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When I try to upload or download waypoints from GSAK to my GPSMAP 76CSx from GSAK, a "sending waypoints" or "receiving waypoints" dialog box comes up with a gas gauge that goes from empty to full over and over and over and over and over, ad infinitem. It seems like it isn't communicating with the GPSr at all. USB connection. I can upload and download fine with Mapsource. The only way to get GSAK to do anything is to end task in task manager. Help!

There's no difference between the two. A cache type is a cache type as far as the data framework goes. We may talk about other types of cache experiences like puzzle caches or challenge caches or (in some places) an adventure lab considered as one (and this has been discussed before), and even Benchmarks may have been referenced as a cache type by some (showing up in the find count of 'cache types', eg). Doesn't change the fact that something either is or is not a "real" cache type. If it's not, then it has special code if there are places where its usage mimics that of actual cache types (Traditional, Multi, Virtual, Event, Earthcache, etc), like the counts of finds in our stats under "cache types". A Geotour is a category of cache types, not a cache type itself. An Adventure is similar to a Geotour in that it's a wrapper for a set of Adventure Locations. And that's harping back to the initial setup of Adventure Labs, individual 'finds' that added +1 smiley in a separate data source that was wrapped into a user's public stats. So there's already a pseudo-parallel between Geotour and Adventure. But that's a far cry from making Adventures a new actual cache type. Right, however, the structure of an actual cache type is not similar to the structure of an Adventure. And the Adventure experience is its own app, its own functionality, its own framework, and its own code. And that's why I said: it would require a complete overhaul of the Adventure system and importing all the data into the existing geocache system patchworked to make Adventures a new cache type, in some way, which I would think would look absolutely nothing like Adventures do currently... they are simply fundamentally different experiences with functionalities that are miles apart.

@Mangatome Then from your perspective, we have not yet reached the limit of what we can do with lua if done correctly. What will need to be done is the following: The player app should be able to run one version of lua for all v1 cartridges (retaining compatibility, such as it is). We will run all v2 cartridges in the latest version of lua. When the player app requests a cartridge from the Wherigo API, the player app's current lua version will be included in the request. The Wherigo API is responsible for compiling a cartridge with the requested lua version. As long as the Wherigo API is updated prior to releasing an updated version of the app with a newer lua runtime environment, things will work as expected. In this manner, we can also deal with old versions of the app. (The Wherigo API reserves the right to tell the app when it is too old and must be upgraded.) Updates to the player app could include updates to either the lua environment or player app API. Because of this, once we expose an endpoint to a cartridge, it is fixed in stone and cannot be changed. I know how to version web-based APIs, but have not yet put time into determining how to version the player API. (In other words, we need to guarantee cartridges built in 2024 will still be able to run when the year is 2030--or even cartridges created in 2026 using a 2024 version of Urwigo.) I imagine we could just have an interface per player API version, which when upgraded will simply chain call into the newer method. As mentioned above, the Wherigo API's compiler service would need to load the compiler appropriate for the request. (I'll likely store a compiled cartridge when requested for the first time, then skip the compiling step during subsequent requests.) We will need to have living documentation that covers the player app's specification: lua versions, required libraries, and the player API (not only the part that allows interaction with the UI, but also that allows the subset of network features we desire). I would like cartridge state to be kept separate from the lua version if at all possible. I want to work on a more robust state management API. Other thoughts: I certainly don't mind exploring a version of player app that will allow cartridges to be written in C#. You definitely know player apps better than I: how difficult would it be to construct interfaces for the player app such that we could easily drop in different types of cartridges? Even if we stay with lua, that's my intent to preserve compatibility with v1 cartridges while continuing to update lua for v2 (unless we decide each cartridge's manifest can tell the player app the lua version against which it's supposed to run). My first priority is to everyone's security. I still would like to allow authors the ability to use network resources, so how about this idea? When an author wishes to use network resources, their cartridge can undergo review. Once approved, that particular URL scheme will be whitelisted for that cartridge. When a player app downloads a cartridge, it can also download the URL whitelist. The player API will expose a network layer whereby it will only allow whitelisted URLs to be called. In this way, we maintain security while at the same time giving authors the ability to consume network resources. As for in what the player app will be coded, I must leave that up those who will volunteer for the player app. My preference is for the environment to be something in which most people are familiar. That way, when some volunteers have to step away for a while, other people can take up the responsibility with not as much of a learning curve. My preference is MAUI or Blazor Hybrid. I know Groundspeak seems to like React Native (their Adventure Labs app is built using that), but Wherigo v2 is not going to be a Groundspeak project (though I still want Groundspeak's backing). For developing all this, I'll want public GitHub repos with a couple project leads (always more than one since we're all volunteers) set up to review and merge pull requests into the trunk. Anyone in the community can make a pull request. Whether we want these repos initially private is still a good question. I'm glad we're not all jumping into coding this. And some public news: I attended a mega event last weekend, and Jeremy from Groundspeak was there. We'll set up a time to talk with each other and see if I can get Groundspeak to agree to let the Wherigo Foundation run Wherigo if we can deliver.

OK, who has an opinion on handheld compass's to share. I'm looking for a good mapping compass primarily to use with 1:24K topos and aerial photos. So far I've been looking at the Brunton 8096 Eclipse GPS compass Brunton and the Suunto GPS-Plotter G compass. Suunto. What do you think about the quality of these manufacturers, features these offer, other options, or ??? I haven't seen a Silva with similar scaling features for my purposes, am I missing something? Thanks for your comments

I notice the card option on the forums. Could we get a google talk line in there?

This is sort of off-topic, because It's not about an actual gadget cache . Last Friday, at a local caching event, some friends and I started to talk about unusual special equipment needed to find some geocaches. We speculated what kind of "special" (but not hopelessly unaffordable) equipment we have not yet seen as required for a cache. Soon, a Geiger counter was mentioned. We then had a good laugh imagining a gadget cache design like this: At the posted coordinates, you find a box, with a small Geiger counter + instructions. The task is to find a very small radioactive item within, say, 30 meter radius (in the woods, so essentially unfindable by chance), which holds the logbook (or coordinates of the location of the logbook). To make it clear, this is not a serious cache proposal, but it was super funny to fool around with the idea. But the really hilarious punch-line here is that less than 24 hours later, I first read about the incident in Australia where they really had to find a nano-sized radioactive item with radiation counters ! You can easily google it, but for reference, here is one news link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64481317

I've been geocaching for a little over a year now...not too religiously, but enough that when I travel, I take a quick look at what caches are in the zipcode I'm going to. It looks like the hot setup is to download all the specific cache info to a PDA and use the PDA in conjunction with your GPS. There's a lot of good and bad to every PDA I've researched. Anyone have a "most bang for the buck" story related to their PDA. BTW, I just "upgraded" from a Garmin 76CS to a 60CSx and LOVE IT, now I want to get the most out of it by throwing some cash into a reliable and functional PDA. Comments? Fire away!

tell me about them

My ladyfriend and I went caching today at a spot just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. After we had located the cache and hiked back to the parking lot, I unlocked the car and laid my brand new GPSr (A Lowrance Expedition C) on top of my old Taurus wagon because I needed to put my backpack in the back seat. As soon as I had done that, we hopped in the car and headed home. After eating dinner, I went in the den and reached over to pick up my GPS carrying case and thought to myself, "this thing feels awfully light." Then I felt a sick feeling beginning to well up inside because I didn't remember getting my GPSr back off the roof of my car. Thinking that I may have just laid it in the back seat, I raced outside and there sitting on the top of my Taurus wagon was the Lowrance, just where I left it. I picked it up and stared at it in disbelief. I had just driven about 30-35 miles on an extremely curvy road at speeds of up to 50 mph and the thing hadn't moved. The only thing I can figure out was that the Expedition has some tiny rubber feet on the back of it that must have kept it from sliding around. Man, what a lucky break!!!

Just a place to talk about cache problems and other random cache stuff please feel free to post anything cache related!! Such as Problems you have had in the past with your caches and the odd stuff you have found in them and make it so this is a non judgmental place to talk no bashing other players about what they think speak your mind!!! and have fun!!

95% of couch logs so far are from very experienced players so this behavior is unlikely to be grounded in confusion about proper logging guidelines and ethics. Interestingly some are the same accounts who like to talk about game integrity in the forums The game contains this disclaimer in different locations: There's no mention of completing this game allowing players to claim a find on the respective cache. While we will try our best to curb couch logging, cheaters only cheat themselves, and it's on all of us honest players to advocate for proper gameplay in the channels at our disposal

Perfect, thank you! I'd missed that one. I spent a lot of time looking at airports back when I first started this list, but now I usually don't go back to a given airport unless one of the existing caches on my list has been archived. For Munich, I know I haven't looked at the map in at least a year. I admit, I struggle with puzzle caches. If it's easily solved, then no problem. But for many, the language barrier is too much for me to overcome. So I usually rely on (robot translated) logs. The best ones are of course any that say, "We had a 4-hour layover at the airport, which gave us plenty of time to go looking for this cache and get back for our flight." Failing that, I look for logs that talk about finding the cache on their way to (or from) the airport. That's why I resurrect this forum post now and again, so I can get feedback from folks who have found the caches on the list. Which brings us to, if any recent finders of GC5PF9M or GC2ABTH have opinions on how feasible it would be to get to either of those caches from the airport terminal, I'd be glad to hear them.

I'm watching as thread after thread is closed and wondering, what can we talk about that is not going to get deleted, edited or closed? And if you can get past all of that, chances are you're going to get scolded for not saying what you want to say in the most innoculous manner possible -- heaven help you if you get the slightest bit passionate about what's on your mind -- you'll be slapped with a warning (the online equivalent of standing in the corner). What can we talk about? If we're told that the answer is caching (which I suspect it will be), then let us talk about and discuss the things that are related to it. So come on -- deleting, editing, closing, and scolding is not doing anything but getting everyone frustrated and afraid to speak about caching, much less anything else. This is a social activity -- do you really think that stiffling everyone is doing anything positive to further this activity? I think it all comes down to the social aspect of caching -- and this has been brought up several times in the past -- what are these forums really about if not a social venue to discuss whatever the topic of the day is amongst those who share a similar attraction to this activity? This should be especially true in the non-specific 'General' Forum. *****

Interesting ideas all around. My 2 cents. I like the comment of Dani+Iris. Yes, it's tedious to maintain a physical location (although in my case it's not too bad honestly). On the other hand, there's plenty of examples of cartridges being (re)used outside of the original cache (the Hangman series in the US, the reverse Wherigo from Waldmeister). To attract a crowd for playing Wherigo's (isn't that what we all want), I feel the app/player experience is key. We (as builders) are obviously quick to point out the flaws/features requests of creating a Wherigo. But, in the end it's still the person that's loading a cartridge on his smartphone who's the boss. So what is it in Wherigo that can attract crowds over the myriad (successful or not) alternatives that have been launched? (I wish I had the answer to this.) Trying to dissect some of the ideas that were posted by Ranger Fox and others on the subject. 1. In general - I like the idea of having a map centric approach. It will put limits to how you can develop things, but I think it will give a much better experience for the player. - Videos: I do see use cases (eg. interaction with an NPC) but I would be deterred by the extra effort needed to create videos on top of building the cartridge. So for sure not a critical/v2.1 item for me. From that respect, Audio is more important. - Formatting of items to make it more appealing: text with different fonts/colors/..., different colors for the zones (if you still have those), ... 2. On Zones - Having a more 'stable' zone experience dealing with GPS-jitter - For most purposes, just a point is sufficient, but having a shape can be interesting (eg. I have one built on a roundabout, the zones are like a piece of a pie forming a complete circle; it's nice to have rectangles if you want to have a "gameboard" like experience) - I like the idea of having a picture/icon showing on the map, instead of just the zone shape. But we need to think about how to do it with overlapping zones/small zones (compared to the minimum picture size) 3. On NPC / Items - I like the idea of having a picture/icon showing. But we need to think about how to do it with many items on the same spot/in the same zone - I like the idea of not being forced to have these NPC/Items in a zone (or the inventory) for them to show up - Taking this one step further: what's the difference between a zone and one of these objects? From a logical perspective, not a lot (especially if you don't have shapes for zones). Only the options you have to interact with the Object might be different ("add to inventory" or "use" for Items, "talk" is typically something for NPC). 4. Online or not? - I do see the advantage of being able to play it offline. Trust me, as a European without decent/affordable data plans outside of Europe, it can become costly when visiting the US or other territories. - I like the idea of having a neatly integrated system with APIs to load a cartridge, post a "log", mark completion, ... 5. On Groundspeak/GC links - With the adventure labs, it's going to be difficult to sell a tour guide like Wherigo platform on them - From the GC posting guidelines: "specific apps" are not allowed. So they can easily block/disallow them. https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=97&pgid=297#mobileapps A small remark on this: yes, it's (more) work to create a Wherigo than just drop a pill bottle behind a tree in a forest. But I am sure some people put equally (if not more) time in building great cache containers, multi's, gadgetcaches or mysteries. That being said, to buld a community, you'll need "many" cartridges (of high quality), so you'll need many builders too. SWIPEE

Yesterday evening about 7 pm we found a cache near a local business. We had to walk about 10 feet through knee high grass to find the cache. No problem, signed log, traded TB's and were on our way. Had a good evening and went to bed about 11. At midnight I was woken up by something crawling near my leg. I tried to shake it off and go back to sleep. I felt it again, and jumped out of bed and turned on the light, expecting to find a spider. When I threw back the (luckily yellow) sheets, my husband saw a tick walking around. IN MY BED!!! So, I let it crawl on a piece a paper and fed it to the Venus Flytrap in the kitchen and then TRIED to go back to sleep. I laid there for an hour and a half waiting... I knew if there was one, there may be others. And where in the heck was that thing hiding for the last five hours? No bites on anyone, but ugghh! I finally fell asleep and dreamed about ticks all night. Today the sheets get a wash in hot water. Here is my question. Are the ticks worse this year? Or is it that we are new to geocaching? We've walked through the woods with the girl scouts, boy scouts and just the family before, and never had a problem. Now we walk 10 feet through grass by a business and gets ticks in the bed. This is our fourth tick encounter this spring, even using DEET sometimes. Are there superticks in Sacramento? Do I have to put off geocaching until it's cold? Help! Signed, Sleepless in Sacramento

Are they travel bugs or collectibles or both? How can a coin from finland start here (calif). Can anyone purchase foriegn geo coins. They are interesting and i picked one up BUt I do not quite get it...Thanks a newbie who is getting rolling

I'll add one that's been present for several years now. When a PNG or GIF image is uploaded to a cache page, the contents of the file are quietly changed to progressive jpeg with no warning and no change to the file suffix. There are plenty of puzzle caches that rely on these file formats, for example where the solution is encoded in RGB values, yet this behaviour isn't even documented in the Help Centre, leaving unwary COs oblivious to the fact that their carefully crafted PNG or GIF file has turned into a jpeg without even the .JPG extension to suggest anything's changed. The only explanation given for this is that, for players on slow internet connections, it looks prettier for images to gradually come into focus than to be built up raster-fashion. Talk about form over function!

I cant seem to get my explorist 500 to talk to my laptop using the mapsend software. There is no software update or patch for this model. im stumped and frustrated.

Be welcome! I would suggest that you do some caching for a while, attend some Events and talk to folks there... I bet all (almost) your questions will be answered just by playing. On the other hand you may be interested also in some geocaching based books and movies or series, like Splinterheads, Dark, etc. Some rare geocoins would be good things to leave in the caches, or memorabilia from pop culture, like the original artifacts in the APE Cache series, from Planet of the Apes. Enjoy and be inspired. PS: I have done a lot of covers for the portuguese versions of Goosebumps, from R. L. Stine.

I've been checking and couldn't find a thread for this type of WM. How many times can we see a satellite and we have not had time to talk with a partner, or even two partners saw a satellite, but someone who also saw it (and is within the distance of being able to share WM) is left without being able to register it? Well, here we can write down what we saw or did (especially those that were not published)

Just figured I would post an update here, since we're partway (most of the way) through the summer. This has been a fun project for me, and some of our scouts really took interest too, while others didn't really. We had the whole gamut. What worked well -- having the scouts "vote" or submit ideas on where they wanted the TB to travel talking with the older (3rd/4th graders moving onto next grade) about geocaching, rules, and how to do things right. This age group wanted to follow the rules. posting updates about where the TB travelled on the pack FB group and public FB page. Those who were interested asked about it more. Asking my local geocaching group for help to get the TB moving. I met up with a couple cachers, who took the TB to events and meetups, allowing them to get out of state. hosting an "unofficial" cache event for the cub scouts (grades K-5th) -- they got to learn about geocaching, have fun finding caches, signing names, etc ....but when some kids didn't get the rules, it didn't mess with any official caches. (we had a couple kids empting swag and not replacing, even though we had a "swag bin" you could grab from. Other scouts kept them honest, but still....). What didn't / or what could have been done better -- I wasn't able to monitor/lead all the kids through the idea of geocaching. I think it would have been awesome, retrospectively, to get help from a couple local geocachers willing to talk about / lead interested scouts on a hike and talk about geocaching. This wouldn't work at the pack level, but at a den level, and only for the older kids, I think. Obviously I transitioned away from my idea for the pack planting actual caches. That wouldn't have worked. We did hide a couple caches, with interested scouts, but it's something that will be maintained by me. I think at this age, the parent needs to be willing to help maintain the cache for it to be a go. Some of the parents didn't really understand (or care) about geocaching. It would be good to have a couple adults (i.e. more than just one) who know how to do it, and how to teach kids the basics. Other takeaways I got a ton of help from my local (state) geocaching group. I wish I had known about that earlier. Sometimes kids who love geocaching are just not in the mood to geocache. It's okay, and don't take it personally. There are a bunch of people who are willing to offer tips/advice for you if you message them. My kids regularly ask me to ask for additional tips. And people are very kind. scouts will be much more interested in geocaching at the older ages (middle/high school)....BSA troop level. At cub scout level, Trackables are cool enough to keep them interested ("ooh, look, our trackable made it to Wyoming!"). Thanks so much for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Ok, I'm obviously a newbie and having difficulty with my software. I've looked through old posts and can't find the answers that I'm looking for. I've also looked at Smittys(something or other) and various other step by step web sites but none of them seem to explain exactly what to do - like "ok....my screen doesn't have that "magic button" you're talking about". So....as complex as it is - can anyone either help me fully or in part with the following questions? If you'd rather, anyone willing to talk to me like I'm 4 can email and we can do it that way. I just appreciate help. By the way - my GSAK and Cachmate are paid for. So here goes: POCKET QUERIES: I see where people have them generated a couple times a week. When I generate mine I say 'send me 50 that I haven't found'. But it keeps sending the same 50, because obviously I haven't changed the information. So, I deleted all my queries and will just mark the ones I've found in the meantime. Why would I keep downloading the same 50 and having to import them every couple days and rework them? Am I missing the point of Pocket Queries? I'm certainly not finding 50 every couple days but I like a good variety in case I travel 10-15 miles down the road. GSAK: Love the program but have a problem converting the files to get them into my PDA. I have to open Cachemate, go through about 15 steps, go back into GSAK and then export them. Does everyone have to go through that every single time? Also, do you list your Pocket Queries by date as different data bases? I have several files, all differnt names, with the same info in them. Does that make sense? Aren't I just wasting computer space? CACHEMATE: I love this program! Great for my PDA. But....does it really do my any good to mark that I've found a cache, put in the time, date and comments, turn around and do the same thing on GSAK and turn around and do the same thing on Geocaching.com? I understand having to do it in one program and then again on the web, but it makes no sense to be doing it three times - I'd rather be spending all that time outside. Isn't there someway my Cachemate can sync with GSAK, other than just importing the queries into my PDA? Well, there you have it. My ignorance exposed (along with a few spelling errors, I'm sure). Again, any insight, help, or laughing would be appreciated.

Yeah color me unimpressed lately with HQ. I definitely see them less as stewards now and more of a corporate machine that does not care about us, only about the bottom line. They talk a good game, but killing benchmarks and then messing up the search function and telling us "Sorry, we are on vacation and will get around to it when we get around to it" has me completely put off. At least I can go find a ton of adventure labs with little to no effort from a parking lot somewhere. What an adventure.

I recieved the serial cable for my new etrex today, but am having some problems with getting the PC and GPSr to talk to each other. If the etrex is in NMEA Out mode, I can connect to the COM port using hyperterminal and see data coming in. I can also use NMEA to track my position in GPSU. The problem occurs when I want to transfer waypoints etc., as in 'GARMIN' mode I recieve errors from each program I try saying 'Timed out' or 'No data recieved'. Any advice on what to try would be appreciated, and I'm running windows XP.

Atlas, I understand your collection. I also know you realize the difference between using them and collecting them and are prepared to use bespoke software if you can get it at all. (Good luck with that Magellan stuff that required online registration, for example.) Mineral, close call! The 600 was actually the last device that I purchased when it was substantially discounted. The 450 it replaced had gotten crash-happy. The 600 at least rebooted more quickly when it crashed. By the time I purchased it, my own geocaching was largely limited by my own health and available time to business travels when I was "stuck" out of town. South SF Bay had enough geocaches to keep me occupied and there was enough flat land that I could choose my own adventures to tailor my days to my pain level for the day. I think I probably have a thousand or more finds that I've not even logged when I cached in part of a group on GeoWoodstock weekends, but I'm pretty much a former geocacher at this point. Thanx, user13371. For a few years after my surgeries, I was "frownie face" most of the time. While I still can't predict how much time I can devote to software just due to the nature of spinal issues, I do have some random lucid hours from time to time, so I can still pop out a release or two a year even if working from the bed or something. It's just the nature of my disability. The removal is in https://github.com/GPSBabel/gpsbabel/pull/961. Once I get that build green, I'll push it and it'll be gone in the nightlies and all future builds. For some reason, the doc build is silently failing on my machine right now and I don't feel like debugging that. I'll just "spray and pray" in the build cluster at Github. Once that PR is submitted, it shall be done. In vaguely related news, the birthdate of GPSBabel's original code turns drinking age this week. It was just before the Christmas holiday in 2001 when I was still in a neck brace from my very first spinal surgery (the morning of 9/11) when I started geocaching. I had a DNF from mistyping the coordinates in my Map330 and I started writing code to talk to the device from SCO UNIX after being frustrated with the tools available at the time.