pppingme
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Posts posted by pppingme
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What you are looking for is a way to project a waypoint.
Most handheld gps's can do this directly on the gps.
If you are using gsak, there's a tool built into that.
You can also use a tool called fizzycalc to do it on your PC (if you are running windows, not sure if its available for other os's).
There are also online calculators all over the place to do it too.
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It sounds like you are getting past this point, but, some of those usb/serial adapters are very flaky, and for some reason the garmin protocol really seems to push them to their limits. You might post what chipset your adapter has and people can comment on if they've had good or bad luck with that particular adapter.
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Just a suggestion: you might want to, er, FIND a chirp cache before posting more nonsense into this thread. It will make you look a lot less ignorant.
Chirp caches are not homing beacons, for example.
I HAVE found chirps.
A homing beacon is very simply something that sends out a signal, usually an identification of itself, and repeats as needed.
Whats a chirp do? It sends out either a message (such as a hint), an identifier (usually a gc code) or a set of static (pre-programmed) coordinates, or a combination of these three.
In the case of a garmin chirp, it uses the ant protocol, the thing you seem fixated on for some reason, you seem very anti-garmin.
The reality, anyone could easily develop a competing product, use blue-tooth, a wi-fi mini web server, an fm transmitter, or any other communication protocol supported by androids, and not step on Garmin's toes at all.
Garmin came up with a very cool concept, period. I'm not saying it was implemented the best, but lets be realistic, ant was already being built into garmin receivers, and now even some of the lowly etrex units have it, and as far as I can find, no other manufacturer of hand-held (outdoor) gps units had the foresight to build any type of communications into their units, be it ant, blue-tooth, or even a very simple fm receiver (yeah, some car units have blue-tooth, but no hand-helds I've found).
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ANT is proprietary, homing beacons (what the chirp essentially is) are nothing new, and the basic concept isn't protected by any patent, therefore no reason to keep anyone else from developing a competing product.
All androids have wifi and bluetooth built in, many even have rfid readers, most also have fm tuners built in, same true for iphones, and some mix of these technologies is in other gps receivers. There's no reason that some type of homing beacon couldn't be built around one of these technologies.
It all comes down to someone seeing an application and putting the pieces together.
There is absolutely nothing new in the "chirp", its a homing beacon (concept that has been around since someone figured out how to transmit an rf signal), and communication protocol (ant), no new concepts, just a mix of existing technologies in a creative way.
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The souvenirs for the international caching day were all awarded in one batch, if memory serves me correctly, it was on the Thursday after. Most likely they won't do it again, to catch stragglers, but might do one individually if you shoot them an email.
Your best bet would be to shoot an email to them and see if they can add it.
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I don't think this is what you mean, but:
It has a time of day limit.
Here's another one based on time:
I've seen others that do too (excluding night caches).
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And there is nothing in the guidelines that say I have to log every single one of the multi stages with a log in it. So the first one I come to, I can claim as the find. You cant change that no matter how much you protest.
OK, then you need to tell gs to eliminate multi's, as thats the definition of one.
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So use the unit from Magellin, Google (for androids), tom-tom, or whoever else is out there making an equivalent competing product.
There's no such restrictions in place.
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Nor does anything state that there can't be more than one container or log.
Assuming you quoted it correctly (I didn't check):
Geocache Contents: Geocache containersThat is clearly plural.
You attempt to quote that out of context was doomed from the start. I did correctly quote it from:
Geocache Listing Requirements / Guidelines
II. LISTING Guidelines: Listing guidelines cover the requirements that you, as a geocache owner, need to adhere to in order for your geocache to be successfully published on Geocaching.com
1. Listing Guidelines for All Geocaches
item 3. Geocache Contents
Wow, you want to put such a narrow context on it and from that you derive this rule of singularity.
There is absolutely nothing in the guidelines that states that there can't be more than one container/log.
GS has defined the word multi- and even gave it its own icon.
Nothing in the guidelines stats that there can't be a log on each step of the already defined multi, and the definition already includes multiple containers.
Again, you're trying to read something in that just simply isn't there.
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Nor does anything state that there can't be more than one container or log.
Assuming you quoted it correctly (I didn't check):
Geocache Contents: Geocache containersThat is clearly plural.
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And.
Setting a filter, in the Where tab, if you put
"not(cachetype='U' and not(hascorrected))"
-remove the quotes- only solved puzzles will be sent to the GPS
You are making the assumption that a solved puzzle will always have corrected coord's.
Thats not the case. Some have good starting coordinates, but require you to be onsite to figure them out.
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So does a cache that requires a boat, rope climbing gear, a flashlight, or other equipment, do you feel the same about those?
If not, then it seems there is a double standard and resentment against garmin for some reason.
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to quote the guideline exactly, it simply says "Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location."
It also says Geocache Contents: Geocache containers include a logsheet. That means that the first container you find with a log in it is a geocache so any after that is just finding bonus traditionals.
You are reading something into it thats simply not there.
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To quote the guideline exactly, it simply says that the finder is required to sign the log.
It does NOT specify that there can or can't be more than one log involved.
It seems to me that the only people that would be upset are the ones that cheated and skipped the first steps, somehow thinking they are above the multi-steps involved.
If you don't want to complete the work on a multi stage cache, don't attempt them.
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Even with a proper Garmin, Chirps are very iffy. If the battery "lasts a year", you certainly need to replace it more often ...
This is not true. The poster doesn't claim to have any Chirp caches; I have three and all are now working more than a year on the original battery, as promised.
I've always found Garmin's battery estimates to be pretty accurate, so your experience doesn't really surprise me. What does surprise me is that those little things last so long on a little cr2032 battery.
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I think you mean 5/1. Difficulty is usually listed first, then terrain.
But yes, I agree, the greatest majority of easy terrain hides are also pretty simple.
I just looked, and the closest 5/1 to me is 11 miles and is probably only because of the difficult hours and contact with people needed to get it.
The next closest is 129 miles, its hidden by someone that has a good reputation for hard caches.
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While its true that Garmin "owns" Dynastream (I actually forgot about this), they continue to operate on their own, they are a Canadian company, and the primary application of their technology is fitness related monitoring, such as heart rate monitors, pedometers, equipment for bicycles, and those type of devices.
If you are using any kind of wireless fitness equipment, its either ANT, or completely proprietary.
Most likely (and this is speculation) Garmin only bought them to avoid licensing (it was probably cheaper to buy the company than it would have been to license their technology). Don't forget, Garmin also makes a line of fitness monitoring equipment that uses many of these devices, and communicates to them via ANT. If it was anything more than that, Garmin would have most likely folded the operation into their Kansas City office.
The chirp, and xfering caches between gps units, are probably one of the most "far out" applications that use the ANT protocol.
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[i'm curious about all of it, but especially the bolded parts. I've never heard any of that stuff.
About the time that Garmin released the chirp, Jeremy did claim that Groundspeak floated an idea similar to chirp in 2006. Groundspeak does retain a patent on some of the ideas implemented in wherigos, but there is no surprise there. Jeremy has also said that Groundspeak would allow Garmin the use of Wherigo on the Montana for free, as they did in the past, so I do not believe that royalties were ever an issue.
As somewhat of an aside, before Groundspeak took over the Wherigo app for the iphone they asked the developer to change its name. But snce Wherigo uses the lua script, you could probably build an interpreter without running into too many difficulties with Groundspeak -- I have not heard that Groundspeak has enforced a patent issue or demanded royalties from any of the Wherigo players or builders that are on various platforms - some of which have added improvements to both aspects of the cartridge - so I question that part of the referenced post.
Thanks for gathering the info together, saved me some time.
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Agreed, but what is the source of your information, Potato Finder? I've been around these forums since before the release of both Chirps and Wherigo, and I don't remember seeing anything here but a little speculation. Your information does sound much more authoritative than that.
The only speculation is when I said "I look for Garmin to drop the Oregon", except for that, every bit of it is fact. What specifically are you having trouble with? You also need to remember, if you are ONLY using these forums for source, there is a lot of speculation, and on top of that, its well known that gs DOES filter and deletes threads and posts that don't put them in a good light.
Hey, settle down, OK? The only reason I ask is so if I quote you in conversation with somebody, that I can support what I am saying instead of saying that a Potato Finder told me.
Oh, I'm settled. I just wasn't sure which point you were asking about, the sources vary.
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Agreed, but what is the source of your information, Potato Finder? I've been around these forums since before the release of both Chirps and Wherigo, and I don't remember seeing anything here but a little speculation. Your information does sound much more authoritative than that.
The only speculation is when I said "I look for Garmin to drop the Oregon", except for that, every bit of it is fact. What specifically are you having trouble with? You also need to remember, if you are ONLY using these forums for source, there is a lot of speculation, and on top of that, its well known that gs DOES filter and deletes threads and posts that don't put them in a good light.
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A lot of people have compared the Oregon and the 60's side by side and think they are pretty similar.
While the 60's have a better antenna, the Oregons have a better chipset, so they basically balance out.
I don't know if any side by side compares have been done with Dakota's or Montana's, but it would probably be a sane assumption to believe that they would perform similar to an Oregon.
If you want a true replacement for a 60 series thats a good paperless unit, look at the newer 62's.
The problem with using PDA's, including Androids or iphones, is that they just aren't ruggedized or weatherized, any gps will be better off if you drop it, or if you get caught in the rain.
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I have an Oregon and still want a Nuvi in the car for getting to the cache. When I load my Oregon, I load the Nuvi at the same time with cache info.
The Oregon is a great GPS, but its just not geared toward driving.
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Anyone used this yet ?? Or know anything about it ???
This will change geocaching in a big way and it's only 20$
Well, it will certainly make non-Garmin owners feel excluded, which is (of course) the idea. Tried before with Wherigo but it didn't work.
If Garmin doesn't have a reasonable second-party solution out in a few months I think they should be banned for commercial content.
Why is that Garmin's responsibility, and why should that have any bearing on the future of these units?
The ANT protocol isn't Garmin's creation and sure isn't proprietary to them.
If the ANT protocol was built into devices like Androids, or those other fruit thingies, then I'm sure a chirp client would show up, be it by Garmin, or another party.
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And I notice that none of the cache owners have placed a second ?Chirp cache. Seems like a rapidly fading niche to me.
Probably miffed when their $20 gizmo gets plucked.
$20 can buy ammo box plus some swag
You don't put it in the cache, you put it near where you want people to see the signal, they are small enough that you should be able to hide them pretty good.
Geocache washed up in Knoebels flood.........Who's is it?
in Northeast
Posted
Best bet is to probably look at the log (if its still in good condition) and look at those profiles and just start comparing.
You'll probably figure out what cache it is from there, unless the log is blank.