phlatlander
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Posts posted by phlatlander
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Which gps are you using, meaning the unit that is not paperless? For example I have an Garmin Oregon 550 (paperless geocaching) and a Garmnin Nuvi 1350 (not paperless or geocaching friendly).
However the Nuvi is quite capable of paperless geocaching in spite of what others may say, one just has to learn how to do it.
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Generally the decimal minutes are added/subtacted as per decimal rules. However adding/subtracting minutes may result in >59 or <00 so one has to pay attention to that detail.
Any chance you could post the geocache code, that would simplify providing some assistance.
There are no dumb questions, but there can be many dumb answers...
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The Oregon 550 camera is acceptable, not great but acceptable. The best thing is that it's with you... I have found that it does not always geocode the image, perhaps I was too quick.
What? A flying wing? Yep.
Out walking the dog in the woods a couple of days later.
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Here is a link to a pretty good camera review site. You can specify the features you want (e.g. gps). I plan to purchase a P&S camera this year and the Sony Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V interests me. It has gps and built in panoramic software. I have seen the panoramic feature on my son's Sony and it is much better than photostitch with my Canon S5is.
Adding shock-proof and waterproof narrows the field considerably and you would likely have to increase your $$$. As of this am; Fujifilm FinePix XP150, Nikon Coolpix AW100, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS4 and Pentax Optio WG-2 GPS. Let us know which camera you eventually get and a user review.
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I wonder if the problem may be related to my experience. Do you have a micro sd?
I have a 2 month old 550 and I have had to modify the battery replacement and battery compartment slightly. I used to "pop" the batteries out but after doing that or after removing both batteries and inserting new batteries, every couple of times the 550 would "lose" the micro sd and I as I keep all maps and geocache data on that card, "nada". Took me a while to figure that the little slide/cover over micro sd was not seating completely. So then I began to only remove/replace one battery, then the other. That reduced the "nada" occasions significantly but not completely. So my latest mod is a small piece of folded over duct tape (what else...) laid between the batteries and the micro sd slide/cover. The 550 seems much happier with that arrangement.
Your mileage may vary...
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Thanks for that tip savant9. I seem to recall reading about that feature but never investigated it - neat. Sure beats holding the Oregon between your knees and trying to get good lighting for a screen capture!
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Never to old to learn new tricks.
The screen on my old Garmin Legend was becoming problematic and I was tired of manually entering geocache info so after seeing how easy it was to download poi's and geogaches to my Garmin Nuvi 1350, I started to consider a replacement hand-held gps. We are planning a European river cruise this coming fall, another reason for a newer gps. Some of us seniors like to have a back-up way of returning to where we started after a day of sightseeing...
This past December a friend lent me his Oregon 450 for a couple of weeks. I liked it and put it high on my short list. As it turns out GPSCity (Calgary) had a good sale so I decide to spring for an Oregon 550, I figured a geotagging camera might a good idea. Well, it is, but the gps does better than that!
Resolution of the 550 camera is 3gb, not big by digital camera standards and the screen is limited to 240x400 pixels - not impressive numbers but still... I began to get familiar with the camera and then used PhotoShop to create some 240x400 images, changed the wallpaper and added a few photos of the grandkids, etc.
My next step was to use GoogleEarth to drill down to an address (Kolkovna restaurant in Prague CZ for example) and save this image and resize it for the gps. Ok, a small snap but ok. Another forum member in a different posting, suggested the program GeoSetter which lets you store lat/long info in the exif photo tag data. Hmmm, so then I could modify the picture and add the lat/long - getting better.
In the meantime I used Openstreetmap.org to download quite good maps of Europe. I next created a .gpx file of some places in Prague and found the openstreetmap was excellent. So now I could have a poi entry and a small photo. Ok, but not great. And then I thought, what if...
I used GoogleEarth, located Kolkovna, used street view and created a large image (1400x900 for example, PrintScreen and copy into PShop), added lat/long exif data, and loaded that image onto the micro sd card in the 550. Getting better!
Go to "Photo Viewer", select the picture and have it display either horizontally or vertically. While the screen is small, by using the +/- on the touchscreen, you can zoom in/out to quite acceptable resolution, AND you can use the touchscreen to move around the image - neat! Because the photo is geotagged, press the small globe icon and the display shows the street map of the location! Press "GO" and you can create and save a waypoint if you want. Who needs a .gpx file! Once the waypoint is set then you don't have to access the picture unless you want to see the scene. Turns out the 240x400 screen is not useless after all!
While I travel with a Canon S5is, I am considering a newer camera with geotagging of course! The only thing I don't like is how the Oregon shows thumbnails, they apparently display in order of file date, not names! To see the file name you need to press the globe.
Some of the jpgs on the Oregon's micro sd card. BTW, there is a Zagg Screen protector on my Oregon.
Select an image, if the image is geotagged then a little globe icon is displayed
By using the + - screen buttons you can zoom in quite well. Note the time on the clock!
Press the little globe. And you have a good map you can go anywhere. Here is the city map of Prague.
Again using the + - keys you can zoom in the city map.
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Good recommendation. I use an MH-C9000 charger and Eneloops in everything in my house that needs AA or AAA (my Canon S5Is really likes them!).
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Interesting question, and yes you can, in a vague sort of way...
As others have responded your Garmin will only recognize "real" geocaches if they are in a correctly formatted .gpx file residing in the garmin\gpx subdirectory.
However you can store other uniquely named goecache.gpx files on a known PC subdirectory and use POIloader to create a .gpi file, using as many geocache files you want. Save the output .gpi file to (for example \garmin\poi) subdirectory on the micro sd card.
You can then access these geocaches via Extras. HOWEVER, these geocache files will be viewed as poi files which means you can set them as destinations but your Oregon WILL NOT view/track/log them as geocaches. Clear as mud what...
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Regarding unable to download pictures from Opengeocaching (new feature), I just received this email from Garmin:
"I spoke to some of my other representatives and we believe the issue with the Communicator Plugin. We have become aware that some customer's are having an issue uploading so we are looking into a fix for this. There will be an update to the program when the fix has been implemented. Thank you for your patience while we look into this."
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Interesting Zork V. Here is a reply to my query on Wiki:
I am having the same issue with my Montana 650, meaning this person is unable to do an auto download. I am hopeful that Garmin will provide an answer in the next few days. Earlier this evening I did receive an email from Garmin with a link to test the Garmin Communicator - it works fine but still will not download from the PC (internet) directly to the Oregon.
BTW, I have tried this feature using both Foxfire 9.01 and Internet Explorer version 8. Interestingly I can download geocache gpx files using Poiloader, GSAK and Geocaching.com, all without problem or difficulty.
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Did you manage to get Opengeocaching to download the geocache directly to your gps (which model) ?
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Just tried to download with my Oregon 550, the little wheel just spins. I have emailed Garmin about the problem with the Oregon.
Thanks for your posting ZOrk V.
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Thanks for the feedback dfx. Looks interesting! I'll try again when I get some time tonight. It seems that Opengeocaching is not writing to the 550. Looks like you did a manual download from Geocaching.com and not Garmin.
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Oregon 550.
I downloaded this updatelast night, all seems fine. But for the life of me, I cannot get the "geocaching with photos" feature to work. Opengeocaching just seems to wait. So this morning I followed the instructions to load my own photos. While the photos are in their own subdirectory, they show up under the photo menu item and I do not see the photo field:
ok Log Attempt
ok Show Description
no Show Photos
ok Show Logs
Anyone getting this feature to work?
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Well, regardless of whether or not one time would be more sensible, we humans cannot agree on much or accept change. Take, for example, ISO 8601 where representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was first published in 1988. An example, this post; 201201202135, unambiguous and straightforward. YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. As far as I remember this format was adopted by ICAO way back when but has not gained general acceptance.
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Once you have received your confirming email, choose this option:
"osm_routable_gmapsupp.zip 19-Jan-2012 06:03 7.9M Compressed file that contains a single image that can be placed directly onto the SD-card of the GPS."
1. download this file and unzip it
2. create a subdirectory called Garmin on your micro SD card. You may not have to do this step but I do and it works fine. If you don't have a micro SD card I recommend getting at least a 4gb as you can store many maps.
3. rename the .img file to something that makes sense to you. I just downloaded a map of an area near Kenora Ontario. The file you download and unzip is always called gmapsupp.img. I renamed it to gmapsupp_Ont.img
4. drag and drop (or copy) this map to the the micro Garmin subdirectory.
Your 450 will automatically read this new map file. You can enable/disable the map(s) from the setup command (Map Information Select Map)however I find the multiple maps on the Oregon a bit confusing as the names it displays are not your renamed filenames. Which means you will have to delete/copy a few times until you get the map set you want. I currently have all of North America, Mexico, Aruba, Barbados, Central England, Europe from Budapest to Prague.
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Well, when I geocache I am comfortable using lat/long and prefer this information to a compass and/or bearing and distance to. Plus when you are close to a geocache both distance and bearing tend to jump around a lot while the lat/long info tends to remain stable.
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I find that Garmin's "location (selected)" and "location (lat/lon)" mean the same thing to be confusing and not clear. The iPhone app uses basically the same words and shows your current lat/long and the lat/long of the geocache side by side - very handy! I was sure I saw the same thing on a friend's 450 and that's one of the reasons I bought the 550.
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My Oregon is about 2 weeks old and last week I was able to display the lat/longs for both my current position and my destination position on the "trip computer" page, I thought it worked.
But now, whenever I try to display both “Location (lat/lon)” and “Location (selected)”, they show the identical value, even if the Oregon is navigating to a waypoint. Anyone any advice?
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-- Found this picture on another forum, sorry can't give credit. BTW, this would be a great sign in any city.
-- Took this snap while geocaching near Kenora, Ontario. Wonder if Kramer drove around here.
-- This sign was in our neighbourhood for a year or so. I suppose one could consider it creative English but...
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I ended up getting a 550 and a Zagg screen protector. Regarding geocaches, I have succeeded in downloading and installing several maps, enlarging the text, changing the text colors, and I have loaded red light files and the the unit "dings" at the correct time. There is much to learn but I must say I am impressed.
I know where there is a Geodetic Survey point and so my terrier and I went out for a morning walk to:
Name: PIER A Zone: 14 E 609386.63 N 5523536 or
Latitude/Longitude : 49.854248 -97.478249
The Oregon 550 read: 49.854250 / 97.478250 which is very good, < 8' lat and < 4' long
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Today I went out to verify the precision of my week-old Oregon 550. I also brought along my trusty Nuvi 1350 which I have been using for paperless geocaching. I know where there is a Geodetic Survey point and so my terrier and I went out for a morning walk to:
Name: PIER A Zone: 14 E 609386.573 N 5523535.96 Zone 14
This translates to : 49.854247 / 97.478251
The Oregon 550 read: 49.854250 / 97.478250
The Nuvi 1350 read: 49.854250 / 97.478267
Just for information here is a GoogleEarth view of the survey point. The red arrow points to the exact physical location while RefPt is the kml (gps) location. Given all the possibilities for error (photographic errors, mathematical rounding errors, and likely a host of others) the accuracy is pretty good. All this to say that GoogleEarth is a good reference but the only sure things in life are still death and taxes...
(I did several recalculations and the answer varied between 45.71' and 52.63' (GoogleEarth ruler)
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My 550 arrived today from gpscity.ca Not only does the unit ship with a charger, but the charger is 110/220v and comes with various European plug adapters - good deal.
A friend lent me his 450 for a week and I was impressed and managed to load most of the same files that my Nuvi 1350 uses. I belong to Poifactory and I found out an Oregon 4xx or 5xx will process a csv or gpx redlight camera file which means you can just leave your Oregon in your breast pocket and when you are enroute to a cache and you are approaching a redlight/speed camera, a small beep will sound. The screen also flashes a warning message - very handy.
Switching from a Garmin
in GPS technology and devices
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You mean the compass (pointing to geocache) Oregon 550 like this ?