DOWNLOADING ALL CACHES AT ONCE

[+hittin the road]

Is there a way to download caches in one file for a particular state or region instead of having to download a page at a time

I am a premium member

[+CO Admin]

Yes and no. Yes you can get all the caches in a state or region. No you can not do it in one file. As a premium member you can run a pocket query that will give you 500 caches per file. That is the max you can get per query and you can run 5 query's per day. To be honest its probably not wise to build a separate database of the entire state as your data will tend to be stale. But that is up to you.

Edited April 8, 2007 by CO Admin

[+SJClyde]

Is there a way to download caches in one file for a particular state or region instead of having to download a page at a time

I am a premium member

You can create a "Pocket Query" that will find up to 500 caches that meet the requirements that you set.

 

From the GC home page, click on your name in the upper right corner. Then click on "Member Services". About 10 lines down is a link "create your pocket queries"

 

The set up is fairly straight forward. Click on submit at the bottom of the page to get your results.

[+traildad]

Is there a way to download caches in one file for a particular state or region instead of having to download a page at a time

I am a premium member

"

 

The set up is fairly straight forward. Click on submit at the bottom of the page to get your results.

I don't think hitting submit gives you the results. You can run the PQ and use the results that are sent to your email or you can view the results on a list page or a map page. To see the list or map page click on one of the icons on the left side of the PQ line under the heading "Preview"

[+Hotlanta]

I get Pocket Queries sent to my e-mail and use GSAK and Cachmate software to transfer these files to my palm PDA and GPSr. Using these programs allow me to have all the information from a geocache’s page downloaded and shown on my palm PDA. This software is pretty advanced but easy to use and seems to be very popular among the paperless crowd of geocachers I’ve met and read about in these forums. I’d assume most of the other programs will allow you to download the same information too.

 

I like having all the information right there in my PDA, I might not read all the descriptions, but I do most of the time. And in some places or parks which have several geocaches located in them, it is nice to have all of their info handy with out worrying about if I left the paper description back in the car. Plus if the caches are multi-caches I often work on two or three at the same time to keep from walking back and forth over the same trails to each cache stage.

 

Yea, I just made this statement in another thread, but it makes my response to this question easy!

Edited April 8, 2007 by Hotlanta

[+rdaines]

The PQ with it's 500 max will be a limiting factor if you want a whole state. I've got one for a town in AZ (no not Phoenix) that returns almot 300 caches in a 25 mile radius. Doing a whole state and keeping it updated will be tough, unless it's Rhode Island

[+Confucius' Cat]

It takes me 4 PQs to keep up to date for the entire state of Indiana.

 

I run mine automatically once per week. There are still a few "holes" and some "overlap" but it is the best way i have found:

 

i picked 4 strategically located zip codes to center my searches and I go the maximum distance and maximum number of caches in each PQ. I open them directly from the email into GSAK and go from there.

 

it would be nice if GC would allow "all caches in a state" PQ's. it would probably save some server time if a lot of people are doing it my way since it would eliminate the "overlap" of the selected circles.

 

But in some states, like California or Texas perhaps, it might generate a HUGE file that would take up a lot of bandwidth. I could imagine the western cachers causing a DOS if a lot of them used the feature.

[+mb3]

I have 5 pocket queries for my state - they are organized by date. Every few months I change the date range because some have been archived, I have found some, and there are always new ones.

[+hydnsek]

I have 5 pocket queries for my state - they are organized by date. Every few months I change the date range because some have been archived, I have found some, and there are always new ones.

Yep, I go by date as well. Currently, it takes 20 queries to get all caches in Washington state. I have them set up to run automatically once a week, 3 per day, and deliver to a special email folder. Every few days I dump them all into GSAK. Then export by cache type to Streets & Trips for the nice visual mapping.

[+SGT red jeep]

It takes me 4 PQs to keep up to date for the entire state of Indiana.

:huh:I just checked and there are over 6000 caches in Indiana or over 12 queries.

North Dakota has a little over 300 so could be possible in 1 query.

Montana with 1600 could be possible with 4.

California.... 38000 caches 500 caches/query 5 querys/day and assuming some overlap... 16 days to download the state.

[+Markwell]

assuming some overlap

 

Using date ranges instead of regions you can make it so that there's no overlap. That will get it down 15.2 days.

 

But is someone going to find 38K caches sometime soon?

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

Doing a whole state and keeping it updated will be tough, unless it's Rhode Island

 

Rhode Island now has over 500 active caches, so even RI is tough. I am able to get all unfound in one query though!

[+matcat]

heh, with 5 queries I barely cover all of NE Pa, and a little bit around it

[+Glenn]

It takes me 4 PQs to keep up to date for the entire state of Indiana.

:huh:I just checked and there are over 6000 caches in Indiana or over 12 queries.

North Dakota has a little over 300 so could be possible in 1 query.

Montana with 1600 could be possible with 4.

California.... 38000 caches 500 caches/query 5 querys/day and assuming some overlap... 16 days to download the state.

 

Leave micros out of those California PQs, most of which are in WalMart parking lot lamp posts , and that should shave a week and half off of that.

[+sbell111]

assuming some overlap

Using date ranges instead of regions you can make it so that there's no overlap. That will get it down 15.2 days.

Also, you can tweak your PQs to eliminate some caches that you are not interested in or caches that you have already found, thereby further reducing the number of PQs needed.

[+sbell111]

But is someone going to find 38K caches sometime soon?

Ummm, don't you keep an off-line database?

[+Markwell]

But is someone going to find 38K caches sometime soon?

Ummm, don't you keep an off-line database?

Yes - but who said I use it solely for finding caches? There are other uses for offline databases that to prepare for searching caches. Also, my offline database currently contains 2,674 active caches. And compared to other cachers in the area, my online find count is extremely low.

 

My point is that to download 38K caches at one shot seems like overkill, like killing a mosquito with a bazooka. Narrow the search to what you'll be likley to find if you just want to run out the door. That's what my offline database does. But that's not the ONLY thing my offline database does.

[+sbell111]

But is someone going to find 38K caches sometime soon?

Ummm, don't you keep an off-line database?

Yes - but who said I use it solely for finding caches? There are other uses for offline databases that to prepare for searching caches. Also, my offline database currently contains 2,674 active caches. And compared to other cachers in the area, my online find count is extremely low.

 

My point is that to download 38K caches at one shot seems like overkill, like killing a mosquito with a bazooka. Narrow the search to what you'll be likley to find if you just want to run out the door. That's what my offline database does. But that's not the ONLY thing my offline database does.

While I agree about the overkill comment, I must admit that I have found you data to be very interesting. That being said, the OP never mentioned that he would be using the data for finding caches.

[+rdaines]

Doing a whole state and keeping it updated will be tough, unless it's Rhode Island

 

Rhode Island now has over 500 active caches, so even RI is tough. I am able to get all unfound in one query though!

 

I stand corrected, just shows the growing popularity of this hobby.

[+rdaines]

dup

Edited April 11, 2007 by rdaines

[+Confucius' Cat]

It takes me 4 PQs to keep up to date for the entire state of Indiana.

:huh:I just checked and there are over 6000 caches in Indiana or over 12 queries.

North Dakota has a little over 300 so could be possible in 1 query.

Montana with 1600 could be possible with 4.

California.... 38000 caches 500 caches/query 5 querys/day and assuming some overlap... 16 days to download the state.

guess I got more holes than i thought

 

I only query traditionals so that cuts it down some.

 

So, how do you use the date function? It is only for date placed. I guess it is possible to build the complete database with several unlimited PQs and then just PQ for recently placed caches, but that method will not update for those that have recently been disabled, which is very valuable information.

[+knoffer]

I can get the whole state of WI and Northern IL in 12 PQ's. I stagger these PQ's across the week so that I never have data that is more then 3 days old in GSAK.

 

I use the Date placed method for my PQ's. The easiet way I found was to do a PQ going back to like 1999 without a day set for running it and view it. Find the oldest active cache and that is your starting date. From there it is a little trial error using the view and not run method as above. I just keep increasing the time frame between dates until I get close to 500. Then I actually run that PQ twice a week. For the most recent placed caches I just have an end date out to 2008 and when I see the PQ is getting close to 500 I choose an end date and pick the next day as the new most recent cache PQ start date.

 

I created a macro in GSAK that uses the "get mail" function. I use gmail as my email for all my PQ's. The macro implements the get mail function and loads all the recent PQ's into a PQ folder then the macro loads the whole PQ folder (12 PQ's) into the current (or default) DB then it moves all my found caches from "My found" DB into the current (or default) DB. The macro then filters by found and deletes them all since I already have the latest updated finds in "My found" DB.

 

Next the macro does an inactive cache sort and moves all these to my "Inactive" DB. The next macro steps involve sorting by distance and location. The first step it does is filter all the IL caches and moves them to the "IL" DB. At this point the macro then starts doing purely distance sorts. The first sort is for 250+ miles from my home coordinates, then 200-250, 150-200, 100-150, 70-100, 50-70, and 0-50.

 

After the sorting and move function each DB is interrogated for Archived caches by doing a 10 day and older check on the last GPX date. This is the last date that GC ran a PQ on a cache. If there is no PQ ran within the last 10 days I figure the cache is listed as archived and it gets deleted from the DB.

 

By doing this method. I only have to open GSAK and click my macro button the rest is done automatically. I picked the distance that I sort by within GSAK to keep each DB to under a 1000 caches.

 

I then have another macro that writes these 10 DB's to both the SD card for my GPSr and to the Quick install folder for my Palm Tungsten E. On the Palm I use Cachemate and only load the 0-50 mile radius caches to the handheld itself. The other 9 DB's are written to the SD card in the Palm.

 

When out caching I simply load the file of the caches for the distance I'm in into the GPSr and pick that same DB on the Palm and voila I got it all.

 

All together I think it is somewhere around 5700 active caches that I always have available at a moments notice and takes me about 10 minutes to do all this. Which thanks to the macro I can be doing two things at once.

Edited April 12, 2007 by knoffer

[+sbell111]

The way I used date placed is that I build my first PQ with an start date of something crazy like 1/1/00. I then find an end date that gives as close to 500 caches as possible without going over. I clone that PQ and set the start date for the first PQs end date +1. I then again find an end date that will bring me as close to 500 caches as possible.

 

I keep this up until I have built all my PQs. Initially, it takes a few minutes to st up, but going forward, all you have to do is make sure the last PQ doesn't grow to 500 caches. If it does, you will have to either build another 'last' PQ or tweak the dates on the earlier PQs (since you have found some and others have been archived, they will shrink).