WindChill
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Posts posted by WindChill
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I think before any events are planned we need to see if anyone is even interested in organizing a club. I am not sure if there is enough interest - or if with busy lives everyone would rather stay more independent.
I disagree. A simple event is the best way to find out who is interested.
You see, late last year a few Eastern Iowa geocachers started talking about a club. It was even brought up on our Yahoo group but there didnt seem to be much interest outside of the few people mentioning it.
Around that time, another cacher held a "meet at the coffee house and talk about geocaching" event. The event was well attended so we mentioned that we were thinking about starting a club and the response was very positive.
The Eastern Iowa Geocachers Association (EIGA) now has 40 people registered for our forums. Many of the locals that I dont see posting here are frequent posters in our forums. And our events often have more "out of towners" than "locals"
Last weekend there were four events in our area (3 CITO and 1 Post-CITO). Each event was well attended. Two of the events had cachers from over 100 miles away and there is one guy who attended all three CITO events.
So.....Have an event and see who shows up. If there isnt interest in a club, at least you had some fun and met some other cachers
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I urge everyone to stand by their principles, even when it's difficult (ESPECIALLY when it's difficult). It's fine to bitch and complain, but the pocketbook is the only thing these companies care about, so they don't get my money. Don't give them yours either.
I agree, and do avoid some companies. The unfortunate part is that if they arn't toldy they're not getting your mony (and why) they wont change because our individual purchases dont amount to a rounding error on their bottom line.
Even when they do know, many dont seem to care. When I make sure someone knows why they arn't getting my money, the attitude is often "Im sorry you feel that way. Have a nice day...Next".
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TSince it is also a popular vacation spot, if cachers up there planned a nice event, you might also get people from out of state that would come.
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.
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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?
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Dont know about a whole site, but a picture of Jeremy with Jeremy would be cool
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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.
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There are only three types of people in the world who you'll come across: those who can't count, and those who can.
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.
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It must have connected with hyper because it didn't say it didn't, but i got no strings.
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.
Also I tried plugging my digital camera in to the serial and it didn't work either. So that rules out the cable. I use the cable that came with it. Every thing is plugged in correctly, no extensions, and I have everything speaking the same language.
While there could be a problem with that configuration also, it would make me more suspicious of the computer/serial port.
I do have a tower and if one part of it was unplugged would it still say it was intact?
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.
I tell you what you have no idea how much i appreciate your help.
No problem, I havnt really done anything.
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I'd already tried most of the things mentioned. I just connected with Hyper Terminal (yes, it's still part of Windows XP). No problem: I saw the $gp strings. This works with two of the Legends (the third is out-of-town with my friend).
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.
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So what does it mean if you do all that and nothing happends? Because thats what it did, blank screen on the computer. But you did get me all excited and i learned something new.
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.
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Why would I download songs when there are "unlimited" waypoints to be downloaded
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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.
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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.
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How cute....but I think this is a more appropriate vehicle:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2468753452
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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When you surpass King Boreas (414 hides), then you should worry
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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!
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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.
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it would be cool if you used the film canister and stuffed it with the bag "and" a pair of those disposable rubber latex type glove's.
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.
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Following Butano's idea, how's this: Create a traditional cache where you may log your find (one only!) if you both found the cache & signed the log and filled a garbage bag?
The prize for doing some CITO would be the right to log a find for that cache, which you couldn't do without filling a trash bag.
That's the way this cache works
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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).
Walgreens Ultra-alkaline
in General geocaching topics
Posted
When I first started using rechargables in my eTrex, it would "drain" them much quicker than plain old alkalines (a couple of hours versus a full day). I found that if I changed the battery type setting on the eTrex, they lasted longer. My conclusion is that the batteries were not actually dead, but that the GPSr was shutting itself off because it thought they were nearly dead.
WIth that figured out, I found that the rechargables dont last significantly longer than the alkalines in the GPSr. The digital camera is another story all together, the rechargables last an order of magnitude longer.