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GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)


ClydeE

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I am liking GSAK more and more as I use it. I am confused about one thing, however...

 

I have a data base that had 351 records in it. I ran a new pocket query and loaded the file generated into this database. It gave me a little summary box that said something like there were now 390 records, 97 updated and however many new. I wanted to look at the updated records and could not find how to filter for this?

 

I now have 2 dates for "Last GPX". Today's date for all the records that came in today's pocket query. And a date last week for the records that were already in the database and were not covered by today's PQ.

 

What I really want to do is see only the caches that actually have something changed. How can I filter for this?

 

Thanks

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I have a data base that had 351 records in it.  I ran a new pocket query and loaded the file generated into this database.  It gave me a little summary box that said something like there were now 390 records, 97 updated and  however many new.  I wanted to look at the updated records and could not find how to filter for this?

 

What I really want to do is see only the caches that actually have something changed.  How can I filter for this?

There may be better ways, however;

 

When I import a new GPX to GSAK, check the boxes on the import dialog to Clear all user tags first and Set all user tags. This way I can filter on the entries with user tags.

 

Either after that filter, or on the whole database, you can also sort by the PLACED date. This will also give you an idea of the new ones.

 

other methods all include playing with the filters to your liking. Things like excluding found caches, only viewing caches placed after a certain, or even on a certain, date, date of GPX. I have about 12 different filters I have set up for different things.

 

You best bet is to spend some time getting to know the filters. After you set one or two up, you will start to see the logic they follow.

 

If you want further help, maybe some of us can post our most useful filters, however I think when you playu with them you will be able to massage the data to your liking.

Edited by baloo&bd
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I am not sure I understand what you are saying to do with the user tags. I will read up on that so I know more about them.

 

On the filtering issue, I have looked at these in depth, but so far have not found a way to show what I want. Explained a little differently than my earlier post, it's this:

 

If I import an updated pocket query into the database, GSAK may tell me when finished, (just as an example), that 95 of 300 records have been updated. When I look at the data base by sorting and / or filtering, I may be able to determine the following. (again just as an example). I can find 55 that have new logs, 10 are new caches, 5 are new finds by me, and 5 have been archived. This leaves 20 from the 95 that GSAK says have been changed. I can not find these.

 

I would like to be able to flag the 95 that GSAK originally told me were updated. Then I would be able to account for the 20 I can't find.

 

If someone has a filter they run to do this, I would greatly appreciate seeing it.

 

Thanks.

 

Oh by the way Clyde... Did I say that this is a program that the more you use it, the more you like it? You are definitely getting another paying customer here!

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Another, different question. When I upload data to my SporTrak, the smart name does not always get put in as it should. For example:

 

In GSAK the smart names are:

BCTPhoe1

BCTPhoe2

BCTPhoe3

etc. to...

BCTPho10

BCTPho11

BCTPho12

 

On the GPSr after uploading the names are:

BCTPho11

BCTPho10

BCTPho1

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

...... etc.

 

Anyone know why?

 

On edit: Other examples are like this: BearsLai became BearsLa. Some of the names on the GPSr downloaded as 8 characters, but most that were 8 characters in GSAK downloaded to the GPSr as 7.

Edited by Cheminer Will
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I am not sure I understand what you are saying to do with the user tags. I will read up on that so I know more about them.

 

On the filtering issue, I have looked at these in depth, but so far have not found a way to show what I want. Explained a little differently than my earlier post, it's this:

 

If I import an updated pocket query into the database, GSAK may tell me when finished, (just as an example), that 95 of 300 records have been updated. When I look at the data base by sorting and / or filtering, I may be able to determine the following. (again just as an example). I can find 55 that have new logs, 10 are new caches, 5 are new finds by me, and 5 have been archived. This leaves 20 from the 95 that GSAK says have been changed. I can not find these.

 

I would like to be able to flag the 95 that GSAK originally told me were updated. Then I would be able to account for the 20 I can't find.

 

If someone has a filter they run to do this, I would greatly appreciate seeing it.

 

Thanks.

 

Oh by the way Clyde... Did I say that this is a program that the more you use it, the more you like it? You are definitely getting another paying customer here!

If I understand you correctly this is easily done by filtering on 'Last GPX Update'.

 

Select ...

 

Search/Filter/Dates/Last GPX Update.

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Another, different question. When I upload data to my SporTrak, the smart name does not always get put in as it should. For example:

 

In GSAK the smart names are:

BCTPhoe1

BCTPhoe2

BCTPhoe3

etc. to...

BCTPho10

BCTPho11

BCTPho12

 

On the GPSr after uploading the names are:

BCTPho11

BCTPho10

BCTPho1

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

...... etc.

 

Anyone know why?

 

On edit: Other examples are like this: BearsLai became BearsLa. Some of the names on the GPSr downloaded as 8 characters, but most that were 8 characters in GSAK downloaded to the GPSr as 7.

Hmm, I have never heard of this one before. Anyone else see this?

 

The only thing I can think of is that when you send waypoints down to your GPSr that at some stage you have set the "Maximum characters" box to 7

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If I understand you correctly this is easily done by filtering on 'Last GPX Update'.

 

Select ...

 

Search/Filter/Dates/Last GPX Update. 

 

That will just get me all the records that were collected on the last update. In my example it shows all 300 records as the last gpx update. Even if it only showed me the 95 in my example that are DIFFERENT, that would help narrow it down.

Edited by Cheminer Will
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Another, different question.  When I upload data to my SporTrak, the smart name does not always get put in as it should.  For example:

 

In GSAK the smart names are:

BCTPhoe1

BCTPhoe2

BCTPhoe3

etc. to...

BCTPho10

BCTPho11

BCTPho12

 

On the GPSr after uploading the names are:

BCTPho11

BCTPho10

BCTPho1

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

BCTPhoe

...... etc.

 

Anyone know why?

 

On edit:  Other examples are like this:  BearsLai became BearsLa.  Some of the names on the GPSr downloaded as 8 characters, but most that were 8 characters in GSAK downloaded to the GPSr as 7.

Hmm, I have never heard of this one before. Anyone else see this?

 

The only thing I can think of is that when you send waypoints down to your GPSr that at some stage you have set the "Maximum characters" box to 7

Well, I don't think this is it as you can see that some, (eg. BCTPho11), do transfer over as 8 characters. At first I thought maybe it did not like the numbers, but some with numbers transfer ok. Also some others, like Bearslai, that are all letters get truncated.

 

It's really only a big problem on caches in a list that are named the same but with different ending numbers. Although on many, it really does help to identify them by having that 8th character.

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That will just get me all the records that were collected on the last update. In my example it shows all 300 records as the last gpx update. Even if it only showed me the 95 in my example that are DIFFERENT, that would help narrow it down.

If I import an updated pocket query into the database, GSAK may tell me when finished, (just as an example), that 95 of 300 records have been updated

 

If you select the "existing only" update option then when you see the message 95 out of 300 records have been updated, a filter on Last GPX update should in fact select only 95 waypoints.

 

Getting back to your original question though, there is currently no way to display exactly the items that have changed since the last update.

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That will just get me all the records that were collected on the last update.  In my example it shows all 300 records as the last gpx update.  Even if it only showed me the 95 in my example that are DIFFERENT, that would help narrow it down.
If I import an updated pocket query into the database, GSAK may tell me when finished, (just as an example), that 95 of 300 records have been updated

 

If you select the "existing only" update option then when you see the message 95 out of 300 records have been updated, a filter on Last GPX update should in fact select only 95 waypoints.

 

Getting back to your original question though, there is currently no way to display exactly the items that have changed since the last update.

Ok, I'll read about the "existing only" update option as I don't know what this is yet.

 

Any other ideas, Clyde, on the issue of SOME waypoints being cut to 7 characters when uploaded to the SporTrak?

 

Thanks

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I can feel the eyes upon me.

 

Never mind GSAK (and GPSBabel) for the moment. I'm trying to figure out how your GPS has six waypoints named "BCTPhoe"; the firmware should NEVER let that happen. Identically named waypoints are supposed to overwrite each other which makes me wonder how you have six in the unit with the same name.

 

Is this _really_ a SporTrak (yellow, six characters, upper only) and not one of theSportTrak Map (eight character, mixed case) units?

 

Show Clyde and/or myself the CSV file that GSAK hands to GPSBabel. That's our dividing line for assigning blame. B) You can probably just turn on debug for the transfer. The Magellan protocol is readable enough that we can reconstitute most of our inputs from soley our output as a starting place.

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In my GPSr some of the waypoints I uploaded from GSAK are bullseyes and others are dollar signs. What do they mean?

You did not mention the brand and model of your GPSr, but I will try a generic answer that should help.

 

If you do not change the default GSAK settings when you send waypoint to your GPSr, GSAK will allocate one icon for your finds, one for your not founds, one for your placed, and one for any archived caches.

 

These of course are just the default settings and you can change them to what ever you like. To change these just click on the "Change" button on the "Send waypoints" dialog. For more information please see the help file or online here http://gsak.net/help/hs8100.htm

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I can feel the eyes upon me.

 

Never mind GSAK (and GPSBabel) for the moment. I'm trying to figure out how your GPS has six waypoints named "BCTPhoe"; the firmware should NEVER let that happen. Identically named waypoints are supposed to overwrite each other which makes me wonder how you have six in the unit with the same name.

 

Is this _really_ a SporTrak (yellow, six characters, upper only) and not one of theSportTrak Map (eight character, mixed case) units?

 

Show Clyde and/or myself the CSV file that GSAK hands to GPSBabel. That's our dividing line for assigning blame. B) You can probably just turn on debug for the transfer. The Magellan protocol is readable enough that we can reconstitute most of our inputs from soley our output as a starting place.

That is a real good question about all those waypoints having the same "smart" name. Maybe the GPSr allows them because they have different coordinates and or some different other identifying number? They all have different names in GSAK: BCTPhoe1, BCTPhoe2, BCTPhoe3, etc. when they are uploaded. Maybe I will go find that series and see when I am right there and can see the waypoints displayed on the screen if the names are the same as they are in the waypoint database on the GPSr. I assume the screen display just takes them from the database, but I don't know that for sure.

 

The GPSr is a SporTrak Color. It is fairly new. It is an eight character model. Many of the waypoint names do have eight characters. Not all of the uploaded waypoints that had 8 character names in GSAK were truncated to 7, only some of them. I just updated the firmware before I started learning how to do all this.

 

I don't know what "CSV" is or how to transfer a debug, but probably can follow instructions on how to do it if needed.

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I can feel the eyes upon me.

 

Never mind GSAK (and GPSBabel) for the moment.  I'm trying to figure out  how your GPS has six waypoints named "BCTPhoe"; the firmware should NEVER let that happen.  Identically named waypoints are supposed to overwrite each other which makes me wonder how you have six in the unit with the same name.

 

Is this _really_ a SporTrak (yellow, six characters, upper only) and not one of theSportTrak Map (eight character, mixed case) units?

 

Show Clyde and/or myself the CSV file that GSAK hands to GPSBabel.  That's our dividing line for assigning blame. B)  You can probably just turn on debug for the transfer.  The Magellan protocol is readable enough that we can reconstitute most of our inputs from soley our output as a starting place.

That is a real good question about all those waypoints having the same "smart" name. Maybe the GPSr allows them because they have different coordinates and or some different other identifying number? They all have different names in GSAK: BCTPhoe1, BCTPhoe2, BCTPhoe3, etc. when they are uploaded. Maybe I will go find that series and see when I am right there and can see the waypoints displayed on the screen if the names are the same as they are in the waypoint database on the GPSr. I assume the screen display just takes them from the database, but I don't know that for sure.

 

The GPSr is a SporTrak Color. It is fairly new. It is an eight character model. Many of the waypoint names do have eight characters. Not all of the uploaded waypoints that had 8 character names in GSAK were truncated to 7, only some of them. I just updated the firmware before I started learning how to do all this.

 

I don't know what "CSV" is or how to transfer a debug, but probably can follow instructions on how to do it if needed.

When you do a transfer to your GPSr, GSAK will generate a file called "babel.txt" in the install folder of GSAK.

 

Just email that file to me (Help=>About for my email address) and that should at least give us some idea of where the problem is.

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I have Microsoft streets & trips 2005 and he take( .est )and (.stt ).

The program GSAK send ( .csv )

 

How to convert extensions so that work ?

You must use the "input data wizard"

 

For a good tutorial on how to do this please see this link

 

Note: This link use the "coma" as the "separator character", be sure to change this to "tab" for the file exported by GSAK

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Note: This link use the "coma" as the  "separator character", be sure to change this to "tab" for the file exported by GSAK

Umm - isn't that change still in beta?

Woops, you are right.

 

GSAK 5.1.4 and older uses comma

 

All future versions will use tab (there were issues with commas being inside the data)

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That is a real good question about all those waypoints having the same "smart" name. Maybe the GPSr allows them because they have different coordinates and or some different other identifying number?

That's not how the Magellan protocol spec says it'll work and if it is, it'll be the ONLY Magellan that I know of that works that way. So something is really weird here.

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All future versions will use tab (there were issues with commas being inside the data)

 

Note that is automatically (and correctly, in my experience) "guessed" by the program and the user never has to set/override that when S&T reads our output.

 

I've tweaked the wording on the master copy, but sourceforge is being grumpy right now, so I can't refresh the public version.

 

(This is one reason I'm trying to wean people away from 'gpsbabel.sourceforge.net' and to use 'gpsbabel.org'; if they tick me off, I can move it more easily in a domain I control...)

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When you do a transfer to your GPSr, GSAK will generate a file called "babel.txt" in the install folder of GSAK.

 

Just email that file to me (Help=>About for my email address) and that should at least give us some idea of where the problem is.

I sent an email with the file and a small picture of the GPSr screen showing the duplicate smart names.

 

Thanks

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26xx has been a weird situation. Some people reported success, others don't.

 

So far, nobody with the skills to address it has had access to the equipment and it's expensive enough (and rare enough) that we haven't justified buying them.

 

If you'd like to either be the one to make it go, to loan me a unit so I can make it go, or help fund a unit for development (Garmin doesn't have a developer program so we buy these things over the counter) contact me.

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teamtricky: Perform a 'Custom export' from GSAK and use GPSBabel to convert the exported GPX to HTML. You will find GPSBabel in the GSAK installation directory (C:\Program Files\GSAK on my pc). This is a command line tool. If you download GPSBabel separately from gpsbabel.sourceforge.net you will also get a small windows program called GPSBabelGUI wich is easier to use.

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I'm wanting to export to HTML but as a single output file with all the caches alphabetically, how do I do this?

You could also select the print option, then the condensed format. Now instead of printing, just select the preview option - this will generate a single file you can use.

(be sure to sort on cache name before taking this option)

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Clyde - I sent some emails with the information you requested. Also a follow up with some further facts from today. It is a real strange problem and may be unique to the SporTrak when used with GSAK. Let me know if you can figure it out. I will then post a summary here for other SporTrak users to read.

 

Thanks

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Clyde,

 

Can you use a location name as a part or a arc filter.

 

For example:-

 

TRNSTN,N51 48.068,W 000 37.311

 

Is a location that I have set, but I can't just use the short name in the arc filter TRNSTN.

 

So I have to manually copy the co-ord to the filter.

 

I had a look on help and can't find how you use location names in filters.

 

Thanks

 

Gary

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Is there a way to change the database location to "My Documents"? To make a long story short, this directory is synchronized for off-line or on-line access. Thanks

You can change the location of the GSAK data store via Tools=>Options=>General.

 

However, this location must include the full path name to the folder. So You can't just confiure GSAK to use "My Documents" - it must be the full path to the "My documents" folder for the current user.

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I downloaded the new release of GSAK (5.5.0) today and like the new enhancements. One of particular interest is "Automatic update of CacheMate logs and finds by loading the GPX file generated by CM2GPX."

 

Can someone who's done this give me a hand running CM2GPX. I know CM2GPX is a command line program, and I am running it from command, but I can't get it to read a PDB file. As close as I can get is to get a message that says "Error Reading PDB file."

 

Also where to I find the proper PDB file to run this on? I'm guessing that I need to hotsync the Palm, then somewhere there should be an updated file for me to operate on, but I don't see it.

 

Thanks,

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Idea for a feature

 

Do you think you could find time to add another "Status Attributes" Color/Priority selection box for "DNF Attempts"?

 

It's cool that you can click on "Found it" and it changes to whatever color you choose. However when you click on the "DNF" box, nothing happens exept the date in a column. I think it would be a cool idea to give the ability to make DNF checkmarks visible by allowing a color to be assigned to it. That way on a list of 3000 or so waypoints you can easy sort, and see what you have tried and failed to find.

 

Just a humble request from a regisetered user.

 

Thanks!

 

Shifty

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Do you think you could find time to add another "Status Attributes" Color/Priority selection box for "DNF Attempts"?

 

It's cool that you can click on "Found it" and it changes to whatever color you choose. However when you click on the "DNF" box, nothing happens exept the date in a column. I think it would be a cool idea to give the ability to make DNF checkmarks visible by allowing a color to be assigned to it. That way on a list of 3000 or so waypoints you can easy sort, and see what you have tried and failed to find.

 

I am not fully convinced another count/colour is required for DNFs

 

If you want to see your DNF's you can do this now.

 

Just click on the DNF date column and they will sort in chronological sequence

 

If you only want to see your DNF's then you can set a filter.

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