Paperless with a Kindle

[+kaala]

I've recently been gifted with an Amazon Kindle ebook and thought that it would be an ideal means of paperless caching. The problem is that I have not yet discovered a way to down load cache data to it. Does anyone have any experience that they can share here? We are off to New Zealand next month and it would be great top pre-load data before we leave.

 

Thanks,

Kaala

[+N8OFP - Del]

I've recently been gifted with an Amazon Kindle ebook and thought that it would be an ideal means of paperless caching. The problem is that I have not yet discovered a way to down load cache data to it. Does anyone have any experience that they can share here? We are off to New Zealand next month and it would be great top pre-load data before we leave.

 

Thanks,

Kaala

 

There is a GSAK eReader macro that creates an epub file. I'm not sure if the Kindle can read epub files or not.

 

One word of caution with any of the eReaders, they are not waterproof or made to be handle the rough handling that they may get while Geocaching.

Edited February 14, 2011 by N8OFP - Del

[+mpilchfamily]

I have a hard enough time juggling my GPSr and iTouch. Couldn't imagine doing the same thing with a larger device like the Kindle.

[+northernpenguin]

I read ePubs on my Kindle 3G all the time, but I run them through Calibre first, to make them Kindle friendly.

Edited February 14, 2011 by northernpenguin

[+toil&trouble]

I'm pretty sure that the Kindle can't read ePub. You can go to the Kindle support page at Amazon.com to double check. You could probably convert the files to a format that the Kindle can read, but it would be pretty difficult and involved. The Kindle is a great eReader, but I also wouldn't recommend using is for caching.

[+johnvanderlip]

The kindle will read PDF files and you can easily print a cache description as a PDF file.

 

It would be pretty long and involved though.

 

I find the kindle (and all ereaders) have slow processors, I've tried to load large manuals on them and then do a keyword search, forget it, it takes forever.

[+northernpenguin]

I'm pretty sure that the Kindle can't read ePub. You can go to the Kindle support page at Amazon.com to double check. You could probably convert the files to a format that the Kindle can read, but it would be pretty difficult and involved. The Kindle is a great eReader, but I also wouldn't recommend using is for caching.

 

It is not "pretty difficult and involved" to use Calibre to convert ePubs( or PDF, or TXT, or Word, or any number of formats) to Kindle format using Calibre. Setup Calibre, tell it you have a Kindle, then drag and drop. Or just use the GSAK Mobipocket macro. Kindle does Mobipocket natively.

[+johnvanderlip]

I just did one and added it to my Kindle out of curiosity. I just printed the cache description as a .PDF, imported the file into my Calibre library and then sent it to the kindle. It's readable and took about one minute. If you planned on doing 20 caches plan about 30 minutes to send them over. Printing would be faster but it is nice not to have to print.

 

Maybe theres a better way.

Edited February 14, 2011 by johnvanderlip

[+johnvanderlip]

So I couldn't resist trying that macro even though I have no intention of using my Kindle for this purpose. It actually works OK.

 

The size limit seems to be 100 caches. I did a pocket query which held 400 caches and it created 4 e-books for me. Running the macro on GSAK took about 10 minutes and converting and sending all 4 books to the kindle took about 30 minutes. It's all pretty much hands off though.

The end result isn't bad. The book is searchable by GC code or name. It's actually fairly quick, the first page has the alphabet, you click on a letter and it will take you to a page containing all caches beginning with that letter. Click on the cache you want and you see the description, past logs and hint. Searching by GC code wasn't very good.

 

The only formatting problem is the page with difficulty rating is slightly cut off and you can't see the difficulty level.

 

If I didn't have an iPod touch I would definitely use this, just be sure your pocket query contains a maximum of 100 caches because I don't know how GSAK separated the 400 caches. Run multiple smaller queries with unique names for each one.

 

The macro I tried was the first one mentioned, I didn't try the mobigen one.

Edited February 14, 2011 by johnvanderlip

[+kaala]

Thanks johnvanderlip and the others who've read this and offered suggestions. I suffer from extreme computer incompentence and although I've been able to generate and download pocket queries to GSAK and to download Calibre I have not been successful in sending anything to my Kindle. Obviously I'm missing an essential step here somewhere.

Kaala

[+northernpenguin]

Thanks johnvanderlip and the others who've read this and offered suggestions. I suffer from extreme computer incompentence and although I've been able to generate and download pocket queries to GSAK and to download Calibre I have not been successful in sending anything to my Kindle. Obviously I'm missing an essential step here somewhere.

Kaala

 

If you have the documents in Calibre, you can send them directly to your Kindle. Just connect the Kindle, then right click on the document and there's an option to "Send to" the "Main Memory"

[+johnvanderlip]

It sounds like you didn't download the macro. It's an add-on for GSAK to allow it to create an e-pub. It's linked at the beginning of this thread.

[+Nunavut Taidy]

It sounds like you didn't download the macro. It's an add-on for GSAK to allow it to create an e-pub. It's linked at the beginning of this thread.

 

I know that this is an old thread, but as I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas, I was interested in the possibilities. Colour me impressed. Following one of the instructions above, I went to Stipman's note on GSAK and downloaded mobi.gsk. After installing the macro, I ran it, set my title, centre point, and file save location and started the process. The macro did its thing (I did get one of the old c: screen telling me that the photo's did not exist - could be a lot of lines of code here depending on the number of caches), and when it was finished I had my file. I sent it as a document to my Kindle email address, and voila. There she was! I didn't need to go to calibre or even to mobireader. Simply sent the document.

 

And I mean to say, I am impressed. I was expecting a spreadsheet type of thing with the GCXXXX, the lat/long, cache name and a few other things. What I got was a mini-GSAK page with all the data you see in GSAK minus the map. It even included the hint section and the last several logs, and nearest other caches. All of it organized under several searchable headings, including cache owner, cache name, GCXXXX, distance from my centre point, bearing from my centrepoint etc. A thing of beauty! Thanks, Stipman, for the macro!

[+Nunavut Taidy]

So I couldn't resist trying that macro even though I have no intention of using my Kindle for this purpose. It actually works OK.

 

The size limit seems to be 100 caches. I did a pocket query which held 400 caches and it created 4 e-books for me. Running the macro on GSAK took about 10 minutes and converting and sending all 4 books to the kindle took about 30 minutes. It's all pretty much hands off though.

The end result isn't bad. The book is searchable by GC code or name. It's actually fairly quick, the first page has the alphabet, you click on a letter and it will take you to a page containing all caches beginning with that letter. Click on the cache you want and you see the description, past logs and hint. Searching by GC code wasn't very good.

 

The only formatting problem is the page with difficulty rating is slightly cut off and you can't see the difficulty level.

 

If I didn't have an iPod touch I would definitely use this, just be sure your pocket query contains a maximum of 100 caches because I don't know how GSAK separated the 400 caches. Run multiple smaller queries with unique names for each one.

 

The macro I tried was the first one mentioned, I didn't try the mobigen one.

 

I too only used the macro and not mobigen. The cache number seems as though it might have been improved a little by now. The first one I did using the mobi macro was 106 caches. One file, one document no problem. The second attempt was for a document of 500 caches. It gave me a length error. I cut back for the third attempt, to 197 caches. No problem. I'll keep pushing the envelopes to see how high I can go. Suffice it to say, Kindle users can go paperless. Huzzah!!

[+gelfling6]

There was an older e-reader export, that exported them as a HTML file, along with various directories as if you were building a multi-layer webpage, that I've used on an old Compaq iPaq 3970, which pretty much converted the data from GSAK, to HTML pages.. Simply tag the country (in my case, United states), the State (Connecticut), then the GC#, which would then open to a page with the various cache ID#'s. I used to use the iPaq along side my eTrex GPS's for paperless by either typing the field notes on the on-screen keypad, or recording a voice note under Pocket-Word. (Which, I'm still unhappy, NOTHING is backward compatible to multi-content (Text & Recording) Pocket-Word .PWI files!)

 

I often wondered if the Kindle was capable of being used as such.. the only e-Reader I own, is an original version Kobo (prior to Borders Bookseller going bankrupt, this was their e-Reader of choice. Alas, too little too late.) It's fairly rugged, but I still wouldn't put it in a backpack which could get crunched against a rock face or stone wall.. ( I always worried this could happen to the iPad owners out there.)