Temporary Event Caches

[+N8OFP - Del]

I would like to know if there is a way to upload a large number of temporary waypoints to a Event Cache page.

 

Some history, reason behind this quezstion.

For the past few years the Geocaching group, that I'm a member of, has put on two event. A fall event (around the middle of October) and a winter event (around the first of February). So far each year we have put out more and more temporary caches for these events. Our last fall event we had 170 temporary caches. Thus far our events have been really successful and fun. We always have a GPS loading station at our events and generally have at least two club members loading participant's GPS with the temporary caches coordinates. The problem we ran into at our fall event is with the ever growing number of GPS units on the market and it seems each and every one has a little different communication protocol, we had problem loading the temporary caches (Didn’t have the right cables, didn’t have the specific software loaded, etc.).

It would be nice if there was a way to upload the temporary waypoints to the event’s Geocaching.com page say the day before the event so people can down load and install the waypoints themselves before coming to the event. We would still have our GPS upload stations available but we could them list on our page the GPS models we know we can upload to and suggest users of GPS units not in the list download the waypoints and load their GPS units before coming to the event.

 

Thank you!

[GOF and Bacall]

Put me down as a no vote.

[AZcachemeister]

You can add child waypoints to a regular cache, but I don't know if it's possible for an event.

Also, you say 'large number', so I also don't know if there may be a limitation on how many child waypoints can be added.

Your attendees may have differing abilities to upload them, as well. So, to keep everyone on equal footing, it might be best to just print up handouts to be passed around at the event.

[Keystone]

What's prohibiting you from using the "Additional Waypoints" feature?

 

If it's "there's too many waypoints," then ask yourself why you have enough time to hide 170 temporary caches and to delete all the duplicate "found it" notification e-mails you receive from participants multi-logging the event page, but not enough time to input the waypoints. The task can even be semi-automated with a Greasemonkey script.

[+N8OFP - Del]

Our last event in October of this year we placed 170 caches on 9 miles of trails at the local Wilderness Center. Most of the 170 caches were places strictly for the event, a couple have been made permanent.

The problem was not having time to place or pull that many containers. The problem was trying to upload caches (regardless of the number) to so many different GPS units. We had attendies that had what seen to be every possible GPS Manufacture and model of GPS. A number of these devices required software that none of the laptops used for loading had available.

 

Garmin - We saw almost every model Garmin currently makes or ever made.

Magellan - Same here we saw a wide range of models.

Delorme GPS – All 3 versions of their hand units which require Delorme Topo 8 to upload waypoints.

Cobra GPS

Lowrance GPS

Tom-Toms

Multitude GPS Phones and other PDA/GPS device units.

 

A number of the attendies who knew they needed special software brought their own laptops to load their GPS. We simply gave them a GPX file exported from GSAK and they were able to load their units. So our

thought was if we could upload a gpx and/or text files to the event page with all the temporary cache coordinance this would help the users with the specialized devices (GPS Phone, Delorme GPS, Lowrance GPS etc.) if they could download the file and then load their GPS before they get to the event.

 

Handing out a piece of paper with 170 sets of coordinance the day of the event would not work very well as it would take hours to input to most of the GPS units.

 

As far as the Additional Waypoints I have a few questions.

1) Is there a limit to the number of additional waypoints that can be added to a cache page?

2) Can the additional waypoints be uploaded or do they have to be manually entered?

3) Would the additional waypoints be downloaded as child waypoints if the user downloaded the event page as a gpx export?

 

Thanks!

[+Markwell]

If you're set on it, which I'm not really in favor of, create a LOC file manually in EASYGPS, host it on another website and link to it on the page.

[AZcachemeister]

You could also create a set of waypoints in GSAK, and export the .gpx file for distribution to the attendees. Since the waypoints would be entirely your own creation, and not derived from Groundspeak data, sharing that .gpx file should be without concern. I'm not sure how you could distribute it other than as an attachment in email to each potential attendee. Of course if you have your own (or a local organization) website, you could make it available there.

[+dakboy]

FYI, the DeLormes are no longer restricted to Topo8 for loading waypoints. The latest beta of GSAK & GPSBabel can load them. So as long as someone attends the event with those on a laptop, the DeLorme folks can share that with everyone else (assuming someone has a DeLorme cable) for loading up caches.

[+Corp Of Discovery]

People still do this?

[+Parabola]

Take your GPX file of the temp's and use a site like box.net to host the file and anybody can download it ahead of time, and upload their own equipment ahead of time. Just make a link on the cache page to the box.net file. I've seen a few event's do this, and it seems to work out well. They used GSAK to create the GPX file and just uploaded that file. It's a free site to use.

[+Isonzo Karst]

As far as the Additional Waypoints I have a few questions.

 

1) Is there a limit to the number of additional waypoints that can be added to a cache page?

 

I don't know if there is a limit or what it might be. I've seen cache pages with more than 30 Additional points. 170 might exceed a limit, if there is one.

Remember too those 170 points count against the limit that the cacher's gps holds. For some Magellan users, that's a file folder of just 200 points. Your event listing alone nearly occupies one file. The sophisticated user understands this, and would create one Event File, and more files for other caching say, along the route to the event. It will trip up more novice users. For other users 500 is the max., and then there are units that manage nearly unlimited numbers.

 

2) Can the additional waypoints be uploaded or do they have to be manually entered?

 

Additional waypoints come in the .gpx file for cable loading to the gps

 

3) Would the additional waypoints be downloaded as child waypoints if the user downloaded the event page as a gpx export?

 

Yes. Or perhaps I should say, yes, they could be. (I generally load from GSAK and I uncouple additional waypoints, and load them as unique points).