NZ1J

I've been using 2400mah Duracell NiMH batteries and have been averaging about three hours on a charge, which I think is unacceptable. After spending a lot of time researching batteries, I came to realize that the Explorist GC isn't draining the batteries quickly, it is REPORTING that they are drained quickly. I have a 300ma charger, which should give the Duracells a full charge in about ten hours. However, I consistently recharged my 'dead' batteries in about three hours. This says to me that the batteries are only being discharged by about 1/3. Though I'm using rechargeable batteries, I changed the GC's setting to 'Alkaline'. Using the Alkaline setting, I routinely get more than seven hours of battery life. Though that's nowhere near the advertised 18 hours, it means that I rarely change batteries while geocaching. Changing the GC's setting from rechargeable to alkaline was a night and day difference for me. I have to assume that there is a bug in 2.15 version firmware. With regards to the NiMH cell voltage of 1.2, verses the alkaline cell voltage of 1.5, both types of cells are about fully discharged when the voltage drops to 1.0V. In years past, alkaline cells had more capacity than NiMH. Today, the best NiMH cells have more capacity than alkaline cells. Though the lithium type batteries might offer the longest run time, the 2400mah and 2500mah NiMH batteries that are available today can give us seven hours of run time at a very low cost. I've found that the NiMH batteries really are able to be recharged hundreds of times. The cost per charge is less than ten cents.

I've written a geocaching application for the PC. It loads a .gpx file (pocket Query). The intent is to hopefully provide all the cache information that is on geocaching.com, but access it quicker and add some new features. The software displays GC#, name, lat, long, difficulty, terrain, distance, direction, brief description, hints, and the most recent log for five caches at a time. Clicking on a cache opens a more detailed description of that cache. Caches also can be viewed and selected from the built-in maps. For those who are not doing paperless caching, cache descriptions can be sent to a text file. I live in Connecticut, so the maps only cover Connecticut. The rest of the features should work anywhere. Like all software, this is a work in progress. I don't intend to ever charge for the software. I'm writing it as a hobby and I'd like to refine it more and make it available to anyone who wants it. For anyone who'd like to try it, send me an e-mail at NZ1J@yahoo.com Because I'm interested in getting feedback about the software so that I can improve it, I'll make a version with a map that is local for anyone that wants it. Dave Tipping, NZ1J