new and dont understand

[+soon2bff]

i got my wife a tomtom for xmas. i used to go out with my dad when i was younger and search for caches. all i have is a tomtom 340 xl s gps for the car. can i still hunt for them with this unit? ive tried looking it up, and everything says gsak, but i dont get how any of it works. i apologize if this is a post that occurs often, and i s a nuisance, but any help is greatly appreciaed.

[+facade66]

if you press navigate to > (next screen) lattitude Longitude you can type in the co -ordinates, but I don't think that it will work, as a TomTom should lock the position arrow onto roads.

 

Try it and see.

[cleo43]

Try setting to 'walking rout'.

 

But I think you have more chance with this plug-in: TripMaster.

[+NOV8TR]

The Tomtom will work, but it takes a little bit of practice. All Tomtoms are "road locked" and will not guide you to a cache that is not directly on the road. However, once you get about 75 feet away from any "known road", the browse map feature will do a pretty good job in getting you close, but in the end you will have to switch to the satellite screen to get real time coordinates for closing in on the last few feet (10's of feet). I found my first 50 caches with a Tomtom. It can be done, but it is an expensive and delicate tool that is best left in a protective environment. Good luck, and happy caching!

[+soon2bff]

thanks for the responses. im looking into the tripmaster link given, but it throws me back into the whole "i dont understand" realm. i plug my TomTom into the computer, and that software will load into it, or how does it work? is tripmaster the only software compatible with TomTom XL 340 S?

[+NOV8TR]

Ok, let's back up a bit.

To start out, you need to understand how the GPS works. A good working knowledge of longitude and latitude is critical to your success. Forget about the computer and "add on" software for now and just practice by using your unit as it is without "add ons" and your computer adding information that you will not be able to use. Before you begin, make sure your Tomtom is set up to use the DEG MM.MMM. This is how geocaches are published, and if you use any other format it will require conversion and confuse your learning. First this to do is find an open space near home that you can get good strong signals from at least 8 satellites. Football fields, soccer fields, baseball fields, flat land parks are all good spots to practice. Put a stake with a ribbon on it in the ground and write down the coordinates your GPSr says you are at (look on the satellite configuration page for real time coordinates). Now walk away from the spot you just marked. Notice how the coordinates change on the satellite page? As you move south the latitude numbers get smaller, and as you move East the longitude numbers get smaller. The last decimal place is roughly equal to about 6 feet where I am (Southern California), and this does change based on your latitude (naturally the best decimal resolution is at the equator). OK, now without looking at anything but your GPSr, try walking back to your original coordinates. It takes some practice, but after a few tries you will get the hang of it. I did all of this stuff before I ever heard about geocaching because I wanted to know how accurate my Tomtom was (I am an Engineer by trade, and just have to know how, why, and how well everything works). Once you get this figured out, geocaching is just an application of what you just learned! I think there are a fair number of geocachers out there that never have to learn this method because with the more popular hand held GPSr's out there you just down load the coordinates and follow the arrow. Not much thinking involved,,,,,, but doing "math on the fly" does not tickle everyone's fancy. The Tomtom is not the best tool for geocaching, so you have to learn to adapt the game to your equipment. If you practice a little bit on familiar and safe territory before you head out into the world, you will have greater success. After that, you can check out these two links to web pages I made for geocaching with the Tomtom.

Link 1

Link 2

Have fun, and don't give up!

[+ecanderson]

thanks for the responses. im looking into the tripmaster link given, but it throws me back into the whole "i dont understand" realm. i plug my TomTom into the computer, and that software will load into it, or how does it work? is tripmaster the only software compatible with TomTom XL 340 S?

AFAIK, the author of TripMaster (and all other 3rd party software houses for TomTom units) was locked out of the raw NMEA coordinate data starting with Navcore7. Which is to say, until you get so far from a road that it stops trying to snap to a road coordinate, the data you get will be for the nearest road point, and not where you are. For a VERY large number of urban caches, and even quite a few out in the weeds but close to documented roads, this just isn't going to work for you. Setting it to a pedestrian mode won't work, either. All that does is ignore 1-way streets and allows for immediate u-turns without a penalty and similar walking features ON streets. Unlike handhelds that also do road navigation, there's no setting for "Off Road" on a TomTom. Your unit is WAY too new to be running anything but Navcore 8 level firmware. The ones that will still run Navcore 6 are antiques by now. Sorry about that.

 

Even if it were still possible to access the non-snapped coordinate data, the accuracy of the typical road GPS unit isn't as good as a good handheld. The handhelds incorporate something called WAAS - pulling down info some FAA satellites to help add a correction factor to the regular GPS satellites - and it improves the accuracy a good bit. Your normal road unit does not use this technology nor does it need it. It figures you're on a road, and that's close enough.

 

Trust me -- I own a TomTom and have for ages. LOVE it for geocaching, but ONLY for the purpose of driving to the general area of the cache. After that, the handheld Garmin comes out. Trying to use the TomTom just became far too frustrating for the in-close work.

 

FWIW: If you go to www.gsak.net, you will find the product mentioned earlier (GSAK). If you are a paid member at geocaching.com, you can run pocket queries. The files that get emailed to you, when unzipped, will be in GPX format. You can load those into GSAK and have it spit out (export) the OV2 files that your TomTom wants. Just copy the resulting OV2 file into your map folder on your TomTom (call it geocaches.ov2) and you now have a new POI category just for your geocaches! I update mine weekly with a fresh file. It also isn't limited to some fixed number of caches - unlike these bloody Garmin handhelds with tons of memory it won't let you use! If you get the itch to do this, drop me a line and I will send you a snapshot of my GSAK settings that my TomTom likes.

 

I work with a TomTom 720 (updated to 730 specs), and a Garmin handheld (either an eTrex SummitHC or a Dakota 20). The Summit is a great entry level unit -- very accurate, and a decent mag compass. The Dakota is a good bit pricier, but allows you to install an SD card with other maps, has a 3-axis compensated compass, and some reasonably good features specific to geocaching.

Edited January 4, 2010 by ecanderson