John E Cache

Ahhh. That makes more sense than what I was thinking. I was thinking the techie definition of a "connector", not the dictionary definition.

What is an SD connector?

This app says it has a "talking GPS locator" https://play.google....UNlLnZPSUNlIl0.

I had trouble seeing at work and used a magnifier visor for fine work.

Does a GPS measure vertical speed? The GPS odometer only measures horizontal distance.

I think "live" means it gets caches from gc.com and displays them on a map they get from Google. Both"gets" won't work in the boonies with a phone with no esn. I used gpxspinner to convert the gpx to Web pages. Isilo fetched the pics. geobeagle reads gpx files.

Did you use iSilo on your Palm, like I used to? There is a Droid version of iSilo. I am not up on later apps. The ones I have tried don't save the cache pics offline, like iSilo did.

Samsung is getting better, I think. My Captivate GPS was virtually unusable. My Galaxy Note works great.

I think some flat landers are missing my point. When you you hike up a mountain two things mess up a GPS, altitude change and switch backs. When I started the trail just below "Rock of Ages", my GPS said 700 feet to the cache and it took me an hour to get there. Also, the GPS tries to smooth zig-zags in a track caused by position errors and ends up smoothing out switch backs.

My wild guess: Unless there is a a bread crumb right on the apex of a switchback, the tip of the switchback will be chopped off. The more crumbs the more likely you will have a crumb on the apex.

Ten years ago when I started caching, I had a Garmin GPS II that did the same thing when I had it in my bicycle mount. Some things never change, I guess. I think the coil springs just compress under the weight of the batteries plus G forces.

WAAS satellites can be used for navigation, but they are on very high geosynchronous orbits. The main use is to get the current errors for ground stations that have fixed known locations. If you are close to a ground station they assume you have the same transmission error and and your GPS corrects the error. So yes, it does depend on where you are. I have a ground station very near me.

I don't know how to tell what chipset this one is. If somebody explains how to find out before I send the thing back I will post the info here. I left it on outside in clear view of the sky for over an hour and that didn't help. Menu-Menu-Setup-System-Menu-Software Version says: Software Version 4.20 GPS SW Version 2.90s When it loses its firmware, it will say: Software Version 4.20 GPS SW Version 0.00 Garmin's webupdater will fix it, but the problem returns. I never had this problem with my old unit. That one failed in a different manner. I think the "S" in 2.90s means sirf. Did you register your refurb with Garmin? Webpdater might think you still have the broken one with a different chipset.

I wonder which chipset you will get, Sirf or MK? Did you do the recommended leave the unit on with a view of the sky for several minutes? I think it resets the almanac.

A TIFF is a tagged image and SQLite is a database. I am curious what you trying to do.

I have an older BT GPS. These days I would be very tempted to get a GPS + GLONASS receiver like the Garmin GLO

Geocaches use WGS84 by default. Why are using NAD state plane?

I don't like the map with the mag sensor either. The map alines with the earth and when you walk, the steps are slightly zig zag because your left foot and right foot don't go exactly on line. Also, where you point the GPS depends slightly on which hand you are holding the GPS and how you swing your arms. I actually put a map on the ground aligned with earth or landmarks to see what was going on. Laying the GPS on the map and rotating it showed me the GPS map stays alined with the paper map/earth.

Toothpaste is a fine grit polish.

I have had very similar results in the Grand Canyon recently with an Oregon 450, 550t, and Montana 650. These units all have SIRF chipsets in them, I believe. OOPS, should have quoted. I was responding to the first post and the topic "Multipath and the shortest path".

I think the the multi-path problem may be old news. When the SIRF chipsets came out, their claim to fame was that their DSP algorithms could filter out multi-path signals.Others must have followed, I'm guessing.

I think some are missing the point of the topic "Why is the KML inaccurate?" The KML is a text file. If the KML was accurate, a program, like GPSBabel, could convert the KML to a free PQ like gpx file. PQ files are not free. The replies that use GSAK or a different viewer use PQs and are paid methods

The Android SDK for the pseudo e-ink Pebble watch was just released. The "send data" to the watch from an Android device section has an interesting example. Example — Sending location coordinates to a geocaching app on Pebble public void sendLocationInfoToPebble() { final LocationManager locationManager = (LocationManager) getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE); Location location = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER); if (location == null) return; final String latLong = String.format("%.02f %.02f", location.getLatitude(), location.getLongitude()); final Intent i = new Intent("com.getpebble.action.SEND_DATA"); i.putExtra("sender", "MyGeocachingApp"); i.putExtra("recipient", "PebbleGeocache"); i.putExtra("data", latLong); Log.d(TAG, "About to send location coordinates to Pebble: " + latLong); sendBroadcast(i); } You can even write your own Pebble app.

No, I am just guessing why the track distance is always shorter than the odometer. I'm thinking the newer GPS's that sample faster may be the answer for slow changing errors, like someone said. On my old first GPS the track smoothing was interesting because you could always tell which direction the track was made because it seemed to assume a straight line and it over shot the corners. I find it curious that most cachers know the GPS position is inaccurate, but they expect an accurate odometer when the odometer is just sum of the distance between a bunch of inaccurate positions.

My guess is that the odometer adds mileage real time and includes zig-zags caused by GPS position errors. The track log smooths out the zig-zags with curve fitting math.