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Paperless with a PSP?


Mapachi

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I think I heard I could go paperless with a PSP (Pocket Play Station). Is this true? This would be great. My wife (Shotgun) hates handling all the paperwork while we are caching. I would love a PSP to play video games on, but she would think that would be a waste of money. Not if I could use it for geo-caching! (My wife is hooked BIGTIME). If I'm not mistaken, isn't a PSP less money than a PDA.

Also, would I load the cache info to my pute first, then to my PSP; or could I load the info directly to the PSP? I'm no tecno geek by any means, I'm 59 years old and I can't even text-msg. OMG LOL!

 

Yea yea I know. 59, PSP? (Peter Pan Complex) We all have our crosses to bear, my wife has me!

 

2 Mainiac Neo-Geo Cachers

Mapachi and Shotgun

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I got a Nintendo DS for Christmas (at 42) and I thought what am I going to do with tihs, but then I thought about paperless. Currently we use a PDA purchased off of Ebay for $20 (Palm M505) and it is awesome. I would just go that route instead of the PSP....

 

Stacey

 

I think I heard I could go paperless with a PSP (Pocket Play Station). Is this true? This would be great. My wife (Shotgun) hates handling all the paperwork while we are caching. I would love a PSP to play video games on, but she would think that would be a waste of money. Not if I could use it for geo-caching! (My wife is hooked BIGTIME). If I'm not mistaken, isn't a PSP less money than a PDA.

Also, would I load the cache info to my pute first, then to my PSP; or could I load the info directly to the PSP? I'm no tecno geek by any means, I'm 59 years old and I can't even text-msg. OMG LOL!

 

Yea yea I know. 59, PSP? (Peter Pan Complex) We all have our crosses to bear, my wife has me!

 

2 Mainiac Neo-Geo Cachers

Mapachi and Shotgun

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It will be hard to truly paperlessly cache with a PSP. We have one, but you won't be able to do everything that is considered "paperless caching" with it.

 

Maybe I'm way off base, but I don't think you'd be able to get cachemate or a similar program downloaded to it. Cachemate is a very handy program that will organize all the cache description data and allow you to input your own log info out in the field. It also holds the cache hints, past 5 logs, etc. The organizational abilities of Cachemate are also quite handy as you can look and list caches by alphabetical order or by waypoint. Depending on how you cache, both applications can be useful.

 

The PSP is also a pain to input typeface with. It's much faster with a PDA.

 

The PSP will allow you to get onto the internet to read the cache description, hints, logs, etc. BUT, only if you are near a free wireless hotspot (not gonna happen if you do any caches along a hike, etc). You would be able to access Google for detailed maps, but again you have the hotspot issue.

 

Honestly, we have never used ours to cache, although we had planned to originally. If we go on a long trip, I would take it along incase we needed to get on the internet as we're planning to sell our laptops. You will do best to buy and inexpensive PDA. You can get fancy ones that have wifi capabilities if you want, but they aren't NEEDED to cache paperlessly.

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You can definitely paperless cache with a PSP! I have had two PSPs for a while and didn't want to buy a PDA just for geocaching. Right now I use one of my PSPs mainly for geocaching and I take it wherever I go. I can get all of the information I want without having to worry about weather I wrote enough notes about the geocaches I am looking for or wasting large amount of paper printing them out.

 

Here is a quick tutorial:

 

Step 1

 

Create a folder on your memory stick that you want to use for geocaching. I just make a folder on the root of the stick named GC.

 

Step 2

 

You can either directly save the cache page to your memory stick or you can use a converter if you use pocket queries.

 

To save the webpage make sure it is as you want it before saving. If you want all of the logs then make sure you have clicked on view all logs on one page first. If you want the hint decrypted for some reason then decrypt it first.

 

If you want to do this the simple way, label the files sequentially such as 1.htm or 2.htm, save the webpage to your folder in your memory stick. If you want all of the pictures and icons make sure to save it as web page complete instead of html only.

 

If converting from a pocket query just save the html files to your folder in your memory stick.

 

Step 3

 

Open the PSP's web browser, and navigate to your file. "file:/GC/1.html"

 

And there, you can view the page on your PSP.

 

I have taken an additional step by making an index page for my geocaches. That way I can just bookmark one page and go to it and see all of my geocaches. When I find a cache I just strike it out on the index page and delete the files. I am in the middle of making a script that will automatically update my index page for me but I haven't gotten around to finishing it yet.

 

Making an index page is pretty simple and allows for quick navagation of your geocahe pages. Here is a quick tutorial on how to make one:

 

Step 1

 

Open a text editor and create a new file and label the file index.htm in your geocaching folder.

 

Step 2

 

Start your file out with the following:

 

<html><body>

 

Step 3

 

Add the following for your each geocache. In this example I have saved the geocaches on my memory stick by their geocache name. I have used a recent geocache I have visited as an example.

 

The picture name changes depending on which type of geocache it is. 11.gif is a webcam cache, 2.gif is a regular cache, you can look in the _files folder to see what type of cache you are adding.

 

<BR>
<img src="./GC6F12_files/11.gif">
<a href="GC6F12.htm>GC6F12 London - Beatles Abbey Road</a>
<BR>

 

Step 4

 

Repeat step 3 as necessary replacing the image and geocache name as needed.

 

Step 5

 

Finish your file with the following:

</body>
</html>

 

Step 6

 

Save your file, this is the most often forgotten step.

 

Step 7

 

Open your file using your PSP browser "file:/GC/index.htm" and bookmark it. You can now see all of your geocaches in an easy format. To go to the geocache you want just select it and follow the link. After clicking on a geocache page just press the left trigger or use your bookmark to return to the index.

 

I really hope this helps someone. I will make an automated script to update the index file sometime. It will make it even easier to geocache using your PSP. If anyone has any questions just ask and I will be happy to answer them.

Edited by Serial007
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