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Advanced Nuvi Macro


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If you want to see the caches ahead, you have to use the "Favorites" function of the Garmin Nuvi. That section of memory is limited to just 500 waypoints, including any personal waypoints you've entered like business addresses, friends and the HOME waypoint.

 

That is not part of this macro, which uses the POI capabilities and is essentially unlimited in how many caches can be entered. However, unless you zoom really, really close, you won't see them on the screen.

So .... do I just take the GPX file and download it into the Nuvi 350 (bypassing the POI Loader) and it will automatically go into the Favorites folder?

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That might work - I don't know. What I do is determine the 480 or so caches I want in the favorites (via GSAK filters) and then export it to a GPX file (mine is called "nuvi.gpx" but call it whatever you'll remember).

 

1. I include all child waypoints.

2. Set the waypoint name as "%code %name" and cache description to "%Name by %By (%Dif/%Ter)". These determine how the name and other info will show in the Favorites.

3. Set the max characters to 24 - my nuvi's limit.

 

The Favorites memory works a bit strange. You have to empty the internal memory first by doing the complete delete. On mine, you press and hold the upper left corner while booting until the maintenance screen appears. Then delete all waypoints.

 

Careful here as this will also delete your HOME waypoint as well as private waypoints you may have entered - like Mom's house. What I did was copy the "current.gpx" file out of the nuvi, imported it into my GSAK as a separate database and edited out all of the caches; leaving just the private ones and HOME (the HOME one must be all capitals - and only the letters HOME). Then I exported it to a file called "current1.gpx". The nice thing here is that you only have to create this one time (or if you add any new private Favorites).

 

Now to load the nuvi. You have two exported files. One called "current1.gpx" and the other called "nuvi.gpx". Copy both of these to the nuvi's folder titiled "gpx".

 

If you look at the nuvi now, it will have the two above files listed in \gpx folder.

 

Now boot the nuvi. It will add the two files you loaded into a new file called "current.gpx" and copy that to the internal memory. And, it will delete the two source files from the \gpx folder. Normal. The final result is one file in the nuvi's \gpx folder - the new "current.gpx".

 

That should give you a Favorites file of your HOME, friends (Mom) and all the caches in the filter (up to 500). And they will show up on your screen as you drive.

Edited by Cache O'Plenty
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That might work - I don't know. What I do is determine the 480 or so caches I want in the favorites (via GSAK filters) and then export it to a GPX file (mine is called "nuvi.gpx" but call it whatever you'll remember).

 

1. I include all child waypoints.

2. Set the waypoint name as "%code %name" and cache description to "%Name by %By (%Dif/%Ter)". These determine how the name and other info will show in the Favorites.

3. Set the max characters to 24 - my nuvi's limit.

 

The Favorites memory works a bit strange. You have to empty the internal memory first by doing the complete delete. On mine, you press and hold the upper left corner while booting until the maintenance screen appears. Then delete all waypoints.

 

Careful here as this will also delete your HOME waypoint as well as private waypoints you may have entered - like Mom's house. What I did was copy the "current.gpx" file out of the nuvi, imported it into my GSAK as a separate database and edited out all of the caches; leaving just the private ones and HOME (the HOME one must be all capitals - and only the letters HOME). Then I exported it to a file called "current1.gpx". The nice thing here is that you only have to create this one time (or if you add any new private Favorites).

 

Now to load the nuvi. You have two exported files. One called "current1.gpx" and the other called "nuvi.gpx". Copy both of these to the nuvi's folder titiled "gpx".

 

If you look at the nuvi now, it will have the two above files listed in \gpx folder.

 

Now boot the nuvi. It will add the two files you loaded into a new file called "current.gpx" and copy that to the internal memory. And, it will delete the two source files from the \gpx folder. Normal. The final result is one file in the nuvi's \gpx folder - the new "current.gpx".

 

That should give you a Favorites file of your HOME, friends (Mom) and all the caches in the filter (up to 500). And they will show up on your screen as you drive.

THANKS Cache O'Plenty!

That helps me a lot!

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This is about spoilersync and the way the Nuvi (and possibly other) macros use its pictures.

in the Nuvi macro system (spoilrsync sub-macro), spoilersync can be called on one database and the macro seems to set it up to store the spoilerpics relative to that database name, from where the nuvi macro itself then uses the pics to send them to the nuvis.

Example: when processing DB2, the pics will be in C:\Program Files\gsak\POI_Loader\DB2

 

Now I have a central 'default' DB which I use to manage all my caches. I then filter and copy subsets to anther DB on which I run the spoilersync macro before loading the nuvi.

 

If there are duplicates (ie the same cache gets copied to different databases), the spoilersync macro has to download the pictures again as the target directory is a different one for each DB, because eg a newly created DB2 that contains caches whose pics are already in an existing, previously spoilersynced DB1 does not have the pics in C:\Program Files\gsak\POI_Loader\DB2

 

I would love for the macro framework to work as follows:

 

a) the spoilersync submacro works in its own space regardless of which DB it is working against, is all pictures will be in one central directory. It may get the list of caches to work on from the current DB, but it should simply leave all the other pictures alone in there. That means that if it has to process a cache from DB2 that was already processed from DB1 the pics will be in its working dir and it won't have to download them again (greatly reducing the load on GC.com in the process)

 

Example: spoilersync will always work in C:\spoilersync\data (to be created) or such. Before being started, a GPX file listing the caches to be processed is exported to there so that it processes only those caches.

 

:) the nuvi macro finds the pictures it needs in the central spoilersync dir/folfer and uses them from there (maybe by temp copying them to a DB-related dir or symlinking/aliasing or such) when processing a specific database.

 

I would also like the option to have spoilersync create the .html files for each cache, in its central directory (spoilersync has an option to do that but it is currently not selected in the spoilersync macro call) and a global .html file for the caches processed (which would have to be copied to the DB-relative dir.

These are not used by the nuvi macro but it would be useful elsewhere, and generating them when spoilerync is run by the nuvi/spoilersync macro will again avoid having to run spoilersync twice (and thus load GC.com even further).

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I just realized that (at least on my nuvi 360), the macro seems to render the hints without newlines, which may be confusing. It would be nice if it could honor newlines in the hints too.

 

I saw this in the hints for GC13GXM, where the hints ran all in one line. Sorry, I don't have a screenshot. If necessary I can load that cache onto the nuvi again to grab one.

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This is about spoilersync and the way the Nuvi (and possibly other) macros use its pictures.

in the Nuvi macro system (spoilrsync sub-macro), spoilersync can be called on one database and the macro seems to set it up to store the spoilerpics relative to that database name, from where the nuvi macro itself then uses the pics to send them to the nuvis.

Example: when processing DB2, the pics will be in C:\Program Files\gsak\POI_Loader\DB2

 

Now I have a central 'default' DB which I use to manage all my caches. I then filter and copy subsets to anther DB on which I run the spoilersync macro before loading the nuvi.

 

If there are duplicates (ie the same cache gets copied to different databases), the spoilersync macro has to download the pictures again as the target directory is a different one for each DB, because eg a newly created DB2 that contains caches whose pics are already in an existing, previously spoilersynced DB1 does not have the pics in C:\Program Files\gsak\POI_Loader\DB2

 

I would love for the macro framework to work as follows:

 

a) the spoilersync submacro works in its own space regardless of which DB it is working against, is all pictures will be in one central directory. It may get the list of caches to work on from the current DB, but it should simply leave all the other pictures alone in there. That means that if it has to process a cache from DB2 that was already processed from DB1 the pics will be in its working dir and it won't have to download them again (greatly reducing the load on GC.com in the process)

 

Example: spoilersync will always work in C:\spoilersync\data (to be created) or such. Before being started, a GPX file listing the caches to be processed is exported to there so that it processes only those caches.

 

:D the nuvi macro finds the pictures it needs in the central spoilersync dir/folfer and uses them from there (maybe by temp copying them to a DB-related dir or symlinking/aliasing or such) when processing a specific database.

 

I would also like the option to have spoilersync create the .html files for each cache, in its central directory (spoilersync has an option to do that but it is currently not selected in the spoilersync macro call) and a global .html file for the caches processed (which would have to be copied to the DB-relative dir.

These are not used by the nuvi macro but it would be useful elsewhere, and generating them when spoilerync is run by the nuvi/spoilersync macro will again avoid having to run spoilersync twice (and thus load GC.com even further).

I'll add it to the list, right now if the mac doesn't find a GC match for the pic it deletes it. (assumes cache archived/deleted from db/found etc.) The macro also has the option to use the current filter which might eliminate the need to copy the waypoints to other db's.

 

I'll add the html option in the next couple of days.

j

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I've run into a strange problem. A few weeks ago we went to England, I ran the macro on that db and loaded it into the nuvi. Everything was fine there. Now that we're home again, I try to run the macro against a filtered db that contains 8600 caches ( that's the filtered results [i know, I know]). After running the macro, I run POILoader which congratulates me on loading 2724 POIs. Those appear to be the England POIs, I can't get rid of them. I did a master reset several times, removed the sd card and formatted it, deleted all my data...nothing, they're still in there???

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Ok, I found the solution. I had to run the removal tool in POILoader not one, not two, but three times before the little rascals were gone! Then I created a fresh clean folder to send the POIs to, sent them from there directly to the sd card and all is good.

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Moderator's Note We've let this slide for a long time as it's pretty well contained, but Groundspeak policies scowl at using the (creaking) Groundspeak infrastructure as the primary support vehicle for third party software, even if free.

 

Please consider moving the support forum for this macro to the GSAK forum (with Clyde's permission, of course) or some other venue.

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Robert, would it be a fair comment to make, that the existence of these programs has added to your (Groundspeak) coffers far more than any infrastructure costs in maintaining the people who visit here?

 

It would seem more harm than good would be the outcome to Groundspeak's bottom line (lets face it you are a business and money counts) if people didn't find these threads and explore geocaching.

 

The fact that people can now manage thousands of caches easily, drives them instantly towards premium membership and pocket queries...

 

$$$

 

I'm just a little shocked at this stance, that's all.

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1. Full ACK on pilotsnipes' last reply.

 

2. a Q: I don't see the waypoint name on the Nuvi when I look at the cache description (I don't add it to the name, that is too short as it is).

 

I would like an option to have the main waypoint added to the top (below Contact: name, type, placed, found, etc)

 

This is to allow me to easily find a cache I have done on the GC.com website later (many caches around here have similar names, so it may get confusing.

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1. Full ACK on pilotsnipes' last reply.

 

2. a Q: I don't see the waypoint name on the Nuvi when I look at the cache description (I don't add it to the name, that is too short as it is).

 

I would like an option to have the main waypoint added to the top (below Contact: name, type, placed, found, etc)

 

This is to allow me to easily find a cache I have done on the GC.com website later (many caches around here have similar names, so it may get confusing.

I have a question ... why don't Groundspeak and GSAK (Clyde) and pilotsnipes and jjreds just get together and create the final application? All the info is there!

 

I'm sure it's NOT a copright question ... all the info is open source.

 

What say you guys?

 

p.s I's like to say that I have a profound respect of Groundspeak for trying to adapt ... and they have a lot of work to do ... but I also have a profounder respect for people like Clyde, pilotsnipes, and jjreds for actually creating these programs that work with the geocacing.com site! Kudos to you all!

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Having trouble running this macro. I've been using Pilotsnipes for some time with no issues. Every time i try to run this one I get an error.

********************************************************************

Error log: 7/2/2009 7:55:13 PM

********************************************************************

MacVersion = 7.6.2

MacDescription = Export GPX files by cache type w/spoiler pics for POI Loader

MacAuthor = jjreds thanks to cron/pilotsnipes/Clyde/Kai Team/Lignumaqua

MacUrl = http://jjreds01.googlepages.com/download

 

Current Macro: C:\Program Files\gsak\Macros\GPX_by_Cache_Type.gsk

 

Error in Macro at line: 725

$SQL_Data = sqlite("sql","select * from Alert_Array where Code='$CacheTypeLetter'")

 

Error=> Function does not exist: sqlite

 

Macro will now abort

 

What can I be missing?

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Robert, would it be a fair comment to make, that the existence of these programs has added to your (Groundspeak) coffers far more than any infrastructure costs in maintaining the people who visit here?

 

It would seem more harm than good would be the outcome to Groundspeak's bottom line (lets face it you are a business and money counts) if people didn't find these threads and explore geocaching.

 

The fact that people can now manage thousands of caches easily, drives them instantly towards premium membership and pocket queries...

 

$$$

 

I'm just a little shocked at this stance, that's all.

*I* am not Groundspeak. I volunteer to help the site by keeping the tech forums on track. So you can be shocked at me for pointing out the violation or you can be shocked at Groundspeak's rules, but if you're going to be annoyed at a specific entity, it's important to place it appropriately.

 

I'm just pointing out that the forums aren't to be used as the primary support for third party apps. Obviously for short "asked and answered" things, it's not worth stressing about. Mapsource questions get asked and answered, but it's not like Garmin has 20 page threads about it here. This thread about a commercial app (the macro might not be commercial, but GSAK is) is 25 pages and running for over a year. It's not like The Man is being overbearing here; I'm just asking that the primary discussion be moved off Groundspeak's forum.

 

I don't disagree with your logic about PQ sales, but that reasoning hasn't worked in the past for applications. (And what I agree or disagree with has little relevance upon Groundspeak's wishes and the forums are their party, not my personal one.) Get permission from Groundspeak to keep it here (the right people there know my email address once you have that permission) and I'll continue to turn an eye to this...

 

But please either get that permission or lay the infrastructure to have the day-to-day support of this moved elsewhere.

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Having trouble running this macro. I've been using Pilotsnipes for some time with no issues. Every time i try to run this one I get an error.

********************************************************************

Error log: 7/2/2009 7:55:13 PM

********************************************************************

MacVersion = 7.6.2

MacDescription = Export GPX files by cache type w/spoiler pics for POI Loader

MacAuthor = jjreds thanks to cron/pilotsnipes/Clyde/Kai Team/Lignumaqua

MacUrl = http://jjreds01.googlepages.com/download

 

Current Macro: C:\Program Files\gsak\Macros\GPX_by_Cache_Type.gsk

 

Error in Macro at line: 725

$SQL_Data = sqlite("sql","select * from Alert_Array where Code='$CacheTypeLetter'")

 

Error=> Function does not exist: sqlite

 

Macro will now abort

 

What can I be missing?

Nevermind, i got it. I needed to upgrade to a newer Gsak. Works like a charm.

Thanks to everyone who has put so much time & effort into this.

 

On another note, let me just say that this isn't just another 3rd party app that Grndspeak should be pushing off. It leads people directly to spending money at Grndspeak, they wouldn't have my dough if not for this macro & the ones before it. Nuff said.

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