Cachemate 3.5

1.8k · June 6, 2004

When you open a cache, do you see the export button at the lower right? Now click on it. As for size, they are so small you would not notice.

Edited June 6, 2004 by Learned Gerbil

June 7, 2004

I finally figured out how to consistantly reproduce the "mangled" waypoint problem. If I do a search for nearest caches and then do an export of waypoints from that screen then it adds the letter designator for cache type to the front and drops the last letter/digit of the waypoint when it is transfered to the GPS. If I do an export of waypoints from any other screen it doesn't happen.

1.2k · June 7, 2004

I'm a very happy Cachemate user, and since I purchased it, I have been entirely paperless. There is one thing I miss, though, and that's the ability to see pictures in the cache description. I usually have several hundred caches in my Palm, and even if uploading pictures were an option, I would probably disable it, for the amount of memory it would consume.

Right now, after finding a cache and reading pages of nearby caches to decide which ones to do next, I eliminate the ones which require looking at pictures - when I find out.

How do you fellow cachemate users work around this problem? Thanks!

1.2k · June 8, 2004

Is there a way to display just the caches that have the found box checked? If I display by category, I get all of the caches that I imported into the found category and the ones where I checked the box.

The only search function with filters like that is the nearest cache search. There are 2 options, though...

1) Keep 2 categories, one for each type of "found" status

2) Do a nearest cache search, looking only for found caches, with a prefilter on the "Found" category (saves time in building the list)

I finally figured out how to consistantly reproduce the "mangled" waypoint problem. If I do a search for nearest caches and then do an export of waypoints from that screen then it adds the letter designator for cache type to the front and drops the last letter/digit of the waypoint when it is transfered to the GPS. If I do an export of waypoints from any other screen it doesn't happen.

That I was able to replicate here... thanks! Found and fixed the problem, but I'm in the middle of several things here so I can't do a normal patch release right away. If anyone needs the fix, though, send an email to support (at) smittyware.com and I'll reply with a patched copy.

How do you fellow cachemate users work around this problem?

You can set an option in CMConvert to generate an HTML file with image and other links culled from HTML cache descriptions. Haven't quite mastered the black art of Palm OS image viewers, which is why there isn't anything CacheMate-specific for that, but you can use that generated page in any way you want (seeing which caches require images and/or downloading images for those that do).

1.2k · June 11, 2004

I've just added a tutorial list to the site, listing the 3 that I know of so far. If you have any that you want to add, there's an email link on that page.

I should be able to get a 3.5.3 release out this weekend, including the fix for the waypoint name changes when exporting from the nearest cache list. Part of the reason for the delay on that was because I was getting a new server online to get around my ISP's blacklisted mail server, which has caused problems with people getting registration codes because of over-zealous spam filters on their ends. That shouldn't be a problem anymore.

1.2k · June 13, 2004

The aforementioned 3.5.3 release is now on the site. Enjoy!

June 13, 2004

I am trying to send (export) WPs from my Visor PDA to my Garmin Venture GPSr with the Garmin GPS Query/Upload plugin, which after trying to connect, gives me the message; "Error - Never received product description reply".

What is this about?

Thanks.

2.4k · June 16, 2004

What interface is the Garmin set to? For a Garmin, you have to set the interface on the GPS to Garmin, not NMEA, for transferring waypoints. If you have the interface set to Garmin already, then you might check for a good connection between the units. I don't have any other suggestions off the top of my head.

June 22, 2004

I am having a problem using the Garmin/GPS pluggin to work on my T3.

If I set my Legend to NMEA the T3 can get the navigational data - so I am guessing my cable is not the problem.

Then I set the garmin back to Garmin protocol and try to export a waypoint - but no luck I get "No Response from GPS" - I have tried multiple speed settings, etc, but with no luck.

Any ideas?

1.2k · June 22, 2004

Then I set the garmin back to Garmin protocol and try to export a waypoint - but no luck I get "No Response from GPS" - I have tried multiple speed settings, etc, but with no luck.

The T3 has a bug where it always wants to do CTS/RTS handshaking, for some unknown reason, whether the software requests it or not. This has no effect with NMEA, but it does impact a two-way conversation, which the Garmin protocol uses in all cases. As far as the baud rate, that's locked at 9600 for the Garmin protocol, per their specs.

June 22, 2004

Then I set the garmin back to Garmin protocol and try to export a waypoint - but no luck I get "No Response from GPS" - I have tried multiple speed settings, etc, but with no luck.

The T3 has a bug where it always wants to do CTS/RTS handshaking, for some unknown reason, whether the software requests it or not. This has no effect with NMEA, but it does impact a two-way conversation, which the Garmin protocol uses in all cases. As far as the baud rate, that's locked at 9600 for the Garmin protocol, per their specs.

So, is there a solution to this "bug" or does the Garmin Xfer just not work for T3 users?

I have tried setting up the CTS/RTS handshake at 9600 baud and still it does not work.

June 22, 2004

Clyde @ GSAK will be happy to see I now am bugging CacheMate instead of GSAK

Quick question: Can CacheMate export different symbols for the different cache types instead of just one?

I really like the fact that there is some stuff built in to CMate for benchmarking.

June 22, 2004

Three posts in a row - a new record for me :unsure:

In playing some more with CacheMate I noticed that when I export nearest caches (benchmarks) not all of them seemed to xfer. I had 13 in my list - but only 10 came across.

It appears that CacheMate can only handle transfering a 6 character waypoint name to the GPSr? So Caches1 and Caches2 are both sent to the GPS as CACHES and the first one gets overwritten by the 2nd. My GPSr will handle a 10 character name - so this should not be a problem, but it is.

I believe CacheMate will replace plucker for carrying my cache/benchmark data with me - I had hoped it would also allow me to xfer data to my GPS while on the road - but am running into too many limitiations.

Hope to have time to check out GPilotS tomorrow see if it will work as a waypoint manager or if there are similar limitations in it.

Why did Garmin limit the legend to 500 waypoints argh!! 8 meg of memory and 500 lousy waypoints :tongue:

1.2k · June 22, 2004

So, is there a solution to this "bug" or does the Garmin Xfer just not work for T3 users?

Sounds like you found the answer to that one, judging by your other thread on the matter. Since you mentioned creating a cable for it, I thought you might have been able to fix it there by making it look like a null modem to the PDA side... maybe not. On the Smittyware.com forums, that's how one user ended up handling it.

Quick question: Can CacheMate export different symbols for the different cache types instead of just one?

You can choose a symbol for all records exported at one time. The cache type isn't sent to the export plugins, though, so there's not really any way to pull off type-specific symbols.

I really like the fact that there is some stuff built in to CMate for benchmarking.

Huh? Where? :tongue:

As far as I know, I only had the predefined record type in there for that, but if you found another feature that's handy for benchmarking, I'd be interested in knowing what it is. Haven't quite gotten into that side of it yet, myself.

It appears that CacheMate can only handle transfering a 6 character waypoint name to the GPSr? So Caches1 and Caches2 are both sent to the GPS as CACHES and the first one gets overwritten by the 2nd. My GPSr will handle a 10 character name - so this should not be a problem, but it is.

The field in CacheMate can do up to 10 characters, and there's no length limiting in the plugin support code, so I can only think of it being in the plugin or the GPSr. Unless the waypoint format (there's at least a dozen of those with Garmin) being used by the Legend is limiting that in some way, I don't think I'm limiting it to 6, but I can double-check the code tonight when I get home.

I might also put together a patch version that'll query and display the relevant protocol numbers that the GPSr is supporting, to know for sure in cases like this. If you want to check with that, send an email to the Smittyware.com support address and I'll reply with it when I can get it done.

June 22, 2004

So, is there a solution to this "bug" or does the Garmin Xfer just not work for T3 users?

Sounds like you found the answer to that one, judging by your other thread on the matter. Since you mentioned creating a cable for it, I thought you might have been able to fix it there by making it look like a null modem to the PDA side... maybe not. On the Smittyware.com forums, that's how one user ended up handling it.

I ended up downloading a patch - it has a 14 day trial period then will have to pay $10 to keep it. Will see if I end up using my T3 to xfer waypoints. I will post a link to what I found.

Quick question: Can CacheMate export different symbols for the different cache types instead of just one?

You can choose a symbol for all records exported at one time. The cache type isn't sent to the export plugins, though, so there's not really any way to pull off type-specific symbols.

Any chance the cache types will ever be able to be xfered to the export plugin?

Also, I notice that most of the choices for cache symbols transfer over as just the 'dot' instead of the symbol on my Legend??

I really like the fact that there is some stuff built in to CMate for benchmarking.

Huh? Where?

As far as I know, I only had the predefined record type in there for that, but if you found another feature that's handy for benchmarking, I'd be interested in knowing what it is. Haven't quite gotten into that side of it yet, myself.

You are right, but I guess just having that little bit makes it 'benchmark friendly. :unsure:

It appears that CacheMate can only handle transfering a 6 character waypoint name to the GPSr? So Caches1 and Caches2 are both sent to the GPS as CACHES and the first one gets overwritten by the 2nd. My GPSr will handle a 10 character name - so this should not be a problem, but it is.

The field in CacheMate can do up to 10 characters, and there's no length limiting in the plugin support code, so I can only think of it being in the plugin or the GPSr. Unless the waypoint format (there's at least a dozen of those with Garmin) being used by the Legend is limiting that in some way, I don't think I'm limiting it to 6, but I can double-check the code tonight when I get home.

I noticed that there is quite a bit of variation on the waypoint name. It only allows you to type 10 characters - but there is no limit when importing - so I have some that have 24+ charcter waypoint names.

I don't think the 6 character limit is on my end - GSAK and all the other programs Xfer the 10 characters just fine.

One more thing on my Wish List - Instead of just having 'Done' at the bottom - it would be nice if there was a 'Cancel' or at least an 'Undo' on the top. Am sure this would require quite a bit of diffent coding since it would require not commiting the change until either done or cancel is pressed - but I have messed up a couple of my caches and had no real way of restoring it.

Thanks for a great program :tongue:

Thanks!

June 22, 2004

Here is the info I found at GPilotS on the T3 bug:

Restrictions

Due to some bug(s) in PalmOS' serial library, Tungsten T3 don't work.

It seem's there's a patch available :

From: Carsten Kurz

There is a commercial patch that solves the T3 communication problem. It makes the RTS/CTS bridge unnecessary and solves the waypoint/route upload problem as well, with GPilotS and Pathaway. (and now CacheMate) T3 SerialFix ...I don't like the idea of paying for a bugfix - but if Palm is not interesting in fixing serious bugs, then this seems to be the only solution ...

I think it would be a good idea to put something similar up on CacheMate's site - I spent a couple of hours trying to rework cables, testing, etc. And if I had not remembered seeing something about some T3 / serial problem - I would have guessed that it was my cabling - and sent off for a more expensive cable instead of the one I put together with a null modem connector and a gender changer.

It is a known issue - so should be placed somewhere in the docs where it talks about exporting - and maybe, like GPilotS - adding it to the bugs page as a 'Known Issue'. It is similar to the Grafitti 2 problems that palm created. Point the finger at Palm - and show possible solutions.

1.2k · June 22, 2004

I ended up downloading a patch - it has a 14 day trial period then will have to pay $10 to keep it. Will see if I end up using my T3 to xfer waypoints. I will post a link to what I found.

Judging by your post after this one, I guess that it worked? I'll add to the known issues list, though generally I've only put my own bugs in there :unsure:

Any chance the cache types will ever be able to be xfered to the export plugin? Also, I notice that most of the choices for cache symbols transfer over as just the 'dot' instead of the symbol on my Legend??

I can add that to the to-do list for the plugin interface... not sure on an ETA, though. Adding the type name to the exported data is the easy part. What will take a while after that is getting the plugins updated, because of the UI issues with configuring type-specific symbols.

As far as the symbol transfer issue, that's likely because not all symbols that are available on the version of firmware you might be using. An upgrade might be the ticket for that. At least, compared to Magellan, Garmin's standardized on symbol IDs in most cases (definitely with more recent devices).

I don't think the 6 character limit is on my end - GSAK and all the other programs Xfer the 10 characters just fine.

I might have limited it in the plugin, then, and just forgotten about it. Now that I think about it, I saw the same thing on my Rino, and I know what data format it's using... there's no 6-character limit there. I'll look into it and get a patch out tonight or tomorrow for that plugin.

One more thing on my Wish List - Instead of just having 'Done' at the bottom - it would be nice if there was a 'Cancel' or at least an 'Undo' on the top. Am sure this would require quite a bit of diffent coding since it would require not commiting the change until either done or cancel is pressed - but I have messed up a couple of my caches and had no real way of restoring it.

The easiest way to do that would be to have a "save changes?" prompt, probably triggered when you exit from the record view and/or tapped the Done button. I would definitely make it an option, though... called "Confirm save changes" or something like that. As far as another button for Cancel, there's simply no room left down there :tongue:

Thinking over the "Cancel" option some more, I'm not sure about the feasibility of it, since there's other things besides tapping Done and exiting the app that'll cause the record to be saved. I'll think a little more on it, though.

Edited June 22, 2004 by Maeglin

June 22, 2004

As far as the symbol transfer issue, that's likely because not all symbols that are available on the version of firmware you might be using. An upgrade might be the ticket for that. At least, compared to Magellan, Garmin's standardized on symbol IDs in most cases (definitely with more recent devices).

Hmm. I know on my Legend I have about 3 times as many symbols to choose from than what Cachemate shows as 'available'. I will look though to see if there is a newer version out. I do know that GSAK has no trouble at all - I can pick from any of the available symbols and they transfer.

One more thing on my Wish List - Instead of just having 'Done' at the bottom - it would be nice if there was a 'Cancel' or at least an 'Undo' on the top. Am sure this would require quite a bit of diffent coding since it would require not commiting the change until either done or cancel is pressed - but I have messed up a couple of my caches and had no real way of restoring it.

The easiest way to do that would be to have a "save changes?" prompt, probably triggered when you exit from the record view and/or tapped the Done button. I would definitely make it an option, though... called "Confirm save changes" or something like that. As far as another button for Cancel, there's simply no room left down there

Thinking over the "Cancel" option some more, I'm not sure about the feasibility of it, since there's other things besides tapping Done and exiting the app that'll cause the record to be saved. I'll think a little more on it, though.

Yes, figured it may not be trivial - might even just be an option on the drop down menu to 'Undo' or 'Revert to Last'.

1.2k · June 22, 2004

Hmm. I know on my Legend I have about 3 times as many symbols to choose from than what Cachemate shows as 'available'. I will look though to see if there is a newer version out. I do know that GSAK has no trouble at all - I can pick from any of the available symbols and they transfer.

Garmin's specs are usually kinda lacking, so that could have something to do with it... who knows? GSAK is using GPSBabel for that, and I know more experience went in there as far as the Garmin interface. Why the same symbol IDs would come up different ways with the same data format on the same device, though, I don't know.

As far as symbol availability, the list that the plugin makes available was chosen based on the data formats and what they supported, so that most of them would be supported in most cases. The same thinking went into the list for the Magellan plugin. The exceptions to that were the Geocache and Geocache Found symbols, for obvious reasons :tongue:

1.2k · June 22, 2004

Version 1.22 of the Garmin upload plugin is now on the site, with support for longer waypoint names (up to 12 characters) for those devices that support it. There's also fixes in there for Palm OS Cobalt compatibility... not that that means anything to anyone just yet :tongue:

June 23, 2004

Here I go again - more on my 'wish list'

Would be great if the left & right buttons / pad / whatever / would toggle through the 'screens'. I,D,H,L,P, and back to I again.

I not sure it is possible - but would be cool if Log button could be a different shade or color if it had text / been modified / whatever. Actually would be real cool if all the buttons were shaded if they had been modified from the original download?

Question:

Is there a way to display only one type of cache? Say, Virtuals?

Is there a way to add to this 'Type' list (noticed mine has Leterbox Hybrid in 2x? once with the word Cache attached to Hybrid). If so I could add Benchmark-Adjusted and Benchmark-Scaled, as well as Places (use this for center points).

1.2k · June 23, 2004

Here I go again - more on my 'wish list'

Would be great if the left & right buttons / pad / whatever / would toggle through the 'screens'. I,D,H,L,P, and back to I again.

Already there. Look in the popup where you chose the pushbutton selector, for an option called "view select key" :lol:

I not sure it is possible - but would be cool if Log button could be a different shade or color if it had text / been modified / whatever. Actually would be real cool if all the buttons were shaded if they had been modified from the original download?

I'm not sure that it is, given Palm OS's support for coloring of UI elements. Unless I want to do a custom drawn selector control (ick), it's basically all or nothing as far as color changes.

Is there a way to display only one type of cache? Say, Virtuals?

No, but nothing is keeping you from separating those as you want to into categories. You can have up to 15 categories... I just have some predefined as a start. You can use the filters in either GSAK or CMConvert to separate them out and, provided you use different names for the PDB files, Hotsync and import them all at one time.

There's also the type indicator in the list views that you can turn on, if it helps to quickly scan looking for a specific type. It displays the first character of the type name on the left side of the list.

Is there a way to add to this 'Type' list (noticed mine has Leterbox Hybrid in 2x? once with the word Cache attached to Hybrid). If so I could add Benchmark-Adjusted and Benchmark-Scaled, as well as Places (use this for center points).

In the list view, there's an Edit Cache Types choice in the Options menu. Types are also automatically added to the list when you view a record with an imported type that isn't in the list. That's probably why there's 2 entries for letterbox caches... I must not have had the wording right for that one in the initial list.

Edited June 23, 2004 by Maeglin

June 23, 2004

Here I go again - more on my 'wish list'

Would be great if the left & right buttons / pad / whatever / would toggle through the 'screens'. I,D,H,L,P, and back to I again.

I didn't know this existed either.. that was a want of mine too!

Jeesh... your reading my mind now...

1.2k · June 23, 2004

I didn't know this existed either.. that was a want of mine too!
Jeesh... your reading my mind now...

Who would have thought that telepathy could traverse time... that's been in there since version 1.2, released just over a year ago :lol:

2.4k · June 23, 2004

With the latest firmware, the Legend will hold 1000 waypoints. If you don't have the latest, go to the Garmin site and download it. The installation isn't difficult.

June 24, 2004

Here I go again - more on my 'wish list'

Would be great if the left & right buttons / pad / whatever / would toggle through the 'screens'. I,D,H,L,P, and back to I again.

Already there. Look in the popup where you chose the pushbutton selector, for an option called "view select key"

Ok, found it under Record:Options:View Options

But under 'View Selct Key' my only choices are:

None, Datebook, Address, To Do, and Memopad

Where is 'Direction Keys?' I would like to go left and right?

All those keys I can choose from are programed to go to their programs.

Up and Down scroll up and down when necesary, would be nice if Left and Right did the same thing?

June 24, 2004

Is there a way to add to this 'Type' list (noticed mine has Leterbox Hybrid in 2x? once with the word Cache attached to Hybrid). If so I could add Benchmark-Adjusted and Benchmark-Scaled, as well as Places (use this for center points).

In the list view, there's an Edit Cache Types choice in the Options menu. Types are also automatically added to the list when you view a record with an imported type that isn't in the list. That's probably why there's 2 entries for letterbox caches... I must not have had the wording right for that one in the initial list.

Ok, I was just hoping there was some way to filter by type and not just palm category. For now I will add a line to my import routine that changes the cache type in the gpx file from Traditional to BM-Adjusted and from Multi-Cache to BM-Scaled (until I can get Clyde to allow more 'types' to GSAK.

June 24, 2004

With the latest firmware, the Legend will hold 1000 waypoints. If you don't have the latest, go to the Garmin site and download it. The installation isn't difficult.

Great! Here I have been worrying that I only could upload 500 waypoints to my Legend and the thing could hold 1000 all along. The newest version is 3.50 and I had 3.40 - nothing significant changed, but upgraded just in case.

Thanks for the heads up that I was worried about an artificial limit. I think I went and did a web search and of course all the sales literature says 500 waypoints - so I just went with that -

Anyone know of a way to tell how many waypoints are loaded?

June 24, 2004

Anyone know of a way to tell how many waypoints are loaded?

I haven't found any way except to read them back to the PC again. Either upload to a separate database in GSAK or use Mapsource to upload the current set of waypoints. Either way you get a count of waypoints used.

I hoped the latest version of Mapsource would tell you the maximum number of waypoints available for a particular GPS when you plugged it in since Mapsource now seems to "recognize" what GPS is attached. If the feature's there though, I haven't found it.

Jon

June 24, 2004

Question - Is there a way to "batch" change categories in Cachemate? My scenario - I have all the caches for the state I'm vacationing in currently loaded into Cachemate (all 1965 of them) and I have them categorized under that state's name. When I get to a new city in the state I'd like to be able to do a "nearest caches" search and not only export those waypoints to my GPSr (as I already do) but I'd also like to be able to batch move all of those waypoints from their current category into my "CURRENT HUNT" category so they are easier to find. Does this function exist and I'm just overlooking it? Thanks for the great program! It sure has made caching on my vacation much easier than it would have been if I would have had to print out a stack of cache sheets! A Palm IIIxe and my GPSr and away I go. :blink:

Edited June 24, 2004 by clan_Barron

1.2k · June 24, 2004

Where is 'Direction Keys?' I would like to go left and right?

One more Pandora's box, since that's yet another thing that every vendor wants to do differently... heh :blink: By contrast, the up/down and 4 other hardware buttons send the exact same key codes for every Palm OS device out there, which make those a good universal solution.

I can look into that for the next release, but at this point I'm not sure. If one of those other hardware buttons are for an application that you don't use as much, or don't switch from CacheMate to very often, though, you can use that. That's the whole reason that the choice was given, plus the fact that it's only active in the record view. If you hit the button that you've chosen for the view select function in the list view or anywhere else, it performs as you'd otherwise expect it to.

Question - Is there a way to "batch" change categories in Cachemate?

Not currently, and I'm not really sure offhand how I'd implement that either. I could possibly cram another button in the nearest cache search popup, but I'd have to label it something leaving people wondering exactly what it did.

Edited June 24, 2004 by Maeglin

1.8k · June 24, 2004

I confess it would be nice to be able to delete batches of caches from the database. For example, to unclutter cachemate I recently wanted to remove 100 unfound caches located in Finland - I won't be back there for a while so the data will need refreshing anyway.

I could find no easy way to just search and delete the found set.

June 24, 2004

how do i download a registered version of 3.5, i registered the last version i think?

June 24, 2004

how do i download a registered version of 3.5, i registered the last version i think?

You cannot really use it without registering it, at least I think you cannot download any PQ's with registering. All I did was download the new version and it worked fine, I think it reads the registration adn just goes from there.

So I wasn't real good any specifics , all I know is I downloaded it and it worked like the old version with some new features.

1.2k · June 24, 2004

I confess it would be nice to be able to delete batches of caches from the database. For example, to unclutter cachemate I recently wanted to remove 100 unfound caches located in Finland - I won't be back there for a while so the data will need refreshing anyway.

As in, the ability to delete by category didn't help because you didn't put the Finland caches into their own?

If I end up doing a "batch change category" type of function, then that'll at least make that a little easier. I'm currently thinking over the possibility.

how do i download a registered version of 3.5, i registered the last version i think?

PSUPAUL is right... just install the latest over what you have, and the registration will be preserved. If it comes up as unregistered for some reason (deleting it then installing, for example), the same registration code as before will work. You did hold onto that code, right?

3k · June 24, 2004

I'm using CacheMate 3.5.1 on a Palm Tungsten T. I store all of my data on the SD card. About two weeks ago I started fresh. I cleaned all of the .pdb files off my SD card and deleted all of the caches in CacheMate. I then ran GSAK over my latest PQ's and created two .pdb files, a "found" and a "not found" database. I imported them into CacheMate into the Found and Not Found categories respectively and everything looked fine. The number of caches reported when importing was the same as the record count for the Found and Not Found categories that I imported into.

So a week or two has gone by and I reran the process generating the Found and Not Found pdb files again. Since then I've found a few new caches most of which were on my not found list. If I look at the .gpx files generated by GSAK my "found" gpx includes the new files I found. However, when I import the found database into CacheMate it doesn't seem to move the newly found caches to the Found category. The count reported during the import seems to match GSAKs record count but the count of the records in each category looks like the old value (plus or minus a couple caches, isn't not exactly the old count).

Under Preferences I don't have "Preserve old item category" checked. I do have "Merge import file records" checked. I don't modify any records on the Palm side, I use it purely as a read-only database.

Is this normal behavior, is there something I might not have configured properly?

GO$R

Edited June 24, 2004 by g-o-cashers

1.2k · June 24, 2004

Is this normal behavior, is there something I might not have configured properly?

It's normal behavior for the memory card support, as that import code is completely different from the normal record import code (where you put the import files in the PDA's main memory), and both of the options you mentioned are ignored. Records are always merged, and the selected category only applies to new records. The documentation and the category selection popup together contain those 2 facts.

At this point, I'm not sure about making the memory card import obey the "preserve item category" option, because it would cause even more confusion for those that don't have the option enabled (it's disabled by default) and are used to the current memory card import behavior. What I can do, though, is put a note in the documentation for those two options saying that they don't apply to files read from memory cards.

June 25, 2004

You did hold onto that code, right?

uhm, i think i have that email somwhere, perhaps, maybe.

June 25, 2004

Where is 'Direction Keys?' I would like to go left and right?

One more Pandora's box, since that's yet another thing that every vendor wants to do differently... heh By contrast, the up/down and 4 other hardware buttons send the exact same key codes for every Palm OS device out there, which make those a good universal solution.

I can look into that for the next release, but at this point I'm not sure. If one of those other hardware buttons are for an application that you don't use as much, or don't switch from CacheMate to very often, though, you can use that. That's the whole reason that the choice was given, plus the fact that it's only active in the record view. If you hit the button that you've chosen for the view select function in the list view or anywhere else, it performs as you'd otherwise expect it to.

I am sure I can make that work

Too bad there is not easy way to read the keypress - so you could just ask the user to press the key they want to use and then store that. Must not be that easy because I have seen programs that let you pick a key and some of them have 32 choices, 5-8 for each type of palm, now I know why.

2.4k · June 25, 2004

ISTM the easiest way to batch delete caches is to just delete the entire database, and use GSAK to regenerate it. Use the filters in GSAK, and send what you want to Cachemate. The downside is that the notes and logs get lost. That's why I now do my notes and logs elsewhere. You can export the logs to a memo if you want, of course.

1.5k · June 25, 2004

Can anyone point me to a quick & dirty "How to" for exporting Cachemate data to Mapopolis? I've looked through Smitty's site, as well as the guide and haven't found anything.... TIA!

1.2k · June 25, 2004

Can anyone point me to a quick & dirty "How to" for exporting Cachemate data to Mapopolis? I've looked through Smitty's site, as well as the guide and haven't found anything.... TIA!

I'm assuming that you're using Mapopolis for OS 5, because otherwise it won't work (they didn't give me any info on exporting waypoints to versions earlier than that).

1) Download (if you haven't already) and install the Mapopolis export plugin. That will cause "Ex" buttons to appear in the record (for individual export) and list (for batch export) views.

2) Tap one of the "Ex" buttons and, if a selection list pops up, select the Mapopolis plugin.

3) Follow the prompts through the export process.

Pretty simple, huh?

The records are exported to Mapopolis "GeoMarks" in the Address Book, so that's what you need to search to find the records in Mapopolis.

1.5k · June 25, 2004

Can anyone point me to a quick & dirty "How to" for exporting Cachemate data to Mapopolis? I've looked through Smitty's site, as well as the guide and haven't found anything.... TIA!

I'm assuming that you're using Mapopolis for OS 5, because otherwise it won't work (they didn't give me any info on exporting waypoints to versions earlier than that).

1) Download (if you haven't already) and install the Mapopolis export plugin. That will cause "Ex" buttons to appear in the record (for individual export) and list (for batch export) views.

2) Tap one of the "Ex" buttons and, if a selection list pops up, select the Mapopolis plugin.

3) Follow the prompts through the export process.

Pretty simple, huh?

The records are exported to Mapopolis "GeoMarks" in the Address Book, so that's what you need to search to find the records in Mapopolis.

Plugins.. why didn't I think of that! Thanks!

3k · June 25, 2004

It's normal behavior for the memory card support, as that import code is completely different from the normal record import code (where you put the import files in the PDA's main memory), and both of the options you mentioned are ignored. Records are always merged, and the selected category only applies to new records. The documentation and the category selection popup together contain those 2 facts.

Maeglin, I'm curious about one thing in the design of Cachemate. Why did you decide to designate "Found", "Not Found" and "Owned" as categories in your application? To me this feels unnatural and this is where I have run into some confusion. It seems like these things should be properties of a cache rather than a categorization, similar to cache type or container type. A much simpler model would have been to assume "Geocaches" was a category and then provide a general purpose filter capability on properties of a cache (type, container, found/not found, etc). Then I could just import and manage one geocache database in Cachemate for the caches I care about and not have to worry about managing multiple geocache .pdb files and their relationships to categories.

The distinction of Geocaches vs. Benchmarks does make sense to me as a category, they are different objects, not merely the same type of thing with different attributes.

So I was thinking about doing just this (i.e. managing a single geocache pdb with all found/not found caches I care about and creating a Geocache category) but many parts of the application (primarily filtering) rely on the fact that the found/not found are kept as separate categories. There isn't any other way to filter other than category.

BTW, Cachemate is a very useful program, I use it daily. I'm just trying to understand why you designed it the way you did. Thanks!

GO$Rs

1.8k · June 25, 2004

ISTM the easiest way to batch delete caches is to just delete the entire database, and use GSAK to regenerate it. Use the filters in GSAK, and send what you want to Cachemate. The downside is that the notes and logs get lost. That's why I now do my notes and logs elsewhere. You can export the logs to a memo if you want, of course.

When I got home from Finland, what I did was use GSAK to create a pdb of those caches in Finland I wanted to remove.

I then imported that to Cachemate into a new category.

I deleted the caches in that category.

I then used GSAK to create a new PDB without the Finnish caches and that now sits on my memory stick using the card support.

This removed the caches without affecting my records on the Palm.

My point is that these multiple steps could be made much easier if found sets could be given a category, or could be deleted or otherwise managed more than now. What took about 20 minutes would have taken about 2!

1.2k · June 25, 2004

Doesn't seem like it should take that much effort. How about...

Before trip:

- Create new category for Finnish caches

- Import records for Finnish caches into new category

During trip:

- Move found caches to another category if you want, and leave the rest in the category created for them before the trip

After trip:

- Delete caches that are still in the category you created for them before the trip

- Delete that category

That's not including the steps involved with GSAK, but that's only because I don't know the program well enough (read: at all) to spell those out.

1.2k · June 25, 2004

Maeglin, I'm curious about one thing in the design of Cachemate. Why did you decide to designate "Found", "Not Found" and "Owned" as categories in your application?

It may seem less intuitive now, but the current state of CacheMate is the result of just over a year of development. The only piece of information besides category was type in the very beginning, and the rest were added later, in the description text because then I didn't have to break the database format every single time I made an addition like that.

Those categories are also only there for a start. If you want to use the program a little differently, you can always change the category list however you want.

Besides, once you establish the starter list of found/not found caches in CacheMate, you can then go to a single PDB file on the card from that point because of the way that memory card support is implemented. As long as you move found caches to the appropriate category in CacheMate as well as GSAK, then you don't have to worry about 2 PDB files, and any new records that show up will be in whatever category you select for new records. The same behavior can be seen w/o using a memory card with the "preserve item category" option turned on.

June 26, 2004

Ok, I can't seem to figure this one out. I downloaded cachemate and opened my PQ with GSAK. All went fine into my clie and everyone is happy. New PQ came and I overwrote it on my pc, just like I always do, and Exported to Cachemate PDB file and then.... a box says Running CmConvert "Under the hood" connecting... and then No response from CmConvert within 90 seconds. Unable to complete conversion. Notify Clyde ifs it continues. Something seems to be corrupt--I suppose it could be a setting. I tried restarting everything including the PC. Clyde, or anyone else, HELP!!

Thanks in advance

2.4k · June 26, 2004

G-O, Palm categories are very useful and versatile. You can create whatever categories you like; you certainly aren't limited to just Found and Unfound. Edit the categories to make them work for you.

2.8k · June 26, 2004

Ok, I can't seem to figure this one out. I downloaded cachemate and opened my PQ with GSAK. All went fine into my clie and everyone is happy. New PQ came and I overwrote it on my pc, just like I always do, and Exported to Cachemate PDB file and then.... a box says Running CmConvert "Under the hood" connecting... and then No response from CmConvert within 90 seconds. Unable to complete conversion. Notify Clyde ifs it continues. Something seems to be corrupt--I suppose it could be a setting. I tried restarting everything including the PC. Clyde, or anyone else, HELP!!
Thanks in advance

I am currenty working with consciousNOT via private email to try and resolve this one.

Cachemate 3.5

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