AvantGo and Geocaching

[Guest Chris Juricich]

I downloaded the app to my Palm but I'm now not sure why I did.

 

Does the program allow me to download cache information? What?

 

Any help appreciated!

[Guest jeremy]

Greg Petersen has been helping me with an Avantgo channel for geocaching. Right now some folks just copy the url from the nearest caches page and clip from there, but it's not too efficient (and creates quite a load on my machines). Hopefully I can have something shortly. Fortunately Greg helped me out with getting the page design down.

 

Jeremy

[Guest Chris Juricich]

I'm confoo-zed.

 

One can clip and copy from the cache page already, right? How does AvantGo have anything to do with that process?

 

I realize that with AvantGo, one can subscribe to daily updates from various websites for technews, Wall Street Jnl, etc., but with the geocaching page, how does one download the info one wants?

 

Or can one?

[Guest Chris Juricich]

Oh oh, I get it-- you're the moderator, so...

 

heh heh

[Guest tnunnery]

Using AvantGo, you have the ability to create your own channels. For a single cache, you can click on Create Channel and paste in the link of the cache page you want. Sync up to your Palm (or whatever) and there it is.

 

It is also possible to add search page (the results of a zip code/area code ot state search) as the web address of the channel to create. Then, by specifying how many links "deep" you want sent to your Palm you can also include the cache pages themselves. There you go - a clickable search page with all of the cache pages as well.

 

Most pages are very small (4-7k) so most handhelds can hold quite a few.

 

As well as this works already, I'm still looking forward to the new feature Jeremy mentions above!

[Guest Exocet]

Tis easy, fellow geocachers.

 

- Login to www.avantgo.com.

- In the "My Account" area, at the bottom, click on "Create Channel"

- Make the URL something like this: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?zip=97206 (use your own zip code)

- Channel size should be 200k or more for this one. Link depth "1". Sync daily or whatever. No images. Don't follow off-site links.

- Add another channel. This one should be called "25 to 50" or something.

- URL is http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest_cache.asp?zip=97206&start=25 (your own zip...)

- and so on.

 

Any questions? Ask me. I've been using AvantGo to do this for months now.

[Guest Chris Juricich]

Hey, Exocet (French missile, yes?) was right on the money. Synced twice per his instructions and now I have the first 50 closest caches on my Palm.

 

Very cool! Thanks!!

 

Someone should save those instructions for general reference!!

[Guest barefoot]

I found that AvantGo "out of the box" doesn't really work well for my needs. In that I've found many of the caches close to me, if I direct it to the zip code page, I end up d/ling a lot of caches that I've already found. Though it took a bit of extra work, I've saved those caches I'm interested in locally on my machine and created an additional page that lists them. Then I ran a shareware web server temporarily and directed AvantGo to my computer to d/l the pages. It worked like a champ!

[Guest SteveL]

A native Aventgo channel would be great if it could:

 

1. Sync nearest caches from a zip or LAT/LONG.

2. Monitor your caches/watchlist.

3. Allow you to enter a log for a cache and sync it.

4. Allow you to search your synced caches based on waypoint name.

5. Caching while on the road - allow me to enter in a temp zip or LAT/LONG and sync caches near it. Would be useful when on trips.

 

All of this is very cool (I can sync caches with Aventgo today, although it is quite rudimentary), but I still can?t sync my local caches with my GPS! Is there any way to download waypoints (via EasyGPS or similar) for a local area? I find that I have to open each cache page and individually download the waypoint info, then sync it with my GPS ? very tedious and time consuming! Is there a way to download the nearest waypoints to my GPS, without having to open each page individually? With the waypoints loaded in my GPS, I could use it to see what caches I am near, and then look them up on my palm ? all while standing in the middle of a national forest!

 

SteveL

[Guest Anton]

About using Palms for GCing...

 

I have a Palm Vx that I use with the Rand-McNally Streetfinder unit (made by Magellan) and the map software that came with it. Since the Streetfinder software doesn't include the usual GPS caculations, like lat-long-elev, I added the shareware program, GPS Pilot's "Compass" (paid for it!). Unfortunately, Compass gives the lat-long coordinates as degrees, minutes & seconds, rather than as WGS-84 numbers.

 

Is there another GPS progam for Palms that DOES use WGS-84? If not, is there a simple way to convert to WGS-84 from the old system?

 

Anton, 10H/10F

 

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

Anton Ninno - N2RUD

Syracuse, NY 13210

[Guest bunkerdave]

Here's one:

 

I have been using Fireviewer for awhile now, to put pics of my family, documents, etc. in my Palm 3c. ("C" is for color) I recently figured out how to put the full-sized 1/24,000 TOPO maps from TOPOZONE on it. It takes a little copy/cut& paste dexterity, but the finished result is FABULOUS. The files are large, too, about .4 to .6 MB, so you have to manage that, but you can't beat having a topo map of the entire area on your PDA. This is probably elementary to many of you, but for the others:

 

1) Pick a location in TopoZone (the cache pages will do this for you)

 

2) Be sure you select the 1/24,000 LARGE map. It is not essential, but it does give the best data. No point going through all this for anything less.

 

3) I like to set my browser to "full screen" mode, so that I get as much of the map as possible on the monitor screen.

 

4) Hit the "print screen" button on your keyboard. This places the image on your monitor to your clipboard.

 

5) Open the "Paint" program that comes with every computer I have ever seen.

 

6) Use "paste" or CTRL+V to place the clipboard contents on your new paint document.

 

7) To get the whole map, you just have to move the original map around until you have all the sections of the map copied and pasted to your new document. With a little practice, you can do one of these in about 5-15 minutes, depending on the map.

 

8) You have to save the paint document to a place you can remember.

 

9) Open Fireviewer. This can be downloaded fro free at their website. I think it is Fireviewer.com.

 

10) The window you need shows "open," "save," and "exit" at the bottom. First hit "open."

 

11) You will have to find where you saved the paint file, and click it, and then hit "open"

 

12) The image should appear in the little window in the upper right.

 

13) Now hit "save." A little bar should change color across the screen. Make sure you check the box that says "auto install."

 

14) Now all you have to do is Hotsync your PDA, and the map should be in your Fireviewer. The newer versions compress the file for you, which you will want, because these maps are pretty big files. You manipulate the map just by holding your stylus on it and sliding it across the screen. It does not, of course, give you any coordinate or distance data, but it does give you a nice rendering of the topography, The maps look very nice on my 3c. Probably not real great on the grayscale, but worth a try.

 

Good Luck.

 

 

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

David Wallentine

dwallent34@yahoo.com

[Guest bunkerdave]

Exocet - you are my HERO! I would have gone absolutely MAD trying to keep up with all these new Utah cachers and their cache placing obsession. Now all I have to do is push a little button and I have them ALL! Very nicely done! I will never copy/paste again!

[Guest zoedog]

Wow this is so cool! I have the new Palm m505 and have been using Avantgo since I bought it but never really Thouht about using it for caches. Thanks guys.

 

ZoeDog

[Guest zoedog]

Wow this is so cool! I have the new Palm m505 and have been using Avantgo since I bought it but never really Thouht about using it for caches. Thanks guys.

 

ZoeDog

[Guest geckoguy]

lick on the link "convert to NAD27 or UTM". This free feature from JEEEP.COM converts your degree/minute/second to decimal. You can also use http://www.jeeep.com/details/coord/

to enter one format and convert it to another.

 

Mike, 1H/7F

 

 

[This message has been edited by geckoguy (edited 01 August 2001).]