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Poket Query limitations


Ladislav Laska

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Hello,

 

I've recently acquired premium membership to use the PQ's. I can now download caches to my GPS device more easily, thanks for that! But I still consider the limitations of this a major BUG:

 

1) You can only do 1000 caches with one PQ. I can't even download the whole city of Prague with one query. Even if you could, you can't even update it daily and much can change in a day, especially in a big city like Prague.

2) I'll be traveling around Czech Republic. I want to cache around, but the Garmin 62s does not have internet connection! How do I download all the caches into my GPS receiver? How do I update this? 5 queries per day, each 1000 caches is nearly not enough! If I manage to download them all to my receiver, it takes a week to do so and many of them are out-of-date when I finish!

 

I consider this bug. I paid 30 EUR to use this page, and it is a only a little better -- I can now do what I want, but it is not good way. I have some solutions for you:

 

A) Drop the limit on number of caches per query. You can still have other limits, I won't be able to overload your server, since the query can't run more than once per 3 days anyway.

B) Make some generic lists available -- for example you could have prepared lists for each country, updated daily. This would take little time and people will just download the file and no load on your server will be visible (only some traffic, and I think the traffic may easily lower, since I guess people now use it uselessly to handler you PQ stuff)

C) Make something from above available via GC Live.

 

Why is this not done in year 2013? Are you afraid that someone will use the data for alternative geocaching site? You should be! With this morale, it may easily happen that someone pulls out something that is much better and people will adopt it. You may think it may not happen, but you really don't know. I would for example welcome site like it and would support it from early stages!

 

Think about it, please. It's a bug by design, but still a bug!

 

I will be glad to see some reasons why I'm mistaken and why is your way better, or that I have completely missed the easy way to download all caches from czech republic in a day and go on a trip, but I know how I'm tired of clicking on PQs...

 

(Yeah, and the smiley face is "B )" without the space and "...)

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I can answer to two of your questions. The first one is Split the types of caches up. Prague has alot of mystery caches so make one pq of that. eliminate any events these you can add later if you want to via the basic way. Then do your traditional and multi you might be able to add virtual in there too.

 

Your Garmin do you have a USB cord that came with the Gps if you did use that a transfer the queries that way. Hope this helps - Mcpat12

 

PQ LIMITATIONS ARE NOT A BUG! YOU CAN ONLY DOWNLOAD 1000 CACHES AT A TIME!

Edited by mcpat12
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You can't possibly get all the caches and you can't load them all in your GPS a tonce anyway. So why all the angst? Be more realistic about your needs, abilities, and what caches you prefer and limit your selections accordingly.

 

We have thousands of caches in my city, but I cannot hold them all in my device. Also, I can't do many of them due to a disability, there are many I have no interest in that go on my ignore list, and there are parts of the city I seldom go to. All that considered, I can pare down to a pretty specific subset of caches in the city and have plenty to choose form on a daily basis. If we go to another area on the weekend I can runa quick PQ to get caches for that area and have them loaded in my gizmo in minutes and off we go.

 

I just don't see a problem here.

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One point of correction. A PQ can be run every day, not just every three days (that's the limitation on the My Finds query).

 

And here's another suggestion (I know, it's a workaround to your perceived "bug"). Set up PQs by date placed. For the older ones, just run them weekly. Little happens to the older ones except disabling or archiving. If you go to a cache and can't find it, you can use your cellphone to see if it's one of the few that have gone away. If you really have that much activity, then run the current one daily. It will capture all the new ones. That should give you literally thousands of caches to choose from.

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Also - limit based on the types of caches that you don't like.

 

Are you always with no preparation going to be going after 5 star terrain and 5 star difficulty? Do you seek out every cache possible?

 

For instance, I have a standard load on my GPS of caches from pocket queries:

 

The GONIL area has 17791 caches

 

Let's limit that to 20 miles within my home radius

That leaves 4641 caches (26.1%)

 

Let's throw out the non-traditional (I'm caching without any descriptions if they're just loaded to the GPS)

That leaves 4003 (22.5%)

 

Let's limit the cache size to small, regular and large (my preference)

That leaves 1,380 (7.8%)

 

Terrain between 1.5 and 3.5 (again, my preference)

That leaves 1,301 (7.3%)

 

Difficulty less than 3.5 (my preference for no preparation caching)

That leaves 1,295 (7.3%)

 

In GSAK, I can filter to include only caches where in the last 4 logs, there have been 2 found logs - let's use only them

That leaves 1,193 (6.7%)

 

If I further limit the caches to discard disabled caches

That leaves 1,184 (6.7%)

 

If I limit it to caches that have a found log in the last 3 months (greater than or equal to April 30, 2013

That leaves 901 (5.1%)

 

Admittedly, not all of these conditions can be weeded out on the PQ interface, but between the PQ and GSAK (and its API interface), you can get it manageable to pull a very limited number of caches that WILL BE THE ONES YOU WANT TO FIND. Then grab more later.

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Thanks for your responses. I will try to give arguments below, since there came up with a lot of them. I did not react on something duplicit, to keep it as short as possible. There are something we just can't agree on, like the "best interest of gs". Don't take it personally, it just means I don't agree with you on this topic.

 

To sum it up, I don't think you offered some interesting point, that all have some pros and cons, but no real solution I would like, just some workarounds.

 

1. Learn to like it

2. Join another site.

 

I won't and I did. It's just like I don't like to split the great community because of something that can be fixed.

 

I can answer to two of your questions. The first one is Split the types of caches up. Prague has alot of mystery caches so make one pq of that. eliminate any events these you can add later if you want to via the basic way. Then do your traditional and multi you might be able to add virtual in there too.

 

Yeah, I can definitely do that. But again, what happens when I travel around? Do I have to do this painfully every time I go somewhere?

 

Your Garmin do you have a USB cord that came with the Gps if you did use that a transfer the queries that way. Hope this helps - Mcpat12

 

Does it work on Linux? Anyway, it does not solve any problems! The problem is with getting the files I want to..

 

PQ LIMITATIONS ARE NOT A BUG! YOU CAN ONLY DOWNLOAD 1000 CACHES AT A TIME!

You say so, I don't think so. If you don't want to call it a bug, I'd call it a misfeature, but you still did not gave me a reason, why is this misfeature in place.

 

You can't possibly get all the caches and you can't load them all in your GPS a tonce anyway. So why all the angst? Be more realistic about your needs, abilities, and what caches you prefer and limit your selections accordingly.

 

That's where you are wrong. I can get a lot of caches in my gps, there is a lot of place on my 2GB card and internal memory and I can buy even 16GB or larger card. I currently have 40k caches in my receiver. That is all caches in Poland and Czech Republic. The problem is, that I'm having hard time updating this..

 

One point of correction. A PQ can be run every day, not just every three days (that's the limitation on the My Finds query).

 

And here's another suggestion (I know, it's a workaround to your perceived "bug"). Set up PQs by date placed. For the older ones, just run them weekly. Little happens to the older ones except disabling or archiving. If you go to a cache and can't find it, you can use your cellphone to see if it's one of the few that have gone away. If you really have that much activity, then run the current one daily. It will capture all the new ones. That should give you literally thousands of caches to choose from.

 

What and obscurity, I would think my finds would be the same. Ok, I don't care.

 

The thin is I have the caches split by date. But that is no solution, I still have a lot of queries. This work fine for prague, it does not work for traveling (the thing I want is to get cache in every region in czech republic).

 

Also - limit based on the types of caches that you don't like.

 

Are you always with no preparation going to be going after 5 star terrain and 5 star difficulty? Do you seek out every cache possible?

 

I like all types of caches. I sometimes go to a trip where the 5 star difficulty can be done, like to solve mysteries in the train, 5 diff won't stop me. Even if it did, that is really a few caches (I think there is under 100 caches 5/5 in czech republic). To sum it up, I like challenges and that means I can't filter out obscure caches. On the other side, I sometimes want to take an easy cache since the train is going in half an hour and I don't have anything to do.

 

By the way, you say these condition you proposed can't be filtered out in PQ's. How does that solve my problem? I still have to create a bunch of PQ's and run them regularly (and when I cross some barrier like 5*7, I can't do it automatically anymore -- for you to know, I just did cross it yesterday)

 

It is not in Groundspeak's best interest to let you, or anyone else replicate their database on a daily basis. If they allowed that, people would start selling the data a lower price.

 

Yeah, I'm actually surprised nobody said so earlier. You may think so, I don't. Have you looked around, whether you can't get the database somewhere else? I did. The thing is, I don't want to exploid the site, I want to USE comfortable, since I paid for it.

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Downloading large amounts of geocaches is actually quite common in Norway, and we all do it with the tools provided by Groundspeak, without breaking any agreements or terms of use.

 

I personally have all caches in Norway in my GSAK database, somewhere between 30k and 40k.

I initially populated the database by using PQs for all of Norway, divided by placed date (Project-GC.com have a nice tool to help you with this).

After about a week or so, the database is "complete".

 

I used these PQs to update my database, and it worked flawlessly. I can travel as much as I want within Norway, and a still have everything I need.

But the problem with this approach was that any given cache could potentially have data as old as one week. To overcome this problem I've disabled all my old PQs, and now use the following to keep my database updated:

- A PQ that every day gives me all the caches in Norway, published the last month

- A set of PQs that runs across the week, giving me the caches changed in the last seven days

- A set of PQs that weakly ensures I have all the caches in my region

 

By using this setup, I always have an updated database, and I don't have to download caches that has no activity.

 

If I'm going somewhere, which I often do - I travel a lot! I simply use the Get Geocaches function of the Groundspeak API to fetch up to 6000 caches per day. Together with running a few PQs, I can get everything I want.

 

I do agree with you partly, I would like to be able to pay to be able to run extra PQs - but I don't consider this a bug.

Today I just use my wife's account if and when I need to run a few extra.

 

I would not recommend keeping 40k geocaches on a Garmin 62s, the 62s can't handle more than 5k geocaches. If you load any more than that, you risk crashing it.

Edited by thomfre
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You have been a member since Oct of 2008 and have done 264 caches, the average GPS will hold 1000 caches, so why would you need to download every cache in the city? If you could download that many caches by the time you would get around to doing them all your list would be outdated and to make sure you weren't looking for archived caches you would have to download a new PQ every few days anyway.

 

I keep bookmark lists and depending on where I'm going to cache that day I have maybe 20 or 30 caches loaded and usually never do all of them that day.

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For the Gps you need either a mac or pc computer laptop or desktop. The misfeature is in place because the PQ's run through Groundspeaks servers and if you were to make a pq of 5000 then the website and other pqs would be really slow. Yes unless you have a geocahing app on your phone with a built in gps. Here is a tip when I know that I'm gong somewhere I download pqs for that area. For instance I went to Huntsville, Alabama and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee this summer. I generated two PQs for one for each city. I did this even before I left home. I was happy I did this because I didn't have Internet in Huntsville.

Edited by mcpat12
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Downloading large amounts of geocaches is actually quite common in Norway, and we all do it with the tools provided by Groundspeak, without breaking any agreements or terms of use.

 

I personally have all caches in Norway in my GSAK database, somewhere between 30k and 40k.

I initially populated the database by using PQs for all of Norway, divided by placed date (Project-GC.com have a nice tool to help you with this).

After about a week or so, the database is "complete".

 

I used these PQs to update my database, and it worked flawlessly. I can travel as much as I want within Norway, and a still have everything I need.

But the problem with this approach was that any given cache could potentially have data as old as one week. To overcome this problem I've disabled all my old PQs, and now use the following to keep my database updated:

- A PQ that every day gives me all the caches in Norway, published the last month

- A set of PQs that runs across the week, giving me the caches changed in the last seven days

- A set of PQs that weakly ensures I have all the caches in my region

 

By using this setup, I always have an updated database, and I don't have to download caches that has no activity.

 

If I'm going somewhere, which I often do - I travel a lot! I simply use the Get Geocaches function of the Groundspeak API to fetch up to 6000 caches per day. Together with running a few PQs, I can get everything I want.

 

I do agree with you partly, I would like to be able to pay to be able to run extra PQs - but I don't consider this a bug.

Today I just use my wife's account if and when I need to run a few extra.

 

I would not recommend keeping 40k geocaches on a Garmin 62s, the 62s can't handle more than 5k geocaches. If you load any more than that, you risk crashing it.

Not sure that logic, and a simple solution work for a cacher who won't listen and insists that his/her solution is what is needed.

I do what you do. I select my area (all of New Jersey, and any cache within 65 miles). Sorted by date hidden. Twenty-five pocket queries covers that. Every few months I update my queries. I use GSAK to define the area I plan on searching this week. And load between 3000 and 400 caches on our GPSr units.

It's easy to set up, and works very well. But some people are not interested in easy solutions. They want the world handed to them on a silver platter. Oh, well.

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I'm still not clear on why the OP needs all of the caches in the country at any one time. I generally know where I'm going before I go there, so I can just run a PQ for the area I'll be visiting. Unless you're going to be aimlessly wandering the country, I just don't see why you need all of the caches. In essence, download just the caches you need.

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It's easy to set up, and works very well. But some people are not interested in easy solutions. They want the world handed to them on a silver platter. Oh, well.

 

So true!

 

The OP should go out and find some caches rather than complain about how many (that they haven't found) can be included in a PQ.

 

A PQ can include 1000, will that be a good day for you? :P:unsure:

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It is not in Groundspeak's best interest to let you, or anyone else replicate their database on a daily basis. If they allowed that, people would start selling the data a lower price.

 

Yeah, I'm actually surprised nobody said so earlier. You may think so, I don't. Have you looked around, whether you can't get the database somewhere else? I did. The thing is, I don't want to exploid the site, I want to USE comfortable, since I paid for it.

 

You are getting exactly what you paid for. Would you buy a 12 pack of beer and then complain that it should have 24 cans of beer in it? You are allowed 5 PQs a day, each containing 1000 caches. You are also allowed to use the api with a third party program to download an additional 6000 caches per 24 hr period. You can technically download 77,000 caches a week.

 

Some people that are obsessed with trying to replicate as much of the db as possible actually buy two or more premium memberships. If 77,000 caches a week isn't enough for you, you have that option.

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Downloading large amounts of geocaches is actually quite common in Norway, and we all do it with the tools provided by Groundspeak, without breaking any agreements or terms of use.

 

I personally have all caches in Norway in my GSAK database, somewhere between 30k and 40k.

I initially populated the database by using PQs for all of Norway, divided by placed date (Project-GC.com have a nice tool to help you with this).

After about a week or so, the database is "complete".

 

I used these PQs to update my database, and it worked flawlessly. I can travel as much as I want within Norway, and a still have everything I need.

But the problem with this approach was that any given cache could potentially have data as old as one week. To overcome this problem I've disabled all my old PQs, and now use the following to keep my database updated:

- A PQ that every day gives me all the caches in Norway, published the last month

- A set of PQs that runs across the week, giving me the caches changed in the last seven days

- A set of PQs that weakly ensures I have all the caches in my region

 

By using this setup, I always have an updated database, and I don't have to download caches that has no activity.

 

If I'm going somewhere, which I often do - I travel a lot! I simply use the Get Geocaches function of the Groundspeak API to fetch up to 6000 caches per day. Together with running a few PQs, I can get everything I want.

 

I do agree with you partly, I would like to be able to pay to be able to run extra PQs - but I don't consider this a bug.

Today I just use my wife's account if and when I need to run a few extra.

 

I would not recommend keeping 40k geocaches on a Garmin 62s, the 62s can't handle more than 5k geocaches. If you load any more than that, you risk crashing it.

Not sure that logic, and a simple solution work for a cacher who won't listen and insists that his/her solution is what is needed.

I do what you do. I select my area (all of New Jersey, and any cache within 65 miles). Sorted by date hidden. Twenty-five pocket queries covers that. Every few months I update my queries. I use GSAK to define the area I plan on searching this week. And load between 3000 and 400 caches on our GPSr units.

It's easy to set up, and works very well. But some people are not interested in easy solutions. They want the world handed to them on a silver platter. Oh, well.

 

One way to get around this limitation of caches not being up to date, if your using an iPhone (possibly droid also but I haven't tested) is to use the app Geosphere instead of the Geocaching.com app. You can very easily load your PQ's into it, it then puts the caches as "Offline" caches. You can then go into your "Offline Caches" menu and it will show all the caches saved on your phone (I currently have 3000 or so) and there's an option to "Update". Click this, then chose "Full Cache Data". It will then pull all the recent logs, TB info, etc from geocaching.com for all the caches in your offline DB. This way all you would really need to run on a weekly basis is the "Cache's placed in the last week" to get them into your DB. No other queries would be needed to update old records. When I update info for my 3000 caches it takes less than a minute. The other huge benefit of geosphere over geocaching's app is that as your driving around it will automatically move the closest cache to the top of your list, unlike the geocaching app that you have to do a new search to reorganize them. This helps a lot when driving around looking for caches. This feature itself is the main reason I stopped using the geocaching app.

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I'm still not clear on why the OP needs all of the caches in the country at any one time. I generally know where I'm going before I go there, so I can just run a PQ for the area I'll be visiting. Unless you're going to be aimlessly wandering the country, I just don't see why you need all of the caches. In essence, download just the caches you need.

 

Not necessarily a reason to need all the caches in the entire country but certainly people who travel without laptops and mobile internet and all that modern malarkey find it useful to be able to load a bunch of stuff before they go.

 

If you're planning to cache in one area, then drive to another area, hang out in that area for a few days, then drive on somewhere else you've got three general areas plus two routes, and with the best will in the world often the radius spanned by 1000 caches often doesn't cover what's within easy striking distance for a day-trip. Last year I visited some friends, ran two PQs based either side of where they live, and on our first day with them ended up something like 50 miles outside the area my queries covered.

 

I've often thought it is silly to be allowed to run 5 queries in a day with each returning up to 1000 caches. It would make more sense to have an unlimited number of caches per query but imposing a limit on how many caches can be downloaded in a day.

 

It's a shame that GS seem to be taking the view more and more that they've put the API in place so now just assume third party software suppliers will overcome all the inadequacies of their own site.

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Since the pocket query generator is performing as designed, I am moving this thread from the Bug Reporting forum to the Feature Suggestion forum.

Ah yes "performing as designed" - the greatest phrase every invented by a maintenance programmer.

 

To be on topic

 

It's been a while since someone has complained about not being able to download a whole country in one pocket query. I suspect that the reason is that more people now have access to the solution - using a smartphone with one of the Geocaching Live apps. Then you can get the nearest caches anywhere you have cell phone service. And if you go someplace without cell phone service you can still get a pocket query for that area in advanced and still be able to find caches.

 

I think the biggest issue with giving unlimited geocaches is that pocket queries get stale. You could allow people to download the unlimited number everyday but that would possibly create a bandwith issue. Even the API has limits to control this.

 

Of course, the limits don't prevent anyone from building up a large off-line database. My guess is that Groundspeak would prefer that people didn't do this. Those who do this will generally accept that they may miss some new caches and go to a few caches that have been archived and they accept that limitation. But ideally, you would decide where you are headed a run a pocket query just before you head out. With pocket queries along a route and many ways to slice and dice area pocket queries, most people's needs are met.

 

It seems to me that if you are really in the situation that you often find yourself deciding to go caching in an area where you don't have access to the internet to get a fresh pocket query, your best alternative would be to pay for a smartphone and data plan and use one of the apps. Yes, you will need to pay this cost in adddition to the premium membership.

 

I just Googled it and, at least when the article was written last year, the Czech Republic was on the low end in smartphone penetration. So it could be that the suggestion is somewhat less useful to the OP than to someone in Norway which was at the upper end.

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Downloading large amounts of geocaches is actually quite common in Norway, and we all do it with the tools provided by Groundspeak, without breaking any agreements or terms of use.

 

I personally have all caches in Norway in my GSAK database, somewhere between 30k and 40k.

I initially populated the database by using PQs for all of Norway, divided by placed date (Project-GC.com have a nice tool to help you with this).

After about a week or so, the database is "complete".

 

I used these PQs to update my database, and it worked flawlessly. I can travel as much as I want within Norway, and a still have everything I need.

But the problem with this approach was that any given cache could potentially have data as old as one week. To overcome this problem I've disabled all my old PQs, and now use the following to keep my database updated:

- A PQ that every day gives me all the caches in Norway, published the last month

- A set of PQs that runs across the week, giving me the caches changed in the last seven days

- A set of PQs that weakly ensures I have all the caches in my region

 

By using this setup, I always have an updated database, and I don't have to download caches that has no activity.

 

If I'm going somewhere, which I often do - I travel a lot! I simply use the Get Geocaches function of the Groundspeak API to fetch up to 6000 caches per day. Together with running a few PQs, I can get everything I want.

 

I do agree with you partly, I would like to be able to pay to be able to run extra PQs - but I don't consider this a bug.

Today I just use my wife's account if and when I need to run a few extra.

 

I would not recommend keeping 40k geocaches on a Garmin 62s, the 62s can't handle more than 5k geocaches. If you load any more than that, you risk crashing it.

Not sure that logic, and a simple solution work for a cacher who won't listen and insists that his/her solution is what is needed.

I do what you do. I select my area (all of New Jersey, and any cache within 65 miles). Sorted by date hidden. Twenty-five pocket queries covers that. Every few months I update my queries. I use GSAK to define the area I plan on searching this week. And load between 3000 and 400 caches on our GPSr units.

It's easy to set up, and works very well. But some people are not interested in easy solutions. They want the world handed to them on a silver platter. Oh, well.

 

One way to get around this limitation of caches not being up to date, if your using an iPhone (possibly droid also but I haven't tested) is to use the app Geosphere instead of the Geocaching.com app. You can very easily load your PQ's into it, it then puts the caches as "Offline" caches. You can then go into your "Offline Caches" menu and it will show all the caches saved on your phone (I currently have 3000 or so) and there's an option to "Update". Click this, then chose "Full Cache Data". It will then pull all the recent logs, TB info, etc from geocaching.com for all the caches in your offline DB. This way all you would really need to run on a weekly basis is the "Cache's placed in the last week" to get them into your DB. No other queries would be needed to update old records. When I update info for my 3000 caches it takes less than a minute. The other huge benefit of geosphere over geocaching's app is that as your driving around it will automatically move the closest cache to the top of your list, unlike the geocaching app that you have to do a new search to reorganize them. This helps a lot when driving around looking for caches. This feature itself is the main reason I stopped using the geocaching app.

I have a Droid. Can't find Geosphere in the "store". There is a music application by that name though. Is the Droid version under a different name?

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I have a Droid. Can't find Geosphere in the "store". There is a music application by that name though. Is the Droid version under a different name?

 

I checked and it doesn't look like Geosphere is available for the Droid. However, it does look like there's an app called c:geo (http://www.cgeo.org/) that many people love on the droid. Give that one a try, it sounds like the feature set is very similar.

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I would not recommend keeping 40k geocaches on a Garmin 62s, the 62s can't handle more than 5k geocaches. If you load any more than that, you risk crashing it.

 

I have yet to run into the upper limit of caches you can put on a Garmin 62S if you do them as POIs.

As a test I had 60,000 caches on my unit with no problem.

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I have a Droid. Can't find Geosphere in the "store". There is a music application by that name though. Is the Droid version under a different name?

 

I checked and it doesn't look like Geosphere is available for the Droid. However, it does look like there's an app called c:geo (http://www.cgeo.org/) that many people love on the droid. Give that one a try, it sounds like the feature set is very similar.

I wouldn't recommend c:geo, since it is not approved by Groundspeak. Several people around here use NeonGeo. I don't know much about it, but they seem to like it.

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I have a Droid. Can't find Geosphere in the "store". There is a music application by that name though. Is the Droid version under a different name?

 

I checked and it doesn't look like Geosphere is available for the Droid. However, it does look like there's an app called c:geo (http://www.cgeo.org/) that many people love on the droid. Give that one a try, it sounds like the feature set is very similar.

I wouldn't recommend c:geo, since it is not approved by Groundspeak. Several people around here use NeonGeo. I don't know much about it, but they seem to like it.

 

Good to know thanks. I didn't know that.

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I've noticed that you may think that I won't listen for a simple advice, have got just for what I paid, and I'm crazy guy that does not have anything to do but to complain. You may be right, but here is the reason: I see the _practical_ reasons why the limitations are there and know, that they can be overcome quiet easily, as I proposed in to original post. I also don't like obstructions that are thrown at as, like artificial limitations. Why can't we do thing, that is possible and won't cost more than few hours of programmer's time? Even if a few more people will buy PM, they will profit (well, they may not since you said there are some people that have multiple PM's to download stuff -- I think THEY are crazy and should ask WHY do they have to have them).

 

One thing about traffic is, that people won't go and download whole database every day 5 times. Many people will do it just before the trip, just like they do it now, but they won't have to prepare the database in front and it would only take a few minutes.

 

Ok, I offer myself to Groundspeak to implement the proposed features on the geocaching.com site. Maybe the original limitations, that arised many years ago, are not a problem anymore? I mean the traffic, which is pretty cheap these days. (You don't have to believe that I'm capable of it, but I think I am. Maybe you should think about it when you say that I don't accept solutions and want the world on the silver plate -- I'd love to have it and I will gladly put it there, if I'm given a chance)

 

Since the pocket query generator is performing as designed, I am moving this thread from the Bug Reporting forum to the Feature Suggestion forum.

 

Yeah, you should move it to the section "bugs design", but you don't seem to have one!

 

One way to get around this limitation of caches not being up to date, if your using an iPhone (possibly droid also but I haven't tested) is to use the app Geosphere instead of the Geocaching.com app. [...]

 

Yeah, I want to use my GPS device, and not to buy a crappy iphone/droid/stuff that I have to charge every day when using gps and can't have cheap replacement battery...

 

I'm still not clear on why the OP needs all of the caches in the country at any one time. I generally know where I'm going before I go there, so I can just run a PQ for the area I'll be visiting. Unless you're going to be aimlessly wandering the country, I just don't see why you need all of the caches. In essence, download just the caches you need.

 

Not necessarily a reason to need all the caches in the entire country but certainly people who travel without laptops and mobile internet and all that modern malarkey find it useful to be able to load a bunch of stuff before they go.

 

If you're planning to cache in one area, then drive to another area, hang out in that area for a few days, then drive on somewhere else you've got three general areas plus two routes, and with the best will in the world often the radius spanned by 1000 caches often doesn't cover what's within easy striking distance for a day-trip. Last year I visited some friends, ran two PQs based either side of where they live, and on our first day with them ended up something like 50 miles outside the area my queries covered.

 

I've often thought it is silly to be allowed to run 5 queries in a day with each returning up to 1000 caches. It would make more sense to have an unlimited number of caches per query but imposing a limit on how many caches can be downloaded in a day.

 

It's a shame that GS seem to be taking the view more and more that they've put the API in place so now just assume third party software suppliers will overcome all the inadequacies of their own site.

 

The reason is simple: I often find myself in place where I did not planned to stay and want to find some caches. I can sometimes predict it, sometimes not. Just on the weekend, we changed our plans and visited Těšín, which is miles away from where I thought we should be. And for the record, we had no option to charge our phones (even if we had smartphones, which we don't).

 

It's been a while since someone has complained about not being able to download a whole country in one pocket query. I suspect that the reason is that more people now have access to the solution - using a smartphone with one of the Geocaching Live apps. Then you can get the nearest caches anywhere you have cell phone service. And if you go someplace without cell phone service you can still get a pocket query for that area in advanced and still be able to find caches.

 

I think the biggest issue with giving unlimited geocaches is that pocket queries get stale. You could allow people to download the unlimited number everyday but that would possibly create a bandwith issue. Even the API has limits to control this.

 

Of course, the limits don't prevent anyone from building up a large off-line database. My guess is that Groundspeak would prefer that people didn't do this. Those who do this will generally accept that they may miss some new caches and go to a few caches that have been archived and they accept that limitation. But ideally, you would decide where you are headed a run a pocket query just before you head out. With pocket queries along a route and many ways to slice and dice area pocket queries, most people's needs are met.

 

It seems to me that if you are really in the situation that you often find yourself deciding to go caching in an area where you don't have access to the internet to get a fresh pocket query, your best alternative would be to pay for a smartphone and data plan and use one of the apps. Yes, you will need to pay this cost in adddition to the premium membership.

 

I just Googled it and, at least when the article was written last year, the Czech Republic was on the low end in smartphone penetration. So it could be that the suggestion is somewhat less useful to the OP than to someone in Norway which was at the upper end.

 

Yes, it is a partial solution. The problem is, that you have to charge this phone, especially when you're transferring data, using the gps and have backlight on full because it's dadgum sunny these days. The battery life is not really that good, you know, and it's even worse with small phones in comparison to tablets (and I won't carry tablet with me all the time).

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Yes, it is a partial solution. The problem is, that you have to charge this phone, especially when you're transferring data, using the gps and have backlight on full because it's dadgum sunny these days. The battery life is not really that good, you know, and it's even worse with small phones in comparison to tablets (and I won't carry tablet with me all the time).

 

I agree that a smartphone may be the solution for your situation as long as cell service is available where you're going.

 

Battery life depends on the phone, really. The battery on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 actually lasts *longer* than my Garmin Oregon. My phone will go about 4-6 hours with the display on its brightest setting and I can always bring an extra battery if needed which would give me 8-12 hours. Overnight, I just plug my phone into my laptop to charge.

Edited by The_Incredibles_
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I agree that a smartphone may be the solution for your situation as long as cell service is available where you're going.

 

Battery life depends on the phone, really. The battery on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 actually lasts *longer* than my Garmin Oregon. My phone will go about 4-6 hours with the display on its brightest setting and I can always bring an extra battery if needed which would give me 8-12 hours. Overnight, I just plug my phone into my laptop to charge.

My phone will last probably an hour with the Geocaching app active. I often find myself geocaching entire days, and entire weekends - making a smartphone useless.

 

But for me, using Pocket Queries together with GSAK and the Get Geocaches-function of the API, I can get all the caches I need.

For extensive trip planning abroad, I actually do utilize a second premium account (my wife's account).

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