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Colorado not loading all gpx files


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First, I apologize if this is a repeat topic. It's hard to keep up sometimes...

 

Colorado 400t Beta 2.51

 

I use GSAK to create regional queries that I want to load into the unit. The gpx files contain anywhere from 10 to ~500 caches. The total of all caches in the files is less than 2000. Typically I create 6 files that cover regions in my area that I go to frequently. I have experienced the following problem:

 

If I place all 6 files into the GPX directory branch and restart the unit there are times when some of the files don't load. Tonite it was 2 out of 6 that didn't load - nearest to me and nearest to work (50 miles away). It is obvious when I go to the not found list and the nearest cache is 19 miles away - instead of the one at 7 miles that I haven't found yet. I pan around the map and discover other regions that didn't get loaded.

 

I have not tried to load them one-at-a-time, but this would become really time consuming with the number of restarts. Tonite I resorted to a single query with a 40 mile radius from home that included 1889 caches. It appears to have loaded OK.

 

Anyone else having this problem? Workarounds? This is something I recalled from earlier firmware reports. Guess it still isn't fixed. Garmin should be aware but I think I'll send them an email as a reminder.

 

Thanks for any and all help!

 

George

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Do the files have overlapping caches? Is it an entire file that is getting missed or just some of the caches in a file?

 

You make it sound like it doesn't happen all the time, is that true?

 

I keep hearing about problems like this but haven't been able to narrow down the issues and haven't seen it myself but I seldom load multiple gpx files at the same time.

 

GO$Rs

Edited by g-o-cashers
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It also happens to me. I paste new gpx files from the same 4 pocket quires every week into the Colorado’s gpx folder (no GSAK used). Sometimes they don’t all show. I rename the ones that don’t show and usually that works. My 4 PQ’s are filtered as:

 

1) Regular 1 – 2 terrain

2) Regular > 2 terrain

3) Micro caches

4) Mult & Misc. caches

 

It’s usually the Multi & Misc. caches that don’t show but any of them might not show. I’ve gotten into the practice of also opening the same gpx files in GSAK to check against the GPS to make sure they are all working.

 

Colorado 300, 2.51b

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I've mentioned this before, somewhere in these forum topics. I see the same thing if I copy all my PQs directly into my 300 in the Garmin/GPX folder. The solution is simple I've found, thanks to g-o-cashers help. I have the 300. I first saw this with v.2.40. My replacement 300 came with v.2.50, and I just updated to v.2.51 beta.

 

I get my PQs zip'd. Extract only the cache gpx files from all your PQs and copy them to your unit. Disconnect from the PC, and boot your unit so you see it "loading maps, etc". Then turn Off your unit. Re-connect to the PC and copy over all the wpt.gpx files (the child waypoints) and repeat the steps above.

 

All the cache waypoints will then be there, as well as all the child waypoints, including all the multi parts, parking locations, etc. Trust me, this works.

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I'll add my name to the list. Maybe we can get to some critical mass where the powers that be take notice and address the issue. Squeaky wheel and all of that.

 

I've had the same problem, and I also load GPX files generated by GSAK. I copied 2 GSAK generated GPX files (both included child waypoints) and the caches from one did not appear. These were caches that we have placed and are close to our home. They should have been at the top of the list but were nowhere to be found.

 

I came to the conclusion that since the Colorado can accept 2000 caches, and I always do preliminary work and sorting in GSAK, I should just export one large GPX file rather than several smaller ones. My old sorting and organizing system was built around the 500 waypoint limit of my now deceased Legend C. So I needed to retool a bit to better fit the Colorado's design (and apparent limitation) and make GSAK spit out a final product that was more Colorado friendly. I have a macro that does all the manipulating I desire and the pops out my GPX file. The setup took a bit of time but now it works like a charm.

 

For the times I need a second or third GPX file (say, for when I travel) I know to be careful adding the second or third file and do a QA/QC check on what I loaded.

 

Cheers.

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I get my PQs zip'd. Extract only the cache gpx files from all your PQs and copy them to your unit. Disconnect from the PC, and boot your unit so you see it "loading maps, etc". Then turn Off your unit. Re-connect to the PC and copy over all the wpt.gpx files (the child waypoints) and repeat the steps above.

 

All the cache waypoints will then be there, as well as all the child waypoints, including all the multi parts, parking locations, etc. Trust me, this works.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I’ve always pasted the Geocache gpx and the child waypoint gpx from the PQ at the same time.

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Do the files have overlapping caches? Is it an entire file that is getting missed or just some of the caches in a file?

 

You make it sound like it doesn't happen all the time, is that true?

 

I keep hearing about problems like this but haven't been able to narrow down the issues and haven't seen it myself but I seldom load multiple gpx files at the same time.

 

GO$Rs

 

Yes, there is overlap. I try to minimize it by selecting the centroid of my queries in GSAK. I've seen behavior where an entire file is missed. So far I have not seen behavior where only a portion of the caches are missed. I typically do a download to the Colo. about once a week and have seen it work incorrectly more often than not. I've tried variations on the naming of the PQs created by GSAK. One thing to note: All of the PQs are created within a short timespan - 2-3 minutes typically. Maybe it is a date/timestamp issue. Also, I don't include any child waypoints at all. GSAK is set to export %code, %name (15 char. length) and 8 latest log entries, nothing more.

 

I have done the renaming of the missed file, as mentioned in another post, and that file is then parsed and added to the list. I don't think the file inherits a later creation date, but maybe the renaming changes a last modified date that might make the difference.

 

I have not tried to interrupt the boot process as one of the other posts indicates - sounds like it is worth a try. I guess you just hold down the power button during the boot process and the unit shuts off. Not quite as bad as pulling out the batteries. I wonder if there are open file handles left behind that the system needs to resolve on restart and that they may be related to this somehow. Saw a thread on how to unbrick a Colo. - guess I'll track it down first, just in case.

 

Here's some trivia that may be a contributor to the problem... If you view the software version page under system setup you find at the top the firmware version and gps software version. Read down in the licensing fine print and you will find that the xml parser Garmin is using is open source and is quite old (like several years). With software changing as rapidly as it does, perhaps this old xml parsing software is to blame. Also note that it is free software - maybe I misread it? You don't always come away with a great deal when it is offered for free. Just my $0.02.

 

George

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I came to the conclusion that since the Colorado can accept 2000 caches, and I always do preliminary work and sorting in GSAK, I should just export one large GPX file rather than several smaller ones. My old sorting and organizing system was built around the 500 waypoint limit of my now deceased Legend C. So I needed to retool a bit to better fit the Colorado's design (and apparent limitation) and make GSAK spit out a final product that was more Colorado friendly. I have a macro that does all the manipulating I desire and the pops out my GPX file. The setup took a bit of time but now it works like a charm.

 

For the times I need a second or third GPX file (say, for when I travel) I know to be careful adding the second or third file and do a QA/QC check on what I loaded.

 

 

This sounds like an outstanding method to deal with the problem. Are you willing to share your handiwork? I haven't yet delved into GSAK macro creation. I'll be retired on July 1st. and then I'll have some time on my hands.

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The easiest way to manually concatenate different filters is to clear the user flag, run filter #1, set the user flag for the filter, run filter #2, set the user flag for that filter, repeat for all filters and then filter all of caches that have the user flag set. You can then generate a single gpx file will all of your caches. There are macros that do the same thing if you poke around in the gsak macro library.

 

Back to the original issue. Sounds like there might be two problems, one where in some cases the CO fails to load entire gpx files when there are multiple gpx files to be loaded and another which causes some caches (those with child waypoints) within a gpx file not to get loaded (Timpat's issue) when multiple gpx files are loaded.

 

Honestly the best way to get Garmin's attention would to generate several PQ's that cause the same problem. If you tell Garmin that it doesn't work with GSAK generated PQ's I'm guessing you won't have much luck.

 

GO$Rs

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Sure, I'm happy to share what I've come up with. This may or may not apply to what you're trying to accomplish but it works for me. I would suggest you visit the GSAK forums to get assitance with GSAK and all its power (which is really quite incredible). There are lots of friendly helpful people there.

 

The basic premise behind all that I do is this:

 

1. gc.com and pocket queries are the data source

2. GSAK is for manipulating and organizing

3. The GSPr (Colorado) is for in the field, finding caches only. I don't attempt to use it to keep track of what I've found, not found, available, not available or anything like. If it's in the GPSr, it's a cache available to find.

 

My databases are set up by geographic location. I have one additional database for Puzzle/Mystery caches in my area to keep track of them separately. Once I solve a puzzle I enter corrected coordinates for it.

 

I have several pocket queries run each week and they are sent to a special email address solely for this purpose.

 

Then I do something like this all from a macro:

 

1. use GSAK's getmail command to go get the PQ's from the mail server onto my computer

2. load PQ's zip files to the appropriate databases (some databases have several PQ's loaded due to the number of cache available; and my PQ's only include caches I've not found; once I've found a cache I delete it from GSAK)

3. delete any caches that haven't had a recent PQ update (probably archived caches)

4. copy caches to my "GPS Export" database from the appropriate geographic databases

5. filter out puzzle caches without corrected coordinates (if it's not been solved there is nothing to look for and it doesn't need to be in the GPSr) and copy the solved puzzle caches to the GPS Export database

6. from the "GPS Export" database, filter out any unavailable caches (again, nothing to look for so it doesn't need to be in the GPSr) and then export the caches to one GPX file. (I also do an export to a Mapsource file so I can see graphically what is going on)

 

I use the Windows (XP Home) Scheduled Task to launch GSAK and run this macro once per week (just before the weekend when we tend to do most of our caching). So the pocket queries run and are emailed over the course of a few days, then Windows launches GSAK on it's own, runs the macro and spits out the GPX file. All I need to do is remember to connect the GPSr to copy the new GPX file.

 

The macro takes only a few minutes to run.

 

It took a bit to set up and test but now it all happens on it's own.

 

Cheers.

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I've got a case where I have missing caches from loading only one GPX file. I copied my GPX file that includes child waypoints to the GPSr. While it was connected to the computer I sent one waypoint from MapSource to the GPSr. When I turned the GPSr on there were caches missing. It was easy to spot because they were closest caches to home and some were randomly missing.

 

I reconnected the GPSr to the computer and recopied the GPX file. Turned on the GPSr and had the same problem. However, I could tell that it didn't reload the GPX file since it started up too fast. So I reconnected, deleted the GPX file and again copied the same GPX file, but now with a new name. Turned the GPSr on, waited while the GPX file loaded and everything showed up just fine. I check the first 20 or so caches against GSAK and all is well. I didn't check beyond that but it seems okay.

 

It appears the issue is in loading waypoints and not GPX files per se. Since my GPX file had child waypoints and the MapSource send was a waypoint, it appears that loading waypoints causes trouble.

 

I'm going to send this information to Garmin in an email. This needs to be fixed.

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