Newbie confused with cache locations

[+DEJUVU]

As a newbie to Geocaching I first ventured into it my using the App on my iPhone. Shortly afterwards I became a Premium Member and then purchased a Garmin eTrex unit.

My query is, when I find the desired location on the Geocache website and all the caches in that area with no filters set and then download them onto my Garmin device and set off of on a days Geocaching. When I am in the location area I sometimes use my iPhone app as well as an aid, this is where I get confused, there are sometimes more caches on my iPhone than on my Garmin and the ones on the Garmin did NOT appear on the website, why?

Thanks

DJP10T

Dennis

[+u1bd2005]

A pocket query can only download a maximum of 1000 caches, so if it is downloading 1000 caches then it's likely that there's too many to fit on the 1 query, try narrowing down the search area and doing a couple of PQ's spread about instead.

 

E.g. 10 mile radius of my home brings up 930 caches, if I did a 15 mile radius it would only show 1000. so it's better to do a 10 mile radius from somewhere 10 mile to the east, then another 10 mile radius from somewhere 10 mile to the west.

 

That way they'd meet in the middle-ish.

 

Obviously this will differ greatly depending on how many caches are in your area.

[+DEJUVU]

A pocket query can only download a maximum of 1000 caches, so if it is downloading 1000 caches then it's likely that there's too many to fit on the 1 query, try narrowing down the search area and doing a couple of PQ's spread about instead.

 

E.g. 10 mile radius of my home brings up 930 caches, if I did a 15 mile radius it would only show 1000. so it's better to do a 10 mile radius from somewhere 10 mile to the east, then another 10 mile radius from somewhere 10 mile to the west.

 

That way they'd meet in the middle-ish.

 

Obviously this will differ greatly depending on how many caches are in your area.

[+DEJUVU]

Thanks for reply. Yes I understand what you are saying, but the "missing" or "extra" caches are within 2-3 miles from the location. On the iPhone I use "Find nearest" and that is where the confusion occurs. I could understand it if the caches were a long way away as they may then be towards the 1000 limit, but they should be really at the top end of the list i.e. in the top 10/20?

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

@ DJP10T:

We too have experienced exactly what you have noticed. This has also been noticed by a few other folks, using pocket queries uploaded to a GPSr and using a iphone during the same geocaching outing.

You may have stumbled across a bug that some have experienced regarding pocket queries.

 

This thread http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=315088 , highlights one of those experiences (pay particular attention to posts #3, #10 and #12).

[+T.D.M.22]

As a newbie to Geocaching I first ventured into it my using the App on my iPhone. Shortly afterwards I became a Premium Member and then purchased a Garmin eTrex unit.

My query is, when I find the desired location on the Geocache website and all the caches in that area with no filters set and then download them onto my Garmin device and set off of on a days Geocaching. When I am in the location area I sometimes use my iPhone app as well as an aid, this is where I get confused, there are sometimes more caches on my iPhone than on my Garmin and the ones on the Garmin did NOT appear on the website, why?

Thanks

DJP10T

Dennis

 

Three possible reasons. The GPS probably came pre-loaded with some geocaches-Which brings up the first 2 issues.

 

ONE-Garmin has it's own less popular geocaching website. Or it supported one. Or something like that. SO there may have been caches from the website but not on geocaching.com.

 

TWO-with ANY caches pre-loaded, no matter what site they're from, it is old data. New caches get placed, old one get moved, and archived(removed from the game) Now sitting in a box in a warehouse, no-one's going to update it once a week. Old caches that get archived will stay on your unit until you delete them

 

THREE-probably not an issue in most places, but again the geocaches in your unit are old. The info is maybe only good for a week, and is only updated when you update it. If I download all the caches in the city today, next week there could be 5, 10, 200 more. The app gets it's data up to date-maybe up to the minute.

 

SOLUTION: Delete ALL geocaches and ALL waypoints, and download your caches again. As a PM you can set up a PQ to run, say every Tuesday. You can also set up notifications for new caches (and download them individually as the get published) and notifications for "Archived" logs, so you will be aware that ABC cache and XYZ cache are archived without having to go through 100-1000 caches individually.

 

EDIT-your Iphone will show from your actual location, PQ's and notifications can be based on any one, or multiple locations. For example I can have my be a bit west of my hometown, and run "closest to"

and I can run a PQ 10 miles east of my home town and there will be 1000 caches between them. That fits in a PQ, but go to a cache dense area and there could be 2 or 3 times the amount of caches in less distance.

Edited October 30, 2013 by T.D.M.22

[+Delta68]

My guess is that the problem is more straightforward that all those suggestions.

 

The Etrex only supports 6 character cache codes so some are being truncated and overwriting others nearby which have the same code once truncated.

Truncated ones on the etrex will then not appear on the website as they are not valid codes

 

The solution is to load the PQ into your etrex using GSAK and the drop2 option to remove 'GC' off the start of the codes

 

This thread will now get locked because over zealous moderators say that we are not allowed to discuss GSAK

 

M

[+Seaglass Pirates]

I think it may be even more simple than that -

 

The iPhone is live. The PQ is a snapshot in time. The OP does not mention timescales between PQ download and use.

 

If the PQ was downloaded in the morning and used compared to the iPhone in the evening certain caches may have been published in the area. Or their status changed from disabled to enabled. So this would explain an increase.

 

As the PQ becomes older - so the number of extra caches on the iPhone, compared to the PQ will potentially become greater because the iPhone is live but the PQ is out of date. Even a few hours can have a huge difference. Especially if a power trail gets published in the area.

 

Depending on how rabid the cachers are in your area they could be getting caches published left right and Chelsea.

[+T.D.M.22]

My guess is that the problem is more straightforward that all those suggestions.

 

 

I think it may be even more simple than that -

 

 

So Delta68 has a less complex idea than mine. Seaglass Pirates has a less complex idea than Delta68. Seaglass Pirates said the same thing I did(See number three in my post). So that idea is less complex then Delta's idea, which is less complex than my idea, which is less complex than Delta's idea. So if my idea is ultimately less complex than itself, and if it is true, wouldn't that cycle create some form of black hole? I hope I didn't destroy the universe

[+Delta68]

Sounds like one of those never-ending staircases

[+TriciaG]

M. C. Escher would be proud.

[+FuzzyBears]

Another thought with an Etrex. We have the "H" which only holds 500 caches. If you put in a PQ of 1000 it enters 500 then over-writes them with the other 500. We've missed caches this way. We filter to get 450 nearest to the place we are going.

[+DEJUVU]

I think it may be even more simple than that -

 

The iPhone is live. The PQ is a snapshot in time. The OP does not mention timescales between PQ download and use.

 

If the PQ was downloaded in the morning and used compared to the iPhone in the evening certain caches may have been published in the area. Or their status changed from disabled to enabled. So this would explain an increase.

 

As the PQ becomes older - so the number of extra caches on the iPhone, compared to the PQ will potentially become greater because the iPhone is live but the PQ is out of date. Even a few hours can have a huge difference. Especially if a power trail gets published in the area.

 

Depending on how rabid the cachers are in your area they could be getting caches published left right and Chelsea.

Sorry for delay, I have had a few days away and yes, took the Garmin with me and found a few caches.

The difference in time is no more than 24 hours. I tend to load the Garmin up the day before we are going out with the download option from Geocache site. The following day we go out and that's when the discrepencies begin. As I also said I am a newbie so the Garmin has less than 50 caches loaded currently. the missing caches have never been new ones.