Beginners Guide to Blackstar on Blackberry

[daveindeal]

 

lesson one turn black star on (ok maybe you know this but if we cover all there can be no immediate mistakes)

 

To start it you MUST have a clear view of the sky to find 3 Satellites, but once locked it will track under trees and inside a car and also if the walls are not to thick inside a building.

 

when you turn it on it will have a counter, this is not how many Satellites its found but how long its taking to look.

 

once it has found three it will triangulate your position and show a plain compass grid and above it saying your current lat and long position.

 

 

ok now you have it working!!

 

lesson two - what next

 

1) input the co-ordinates of the cache your after

2)search for closes cache on Geocaching website (this will show the closes from your currant lat long position)

 

#1 menu button (7 squares) - new waypoint

 

 

I. add the name of the waypoint

II. type the co-ordinates in (your keypad is lock automatically to numbers) don’t forget to change the Northings - Easting or you could be 1000miles out

 

III. save waypoint this will take you back to the compass.

 

IV. menu button (7 squares) - list waypoint, this will show all waypoints that are saved onto the phone.

 

V. select the one you want (middle ball) and then click set as destination.

 

you will get a red arrow that points directly at the cache (ignore the N/S/E/W marks it always points to the cache)

 

#2 is a little easier as it names and show the waypoint and extra detail's: (there are a lot of steps but it only a takes 1 min to do all and have the cache in your phone)

 

I. Click your blackberry menu button ( 7 squares one) scroll to "geocaching.com closest caches"

 

II. Select the cache your after, and read it.

 

III. there is a tab a little way down that says "LOC Waypoint File", click it and it will give you a message saying "item cannot be displayed. Do you wish to save the item?"

 

 

click on yes. and find somewhere you will be able to find it and rename it to anything as long as you know what it is i normally do a few letters like for Dover town multi I would put DTM (you need a memory card for this to work)

 

IV. it will bring up a download page - with the LOC file name with a blue bar that extends over it, wait until the blue bar cover the whole thing and reads completed underneath (it will also have (2.0B/s or something like that - this is how quick it downloaded it at not how much is left , if it says completed its done)

 

V. click the back button (curved arrow) to take you back to the cache page and leave it there for logging your find.

 

VI. menu button and find switch application - find black star in the list.

 

VII. menu button - new waypoint

 

VII. this will show you a waypoint page like WPT-1 at the top and auto inputs your current lat long. click your menu button and click "import GPX/LOC file" and find the file you saved (remember where you put it and what you called it (it will show with .aspx on the end)

 

VIII. it will then load it and on screen show import completed and "please use the close menu" - menu button and click close

 

IX. press the back arrow to take you back to the compass - menu button - list waypoints

 

it will now show a full list including the one you have just imported from the Geocaching website (which will as show the full name and Cache number)

 

X. middle ball - set as destination you are now on the compass with a red arrow pointing at the cache (ignore the N/S/E/W marks it always points to the cache)

 

The arrow will jump around to start as your position is being triangulated, if you start to move at 1mph it will be fixed onto the cache.

 

above the arrow it will display you distance to the cache (example 15.3mi then as you get closer goes to 0.2, 0.1 then goes to yards) it also has an average speed (tops out at 70mph) , i have 50 finds using black star and don’t see the need for another GPS.

 

i have found it to be accurate down to 1 or 2 feet but all depands on tree coverage, tall buildings, etc

 

** remember you left the website on the cache your after once you have the log filled in exit black star and click on your web browser, it will still be on the cache page, all you have to do is scroll to log find and fill it in there and then, i normally do it sat by the cache and on some occasions while the cache is still open i front of me.

Edited November 26, 2009 by daveindeal

[+sunnathy]

This looks great. Thanks.

[Motorcycle_Mama]

Moving to GPS and Technology forum.

[daveindeal]

[+sunnathy]

Ouch. I felt that bump.

[+suhplar]

blackstar is what got me and my girlfriend into caching. i've since moved on to cacheberry and also bought an etrex vista hcx off the forums here, but b* is a very nice, free program. bump!

[+sunnathy]

I found my 10th cache today. it was my first using BlackStar. Thanks daveindeal.

[+missionMode]

I was geocaching with BlackStar for a few hours this weekend. I found it to do a really good job. I actually found it easier than Navigator because the act of uploading the caches gave me more control over my list. Navigator wanted to connect directly to GC.com as far as I could tell. I liked Blackstar enough not to bother looking any further.

[daveindeal]

 

mini bump, the first one was a bit big

Edited December 2, 2009 by daveindeal

[+Damin69]

this is worth a bump since it didnt get pinned

[+Walts Hunting]

this is worth a bump since it didnt get pinned

 

Interesting thought. If people were reading it and commenting on it it wouldn't need the bump and would stay up on its own.

[+DarkBeer]

Even more interesting would be dividing the GPS & Technology forum into sub-forums of the various platforms. Currently, only the Iphone is apparently deserving of its own forum. It would be nice to see a breakdown of sub-forums for Blackberry, Android, Garmin, DeLorme, Magellan, etc. If that were done, then pinned topics that are useful to that platform would seem more appropriate. If every device that is currently discussed in this forum were given a pinned topic or two, you'd have to get to page two of the topics to see anything new, and that would be my guess why this isn't going to be pinned.

[Motorcycle_Mama]

Please don't post off-topic. Thanks.

[+sunnathy]

I have looked at buying a Garmin but the cost is, at the moment, prohibitive. BlackStar can do the job a while longer for me.