Pda And Tomtom

[+What's Job]

Can I just ask- is PDA and Tom Tom used by all- are we just slow to catch on- we have done 19 this weekend as opposed to 100 this year- we just kept going the wrong way and parking in the wrong places

 

I have named her Alice- cos the chosen voice is less annoying than mine- cos she took us so impressively to the Lewis Carroll site 'Is Alice Home' - this weekend

 

Our total will be speeding up with Tom Tom- now we need wireless internet access- any tips for starters?

[+Faye & Brad]

Hi,

 

Did you mean wireless access from home, or when you're out and about? If it's the latter, BT Openzone is quite good, and probably the easiest to find access points for. More info on them here.

 

If it's home wireless, Belkin do some pretty decent kit at really good prices. They're also easier than most to set up. The kit you need depends on whether you are on ADSL or Cable.

 

Which PDA do you have? A lot of the new ones have wireless networking (802.11b) built in already, so once you set up a wireless home network, you'd be able to surf from the garden in no time

 

Now we just need some warmer and drier weather!!

[Nediam]

TomTom does work pretty well But make sure you keep an eye on the screen and take the directions with a pinch of salt. Mine's tried to take me down a bridle path a couple of times and round and round and round the new roads around the "Nottingham Canal Cache"!!!!

 

With regards to wirless connectivity.........I don't . I "active sync" the PDA to my home PC and download all the necessaries before I leave to go caching. If I have to, I can access Geocaching.com via my "smartphone".

 

P.S. 19 in a weekend is a bit good

[+DomHeknows]

btopenzone are also doing a £2/month offer at the moment for the first 3 months then it goes up to the normal price. Beware that you have to sign a long contract though.

[interpleb]

Can I just ask- is PDA and Tom Tom used by all- are we just slow to catch on- we have done 19 this weekend as opposed to 100 this year- we just kept going the wrong way and parking in the wrong places

I use Tomtom for driving to caches and GPSTuner for the on foot part.

[+Stuey]

Can I just ask- is PDA and Tom Tom used by all- are we just slow to catch on- we have done 19 this weekend as opposed to 100 this year- we just kept going the wrong way and parking in the wrong places

 

I have named her Alice- cos the chosen voice is less annoying than mine- cos she took us so impressively to the Lewis Carroll site 'Is Alice Home' - this weekend

 

Our total will be speeding up with Tom Tom- now we need wireless internet access- any tips for starters?

As a freqeuent solo cacher, I find that TomTom Navigator has made my driving much safer (and quicker of course). No longer do I need to stop at a country lane junction to look at a map, or pull over on the side of the road to work out where I am or where I need to be. I just follow the directions. Much easier!

 

In my own car I have the PDA where I can see the screen, but in my wife's car, I don't have a PDA mount so rely on the voice instructions. One thing I have realised though is that it's amazing how many times you go wrong when you can't see the diagramatic version of the road ahead!

[+Pharisee]

Can I just ask- is PDA and Tom Tom used by all-

Nope... I don't use it.

 

I use a Garmin iQue 3600 for 'in-car' navigation. As it's basically a Palm PDA with built in GPS I've also got CacheMate loaded with all the current, active UK caches on it. When I go out for a days caching, I also have all of my chosen caches loaded in HTML and view them with 'Plucker'. Any spoiler photos are also loaded (for emergency use only, you understand) using Spoilersync. I'll also very often load MemoryMap screen dumps of 1:25000 OS maps of each cache location. All pictures (spoilers and maps) are viewed with Firepad.

It takes a few minutes preparation for a days caching but it is totally paperless.

 

Oh yeah... I used the trusty ol' Legend to get me to the cache site.

[+esandman]

now we need wireless internet access- any tips for starters?

I find GPRS to be acceptable for wireless access while caching. I've got a Symbian phone, so can access the Geocaching WAP site, or can connect from my Palm over bluetooth to get web access through a reasonable web browser.

 

I got a WiFi card for the Palm, but don't use it often.

 

I also use GeoNiche to store cache details + connect to bluetooth GPS for finding caches (although the Garmin Legend is handier when out in the rain).

 

A.

[+-Phoenix-]

ViaMichelin is an alternative, cant compare it to Tom Tom, but it does work well especiall when you add a set of Cache POI files and a speed camera POI file

[+davy boy]

Tomtom does not always get it right,but it will get you to the closest point. I find the best use for tomtom is in the city especially if you are not familiar with the roads,i recently used it in Birmingham and is was spot on everytime!!

[+dysdera]

I have been using Tom tom now for about a year, both for caching and my job. I use the TT3 to get me to the location area and also have a laptop running MMap to find any relevant footpaths and then a recreational GPS to get to the actual box.

I have found TT3 to be an excellent piece of software and has only found a road that didnt exist once, as I remember it was a left turn somewhere near a virtual cache about a wind farm in Yorkshire area.

[+Sensei TSKC]

For those of us that do use TOMTOM for caching, what is the method you use for inputting the cache locations?

 

I mean the co ords are given in

Degs Mins DecMins

but inputting is in

Degs Mins Secs

 

Do you manually convert them or what?

 

I use TTN3 to get me to roughly where the cache is located then switch from map view to GPS Status which gives great co ords in Degs Mins DecMins. I find this strange as both bits of software are working together but using different plotting methods.

[+Learned Gerbil]

GSAK and lots of other things export in the OV2 format TomTom uses.

 

For UK caches, you can download the lot in one go at the Geocacheuk site.

[+DomHeknows]

For those of us that do use TOMTOM for caching, what is the method you use for inputting the cache locations?

 

I mean the co ords are given in

Degs Mins DecMins

but inputting is in

Degs Mins Secs

 

Do you manually convert them or what?

 

I use TTN3 to get me to roughly where the cache is located then switch from map view to GPS Status which gives great co ords in Degs Mins DecMins. I find this strange as both bits of software are working together but using different plotting methods.

use gsak to export the caches you want as a tomtom overlay or

use geocacheuk to get the tomtom locations

or

use osgb converter as per my post on my blog to convert from "normal" coordinates to the coordinates tomtom wants. Works a treat

[+Sensei TSKC]

Thanks to you all. i have now downloaded from Geocacheuk.

[+McDeHack]

Dont forget you can do the update weekly from GCUK just over write the OV2 file.

[+Sensei TSKC]

Dont forget you can do the update weekly from GCUK just over write the OV2 file.

Something I was not aware of. Cheers McDeHack

[+Sue and Bernie]

I'll also very often load MemoryMap screen dumps of 1:25000 OS maps of each cache location.

Pharisee,

 

I am interested in how you manage to use maps from Memory-Map with your Palm. How'd yer do that then?

 

I've got an old Palm and I've got Memory-Map, in the process of deciding whether to go upmarket Palm or Pocket PC. Prefer the Palm but want to be able to use MM! You seem to have the answer....

[+-Phoenix-]

reading his post I thing he just does screen dumps, which will giveshim the image, but not the tracking capability

[+mongoose39uk]

I'll also very often load MemoryMap screen dumps of 1:25000 OS maps of each cache location.

Pharisee,

 

I am interested in how you manage to use maps from Memory-Map with your Palm. How'd yer do that then?

 

I've got an old Palm and I've got Memory-Map, in the process of deciding whether to go upmarket Palm or Pocket PC. Prefer the Palm but want to be able to use MM! You seem to have the answer....

Ypu can Image export from Memory map. This saves it as a bmp. You can use paint to convert this to jpg then save the image on the palm. Then use an image viewer to open it on the plam. I have a Zire 72 which has a camera built in so it already has the software to open image files.

 

No idea how you would be able to use that with a gps though

 

Edited March 20, 2005 by mongoose39uk