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Upgrading GPS & Going Paperless


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Our 2nd Etrex Legend has just died (both only survived one year of geocaching use) and we think that we need to upgrade to something that can better cope with the demands we put upon them. We couldn't help but think that this could be the time to go paperless, if only we could understand how to do it.

 

Can we have some simple advice on the equipment and software that we need to go paperless, and recommendations of suitable GPS units that are compatible with the system.

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We find it's what you like best and feel comfortable with that counts. We have Cachemate showing the complete details of the nearest 500 caches around us that we have not found yet, Tom Tom 6 and Memory Map on a PDA (Mio 550) then a Garmin 60 csx and a Legend as a reserve. So we can go paperless, but we still print off 'Printer Friendly' cache sheets as we like to have them with us if we are going out caching, she likes to scribble on then, I often kneel on it to reach into places to save the knees getting muddy, write comments on it etc..... so paperless sounds easy, but it's what you are comfortable with that really counts. You seem to do really well as you are, it's an alarm clock attached to your GPS you need for all those dawn FTF's!! :):)

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I have found that there are almost as many answers as there are cachers who are 'paperless'. I found the whole thing very confusing as people chucked all sorts of opinions and jargon at me. I think there is a guide somewhere (by Moote? or perhaps Mark and Lynn - I am sure somebody will say) which is helpful.

 

I am quite happy to go through my own set-up with you. PM me and we can meet up halfway? Must be some tasty clusters with nearby pub that we can meet at! :)

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Are ye getting the legend fixed or throwing it in the bin? I'd be interested in discussing it's future with you!!

 

I have a Palm I can let you have that would be good enough to get you started with paperless if you decided to go with cachemate. I was thinking of turning the palm into a TB so it can be given to non paperless cachers to try out for free, before being passed on to the next cacher to try out.

 

Hmm - PM me to discuss :)

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Our 2nd Etrex Legend has just died (both only survived one year of geocaching use) and we think that we need to upgrade to something that can better cope with the demands we put upon them. We couldn't help but think that this could be the time to go paperless, if only we could understand how to do it.

 

Can we have some simple advice on the equipment and software that we need to go paperless, and recommendations of suitable GPS units that are compatible with the system.

 

I started off with a non-connected Windows Mobile PDA running GPXSonar, carrying around a few PQs. I'd enter location details from my Geko 201 manually, and GPXSonar would sort by distance. Worked pretty well.

 

I've just had my phone upgrade, and I now have a T-Mobile MDA Vario III (aka HTC TyTN II, or O2 XDA Stellar) - this has built-in GPS. It works beautifully with Memory Map, CacheMate and Bee Line GPS, which provide all the paperless resources you could want. BUT...all this comes at a price, which is short battery life. No more than a few hours on a full charge. The Geko 201 will last twelve on one set of AAAs, and of course you can replace these out in the field, so I'm certainly not retiring it yet.

 

Lee

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I have a setup that is quite common to a lot of paperless cachers I believe…

 

I have a mio P550 PDA. This is a windows mobile-based device which has a built in GPS, and also has wireless networking capability, and Bluetooth. The mio P350 is a cheaper model, still with GPS, but without WiFi and Bluetooth. Both of these models have just been upgraded by Mio – not sure what the latest incarnations are called! Obviously the GPS part is essential, and I also find the wifi capability useful, if you can find a wireless hotspot when out and about.

 

On this, I have MM and usually about 4 maps stored on the memory card – 3 local 1:25,000 and the larger 1:50,000 for my area. It will hold more if I want! I also have cachemate, which usually has my closest unfound caches. These two are linked, so that the caches in cachemate are displayed in MM, and I can click on the cache in MM to take me to the cachemate description. I usually use cachemate to give me a ‘GoTo’ arrow, although MM will also do the same thing.

 

Finally, I have TomTom. I don’t often use this for caching, as if I’m local then MM is good enough. When away from home, I do use it more. It is loaded with all my unfound caches in the UK, although some simple filters will cut this down if necessary. Both MM and TomTom use the standard geocaching icons, plus extra custom ones for Motorway Mayhem caches, and for Micros.

 

All of these are controlled through various macros in GSAK, which is virtually essential, whatever paperless route you decide on.

 

Finally costs.

 

The PDA was £240 – the cheaper version is less than 200, I think!

MM is expensive - the program is free but the maps aren’t. PM me for more details.

Cachemate is about a tenner (I can’t really remember, but its not a lot) and GSAK is about the same.

 

Finally, you should be a premuium member to take advantage of most of this – especially to get caches into GSAK. This can be done the slow way – ask Simply Paul about his set up!

 

Finally, you need a somewhat geekish frame of mind so that you actually ENJOY playing with all these gadgets and getting the set ups to work! Fortunately, I have this, and it was free!! :yikes:

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OK, so I'm pretty new to all this but I found it easy enough to put CacheMate on my Treo 680 and use Pocket Queries to download bulk cache descriptions to CacheMate and the locations to my eTrex.

 

But the problem I've found is that CacheMate only accepts the text in the description - one cache I've done had a Soduku grid as an image (GCY3ND), another I've just done in Berlin had an aerial image you needed to solve the final location (GC17GB4), etc. Obviously I could save the web page as a PDF and transfer to the Treo via Docs to Go but it rather defeats the ease of use of bulk downloading to CacheMate. I'd be interested to know how other paperless cachers handle descriptions with necessary images.

 

-m.

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OK, so I'm pretty new to all this but I found it easy enough to put CacheMate on my Treo 680 and use Pocket Queries to download bulk cache descriptions to CacheMate and the locations to my eTrex.

 

But the problem I've found is that CacheMate only accepts the text in the description - one cache I've done had a Soduku grid as an image (GCY3ND), another I've just done in Berlin had an aerial image you needed to solve the final location (GC17GB4), etc. Obviously I could save the web page as a PDF and transfer to the Treo via Docs to Go but it rather defeats the ease of use of bulk downloading to CacheMate. I'd be interested to know how other paperless cachers handle descriptions with necessary images.

 

-m.

 

You cant im afraiddowloading the image is the only way.

 

Spoilersync can help with spoiler photos though.

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If you go down the PPC route there are other programs other than Cachemate, here is an list

 

CacheMate, (Shareware) on the PPC is a SQL based product, so is fast at searching many 1000's of records,

 

GPXSonar, (Free/Donateware) is basically an XML rendering engine so is slows with the increase in record numbers / logs.

 

Smache (free) which is quick and easy to use, it has about the same functionality of GPXSonar, but is far quicker at searching

 

GeoScout (Shareware), this similar to Cachemate, as it integrates with your PPC GPSr therefor positions can be found and nearest caches sorted by present location. But it has another nifty trick which none of the others can do, basically it can grab map sections from the Internet (Whilst synced to you PC at home), of all its presently loaded Caches.

 

GPXView (Free/Donateware), Similar to GPXSonar, slightly less functionality.

 

All of the above use GPX as there source files, so no need for any special GSAK exports.

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Oooops forgot the excellent

 

Beeline GPS (Payware) Turns your PDA into a GPS, I guess it's the PPC equivalent of the new Garmin Colorado.

Cheers for this Moote..

I bought Cachemate and was having problems loading all my caches from GSAK.. I regularly download just over 7000 a week that are undone and active... Maybe I should try the software again.. It is a bit of a pain reloading 500 caches into sonar every time I change area..

At the moment I use GSAK Sonar and MM.. since we bust the Legend lol :yikes:

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Does the Garmin Colorado download cache logs? I have a feeling it doesn't. I think the Triton will give enough info (including logs) but looks to be a minor disaster atm until they have sorted things out- they seem to have withdrawn them from the US for the time being and have never been on sale in the UK. I am (and have been for months) in limbo GPS wise, and am soldiering on with my Nuvi. Decided to buy a printer so going full paper caching. This is not eco unfriendly as I will use scrap paper from Mrs Cat's work- it was going to be recycled with one side blank- now it will be recyled with both sides used.

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Does the Garmin Colorado download cache logs? I have a feeling it doesn't. I think the Triton will give enough info (including logs) but looks to be a minor disaster atm until they have sorted things out- they seem to have withdrawn them from the US for the time being and have never been on sale in the UK. I am (and have been for months) in limbo GPS wise, and am soldiering on with my Nuvi. Decided to buy a printer so going full paper caching. This is not eco unfriendly as I will use scrap paper from Mrs Cat's work- it was going to be recycled with one side blank- now it will be recyled with both sides used.

I read a review somewhere and it mentioned that it held the logs

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We use a Mio P500 with Memory Map (and TomTom)

The cache details are stored on it using the GSAK html export which will include clue images if they are in the page (as opposed to being hidden in the gallery)

 

I used to use Beeline but now I only use it for the average waypoint utility when setting a cache.

 

We take our Ertex yellow with us as well as it is a lot more robust and rainproof so the Geokids running on ahead with it.

 

Is our setup any good? Well, yes it certainly does the job although the Mio has to be 'reset' more often than I would like :ph34r: probably do to the fact that it's running a Micro$oft operating system.....

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the Mio has to be 'reset' more often than I would like :ph34r: probably do to the fact that it's running a Micro$oft operating system.....

There was a bug in the MIO which meant it was hard to wake up, but there is a BIOS patch on the MIO website for this issue, it's not actually a Microsoft Issue :)
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Moote's suggestions are good - I tried all his suggested programs and settled on a combination of Geoscout with it's mapping and Cachemate with it's capability of holding a big database - useful for those forays outside your 'usual' area. Geoscout isn't a database as such, so it slows down the more caches you have loaded, although you can organise them in folders.

 

I tried Beeline, and I'd say that the GPS support was by far the best, but it was let down by the geocaching side of things.

 

Hardware wise, I use an Acer N50, which has Bluetooth & WiFi capability but no built in GPS. I've got a bluetooth GPS unit. That means the GPS isn't draining the battery, but bluetooth is, so its probably evens there! When I got it it was cheap as they were discontinuing the model.

 

As a backup, I keep my original GPSr on hand - The mini-cacher sometimes uses that one, despite a dodgy screen.

 

Whatever you end up going for, I'm sure it'll work!

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