Paperless with Oregon and GSAK - Missing Anything?

[+Tim in Hollywood]

Hi all,

 

I enjoy geocaching, but really dislike the time needed to prepare for an afternoon of it. Spending time, printing pages, wasting paper, etc.

 

Because of this, I'm strongly considering a purchase of the Oregon 400t. If I use this unit with GSAK, is there any info I will be missing out on (that I would have had with paper printouts)?

 

Thanks,

Tim in Hollywood

[+Map Monkey]

You will miss any images in the description (which may be important for mystery/puzzles etc), and possibly the ability to view all of the logs (i normally only have the last 5 anyway).

 

For an afternoon grab-and-go concept, it is brilliant.

 

mm

[+Team CowboyPapa]

Hi all,

 

I enjoy geocaching, but really dislike the time needed to prepare for an afternoon of it. Spending time, printing pages, wasting paper, etc.

 

Because of this, I'm strongly considering a purchase of the Oregon 400t. If I use this unit with GSAK, is there any info I will be missing out on (that I would have had with paper printouts)?

 

Thanks,

Tim in Hollywood

I can't answer that directly.

 

However, I use this without GSAK and it will hold up to 15,000 characters of description and logs:

http://www.amazon.com/Delorme-AE-7985-201-...8014&sr=8-1

 

However, I think you would still be missing the Travel Bug/Geocoin inventory listings. Which may be true for all GPSrs if it's a question of GC.com not sending as opposed to the GPSr not being capable of receiving.

[+Triple Crown]

You will miss any images in the description (which may be important for mystery/puzzles etc), and possibly the ability to view all of the logs (i normally only have the last 5 anyway).

 

For an afternoon grab-and-go concept, it is brilliant.

 

mm

 

You can have as many logs as you want with the GSAK Oregon macro, and there is another macro to get spoiler pictures too. If you need the image for a puzzle cache while out caching you'll need a web enabled phone AFAIK, even then I doubt you'll be able to solve any puzzle over about 2 difficulty while in the field.

[+Knight2000]

You can also use the Oregon easily without fooling with GSAK. Just copy your PQ .gpx results file in the proper directory of the Oregon.

 

I have only found about 10 with my Oregon but i love that about it. Other things i dont like so much, but the paperless makes it a neat unit.

 

My Palm didnt have pictures either so i guess i am not missing that.

[+Tim in Hollywood]

Hi all,

 

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. If anyone has anything more to add, it will be greatly appreciated.

 

The reason I thought I would use GSAK is simply for the ability to load more than 5 logs into the Oregon.

 

I'd like to know more about how (if possible at all) to load in the images that are part of the cache descriptions. Can this be done in a simple, automated way?

 

Thanks,

Tim in Hollywood

[+Team CowboyPapa]

AFAIK, image downloading is not possible with the DeLorme PN-40.

 

Now, again, I am guessing here but I suspect that GC.com may not be transmitting images. If so, that would be true of all GPSrs.

[+Tequila]

You can also use the Oregon easily without fooling with GSAK. Just copy your PQ .gpx results file in the proper directory of the Oregon.

 

I have only found about 10 with my Oregon but i love that about it. Other things i dont like so much, but the paperless makes it a neat unit.

 

My Palm didnt have pictures either so i guess i am not missing that.

 

Not sure what you mean by "fooling" with GSAK.

 

GSAK is the best thing that ever happened to geocaching.

 

Using GSAK and the OR Export macro, it takes me less than 5 mouse clicks to load

 

- 2000 geocaches with all of the child waypoints loaded as POI's to avoid hitting the 1000 waypoint limit

- 2300 found caches including all associated child waypoints as POI's

- all my placed caches.

 

Nothing could be simpler. AND....GSAK allows you to keep an offline database for those frequent times when PQ's don't arrive.

[+mattalbr]

You can load and view images on the Oregon if the need arises. It's not automated with caches but if you must have images in the field it is doable with the Oregon.

[+g-o-cashers]

Things you'll be missing:

 

You will not see attributes (i.e. winter friendly, dog friendly) on any paperless device because Groundspeak doesn't provide them in the gpx data. This is what I really miss.

 

The OR and CO will both show you trackables in the cache at the time the gpx file was generated.

 

No pictures unless you go through the extra steps others have already mentioned.

 

No corrected coordinates from visitor logs because the OR doesn't support it (yet?). I miss this one a lot at well.

[+Knight2000]

You can also use the Oregon easily without fooling with GSAK. Just copy your PQ .gpx results file in the proper directory of the Oregon.

 

I have only found about 10 with my Oregon but i love that about it. Other things i dont like so much, but the paperless makes it a neat unit.

 

My Palm didnt have pictures either so i guess i am not missing that.

 

Not sure what you mean by "fooling" with GSAK.

 

GSAK is the best thing that ever happened to geocaching.

 

Using GSAK and the OR Export macro, it takes me less than 5 mouse clicks to load

 

- 2000 geocaches with all of the child waypoints loaded as POI's to avoid hitting the 1000 waypoint limit

- 2300 found caches including all associated child waypoints as POI's

- all my placed caches.

 

Nothing could be simpler. AND....GSAK allows you to keep an offline database for those frequent times when PQ's don't arrive.

Don't me wrong. I have bought GSAK and used it occasionally. If you know how to use databases then it is great for you. I do not know how to get it to do what i want. Besides, few need 2,000 caches loaded when they go somewhere.

 

It is a great tool- but it is not entirely easy to use. Yeah- i have spent time with it. Hours. And i have never got anywhere.

 

Maybe someone can develop an easy simple interface for it. Until then i wouldn't really recomend it to anyone starting out. Past PQ result folder in Garmin and go cache.

[+Maingray]

OR can hold 2,000 loggable geocaches with full information (including travel bug / coin inventory, and as many past logs as you want). It can also hold an extra 1,000 waypoints (and unlimited POI) .

 

The only thing I would like is one thing in g-o-casher's list... the ability to show corrected co-ordinates from past finders (Oh and the ability to add custom icons to the unit and let a GSAK macro assign custom icons to assign further icons to cache size / difficulty e.g. for a micro difficulty 3+) as I could do with the Garmin etrex / gpsmap range).

 

GSAK is very useful for many reasons. For those stuck on it look out the GSAK 101 forum posts e.g http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=...amp;#entry12477

Edited April 10, 2009 by Maingray

[+ceeG]

How do I get images to go with the cache files into the Oregon ?

 

I can't find a macro to do it, all I can think of is that I have to manually copy each picture from each cache page into the Oregon then look at it with picture viewer. It's a nuisance but it's doable, apart from one thing - having to look through up to 2000 caches to see which have got pictures every time I export a new gpx file.

 

Thanks

Gary

Edited April 11, 2009 by ceeG