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Cachemate 4.0


Maeglin

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i have a 60cs and registered verson of cachemate and a visor platinum. lets say i get a cable, or make one. can cachemate send and recieve waypoints from the gps. if it can how do i do that and which connections on the visor connect to which pins on the gpsr. the reason im asking is that i am probably getting a bare wire data/power cable for the 60cs and am going to fla over spring break and want to take as many wps as possible for the drive there

thanks

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i have a 60cs and registered verson of cachemate and a visor platinum. lets say i get a cable, or make one. can cachemate send and recieve waypoints from the gps. if it can how do i do that and which connections on the visor connect to which pins on the gpsr. the reason im asking is that i am probably getting a bare wire data/power cable for the 60cs and am going to fla over spring break and want to take as many wps as possible for the drive there

thanks

Your Garmin manual should have the information on how to splice an RS232 end onto its data cable. It might be in the appendix. If it doesn't, try downloading an older manual from Garmin.com (like for the GPS III) or try looking on pfranc.com or joe.mehaffey.com for instructions.

 

Cachemate can, with one of its free plug-ins, send waypoints TO the Garmin and receive NMEA location data FROM the Garmin. The specs don't say if it can receive waypoints from the Garmin. I've never tried it, myself. I have, however, used a serial cable to send/receive waypoints btwn my Garmin and my Palms using GPilotS which is a very good freeware waypoint/track/route manager. It will also display your track and allow you to zoom in/out. The coolest feature, though, is that it can also pretend to be a Garmin GPSr. So, if on your journey, you copy all your active tracks to your Palm, when you get home, you can connect your Palm to your PC, set GPilotS to Host mode, and Mapsource will think it is talking to a Garmin GPSr and exchange data with it. Conversely, you can use Mapsource to upload waypoints, routes, etc to your Palm. (And no, it doesn't transfer maps!)

 

GeoBC

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I just downloaded the latest ver of GPilotS and the docs had the wiring info:

 

Garmin's cable 9 pin serial

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

Ground (-, black) ---> pin 5 ground

Transmit (T, brown) ---> pin 2 Receive

Receive (R, white) ---> pin 3 Transmit

 

 

GeoBC

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I just downloaded the latest ver of GPilotS and the docs had the wiring info:

 

Garmin's cable                  9 pin serial

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

Ground (-, black)          ---> pin 5 ground

Transmit (T, brown)        ---> pin 2 Receive

Receive (R, white)        ---> pin 3 Transmit

 

 

GeoBC

im trying to guess off of that right now but it doesnt actually tell me which pin to connect to on the bottom of the palm, there are only 8 of them

Edited by greengolftee87
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im trying to guess off of that right now but it doesnt actually tell me which pin to connect to on the bottom of the palm, there are only 8 of them

Oh. I assumed you were using an off-the-shelf serial cable that attaches to your Visor. I don't know the pin-outs.

 

But doesn't the Visor use a serial cradle to Hotsync? If it does, you can copy the pin-outs from that. Of course, that's probably obvious and you probably don't have a cradle which is why you're asking the pin-outs, right?

 

Sorry, I can't help you.

 

GeoBC

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Darn, that didn't work. I did repair/defrag, then generated new pdb files, which I stipulated should have 10 logs, but none of the cache records have any logs in. Could I send the .pdb file to the support address and have you check if they're actually there? Let me know what address to send one to...

Yeah, the support address is fine... support (at) smittyware.com

OK, just sent virtual.pdb to you, let me know what you discover...

OK, well having sent the file to the support address, it was discovered that indeed there were no logs in the .pdb generated. Coincidentally GSAK released an updated version yesterday, and after installing that and redoing the exports, my cachemate files now have logs in B)

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once again here I come with a request... or 2 or however many this list grows to before I quit typing.

 

#1 when creating a new record in cachemate you have to manually enter the coords if you don't 'mark' the location... This is a VERY rigid field and only likes a very specific format, maybe you could make it more flexible to 'interpet' what you were intending to make the coordinates to be. for example... DD MM.mmm DDD MM.mmm would then add the proper N/W and degree markers. or DD.dddd DDD.dddd wold reformat to DD MM.mmm DDD MM.mmm

 

#2 allow coordinates to be marked/read in the UTM format as a preference instead of the DD MM.mmm format. I use UTM for work and several other hobbies that use a gps and it really would be nice.

 

WE WANT UTM :laughing::huh::o:lol:

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#1 when creating a new record in cachemate you have to manually enter the coords if you don't 'mark' the location... This is a VERY rigid field and only likes a very specific format, maybe you could make it more flexible to 'interpet' what you were intending to make the coordinates to be. for example... DD MM.mmm DDD MM.mmm would then add the proper N/W and degree markers.  or DD.dddd DDD.dddd wold reformat to DD MM.mmm DDD MM.mmm

It may seem like it only accepts that format because that's the format that CMConvert and Mark Waypoint use. Actually, it'll accept all 3 formats that are usable with the nearest cache search function. It doesn't reformat coordinates, but what I can do is add the ability to read positive or negative degrees without the heading character. Sound good?

 

#2 allow coordinates to be marked/read in the UTM format as a preference instead of the DD MM.mmm format.  I use UTM for work and several other hobbies that use a gps and it really would be nice.

 

WE WANT UTM :huh:  :(  :(  :(

You want fast nearest cache searches too, right? Can't really have both :huh:

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It may seem like it only accepts that format because that's the format that CMConvert and Mark Waypoint use. Actually, it'll accept all 3 formats that are usable with the nearest cache search function. It doesn't reformat coordinates, but what I can do is add the ability to read positive or negative degrees without the heading character. Sound good?

 

WE WANT UTM :(  :(  :(  :D

You want fast nearest cache searches too, right? Can't really have both :huh:

that sounds good for #1

 

So, does that mean that if don't want fast searches I can have UTM? :huh: So I am gonna guess that UTM as the default coord system really isn't possible?

 

BRAIN STORM just now!!!

 

#1 You tell CM to use UTM FORMAT

#2 You use CMC to voodoo the files so that the coords are in UTM format

#3 HotSync your CM file that has UTM coords saved in it.

#4 CM then doesn't have to do the work of converting, infact you would have to choose beforehand how you wanted it for the DB or it would say the coords are invalid blah blah blah

 

would that be a possible thing? ofcourse marking a new coord it would have to do the math...

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now that i think about it the previous post may not be possible for a few reasons.

 

Here is another one...

 

leave everything so it looks just like it does now, but you allow entering of coords in UTM and have them convert to DEG maybe via a plugin with a popup box.

 

that would really solve everything(99%) for me and add great funtionality I think

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Or, Maeglin could save himself a lot of trouble and let you do the conversion yourself. Mimee is a free converter for Palm OS that converts between every datum you can think of, plus a couple of hundred you never even heard of. It easily does WGS84 to UTM, and vice versa. Just put in the coordinates you know, and it displays them in whatever datum you selected - quick and easy. The only quirk is that West Longitude has to be entered as negative, but that's not a deal-killer for me.

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Or, Maeglin could save himself a lot of trouble and let you do the conversion yourself. Mimee is a free converter for Palm OS that converts between every datum you can think of, plus a couple of hundred you never even heard of. It easily does WGS84 to UTM, and vice versa. Just put in the coordinates you know, and it displays them in whatever datum you selected - quick and easy. The only quirk is that West Longitude has to be entered as negative, but that's not a deal-killer for me.

I was thinking along the lines, with my second idea today, that he already had the UTM plugin...

 

but if this works well I'll be a fairly happy camper, thanks. I hate switching apps tho :surprise:

 

still think this would be cool tho for CM.

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Has anybody been able to use cachemate with a Geode GPS for the handspring visor? I have two visors and two different GPS for them. The geode seems more aurate but the GPS companion is the only one that I have been able to get to work with cachemate. I end up taking and using both units while caching.

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Has anybody been able to use cachemate with a Geode GPS for the handspring visor? I have two visors and two different GPS for them. The geode seems more aurate but the GPS companion is the only one that I have been able to get to work with cachemate. I end up taking and using both units while caching.

The fact that the Geode's NMEA interface is flaky at best (according to most reviews I've just read) is likely what's keeping it from working. The down side is that the manufacturer is no longer around to fix that.

 

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

 

As far as the UTM input thing, if I ever decided to try and parse UTM input, that would be an interesting odd use for the Location Query plugin role. You'd do a Mark Waypoint but, instead of the plugin talking to a GPSr, it would pop up a form to accept UTM coords and translate those for CacheMate to accept. You could do nearest cache searches with UTM coords that way as well.

 

I don't know when I'd personally be able to get to that, though if someone else who wants to grab the SDK and take a stab at it, I won't mind :surprise:

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I'd like to second this. I just upgraded to a Treo 650 and it seems like every app has 5-way navigation support except for CacheMate. I can use a hard button to switch between screens, but most apps support using the nav buttons to move through elements in the screen so you don't need to use a stylus.

Most apps also have most or all of the form elements visible all the time. Looking at the SDK for that functionality, I don't know offhand how to make it deal with elements that can be shown or hidden dynamically (as most of mine are). One would think that they'd be able to manage that on their own, but OEMs don't do a lot of things that would make sense (and vice versa).

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Most apps also have most or all of the form elements visible all the time. Looking at the SDK for that functionality, I don't know offhand how to make it deal with elements that can be shown or hidden dynamically (as most of mine are). One would think that they'd be able to manage that on their own, but OEMs don't do a lot of things that would make sense (and vice versa).

I'd settle for 5-way support from just the listing screen so I can change the category, sort or select indivual entries.

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i looked and didn't find my answer so maybe I can get it here...

 

coords are displayed in DD MM.mmm format... is this due to cmconvert making them look that way or is cachemate formating them? I know they are in DD.dddd format in gpx files. is there a switch to hit that could display them different either in CM or CMC? if not, I am not asking for it just wondering.

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coords are displayed in DD MM.mmm format... is this due to cmconvert making them look that way or is cachemate formating them? I know they are in DD.dddd format in gpx files. is there a switch to hit that could display them different either in CM or CMC? if not, I am not asking for it just wondering.

That's CMConvert doing the formatting. There's no switch to format them differently during conversion, but you can display them in different formats using the Coord Formats plugin (what used to be the UTM plugin).

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CMConvert 1.9.0 has just been released. Here's the official announcement...

 

This release adds support for TerraCaching.com GPX extensions.  There are several other fixes and improvements to both XML parsing (completing GPX 1.1 support, among other things) and generation of HTML links pages.  The Windows GUI version has been revamped, with a new and improved main window (information tooltips, accelerator key support, resizable, etc.).  The DLLs that are included with the Windows builds have been updated to their latest versions.

Enjoy!

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I read through the Faq and this forum but didn't see the answer to this. I coulda missed it tho.

 

Is there an option to list by distance from your home co-ordinates? I've just been making a waypoint called Home and do a nearest search option that way. Didn't know if there was an easier way to auto list them by distance. Thanks

 

S

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Is there an option to list by distance from your home co-ordinates? I've just been making a waypoint called Home and do a nearest search option that way. Didn't know if there was an easier way to auto list them by distance. Thanks

There isn't... what you're currently doing is the closest thing to that that there is available.

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After looking again at the docs, it seems a little more possible to do something with the 5-way navigation system that certain PalmOne units sport (Treo 600 series, Zire 31/72, Tungsten T5/T3/E/C) in the following way:

 

List View

Up/down does what it does now (scrolls record list)

Left/right changes category

 

Record View (switchable from View Options popup)

Option 1:

- Up/down scrolls text fields (like it does now)

- Left/right changes view

Option 2:

- Nav button moves between GUI objects (finally figured that one out for my situation)

 

How does that work for you guys? The popup forms, according to PalmOne's documentation, should already work with the 5-way nav button.

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I like it! The list view sounds right on target. I'd use option one for the record view - probably wouldn't use option 2, although I may not understand the utility of it!

Option 2 for the record view is there for 2 reasons:

 

- That's another way that the 5-way nav button could work

- It saves me having to listen to a dozen people complaining that I did it wrong

 

Considering that option shouldn't be too taxing as far as the code to support it (it'll take more for the other option), I figured... what the hell :lol:

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After looking again at the docs, it seems a little more possible to do something with the 5-way navigation system that certain PalmOne units sport (Treo 600 series, Zire 31/72, Tungsten T5/T3/E/C) in the following way:

 

List View

Up/down does what it does now (scrolls record list)

Left/right changes category

 

Record View (switchable from View Options popup)

Option 1:

- Up/down scrolls text fields (like it does now)

- Left/right changes view

Option 2:

- Nav button moves between GUI objects (finally figured that one out for my situation)

 

How does that work for you guys? The popup forms, according to PalmOne's documentation, should already work with the 5-way nav button.

I looked around for similar app with 5-way navigation support and I found that the Memos application is a pretty good case study.

 

When you launch it and are looking at a list of memos, there are blue bars above and below the list. Up and down scroll the list, until the beginning or the end of the list. At that point, pressing up or down moves to other elements on the screen. If you click the center button, the first item in the list is highlighted, and now you can scroll through individual items and select them. Again, you can go up and down until the ends at which point you focus out. In this state you can also hit left or right to focus out of the viewing area.

 

In the initial state, left moves you to the category listing. Press the center button and it pops up.

 

Right brings you down to the new button at the bottom, which you can also select with the center button.

 

If you select a memo, that editing page works similarly. There are more buttons at the top and bottom which you can all select.

 

They did a nice job of making it so you don't have to use a stylus at all, having the ability to scroll through individual items and pages at a time.

 

Snappermail is another product that has good 5-way support. This seems to be the standard for 5-way navigation, so it seems that's how CacheMate should work as well.

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Hmm... I'm wondering if that's what the support that's built into the OS is like. It's very poorly documented in PalmOne's SDK.

 

If that is what the standard behavior is for the object focus mode of things, then that should be doable. If not, and I can't figure out how to implement it, you may be settling for what I described earlier. At least, in that case, you'll have something besides up and down movement :rolleyes:

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I guess I should have asked the question in this forum, but it seemed more general...

 

I want to know if there's a way to make a mock-Groundspeak-type GPX file (on my Mac) for using in Cachemate. I have access to information about pre-historic sites in Britain that include coordinates, a 1-5 rating for both quality and accessibility, descriptions and directions. That format would seem to work well in Cachemate.

 

Here's the thread:

 

Making my own GPX files for Cachemate

 

Parsa

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Hmm... I'm wondering if that's what the support that's built into the OS is like. It's very poorly documented in PalmOne's SDK.

 

If that is what the standard behavior is for the object focus mode of things, then that should be doable. If not, and I can't figure out how to implement it, you may be settling for what I described earlier. At least, in that case, you'll have something besides up and down movement :blink:

For whatever reason, the move records dialog already fully implements 5-way navigation.

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For whatever reason, the move records dialog already fully implements 5-way navigation.

Right... that's the default for most popup forms. The default for everything else is to behave like it did before, without automatic 5-way navigation. The OS tries, but sometimes it needs hints, and it can't do everything on its own, because some form elements can do different things in different ways depending on the application. Not to mention the fact that they didn't want to break existing functionality that might rely on the up/down buttons doing what they've always done.

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I have a couple of things that I'd like to see added as features, or perhaps other users could let me know how they deal with similar situations.

 

When possible, I create small files for a particular day of caching, usually less than 20 waypoints. In addition to this, I keep the 500 caches closest to home for two different states (I live near a border) for impromptu caching. I know there's a scroll bar, but with so many waypoints, hotlinks for "A", "B", "C", etc. would be handy. I haven't explored bookmarks too much, but it seems to me that they would be lost when I clear/reload a fresh data set (about every two weeks).

 

Also, I use the timestamp to mark my finds, and log them in the order found when I return home. Is there a way to sort a category by the date/timestamp? I usually log them right out of the pda, deleting them as I go, and don't even bother hot-synching my logs to my desktop computer.

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I have a couple of things that I'd like to see added as features, or perhaps other users could let me know how they deal with similar situations.

 

When possible, I create small files for a particular day of caching, usually less than 20 waypoints. In addition to this, I keep the 500 caches closest to home for two different states (I live near a border) for impromptu caching. I know there's a scroll bar, but with so many waypoints, hotlinks for "A", "B", "C", etc. would be handy. I haven't explored bookmarks too much, but it seems to me that they would be lost when I clear/reload a fresh data set (about every two weeks).

 

Also, I use the timestamp to mark my finds, and log them in the order found when I return home. Is there a way to sort a category by the date/timestamp? I usually log them right out of the pda, deleting them as I go, and don't even bother hot-synching my logs to my desktop computer.

I'm not sure I understand your first question, but I think I do what you want by using categories. Create categories for State A, State B, and for Today (tap the caegory name in the upper right corner of the screen in list view, then tap "edit categories" in the categories list, then "new" and add the category) .

 

When you import the files to your PDA, just tell Cachemate to place the caches in the appropriate category. You can also do this manually by tapping the category drop down in the "Info" view of a particular cache (i.e. if you want to move something from a State list to the Today list). If you want to start fresh with your Today list each time, just delete or move all of the caches in there before you create the latest list.

 

As for your second question, I don't think there's a way to do this. I bookmark the caches I'm going to hunt on a given day, and then use the bookmark list to log from the PDA, and it sure would be nice to be able to sort those caches by the timestamp!

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When possible, I create small files for a particular day of caching, usually less than 20 waypoints. In addition to this, I keep the 500 caches closest to home for two different states (I live near a border) for impromptu caching. I know there's a scroll bar, but with so many waypoints, hotlinks for "A", "B", "C", etc. would be handy. I haven't explored bookmarks too much, but it seems to me that they would be lost when I clear/reload a fresh data set (about every two weeks).

Just write the letter you want to go to on the Graffiti pad; it'll jump right to it.

 

I don't think there's any options for sorting by anything but alphabet, but the author can confirm that better than I.

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Ok, here's the current status with 5-way navigation support...

 

I can get it working with everything but the overview display and the list part of the list view, and can't really figure out at this point what I need to do to get that working. On the other hand, it would be relatively easy to implement the left/right button actions that I mentioned before, especially since that's been half-done for months with the current functionality.

 

So... what do you guys want as far as support for that goes?

Edited by Maeglin
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Maeglin,

 

I like Cachemate just as is. But since you asked what do we want I would like the color in the list when I find the cache to be color instead of grey on my Clie.

 

I would also like to be able to do the last search from the list view.

 

As far as 5 way navigation I get along just fine the way it is so I will get along just fine however you change it.

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The question wasn't as open-ended as it may have sounded, and has been amended as such. I'm only wondering what people that wanted support for the 5-way stuff are wanting now that I know what I can accomplish.

 

I like Cachemate just as is. But since you asked what do we want I would like the color in the list when I find the cache to be color instead of grey on my Clie.

Grey is a color... if you're wanting it to be a different color or customizable, that's another thing. I don't know when/if I'll make the colors changeable, but ideas for a different color are welcome.

 

I would also like to be able to do the last search from the list view.

You can already. Have you not tried?

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Also, I use the timestamp to mark my finds, and log them in the order found when I return home.  Is there a way to sort a category by the date/timestamp?  I usually log them right out of the pda, deleting them as I go, and don't even bother hot-synching my logs to my desktop computer.

No, but there is the timestamp in exported log memos. It doesn't look like you can clear out a category in one step in memo pad, but you can do that once you do Hotsync, using Palm Desktop.

 

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

 

Oh, and unless someone has any input on the 5-way stuff by Friday, I'll likely go ahead and handle the left/right buttons for switching record views (which may work on more devices than 5-way would, depending on what key codes a manufacturer uses), considering my troubles with getting 5-way to work properly with everything.

Edited by Maeglin
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Oh, and unless someone has any input on the 5-way stuff by Friday, I'll likely go ahead and handle the left/right buttons for switching record views (which may work on more devices than 5-way would, depending on what key codes a manufacturer uses), considering my troubles with getting 5-way to work properly with everything.

I'll take whatever I can get. :D

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Also, I use the timestamp to mark my finds, and log them in the order found when I return home.  Is there a way to sort a category by the date/timestamp?  I usually log them right out of the pda, deleting them as I go, and don't even bother hot-synching my logs to my desktop computer.

No, but there is the timestamp in exported log memos. It doesn't look like you can clear out a category in one step in memo pad, but you can do that once you do Hotsync, using Palm Desktop.

I found another solution that will allow me to keep track of what order I found them in, without having to hot-synch to my desktop:

 

If I modify the cache name, adding 01, 02, etc. to the beginning of the name, this will order them accordingly.

 

For outings greater than 1 day, 101, 201, 301 will keep days seperated. Thought I'd post what I'd learned in case someone else wants to do something like this.

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Mapopolis will do this for you. You can export from Cachemate to Mapopolis, and Mapopolis will show the caches on the map as you drive. It ain't free, or even cheap, but it's the best mapping solution for the Palm with US maps. It will give you voice directions to any address in the US, or to any coordinates if they're in an entry in your address book.

NOT TRUE - mapopolis is cheap if you get a single county map. They cost just $10 a piece.

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Maeglin,

 

I'm preparing to move all of my benchmark data into Cachemate. I want to create a seperate DB for each county, but that's 67 in my state, and I live very near a border, so I realistically expect to add some counties for the neighboring state as well. It there a way I can set all of this up without doing all of this work on my pda?

 

Also, I love the notes for trade items, TBs, etc. Is there any way I can "customize" the template to suit my needs (ie - list family members seperately, etc.)?

 

*edited to correct syntax

Edited by gnbrotz
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I'm preparing to move all of my benchmark data into Cachemate. I want to create a seperate DB for each county, but that's 67 in my state, and I live very near a border, so I realistically expect to add some counties for the neighboring state as well. It there a way I can set all of this up without doing all of this work on my pda?

I use GSAK and Cachemate catgories to do this with caches - I think it should work with benchmarks.

 

1) Load each county's benchmarks into a separate GSAK database.

2) Create a catgory for each County within Cachemate.

3) Select a database and export it to Cachemate, giving the file the name of the County.

4) Hotsync

5) When you next start Cachemate, it should detect the new file and give you an opportunity to select the category for the import. Choose the category that matches the file name.

 

To see a County's benchmarks, just select the appropriate category in Cachemate.

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