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| Geocaching with a PDA |
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| by Scott Legal |
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So you've been Geocaching for a while now and you think you've got your cache hunting techniques finely tuned. You like visiting the trails and getting away from civilization and keeping the environment clean, but your printing all your cache sheets on paper. What can you do about that? It's time to consider going paperless with a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). I have been caching paperless for almost a year and a half and don't miss the printouts one bit.
There is a lot to evaluate before you get a PDA. I couldn't possibly review all of the factors that you may consider before making a purchase, so I will just concentrate on what hardware I have and what software I use for Geocaching. I will however discuss some basics, so that you have a better understanding of what I use.
First of all, what is a PDA? Simply put, it is a personal computer that you can put in your pocket. Many PDAs are more powerful than the desktop PC you had 10 years ago. They have a more powerful CPU chip, more and faster memory, and a better, albeit smaller, graphics display. There are two primary types of PDAs that you can consider for geocaching. The main difference is the operating system (the program that makes other programs work on the PDA). The two competing operating systems (OS) are the Palm OS and the Windows OS. I use a windows based PDA (Pocket PC) so you're not going to hear much more about Palm OS based PDAs in this article.
Let's start with what you need to do in order to have cache pages available on demand on your PDA. First, you'll need to become a paying member of Geocaching.com. By being a premium member, you will have access to Pocket Queries. Pocket Queries are XML based text files that contain most of the pertinent data of a cache page with XML tags that enable the data to be manipulated in certain ways. This is the lifeblood for you to be able to have cache pages stored on your PDA. If you're not ready to pay the $30 for your membership, the rest of this article will be of little use to you. Once you have access to Pocket Queries there is a fundamental decision you have to make when ordering a Pocket Query. That is the format. There are two formats to choose from, .loc and .gpx. Always choose .gpx. The .gpx format is the only format that has enough information in it to enable you to view cache pages on your PDA.
You're still with me I see. The next thing you will need is a program to manage your Pocket Queries. I will review two such programs that work in different ways. I have my opinions of each, but will try to present as objective an analysis of each as I can to help you decide which is better for you. I'll start with the set up that I have used for over a year now. I use a program called GPXSonar. The program is free and loads on your PDA. It is not available for the Palm OS, so if you're still with me in hopes that I'll give you some clues about how to Geocache with a Palm OS, sorry. GPXSonar quite simply takes a .gpx file, displays a list of available caches and when you click on a specific cache to open it, the cache displays in a very recognizable format on the screen. You will have the pertinent details of name, GC number, type, container size, difficulty and terrain rating, cache description and hint, along with the last five logs. |
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In addition to being able to view the cache details, GPXSonar also enables you to write out your logs in a convenient text box. When you get on the internet to log your finds on Geocaching.com you can sort your Pocket Query by caches with notes attached so that you have all of the caches you visited in one spot for handy reference. You can even date and time
stamp your logs so that you know when you made them.
There is a glaring drawback to GPXSonar. Actually, the problem has more to do with the Pocket Queries themselves. Many caches require you to look at a graphic file or photo in order to solve a puzzle or get a hint as to where to find the cache. GPXSonar does not store or display these. If you are organized and research your caches before heading out to find them, then this isn't much of a problem. But if you're like me and head to the coordinates first and read the cache description while you're looking for the cache, you are in for some big disappointments.
There is another program that has a lot of promise. That program is called GSAK or Geocaching Swiss Army Knife. I was first introduced to this program last spring and I somewhat shunned it. My method worked very well for me and no one could really tell me why this was better. The program was and is very feature rich, but I just didn't spend the time diving into the program with my eyes wide open. So after playing with it light heartedly for a while I shelved it and didn't look at it again until recently.
The chatter about the greatness of GSAK was becoming louder and louder throughout the summer. I finally had to stand up and take notice. I had to ask folks, "Why is this so great?" I got many of the same answers that I got in the spring and thought to myself, "People must think this is so great because they haven't explored many alternatives". Maybe, but that is a pretty shortsighted assumption on my part. In fact, despite the fact that it is the PDA benefits that I am concentrating on with GSAK, GSAK is a whole lot more than that. For me, it literally took a will to try to find some good in the program that forced me into discovering much hidden potential that alluded me previously.
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First of all, like GPXSonar, GSAK is a free program… Sort of. Actually, it's free, but the program expires every month, so you have to download it all over again each time it expires. Clyde, the owner of GSAK, makes no secret of the fact that he wants you to pay for it. He even says that he may, at any time, take away the free version. The cost is a nominal $15 to get a registered version, but like anything else, you'll have to decide for yourself if it's worth it. Personally, I think it would hurt him more than help him to take away the free aspect of the software, because there is a learning curve on the software and I don't believe people are going to want to buy it if they can't use it for free first. Then they will be able to figure out how to use it and determine if it is something they want to buy. So for now, we'll consider the software free despite the inconveniences Clyde attaches to the unregistered version.
Unlike GPXSonar, GSAK is not loaded onto a PDA. Rather, you install it on your laptop or desktop PC. So you may be asking yourself at this point, "So why are we talking about this if I can't use the program on my PDA?" I'll get to that shortly. GSAK does something that another program I use does. The program in question is called EasyMPS. EasyMPS enables me to take as many .gpx files as I want and load them into my Garmin Mapsource software. This in turn enables me to download waypoints in my GPS. One thing that I really like about EasyMPS is that it will change the first letter of each cache's GC number to identify whether the cache is a regular cache, multi, virtual, webcam, etc. This is handy if you're driving down the road looking at your GPS and a cache pops up right next to the road. You discover it's a multi because the first letter of the GC number is a "M" and you say "fageddaboutit". (Sorry to those of you that like multis). I have the option not to change the first letter also.
Well I have discovered that GSAK is able to do a similar thing with the GC and much more. It can change from a GC to a more recognizable 8-character name. It can insert a letter denoting the cache size. It can insert difficulty and terrain ratings. There is a long list of things it can put into the short name space to tailor how a cache comes up on your GPS and in your .gpx files. That said, I see drawbacks to this flexibility. First, it is tedious to perform these functions. As I learned how to use these functions I flashed back to the old days when DOS was king and programs were loaded with macros that enabled you to tweak how the program worked to your liking. It was nifty once you tweaked the program to your liking, but you really had to become an expert in the program in order to figure out how to do this. So as Windows became more and more sophisticated and computers became faster and memory became cheaper, software developers started taking macros out of the hands of the end users and started make the instructions more intuitive. Click on a menu item or a radio button and you have just made the program work exactly the way you want it to, often without ever referring
to a manual or a help screen. So the macros that enable you to tweak the output within GSAK are an annoying step backward in computing. Now that I have made such a big deal about this I have to say that the software is the product of one man's hard work in his spare time. Updates are regular and improvements are good. So I am only saying what I'm saying to give you a clear picture of what you'll deal with if you decide to use GSAK.
One thing that I really like about GSAK is that it greatly improves your ability to manage a cache list. You have the option to load in the latitude and longitude in separate columns and sort the list by either item. That way, if you want to filter all caches out that are north or south of a
certain latitude or west or east of a certain longitude, you can do so quite easily. This prevents you from having to refine your radius when ordering a Pocket Query. Occasionally (more often than I'd like) Pocket Queries don't come when you want them to, or even within 12 hours of when you want them. So if you're looking for a way of filtering out caches by distance, GSAK will enable you to do so with an existing query while you wait for a new query to arrive in your email.
Now back to how GSAK will help you with your PDA. First, if you still want to rely on GPXSonar, GSAK will create customized .gpx files for you that can be loaded into GPXSonar. This gives you more flexibility with what you will actually see when you load individual cache pages or even lists of caches within GPXSonar. The downside is that you have to do a lot more work to make it happen. Another way you can use GSAK within your PDA is by creating HTML files. Don't worry, you don't have to become a web programmer to figure out how to use the HTML files. What GSAK does is it creates an individual HTML file for each cache. Then it creates a directory of all caches and will even create directories sorted in different ways. It can be very easy and straightforward to create these directories or it can be quite complicated. The more complicated the process of creating the directories, the more user friendly the end result will be, so there will be trade offs at either end of the spectrum. After you've created all of your HTML files you can load them onto your PDA memory card and click on the index file and it loads in Pocket Internet Explorer. So you are literally on a webpage, but you're not surfing the web. |
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These are examples of the screen views from HTML generated cache pages produced by GSAK. |
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At first glance, you are no better off creating HTML files and viewing them on your PDA than you would be viewing the equivalent .gpx files on GPXSonar. But there is one thing you can do with the HTML approach that you cannot do with the GPXSonar approach. You can create local links to images on the HTML version. This will give you the ability to view important images out in the field. Before you jump up and down in complete ecstasy over the fact that you can now go out completely prepared, be aware of a few things. First, now you will need to know how to write HTML code because GSAK isn't going to do this part for you. Second, you will have to load the images onto your PDA. They may need to be resized and dumbed down (Many images will have a pallet of over 1 million colors whereas your PDA will only have a a pallet with a fraction as many colors. If you don't dumb the pictures down before putting them on your PDA they may not display well, if at all. You will also eat up memory on your card quickly if you load many images, not to mention that if you load many images you will be working very hard at it. Let's face it, it is probably better to just print the images if you need to. At least you're not printing the cache pages.
At this point you have had an overview of the two best programs that I have found so far for working with cache pages on a Windows based PDA. Both are very good for free software. Neither program fills your every need or does all of the things they do as easily as they could. But both programs in their own unique way stand head and shoulders above any other software I've reviewed.
Are there good alternatives that I haven't covered yet? Yes there are. Although I am not well versed on applications available to Palm OS based PDAs, I have noticed that a lot more articles have been written about the subject of geocaching with a Palm OS based PDA than with a Windows OS based PDA. So I have to assume that there are some pretty good options available on that platform. In addition, there are PDAs with a wireless connection built in that will give you direct access to Geocaching.com, thus rendering the use of GSAK and GPXSonar unnecessary from the standpoint of loading cache pages onto the PDA. I met Marky and Joani from the bay area over the Memorial Day weekend and Marky caches with an internet enabled PDA. Not only does he pull up the pages directly from Geocaching.com while in the field, but he also logs his finds in the field. So you would have access to the images that I spent time discussing earlier, but you may still have trouble viewing them if colors are present that are outside of the pallet on the PDA. The limitation on the internet enabled feature would be the availability of a wireless signal in more remote areas and the availability of Geocaching.com, which has been known to go down from time to time. Also, you still have to get the waypoints into your GPS somehow, so you'll have to do some grunt work no matter what you do.
Now that I've covered the basics and not so basics about pulling up caches on a PDA, there is one more aspect of the PDA that is worth mentioning. Before I move forward on this one I believe it is worth saying that I firmly believe that this subject has been substantially compromised in the past year. Nevertheless, it has its place in PDA lore and should be touched upon at the very least. One more thing that is worth mentioning is that I am only reporting what I've learned second hand about this subject, so I have not experimented with this aspect of PDA usage.
So what the heck am I talking about anyway? There are mapping software products available for the PDA. The concept goes like this - You hook up your GPS with your PDA via a cable, usually a serial cable (strike one - slow communication). You have mapping software loaded on your PDA. The best I've seen in reviews is Mapopolis. The idea is that you employ this technique while driving from one cache to the next and Mapopolis will get you from point "A" to point "B" with the aid of navigating. It is a neat idea, but let's take a closer look at what you'll need to make this happen. First, you'll need a serial cable to run between your GPS and PDA. Since the typical PDA battery doesn't have a long life (maybe 5 hours) the power cachers among us will need a cable that also has a DC cigarette lighter adaptor so that they don't run the batteries in the PDA down driving from cache to cache. The idea of this navigation capability intrigued me a year ago. In unfamiliar areas, the ability to navigate is handy (and I'm not just talking about Geocaching). But think about what you'll have in the car with you. You'll have your PDA and GPS, either in hand or on dash and one or two cables hanging over the front of the dash. What's more, it's the PDA that you'll want to be looking at and I am unaware of any sort of dash mount for a PDA, so you'll have to hold onto it if you want to look at it (strike two). |
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In the beginning of 2004 Garmin came out with the GPSMap 60C and 60CS. The GPS units have 56 megabytes of RAM and the Garmin City Select software enables the units to auto navigate and auto re-route on the fly. So what would you rather have, two devices and a ton of cable all over the place or a GPS Map 60 series? If you add the cost of a Garmin Etrex Legend and Mapopolis software, you're only about $100 shy of the cost of a GPSMap 60C and City Select software and you'll only have one unit with a variety of available dash mounts. Since the introduction of the new Garmin units, I believe the idea of using the PDA for navigation has been rendered obsolete (strike three). But that is just my opinion. If you would like to read more about connecting your GPS to your PDA for mapping purposes, visit the MDGPS website.
While I believe the idea of connecting the GPS and PDA together for mapping purposes is obsolete, there is one reason why you may want to consider connecting the two together. If you think of the fact that you connect your GPS to your PC or Laptop to download and upload waypoints, you could substitute your PDA for the PC or Laptop. The idea seemed unneccessary to me at first. I download data from my PC to my Pocket PC and My GPS. Why would I possibly need to hook my GPS and Pocket PC together to do the same thing? The reason became rather clear to me during a recent vacation
to Washington. In my Pocket PC I had stored 5 Pocket Queries for caches around the state and there were a total of 2,500 waypoints stored. No, I had no intention of finding them all, but should we have decided to go somewhere like Mount St. Helens, I did not have waypoints loaded on my GPS, as it only holds 1,000 waypoints. Therefore, I would need to manually enter waypoints if I travelled that far from where I was staying. By linking the Pocket PC and GPS together, I could easily download new
waypoints into my GPS based on need.
I do not currently connect my GPS and Pocket PC together, so I cannot report on the ease of doing this from first hand experience. Having read about it and done so from my PC, I know that you cannot directly import .gpx files into your GPS. So in addition to having the right cables to transfer data between the two devices, you will have to have software on your PDA that can convert .gpx files to a format that your GPS uses. What I have read is that there is a tedious set of steps you have to go
through to give yourself the ability to transfer waypoints from your PDA directly to your GPS. I say "tedious" in the sense that it isn't just a one or two step process. I suppose this could be worth doing if you intend to take a long road trip. But for the amount of effort that it appears you have to put forth in converting waypoint into a usable format and transfer it to your PDA, acquire and connect the necessary cable(s) between your PDA and GPS, load the necessary software in your PDA, all so you can transfer waypoints directly from your PDA to your GPS, you would probably be better off doing a good job of pre-planning where you want to cache and loading your waypoints selectively before leaving for your trip. If you want to learn more about this visit the MDGPS website.
Now you have all of the basics of paperless geocaching with a PDA. You have a good idea of software functionality that you can look forward to using and I've presented some groundwork to help you decide what is best for your preferences. Now it's time for you to act and to start saving some trees.
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