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Hi - I'm new to geocaching and found a few Wherigo caches that I would like to do, but my nuvi 200 doesn't support it. I'm looking for a unit that will - without paying $400+ - is there one?

 

I'm looking at the Garmin site and comparing some models, and under features they list 'Outdor GPS games' (there is another option for Geocaching-friendly), and there are several that I have looked at that say 'yes', and there are others that say 'yes (Wherigo only).' Does this mean that any of them that say 'yes' have Wherigo ?

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Hi - I'm new to geocaching and found a few Wherigo caches that I would like to do, but my nuvi 200 doesn't support it. I'm looking for a unit that will - without paying $400+ - is there one?

 

I'm looking at the Garmin site and comparing some models, and under features they list 'Outdor GPS games' (there is another option for Geocaching-friendly), and there are several that I have looked at that say 'yes', and there are others that say 'yes (Wherigo only).' Does this mean that any of them that say 'yes' have Wherigo ?

There are other GPS games that may be built into a GPS. Unless it actually mentions Wherigo in the description, it probably doesn't support it. AFAIK, all the Wherigo handheld units only partially support the full range of Wherigo capabilities. Usually they're missing the ability to play sound files. There might be Nuvis that can do this, but I've never looked into it.

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Isn't it possible to do Wherigo's with a GPS enabled PDA or a PDA with bluetooth that can communicate with a bluetooth GPSr? If so, purchasing an inexpensive bluetooth PDA and bluetooth "puck" style GPSr on Ebay would do the trick.

Edited by Pax42
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Hi - I'm new to geocaching and found a few Wherigo caches that I would like to do, but my nuvi 200 doesn't support it. I'm looking for a unit that will - without paying $400+ - is there one?

 

I'm looking at the Garmin site and comparing some models, and under features they list 'Outdor GPS games' (there is another option for Geocaching-friendly), and there are several that I have looked at that say 'yes', and there are others that say 'yes (Wherigo only).' Does this mean that any of them that say 'yes' have Wherigo ?

I have an HP iPaq (Windows Mobile) PDA that I bought for about $200. I spent $8 (now $10) for CacheMate to run on that PDA for paperless caching. A couple years ago, I spent about $100 more to buy a Garmin GPS10x (bluetooth "puck" GPSr). I paired the Garmin GPSr with the PDA and downloaded the free player from Wherigo.com and I have done a couple caches using that. It worked better than my Garmin Colorado that my wife chose to use on one of the caches we did.

 

I Windows Mobile PDA won't be cheap, but if you watch places like the "CDW Outlet" you can often find them. When I bought my Garmin GPSr, it came with City Navigator NT maps, and the software allowing me to use my PDA as a Nuvi, complete with spoken turn-by-turn routing (and it can use a data connection on the PDA to get traffic conditions to help determine "best" route and avoid construction).

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I have a Colorado and there are some whereigos that it will not do and others that it may be hit or miss. So I found a good price on an Asus mypal 696 and have loved it. It has a Sirf III chip that has bren very accurate and it's been flawless with whereigos. I did a Wherigo with friends who used their Colorado, which choked on the second to the last stage. My Asus brought us to the final.

 

With that said the Colorado is better for general caching and will work fine with many whereigos. I designed mine with the Colorado in mind, but some do include functions that give it trouble.

Edited by Erickson
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As odd as it sounds, the Wherigo Player in the CO is slightly different that the player in the OR. Not better....just different.

 

The CO handles multiple active zones better. But the CO has a known problem when entering answers slowly.

 

Most of the issues with the Garmin players are well known to the Wherigo Builders and we avoid them when creating a cartridge.

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Resurrecting this old Wherigo thread. Have some non-geocaching questions.

 

My "plan" is to build a photo centric web page which would show a scenic hike with a map, then build a Wherigo cartridge which the user would take into the field to see the sights.

 

Since I've never used or seen anything Wherigo, entered my zip and closest Wherigo was 60 miles away, is my plan within the bounds of Wherigo? I have a Colo 300 for testing.

 

Thanks

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Resurrecting this old Wherigo thread. Have some non-geocaching questions.

 

My "plan" is to build a photo centric web page which would show a scenic hike with a map, then build a Wherigo cartridge which the user would take into the field to see the sights.

 

Since I've never used or seen anything Wherigo, entered my zip and closest Wherigo was 60 miles away, is my plan within the bounds of Wherigo? I have a Colo 300 for testing.

 

Thanks

It is possible, but you would need to keep some things in mind. With Wherigo, the default is to require the "player" to stop at every zone before enabling/allowing the next zone. This would require your users to visit every site in a specific order. I believe that you may allow them to have all zones "active" at the same time and just allow them to enter the "zones" in any order, but this may also be one of the bugs mentioned earlier. Another thing to keep in mind, that many creators in my area do not do well, it to have sufficiently large zones to work with. If you create a zone that is too small, then it is nearly impossible for the "player" to be in the zone long enough to be detected as there. Remember that each GPSr has a positional accuracy and your unit may be off in one direction with the player's unit is off in the opposite, so they could easily be 20-40 feet away from the "point" you want.

 

Your plan could work with Wherigo. It also sounds like it might work well as an "augmented reality" app for a smart phone like Android or iPhone.

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It is possible, but you would need to keep some things in mind. With Wherigo, the default is to require the "player" to stop at every zone before enabling/allowing the next zone. This would require your users to visit every site in a specific order. I believe that you may allow them to have all zones "active" at the same time and just allow them to enter the "zones" in any order, but this may also be one of the bugs mentioned earlier. Another thing to keep in mind, that many creators in my area do not do well, it to have sufficiently large zones to work with. If you create a zone that is too small, then it is nearly impossible for the "player" to be in the zone long enough to be detected as there. Remember that each GPSr has a positional accuracy and your unit may be off in one direction with the player's unit is off in the opposite, so they could easily be 20-40 feet away from the "point" you want.

 

Your plan could work with Wherigo. It also sounds like it might work well as an "augmented reality" app for a smart phone like Android or iPhone.

Well that helps, I was unaware of the serial nature of the zones.

 

Does the user have to input anything zone to zone? Or is it free form such that different photos/text pop up/close zone to zone?

 

I don't have either an iPhone or Android so don't want to do that yet, but someday for sure.

 

Thanks

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Well that helps, I was unaware of the serial nature of the zones.

 

They don't *have* to be serial, but in general, that is one of the "safest" ways to keep the players from crashing. One that I have done requires you to walk a path around a small lake. It is setup to handle you going either direction around the lake, and handles it well. By that I assume that he has more than one zone active at a time otherwise it wouldn't handle someone going the "wrong way" around the lake.

 

Does the user have to input anything zone to zone? Or is it free form such that different photos/text pop up/close zone to zone?

In general the way a Wherigo will work is that you have to go to some point and/or complete some activity before it will activate the next target. One of the less interesting one's I've done required you to go to a parking space in a park (literally in the parking space) then answer 4-5 trivia questions about the state you were in (you had to answer them using your internet enabled cell phone) then it gave you the coords to a guard rail where there was a small cache container hidden. You couldn't get the coords until you correctly answered all the questions. This one was poorly done such that the only way to exit before you answered all the questions (but had already answered the first) was to turn the GPSr off. It required you to answer the current question correctly before you could get the next question.

 

The better cartridge that I've played took you through a storyline and when you get to certain places it would give you tasks to complete. As I mentioned earlier, it allowed you to follow the path around the lake in either directions with 3 zones active, the "real target" plus two other points (each about half way to the "real target". As you passed through each of the two half-way zones, your device would display a message reminding you to hurry. It was nice that it was setup to allow you to go either way though. This one also had the zones configured to be large enough that you had no trouble triggering that you were there. I imagine that this cartridge would be more like what you want, but it still requires you to go through a series of 7 or 8 points to complete. I'm not sure just how many zones you could realistically have active at once, but if you made your photo walks as a set of smaller cartridges (say 3-4 places each) and then just let them do several cartridges to complete it all, it might work much better. If you make a PDA version, you could use photos you have taken and audio (maybe a short comment about the camera settings used for your photo, the time of day, etc). With the handheld GPSr the audio wouldn't play properly, but the image could still be displayed.

 

Your comments have made me wish I could make a few more hours in a day to play with the Wherigo builder some myself. Good Luck, and let us know when you get them done.

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That swamped me. Clearly I need to build one to understand all that you said.

 

I'll create a small loop near my house to test the CW and CCW with various zones to understand the needed user inputs and pitfalls.

 

One final question, how small of a loop is practical? Is a 1/4 mile per side (box) too small for four zones?

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