Jump to content

Garmin Nuvi - True Paperless Geocaching


Recommended Posts

Ok, I promise I read through all 14 pages, but I didn't see these questions. Apologies in advance if I missed them.

 

1 - Is there a way to add my User Notes ($d_UserNote) to the output?

 

2 - Is there a way to use a smiley face, instead of a cache icon, to represent any found caches that I have loaded?

 

thanks

Link to comment

Final update to this macro. Version 2.0 Released.

 

New Features/Changes

 

* Website updated with new/corrected instructions for beginners.

* Ability to set the alert distance for the caches in the macro (bypass the extra step in POILOADER).

* Default output folder is now "garminpoi" instead of "poiloader". The name fits better.

* Travelbug info for each applicable cache is now included too.

* Nuvi 7xx series bug preventing alerts has now been fixed by Garmin.

* More Nuvi models added as well as the Oregon and Colorado.

* This will be the last version (excluding any missed bug fixes).

* Confirmed working on the new beta of GSAK, so there should be no issues in the future when the 7.5 beta becomes final with the new sqlite database system.

 

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

 

 

 

 

The final curtain....

 

My apologies for the very long time between updates with the macro. Life is life.

 

It's been clear to me for the past few months that this project is now starting to veer very definitely into 2 directions.

 

My macro is very useful for those who have just arrived onto the "paperless caching scene", and with the help of the tutorial on my website gets people up and running quickly. jjreds macro, on the other hand, has so many features included, that it would be silly....nigh impossible to beat or be worthwhile trying to "compete" with.

 

With that in mind, I have decided to release this last version of my macro (with a few little bits added) and call my project to an end. It would be much more beneficial to our little community to have all the effort focused in one direction.

 

So this release will be that last one (I will of course fix any bugs that jump out) but I will not be adding any more features.

 

The great news over the past few months has been garmin's fixing of the Nuvi 7xx bug where it would crash frequently and also the addition of many more models of Garmin GPS's for paperless caching.

 

I'll still be around here reading/answering questions as they arise, but once you have a master on this macro the next step will be to check out jjreds Advanced nuvi macro

 

Many thanks folks, and do let me know if there are any issues with the new release. I will fix this ASAP before I get bored of sitting at this computer again!

 

Thank you all for your help. Especially those of you who did all the support posts in this thread, that was VERY much appreciated.

 

Pilotsnipes

Link to comment

Here's a FAQ that should help a few people who miss it on the website:

http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/support.html

 

F.A.Q

 

Since releasing this script the same questions pop up over and over in the forum. To make all our lives easier, the list of answers for the questions is provided below.

 

 

Q: Can I use the Alert feature for the Nuvi7xx series now?

 

Ans: Yes! Garmin fixed the bug in the Nuvi 7XX series, all you have to ensure is that you update the firmware on your garmin to AT LEAST version 4.0. Check out the garmin website for all the details and upgrade files.

 

 

Q: I've followed your instructions, but I can't see the MORE button or all the writing for each cache is gibberish.

 

Ans: Very hard to nail down, but it is very VERY likely you have done one (or more) of the following

a) Not used POILOADER 2.5.2

b ) Not updated your firmware.

c) Please please go over the instructions carefully. They do work! We have a lot of people to verify this!

 

 

Q: I can't get the satellite screen to come up on my sat nav - why?

 

Ans: In the Nuvi 200 series, ONLY the widescreen models have the ability to view the sat co-ords page! Sorry - that's just the way it is. Complain to Garmin to get that added!

 

 

Q: How do I delete an individual cache from my list after I have uploaded it to my Garmin?

 

Ans: You cannot. The POI file contains ALL the caches and there is no way to delete them individually. If you want to remove a cache, you can run the script again, this time without selecting the cache the want to remove. When you upload that new POI file, it will replace the old POI file and the cache you no longer wanted will be gone.

 

 

Q: Why can't I see the caches on my map as I'm driving, like I do with places in my favourites?

 

Ans: This is a Garmin limitation. They have decided that POI's will NOT be displayed on the map page (unless you're zoomed into about 80metres or less which makes driving very hard/dangerous). If you want this changed/added....annoy Garmin not me!

 

 

Q: I have thousands of caches uploaded to my Garmin, but when I goto Extras -> POI I only see about 50. Where are the rest?

 

Ans: Garmin only shows the closest 50(ish) points to you when you do this. If you were to travel in your car, you would see that list change to show the continuous 50(ish) closest caches. If you need to prove to yourself that the rest are indeed in the Garmin, do a SPELL for a POI and type in a code for a cache you want to find. It should pop up.

 

 

Q: Ok, well I have tried to spell a cache I uploaded, but it doesn't appear, why?

 

Ans: Is the cache you're looking for 1000's of miles away from where your GPS currently thinks it is? Garmin's searching mechanism seems to fail if the point you're looking for is 1000's of miles away. Eg. If I am in Ireland, and I search for a waypoint in Australia, it is unlikely the Garmin will find it. If I force my garmin to "set location" in Australia and search again, it WILL find it.

 

 

Q: Is there a limit on how many caches I can upload?

 

Ans: No! Only limited by the available space on your garmin. You can put thousands onto your machine for only a few 10's of megs.

 

 

Q: Can I use my SD card for the caches?

 

Ans: YES! When uploading the caches, just change the destination to your SD card instead of the Garmin GPS and you have almost unlimited space for caches.

Edited by pilotsnipes
Link to comment

I also want to add my thanks to Pilotsnipes for all your work, both on the macro & on the guide.

 

I'm using it on a Oregon 400t, running 2.60 software & 2.55 gps software. I have POILoader 2.5.2 & GSAK 7.2.3.35. I've installed the newest version of the macro (which came out today). Previous versions didn't give me a choice Oregon, just Nuvi's.

 

My problem is that the only information I get on the Oregon when going from the "main menu", to "where to", to "custom pois", then choosing a poi, it takes me to a map screen with the cache name/GC number in a box at the top. I can them choose Go to give me a go to or touch the name/gc which will take me to another screen with the name/gc number. Below that is two lines of information containing cache type/cache size, (difficulty/terrain), placed date, (last 4 F or DNF along with the last found date), cache owner. There is nothing about a cache discription, hint or past logs. On the map, I can see the poi's with different icons.

 

Is this all the information I should have?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Mike

Link to comment

Thanks for all you hard work on the macro, Pilotsnipes. As with many other people, this macro started it all for me for paperless caching. I have since moved onto jjred's Advanced Nuvi Macro since that's how things seem to naturally progress around here, but I still kept up-to-date on this thread and the macro. I wish you the best in all that you do.

 

Ted

Link to comment

There is nothing about a cache discription, hint or past logs. On the map, I can see the poi's with different icons.

 

Is this all the information I should have?

 

Mike, I've never used an Oregon and so I'm afraid I can't be of much use. I know that when I used a Garmin 60CSx of a friend of mine with my script a similar thing came up where we could only see the first 80 odd characters, therefore the description was missing.

 

Give jjreds macro a go and see if that outputs anything better for you.

 

Just one thing you said "On the map, I can see the poi's with different icons. " Did you mean different geocaching icons? If so, it sounds like you might already be using jjreds macro as my one only has the traditional green icon for all the caches...

Edited by pilotsnipes
Link to comment

There is nothing about a cache discription, hint or past logs. On the map, I can see the poi's with different icons.

 

Is this all the information I should have?

 

Mike, I've never used an Oregon and so I'm afraid I can't be of much use. I know that when I used a Garmin 60CSx of a friend of mine with my script a similar thing came up where we could only see the first 80 odd characters, therefore the description was missing.

 

Give jjreds macro a go and see if that outputs anything better for you.

 

Just one thing you said "On the map, I can see the poi's with different icons. " Did you mean different geocaching icons? If so, it sounds like you might already be using jjreds macro as my one only has the traditional green icon for all the caches...

Liqnumaqua's Colorado/Oregon macro works great. I've used it for some time now on first a CO and now an OR. You can learn more and download the macro here.

Link to comment

There is nothing about a cache discription, hint or past logs. On the map, I can see the poi's with different icons.

 

Is this all the information I should have?

 

Mike, I've never used an Oregon and so I'm afraid I can't be of much use. I know that when I used a Garmin 60CSx of a friend of mine with my script a similar thing came up where we could only see the first 80 odd characters, therefore the description was missing.

 

Give jjreds macro a go and see if that outputs anything better for you.

 

Just one thing you said "On the map, I can see the poi's with different icons. " Did you mean different geocaching icons? If so, it sounds like you might already be using jjreds macro as my one only has the traditional green icon for all the caches...

Liqnumaqua's Colorado/Oregon macro works great. I've used it for some time now on first a CO and now an OR. You can learn more and download the macro here.

 

Thanks. I have been using the ColoradoExport macro, and works great. But it limits me to under 2000 caches. My database is almost 10,000 & if I cache in a certain area and then decide to stop for more on my way home, I don't have the data.

 

Mike

Link to comment

Windsockers,

 

I received your GPX file via email, and tested it with POILOADER and it was accepted instantly.

 

1 thing springs to mind.

 

I have changed the output folder to (in your case) c:\gsak\garminpoi not as your picture shows c:\gsak\poiloader

 

Run POILAODER again and make sure you change the folder it's looking for the source files, to point to the new garminpoi folder.

 

I think it's finding old files at the moment.

Link to comment

Pilotsnipes,

 

First of all thank you for introducing true paperless caching. For the beginner your documentation/tutorial is superb!!! Everyone should know that your work lives on in the advanced macro as you were the pioneer who discovered the means to tame the dreaded "invalid" and overcome the space limitations of the Nuvi's.

 

Hat's off to the PILOT for a job WELL DONE!!

Link to comment

Using Garmin 255W and followed the directions on the http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html page and it works perfectly! I will probably continue to use my PN-20 while on foot but this is a great way to get me there in the car. I had been manually entering the coordinates into the NUVI and driving there then switching to the PN-20. The notes and hints also??? Man, that is SWEET! Thanks a bunch!

Link to comment

My problem is that the only information I get on the Oregon when going from the "main menu", to "where to", to "custom pois", then choosing a poi, it takes me to....

 

After you choose the POI, press "options", then "more information". The macro works perfectly on a Colorado or Oregon. I personally have used it for a long time to store found caches.

Link to comment

Thank you again pilotsnipes for your hard work. Like many others, this was my first attempt at paperless caching, and it works great !! I actually bought my 350 solely because of your macro.

 

I hope Garmin took notice of your macro coinciding with an increase of Nuvi sales, and puts a little something extra in your Christmas stocking this year !! ;)

 

Take care, Kurt.

Link to comment

Thanks Pilotsnipes. I just went thru and add software to PC and updated my Garmin Nuvi POI file so I could go paperless. I couldn't believe just following your step by step instructions it would be so easy. I am totally amazed by it all. I love it! Thanks for your hard work and the effort put into this task. Loaded onto a free Garmin Nuvi 270. No longer will I be killing trees while Geocaching. :) Of course I'll still be using my Garmin Vista HCX

Edited by Gracie's Posse
Link to comment

I installed the Nuvi macro last week and when I ran it then, it took less than a minute to run. Later in the week I downladed GSAK 7.5 so that I could run the 60CSXPOI macro. I decided I didnt need or want the 60CSXPOI macro.

The next time I ran the Nuvi macro, it takes over 5 minutes to process 900 waypoints.

 

Any suggestions?

Link to comment

I set everything up last night, and did a test file of about 700 POIs in my new Oregon 400T. That worked well. Then I generated a file of about 18000 POIs, and tried to load that. After a few minutes of "working", it just stopped, and went to a "not responding" error message.

 

Is there some limit to how many POIs I can load, or is there something that I am doing wrong? I have run over 30000 into my 60Csx, but I understand that that is a much smaller file, since it doesn't include the entire cache page.

 

Very nice tool, Pilotsnipes. I can tell you put a lot of work into this. Other than crashing on the large file, it works very well in the 400T.

Link to comment

I installed the Nuvi macro last week and when I ran it then, it took less than a minute to run. Later in the week I downladed GSAK 7.5 so that I could run the 60CSXPOI macro. I decided I didnt need or want the 60CSXPOI macro.

The next time I ran the Nuvi macro, it takes over 5 minutes to process 900 waypoints.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Yes, it sounds like you are using the old version of my macro, v1.3. Delete that macro and get my new v2.0 one from my website.

Link to comment

 

Is there some limit to how many POIs I can load, or is there something that I am doing wrong? I have run over 30000 into my 60Csx, but I understand that that is a much smaller file, since it doesn't include the entire cache page.

 

Very nice tool, Pilotsnipes. I can tell you put a lot of work into this. Other than crashing on the large file, it works very well in the 400T.

 

I've never tried that many waypoints myself so my only conclusion is that you are indeed choking the script. You may need to try and break your database into smaller groups and try it on that. I know I've tried around 7000 caches and it worked, but not as many as you.

 

Remember you can add lots of smaller groups onto your gps at the same time.

Link to comment

I have truly enjoyed the use I have gleaned from my Nuvi with the paperless caching "stuff" you have. It only took me about 10 minutes to get it all up and working. Thanks so much for all of your hard work. I LOVE IT! My dad caches, too, he's the one that got me started on it, do you happen to have something like this for the Streetpilot 330? If not, I guess I will have to go and buy him a Nuvi...lol Thanks again so much for all of your time and hard work. You're the best!

 

DD (yesterways)

Link to comment

Just wanted to say Thanks! Your tutorial was easy to follow and I had very little trouble setting up my Nuvi...I really appreciate the time you took to put this together.

 

I did have one question...Is there a limit to the number of custom POI's that I can load? Well, I guess that's a silly question...what I really mean is what is the limit...or what is the size of the internal memory?

Link to comment

Thank you very much for these pages. They were very helpful. I had one question.

 

http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/tips.html

 

On this page, on the detailed page of SwordsTower, there is a green right pointing arrow at the top left. I accidently held down on this button and it honked at me and turned it into a red square and I couldn't change it back. What is the meaning of this?

 

thanks,

kris

Link to comment

What an awesome utility you've built here!

 

Not that I'm trying to throw money away or anything, but I didn't mind paying for GSAK and CacheMate; I'd drop a few bucks for this utility too. Now I don't need to run Google Maps on my Treo in order to drive to the cache: what a bonus.

 

Thanks for doing all the work and sharing the results.

 

Cheers!

Link to comment

Pilotsnipes,

 

Thank you for all the assistance. Your macro set the benchmark for jjreds.

Whilst I have "graduated" to using jjreds macro, jjreds has borrowed significantly from your initial macro in order to make more features available.

 

Hat's off to the PILOT for a job WELL DONE!!

Now if only we could ..............

Link to comment

sorry if someone already addressed this

 

everything seems to work fine until i try to load the pois on my nuvi. the loader gives me an error message that it cant copy the data to the data card and the system can't find the file specified.

 

i followed the new instructions so i dont know what the issue is, any help would be appreciated

Link to comment

sorry if someone already addressed this

 

everything seems to work fine until i try to load the pois on my nuvi. the loader gives me an error message that it cant copy the data to the data card and the system can't find the file specified.

 

i followed the new instructions so i dont know what the issue is, any help would be appreciated

 

i emailed myself the files and used my mac and a mac poi loader worked fine, dont know why it didnt work on the windows bot

Link to comment

You made my day. Many, many thanks. After killing my IQue trying to change the battery, I bought a Nuvi 760 and the only thing that was missing was the paperless caching which I could do with an add-on program on my IQue. I found that I can store the caches on an SD disk which for me is easier to work with. I haven't been out caching yet, but it looks great. Thank you again.

Link to comment

Pilotsnipes

 

Thanks for all the hard work you put into this macro. I have a nuvi 500, down loaded all of the necessary programs and updates to run everything and it loads great. My question is the proximity alerts don't load when I run the macro anyway I don't have the option on my nuvi to turn the alerts on or off as my guide book tells me I should. Wondering if You had any ideas? Also How do I get the geocaches in the geocache folder on the nuvi? Figured out how to put them in poi's and favorites but not in the geocache folder. Thanks in advance snowball 58

 

Edit to add I have ran the macro three different ways with proximity on the macro, the proximity manually on the poi loader and the auto run on the poi loader

Edited by snowball 58
Link to comment

MANY thanks to pilotsnipes and jjreds for their outstanding work! I've been geocaching for almost a year with my Nuvi 200W- along with reams of paper, clipboard, pens, etc... I was a virtual walking office before FINALLY reading this forum and deciding to give it a try. I've now used it on two caching expeditions and I love it... this is great stuff, guys! :yikes:

 

Again, many thanks

 

palewryter

Link to comment

 

This thread is to be used for all help/support/bug fixes for the tutorial at the website above.

 

So, for all help/queries/support/requests, please post away here.

 

All I ask is a few simple requests

 

* Be polite.

* Don't demand anything, I do this in my spare time and will help when I can.

* If you discover something good or find a better way to do things, please share it with us!

 

Enjoy the hunt.

 

I really like this. I tried using a Palm, but it became a problem when I tried to put more than ten caches in and then couldn't find the dadgum numbers to pay for the program. Good riddance, nothing has to be that difficult to pay for.

 

When I got the Nuvi 200 for Christmas I was so impressed I almost passed out when I saw how easy it was to use. Now I can go paperless and I love it even more.

 

Thank you so much for putting these instructions and links together. You are awesome.

Link to comment

Can this macro be run automatically using the current defaults without having to click the Start button?

I would like to create a macro to run several different filters then call this macro each time and have the output file name be prefixed by the filter name.

 

I was also considering modifying the macro to replace the coord info on the second line with the cache type, recent finds, difficulty and terrain rating. Looking at the code, I realized that I will need to really focus to figure out what changes to make. Maybe I will take another look when my life is less cluttered.

Link to comment

 

This thread is to be used for all help/support/bug fixes for the tutorial at the website above.

 

So, for all help/queries/support/requests, please post away here.

 

All I ask is a few simple requests

 

* Be polite.

* Don't demand anything, I do this in my spare time and will help when I can.

* If you discover something good or find a better way to do things, please share it with us!

 

Enjoy the hunt.

 

Wow what a great tool.

Was bought a Nuvi 200W for my 40th birthday by Mrs Monkhouse late last year and had heard of this 'paperless caching' but was not au fait with it.

After looking within the forums I stumbled on Pilotsnipes tutorial. After many hours and an update to GSAK I am now a paperless virgin :blink::) .

Will hopefully try out our first paperless cache foray this weekend (weather permitting).

 

A great tutorial. Thanks Pilotsnipes for all your had work.

 

Regards

 

Monkhouse Snr

Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...