WindChill

Sure, Ill be in the area in mid-June. We'll be hitting some caches as we travel and would love to attend an event.

An easy way to finding the caches along a route will be great, but there are ways to do that now once you have all of the PQs. Has anyone thought about a tool that would take a route and a distance from the route and generate a set of coords that could be used for generating the PQs? It doesnt seem like this would be too difficult once you have the route in a usable format. I havnt found anything (okay, I havnt looked _too_ hard) that will convert an MS S&T route to something useful. Are there other route-generating apps that output something usable?

Dont know about a whole site, but a picture of Jeremy with Jeremy would be cool

As I was just checking on the location of my bugs, I noticed the "Zoom To" link for each entry. I clicked the link for the cache the bug had just left and the map changes to show that cache. Except it shows the first time the bug visited the cache, not the last. Obviously it is the same cache so it isnt a big deal, just thought someone might want to know about it.

Or: There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't. Yes, there are 2 kinds of people in the world: Those who pick their nose, and those who keep picking their nose even when you are looking right at them.

Your thinking is correct, but the term "connected" (in this case) would mean that you did get the strings. What really happened, is that Hyperterm was able to "open the serial port", but unable to "connect" to the legend. While there could be a problem with that configuration also, it would make me more suspicious of the computer/serial port. Yes. That means that Windows can talk to the serial port chips on the motherboard. It doesnt mean the serial port chips can talk to the outside world. No problem, I havnt really done anything.

Since you see the $GP strings this rules out most everything except EasyGPS and MapSource. And pretty much rules out MapSource causing a problem for EasyGPS. The next suggestion would be to: 1) Put the legend back to GARMIN output 2) Make sure the GPS Settings portion of EasyGPS is configured for GARMIN and on the correct serial port (probably COM1). How to do this may depend on the version of EasyGPS you have. Mine is under Preferences on the File menu. MapSource should have some similar settings that you can check. Since you just installed a new version of MapSource, this is a good place to start looking.

Well....If it didnt say "Unable to open COM1" that means that it did open the port (check the left side of the HyperTerm status bar to see if it says Connected with a time), which means that nothing else has the port open. You were pretty sure it wasnt the PDA software, but now you know for certain. If you dont see the $GP and $PG strings on the screen, it means there is still some kind of problem (but you knew that . It could be that the Legend isnt sending data, that there is a problem with the cable, or that the computer isnt receiving data. I would double check that the Legend is configured for NMEA and 4800 baud, and HyperTerm is configured for 4800 baud. This makes sure they are both speaking the same "language", and basically makes sure you arn't trying to track down a problem with this test instead of the original problem. Then I would check the cables. Are you using the cable that came with the Legend, and is it plugged _directly_ into the computer? Extension cables, A/B switches and "gender changers" are all potential problems. Also, are you sure the cable is connected to the legend correctly? It should only connect one way, but if it was forced a little bit it may go the other. On mine the cable comes off the left side of the connector as the unit is lying on its face. Since HyperTerm was able to open the port, we should be able to rule these things out, but it doesnt take much to check them: - make sure the serial port is not disabled in the BIOS. - make sure the serial port is not disabled in the Windows Hardware Profile. - make sure Windows Device Manager does not show any conflicts with the port. Finally, if possible I would repeat the HyperTerm test with the Legend on another computer. And if you have some other serial device, I would try plugging it into this computer. Making a connection like this should be very straight forward. If all of this fails I would start to suspect a more involved problem. I can think of two other things you could check before getting someone else to look at it: 1) If your computer is a desktop or tower unit, it may have a short cable that runs from the mother board to the external connector. This cable could have come unplugged inside of the computer. 2) If it is a laptop with a port replicator or docking station, make sure to check it while the machine is undocked. When I first got my machine, the serial port on the laptop worked fine, but the one on the docking station didnt. The fix for this is very easy once you know what it is.

Why would I download songs when there are "unlimited" waypoints to be downloaded

Getting a bit more technical (for some people at least), here is a quick test to see if the problem is hardware/cabling or software. Set the Legend to NMEA in/out. Open a terminal program such as HyperTerm. It used to be in the Start|Accessories|Communications menu, don't know if it still is on XP. Create a new connection: give it a name, then when it asks for the phone number select "Direct to Com1" on the "Connect Using" list. On the next dialog, select 4800 in the "Bits per Second" list, and "None" in the "Flow Control" list. When you hit OK it will open the port and begin receiving data. If it says "Unable to open COM1", then some other program is using the port. If everything goes well, you will see a bunch of text scroll on the screen. The exact strings don't really matter for this, but they will start with $GP or $PG. Oh, and BTW. I would guess that garmin doesn't use USB because the very small, very inexpensive computers that are inside of these units do not have USB support built in to them but they do have RS232 (serial) support. RS232 is pretty much a least common denominator.

Hey Jeremy, Any chance that the date formatting problem seen by those "other" browsers will get fixed in the next itteration? This is from Opera 7. The quick view page is okay, but all of the log pages look like this.

How cute....but I think this is a more appropriate vehicle: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2468753452

Boy, this is very close.... The latest updates fixed the date alignment problem on the Quick View page that I mentioned here. THe same problem still exists on the log pages.

Though not in the midwest region acoording to gc.com, since Iowa is surrounded on three sides by "you guys" Ill list Eastern Iowa Geocachers Association. Our "regional" pages have lists of caches (chosen by "the locals") for folks passing through and wanting to make the best use of their time.

I just noticed a very minor cosmetic problem on the TB pages. The TB Details page, the Write Note page and the Retrieve It page all have the "Show:" links in this order: Show: Write note, Retrieve it from a cache, Dropped off, All Logs The Dropped Off page has the links in this order: Show: Retrieve it from a cache, Write note, Dropped off, All Logs And the All Logs page has them in this order: Show: Write note, Dropped off, Retrieve it from a cache, All Logs All of the links go to the correct places. Edited to add: How about a "(mine)" link for the TB tab also?

I still see a problem with format of dates on the Quick View page Another thing to add to the "future enhancements" list: make uploading images (like the one above) and finding those images more straight forward.

When you surpass King Boreas (414 hides), then you should worry

Here are a couple of things I havnt seen mentioned yet (and a couple that have been): - The date on each log in the quick view wraps to take 3 lines. The dates on the cache page logs are "correct". This may be a browser/font thing; Im using Opera 7.23 - How about a "Today", or at least "This Month" link for the calendar to return after scrolling around. Not as necessary if the calendar is changed to have a drop-down month list. - Someone else mentioned putting the PQs on their own tab. This would be great. - I really like having the membership info/expiration date shown. Thanks for the effort!

Im with the no new log type crowd. A checkbox would be great but Im on the fence about associating the CITO with the cache or the cacher.

Having just added gloves-in-film-cans to all of my first aid kits, I can tell you that one pair of rubber gloves uses just a little less room in a film can than one walmart bag. No way I could get both to fit in the same can.

That's the way this cache works

The Story County (Iowa) policy seems to be highly regarded, maybe it would be a good starting point. Find it here or contact Summitt Dweller (as I understand he helped create it).

Hey, I was just at wally-world yesterday looking for one of those. Ive seen them in the swimming section; they are sold as a way to carry your money/id when you are doing watersports.

I was sitting at work today thinking about an upcoming trip and decide to see what bugs were along my way. Naturally I went to the maps and started scrolling along. I decided it would be a lot easier to see where they were, both now and while I was on the road, if I could load them into Streets&Trips like I do with my pocket queries. So, in true "work avoidance" mode, I whipped up an app to do just that. It takes a .gpx and creates a .csv with the lat, lon and name of each cache that has at least one bug. Now that Ive done this Im wondering if GPSBabel or Spinner (or something else) could have done the same thing for me? Obviously I could accomplish this using a couple of existing apps and some manual filtering/selecting of the caches with bugs, but where's the fun in that So...is it of general use to anyone else? Should I bother to clean it up and make it available?

Good topic MissJenn. Any tips on what to do with the trash that is collected? We are planning to clean up a rails-to-trails trail. In addition to the regular trash, there are lots of appliances and tires. The trail group doesnt have the funds to take care of the disposal, and the land fill wont waive the fees for us. I suspect we will "pass the hat" and hope we get enough to cover it. Any other suggestions?