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Etrex 20 - Found It timestamp


noncentric

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I'm using an Etrex 20 and rely on it to keep track of the order of my finds, on days when I have multiple finds. When I view the geocache_visits file on the GPSr, then it shows a logged timestamp that's 8 hours ahead of my local time (PST). The time on the main GPS display is set to PST, so would be great to have the logged timestamp reflect PST as well.

 

Is there a setting or anything I can do to make my Etrex 20 record the PST timestamp in the geocache_visits file?

 

Thanks.

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When you upload the field notes to Groundspeak, it will be converted to your local time zone (assuming you set it correctly). Do you keep geocache_visits.txt on your computer?

 

Field notes are recorded in UTC, for a good reason - what if your caching spans more than one time zone? What if you were caching when DST ends? With UTC, there is no ambiguity.

 

Are you a Mac or Windows user? Converting between UTC and PST/PDT is fairly straightforward.

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When you upload the field notes to Groundspeak, it will be converted to your local time zone (assuming you set it correctly). Do you keep geocache_visits.txt on your computer?

 

I haven't used the Field Notes functionality yet. Read a forum thread about it recently, so will try that and see how that works. It sounds like a useful feature and if it solves the time zone issue, then even better. When logging finds/DNFs, I've usually been reading the geocache_visits.txt file using my 'work' laptop (PC), but don't modify the txt file because the laptop blocks writing to USB connected devices.

 

Occasionally, I'll start-up the personal PC to load PQs onto the GPSr and at those times I'll delete most rows from the geocache_visits.txt file (if I remember to). Is it okay to delete the geocache_visits.txt file completely from the GPSr?

 

Field notes are recorded in UTC, for a good reason - what if your caching spans more than one time zone? What if you were caching when DST ends? With UTC, there is no ambiguity.

 

I can see how it's useful to use a standard date format. It just seemed that since we can set the time zone within the device, then perhaps the logging would use that same time zone. I guess it would cause problems though if someone travels to another time zone and doesn't change the setting in their device.

 

Thanks for the quick feedback.

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Seems that for the way you use it, uploading it to Groundspeak (after setting your profile's time zone correctly) should take care of all issues (and is probably quicker for you to log as well, aince a direct link to the cache logging page is provided).

 

Remember to click on the link to the log, not on the cache itself. If you click on the cache, then from the cache page click "log it", it will not be removed from your list of caches to log automatically.

 

By the way, in ISO 8601 format (the way the date time is formatted in geocache_visits.txt) the "Z" at the end indicates zero offset, or UTC time. If it is in PST, it would end with "-08:00" instead of "Z".

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I can see how it's useful to use a standard date format. It just seemed that since we can set the time zone within the device, then perhaps the logging would use that same time zone. I guess it would cause problems though if someone travels to another time zone and doesn't change the setting in their device.

The device actually has a time zone map internally, so it knows what is the time zone you're in where the cache is found. It could, if Garmin wanted to, provide local times for all of the geocaches in the file, no matter what time zone you're in. But it is of dubious value, since the file is meant to be processed by other programs (that's why it is a comma separated value file). If necessary, another application can do that conversion to local time.

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