Cache Transfer

[+Guitar_Cacher]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been caching for about a year. I've gotten tired of printing the caches up on paper and carrying them with me. I have done some research and it seems that a PDA is the way to go. Geocaching 101 recommended several PDA's one of which being the Palm Pilot Vx. I purchased one from eBay. I have been trying desperately to transfer the cache descriptions and hints to my Palm. I have the Palm Desktop installed as well as GSAK which most people seem to recommend. I have created my database in GSAK, exported a cache to a CSV file, however when I try to import that csv file in to the palm desktop so I can add it to my PDA, it will not allow me to do so.

 

I am certain I saw a step by step guide somewhere on these forums on how to make this transfer, but I cannot find it at all right now after several searches. Mostly because if my search contains any words shorter than 5 letters it fails.

 

Does anyone know the easiest way to get these caches on to my PDA so that I can stop killing trees printing up endless descriptions.

 

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

 

Guitar_Cacher

[+team5150]

Install Cachemate on your PDA, then you will be able to transfer your information as a .pdb file via GSAK.

[jholly]

If your not a GSAK user, just use the CMCONVERT utility included in the distribution to convert .gpx files to the required .pdb

[+Guitar_Cacher]

Thank you for your responses. I have already started using GSAK and I will install CacheMate later tonight. I plan to take a day trip to Ocean Grove, NJ this weekend and I will test out the combination then. I am excited to finally start geocaching paperlessly.

 

Guitar_Cacher

[+Chrysalides]

First, do you have your Vx connected to your computer, and registered with Palm Desktop? Not many computers come with serial port these days. If you have CacheMate installed, then it means you're in good shape since you need to hotsync in order to do that.

 

From GSAK, filter for the set of geocaches you want to transfer. If you want to transfer all, then skip this step.

 

Next, File -> Export... -> Cachemate PDB File. That will generate the file and put it in the list to be synced with your Palm. When that completes, start hotsync.

 

Since this is RS-232, it can take a long time to hotsync a few MB of data.

[+Guitar_Cacher]

First, do you have your Vx connected to your computer, and registered with Palm Desktop? Not many computers come with serial port these days. If you have CacheMate installed, then it means you're in good shape since you need to hotsync in order to do that.

 

From GSAK, filter for the set of geocaches you want to transfer. If you want to transfer all, then skip this step.

 

Next, File -> Export... -> Cachemate PDB File. That will generate the file and put it in the list to be synced with your Palm. When that completes, start hotsync.

 

Since this is RS-232, it can take a long time to hotsync a few MB of data.

 

I do have my Vx connected to my PC using a serial port. I have already tested the hotsync and it appears to be working. I will know for sure once I install cachemate and try to transfer some caches to my PDA. I am at work right now and need to install Cachemate later tonight.

 

Guitar_Cacher

[jholly]

First, do you have your Vx connected to your computer, and registered with Palm Desktop? Not many computers come with serial port these days. If you have CacheMate installed, then it means you're in good shape since you need to hotsync in order to do that.

 

From GSAK, filter for the set of geocaches you want to transfer. If you want to transfer all, then skip this step.

 

Next, File -> Export... -> Cachemate PDB File. That will generate the file and put it in the list to be synced with your Palm. When that completes, start hotsync.

 

Since this is RS-232, it can take a long time to hotsync a few MB of data.

 

I do have my Vx connected to my PC using a serial port. I have already tested the hotsync and it appears to be working. I will know for sure once I install cachemate and try to transfer some caches to my PDA. I am at work right now and need to install Cachemate later tonight.

 

Guitar_Cacher

 

And if you get it all working you will have to checkout the cachematelogging macro. This is a very biased opinion.

[+Chrysalides]

And if you get it all working you will have to checkout the cachematelogging macro. This is a very biased opinion.

That's a nice macro, I wonder who wrote it I must admit, though, that when I was using my Palm Vx with CacheMate, I almost never marked a cache as found on my Palm. Reason is that I would only take the Palm out if necessary at GZ, and put it away after I've read the cache details. On a paperless GPSr, however, I will always mark it as found, since I need to ask the GPSr to search for the next cache. I just couldn't get into the habit of doing that extra step of pulling out the Palm to log my find.