Pocket cache explorist gc

[+teamalizelos]

I have downloaded a pocket cache query and copied it to the explorist gc and it only shows 202 caches on the device??

 

I want to load 10,000 that the device is capable of loading not really sure what the problem is

 

my pocket cache has 1000 entries and only 202 are showing up

[+6NoisyHikers]

Did you delete all the caches and waypoints that came pre-loaded with the GPS? That might be the issue. Plug the unit in via the USB cable. Open the file folder as if it were a standard data key. Go into the Geocaches, Waypoints and Images folders and delete the .gpx files in them. Now your device is empty. Now copy the new Pocket Query into the appropriate folder and see what comes up.

 

Alternately, are you sure there were 1000 caches in the query? You can ask for 1000, but you may not get 1000 depending on your search parameters.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Sometimes, you really need to think about what it is that a manufacturer is saying in their ads or when they are tooting their whistles about one of their products.

 

I just read all of their "learn more" and their "features" sales pitches regarding the GC. The following statement is from "features":

Store up to 10,000 geocaches on the device - That is a total of 20 Pocket Queries!

Somehow, their math and mine don't add up. 20 queries ≠ 10,000 caches...and that isn't even taking child waypoints into account.

 

Regarding those "preloaded caches", nobody seems know how many are loaded to the GPSr before it is shipped so, 6NoisyHikers may just have a point. Depending on how many caches are already preloaded, it is possible that the unit memory is already maxed out.

 

That said, 10,000 caches is one huge bunch of caches... and I rather doubt (just guessing) that so many are already loaded to the unit. This issue then brings us back to the parameters you chose in submitting the PQ. It is pretty easy to muck up parameters for a PQ, expecting to get 1,000, but in reality it sometimes returns much less.

 

Before we get too carried away regarding Pocket Query downloads...

ask yourself this one question: How long will it take you to find those 10,000 caches (assuming that you actually had loaded them)?

The answer is: NEVER!

 

That would happen because caches are archived continually. Some of those 10,000 caches loaded to your unit will not exist by the time you get to some (many) of them. End result is that you are going to spend hours (and hours) looking and driving to hunt for a cache that doesn't even exist anymore!

By that same token, you will pass right by newly placed caches because your GPSr doesn't have them loaded to it.

 

Easy solution: Forget loading 10,000 caches. Think in terms of hundreds, not thousands. Think in terms of working areas, rather than "everywhere". PQ's are cheap at 5/day, every day of the week. That alone could be as many as 35,000 per week... even more-so unrealistic to think about finding them all.

 

You should load a new query to the GPSr each time you go out 'caching. Load only as many as what you reasonably expect to be able to find, plus a few more. Each time you load a new query, it should be in an area that you plan to do your hunting. It doesn't make too much sense to load a query 200 miles distant when you have no plans on going that distance.

 

Long and short of it -- OLD data (more than two weeks old) is bad data, NEW data is most always good data.

 

There is a side benefit to not loading the GPSr to the max. Many electronic devices, when the memory is maxed out, have a hard time functioning and as a result, they crash. Not fun when you are 200 miles out...

 

Pocket Queries:

Leave the day-of-the-week to run UNCHECKED

Submit that (proposed) query;

You will immediately (a link near the top of the page) be able to read the preview of the query results, even though the query never actually ran (saving you from spending one of your 5/day queries);

If you are happy with those results, return to that query page, CHECK the day-of-the-week to run and submit it.

 

If you were not happy with those results, return to the query page and adjust your parameters;

Repeat.

 

There's lotsa reading there... I hope at least some of it makes sense for you.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting -- rather 'Caching.

[+Socal ZukiCachers]

Sometimes, you really need to think about what it is that a manufacturer is saying in their ads or when they are tooting their whistles about one of their products.

 

I just read all of their "learn more" and their "features" sales pitches regarding the GC. The following statement is from "features":

Store up to 10,000 geocaches on the device - That is a total of 20 Pocket Queries!

Somehow, their math and mine don't add up. 20 queries ≠ 10,000 caches...and that isn't even taking child waypoints into account.

 

Regarding those "preloaded caches", nobody seems know how many are loaded to the GPSr before it is shipped so, 6NoisyHikers may just have a point. Depending on how many caches are already preloaded, it is possible that the unit memory is already maxed out.

 

That said, 10,000 caches is one huge bunch of caches... and I rather doubt (just guessing) that so many are already loaded to the unit. This issue then brings us back to the parameters you chose in submitting the PQ. It is pretty easy to muck up parameters for a PQ, expecting to get 1,000, but in reality it sometimes returns much less.

 

Before we get too carried away regarding Pocket Query downloads...

ask yourself this one question: How long will it take you to find those 10,000 caches (assuming that you actually had loaded them)?

The answer is: NEVER!

 

That would happen because caches are archived continually. Some of those 10,000 caches loaded to your unit will not exist by the time you get to some (many) of them. End result is that you are going to spend hours (and hours) looking and driving to hunt for a cache that doesn't even exist anymore!

By that same token, you will pass right by newly placed caches because your GPSr doesn't have them loaded to it.

 

Easy solution: Forget loading 10,000 caches. Think in terms of hundreds, not thousands. Think in terms of working areas, rather than "everywhere". PQ's are cheap at 5/day, every day of the week. That alone could be as many as 35,000 per week... even more-so unrealistic to think about finding them all.

 

You should load a new query to the GPSr each time you go out 'caching. Load only as many as what you reasonably expect to be able to find, plus a few more. Each time you load a new query, it should be in an area that you plan to do your hunting. It doesn't make too much sense to load a query 200 miles distant when you have no plans on going that distance.

 

Long and short of it -- OLD data (more than two weeks old) is bad data, NEW data is most always good data.

 

There is a side benefit to not loading the GPSr to the max. Many electronic devices, when the memory is maxed out, have a hard time functioning and as a result, they crash. Not fun when you are 200 miles out...

 

Pocket Queries:

Leave the day-of-the-week to run UNCHECKED

Submit that (proposed) query;

You will immediately (a link near the top of the page) be able to read the preview of the query results, even though the query never actually ran (saving you from spending one of your 5/day queries);

If you are happy with those results, return to that query page, CHECK the day-of-the-week to run and submit it.

 

If you were not happy with those results, return to the query page and adjust your parameters;

Repeat.

 

There's lotsa reading there... I hope at least some of it makes sense for you.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting -- rather 'Caching.

 

Sorry, but I have to disagree. I not only own two GCs, but am also a tester for Magellan Outdoors and I've have loaded more than 10,000 caches on my GC a number of times, just to see if it will work, and there are a number of times when preparing for a trip that I will load 5,000 to 7,000 caches along a route on my GPSrs before leaving the house and all of the new eXplorist will handle 10,000 caches except the eX110.

 

As far as 20 queries = 10,000, when it was written the maximum number of caches in a pocket query was 500 caches, not the 1,000 we have today. GC.com expanded that, at the request of their users, after the GC was originally produced so their statement was not in error at the time of writing; though they should do a better job of updating their materials as well as several other things!

 

As far as the GPS stopping at 200 caches there are a couple of reasons why this might happen. The first common issue is that you have been downloading the pictures for the caches onto the GPS and because of this the memory is full of pictures that are no longer needed, because the cache information has long since been removed from the unit. Yes, the unit should delete the pictures when the caches are removed, but it doesn't. Therefore you need to connect the unit to your computer and go into the images>geocaches directory and manually delete all of the pictures every time to you preparing to load the unit.

 

Secondly, there is a known issue with the GC and HTML. On occasion, though it doesn't happen often, there is "bad" html coding in the descriptions data of the caches - which is posted online by the owner of the cache, not GC.com - which contains errors in the html coding. Unfortunately, at times when the GC comes to an error in this code it will throw and error flag and instead of continuing to the next cache the software in the unit stops loading the data in the GPX in order not to corrupt the database in the unit.

 

After deleting the pictures, if you are still having this problem, please contact me so I can get a copy of the GPX file from you so I can track it down to the cache causing the problem because we have been working on this issue. This does lead me to ask, are you running the newest firmware for the GC?

 

Thanks,

David

Magellan Insider

[+gelfling6]

Unfortunately, I think this is normal.. I usually push 5000 before heading out, and the geocache menu only shows 202.. (this is with the 2.15 firmware) I think the older firmwares were able to show more, but they also had a different way of handling the data. (as well as a faster way to scroll down.)