andriod version of easygps

[+kimleea]

I am looking for the android version of easygps to gsak. I need to download into my garmin 60scx my pocket query. My new andriod device has a usb port, but I can not find anything to load them into so that I can put them in my gps.  Any advice is welcome.

[+Viajero Perdido]

Hi.

I don't have a direct answer to your question - because I don't know - but...

Are you sure you still need the 60CSx?  With a good caching app in the Android, the phone is all the hardware you need.  I found an app (there are a decent number of approved ones to choose from) that downloads GPX files directly, loads maps for offline caching, then practically pulls you by the ear to the cache.

My 60CSx is permanently retired, and I don't miss anything about it.

[+kimleea]

I seem to get much better accuracy with the 60csx then my phone.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

11 hours ago, kimleea said:

I am looking for the android version of easygps to gsak. I need to download into my garmin 60scx my pocket query. My new andriod device has a usb port, but I can not find anything to load them into so that I can put them in my gps.  Any advice is welcome.

EasyGPS is a windows application only.  I have never tried it but there is a windows emulator for Android called Wine.  Wine is not actually an emulator but an application that will take a windows application and replaced windows specific code with code that runs on the operating system being used.  I've installed it on my Mac and was able to run GSAK with it (sort of,  there were several things that didn't work quite right.}  

Even if you did get EasyGPS on an Android transferring data from the application to your phone probably still wouldn't work.  

[+Viajero Perdido]

There may not be a good answer.  (I tried a bit of research.)  The trouble is, Android picked up momentum right about the time Garmin stopped making GPS units (like yours) that required a special software protocol to load caches.  (With newer units, it's a simple file-copy operation.)  So it's likely nobody saw the need and wrote any software to do that.  Use cases like yours would be rare.

I'm guessing any solution could best be described as a "hack".  The medical analogy, I"m thinking, would be: can I attach a leg to a shoulder?

BTW, my phone, an el cheapo rugged model, works about as well as the 60CSX for GPS accuracy and cache finding.  That's been my experience.

[+JohnCNA]

23 hours ago, kimleea said:

I am looking for the android version of easygps to gsak. I need to download into my garmin 60scx my pocket query. My new andriod device has a usb port, but I can not find anything to load them into so that I can put them in my gps.  Any advice is welcome.

You can download a Pocket Query on your phone and then use an 'OTG cable' to connect the phone to the GPS. You can use the phone's file manager utility to extract the zip file and copy it to your Garmin. I've done this on the fly numerous times while traveling. I'm not personally familiar with the 60scx but if if shows up as a removable drive on your computer like the newer models do, it should work. 

[+kunarion]

27 minutes ago, JohnCNA said:

You can download a Pocket Query on your phone and then use an 'OTG cable' to connect the phone to the GPS. You can use the phone's file manager utility to extract the zip file and copy it to your Garmin. I've done this on the fly numerous times while traveling. I'm not personally familiar with the 60scx but if if shows up as a removable drive on your computer like the newer models do, it should work. 

 

That's what I've done a couple of times.  It's such a pain, I'll probably do that only in an emergency.

There are or were Geocaching Apps that could save a couple of steps by creating their own databases of GPX files, readable by file managers.

My file manager (or the phone, not sure which) only recognized the SD card of my Garmin Oregon, not the internal file structure.  Not optimal, since that's the Garmin Street Map card.  My Garmin 450 would not wake up on OTG.  The tablet didn't have the ability to power it.  A lot of stuff could get messed up in the field by doing this, with no way to unscramble it.  But it beats hauling around a PC while it works.

Rather than cobble together a bunch of weird hardware and their flaky Chinese Apps, I've had an idea to buy a Windows tablet.  The ones that are less than $100.  They're self-contained and have a screen, and maybe you could even connect a mouse.  Then run more familiar software, whatever fits on its drive.

Edited April 13, 2018 by kunarion

[+JohnCNA]

Best way is to try it while at home. It's not that difficult once you do it a couple times. If it doesn't work with a particular setup, you're out $5 for an OTG cable. And then move on to more expensive options like a Windows netbook or tablet. But if the tablet or netbook doesn't recognize the Garmin either, you're still out of luck.

I've had great luck with a few different Samsung phones and tablet talking to an eTrex 30 and GPSMAP 64s/t. 

[+Viajero Perdido]

It's a 60CSx, remember?

It won't take PQ files directly, like the newer models.

[+kimleea]

I think I may be out of luck at doing this.  I am currently window shopping for a laptop. Most tablets just will not work that way. I am not sure about the microsoft ones.

[+kunarion]

10 hours ago, kimleea said:

I think I may be out of luck at doing this.  I am currently window shopping for a laptop. Most tablets just will not work that way. I am not sure about the microsoft ones.

 

You may do well with a laptop that's powerful enough to run useful software, yet portable enough to bring most anywhere.  If I'm going on a trip, I bring my laptop, not the OTG kind of devices.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

5 hours ago, kunarion said:

 

You may do well with a laptop that's powerful enough to run useful software, yet portable enough to bring most anywhere.  If I'm going on a trip, I bring my laptop, not the OTG kind of devices.

Keep in mind that while there are quite a few inexpensive portable laptops available, you get what you pay for.  A few years ago we bought our son a small laptop that I think cost around $250.  He didn't have it a month before the keyboard keys started to fall off.  

[+Viajero Perdido]

My $250 laptop (netbook) survived nicely, but it's on the "retired" shelf collecting dust beside the 60CSx corpses.

Once I stopped using the Garmin, I no longer had a need for the netbook, even when travelling.  I cache with the phone by day, plan tomorrow on the tablet by night.  Same app, bigger screen, beautiful maps.  And I find the tablet's predictive typing easy enough for writing long cache logs, so I don't miss the keyboard.

So I wouldn't buy a laptop just to keep the Garmin useful.  Unless you have other reasons to want a laptop, of course.

[+kunarion]

6 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Keep in mind that while there are quite a few inexpensive portable laptops available, you get what you pay for.  A few years ago we bought our son a small laptop that I think cost around $250.  He didn't have it a month before the keyboard keys started to fall off.  

 

Yeah.  I bought my laptop with the intention of having it replace my desktop PC.  So it's on the huge side, and heavy.  No big deal, it's gonna be on a desk.  Then I realized I don't like a laptop as my desktop PC .  Now if I'm driving somewhere, I take along the laptop.  If I'm flying cross-country, I temporarily un-retire a tablet (with a keyboard case), and dearly miss a real PC the whole trip.

[+Viajero Perdido]

7 minutes ago, kunarion said:

I bought my laptop with the intention of having it replace my desktop PC.  So it's on the huge side, and heavy.

A laptank. 

My ex has one, a 17" model she said she wanted, against my better advice.  Not ideal at portability, not ideal as a desktop "main" PC either.

She uses a little netbook now for daily use and travel, and the laptank only as an external hard drive, to store pictures and whatnot.    Windows XP, don't let it near the internet!

Edited April 14, 2018 by Viajero Perdido

[+NYPaddleCacher]

10 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

A laptank. 

My ex has one, a 17" model she said she wanted, against my better advice.  Not ideal at portability, not ideal as a desktop "main" PC either.

She uses a little netbook now for daily use and travel, and the laptank only as an external hard drive, to store pictures and whatnot.    Windows XP, don't let it near the internet!

I used to have a laptank.   It was a 17" Dell.  The 17" screen was nice but it was very heavy.  All the developers where I work have a laptop instead of a desktop PC on their desk.  Almost all of them use a Macbook Pro. I've got a 15" ASUS laptop at home. It's very well made (has an aluminum case like a Mac).  When traveling I always bring the Macbook.  

[+Isonzo Karst]

I may be misunderstanding your set up, (very likely)  but if you have GSAK on a home computer, download PQs into it (it will grab them from the site) and load the Garmin from GSAK?  From what you've said, I assume that unit will only take an LOC, title, gc code, coords, but if the rest of the data is on the phone , bingo.  GSAK will output many  file formats.

This is two operations, one to load phone, another to load GPS. this is close to the old "paperless" caching options that people used when  you loaded cache write ups to your PDA, and used your gps (that only handled LOC files) for navigation. For travel, could get messy, but that's what your laptop is for

Edited April 14, 2018 by Isonzo Karst

[+on4bam]

No idea about the possibilities of your 60scx but Besides GSAK on my Windows computer, I have GDAK on my tablet (Android7). Using a macro I copy databases from GSAK via my own (NAS) cloud to the tablet. That way I have the exact info on the tablet than in GSAK (including user notes).

I have an Oregon 600 so I load that with the garminexport macro from GSAK but I had a few instances where I needed to load a cache (or more) on the Or600 in the field. I just filter the needed caches in GDAK and export them to a GPX file on the tablet (Android 7 won't allow to write directly to external storage). I then connect the GPS via USB cable and OTG adapter/cardreader to the tablet and use the "total commander" app to copy/move the GPX. Total commander does allow to write to external storage.

If your GPS can't read GPX then, in this case you're out of luck.. GDAK can't export LOC files.

 

[+kunarion]

2 hours ago, Isonzo Karst said:

I may be misunderstanding your set up, (very likely)  but if you have GSAK on a home computer, download PQs into it (it will grab them from the site) and load the Garmin from GSAK?  From what you've said, I assume that unit will only take an LOC, title, gc code, coords, but if the rest of the data is on the phone , bingo.  GSAK will output many  file formats.

This is two operations, one to load phone, another to load GPS. this is close to the old "paperless" caching options that people used when  you loaded cache write ups to your PDA, and used your gps (that only handled LOC files) for navigation. For travel, could get messy, but that's what your laptop is for

 

I'm guessing that the OP is planning to travel and doesn't have a portable PC that can run GSAK (or at least didn't have a laptop at the the start of the thread).  The OP may be at a point where buying a recent GPS is a better plan than buying new support hardware for an old GPS.  Some newer ones can load from a hotspot directly.  Some phones can be made into hotspots.

I often know exactly where I intend to travel, and therefore have PQs of the area loaded in advance.  But sometimes I want a little more, such as the time I was at an Event that published caches on the day of the Event. I made a bookmark list, then run and save a PQ.

As you mentioned, the phone is great as a supplemental database.  For just one or two extra caches (assuming cellular service is available), it may be suitable to load the caches into the phone, and type the new cache waypoints into the GPS.

[+kunarion]

Just now, kunarion said:

 

I'm guessing that the OP is planning to travel and doesn't have a portable PC that can run GSAK (or at least didn't have a laptop at the the start of the thread).  The OP may be at a point where buying a recent GPS is a better plan than buying new support hardware for an old GPS.  Some newer ones can load from a hotspot directly.  Some phones can be made into hotspots.

I often know exactly where I intend to travel, and therefore have PQs of the area loaded in advance.  But sometimes I want a little more, such as the time I was at an Event that published caches on the day of the Event. I made a bookmark list, then ran and saved a PQ.

As you mentioned, the phone is great as a supplemental database.  For just one or two extra caches (assuming cellular service is available), it may be suitable to load the caches into the phone, and type the new cache waypoints into the GPS.