Paperless geocaching.

Condensed instructions for loading waypoints into the PDA and GPSr.

Built on instructions originally written by Jeff Goodson.

 

1. Download waypoints from the Web

Go to www.geocaching.com  and login

Select MY ACCOUNT

Select BUILD POCKET QUERIES, CREATE A NEW QUERY

(use default settings unless mentioned here)

• Enter a query name (e.g. gc08may07)
• Check the current day of the week
• Check “I haven’t found”

• Check “My home coordinates” (if geocaching near home)
• Check both difficulty and terrain >= 1

(Apply additional filters if necessary to include distant caches while not exceeding 500 waypoints, or center on distant ZIP or cache name)

SUBMIT and the file will be emailed

After the email is received,

• Save the email attachment to c:\gc downloads
• Open the file in Windows Explorer
• Unzip the file (extract all)

The file will be placed in a new subdirectory.  Erase the old prior subdirectory.

 

2. Transfer from PC to GPSr

Delete all waypoints in the GPSr

Open GSAK – close current DB or DATABASE/NEW/CREATE “empty#”

Open the file that was unzipped (not the file whose name includes wpts)

Apply filters if desired (e.g. remove Helsell caches)

Connect cable between PC USB port and GPSr

Turn on the GPSr

In GSAK select GPS, SEND WAYPOINTS

Repeat the above transfer to the GPSr for the GSAK “save these” data base

Unplug cable and confirm waypoints are in the GPSr.

 

3. Transfer from PC to PDA

Open GSAK

Open the DB for the desired waypoints

Select FILE, EXPORT, CacheMate PDB File

Specify a destination directory or use default c:\gc downloads\cache mate.pdb

Select GENERATE – overwrite YES

Confirm, close GSAK

Synchronize the Palm

Open the CacheMate application in the Palm to confirm the waypoints.