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New PocketPC GPS software package: CacheDragon


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Ipaq 3955/ navman sleeve/ meridian platnium/ magellan 315

 

when ever one of my GPSr starts to out put location infromation (at any baud) the program will close. I think I was using version 1. After that I can not open the program without a reset. I am not sure if anyone brought this up.

 

One other thing is I don't think Garmin has anything to do with the navman sleeves.

 

Wyatt W.

 

The probability of someone watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions.

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Alright, gang - I spent a good part of the weekend in a coffee shop working on v1.1.

 

First, the bad news... I'd been shooting to release it today, but obviously that hasn't happened. It's close to releasable... but not yet. I'm still waiting for my replacement Navman sleeve in order to test the quick-exit bug that many of you have experienced, and I'm still wrapping up a few new features and bug-fixes.

 

Good news: v1.1 *should* be out in the next few days (though I won't make any predictions this time.) I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming together - several of your requested featured are in, and several bug complaints have been fixed. (GPX import crashing, not-listed-on-running-tasks bug, and X/OK-button strangeness fixed. As soon as I get my replacement GPX device, I'll be addressing the crashing-on-GPS-lock bug.)

 

Again, thanks for your patience - it will be rewarded!

 

David Stein, Esq.

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quote:
Originally posted by Renegade Knight:

I have no idea if this has been mentioned but you need a limited time trial. I'm not going to plunk down money to check out something that I really can't check out while out geocaching like I normally do.

 

20 caches is ok if my pocket queried returns 20 results.


 

Did you even check out the trial he has out there? It will work with 500, it will just read in the first 20. I would think most anyone using the trial could get a good feel for the real program.

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quote:
Originally posted by azmark:

Did you even check out the trial he has out there? It will work with 500, it will just read in the first 20. I would think most anyone using the trial could get a good feel for the real program.


 

Nope. This weekend I chose about 8 caches out of an area with 100. They were in a line 125 miles long. To have the first 20 wouldn't let me use the program except in my own living room where I really couldn't put it through the paces.

 

Next weekend is more of the same.

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Renegade Knight: I considered the time-trial thing, but I turned down the idea. It's just too close to nagware. I really hate apps that pester, even occasionally, to pay the author money.

 

Instead, I decided to create sort of a decent-functionality freeware version and a fully-fleshed-out commercial version. The test/freeware version is actually *useful* - if you only geocache infrequently, you can use CacheDragon to your heart's content! That just seemed much more beneficial for the geocaching community (even though it *does* mean that I get fewer registrations, but that's OK.)

 

Here's my suggestion for you: You can edit your GPX file to remove all but a few GPS locations. It's just a text file; each geocache is enclosed in <wpt> tags. So, you can open the file in Wordpad, search for the geocache that you want to visit, and then delete everything above that geocache <wpt> tag and the first <wpt> tag in the file.

 

It will be a little annoying, but within five minutes' time, you'll probably have a GPX file with a few waypoints that CacheDragon will load just fine for your geocaching expedition next weekend.

 

Good luck! Let me know if you have problems.

 

David Stein, Esq.

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I saw you had mentioned a possible different version without the gps stuff. Is this still in the works? I have no real need for that piece of it but the other features would probaly be pretty useful!

 

-------------------------------------

Hope is the destination that we seek.

Love is the road that leads to hope.

Courage is the motor that drives us.

We travel out of darkness into faith.

 

-=The Book Of Counted Sorrows=-

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I just purchased cachedragon, the trial looked great! I am however experiencing a problem similar to what other people have mentioned with the navman sleeve. I actually have a Pretec compact flash GPS and the cachedragon program exits completely as soon as the GPS gets a fix. The trial version did not do this. I wonder if there is a problem with having a bigger database file (more locations on the map) and it tries to drastically redraw the map as soon as it gets a location fix? The GPX file I imported had 475 caches. I hope that this gets fixed soon, I was really hoping to take it for a spin while it's sunny out.

 

ArgleBargle

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To answer the most recent questions:

 

crashmore: It's still on the agenda, but I'll be honest - it may not happen for a while. I've spent a while writing v1.1, and it's been tough balancing it with work. Maintaining two separate codebases will be even more difficult. I'll probably wait until CacheDragon is in more-or-less finished form before doing a scaled-back version for CacheLizard. I do realize that the geocache community is really in need of a PocketPC-based GPX viewer, so I'm eager to do it; it'll just take a while to fit it into the project.

 

arglebargle: We discussed this via email, but I just wanted to answer publicly. This is a known bug with v1.0 (perhaps one of the two most serious), and I'm committed to debugging it for v1.1. I couldn't work on it sooner, because my Navman sleeve died and it took until Tuesday of this week for Garmin to send me a replacement; but I expect to tackle it this weekend.

 

David Stein, Esq.

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Also, I don't quite understand: does the software come with a cache database or it only imports files that I get from geocaching.com? If it comes with a cache database, how recent is it? (In the trial version, the location database seemed to be empty.)

 

BTW I tried it with my Dell Axim with a Globalsat CF GPS and it did not work at all (exited upon getting a fix, did not appear in the tasks list, etc.), so I quickly deleted it. But if these problems will be corrected, I would buy it if you have a decent upgrade policy, e.g. free upgrades for one year or something like that icon_smile.gif

 

Does it import *.loc files, too?

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quote:
Originally posted by as77:

What is the upgrade policy for CacheDragon?


Well, let's see, $9.99 for the first one, $4.99 for each additional... icon_biggrin.gif

 

Free upgrades forever. Really. My primary motivation isn't to make money from this app. I'd like some fair value for the serious effort I've put into it, but a reasonable one-time purchase fee is sufficient. To prove that, let me say this: I don't even know how I would *enforce* a limited-upgrade policy!

 

And you can expect a *lot* of upgrades. icon_smile.gif I have a lot of ideas in mind to implement - expect to see the reliability of the app improve and more features added continuously. Also, feel free to suggest changes. I've already written into the upcoming v1.1 some of the suggestions that others have posted in this thread.

quote:
Originally posted by as77:

Also, I don't quite understand: does the software come with a cache database or it only imports files that I get from geocaching.com?


Well, you can import GPX files from anywhere. I know that other applications (and GPS devices?) write these files - it's a standardized format - and CacheDragon should be able to read them all. That said, it's only been *tested* on geocaching.com Pocket Queries.

 

You can, however, create your own database file and share it with other users. (This is improved in v1.1.)

quote:
Originally posted by as77:

BTW I tried it with my Dell Axim with a Globalsat CF GPS and it did not work at all (exited upon getting a fix, did not appear in the tasks list, etc.), so I quickly deleted it. But if these problems will be corrected, I would buy it if you have a decent upgrade policy, e.g. free upgrades for one year or something like that icon_smile.gif


The tasks-list bit is fixed. Since I've recently gotten a replacement unit from Garmin (only took 'em a month...), I expect to nail the exit-on-fix bug this weekend.

quote:
Originally posted by as77:

Does it import *.loc files, too?


I wanted to write in support for this, but the .loc format is "proprietary" - i.e., undocumented and subject to change without warning. The energy that I put into CacheDragon is better spent on adding features than on waging a war of format attrition with the EasyGPS people...

 

David Stein, Esq.

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Thanks for the answers, I'm pleased with them!

 

I looked at some LOC files and they are simple, basically they only contain the names of the caches and the coordinates. And they are offered to anyone, not only premium geocaching.com members. By the way, GPSBabel can convert anything (including LOC files) into GPX files (or anything else) and it is open source software distributed under the GPL. Maybe if you ported it to the PPC you could use it as an import facility to your program.

 

If I understand you correctly, CacheDragon does not come with cache data preloaded in the database. If so, maybe you could make the description at handango more accurate. Currently it says "CacheDragon is a sophisticated GPS mapping and location database". But the data are not there, so it is not a database. It is database management software.

 

Keep up the good work!

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quote:
Originally posted by as77:

I looked at some LOC files and they are simple, basically they only contain the names of the caches and the coordinates.[/b]


Interesting - I'll have to check it out. Looks like it would be very easy to implement. Thanks for the info!

quote:
Originally posted by as77:

Currently it says "CacheDragon is a sophisticated GPS mapping and location database". But the data are not there, so it is not a database. It is database management software.


You know, that's an excellent point that I hadn't considered. People who buy street-mapping software naturally expect to have the street maps there! I can see how people who weren't familiar with geocaching would expect a cache database to come with the software.

 

I'll definitely clarify this in the Handango description. I'm planning on rewriting it when I upload the new version, so I'll make that part clearer at the same time. Thanks again!

 

David Stein, Esq.

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MUCH better with a GPS attached. Other than that, it's really just GPXView with a notepad. CF GPS's can be had for a little over $100.00 so it makes a great in car system!

 

David, any word on when 1.1 is coming out? Can't wait to see if it works with my setup.

 

AZMark

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quote:
Originally posted by David Stein:

I wanted to write in support for this, but the .loc format is "proprietary" - i.e., undocumented and subject to change without warning. The energy that I put into CacheDragon is better spent on adding features than on waging a war of format attrition with the EasyGPS people...


 

I wouldn't bother. According to the TopoGrafix People, it's supposed to be phased out of Expert/EasyGPS in favor of gpx anyway. GPSBabel supports it due to the number of *nix users of the application who would be hard pressed to have to deal with finding a windows box when they run a across of TopoGrafix format .loc file that some EasyGPS user has unexpectedly munged using download -> easygps -> save.

 

Rumor has it also that geocaching.com will do away with it in favor of "simple" GPX instead of .loc files anyway.

 

And just for the record.... For some reason, my iPAQ 3835 didn't exhibit the "loading 0 of 0 caches" problem when I re-installed it last week. Weird. It was all valid XML the 3 or 4 times I tried it. 20 caches in the DB is still a bit small to get a real feeling for a "field test" of the app if you're not using an internal/CF GPS...

 

...

alex

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icon_smile.gif Wow, David, this software looks great. Only downloaded the 1.0 trial for the time being but it crashes on lock (iPAQ 3630 / Navman sleeve + CF card, application installed in main memory) . All else okay and anyone we know will say that a compass is mandatory for us.

 

Awaiting eagerly for 1.1

 

Thanks for your efforts. I'm sure you've set a shareware benchmark here.

 

Andy and Dawn

(Where did all this wine come from ?)

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I am very impressed with this software!!! But I am having a problem and I can not tell where the problem is, here it goes

 

when I import a GPX file from a Pocket Query that I have made the coordinates are totaly off, here is my example

 

The "Lucky" barrel

by JacobsTribe & 3 hams [profile]

N 40° 20.087 W 111° 41.586 (WGS84)

 

that is the cache page from geocaching.com

 

<wpt lat="40.334783" lon="-111.6931">

<time>2002-07-21T00:00:00.0000000-07:00</time>

<name>GC7400</name>

<desc>The "Lucky" barrel by JacobsTribe & 3 hams, Traditional Cache (1/1)</desc>

 

that is the info from the GPX file

 

N40'33.478 W111'69.310

 

this is how it is read in cachedragon....

 

Where is the problem?

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First: Does anyone else have occasional trouble posting to these forums? Very often, clicking "Reply" brings up this small editor browser window with a 404 error.

 

Now for the responses:

 

hammack: Well, I guess you could run CacheDragon in the PocketPC emulator on your Windows machine (but apparently, you have to download the whole PocketPC Software Development Kit just to get the emulator, and of course you won't have any GPS functionality.) Not much point to that, when such excellent apps as EasyGPS are available for PCs already.

 

azmark: Had hoped to release v1.1 this weekend, but I worked 60+ hours last week, Monday-Friday (such is life as a young attorney!), and illness sidelined me for all of the weekend. But the list of things that I want/need to do for v1.1 is shrinking, so soon, I expect...

 

Cuthbert x2: Sorry to hear that you're experiencing the odious Crash-on-Lock bug. Hope to have a new version soon that has fixed this dreaded problem!

 

ShadowMoon: What an odd problem. You sent me your GPX file, and I spent about twenty minutes looking through it - everything checks out on my version. For instance:[bR]

Holland Square Cache

geocaching.com page: N 40 18.417 W 111 42.068

GPX File: %lt;wpt lat="40.30695" lon="-111.701133"%gt;

CacheDragon: N 40'30.695 W 111'70.113

 

Here's the problem: Somewhere along the line, the apps are using different datums. (In the above example, geocaching.com is reporting it in WGS84, and the Pocket Query is reporting in NAD27.) This can cause the considerable differences that you're seeing.[P]

 

However, that wouldn't explain why your GPX file would have different coordinates from your CacheDragon coordinates! v1.0 of CacheDragon knows nothing about datums (something I'll be fixing with v1.1 or v1.2), so it should just be importing the text as the waypoint number. Unfortunately, the GPX file that you sent didn't contain the "Barrel" example that you typed up above, so I can't see what's going on with this instance. Can you send me your GPX file that contains the "Barrel" one?

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The coords issue that ShadowMoon reported might be a bug in CacheDragon with the handling of different formats of coordinates.

 

40° 20.087 = 40.334783 ? 40'33.478

DD° MM.mmm DD.ddddd DD'MM.mmm

 

You have to watch your degrees and minutes and fractional degrees or fractional minutes.

I hope that is clear, if not I can clarify. Note: These are not different datums.

 

Looking forward to 1.1, but this coords issue must be added to the list.

Thanks for your hard work.

 

____________________________

http://michael.sprague.name/pocketpc/

Geocaching with a Pocket PC FAQ

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I can't begin to explain why I can't login to Groundspeak or post messages during the day, but that appears to be a recurring problem.

 

Anyway - msprague: I agree entirely, and last night I started coding in some support for multiple coordinate formats. Nice use of the "does not equal" sign, by the way. icon_smile.gif

 

David Stein, Esq.

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David,

It took about 15 minutes for me to get my previous reply posted. I think that as geocaching becomes more popular the server is having a hard time keeping up. That just means more potential customers for you. icon_wink.gif

 

P.S. I have a link to CacheDragon on my FAQ page. If v1.1 fixes the critical issues being discussed then I will be highly recommending it.

 

____________________________

http://michael.sprague.name/pocketpc/

Geocaching with a Pocket PC FAQ

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Development continues.

 

I've spent an inordinate amount of time over the last five days addressing coordinate format issues. I've learned more about datums, ellipsoids, Molodensky, and the Universal Transverse Mercator than I ever cared to know. My mind has been transformed into soup by geodesy.

 

It took me until this morning to realize that, yes, msprague is completely correct about Shadowmoon's formatting issue... but really, it's not my fault! GPS devices (going by the NMEA standard) output coordinates in MinDec format, whereas GPX files use coordinates in DegDec format. So the minutes portion of every coordinate read from GPX is probably shifted about 10/6ths when compared to coordinates read from your GPS device. (Why would two closely-related protocols use different formatting standards? Who knows?)

 

Anyway - it's fixed, and the fix will be present in CacheDragon v1.1... along with more datums than you can shake a GPSr at.

 

David Stein, Esq.

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Development continues.

 

Spent a long time polishing up the geodesy stuff, and now, thankfully, I can leave that behind me. Only a few more features to finish and some routine testing to do before version 1.1 is released.

 

SpongeRob: Thanks very much! I'll upload a copy of the trial version there. (Note that, aside from being restricted to twenty locations and not saving any data at program exit, the trial version is fully functional.)

 

David Stein, Esq.

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...but, as you can see, the message posted before I was even finished. I, for one, will be a CacheDragon customer as soon as the PPC bug is worked out, the one where the PPC starts gathering GPS data and then shuts down.

 

I am using the Dell Axim X5 and a CF slot type GPS unit. Anyway, looking forward to 1.1 !!

 

Thanks for all off your time deveoted to this software!

Regards,

Dave,

Akron, Ohio

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Hi David and other PDA Cahers,

I noticed my Dell Axim X5 will correct the clock prior to shutting down after signal aquisition. I have tried several times to re-set the GPS config fields as the Dell w/CF GPS needs to use Com5 and a stop bit of 2, but after the program shuts down, the fields return to the defaults. How can I save the config and Option settings after I change them? Is this a function of the trial version that is ok in the registered version? It seems the program would work if my settings could be saved.

 

I know these are issues you are pursuing, just some extra input, BUT, ...the program looks very exciting, can't wait for the running ersion !!!

 

Thanks,

Dave

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I have the Dell Axium with CF card as well. I havent tried it with a CF gps yet. It hasnt crashed yet, but I do get strange coords like N47 02.390 W119 94.469 when the actual coords are N47 01.434 W119 56.681.

I also use GPX View. It is super slow. I bought cache dragon because of how it handles the data and the user interface. It also rips on speed! Now if I could just get it to give me the right coords.........

 

icon_geocachingwa.gif

 

Cachin's a bit sweeter when you've got an Isha!

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Hi Ish-n others:

The Dell X5 w/CF GPS works well. I know this is slightly off-topic for this area, but what a sweet device when David releases 1.1.

 

I currently use Delorme Xmap and Vito Nav. The Xmap doesn't lend itself easily to caching, but can be manipulated thru waypoints, and the Vito works good for caching, just no extra features.

 

It's great to have an all-in-one device for anything you need.....

....So I'm sure David's program will be one hot item... Can't wait !

 

Cachers Be Safe...

....Dave

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Unfortunately, development is on hold for a week while I take a computer science exam and the GRE. I can resume development immediately if someone wants to take both for me. icon_wink.gif

 

cmpalmer will be pleased to learn that I've worked up a "Sample Coordinates" function. Whenever you're inputting coordinates, CacheDragon can just keep reading GPS coordinates and calculate an average.

 

azmark will be pleased to learn that the data displayed on the map screen is now fully customizable. You can choose how many lines of text you want and what goes on each line, and the map will adjust itself accordingly. If you want a full-screen map (or a truly full-screen "full-screen compass"), you just blank out all of the strings.

 

Finally and most importantly: The crash-on-lock bug appears to have been vanquished. CacheDragon v1.1 is working A-OK with my new replacement Navman sleeve. However, I never found what was causing it - the bug has been quite elusive.

 

I really want to avoid releasing v1.1 and having people experience the same problem. So, before releasing v1.1, I'm going to spend a week testing the app.

 

I am also considering a private v1.09 release, mainly just making it available to a small number of interested users a week before releasing it publicly, specifically to see if they encounter this bug. I'm planning on offering this to the approximately fifteen registered users of CacheDragon, and it will probably be available on August 15th. If all goes well, expect a public release of version 1.1 around August 21st.

 

I'm muchly appreciative of your support - the extensive feedback that you've provided (especially bigdaveoh of late!) has really helped to bolster the development of this app. The v1.1 development phase has been much lengthier than anticipated, but I think you'll see that CacheDragon is a huge step beyond even the v1.0 release. I'm as eager to finish and release it as you are to get it - so watch this space!

 

Specific responses to comments above:

 

Ish-n-Isha: Yeah, I screwed up with reading GPS stuff. I didn't realize, until recently, that GPS devices report coordinates in "MinDec" format (latitude and sixtieths of a degree), whereas GPX files use "DegDec" format (latitude and *hundredths* of a degree.) The good news is that this is fixed in the upcoming v1.1, so check back in a few weeks.

 

bigdaveoh: We've had some email discussions, but I thought I'd answer your questions publicly as well. The trial version doesn't read or write config files (this is one of the few ways that I could imagine to encourage people to register without crippling the trial version!) The registered version writes the config file on a normal program exit - but when it crashes, it doesn't get a chance to write the config file. Bottom line: If v1.0 is crashing a lot (something that v1.1 won't do, I expect), you can make it exit normally by configuring it as you want and then exiting the program. Whenever you start CacheDragon thereafter, it will load the config file just fine.

 

David Stein, Esq.

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David and Others:

 

I have managed to save my info into the program (registered version) and downloaded from Pocketquerie. Prior to setting the config, I set the "GPS Start on program start" fieled to unchecked and then exited to save the settings. This prevents the programming from running w/gps on and exiting. I can now view the 100 caches I downloaded, then find them by another software GPS program in my Dell.

 

Works great! All that data from the website..... outstanding.... cool program, David.

 

Regards to all and Safe Caching...

Dave,

Akron, Ohio

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David, I think that releasing the 1.09 version only for registered users is not a good idea if you want to check the presence of the crash-on-lock bug. Obviously, the people who have the crash-on-lock problem with the 1.0 version did not register the program (including myself) because nobody will pay $20 for a program that does not work. It's exactly the people who did not register that can test your program for the crash-on-lock bug. Please consider this. For example, I could check it out for you on my configuration (Dell Axim with Globalsat CF GPS).

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I would and did as I'm sure others have. I get the crash on lock bug also with my Holux CF card but I registered anyway. CacheDragon is a good idea and too many good ideas die because no one gets behind them.

 

quote:
Originally posted by as77:

...because nobody will pay $20 for a program that does not work.


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abarber, I respect your way of thinking but I don't think many people think that way. I would never buy a program that does not work, there is no guarantee that the author will ever fix the bugs and then I'm stuck with a useless program for my money.

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I am also waiting for it to work before spending the money. I appreciate the hard work of the developer and I have shown my support here and on my website. I will show my support with my wallet when the software performs its advertised capabilities successfully. I would be glad to test 1.09 with my setup before it goes live as 1.1.

 

____________________________

http://michael.sprague.name/pocketpc/

Geocaching with a Pocket PC FAQ

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Based on the rather insightful comments above, I've changed my mind - v1.09 will be a public beta. as77 and msprague's comments are well-taken: I've been burned in the past by buying software from Handango.com that simply never worked right. (Case in point: GSPT, now known as Navio, just never worked with my GPS receiver.) So, we'll see where this goes.

 

Back to work, and then studying - again, development resumes next Monday evening. Thanks again for your support, everyone!

 

David Stein, Esq.

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as77, fair enough. I understand why you'd view it that way. If I'm out of line, I apologize. I would very much like to see CD take off and probably overreacted to your "obviously".

 

It looks like David has opened it up to everyone so hopefully, it'll work for all of us. icon_smile.gif

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I have been testing the CDragon Program with the Toshiba PPC and it seems to work reasonably well. Only a few lockups. I am looking forward to looking at the 1.09 version when it becomes available then v1.1.

 

I am wondering if there is a way to search the cache list to find a spesfic cache rather than scrolling thru many caches in the list?

 

Still have not ben able to connect the PPC to the gps yet. I am thinking that it may not be possible without the toshiba expansion module that isnt available for the model 335.

 

 

**Glenn, St. Louis, Mo

SLAGALogo.gif

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What you need is a usb host cable like the one here

 

http://www.semsons.com/usbhoscabfor.html

 

In addition you'll need a serial to usb converter. I have some info you might find helpful posted at

 

http://www.mdgps.net/modules.php?name=pocketcaching

 

-------------------------------------

Hope is the destination that we seek.

Love is the road that leads to hope.

Courage is the motor that drives us.

We travel out of darkness into faith.

 

-=The Book Of Counted Sorrows=-

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