CacheMate software question

[+His_little_lamb]

I'm looking to go paperless caching and I have a Palm Pilot 505 and a Mac computer. In my web research it seems like I might do best to buy the CacheMate software. But I'm not sure, does CacheMate show all the cache description on my palm? Most importantly does it display the text about about how to find the cache?

I had an experience while geocaching that I ended up on private property by not looking at the cache page beforehand. If I had the page with me than I could have read that it was off of a public trail behind the private property.

 

So do any of you have CacheMate and can answer my question? I'd hate to buy it (not that its that expensive) and find that its not what I want.

[+cache_r_joe]

Yes... Cachemate will allow you to have all the text from the cache page as well as the hint. It will also help you keep notes on your fund.

 

I have been using it for quite some time and love it.

 

Joe

[+ThePropers]

Yep, cachemate contains pretty much everything that's on the cache page except the photos. You'll get the hider, type, container size, hint, description, the last few logs, difficulty/terrain, date hidden...etc.

[+OienLabs]

You can download CacheMate for free and test the functionality. The free version will only show you 10 waypoints. If you are happy with what you see, pay the 8$ and receive the unblock code to have the unlimited version.

 

With an extra plugin CacheMate can be loaded with pictures as well.

 

I am happy with CaceMate.

[+sbell111]

Yep, cachemate contains pretty much everything that's on the cache page except the photos. You'll get the hider, type, container size, hint, description, the last few logs, difficulty/terrain, date hidden...etc.

The OP may also consider is Plucker, since it provides all those things and any photos on the cache page.

[Aushiker]

With an extra plugin CacheMate can be loaded with pictures as well.

 

G'day

 

Is this for the Palm OS? If so can you provide more details? I looked at the Cachemate website but nothing seem to jump out at me.

 

Thanks

Andrew

[+Bud]

does CacheMate show all the cache description on my palm?

 

Everything on the cache page within reason. It doesn't do pictures, as has already been posted. Also, it truncates really long cache descriptions, to 8K, I think I've read. So, if you've got a cache placer who likes to get wordy in the description with the history of the area, folk stories and other long things, CMconvert (the program which sends your GPX to your Palm) will chop it off when it hits its allowed length. It will still leave the hint and past logs intact, though.

 

That said, it will warn you when it has to truncate, and I've only run in to this 2 or 3 times in the last 2000 caches since I've started using it. Well worth the registration fee!

[+biosearch]

The OP may also consider is Plucker, since it provides all those things and any photos on the cache page.

 

I have to agree with the idea of downloading plucker. I am putting together some palms for a number of reasons (refurbishing old m100 series palms I'm getting off of e-bay cheap) and will be putting cachemate on those that I plan to use for geocaching. However, plucker is an indispensible tool for everything from reading your favorite blog, news articles, etc. off-line. It can also grab the data from the cache pages. The only issue with plucker when it comes to caching is that you can't (or at least I havn't found a way yet) use it with pocket queries. Additionally, cachemate allows for better searching, etc. I would have to assume that cachemate files take up less memory than plucker, although I have not checked for this.

 

In any event, along with cachemate (at least the demo version) I would definantly download plucker. www.plkr.org You'll need the viewer and the distiller. I would also look at brighthand.com and create an account there. There is a world of information concerning palms and forums for discussion. My experience has been nothing but positive with that forum so far.

 

I decided to edit this as I've just been to the fax page. Take a look there, if you haven't, there are two really good faq pages listed concerning all of the software that you could possibly use. If I had checked there a long time ago I would have found how to use plucker with gpx files. It also gives you all the links you will ever need....

Edited December 11, 2006 by biosearch

[+OienLabs]

With an extra plugin CacheMate can be loaded with pictures as well.

 

G'day

 

Is this for the Palm OS? If so can you provide more details? I looked at the Cachemate website but nothing seem to jump out at me.

 

Thanks

Andrew

 

Sorry, that seems to be for the Pocket PC version only. To bad.

[+NightPilot]

You can use Plucker with pocket queries, if you put GSAK in between. Open the pocket queries in GSAK, select the caches you want to transfer, and have GSAK generate html for them. Then point Sunrise or the Plucker distiller to the index.html file that GSAK generated.

 

Cachemate, with the appropriate plugins, will also navigate to the caches, find the caches nearest you or to any cache in the file, transfer waypoints to and from your GPS, and more. You do need a connection between your GPS and your PDA, either wired or wireless. I use bluetooth, with an adapter connected to my Garmin Legend. I can also use a cable connection, but it's not as convenient. If I have any doubts about getting to the cache, I can export the cache coordinates to Mapopolis, and get driving directions to it. This isn't perfect, because Mapopolis doesn't necessarily know about parking areas, but it will get as close as it can on roads. Mapopolis unfortunately won't work well on an M500 series Palm, but Cachemate will run quickly. Bluetooth isn't an option either, but newer PDAs have it.

Edited December 11, 2006 by NightPilot

[Aushiker]

Sorry, that seems to be for the Pocket PC version only. To bad.

 

No worries. Thanks for clarifying.

 

Andrew

[+Clothahump]

With an extra plugin CacheMate can be loaded with pictures as well.

 

G'day

 

Is this for the Palm OS? If so can you provide more details? I looked at the Cachemate website but nothing seem to jump out at me.

 

 

Yes.

 

I have a Zaire and I absolutely love Cachemate. It's so nice to dispense with the paper and just load up a couple of hundred unfounds and get after it!

[Aushiker]

Yes.I have a Zaire and I absolutely love Cachemate. It's so nice to dispense with the paper and just load up a couple of hundred unfounds and get after it!

 

We where talking about loading photos into cachemate. Are you saying you do this on your Palm?

 

Andrew

[+His_little_lamb]

I went ahead and purchased CacheMate yesturday but I have yet to recieve the serial number. They told me it would probably be emailed to me within the hour, but its been way more than that. Did those of you who have cachemate have this problem?

[+Cardinal Red]

I'm looking to go paperless caching and I have a Palm Pilot 505 and a Mac computer. In my web research it seems like I might do best to buy the CacheMate software. But I'm not sure, does CacheMate show all the cache description on my palm? Most importantly does it display the text about about how to find the cache?

I had an experience while geocaching that I ended up on private property by not looking at the cache page beforehand. If I had the page with me than I could have read that it was off of a public trail behind the private property.

 

So do any of you have CacheMate and can answer my question? I'd hate to buy it (not that its that expensive) and find that its not what I want.

 

I used to love Cachemate 99%. I still want more than 5 logs but that's not going to happen without additional software, planning, and PQ updates. OK, I don't like it but I understand. But there is one more major PITA about plain old Cachemate nobody has mentioned! If the Cache owner decided to add Additional Waypoints you have to jump through extra hoops to get it onto the Palm. Oh, now you actually want to find it? More work. Oh, and they added a special note with the Waypoint. So sorry! You have to do without. At least I can't find it. What is the workaround for that?

[vagabond]

I went ahead and purchased CacheMate yesturday but I have yet to recieve the serial number. They told me it would probably be emailed to me within the hour, but its been way more than that. Did those of you who have cachemate have this problem?

I had mine within minutes

[+OienLabs]

I went ahead and purchased CacheMate yesturday but I have yet to recieve the serial number. They told me it would probably be emailed to me within the hour, but its been way more than that. Did those of you who have cachemate have this problem?

 

For me it took about 1 hour to receive the code (I used paypal).

[+OienLabs]

As Cardinal says. If you wants to automaticly have the Additional Waypoints you need the Pocket PC version (1.2.2)

 

They do not lika Palm any more, do they?

[+Cornerstone4]

I went ahead and purchased CacheMate yesturday but I have yet to recieve the serial number. They told me it would probably be emailed to me within the hour, but its been way more than that. Did those of you who have cachemate have this problem?

 

You should have had it already. Make sure to check any spam folders you have to see if was captured there.

[+Nero]

several people have said to use plucker or spinner or whatever software. this is PC software, and the OP said they were using a Mac computer.

 

so options are...

 

Be a premium member to get pocket queries to beging with.

 

use MacCMconvert to convert gpx file to a pdb and Hotsync.

 

Cachemate works great i've used it for at least a couple years now.

[+NightPilot]

Sunrise, a Plucker distiller, is platform independent, because it's java-based. Thus you can run it on a Mac, Linux, or whatever OS you like. There are versions available for almost everything, and the Plucker viewer is a Palm program.

[+His_little_lamb]

I went ahead and purchased CacheMate yesturday but I have yet to recieve the serial number. They told me it would probably be emailed to me within the hour, but its been way more than that. Did those of you who have cachemate have this problem?

I had mine within minutes

 

I've got it now. At the website I told it to send it again and this time it did. I don't know what happened to the first one, it wasn't in the spam folder, but oh well. I like CacheMate, thanks for the advice, now I just need to make a geocaching trip out.

[+Cardinal Red]

I'm looking to go paperless caching and I have a Palm Pilot 505 and a Mac computer. In my web research it seems like I might do best to buy the CacheMate software. But I'm not sure, does CacheMate show all the cache description on my palm? Most importantly does it display the text about about how to find the cache?

I had an experience while geocaching that I ended up on private property by not looking at the cache page beforehand. If I had the page with me than I could have read that it was off of a public trail behind the private property.

 

So do any of you have CacheMate and can answer my question? I'd hate to buy it (not that its that expensive) and find that its not what I want.

 

I used to love Cachemate 99%. I still want more than 5 logs but that's not going to happen without additional software, planning, and PQ updates. OK, I don't like it but I understand. But there is one more major PITA about plain old Cachemate nobody has mentioned! If the Cache owner decided to add Additional Waypoints you have to jump through extra hoops to get it onto the Palm. Oh, now you actually want to find it? More work. Oh, and they added a special note with the Waypoint. So sorry! You have to do without. At least I can't find it. What is the workaround for that?

 

Above I have quoted myself responding to the OP asking if CacheMate would "show all the cache description on my palm?" I had only very recently learned about the Additional Waypoint SNAFU and was a bit ticked. I have since searched the Forums looking for any mention of this problem. Found it. Cachemate had been working fine for me (I thought) and the discussion escaped me. I now have the latest version of cmconvert. I now can read the Additional waypoint Note.

 

This is still a lousy implementation of a new feature. Jeremy knows about it. It must not be at the top of the priority list.