit of geocaching fun together, or just go geocaching on a whim anywhere in the US. Personally, I love how I can be just anywhere, switch on the Geomate.jr and just go. It's even better when you throw some kids in the mix and watch them take the lead with Geomate.jrs in hand. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to convince you that this is the unit for you - far from it. We know the Geomate.jr is not the right tool for everyone. After all, isn't that why we have 857 types of lip balm to choose from?? Cheers Waz

Yep!

The short answer? Yep. The way the update works, is that every 24 hrs we recreate the lists from the geocaching.com site and make them available through the update section on www.mygeomate.com. The new list only includes active caches (no archived caches etc) at that time. When you go to update your Geomate.jr using the One Click Update, we read the type of list you have on the device and then replace it with the latest version of that list - everything will be no older than 24 hrs (depending on exactly the time of day you updated). For example, if you have USA Eastern, it will automatically give you the latest USA Eastern list. Now you can always change to a different list (USA Western or Europe for example) by using the Select a List option. I hope this helps! Cheers Waz

Please see comment on this thread: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...&hl=geomate

G'day Grand Illusion Crew My name is Warren (Waz) and I work for the company that makes the Geomate.jr and would like to help! We are really keen to get to the bottom of your problem. Rather than turn these forums into a support channel, can you please email me direct at warren@apisphere.com Once I get your email, there are a couple things I would like to try to get you up and running as well as understand what went wrong in the first place. Cheers Waz

Hi What has probably happened is that when you tried to update it, the process was interrupted which leaves an unusable list on your device. Because the One Click Update reads the current list type you have (to give you the latest version of that list) this option will no longer work because it doesn't know what type of list you have anymore. The fix is easy, go ahead and update your Geomate.jr again, but this time, use the "Select an Update" option. If you still have problems, please go ahead and email me directly at warren@apisphere.com (Yep, I work for the company). Cheers Waz

G'day BetalJuice My name's Waz and I work for the company that makes the Geomate.jr - the GPS that you have. The cable that you have is used to update the Geomate.jr with the latest list of caches for the USA or other parts of the world. The updates work through the web site www.mygeomate.com and you need to install the Update Kit software. To install the software, simply go to www.mygeomate.com, click on the UPDATE menu item, and create an account. You will then be presented with a page where you can download the software as well as info on the installation. If you need further help, feel free to email me direct at warren@apisphere.com Cheers Waz

G'day My name's Waz, and I work for the company that makes the Geomate.jr. Another poster is right - the FACTORY list is pre-filtered (to give the initial list some staying power etc) and doesn't include all caches. However, as it looks like you have the Update Kit, go to the "Select an Update" section of the Update area - here you can select either East or West USA. Each of these list contain ALL caches up to a difficulty 4. I hope this helps! Cheers Waz

G'day Moocow1452 Warren here, and I'm more than happy to help. Please email me direct at warren@apisphere.com and we'll try to work out what is going on. If we can't, I'm more than happy to arrange an immediate replacement of your unit to get you back out there geocaching. Looking forward to your email! Cheers Waz

G'day Geo-raldo My name's Waz. I work for the company and I'm happy to help out. My first guess is that there is some anti-virus or anti-phishing software that you are running that isn't playing very nicely with the Update Kit software. If you have something like Norton anti-virus, try disabling this (especially the anti-phishing part) before trying an update. Cheers Waz

G'day Sysagent First, just so you know, I work for the company that makes the Geomate.jr. But I thought I would jump in here and answer your question. Does the Geomate.jr support caches in the UK? Absolutely. In fact, with the Update Kit, you can load caches for all of the UK and all of Europe all at once. All you have to do is select the European list and click the Update button. Here's a pic showing the coverage and what the interface looks like: I hope this helps! Cheers Waz

G'day Chef8888 My name is Waz, I work for the company that makes the Geomate.jr. I saw your post and I thought I would jump in to see if I can help. Without knowing too much detail, we have seen some problems with Norton anit-virus and our update software not playing very well together. If you have Norton anitvirus or any other anit-virus or phishing software running, try disabling it before attempting an update. Let me know how you get on. But rather then turn this forum into a direct support channel, feel free to email directly at warren@apsiphere.com Cheers Waz

No worries!

G'day HeiligEQ2 My guess is that when you did an update, you went ahead and performed a One Click Update?? Try clicking on the "Select a List" you will have an option to select either East or West US. The One Click Update reads what version of list you have and then loads the latest version of that list - in this case, my guess is that you still have the default factory list (which is filtered and doesn't include all caches) and hence, not the ones you mentioned. However, if you select either East or West, those lists include everything up to a difficulty 4. And once you have either of those, the next time you do a One Click Update, it will give you the latest version of the East or West list. Cheers Warren

Hi OH Team We took a look at the list and the cache you mentioned should be part of the Eastern USA list. Are you using the Eastern USA list?? If you are and the cache insists on not showing up, please email me direct at warren@apisphere.com and we'll work out what is going on. (Just trying to avoid turning the forums into a direct support channel...) Cheers Warren

G'day GreyhoundCrazy Hmmmm, caches that are not on geocaching.com?? I'm thinking perhaps you are accidentally reading a '1' (one) as an 'i' (or the other way around) or perhaps a '0' (zero) as an 'o' (oh). I would also like to help you understand why you can't mark a cache as found. Rather than turn this forum into a direct support channel, can you email me direct at warren@apisphere.com? I'm sure we can work out what is going on pretty quickly. Glad to hear you are liking the Geomate.jr!! I'm having a blast with mine! Cheers Warren

Checking into it... Stand by!

G'day Arlene Sorry to hear that! Rather than turn the forum into a 1 on 1 support thing, I went ahead and replied to your email that you sent me. Cheers Warren

G'day Kaylac6500 Just a really quick snippet of info. The Geomate.jr can actually show you latitude and longitude. Simply press the page button (the small one on the right) two times (or until you see the navigation info icon - an 'N' in a circle in the bottom right of your screen). Now press the NEXT button (the big one) once and you'll see the latitude, press it again and you'll see the longitude. Cheers Warren (the Geomate.jr bloke)

G'day WVTombRaiders Looks like this cache is a micro with a difficulty 1.5. In our effort to 'tune' the factory default filtering, we only include micro's with a difficulty of 1. So I'm thinking you did a straight one click update (which reads the type of list you currently have and then gives you the latest version of that list - in this case the factory default). Now, if you go ahead and do choose the 'select a list' option and then select either east or west US, you'll get everything up to a difficulty 4. The cool thing is, once you select East or West US, the next time you do a One Click Update, it will give you the latest East or West US list. Let me know if this works out for you! Cheers Warren

G'day to The Yinnie's As Mahini pointed out, yep, the Geomate.jr comes preloaded with about 250,000 geocaches (traditionals only). Now this is a factory default list (it's prefiltered to only include caches that have been in place for about 6 months doesen't include anything over a difficulty 3). With the Update Kit, you CAN get the latest version of this with all the same filtering, but you could INSTEAD load a list for either east or west USA that doesn't have the time limit (everything up to 24 hrs) as well as anything up to a difficulty 4 (as Colonial Cats mentioned). Oh, and you can also load complete lists for other parts of the world. As for PQ, we don't support them...yet... ;-) Cheers Warren

G'day ThomasFamily102 I'm more than happy to answer your questions: The Geomate.jr doesn't display the name of the cache, but it does display the ID or GC code of the cache. So if you are looking for a particular cache or check which cache you are going to, then you can simply scroll through or check the GC code. Our goal with the Geomate.jr was to make something affordable, but we definately have not skimped on the GPS performance. We actually use the same GPS engine (SiRFstarIII) as many of the top end GPS units use. There have also been a lot of posting within these forums confirming the accuracy of the Geomate.jr. Like this one "Basically it has performed way above my expectations for it. The accuracy of this little unit is very impressive!" Yep, and we refresh the updates every 24hrs. There are no additional service or subscription fees and no limit on how often you update your Geomate.jr. Hmmmm, not really. There is a bunch of cool stuff in the works though! I hope this helps! Cheers Warren