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sinemora

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I do, when I'm a long way from home. It doesn't seem to be worth the hassle locally.

 

I've used both Fugawi and Mapsource. Both allow you to plug your GPS into the serial port (not every laptop has a serial port these days), which is very cool...you appear as a crosshair moving along the road. What I usually do is download the waypoints to my eTrex, then have the eTrex upload the caches to the laptop.

 

Both are a touch unintuitive and buggy, though. I've got an old laptop, and it struggles. Fugawi is the one I've used most, and it updates and zooms in and out pretty slowly -- but the maps I was using were bitmaps, not vector, so that's certainly a factor.

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If you have a Garman and Mapsource, you can download nRoute from Garmin's website for free.

Microsoft Streets and Trips works well too, but my favorite for solo caching is Delorme Street Atlas.

Street Atlas has speech (turn left onto main street in 20 seconds) which is helpful for solo navigation when it's really unsafe to be trying to work the laptop while driving.

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If you have a Garman and Mapsource, you can download nRoute from Garmin's website for free.

Microsoft Streets and Trips works well too, but my favorite for solo caching is Delorme Street Atlas.

Street Atlas has speech (turn left onto main street in 20 seconds) which is helpful for solo navigation when it's really unsafe to be trying to work the laptop while driving.

I have to second Mopar on the DeLorme

You can set up GSAK to download all the waypoints into the computer and even use routes set up by DeLorme products to make an ARC filter in GSAK to give you caches along the route. You can specifiy how far off the route you want them to appear.

 

The latest Delorme Street Atlas also has speech input so you can pan and zoom the map without taking your hand off the wheel.

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I absolutely love my geocaching lashup!

 

I get a .zip Pocket Query from gc.com in my email

Open it with Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK)

Do any desired data manipulation

Upload waypoints from GSAK to my GPS

Export to a CacheMate .pdb (which also loads it into my Palm Desktop Installer)

Hotsynch my Palm to load cache pages into my Palm Tungsten C

Export to HTML, which places full cache pages on my laptop.

Export to a Street Atlas .txt file

Open Street Atlas or Topo USA and import the .txt file (depending on where I am going...I alternate between Street Atlas and Topo).

 

Now, that sounds like a lot of work, but it takes less than 5 minutes and gives me full cache pages on my laptop and on my Palm, and waypoints in my GPS(s) and on my laptop maps.

 

I usually geocache with other people, and so I often return to caches I have already found. Anytime I return to a found cache with other people I use the GPS to navigate to it just as if I had never been there so as not to give it away to my partners. Therefore I get my PQ with both found and unfound geocaches in it, and use GSAK to sort them out - I first load ALL caches into a Magellan Meridian Yellow, then use GSAK to filter out FOUND caches, and upload only UNFOUND caches to my Magellan Meridian Platinum. This way I carry two GPSs and use one if revisiting caches and the other if it's a new cache to me. This also gives me a loaner GPS if I am caching with a newbie or the press.

 

I drive either a Suburban or a Jeep, and made a platform for my laptop to sit securely above the console of each. I use an EarthMate USB dash-mount GPS to connect to my laptop.

 

So, now I have current info on the closest 500 caches, waypoints on my laptop maps, cache pages on my laptop, waypoints in my GPS, cache pages on my Palm and the world is my oyster! In or out of the car I have everything I need for a day or a week's geocaching.

 

And, I use my laptop most all the time in the car now, and watch caches close to my path in case the urge to pounce on one over-rides the importance of my errand.

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I drive either a Suburban or a Jeep, and made a platform for my laptop to sit securely above the console of each.

Can you 'splain this a little more? I looked into those platforms law enforcement uses for their computers, but they were a couple of hundred bucks. I rest mine on a pillow currently (so I can change the angle at will).

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Mine cost $9. at Home Depot! I bought a stainless steel baking rack for a microwave that's just the right size to sit the laptop on - it has 4 rubber feet to sit on, so I turned it upside down and those feet now make perfect corner-posts that keep the laptop from sliding off.

 

I then took 4 sections of 1" metal strap, about 20" long, bent a 1" 90° bend at the top end, used a bolt, washer and nut to bolt the straps to the baking rack's four corners.

 

These four metal straps extend down from the rack on either side of my console and I used self-tapping screws to screw the straps into the floor carpet so that I don't have to drill any holes in the console, and this leaves no trace when the screws are removed when I take the rack out. This way I can move the rack from one truck to the other by removing just the 4 bottom screws. When you go to insert the self-tapping screws the screw threads actually tangle up in the carpet threads enough to hold them securely without making holes in the carpet.

 

This holds the laptop centered and steady, just below dash level (at about the height of the radio) and allows room under the rack to reach the gearshift, parking brake, Ham and CB radios and, most importantly, my coffee cup. :lol:

 

It ain't pretty but it works!

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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I have a cell phone mount like the link above - it works well but would be way too flexible for a laptop...the advertized mount may be much stiffer.

 

As far as pics of my mount my truck is in the shop - current gas prices forced me to have the fuel system rebuilt - 4 MPG is killing me!

 

I drive a custom-built 1-ton Dualie 454 Suburban that I had built in '81 to haul my boats and travel trailer. I love this one-of-a-kind truck; the feeling that I am safe in most any wreck situation, can go anywhere and haul anything, but it's making less and less sense to drive it for anything but a tow vehicle.

 

One thing, though; other drivers give me absolutely no grief when I drive that big red monster! I drive my wife's little 2000 VW Beetle and it's a whole different world - it's like everyone out there is trying to run over me!

 

I will post some pics of the rack Monday or Tuesday when I get it back.

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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On long trips, we got the hard core geek geocaching. The geotruck is fitted out with a 300Watt 12Volt to 110 volt inverter, to run a Dell laptop.

 

The laptop is loaded with Delorme Street Atlas, with the USB GPSr, and GSAK. Beforehand, I make use of pocket queries to download all the GPX files for every cache in the areas we are likely to encounter, and export a draw file from GSAK and have that available in Street Atlas.

 

Plus, the main handhelp GPSr is also run, with the serial cable connected to the laptop, so we can easily download waypoints from GSAK to the etrex. As well, there is a wireless ethernet card (WarGEOdriving anyone?), and we have the USB interfaces to the digital camera(s).

 

The laptop sits on the center console of the front seat, facing back so the third person (the person who failed to shout "shotgun") becomes the official GeoNavigator. The Delorme Earthmate GPSr sits on the dashboard, right against the frint windscreen, and has no trouble getting a good lock.

 

GeoNavigator can advise on approaching caches, and switch to GSAK to give us the complete description.

 

Works well, except inside the truck quickly looks like an explosion in a computer repair shop.

 

Since we are effectively caching "paperless", I have a small spiral bound notebook - the size that easily fits in one's shirt pocket, and use that to make notes about each cache - date and time found, what we left and took, and any comments.

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Does anyone have any experience with their laptop in hot weather? I want to take a trip to the desert and wonder about having the laptop in a hot car while I'm out hiking.

 

Should I put it in my cooler?

Batteries of any type do not like heat, just keep it out of direct sun and it should be fine.

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I have a very old Dell Inspiron 3500 I take caching with me in the truck. I have an inverter to keep it running, as my cache trips are typically much longer than the battery life in this older laptop.

 

As for software:

 

GSAK and Microsoft Streets and Trips are the primary software used.

 

I also have Garmins Mapsource - City Select 5, and TOPO loaded. They are there in case I need to update the maps in my GPS in-route.... something I seldom have to do now that I have a 60C.

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On long trips, we got the hard core geek geocaching. The geotruck is fitted out with a 300Watt 12Volt to 110 volt inverter, to run a Dell laptop.

 

The laptop is loaded with Delorme Street Atlas, with the USB GPSr, and GSAK. Beforehand, I make use of pocket queries to download all the GPX files for every cache in the areas we are likely to encounter, and export a draw file from GSAK and have that available in Street Atlas.

 

Plus, the main handhelp GPSr is also run, with the serial cable connected to the laptop, so we can easily download waypoints from GSAK to the etrex. As well, there is a wireless ethernet card (WarGEOdriving anyone?), and we have the USB interfaces to the digital camera(s).

 

The laptop sits on the center console of the front seat, facing back so the third person (the person who failed to shout "shotgun") becomes the official GeoNavigator. The Delorme Earthmate GPSr sits on the dashboard, right against the frint windscreen, and has no trouble getting a good lock.

 

GeoNavigator can advise on approaching caches, and switch to GSAK to give us the complete description.

 

Works well, except inside the truck quickly looks like an explosion in a computer repair shop.

 

Since we are effectively caching "paperless", I have a small spiral bound notebook - the size that easily fits in one's shirt pocket, and use that to make notes about each cache - date and time found, what we left and took, and any comments.

You just described my setup almost perfectly.

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We have a Dell Inspiron, loaded with GSAK, NG Topo, MS S&T. And Hot Sync for the Dell Axim. It is connected to an invertor. I also keep the Axim charging if on longer drives.

 

We track on the laptop via the NG Topo. I have become more comfortable with the topo program than the MS S&T. I like how the waypoints are diplayed.

 

With GSAK on there, we can change everything on the fly....what's loaded in the GPS, and what's seen on the Topo display. And we can change what's loaded on the Axim, too, but I usually have several types of files already loaded for GPXSonar to choose from.

 

When we park for a cache, we take the GPS and the Axim. We timestamp the cache on the Axim, delete the waypoint from the GPS. If we need any other info, such as virtual answers, we use the voice recorder on the Axim. It works great.

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