Mart9012

Crumbs, this is a troubled thread. I love it that people carry spare logs and/or containers on them to help out owners. I'm thinking now that I might start doing the same as towards the end of last year I was finding a lot of washed out caches in decent containers that just weren't coping with the ridiculous weather. I was posting NMs purely to let the owner know how things were. I imagine a simple replacement of the log and a note to the owner does them quite a favour especially owners of big series! I tend to use the log system to make any comments about the cache, perhaps it has been placed away from it's intended location so the coordinates are out, or it's over a difficult to see broken fence and actually on private land. I like to log if a cache in a hawthorn hedge has cost me lots of blood and skin - not intending to be abusive but just to inform the cache owner.. How do we learn without feedback? As a relative newbie I love looking over old logs on some of the more difficult ones to get further hints and hate to see just a TFTC and naught else! I hope to set my own caches this year and am quite happy to receive constructive criticism or advice.

Like some here I also had a long period where I wasn't able to get out and had a couple of trackables in my posession. One the owners emailed me asking to return it to them by post which I was happy to do. The other I simply cannot find and I guess I should email them to let them know. Personally I think it's easier to just drop it in a suitable cache and log it and let the owners know it's back in circulation but all the same this new service has merit.

I've seen this answered for iPhones but the interface is clearly different. So I've solved a puzzle that gives me the coordinates for the actual cache hiding place. So I want to just enter the coordinates into my Geocaching.com's android app. Can't see how. I could use an alternative app but it seems odd that I can't just do this using the proper app. It may be I'm being a numpty here...

Thanks very much.. Hopefully I'm going to tidy up some I've forgotten!

Thanks for the reply.. Wow, not seen one so cheap and it seems to use the same GPS chip as other more expensive units. How are you getting on with it? Does it just plug in and get used instead of on board GPS?

How do I do a pocket query just for my DNFs using the Geocaching.com site?

I used a Nuvi 200 for ages before I used my smartphone. You can import .gpx files but it displays the GC number (which is enough of course). It was pretty sensitive although battery life is a bit short. Connectors are mini USB, not so common but available.

Just a point to realise with Smartphone caching. A lot of new smartphones have no removable battery and with GPS active battery life can be as short as 3 hours. You need a fairly big external power cell to keep these smartphones running for a whole day. If there is any real advantage to proper GPSr units it's potentially 20 hours or more run time.

I've heard the GPS in the newer Samsungs is far better than in my HTC. The Glonass support must help a bit but I think it's just a better GPS chip and aerial setup. My only issue with the S3 is the lack of ruggedness on the case. But with a decent protective case I guess that isn't much of an issue.

I started off using a Nuvi 200W. It's a very useful GPS device for caching but as you found, without doing the POI thing you only get GC numbers. All the same the GPS quality of these Nuvi satnavs are great.

Interesting. Works out a bit more expensive than others I've seen but I have used a Garmin Auto GPS to do caching with and it was pretty good. Will check out these in UK. Thanks.

I agree, but for the android variant too!

I have the android version and it does have a button for offline caching. I've not used it although I'm trying the offline storage using C:Geo which is a free paperless geocaching app for android. I'm pretty sure it's available for IOS too. My friend uses the official Geocaching app on her iPhone and gets on very well with it. Bluetooth GPS for the iPhone? I thought the iPhone had a pretty good GPS chip built in...

I can't afford something like an eTrex 30 so I'm stuck with using my HTC One X smartphone for my geocaching. I've heard that the main advantages of a dedicated GPS machine is rugged build, battery life and a sensitive GPS receiver. I can put protective covers on the phone. Can't do much about the very poor battery life when using GPS.. But I have seen plug in GPS receivers for about £30 ($45ish) that claim to have very sensitive reception using GPS and Glonass. I often find that with tree cover the phone GPS starts to get a bit wobbly and isn't getting a strong fix on satellites. Anyone have any experience of these addons?

I'm using the Geocaching App for Android on my HTC One X. If I do a search for local caches and then select the button for options I can select map view and choose between Satellite view or map view. However, I've recently posted a question about Cloudmade maps. This is a browser addon (called leaflet) that is supposed to work with either PC or mobile browsers. I have it working on the PC but can't yet get it working on my One X using the Geocaching App. It gives ten different maps that you can view while looking at caches on a map. The Android app C:Geo has a great selection of map views built in. It also links to the Geocaching.com web site and provides full paperless caching. It's free and seems very useful.

There is a javascript addon for both Firefox and Chrome that allows leaflet maps to be used on Geocaching.com instead of the usual Google Maps or OpenstreetMaps. For Firefox you install Greasemonkey first or Tampermonkey for Chrome. Then you install the Cloudmade "Leaflet" script and the browser uses this to add the leaflet maps. The advantage here is that the leaflet maps allow a selection of maps to be used while viewing caches on maps. There are ten including: MapQuest, Google Aerial, Terrain and Satellite, Bing Aerial, Bing maps, Cloudmade, OpenStreetMap, Ordinance Survey and my favourite OpenCycleMaps. Going through woods using the OpenCycleMap shows all the best navigable pathways to get from one cache to another. I guess it helps a lot if you're cycling too! Recently I applied the Cloudmeet javascript addon for my Firefox browser on my pc. As a premium member I was then required to change the Geocaching.com maps from google to the leaflet ones using the selection button on the side bar. Suddenly I can now switch map views at will while viewing caches on the maps. I can't see how to do this on the Android Geocaching.com app. Any clues.