Cachemate Question

[+Mastifflover]

I bought Cachemate and it was just what I was looking for to be able to take notes and such while caching. My question is do I still have to use spinner to upload the waypoints to my gpsr? If not how do I do this with Cachemate? Thanks in advance.

[+Maeglin]

My question is do I still have to use spinner to upload the waypoints to my gpsr?  If not how do I do this with Cachemate?  Thanks in advance.

There are plugins available for CacheMate that'll upload waypoints to Garmin or Magellan units. The only thing you need aside from that is a cable. The basic solution for that is serial cables for your PDA and GPSr, and a null modem adapter in between, but that also involves a lot of bulk. There's several places to get a specialized cable as well... I don't have any recommendations on that, but maybe someone else around here does.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I am impressed with the cable I got from PC-Mobile to connect a Magellan 320 to a Sony Clie

[+beatnik]

I bought Cachemate and it was just what I was looking for to be able to take notes and such while caching. My question is do I still have to use spinner to upload the waypoints to my gpsr? If not how do I do this with Cachemate? Thanks in advance.

You use the PC cachemate program "cmconvert.exe" to load your .GPX files and turn them into a .PDB file for placing on your Palm. Once you place the palm database file for cachemate on the palm run Cachemate on your Palm and it will ask you about importing the cache pages.

 

You can then load your .GPX file on to your GPS using EasyGPS or you can use GPX Spinner to spin the file first and place it on your GPS with EasyGPS just as you may have before.

 

I put the full GPX file onto my Palm first. Then I usually use Watcher to filter my GPX files down for my trip. I then save them as a new GPX file with Watcher. I GPX-Spin that file and load it into my GPS with EasyGPS. Sounds like a lot of work but I can take a new GPX file fresh from my inbox and be ready to go caching in less than 5 minutes. Longer if I plan out my route of course.

[+Mastifflover]

I think that for my limited computer ability I will run cmconvert to be able to put the files into cachemate, and then load the waypoints onto my legend with easy gps like I did before. So basically I just traded Cachemate for Plucker. Since I like Cachemate better I think this will work for me. Sound logical?

[+NightPilot]

That will work. There are lots of ways to get the waypoints to the GPS, including GSAK, EasyGPS, and more I don't know about. What you're doing is the cheapest option. If you have to buy a cable to connect the Palm to the GPS it will cost a few dollars. I made my own, using cables I already had and parts from Radio Shack for the adapters, but if you don't have some electronics experience it may not be worth the trouble. I probably wouldn't have bothered just to use Cachemate to transfer the data to the GPS, but I use Mapopolis on the Palm with the GPS for driving directions, so I already had built the cable for that.

 

If you're looking to still cut down on programs, GSAK alone will do what you're using Spinner and EasyGPS to do. It will load the gpx files, sort them, convert them to whatever format you might want, and send the waypoints to the GPS, along with other stuff. A future version should allow you to send the caches to Cachemate, eliminating the need for CMConvert. Just a thought. What you're doing will certainly work.

Edited February 17, 2004 by NightPilot

[+Mastifflover]

I have read some of the discussions for Gsak. I would like to try this somewhere down the road but I want to wait until is finished. Thanks for the help.

[+Limax]

I doubt that it will ever be "finished'. GSAK, like lots of software, is constantly being updated with improvements, enhancements and bug fixes. Clyde is getting ready for another major release, based on what I've seen... but I'm betting that the work for him won't end there.... (although he may want it to... )

[+RuffRidr]

I have read some of the discussions for Gsak. I would like to try this somewhere down the road but I want to wait until is finished. Thanks for the help.

GSAK is already a pretty polished piece of software. It does everything for me now that I had been using the combination of Watcher, EasyGPS, and GPSBabel for before.

 

I can't wait to see some of the new features Clyde has in store for us in the next major release.

 

--RuffRidr

[+NightPilot]

GSAK is finished, in the sense that it's quality, working software, just as Cachemate is. But both programs are being updated with new features as users request them, and the developers get the additions ready. All good software is updated periodically, and that's what is happening with both these programs, but the updates are coming rapidly from both. IMO, that's a good thing.