Pocket Queries for a large area

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

I use GSAK and maintain a database of all caches within a fair radius of our home base. I am currently doing this with a set of about 10 Pocket Queries but I have noticed recently that gaps have started to appear between the PQ areas, as a sudden glut of new caches in a region, means that the area covered by the nearest 500 to a particular spot, shrinks.

 

Is there a way of automatically covering all of a specified area ( say Cornwall,Devon,Dorset and Somerset) with PQs?

[+keehotee]

I use GSAK and maintain a database of all caches within a fair radius of our home base. I am currently doing this with a set of about 10 Pocket Queries but I have noticed recently that gaps have started to appear between the PQ areas, as a sudden glut of new caches in a region, means that the area covered by the nearest 500 to a particular spot, shrinks.

 

Is there a way of automatically covering all of a specified area ( say Cornwall,Devon,Dorset and Somerset) with PQs?

 

Up the size of your PQs to the new(ish) 1000 limit, rather than 500?

[+Bear and Ragged]

Sort by Date Placed.

GSAK has a macro PlacedPQ which will give you the dates to set your PQ's to.

 

When you have all the caches you want to have in a PQ, set a filter to only show those caches*, then run the macro.

 

Needs to be re-adjusted occasionally, due to caches being Archived.

Edited May 17, 2011 by Bear and Ragged

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

Thanks. I hadnt realised that the size had been increased.

 

However, this still means that I am having to cover the area with circles. I thought that I remembered reading somewhere, many moons ago, that there was a way to cover a larger area such as a couple of counties without doing it in this way.

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

Sort by Date Placed.

GSAK has a macro PlacedPQ which will give you the dates to set your PQ's to.

 

When you have all the caches you want to have in a PQ, set a filter to only show those caches*, then run the macro.

 

Needs to be re-adjusted occasionally, due to caches being Archived.

 

Thanks for this advice too.

 

But doesnt this just filter from the caches already loaded into GSAK?. I am looking for an easy way of getting a larger area of caches into GSAK in the first place.

Edited May 17, 2011 by Weary Banker & Bookworm

[+Bear and Ragged]

Sort by Date Placed.

GSAK has a macro PlacedPQ which will give you the dates to set your PQ's to.

 

When you have all the caches you want to have in a PQ, set a filter to only show those caches*, then run the macro.

 

Needs to be re-adjusted occasionally, due to caches being Archived.

 

Thanks for this advice too.

 

But doesnt this just filter from the caches already loaded into GSAK?. I am looking for an easy way of getting a larger area of caches into GSAK in the first place.

Requires a bit of work to get all the caches, even if the info is old.

Once you have the area covered then run the macro.

I name my PQ's called Home1, Home2, Home3 etc, in the User Data column, them filter on caches 'containing Name' Home in the User Data column, then run the macro.

 

Does require a bit of work to find 'most' of the caches for the PQ in the first place!

[+palmetto]

I'm unfamiliar with the GSAK macro.

 

I do know how to do what you want.

 

1) select the area Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset (select the first area, hold Control + the second area, + the third area...)

 

2) ask to see all caches placed from May 2000 to Dec 31 2004 (pure guess on my part).

 

3) DON'T set a run date,

 

4) hit "submit"

 

5) at the top of the PQ page there will be a number of the caches in this query. If it's 1000, you need to adjust the dates for less time. If it's less then 1000, adjust the dates for more time. When your query returns +950 caches or so, it's ready

 

6) Next query starts on the next day after Query 1, and goes for a year or so...depending on cache density. Once you have these set up, you can leave them alone for some time, adding new queries as time passes. The queries will return fewer caches over time, as caches are archived - eventually, you might wish to adjust dates.

[+Amberel]

First, be aware that if you want to use PQs of 1000 caches, they cannot be emailed to you - you can get a notification emailed, but you have to visit the web site to download the PQ itself. This is a pretty major nuisance.

 

But the number of queries you can have defined has increased from 40 to 1000, which is useful.

 

I'm part way through setting up a system smilar to palmetto. With some difficulty I worked out a location and a radius that covers all of England, Scotland up to about Edinburgh, all Northern Ireland and about two-thirds of Ireland. It also picks up one or two in France, but not enough to worry about. It should be possible to exclude France by selecting countries, but I couldn't convince myself that I was getting all of them even though I included UK, Ireland and Isle of Man. I then go through the date procedure as described by palmetto - it is VERY longwinded and requires upwards of 100 PQs. If you use 1000 cache PQs it means ongoing maintenance issue due to the manual downloads required every few days, if you use 500 cache PQs you would need to define up to 250 PQs.

 

The whole thing is very messy and time consuming, I'm afraid, and I'm seriously considering whether it is worth the hassle .

 

Rgds, Andy

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

I'm unfamiliar with the GSAK macro.

 

I do know how to do what you want.

 

1) select the area Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset (select the first area, hold Control + the second area, + the third area...)

 

2) ask to see all caches placed from May 2000 to Dec 31 2004 (pure guess on my part).

 

3) DON'T set a run date,

 

4) hit "submit"

 

5) at the top of the PQ page there will be a number of the caches in this query. If it's 1000, you need to adjust the dates for less time. If it's less then 1000, adjust the dates for more time. When your query returns +950 caches or so, it's ready

 

6) Next query starts on the next day after Query 1, and goes for a year or so...depending on cache density. Once you have these set up, you can leave them alone for some time, adding new queries as time passes. The queries will return fewer caches over time, as caches are archived - eventually, you might wish to adjust dates.

Thanks for taking the time to reply from Florida.

 

I like your idea. Unfortunately, I dont think that it will work for us in UK ( if I have understood it correctly).

 

Where am I selecting the 'areas' from? I dont know if it is different for you in the States but here I only have the choice of 'The UK' or an area ie 'England South West'on the PQ . The latter would cover much of the area that I want but not it all, however, we have only been designating 'area' for the last couple of years and therefore anything older will not show up, unless there has been an alteration to the cache page since.

 

Any other ideas anyone?

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

I think that I have it.

 

Using the last idea BUT without using the 'Area' option , instead setting the distance from home coordinates.

 

Thanks for the contributions

[+Malpas Wanderer]

First, be aware that if you want to use PQs of 1000 caches, they cannot be emailed to you - you can get a notification emailed, but you have to visit the web site to download the PQ itself. This is a pretty major nuisance.

 

But the number of queries you can have defined has increased from 40 to 1000, which is useful.

 

I'm part way through setting up a system smilar to palmetto. With some difficulty I worked out a location and a radius that covers all of England, Scotland up to about Edinburgh, all Northern Ireland and about two-thirds of Ireland. It also picks up one or two in France, but not enough to worry about. It should be possible to exclude France by selecting countries, but I couldn't convince myself that I was getting all of them even though I included UK, Ireland and Isle of Man. I then go through the date procedure as described by palmetto - it is VERY longwinded and requires upwards of 100 PQs. If you use 1000 cache PQs it means ongoing maintenance issue due to the manual downloads required every few days, if you use 500 cache PQs you would need to define up to 250 PQs.

 

The whole thing is very messy and time consuming, I'm afraid, and I'm seriously considering whether it is worth the hassle .

Rgds, Andy

 

As I understand it from Clyde, once the Groundspeak API is released for use within GSAK you will be able to update unlimited number of caches from within GSAK.

 

Looking forward to that day as yes it is very time consuming and inefficient at the moment, especially as why I run PQ's at the moment is essentially to clear archived caches out.

Edited May 17, 2011 by Malpas Wanderer

[+Amberel]

As I understand it from Clyde, once the Groundspeak API is released for use within GSAK you will be able to update unlimited number of caches from within GSAK.

Do you have more details/timescales on that? If it's soon, and it does what I want, I'll not bother to finish off this exercise.

 

Rgds, Andy

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

I think that I have it.

 

Using the last idea BUT without using the 'Area' option , instead setting the distance from home coordinates.

 

Thanks for the contributions

You've got it. A series of PQs, each selecting a different 'placed' date taking you from September 2001 to the current day.

 

As you are looking at roughly the same area I have my GSAK set up to the following may be of help:

 

I select a radius of 100 miles from my home in Launceston.

This picks up everything down West to the Isles of Scilly, and extends to South Wales and some of mid wales and then a line roughly from the Severn Road Bridge across to the Isle of Purbeck.

This is basically the whole of the OS 1:50k Region 1 map.

 

This takes a total of 10 PQs, but within the next few weeks it's going to be 11 as No.10 is already up to around 800 caches.

 

So bear in mind it does take a bit of work to receive and import those 10 PQs into GSAK every week, so try and limit your radius to something that is going to be useful.

 

I work on the basis that 100 miles is more than I am ever likely to drive unplanned in a day/weekend to go caching.

If I do plan on going further then an additional PQ for the area I am visiting is soon put together.

 

And finally, don't set your PQs so you run 5 on any one day as that is your allocation used up.

If for any reason you want to run a new PQ at 3 in the afternoon and your weekly GSAK update PQs have used up your 5 a day allocation, you will be miffed and wonder why you set things up that way. I know because that's what I did.

[+Malpas Wanderer]

As I understand it from Clyde, once the Groundspeak API is released for use within GSAK you will be able to update unlimited number of caches from within GSAK.

Do you have more details/timescales on that? If it's soon, and it does what I want, I'll not bother to finish off this exercise.

 

Rgds, Andy

 

 

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Posted: April 28, 2011 02:39 pm

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... and I can confirm that when the Grounspeak api is publicly released (and the corresponding version of GSAK that supports it is released) you will be able to fetch any number of logs for any cache (regardless if you own it or not)

 

I don't think Clyde will commit to timescales, but the above was his response to my slightly high-jacking a thread. I think Clyde will not delay but will not equally release before its working correctly.

 

Regards Colin

[+Malpas Wanderer]

There was more;

 

1. Status of caches (including archived) can be updated in bulk

2. Full cache information can be "refreshed" for any record or filter of records in your GSAK database

 

To get caches that are not already in your database you can specify a center point and grab (with limited filtering on difficulty, terrain, cache type etc) caches radiating from this center point.

 

That is about as much as I can elaborate at the moment, so I don't want to turn this thread into a discussion about the api.

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

Please dont worry about taking over the thread. I am fascinated to hear all of your comments.

The new developments sound most interesting. Just one question ;- What is an 'api' ?

 

Disappointed to hear about the problems with the 1000 PQs as I have my 8 memos ( 5 from yesterday 3 today) waiting in my inbox this morning.

[+Amberel]

There was more;

 

1. Status of caches (including archived) can be updated in bulk

2. Full cache information can be "refreshed" for any record or filter of records in your GSAK database

 

To get caches that are not already in your database you can specify a center point and grab (with limited filtering on difficulty, terrain, cache type etc) caches radiating from this center point.

 

That is about as much as I can elaborate at the moment, so I don't want to turn this thread into a discussion about the api.

Thanks Colin, I'll wait with bated breath

 

Rgds, Andy

[+Amberel]

... Just one question ;- What is an 'api' ?

An "Application Programming Interface".

 

It's a set of functions that are intended to be called from other programs rather called directly by a user. So maybe GSAK would be able to download the logs, for example, without them being wrapped in HTML and without having to download the whole web page. That makes them much smaller and easier for the program to handle.

 

Rgds, Andy

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

I have just downloaded the 8 x 1000 PQs.

 

I dont have a problem with 'collecting' them from the Geocaching page. If anything it is easier.

 

Judging from how the database looks on MemoryMap, I seem to have achieved what I set out to.

 

Many thanks for all who helped along the way.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Weary Banker & Bookworm

[+Amberel]

I dont have a problem with 'collecting' them from the Geocaching page. If anything it is easier.

That rather depends on how you collected them before .

 

With 500 PQs GSAK used to collect them automatically for me, so there was no work involved at all.

 

Rgds, Andy

[+NattyBooshka]

Would be nice if you could write a PQ picking up 1000 caches around a point, and then exclude caches picked up by that one in another PQ, etc etc.

 

The 1000 helps... hopefully they'll put another 0 behind it in the future as there are devices that can handle 10k or more caches, and for everybody else there are plenty of programs out there that can produce a file with as few as your device can take... but at 10meg a time they would put a strain on the hamsters, so maybe have normal PQs and allow each member one superPQ?

 

Hopefully one day!

 

I use my old trusty Legend and an eTrex H, both of which can only take 500 waypoints... and so I only flash them with 400 caches or so, to allow for multis and waypoints such as the car! My iPhone though can hold... well.. I guess every cache in the world, so it holds all of my PQs for paperless or random unplanned caching.

 

To cover a large area I use overlapping queries by putting the co-ords of the caches with highest/lowest N and W/E co-ords and so can expand the search quite well... if missing tiny bits of land out!

 

Looking for the next generation of mycachemate Jr... maybe it'll go paperless? Right now it can hold 250000 caches, and uses it's own update rather than PQ.

Edited May 20, 2011 by NattyBooshka

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

Would be nice if you could write a PQ picking up 1000 caches around a point, and then exclude caches picked up by that one in another PQ, etc etc.

 

The 1000 helps... hopefully they'll put another 0 behind it in the future as there are devices that can handle 10k or more caches, and for everybody else there are plenty of programs out there that can produce a file with as few as your device can take... but at 10meg a time they would put a strain on the hamsters, so maybe have normal PQs and allow each member one superPQ?

 

Hopefully one day!

 

I use my old trusty Legend and an eTrex H, both of which can only take 500 waypoints... and so I only flash them with 400 caches or so, to allow for multis and waypoints such as the car! My iPhone though can hold... well.. I guess every cache in the world, so it holds all of my PQs for paperless or random unplanned caching.

 

To cover a large area I use overlapping queries by putting the co-ords of the caches with highest/lowest N and W/E co-ords and so can expand the search quite well... if missing tiny bits of land out!

 

Looking for the next generation of mycachemate Jr... maybe it'll go paperless? Right now it can hold 250000 caches, and uses it's own update rather than PQ.

 

I am not sure if this would help you but I use GSAK.

 

After sorting the problem that started this topic, I now have most of the South West in a database. Whenever we are planning a trip out, I use the 'polygon' method to provide a filter of the caches on our route/destination and then download this much smaller file to our GPS - Car SatNav - and PDA.

 

Personally cant see the point of the 10K PQ. I have managed all caches within 60 miles of home with just 8 PQs. Using a GSAK database you dont need to bother about duplicating anything.

[+Amberel]

I have managed all caches within 60 miles of home with just 8 PQs.

Wow! and what is more, in Devon and Cornwall there is a relatively high proportion of good ones.

 

I live in Surrey, just south of Heathrow. I kept an up to date(ish) offline database around my home co-ordinates using date separated PQs, as you are doing. A radius of 55 miles requires 35 PQs!

 

Rgds, Andy

[+NattyBooshka]

Horrible here too... 1000 caches is about 10 miles... Getting a 50 mile radius without missing any is a nightmare. Yet I'd travel 50 miles for the right cache.

[+Amberel]

Getting a 50 mile radius without missing any is a nightmare.

You are better off defining the radius you require and then splitting the PQs by dates rather than by location. That way you don't get gaps opening up if the PQ radius shrinks due to more caches being added.

 

Rgds, Andy

[+Weary Banker & Bookworm]

Getting a 50 mile radius without missing any is a nightmare.

You are better off defining the radius you require and then splitting the PQs by dates rather than by location. That way you don't get gaps opening up if the PQ radius shrinks due to more caches being added.

 

Rgds, Andy

Andy, I totally agree with you and this was the reason for the original question.

 

I was trying to get all of the caches within my defined area with normal 'point ' based circles of 500 caches. Using the 'date set' option does away with the problem of reducing circles and means that I am sure that I will capture them all into the database.

Once they are all in the database I can start to define which , more precise area, I want to retrieve to download to my particular gadget.

The area of 60 miles from my location gives me more or less the area I want. Roughly Bristol in the North East to Plymouth and Dartmoor in the South West.

The fact that there are fewer caches in this area than in yours or NattyBooshka's is surely largely irrelevant, as whichever method is used to recover a higher number of caches, more PQs will be needed.

 

I too would travel more than 50 miles to the right cache ( having just done Whitespace and Werewolf of the Yorkshire/Lancs border from home in Devon) but that is irrelevant to the discussion too because for such visits, you would pull of a seperate PQ anyway.

[+NattyBooshka]

Getting a 50 mile radius without missing any is a nightmare.

You are better off defining the radius you require and then splitting the PQs by dates rather than by location. That way you don't get gaps opening up if the PQ radius shrinks due to more caches being added.

 

Rgds, Andy

Andy, I totally agree with you and this was the reason for the original question.

 

I was trying to get all of the caches within my defined area with normal 'point ' based circles of 500 caches. Using the 'date set' option does away with the problem of reducing circles and means that I am sure that I will capture them all into the database.

Once they are all in the database I can start to define which , more precise area, I want to retrieve to download to my particular gadget.

The area of 60 miles from my location gives me more or less the area I want. Roughly Bristol in the North East to Plymouth and Dartmoor in the South West.

The fact that there are fewer caches in this area than in yours or NattyBooshka's is surely largely irrelevant, as whichever method is used to recover a higher number of caches, more PQs will be needed.

 

I too would travel more than 50 miles to the right cache ( having just done Whitespace and Werewolf of the Yorkshire/Lancs border from home in Devon) but that is irrelevant to the discussion too because for such visits, you would pull of a seperate PQ anyway.

Re-writing PQ's... and all the time I've had one for the oldest 900ish (901 at last look) so the clue was in my PQ list!

 

My default search is nearest 1000 that I haven't found... and I'll be keeping that for grabbing one every time I turn the ignition key... the rest are going! By the date method I can have a huge database and update it weekly!