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Garmin Nuvi - True Paperless Geocaching


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The only problem now is that I get an error message that says I need to contact Garmin support-something about not having enough space on the disc. I deleted all of my favorites that were manually entered, as well as the previous files that were loaded into Custom POI's, but I still got the same message. I'll take care of that in the next couple of days and try again....and post the results.

 

Thanks again for your guidance!

 

haole122

NUVI 650 user

 

Do you have a lot of custom pointers or cars? It could be the screen shots also, they take up a lot of room if you have too many of those.

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Today I picked up a nuvi750 and downloaded the programs mentioned here. They work great. Is the crash thing still a problem on the 750 when you activate the alerts? I checked no on that. Tomorrow I plan to try it out in the field. Thanks for all the help.

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The only problem now is that I get an error message that says I need to contact Garmin support-something about not having enough space on the disc. I deleted all of my favorites that were manually entered, as well as the previous files that were loaded into Custom POI's, but I still got the same message. I'll take care of that in the next couple of days and try again....and post the results.

 

Thanks again for your guidance!

 

haole122

NUVI 650 user

 

Do you have a lot of custom pointers or cars? It could be the screen shots also, they take up a lot of room if you have too many of those.

 

Well, it appears the problem was, in fact, the extra vehicles I had loaded (I no longer had any POI's). I was advised by Garmin that the 650 model has less memory than most of the 6XX models. To free up a gob of space, of course, I removed the vehicles I don't need, the foreign languages from the help folder, and the foreign voices. This freed 285 MB and I've successfully loaded 713 POI's. Everything looks PERFECT!!! Now I just need to figure out how to load only caches I haven't found.

 

This is SO cool....

Thanks to everyone for their input, suggestions, and help!

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First, I want to thank you for an EXCELLENT tutorial and all the time you've put into this project. It's obviously helping tons of people. Paperless caching is the way to go.

 

The only issue I've encountered is with the Proximity Alerts. I'm using the Nuvi 200, and I know that proximity alerts work on the unit, because I've downloaded individual GPX files and set the proximity alerts in POI loader and they work fine. However, when I go through GSAK and run the Macro and try to turn on proximity alerts, I get an error while importing the files that the unit doesn't support MP3 files??? Has anyone else seen this? I'd love to be able to make this feature work, but don't have a clue what to try.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Paul

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Nuvi 2xx do not support my (or any) custom MP3 "ding" file when sending the GPX file to the unit using POILoader.

 

I have read (but not verified) that the Nuvi 2xx does NOT support a tourguide file (because it cannot support mp3s) so you are NOT able to use the Tourguide feature with your Nuvi 2xx.

 

The Tourguide feature is NOT the same as an alert feature (even though you use the alert feature of POILoader when sending the info to the Garmin). A tourguide alert will alert you whenever any cache is within a circle determined by you, the centre of which is based on your current location.

 

A normal proximity alert will only work on the Nuvi 2xx if the cache is on the same road as you currently are on , or is on the same road as you are being routed through.

 

If the cache is even say 50m off road from where you are going you won;t get an alert (all figures estimates).

 

You may of course still use the manual procedure in POILOADER to set your alert distance, but the Tourguide feature will not work. Normal alerts will - but probably aren't much use.

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Pilotsnipes... here's a simple enhancement that I added to my copy of your macro as the very last step:

 

RUNPGM pgm="c:\Program Files\Garmin\POILoader.exe"

 

I did this, not only to eliminate one extra step, but because I once ran your macro, but forgot the POILoader step. Discovered this only after I was out in the field.

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What about those people who use c:\Poiloader? ;-)

 

You've already managed to accomodate people (like me) that want to store their gpx files in a different folder. Start with a default, allow them to change it (you could use "if exist" logic for error checking), and save their preference. It could also be a user-definable option whether or not to even use that functionality.

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What about those people who use c:\Poiloader? ;-)

 

Boy, do I feel like an idiot!! If I'd looked down just a tad from where I added that line, I'd have seen that you already have a line like that in place, but commented out!! I actually hit Enter a couple of times to make some room above it to add my "version". Dumb dumb dumb.

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Thanks a lot Pilotsnipes! Now my wife says I don't need/get a Colorado 300 for Father's Day. :rolleyes:

Seriously. Congrats on an awesome job well done. I think we all should give you a percentage of the savings on ink and paper. We have a 260W and all is well with your macro, setup and operation. Been in the hobby for almost 30 days and all 37 finds were made with it. Yes we/I have had a few small issues like snap to road, lock ups, and constellation hiccups on densely covered trails. But after reading this entire thread I will be able to refine the use of it. I might even return it to upgrade to a model that supports MP3s to utilize the alert feature of your macro.

 

Thanks to all of you for your insight and help to others.

Edited by The Ravens
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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK, I HEARD ABOUT YOUR SITE FROM PODCACHER.COM. THEY DIDN'T SEEM TO LIKE THE ORB SYSTEM. BUT I'VE BEEN USING THIS SINCE I GOT AND IT WORKS JUST FINE. WHEN IT RAINS I UPLUG IT AND STICK IT IN A ZIP-LOCK BAG AND THEN QUICKLY REMOVE ONCE I FOUND THE CACHE. NOW THAT I CAN DO THIS WITH ONE SYSTEM, IT'S EVEN MORE AWESOME. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK, IT REALLY WORKS WELL.

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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK, I HEARD ABOUT YOUR SITE FROM PODCACHER.COM. THEY DIDN'T SEEM TO LIKE THE ORB SYSTEM. BUT I'VE BEEN USING THIS SINCE I GOT AND IT WORKS JUST FINE.

 

Thanks very much, if anyone else wants to listen to the show it's at:

 

POPCACHER MP3 at the review starts at time: 14:07

 

If you want to let the guys know what you think of geocaching for the Nuvi, give them an shout at http://www.podcacher.com/?page_id=8

 

<_<

Edited by pilotsnipes
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Pilot, I'll bet your work has boosted the Nuvi sales considerably. I bought a Nuvi to play with just because of your macro, and three people I know have made the same purchase after seeing mine work! Garmin should put you on the payrol.

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Thank you so much for this macro and brilliant tutorial! Will save me a mint as I was doing all my paperless caching using my Tytn II and programme that uses Google maps. This has been placing a lot of pressure on my data plan.

Having all the data in the Nuvi is fantastic!

I do use other POIs (speeding traps) and didn't see them after loading the caches...will wait to see if I get proximity warnings.

Thanks for saving money! Now all I use my phone for is to log the finds...when will Nuvi's get sims and HSDPA? I have seen a nuvi phone coming.

By the waythere is a version of garmin software for windows mobile phones...would this macro work?

Thanks again!

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I do use other POIs (speeding traps) and didn't see them after loading the caches...will wait to see if I get proximity warnings.

 

 

Check your subfolder where you put this POI. It should also have the POI files (.gpx and .csv files) for the Speed Traps. You may have left them in the original folder before you started working with this macro. The POI Loader will load all POI files from the one folder (and any subfolders of that folder - that caught me once as I had moved some to a lower folder to "hide" them).

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Thank you Pilotsnipes for putting this together! Very easy to follow. I'm loving my Nuvi 350!

 

I have a silly question for you, or anyone else on the forum who may know. Is it possible to get fun voices for the nuvi, like celebrities? TomTom has some. Just wondering if there are any for Garmin.

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Pilotsnipes, are you aware of www.poi-factory.com? I'm getting lots of good information there, in their Nuvi forum.

 

For example, apparently the Nuvi 200 can have audio alerts, although using .wav files instead of .mp3 (as of POILoader 2.5.2)

 

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/13429

Chad, I think you just made him write a future addition into the script. It's like a challenge for Pilotsnipes to push it to the limit.

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Sorry my friends. It's 1am here and I'm off to bed. Good news is that this will be a quick update when I get a chance probably some time tomorrow.

 

(the instructions are out there in the wild if you want to do it manually, the script will only be offering a automatic way of doing things!)

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Great script! I love the way they show up on my Nuvi 200 (spare travel/nav GPS I bought for a song on a Memorial Day sale) - nicer even than my Colorado from my quick look.

 

I like the option to move the hints to the end, but for the truly guerilla cachers, maybe an option to omit the hints might be useful. Also, if the text color for the hints can be modified, then maybe a color that doesn't show up very well would make it less likely that someone would read the hint if they accidentally scroll too far.

 

For the group I typically geocache with, we have access to a Colorado and a Geocache Navigator (just for database queries on a cell phone with no GPS) to optionally display the hints if we need them so the Nuvi users could easily get by without any hints at all on their units...

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Does anyone know of a Mac version without running a virtual PC?

I contacted Garmin re this question and here is their reply;

 

(first my question)

 

Subject:

Downloading Geocache pages

Message Body:

Hi, I would like to be able to download Geocache pages for my GPS

through my Mac. It can be done through a PC via this page http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com

Thanks for your time.

 

(Their reply)

 

I don't know of a parallel procedure for that Mac that you could follow

to do what is being done on the web site you have linked to. It's likely

that it's possible to do the same sort of thing with other software, but

I'm not familiar with anything for Mac that's like GSAK.

You can download geocaches to your GPS from geocaching.com from your

Mac, however, simply by using Garmin Communicator:

 

http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/

 

This browser plug-in allows you to download geocache data from a variety

of web sites (including geocaching.com) directly to your GPS.

 

With Best Regards,

 

Brandon P

Software Support Specialist

2nd Shift Software Team

Garmin International

913-397-8200

800-800-1020

913-397-8282 (fax) Att: Brandon P

www.garmin.com

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Updated Macro Released, v1.3

 

New/fixed features.

  • Nuvi 2xx series should now support TourGuide Alerts!
  • When script finishes, it automatically starts POILoader for you!

 

New user? Goto my website and just start from the beginning. http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com

 

Upgrader? Just goto the download page and download the new script. REPLACE the old one with this one. That's it. http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/downloads.html

 

 

Warning

It is imperative that you ensure you only have 1 version of POILoader installed on your machine, the script will check to see if it can find any installations in the default directories of:

(ROOT):\Garmin and

(ROOT):\Program Files\garmin

 

If it finds 2 installations the script will stop until you sort it out and remove one.

 

You must only have POILOADER v2.5.2 installed because the script CANNOT determine what version it is calling, and if you have an old version installed you may not get anything to work properly. Version 2.5.2 is always available from my website http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/downloads.html

 

 

Finally - as I haven't been able to test this on a 2xx feedback is needed!

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Updated Macro Released, v1.3

 

New/fixed features.

  • Nuvi 2xx series should now support TourGuide Alerts!
  • When script finishes, it automatically starts POILoader for you!

Finally - as I haven't been able to test this on a 2xx feedback is needed!

 

Awesome!! And quick, too.

 

Well, I just completed loading over 1600 caches onto my Nuvi200W and the macro ran fine... no problems there. I chose to use that large PQ (My Finds) because I already had it on hand, and I should be near enough some of them on my way to work this morning to be able to test the alerts out.

 

I will say, however, that I don't see a way no the Nuvi to enable alerts or to set them to use Custom POI's. A thread on the poi-factory forum implied that the option would be available only once some tourguide POIs were installed, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Hopefully, they are on by default on the 200's.

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I will say, however, that I don't see a way on the Nuvi to enable alerts or to set them to use Custom POI's. A thread on the poi-factory forum implied that the option would be available only once some tourguide POIs were installed, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Hopefully, they are on by default on the 200's.

They seem to be on by default, but I don't know how you would turn them off if you wanted to. The other thing that you don't seem to be able to set is the proximity distance. It would be nice to be able to set this and change it if you were walking/driving or in a very cache rich area.

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You have to use the POILoader MANUAL function when uploading them, that's where you set your distance - but once uploaded, you can't change it on the fly.

 

Read the Extra tips page again on my website, I think most 2xx users ignored/missed this part. :lol:

 

I've got all the angles covered. :rolleyes:

Edited by pilotsnipes
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You have to use the POILoader MANUAL function when uploading them, that's where you set your distance - but once uploaded, you can't change it on the fly.

 

Read the Extra tips page again on my website, I think most 2xx users ignored/missed this part. :lol:

 

I've got all the angles covered. :rolleyes:

 

It works BEAUTIFULLY!!! I was driving into work today, wishing that I had taken time to get and load a PQ of my own hides, thinking that I didn't have any finds along my route, when suddenly the chime sounded and the Tourgude Alert banner popped up for a find that I had totally forgotten about! Then it went off again for another cache that I had thought was probably too far off of my route to trigger the alert, but it was apparently within range after all.

 

This brings a whole new level to using the Nuvi. Thanks so very much!

 

Yes, POILoader can be run in Manual mode, where you can customize the alert method and distance. In this test, I simply left it at the default, which, I believe, is 0.25 miles.

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Old habits don't die! Being a creature of them, I still load my Palm (cachemate) for the area I'm heading for. However, I find it much easier to merely check the nuvi for the cache information/description, etc. that this great macro provides when I get to the parking spot. The Handheld gets me to GZ (I still don't want to carry the fragile 660 in the field). Now I only use the Palm to double check the details at GZ (forgetful as I am now) and to mark it "found".

 

On the way home the other day from a more remote caching area, I passed through another area that was part of the POI file (that 4000+ file of caches!!!!) and the nuvi went "ding" - I had forgotten one! The nuvi got me to GZ - gave me all the info (and recent logs too!!) and provided the coordinates I needed to enter into the handheld manually. And the cache is now logged as a "find"!!!!

 

I then proceeded to find several more in that area that I had forgotten. This macro is an exceptional add-on to the whole process of electronic caching. I keep finding other ways to make it even more useful.

 

Here's one: Does the macro create just one POI file (Geocaching Tourguide) or could it be set to allow the user to create other POI files (different names)? I've set up databases in GSAK for non-Geocaching locations (like friends or vacation points of interest) that I'd like to make into Tourguides.

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Proceed as normal to create the gpx file using the "friends" database in GSAK.

 

Upload this to the Garmin using POILOADER, and set any alerts as normal.

 

Now, goto the Garmin unit in explorer, and look in \GARMIN\POI

 

Rename the poi.gpi file to friendshouse.gpi

 

Repeat for the next database.

 

As many GPI files as you want can be used.

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Here's one: Does the macro create just one POI file (Geocaching Tourguide) or could it be set to allow the user to create other POI files (different names)? I've set up databases in GSAK for non-Geocaching locations (like friends or vacation points of interest) that I'd like to make into Tourguides.

 

No, but this one does. I'm not 100% but I believe that is a combination of pilotsnipes macro and another one. Looks like both have Tourguide support. I only learned about the other one this morning, and haven't checked it out yet.

 

(actually, I'm pretty sure that you could also create multiple databases using Pilotsnipe's macro, but you'd have to manually rename the gpx file after each export, and before running POILoader. If there are multiple .gpx files in the folder, POILoader itself will "roll" them together and show them as separate categories in the Special POI list.)

 

<< edited to state that I may be wrong about my suggested method of creating multiple databases. I may have done it as Pilotsnipes just stated. I'm not at liberty to experiment with it right now>>

Edited by knowschad
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I keep finding other ways to make it even more useful.

 

Here's one: Does the macro create just one POI file (Geocaching Tourguide) or could it be set to allow the user to create other POI files (different names)? I've set up databases in GSAK for non-Geocaching locations (like friends or vacation points of interest) that I'd like to make into Tourguides.

 

I've done the same thing. I work in tourism and have found it useful to mark some places of interest around these parts for guests.

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Proceed as normal to create the gpx file using the "friends" database in GSAK.

 

Upload this to the Garmin using POILOADER, and set any alerts as normal.

 

Now, goto the Garmin unit in explorer, and look in \GARMIN\POI

 

Rename the poi.gpi file to friendshouse.gpi

 

Repeat for the next database.

 

As many GPI files as you want can be used.

 

Have you (or anyone else) tried the new firmware (v 3.0) from Garmin for the Nuvi 7xx yet? It can be had via WebUpdater or here: http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3811 The change log for 3.0 indicates:

 

Corrected issues with GPI files causing unit crashes

 

In addition to other fixes / enhancements.

I'm hoping the manual alerts will now work.. I installed the update but haven't attempted to try it yet (at work now).

 

Steve

Edited by MassCache
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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK, I HEARD ABOUT YOUR SITE FROM PODCACHER.COM. THEY DIDN'T SEEM TO LIKE THE ORB SYSTEM. BUT I'VE BEEN USING THIS SINCE I GOT AND IT WORKS JUST FINE.

 

Thanks very much, if anyone else wants to listen to the show it's at:

 

POPCACHER MP3 at the review starts at time: 14:07

 

If you want to let the guys know what you think of geocaching for the Nuvi, give them an shout at http://www.podcacher.com/?page_id=8

 

:)

 

Wow, that pod cast wasnt very flatering towards caching with the nuvi. The gal said she didnt want to do math while caching... hmmmm... The coords increase or decrease while walking N/S or E/W .. pretty simple

 

I personal LOVE caching with my nuvi. Pilotsnipes tutorial is the sole reason I bought my nuvi last week !!

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All they focused on was the "missing Compass Rose". They even seemed a bit put out that you had to be a premium member!!! And, they had it wrong about the .gpx file (they think it was the .loc file). Heck, to me the big thing here is all the POI data that is now in my nuvi and it notifies me that I just passed a cache!! Description, hints, logs and the ability to cache just about anywhere without the 500 limits imposed by my handheld. And I don't have to enter any coordinates. And it's a one button macro! Need I go on?

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Have you (or anyone else) tried the new firmware (v 3.0) from Garmin for the Nuvi 7xx yet? It can be had via WebUpdater or here:

 

Oh boy, how did I miss that? Great find! I'm excited now....must go and check this out..

 

*EDIT

 

Nope, still broken.

 

On a 7xx, set up alerts just like all the other nuvis, travel until a prox alert goes off. Whilst the alert is still on the screen, select WHERE TO and select ANY new destination (not a cache) as soon as you say go, the Nuvi will switch off.

 

More emails to garmin needed gents if you have a Nuvi 7xx.

Edited by pilotsnipes
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