'GPXSonar' for Pocket PC 2003

September 8, 2003

Hi all,

I've written a geocaching application targeting Pocket PC 2003 and I'm looking for a few good men to help with beta-testing it.

You can download the software here.

Regards,

Fabien.

24.7k · September 8, 2003

What's it do? Will it only work with 2003?

September 8, 2003

^^ Yea what he said.. What does it do?

September 8, 2003

Very nice.. This just might replace GPXSpinner and that whole conversion process. Yea.. I like it.

September 8, 2003

I believe Geo was the guy in the matrix that started off writting virus.

September 8, 2003

I e-mailed GEO, and this is his reply

"I'm shooting for the end of the week for the PPC2K2 version. GPXSonar is a

lot better than GPXView. It's similar to Watcher if you are familiar with

this PC software. But it also includes a few features that no other

geocaching software contains right now. The goal of the application is to

provide zero-paper geocaching and, eventually, to be able to synchronize

with www.geocaching.com."

September 10, 2003

I'll give it a try....

September 10, 2003

I'm interested in trying this. My PPC is using PPC2K2 so I guess I have to wait.

GF

********************************************

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

September 10, 2003

I'm interested in trying this. My PPC is using PPC2K2 so I guess I have to wait.

GF

********************************************

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

September 11, 2003

Geo,

The more I use this program the more I like it. Some of the things that you are doing with how the cache pages are displayed are clever and just plain make sense. Its got simplicity without sacrificing functionality. Its exactly everything I'm looking for. The program as been rock solid for me these last few days. There are 2 things that I would like to see though.

1. My Pocket Queries are large and so the performance of scrolling thru the listings is slow. If there was a way to speed this up that would be nice. Not a big deal though.

2. I like to keep the "founds" in my queries so I can look them up if I ever need to go back to a cache. So having a means of maybe specifying my username and having the program automatically marking the caches I have already found in the field notes would be great.

btw, I'm using a Toshiba e755 with PPC2k3.

Thanks for the program and keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to seeing future versions with much anticipation.

[This message was edited by Geek-Qualizer on September 11, 2003 at 06:04 AM.]

September 11, 2003

I have to give it two thumbs up as well. I used to use gpx view and then had to switch to spinner as gpx view didn't support wm2003.

I really missed the ease of just copying over my gpx file to the ppc.

I have found GpxSonar to be much faster and much closer to watcher in functionality than any of the other ppc utilities.

I'll be adding it to my ppc faq shortly.

"Law pain i reviar mistar aen"

September 11, 2003

Geek-Qualizer...

quote:
1. My Pocket Queries are large and so the performance of scrolling thru the listings is slow. If there was a way to speed this up that would be nice. Not a big deal though.

Unfortunately, I can't do much about speeding up the scrolling through the list unless I replace the control that I use for it. Even then, there's no guaranty that things would be significantly faster.

What is the speed of your PPC?

quote:
2. I like to keep the "founds" in my queries so I can look them up if I ever need to go back to a cache. So having a means of maybe specifying my username and having the program automatically marking the caches I have already found in the field notes would be great.

I'll look into it. As far as I know, this should not be a problem though.

Thank you (and crashmore) for the feedback. It's much appreciated and a great motivator ;-)

September 12, 2003

Geo,

Thanks for the reply and the link to this thread. I *really* like just copying my gpx file over instead of the whole conversion process with GPX spinner. This program has already won me over. I am curious as to how much and how far you want GPXSonar to go. Do you plan on having the app converse with GPS units (like for the averaging function we had discussed)? My feature request would be to have exporting of caches to the format Mapopolis uses. As far as I can tell GPS Babel does not support Mapopolis.

Just want to say congrats for a job well done and I hope you do continue development. One more thing.. I think this is the first PPC app I've used that utilizes the .NET CF.

September 12, 2003

So, far I Really like it....especially the fact that I can add notes to the cache details.

Bob

September 12, 2003

Well the good news is Mapopolis wrote a special app for cachers to convert gpx files to maplet files. Check it out here

http://www.mdgps.net/pocketcaching/gpxtomaplet.zip

quote:
Originally posted by EarlyMorningHours:
Geo,

Thanks for the reply and the link to this thread. I *really* like just copying my gpx file over instead of the whole conversion process with GPX spinner. This program has already won me over. I am curious as to how much and how far you want GPXSonar to go. Do you plan on having the app converse with GPS units (like for the averaging function we had discussed)? My feature request would be to have exporting of caches to the format Mapopolis uses. As far as I can tell GPS Babel does not support Mapopolis.

Just want to say congrats for a job well done and I hope you do continue development. One more thing.. I think this is the first PPC app I've used that utilizes the .NET CF.

"Law pain i reviar mistar aen"

September 12, 2003

Hummm... Too bad they don't provide the source of the conversion routine itself. I would have integrated it right away.

September 12, 2003

EarlyMorningHours...

quote:
I am curious as to how much and how far you want GPXSonar to go. Do you plan on having the app converse with GPS units

In the very short term, I am planning on adding a few more waypoint 'Export' functions. Currently, 'GPXSonar' only supports the Meridian protocol because this is the make of my GPSr. However, I am aware that Garmin and Brunton do support SD cards in some of their GPSrs (not to mention the iQue 3600) and I will support them soon. 'Street & Trips' will also be supported.

The most important feature that I would like to add to GPXSonar is the ability to synchronize with www.geocaching.com . In other words, if the powers that be at gc.com agree to it (and so far, I've heard nothing back from Jeremy), you will be able to log your caches and TBs directly from the PDA at the push of a button.

Regarding the support of GPS receivers: I am not sure that I want to compete with existing software such as CacheDragon and others. I just don't have that much free time But I won't exclude the possibility of such a feature. Sometimes, I just get the itch to code something fun

There's a few other features that I have in store for some major release but I don't want to talk about them for the time being.

September 13, 2003

Geo,

Charlene and I went out on a six cache hunt today and I was eager to see how GPXSonar would work in the field. I am happy to report that it simply rocks. I'm now able switch between GPXSonar, the PIE page for the cache (which GPXSonar generates), and Mapopolis. You could say I'm in Geocache heaven.

As a side note I would like to thank crashmore for informing me about the GPX to maplet conversion utility. Its really a godsend for the Mapopolis user. I now have over 400 caches within 100 miles tucked away right in the application.

I don't know if you have had the opportunity to try out the GPS Tuner application I was telling you about, but it has a feature where you can more accurately hunt down a cache's coordinates using averaging (is this considered cheating?). Of coarse this would also assume the cache owner had some pretty accurate coordinates posted on the cache's listing. One nice feature for GPXSonar would be to export a LOC file for the selected cache. You could then pop right over to GPS Tuner and do your thing.

As far as performance goes, my GPX file has 482 entries in it and I have to say that I am pretty satisfied with how responsive GPXSonar is. The initial file read can take a little while, but once thats done it seems to fly along just fine. I'm using an iPAQ 3975 upgraded to PPC 2003 with a CoPilot bluetooth GPS.

September 14, 2003

EarlyMorningHours ...

Thanks for the feedback. It's much appreciated.

I have made a note of your request about exporting cache data in .LOC format. I'll add it along with the others for the next release.

I haven't tried 'GPS Tuner' yet because I don't own a GPS receiver for my PDA (yet). I may buy one down the road though when the time comes to do some coding using one...

I still have to get the PPC 2002 version done before the next release though... I thought I might do it this weekend, but since it was so nice today I went caching all day instead

September 14, 2003

I knew I should have looked into this further before mentioning anything... The LOC file that GPS Tuner generates does not appear to be in the same format as a LOC file you get from Geocaching.com. It looks like a plain text file where the fields are CR seperated. Still trying to determine if I can store multiple waypoints per file. So little time, so much to do.

September 14, 2003

EarlyMorningHours...

Would you mind sending me a copy of a .LOC file as produced by GPS Tuner? It would also help if you could include the corresponding section of the GPX file for it.

Thanks.

September 14, 2003

Just wanted to let you guys know I've update my pocket caching faq. I've included info on GPXSonar and gpxtomaplet. BTW I'm still using GpXSonar as my cache page app. I think I'm hooked!

http://www.mdgps.net/pocketcaching/index.htm

"Law pain i reviar mistar aen"

September 14, 2003

Wow!, I'm impressed. This is a great little program, which seems to run quite nicely on my Axim. I've only just started playing with it, but it looks like it's going to be my choice for accessing the data on my pocket queries.

Thanks for sharing your excellent work.

Jeff

September 17, 2003

Sorry about the delay for the PPC 2002 version. I've been jammed at work Hopefully, I can find some time this weekend.

September 18, 2003

When I load my gpx file in GPXSonar, my ppc2003 simply reboots. I can send you the gpx file, just contact me.

September 18, 2003

SuSander...

I've emailed you. I'd like to see the file being loaded. Also, it would be helpful if you could provide me with some info regarding the type of your PPC and what other apps were running when this happened.

Thanks,

Fabien.

September 19, 2003

I installed the Ap on my iPAQ5555. The program looks great and I love the Cache pages (just like Geocaching.com). One small problem the distance column shows the caches 7000+ miles away. Is there a config setting for this?

Thanks

Airlid

"Exploring is never having to say you are lost"!

September 19, 2003

Airlid,

Go to set center coordinates ...tap and hold on an individual cache. Then in "list options" you find "set center coordinates" plug in your home coordinates or where ever you might be.

To Geoman question:

The title bar (eg. TB, Note, Name...)resets after I close the program. Is there a way to save my setings so I don't have to readjust the title bar every time I open GPXsonar ?

BOB

quote:
Originally posted by Airlid:
I installed the Ap on my iPAQ5555. The program looks great and I love the Cache pages (just like Geocaching.com). One small problem the distance column shows the caches 7000+ miles away. Is there a config setting for this?

Thanks

Airlid

"Exploring is never having to say you are lost"!

September 19, 2003

Airlid...

"set center coordinates" is one of the ways to accomplish what you want to do. The other option is to use 'Cache Options' and choose the 'Set As Center' menu item. This will make the current cache the center coordinates.

September 19, 2003

Team JBSS...

There's currently no way to save UI-related changes such as resizing the columns. I'll put that on my To-Do list

September 21, 2003

Well, I couldn't justify a PocketPC for scheduling (I'm just not that busy), and I couldn't justify it for any of the other features that it came with.

After reading about caching software for PDAs I decided to try one. Got it (Toshiba e355), loaded your software, got a GPX file for my area, and was completely blown away by the results. The cache pages look great!

While I haven't played with your software too much, what I've seen so far is wonderful.

Thanks

September 22, 2003

I just got my PDA last week, a Toshiba e755. I loaded up GPXSonar and the gpx file and off I went on Saturday. Man, what an awesome tool! I found new features as I was out in the field. I love the field notes and the sorting. Here are a couple of things I would look into (I think someone mentioned one of these):

1) It would be cool to save the order of the last display list. Everytime I went back, the same cache was at the top of the list.

2) I've noticed several (myself included) people use the '<br>' and '<oe>' (rot13 br), to help align the hints offered in the decrypt. It would be cool if the Show Hints option would understand this.

September 22, 2003

Grimlock...

I've noted the requests They make sense. Please keep in mind that the software is still in beta and needs a few tweaks here and there.

Regards,

Fabien.

September 24, 2003

I just loaded the ppc2002 version, and it works great. It even works with the Benchmark "Pocket Querries" created with BMGPX. Thanks a lot for the great software!!!

A few picky suggestions

1. It would not work properly when instaled to a memory card

2. It would be nice to get the cache page to come up with only a single tap, instead of a double.

3. It would be nice to be able to select what columns are shown, their order, width, and sorting.

4. Caches that I have previsouly found, are not flagged in any way, like they are in GPXview and in watcher.

5. It would be nice to have Benchmark types supported, along with other BM attributes, such as the date monumented

see this thread for info on BMGPX

http://ubbx.Groundspeak.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=5726007311&f=5116058331&m=35260855

6. Varialbe text size & cache type icon in list view

thanks for the great software!!!!

tylosaurus

September 24, 2003

tylosaurus...

Thanks for the feedback

About your suggestions:

1. I know and I have no intention of changing that for now.

2. This is not necessarily a good thing considering that the other options are accessible via 'Tap & Hold'. But I'll give it a try. If it works well, I'll change it.

3. Ok.

4. I'm ahead of you on that one

5. I'll look at that but no promises. GPXSonar is mainly intended for caches.

6. Ok.

September 24, 2003

Um, is there some separate download for the PPC2002 version? Or are we supposed to still be using the link at the top of this thread (http://users.adelphia.net/~froyer/GpxSonarSetup.exe)?

I just grabbed that, installed it on my PPC2002 device, and trying to run GPXSonar gives a "cannot find 'GPXSonar' (or one of its components) error...

- John...

September 24, 2003

Nevermind. I just found the 2002 setup download in your Profile. Was that announced anywhere (i.e. to look in the profile for the download links)? Heh...

- John...

September 24, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by Searching_ut:
Wow!, I'm impressed. This is a great little program, which seems to run quite nicely on my Axim. I've only just started playing with it, but it looks like it's going to be my choice for accessing the data on my pocket queries.

Thanks for sharing your excellent work.

Jeff

I figure this is a Dell Axim question.....and probably a stupid one.

I'd like to store the GPX files on my SD card but I can't find a way to navigate in GPXSonar to this location. It's only giving me the option of looking in main memory.

Any idea if there is a way around this? - JamesJM

September 24, 2003

JamesJM,

I store my GPX file on my SD card and GPXSonar finds is automatically. I created a folder called "My Documents" on the SD card and put it in there.

September 24, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by EarlyMorningHours:
JamesJM,

I store my GPX file on my SD card and GPXSonar finds is automatically. I created a folder called "My Documents" on the SD card and put it in there.

BINGO....worked like a charm, EarlyMorningHours!

Thanks....I doubt if I would have ever thought of that. - JamesJM

September 24, 2003

create a folder on your SD card called "My Documents" then put the gpx files in that one, or a subdirectory within that one.

September 25, 2003

Geo...just like to say that I haven't used your program very much, I'm still testing it out, but so far I really like what I see.

I don't even have any suggestions at this time, perhaps later. Good work - JamesJM

September 26, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by tylosaurus:
I e-mailed GEO, and this is his reply

"... It's similar to Watcher if you are familiar with this PC software. But it also includes a few features that no other

geocaching software contains right now. The goal of the application is to

provide zero-paper geocaching and, eventually, to be able to synchronize

with www.geocaching.com.

I installed the PPC2k2 version. The only thing it is showing me is the cache descriptions (which looks really good!). However it cannot compare (yet) with Watcher which has much more functionallity.

Or am I missing something?

What I am aware of missing:

- hints + decrypt function

- search function (I have a lot of caches in it)

- translation of non-ASCII characters (', ", ü, etc)

These all are suggestions for improvement.

Thanks for the good work!

BigBird

September 26, 2003

BigBirdNL...

You can access the other functions with a 'Tap & Hold' on any given cache.

About your suggestions:

1. It's available.

2. There are many filtering functions and sorting functions but no 'search' function yet.

3. Yes, this is already on my To Do list

Regards,

Fabien.

September 28, 2003

Dang, I didn't try that possiblility :-(

Thanks, I will try further!

BigBird

September 29, 2003

This weekend I really used GPXSonar a great deal and really put it through it's paces. I still think it's the best cache ino app out right now!

I do have one small sugestion

This past weekend I really used the field notes feature alot. i was away from home and my pc so I relied on this to keep my notes. Problem is when I got home to start logging it was kinda cumebrsome to read the notes on the ppc and log all the finds. Would it be possible to add a feature that dumped all the notes to some type of text file? That would make cutting and pasting log entries possible and really cut down on my time spent logging my caches.

http://www.cachegear.com

Technical News And Reviews Relating To Geocaching

"Law pain i reviar mistar aen"

September 29, 2003

crashmore...

I've already thought of this and it will be in the next release.

Regards,

Fabien.

September 30, 2003

Geo, I'm liking this program..I have one question

Would it be posible to have a link or option to associate a jpg (topo map) specific to a cache on the list ?

Right now I use GPSview to download my topo maps . Then export them, drop and drag to a folder on the PPC. The only way I can find them later on(which isn't the end of the world)is to rename them the same name as the cache.

I hope you undersatnd my qeustions....

Thanks, Bob

September 30, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by Team JBSS:
Geo, I'm liking this program..I have one question

Would it be posible to have a link or option to associate a jpg (topo map) specific to a cache on the list ?

Right now I use expertgps to download my topo maps . Then export them, drop and drag to a folder on the PPC. The only way I can find them later on(which isn't the end of the world)is to rename them the same name as the cache.

I hope you understand my question....

Thanks, Bob

[This message was edited by Team JBSS on September 30, 2003 at 10:01 AM.]

September 30, 2003

I've been looking at the 2002 version, and so far I'm impressed.

--Dave

Geocaching: Hiking with a purpose.

'GPXSonar' for Pocket PC 2003

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