Dream GPS

[+georgeandmary]

Have you ever been out on a hunt and you've said to yourself, "I wish my gps could _______."?

 

What features do you wish gps makers would add to gps units to improve your hunting.

 

I need more waypoints. I've only ever seen 500 waypoints and living in california, I'm not always sure where I'm going to be from time to time so I keep it loaded. I wish I could alocate memory to waypoints so that I could upload as many waypoints as I had memory.

 

I wish I could put waypoints into folders so that I could catagorize them and only show which ones I wanted at a time.

 

Anything else?

 

george

 

Pedal until your legs cramp up and then pedal some more.

[+Mr. Snazz]

quote:

---

Originally posted by georgeandmary:

Have you ever been out on a hunt and you've said to yourself, "I wish my gps could _______."?

---

 

Well, sorta I wish my digital camera could connect to my GPS and log the location of every shot I take as long as I'm dreaming, it would be nice if it also logged the direction I was facing at the time.

 

Better yet, the camera would have a built-in gps.

 

So far as the actual GPS goes, I wish, I wish, that my meridian platinum had a frickin built-in lanyard connector, so that I would't have to use any of the hackjob methods...

[+CYBret]

IR Port to beam waypoints and tracks to and from my Palm and beam them to other GPSr's.

 

Are ya readin' this, Garmin!?!?

 

Bret

[+cachew nut]

I wish all GPSes had IR ports like a palm. That way if you run across a geocacher who knows of a nice geocache for which you did not record the waypoint, they could beam it to you.

 

with my GPS I have the ability to save waypoints in files and switch files at will, as well as different maps, and I do take advantage of this when I travel, it's a nice feature.

[+cachew nut]

darn it CYbret!

[+georgeandmary]

quote:

---

Originally posted by CYBret:

IR Port to beam waypoints and tracks to and from my Palm and beam them to other GPSr's.

 

_Are ya readin' this, Garmin!?!?_

 

Bret

---

 

I hear the rhino does this through the radio but when I go geocaching with friends it'd be nice to send a waypoint to a friend without having to punch everything in.

 

george

 

Pedal until your legs cramp up and then pedal some more.

[+Criminal]

It would be cool if when you opened the box on your new GPS, out pops a toothless helper monkey who knows how to work it. That plus food and water and you've got all the essentials covered.

[+sbell111]

I wish the wrist strap on my GPS3+ wasn't connected to the battery door.

 

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

[Lyra]

Ability to turn lead into gold. Or beer. One or the other.

 

Always wear proper caching safety equipment!

[+Mr. Snazz]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Criminal:

out pops a toothless helper monkey who knows how to work it.

---

 

Um...

[+infosponge]

The Magellan Meridians can do this if you have a memory card installed. You can save as many waypoint files as the card can hold...i.e. LOTS.

This is great when you're on a multi-state geocaching trip...you can have waypoint files for each area you'll be in and just zap them into memory from the SD card.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by georgeandmary:

I wish I could put waypoints into folders so that I could catagorize them and only show which ones I wanted at a time.

---

[+Mudfrog]

quote:

---

Have you ever been out on a hunt and you've said to yourself, "I wish my gps could _______."?

---

 

Would love it if my GPSr could use trees, which i allways seem to be under, as external antennae using that same infrared port!

[shrekTBA]

I dont think that what I want is appropriate for this forum, safe to say it involves measurements in inches and lots of D's, and would definately be a distraction to finding the cache, adds at least 3 points to dificulty and pain level if you fall face first. and then if it goes too long !

 

It's not a sport unless there is something dead in the back of the truck when you get home.

[+The Bluejay Team]

Don't the people at Magellan (I have a Meridian) know that a gps is used for GEOCACHING? I use the $ to mark a cache, since there isn't one for it. The GPS says that's an ATM.

[+CYBret]

A Benchmark Icon.

 

I haven't hunted too many of them, but I think it would be a good idea if Garmin had one in the list. And not just for us, either. It would be a nice for the surveyers . . y'know . .the cheap ones . that can't afford the $60,000 machines.

 

Bret

 

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again." Mt. 13:44

[+Marky]

quote:

---

Originally posted by georgeandmary:

I need more waypoints. I've only ever seen 500 waypoints and living in california, I'm not always sure where I'm going to be from time to time so I keep it loaded. I wish I could alocate memory to waypoints so that I could upload as many waypoints as I had memory.

---

George, you have a plat don't you? I have more than 2000 waypoints loaded in mine, in groups of 400, by area, which are generated by pocket queries. I DL them to the plat, then save them to the card using the card utils. If you are smarter than I am, you could just us a card reader and write groups of waypoints directly to the card. When you are in a specific area, you load the waypoints off the card using the card utils. Very easy.

 

--Marky

"Everyone spends time in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

[+Marky]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mr. Snazz:

Well, sorta I wish my _digital camera_ could connect to my GPS and log the location of every shot I take as long as I'm dreaming, it would be nice if it also logged the direction I was facing at the time.

---

Geosnapper is working on something that would do this by uploading a track log, and uploading pictures and then syncing the pictures with the track log to get the location. Sounds like some pretty cool tech to me. Of course, it would rely on your camera and GPSr having the same time.

 

--Marky

"Everyone spends time in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer with a backlit GPSr"

[robertlipe]

I've been ranting on this topic recently. Please allow me to describe my fantasy unit. It would...

Have the firmware gadgetry of a Vista.

Have the senstivity of a Sportrak.

Have SD memory sockets like Meridian so i can use non-proprietary memory to upgrade or swap when I travel.

Would allow me to use the storage in dynamic combinations instead of "512 total bytes total of comment data" or "500 waypoints" or "2000 trackpoints". Sometimes I'd gladly trade a backtrack log for extra waypoints. Why are we carrying units with 128Mb of memory that report "out of memory" just becuase we loaded comments with 200 waypoints?

Have USB 2.0 and support mass storage protocol so I can upload or modify data from any operating system, completely filling a 256MB card in a few seconds.

Have open documented file formats for non-code components like tables so non-programmers could modify maps, icons, menus, and arrange things as they want them.

File formats for waypoint tables should be open. (Magellan gets a smiley face; Garmin a frowny face.)

Have source code and development tools available so programmers could modify the s/w so we wouldn't have to live with insane annoyance that every unit has. (Why can't I turn off the alarm for "power lost"? Why isn't EPE on the arrow screen? Why does waypoint projection have such a broken UI? Why does the unit take 380 milliseconds to turn an ack around when handshaking is turned on? Why does it retain the target of a route during a power transition but not a GOTO? Why do they accept and store waypoint comments but not display them anywhere on the screens?)

Float, antenna up, like a 330.

Have auto routing like a V. (If a Visor can do it...)

Not force me to decide whether I want exit data *or* topo maps. I like to hike in the woods, but still need to drive there.

Have "point and shoot" like a Vista.

Support a power cradle instead of nutty proprietary cables (esp. those that screw in)

Have a battery cover that doesn't drive me crazy disassembling the unit to recharge the batteries.

Have menu options and battery tables for those newfangled rechargeable batteries.

Not use Garmin's insane comm protocol so it might actually remain compatible with software for a couple of revisions in a row.

11/20: Allow me to save and restore ALL unit settings (see also: open file formats) to manipulate them on my computer. It takes a while to get all the knobs turned the way I like it and while I understand (but don't appreciate) that firmware upgrades sometimes need to blow them away, I don't see why I have to re-configure everything...

And I really don't think my fantasy unit should cost a lot more than the units that are out there. Sure, a waterproof USB connector might take some work and I'm willing to accept a "snap on" that went from something like the 4 pads (two power, two signal) on a Magellan to the 4 pins (two power, two signalling) of a USB B connetor. SD sockets cost money. But most of the changes are just changes to the injection molds for the casing and getting serious about the firmware. I didn't even whip out my "greedy" list and ask for the unit to run Palm/OS so I can scratch my waypoint comments in with graffiti...

 

That's just from the top of my head. I might have thought about it before a little bit before, though

 

[This message was edited by robertlipe on November 20, 2002 at 07:16 AM.]

[+Mr. Snazz]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marky:

http://www.geosnapper.com/ is working on something that would do this by uploading a track log, and uploading pictures and then syncing the pictures with the track log to get the location. Sounds like some pretty cool tech to me. Of course, it would rely on your camera and GPSr having the same time.

---

 

Haha, thanks Marky! That's so obvious, I can't believe it never occured to me. It would be so easy to rig that up. Yes! I'm going to do that now. Excellent.

[+citrix_99301]

quote:

---

The Magellan Meridians can do this if you have a memory card installed. You can save as many waypoint files as the card can hold...i.e. LOTS.

This is great when you're on a multi-state geocaching trip...you can have waypoint files for each area you'll be in and just zap them into memory from the SD card.

---

 

Now that's cool, especially now that I'm playing with Pocket Queries. Any links to directions for making this work? Or a toothless helper monkey?

[+The Cheeseheads]

• Forget IR... How about Bluetooth? My computer would automagically detect that I just set my unit on the desk and would launch a mini app that would run a query to grab the new caches in my area and send then to the GPSr with no involvement on my part at all.

• Bluetooth could also be used to send info to other cachers.

• Oh, and the unit would also beam all your updated track and waypoint info to the PC as well to keep it up to date.

• A better desktop app. EasyGPS is nice and all, but I'd love to see an app that would not only allow me to manage waypoints on my GPSr, but to also let me adjust the unit's settings from the desktop as well. You could have a custom screen on the GPSr which is set up on the PC by dragging and dropping components, such as a compass, a speed indicator, the pointer arrow, etc.

• Did I mention that my PC is a Macintosh? I'd love to see some Mac software that's OS X compatible.

• Be able to download updated maps from the internet so the road that I live on which was put in 3 years ago that shows up on Mapquest will also show up in the unit.

• I'm sure some units do this already, by Legend doesn't, so it goes on my want list: The screen needs to be able to rotate between landscape and portrait depending on if I'm in my car or out on the field.

• And from out in left field: a heads up display projector for my car, which I can plug the GPSr into and have it project data onto the windshield so I don't even have to have the unit mounted where I can see it.

- - - - -

Wisconsin Geocaching Association

[+Kouros]

I'm only just thinking about this as I write, so my apologies if it's all over the place.

 

This is theoretically possible with changing the way in which we use the site, but it could do with having a TB icon... Anyway...

 

I'd like to be able to track caches on my GPS that I know contain TB's... yes, I'm well aware that it's easy to do by looking at the cache page, but bear with me.

 

I chase some caches on the spur of the moment - just turn on my GPS, and see what's near. I don't take a print out with me, and so am not able to see if a TB is in it.

 

Perhaps, instead of downloading cache co-ords, we could download current TB co-ords instead (that are located within, say, a 25 mile radius) those of us who enjoy chasing TB's would know instantly where to look.

 

Actually, now I've finished writing all this, it doesn't sound like a particularly good idea at all... in fact, it sounds kinda dumb.

 

But I'm gonna post it anyway.

 

------

An it harm none, do what ye will

 

[This message was edited by Kouros on November 20, 2002 at 06:08 AM.]

[Tahosa and Sons]

My GPS would be hooked up to the future Cache Cans that have a bell in them. When you get close activate the bell and a LOUD noise would let you know where the Cache was.

Ding Ding here is the hidden Cache.

 

Tahosa - Dweller of the Mountain Tops.

[+infosponge]

Check the GPS Units forum for that...if you have the 3.12 firmware, essentially you upload the waypoints and save them to a file on your SD card using the card services menu. You then wipe the waypoint memory and repeat. You can then use the card services menu to restore any tracks, routes, or waypoints you have saved to the card.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by citrix_99301:

quote:

---

...you can have waypoint files for each area you'll be in and just zap them into memory from the SD card.

---

 

Now that's cool, especially now that I'm playing with Pocket Queries. Any links to directions for making this work? Or a toothless helper monkey?

---