Coords and gpx file?

[+G0ldNugget]

I have an AL that is 10 miles long. I know some players prefer to use a separate GPS device to navigate so I provided the coords in the location descriptions.

Then I read some players wanted to download a .gpx file for the coords so I created one of those too. ( http://goldnuggetwebs.com/gpx-cherokee.GPX )

I use my smartphone to navigate (shame!) and I'm not familiar with using gpx files so I have several really dumb questions:

 

1. If coords are provided in the description, is the gpx file even necessary?

2. How does a player import the file into their device?

3. This is a non sequential AL but the locations are listed sequentially the gpx file. Can players begin at either end?

4. Should I just skip the gpx file completely?

 

Thanks for your help!

[+StefandD]

1. No. It's easier for the players who use GPS devices, but it's not mandatory.

 

2. For Garmin: simply put the GPX file in the map \Garmin\GPX\. This can be on both internal memory or SD card. Some older devices require MapSource or BaseCamp to upload GPX files.

 

3. Yes. The GPS device can only be used for navigation. The question itself still has to be answered in the app.

 

4. You can if you want. It's an extra service, but not crucial.

[+G0ldNugget]

On 1/5/2021 at 11:48 PM, StefandD said:

1. No. It's easier for the players who use GPS devices, but it's not mandatory.

 

2. For Garmin: simply put the GPX file in the map \Garmin\GPX\. This can be on both internal memory or SD card. Some older devices require MapSource or BaseCamp to upload GPX files.

 

3. Yes. The GPS device can only be used for navigation. The question itself still has to be answered in the app.

 

4. You can if you want. It's an extra service, but not crucial.

 

Thank you for the reply.

Re. #3, Can this non-sequential AL be started from either end using the gpx coords?

[+mustakorppi]

Your website blocks access from my country so it’s hard to say anything specific of your gpx file, such as what will typical GPS receivers do with it.

 

But in general, GPX just lists a bunch of locations. Depending on what kind of locations they are, or rather what kind of GPX file you created, a GPS receiver might show them a bit differently, e.g. as a continuous line or as individual icons. In either case, cachers should be able to see where the AL locations are and use their GPSr to navigate to them in any order they like.

[+G0ldNugget]

1 hour ago, mustakorppi said:

Your website blocks access from my country so it’s hard to say anything specific of your gpx file, such as what will typical GPS receivers do with it.

 

Sorry about that. I started getting DDoSed a while back (I have no idea why) and I had to put some location restrictions in place just to keep the site up.

 

Thanks for your response. The map I previewed the file on showed the locations as pins.

Here's the file via Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e3KAjXXvmPtuksHvCyvjnver6LIutY6i/view?usp=sharing

 

 

[+mustakorppi]

I can confirm that that file can be read¹ by a Garmin GPSr, the waypoints are displayed as single points and that I could theoretically² make the device navigate to any one of them.

 

My GPSr does not in any way indicate that the locations listed in your GPX file are related to each other. The locations are made available in the GPSr unit's list of all known waypoints, which contains everything I have saved on the device. As the default sort order is by distance and this AL is 8400km away from me, your AL waypoints appear at the very end of the list for me. So it might be useful to mention somewhere that the waypoints are titled "Cherokee Rd AL" so the user can find them by searching on their device.

 

¹ But note that this GPX file is not valid XML which might cause issues for someone somewhere. If you wish, you can open the file in any text editor and take a look at this part:

 

  <metadata>
    <name>GPX soubor vytvoreny ze souradnic</name> #GPX file created from coordinates
    <desc>Vytvoreno bez zaruky spravnosti</desc> #Created without guarantee of correctness
    <author>
      <name>Vilém Lipold</name>
      <email id="projekty" domain="littleband.cz"/>
      <link href="http://www.gcgpx.cz">
        <text>Převod souřadnic do GPX (http://www.gcgpx.cz)</text> #Coordinate conversion to GPX
      </link>
    </author>
    <time>2020-12-31T21:51:19Z</time>
    <bounds maxlat="39.646367" maxlon="-121.528900" minlat="39.534000" minlon="-121.546850"/>
  </metadata>

 

The actual errors are the text preceded by the # symbol, after name, desc and text end tags. It might be prudent to remove those completely.

 

Incidentally, it is safe to remove the entire quoted section or replace the text in Czech with something in English, but do be careful about XML syntax if you start messing with this by hand.

 

² In practice I wouldn't expect my GPSr to calculate a route to a waypoint on another continent

[+G0ldNugget]

11 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

The actual errors are the text preceded by the # symbol, after name, desc and text end tags. It might be prudent to remove those completely.

 

Incidentally, it is safe to remove the entire quoted section or replace the text in Czech with something in English, but do be careful about XML syntax if you start messing with this by hand.

 

Thank you for your excellent reply. I translated the Czech sections to English and commented them out. I'll replace the sections with the English translations and remove the comments. I will also mention in the AL description to look for the waypoints titled 'Cherokee Rd AL.'

 

Again, thank you for your truly helpful response.

Edited January 8, 2021 by G0ldNugget
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