Pocket Query to GPS

[+thecachier]

Hello, I have a Garmin Colorado 400t and a Mac computer.

 

It is my understanding that pocket queries will help load onto and manage many gpx files but I am finding the process of FINDING caches along a route to be very difficult. I've read the instructions on Geocaching.com and find them unhelpful. Can anyone here help provide some succinct instructions which do NOT result in 500 caches I don't want to take up all my gps memory? What I'd prefer: a way to watch for/hunt for caches along a highway route on my way to and near a family reunion. A 700 mile+ trip one way. I don't want all the caches within a radius of so many miles of the road. I just want the caches ALONG that road. HOW?

[+Bear and Ragged]

Daft question, but gets it out of the way early!

Are you using the http://www.geocaching.com/my/userroutes.aspx ?

 

If you set it to a limit to the miles from route,you should limit the number of caches.

You can preview the caches before you run the PQ, so can edit it to return a lower number of caches.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Before running that route PQ, narrow the corridor. I believe that you can set it as low as 1/10^th mile from the center-line of the route. That is the minimum distance for cache proximity placement too, so we are talking thereabouts 528 ft.

If that doesn't cure your problem -- keep in mind that running the maximum distance of 700 miles itself could be the problem.

Why not make two Pocket Queries, each of 350 miles? If you NAME them before running, you should be able to load them separately.

 

Regarding your unit's memory -- creating and loading a 700 mile trip should not be a drain on your unit's memory -- unless you already have it bunged up with old caches anyway. Why hold onto old caches? They are next to useless if they have been there (loaded) for quite a while. Some are certainly archived and they won't be there when you try to look for them.

 

Kind of like running a grocery store, rotate your stock. Any data that is in excess of two weeks old is stale. Get rid of it and load new data. It really doesn't make sense to keep local caches on-board if you are gonna be 700 miles away, now does it?

 

It would be difficult to overload the memory on a Colorado if you are managing data properly.

[+GeoTrekker26]

Before running that route PQ, narrow the corridor. I believe that you can set it as low as 1/10^th mile from the center-line of the route. That is the minimum distance for cache proximity placement too, so we are talking thereabouts 528 ft.

If that doesn't cure your problem -- keep in mind that running the maximum distance of 700 miles itself could be the problem.

Why not make two Pocket Queries, each of 350 miles? If you NAME them before running, you should be able to load them separately.

 

Regarding your unit's memory -- creating and loading a 700 mile trip should not be a drain on your unit's memory -- unless you already have it bunged up with old caches anyway. Why hold onto old caches? They are next to useless if they have been there (loaded) for quite a while. Some are certainly archived and they won't be there when you try to look for them.

 

Kind of like running a grocery store, rotate your stock. Any data that is in excess of two weeks old is stale. Get rid of it and load new data. It really doesn't make sense to keep local caches on-board if you are gonna be 700 miles away, now does it?

 

It would be difficult to overload the memory on a Colorado if you are managing data properly.

 

A agree with most of what GG says in this post but have a point to add and some suggestions.

 

First, one should understand that when creating a route, the data used to locate the caches for the PQ does NOT follow the road exactly. The usually curvy route is broken up into a series of straight line segments. It is these segments that are used to find the caches. The significance of this this that a sharp, short jog out and back (say a view point) may not get captured if the radius is set too small. On a casual trip this is not significant, but it is if one is trying to capture all caches along a route.

 

While I don't normally I don't filter PQs by D & T settings, I do when I'm traveling. I know that I will only want to stop for a few minutes at a given location so I adjust the PQ accordingly, often select only <= 3 DT and no puzzles or multis.

 

One thing you might want to do is preview the PQ with a radius set quite high, and then sort the results by favorite points. You might find a cache that is a mile or two off your route, but want to include it because it has a lot of fav points and looks interesting. If you find caches like this, download them individually then reset the radius to the smaller value suggested by GG. Note that depending on the density of caches on your route you might need several short route segments in order to search a 2 or 3 mile radius.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[+thecachier]

Daft question, but gets it out of the way early!

Are you using the http://www.geocaching.com/my/userroutes.aspx ?

 

If you set it to a limit to the miles from route,you should limit the number of caches.

You can preview the caches before you run the PQ, so can edit it to return a lower number of caches.

 

Hi, and thanks. The suggestion of setting a limit from the route was very helpful...but that link you sent was the first time I saw those options. (And yes, I am a paid subscriber/member.)

 

Yes, I was attempting to use the routes features. I am not computer illiterate but it wasn't/isn't making much sense to me - Not a user friendly tool.

 

Creating PQ's is a pain also. I'm trying to use the features provided to delete unneeded PQ's and they won't go away. ?? In any case I can't tell that what I am creating is going to actually provide what I need/want until the PQ runs and that requires waiting. What if the run is bad? Well, then wait some more. Good thing I thought to ask about this a couple weeks before my trip.

 

[i've just got more and more questions ....but I'll not waste each other's time and limit it to this broad set question: How does one manage their GPS data (GPX files) for routes if the GPS is limited to 200 gpx files? Is there a technique or trick to managing route data? How is it that some people find thousands of geocaches when it takes so long to just program the gps and manage the gathering of these coordinates? Am I missing something? I'm not out to collect thousands but I'm going on 3-4 yrs of geocaching and I've got 170 some odd finds and all of them meant spending lots of time programing the GPS and knowing where I wanted to go. What if I'm just "out and about" and want to see what's around me? Sorry, I'm rambling now. I just feel like I must be missing something when it comes to these files and routes and PQ's because others make is seem so easy. I often spend more time preparing to go geocaching - because I've got to program the gps and have a rough idea of where I want to go - than I spend in time actually spend holding the GPS in my hand and walking to a cache.] Ok, I'll stop now...because I am (rightfully) whining.

 

Thanks again.

[+thecachier]

Before running that route PQ, narrow the corridor. I believe that you can set it as low as 1/10^th mile from the center-line of the route. That is the minimum distance for cache proximity placement too, so we are talking thereabouts 528 ft.

If that doesn't cure your problem -- keep in mind that running the maximum distance of 700 miles itself could be the problem.

Why not make two Pocket Queries, each of 350 miles? If you NAME them before running, you should be able to load them separately.

 

Regarding your unit's memory -- creating and loading a 700 mile trip should not be a drain on your unit's memory -- unless you already have it bunged up with old caches anyway. Why hold onto old caches? They are next to useless if they have been there (loaded) for quite a while. Some are certainly archived and they won't be there when you try to look for them.

 

Kind of like running a grocery store, rotate your stock. Any data that is in excess of two weeks old is stale. Get rid of it and load new data. It really doesn't make sense to keep local caches on-board if you are gonna be 700 miles away, now does it?

 

It would be difficult to overload the memory on a Colorado if you are managing data properly.

 

A agree with most of what GG says in this post but have a point to add and some suggestions.

 

First, one should understand that when creating a route, the data used to locate the caches for the PQ does NOT follow the road exactly. The usually curvy route is broken up into a series of straight line segments. It is these segments that are used to find the caches. The significance of this this that a sharp, short jog out and back (say a view point) may not get captured if the radius is set too small. On a casual trip this is not significant, but it is if one is trying to capture all caches along a route.

 

While I don't normally I don't filter PQs by D & T settings, I do when I'm traveling. I know that I will only want to stop for a few minutes at a given location so I adjust the PQ accordingly, often select only <= 3 DT and no puzzles or multis.

 

One thing you might want to do is preview the PQ with a radius set quite high, and then sort the results by favorite points. You might find a cache that is a mile or two off your route, but want to include it because it has a lot of fav points and looks interesting. If you find caches like this, download them individually then reset the radius to the smaller value suggested by GG. Note that depending on the density of caches on your route you might need several short route segments in order to search a 2 or 3 mile radius.

 

Enjoy your trip!

 

Thanks! I also appreciate those additional suggestions. I've got some PQ's set to run the next couple days. I set the limit to (depending on the portion of the route) between .25 and .5 mile from the route.

[+thecachier]

Before running that route PQ, narrow the corridor. I believe that you can set it as low as 1/10^th mile from the center-line of the route. That is the minimum distance for cache proximity placement too, so we are talking thereabouts 528 ft.

 

Thanks! Suggestion was helpful.

[+GeoTrekker26]

Thanks! I also appreciate those additional suggestions. I've got some PQ's set to run the next couple days. I set the limit to (depending on the portion of the route) between .25 and .5 mile from the route.

 

I hope you know about running a PQ without selecting a day to run! When you create a PQ you can run it without setting a day to run. Doing so, it creates a preview that runs within seconds and DOES NOT count against your daily quota. You can continue to edit it and run it as many times as is needed. The preview contains a full list of the caches and you view the results on the map. You should get in the habit of doing this with every PQ you create as it can be very frustrating to wait a day or two and realize you didn't get what you wanted.

 

After you have tweaked the query to give you what you want, then you can select the day for i to run.

[+redwoodkestrel]

 

[i've just got more and more questions ....but I'll not waste each other's time and limit it to this broad set question: How does one manage their GPS data (GPX files) for routes if the GPS is limited to 200 gpx files? Is there a technique or trick to managing route data? How is it that some people find thousands of geocaches when it takes so long to just program the gps and manage the gathering of these coordinates? Am I missing something? I'm not out to collect thousands but I'm going on 3-4 yrs of geocaching and I've got 170 some odd finds and all of them meant spending lots of time programing the GPS and knowing where I wanted to go. What if I'm just "out and about" and want to see what's around me? Sorry, I'm rambling now. I just feel like I must be missing something when it comes to these files and routes and PQ's because others make is seem so easy. I often spend more time preparing to go geocaching - because I've got to program the gps and have a rough idea of where I want to go - than I spend in time actually spend holding the GPS in my hand and walking to a cache.] Ok, I'll stop now...because I am (rightfully) whining.

 

Thanks again.

 

I'll answer the questions I've bolded - realize that ONE pocket query = ONE GPX file. Since you can get up to 1000 caches in one PQ, if your unit can hold 200 GPX files, that's a lot of caches!

 

What I do is using the geocaching.com map, I center it on my home area and run a pocket query from that. That gives me 1000 caches centered around my house in one GPX file, so if I'm just out and about in my city I know I always have geocaches loaded on my GPS unit. I do the same thing for other areas I travel to frequently. You can set the PQ to run on the same day each week, so you can get newly published caches that way, as well as the new logs for the other caches - so you can keep your GPS unit up to date by once a week, delete the old GPX files out of your GPS unit, downloading these new PQs, and dragging and dropping them into the corresponding folders in your GPS unit. It's really quite easy and fast once you get the hang of it - takes all of about 5 minutes.

 

This way you'll always have local caches loaded in your unit. And because that shouldn't be too much of a drain on your memory, there should still be plenty of room to run specialized pocket queries if you're going on a trip to a new area.

[+Bear and Ragged]

TIP.

Set up your required criteria for a PQ.

 

DONT select 'Day to Run' and run the PQ. You will see the results on a search page.

If it doesn't work, select 'Edit' and edit!

 

When you are happy with the results, then select Day to Run for the PQ to run, and it will return the caches in a PQ.

 

Running a PQ without the day selected will not use any of your 5 a day, as it doesn't provide a GPX file.

[+thecachier]

TIP.

Set up your required criteria for a PQ.

 

DONT select 'Day to Run' and run the PQ. You will see the results on a search page.

If it doesn't work, select 'Edit' and edit!

 

When you are happy with the results, then select Day to Run for the PQ to run, and it will return the caches in a PQ.

 

Running a PQ without the day selected will not use any of your 5 a day, as it doesn't provide a GPX file.

 

Thank you! Now I'm "getting" it.

 

So, how do I delete these PQ's or are they always just crossed out and never actually go away? Will they eventually go away?

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Thank you! Now I'm "getting" it.

 

So, how do I delete these PQ's or are they always just crossed out and never actually go away? Will they eventually go away?

Once crossed off, they are not available anymore. They will eventually go away, but you cannot "remove" them.

If there is a line through them, don't worry about 'em. It's just letting you know that one had ran and it had been downloaded. You cannot download it more than once.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Gitchee-Gummee

[+Bear and Ragged]

The PQ's with a line through have been run in the last 24 hours, and will disappear after 24 hours.

PQ's run more than 24 hours ago can be deleted immediately.