+gt40 Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 From reading several posts here, I get the impression what I want to do is possible, but I haven't been able to piece together all the necessary steps. First off, what I have to work with: Handspring Visor Platinum Magellan GPS Companion Mapopolis Magellan Nav Companion Currently I'm finding the caches I'd like to hunt on the web site and printing off their information page. Then I'm entering a waypoint for the cache into Nav Companion by hand (tedious!). I'll navigate to the general location using either Mapopolis or printed maps from Mapquest, then I'll switch over to Nav Companion for the final hunt. What I'd like to do is either be able to dowbnload the cache information from the web site into Nav Companion or (even better,) Mapopolis. Anyone ever played with something like this? -- RK -- Robert Quote Link to comment
+parkrrrr Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 quote:Originally posted by gt40:What I'd like to do is either be able to dowbnload the cache information from the web site into Nav Companion or (even better,) Mapopolis. Anyone ever played with something like this? Yes! First, you need GPSBabel. Once you have it and have read the documentation for it, read the README.magnav file that comes with it for some additional information specific to Nav Companion. (In short, README.magnav tells you how to avoid losing all of your existing waypoints.) That'll let you get your waypoints into Nav Companion from the .loc file you can get from the "Download to EasyGPS" link on geocaching.com. There have been people working with GPSBabel and the Mapopolis waypoint converter, but I don't think there's official support for it in GPSBabel yet. Hopefully someone who's involved in that can step in with more information. Quote Link to comment
+Wander Lost Posted June 14, 2003 Share Posted June 14, 2003 quote:Originally posted by gt40: First off, what I have to work with: Handspring Visor Platinum Magellan GPS Companion Mapopolis Magellan Nav Companion -- Robert I have the Handspring Visor Neo with the Magellan GPS Companion. I don't have maping software that's usable and I don't use Nav Companion. I use Cetus GPS. I find it to be much more user friendly than Nav Companion. Definatly get the download of GPSBabel that WF linked to. That will let you convert your .loc files into almost any format you can think of. If you want to really get serious you should consider the premium membership. You get access to pocket queries which will allow you to download up to 500 waypoints per file. If you get them in .gpx format you can also run that through GPX Spinner. That formats the file into cache pages that you can grab with Plucker and download into your visor. The cache pages include full description, images if you have a high resolution pda, cache logs, nearest caches, decrypted hints, and much more. Spinner also allows you to modify the output to your liking for ease of use while caching. I take 5 PQ's at one time spin them and get approx 2000 caches ready to go. I take the output .gpx file and break it down into smaller files (Traditionals, Multi's, Micro's & Other). I run those through GPSBabel and convert them into Cetus.wpt files. One hotsync later I have everything I need in my pda. Hope that helps, and doesn't confuse to much. We're all here, because we're not 'all there'. Quote Link to comment
+smithdw Posted June 14, 2003 Share Posted June 14, 2003 I have to agree with Wander Lost, NAV Companion is a really bad program. I also use Cetus, GPX Spinner, GPS Babel, Plucker and ClayJar's Watcher program for viewing/searching/sorting GPX files on the PC. One problem when I tried using NAV Companion is that it seemed to die and lockup the Palm when I tried to work with more than 254 waypoints. Cetus doesn't have that problem. BTW, I have a Palm m515 and a Magellan GPS Companion. "The best way to accelerate a Macintosh is at 9.8m/sec/sec." -Marcus Dolengo Quote Link to comment
AndyCr15 Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 Why so many programs need to conver this and that, its very confusing for those trying to find their way into Geocaching I have Navman, GPXView and Mapopolis...I also need GPSBabel? Quote Link to comment
+baloo&bd Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 quote:Originally posted by AndyCr15:Why so many programs need to conver this and that, its very confusing for those trying to find their way into Geocaching I have Navman, GPXView and Mapopolis...I also need GPSBabel? Actually, there are two ways you can go where there is little or no converting. The first is MobiPocket, which I used until very recently and still use for reading books, etc. The second that I switched to recently and am now using exclusively is Cachemate 2.0. I didn't like the others either because of all the steps yyou had to go thru to get files to work. With Cachemate, you get your Pocket Query in GPX form, run it thru the CMConvert program that comes with the program, and put it in you PDA. It includes a log, which I found nice, as well as the ability to see past logs of other users right in the program as well as the hints. MobiPocket has all this information do, except you need to use the find button rather then hav it in a drop down menu. All of this alos assumes that you are a premium user. Quote Link to comment
+elf king Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 I still haven't seen where the info is put directly into the Magelland GPS Companion without your typing it yourself. Am I missing something. Also, the GPSBabel is incomprehensible to me. When I figured how to download it, it did not come with any documentation. I can't get the README.magnav file and even if I could, I don't know what program reads 'magnav' files. I'm not stupid, but I'm not a programmer either. Quote Link to comment
+parkrrrr Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 (edited) Here's the readme file for Nav Companion. If you're stuck using the GUI (gpsbabelfront.exe) you should set it up to look more or less like this: Warning: Installing the PDB file as described below WILL delete all waypoints you currently have stored in your Nav Companion software. If you don't want to do this, you MUST use the command line version of GPSBabel as described in the document linked above. After you do the conversion, just find the .pdb file you've just created and double-click it to install it to your Visor, then do a hotsync. When you load Nav Companion, you'll find that it's confused about the list of waypoints, because Magellan never expected anyone to change the list using anything but Nav Companion itself. If you tap the scrollbar on the right side of the list, it should correct itself. Edited February 19, 2004 by parkrrrr Quote Link to comment
+GeckoGeek Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 (edited) The second that I switched to recently and am now using exclusively is <A HREF="http://www.smittyware.com/palm/cachemate/" TARGET=_blank>Cachemate 2.0</A>. Version 2.0? You blinked. It's up around 3.4 now. It also has Plugins for exporting to Cetus, Mapopolis (OS5 or later) and to your GPS if you can get a PDA to GPS cable. Edited February 19, 2004 by GeckoGeek Quote Link to comment
+elf king Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Thanks to parkerrrr and geckgeek. I think I have what I came for. Now I"ve just got to figure how to get descriptions and hints into cachemate and I'm set. I think. I can download info into easygps, then convert to cachemate then send to cetus. Right? Quote Link to comment
+Maeglin Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 I can download info into easygps, then convert to cachemate then send to cetus. Right? Yes, just don't save the pocket query with EasyGPS before you convert it for CacheMate. Either that, or make a copy of the GPX file before using EasyGPS on it. That program strips out all of the good info like descriptions, hints, etc. Quote Link to comment
+GeckoGeek Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Now I"ve just got to figure how to get descriptions and hints into cachemate and I'm set. I think. I can download info into easygps, then convert to cachemate .... No, the only way to get the data you want is to use Pocket Queries to request a GPX file to be emailed to you. LOC files don't have that info. Have it sent to you in a Zip format to avoid problems. EasyGPS does not support descriptions and hints and may strip it out of your GPX file so using EasyGPS to go to CacheMate will not work. Quote Link to comment
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