Pc Interface Tools

[+TheNomad]

I have a Garmin GPS-V, with Mapsource v5.2. To interface with geocaching.com, I have to use a fairly round-about route, and I'm wondering if there is a better way. What I end up doing is this:

 

a) Use a Pocket Query to generate .gpx and .prc files

Import the .gpx file into EasyGPS

c) Send the waypoints to my GPSr from EasyGPS (which hoses the names)

d) Import the waypoints from my GPSr into Mapsource so I can see 'em on a map

 

What does everyone else do? I like/need to see where the caches lay themselves out on a map, but I don't like the choices that EasyGPS makes in describing the cache. I guess my questions are as follows:

 

1) Is there a better tool to go from a gpx file which isn't supported by Mapsource into Mapsource? I tried GPS Babel at one point, but it wasn't very robust when I tried it.

 

2) Or, is there a better tool to open a .gpx file and send it to my Garmin GPSr? One where I can choose how the fields get mangled, and what's important to me.

[+TheNomad]

Let me clarify my point on GPS Babel - I don't want to appear to be disparaging - it's a very cool and powerful tool. But, I'd like to determine what fields in the gpx file are important to me, and use them as the output in the description.

 

For example - for caching out of town, I would like to have my Mapsource file contain the short description of the cache, and the cache container (Micro, Regular, Etc.) It really doesn't matter to me who placed the cache when I live in FL, and I'm caching in CA. I just need to know whether I'm looking for a Micro, or a regular. I haven't been able to make GPS Babel use the short description + cache container. I haven't been able to make EasyGPS stop removing vowels from the description, or stop including who the cache is by. It seems that my requirements are pretty simple, but I'm just not finding anything that will let me do what I want.

 

I hope this more lengthy description helps. Thanks for the input.

[+Stunod]

Try running your GPX file thru Spinner before sending it to your GPS with EasyGPS. Spinner allows you to customize the names and symbols for the caches.

 

To easily see a map of your GPX file, try replacing EasyGPS with ExpertGPS. There is free trial software on their webpage.

[robertlipe]

Let me clarify my point on GPS Babel - I don't want to appear to be disparaging - it's a very cool and powerful tool. But, I'd like to determine what fields in the gpx file are important to me, and use them as the output in the description.

 

Well, part of that is silliness in the Groundspeak pocket query format. The only way it'll improve is to make specific suggestions to the program maintainers (experience has shown that complaining about silliness in the pocket queries themselves is largely futile) in their respective support forums, but some of us listen "out of bounds".

 

I agree that the placer name doesn't belong in <urlname>and placer name, diff, terr, and container type belong in neither <cmt> nor <desc>. Feel free to suggest that to contact@geocaching.com. It's not that these programs add it in, it's that we don't try to bust apart geocaching.com's assumptions that more than one field's worth of data belongs in one field.

 

I suggest bypassing Mapsource entirely and using GPSBabel to feed straight to the serial port of your receiver. You'll get an icon that tells you what you're hunting (micro, virt, etc.) and, if you specify "-s", a cache name that's optimally sized and shaped for your specific receiver.

 

If, however, you really do want to be specify arbitrary transformations on the GPX file, I think that GPXSpinner is probably the best tool I've seen for that. Use it to (de)mangle the GPX file to your taste before feeding to a program of your choosing.

 

 

If you ask on the gpsbabel mailing list exactly what you're trying to accomplish, the commands you're issuinng, what you're seeing, and what you're wanting, perhaps we can help.

[+Hemlock]

Well, part of that is silliness in the Groundspeak pocket query format. The only way it'll improve is to make specific suggestions to the program maintainers (experience has shown that complaining about silliness in the pocket queries themselves is largely futile)

In the last few months as a reviewer I learned an important thing about Jeremy. When he's working on one part of the site, that's ALL he's working on. If you suggest a change to the part he's working on, he'll listen, and make the change if he agrees with it. If you suggest changes to another part, he'll make notes, but implement nothing.

 

Lately he's been working on the travel bug pages. Before that, it was the cache pages and the search page. Somewhere in there were some behind-the-scenes tools for us reviewers.

 

I believe one of the next things he'll be working on will be the PQs. Hopefully the improvements suggested in the past will happen then. Hopefully he'll solicit more feedback, at least from the known developers.

 

Be patient. He does listen. He just doesn't always react right away.

[+Renegade Knight]

I use Streets and Trips for the pocket PC.

 

Since GPX view reads and view GPX files it serves as my paperless cache guide. it also exports pushpin files for use with S&T Maps. That lets me look at the caches in any given area relative to the road system.

 

The rest of what I do is similar to you. I used to use GPSbabel to output the pushpin files and a national geographic topo file but since moving from LOC to GPX I've never re-done my batch file.

[robertlipe]

Be patient. He does listen. He just doesn't always react right away.

Since the PQ problem that I was pointing (which was inarguably a defect in the produced XML) as many as a dozen people a week to contact @Groundspeak.com took a year to address, let's just say I have low hopes.

 

(which is probably why my own messages to that address get ignored - I'm on The List as a complainer...)

[+TheNomad]

I tried robertlipe's suggestion to go straight from gpsbabel into my GPSr. I am able to upload the waypoints with no problem, but unfortunately, micro-caches don't get either a special icon, or any mention in the description. I also tried using the gpx,gsshortnames in the hopes that if it used a shorter name, it would use the container type in the description. No dice.

 

I do notice that when I convert to MPS, virtual caches get a special icon, but that's not so for going directly to the GPSr, and micro caches don't get a special icon.

 

I'm disappointed - that sounded soooo goood... []

[+TheNomad]

I found that using Spinner gives me the control I was looking for. Thanks for a great idea - it's just the ticket.

[+RobRee]

i learned that by reading a post that i thought to be a repeat of old stuff... i learned something new. thanks for this thread as it opened my eyes to a few programs i can use. thanks guys!!!

 

robbie