Refresh Rate for Geocaching

[bossst]

I recently both a GO510 and at the same time a found how the Geocaching is amazing. I'm using my GO510 to do Geocaching but I don't know if it's normal or not but when I walk slowly my cursor on the map didn't change .... I have to move and he recalculating my position. There is a way to call a refresh to know the exact position we are ???

In my car I have no problem at all, it's only when I walk slowly ...

Thank

 

[lec510]

Did you try the OffRoad Navigator plugin (free program) ?
But I don't risk the life of my Go510 (awkward to hold, not waterproof ...). It's too precious ! Buy a cheap, no mapping, hand held, drive near the cache using your TomTom, then use the hand held to finish the job.

 

[battom]

Ok this may be a stupid question...

can someone explain to me what Geocaching is?

 

[digital-flex]

Ok this may be a stupid question...

can someone explain to me what Geocaching is?

It's not because I would like to know too..

 

[Pedro2NR]

Sounds like fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching

 

[battom]

I shoulda knownw to wiki it... thanks P-man

 

[Pedro2NR]

Your welcome.

 

[digital-flex]

I recently both a GO510 and at the same time a found how the Geocaching is amazing. I'm using my GO510 to do Geocaching but I don't know if it's normal or not but when I walk slowly my cursor on the map didn't change .... I have to move and he recalculating my position. There is a way to call a refresh to know the exact position we are ???

In my car I have no problem at all, it's only when I walk slowly ...

Thank

I've never really tested my TT for walking only because if the destination is more than 1KM I have to drive heh

Now I can say I have a reason for it because of Geocaching.

 

[kberry70]

Geocaching with TomTom - No refresh!

This is driving me crazy......anyone have a solution.

I may be at one set of coordinates, walk 20 feet, and the darn thing acts like I haven't moved.

This makes Geocaching hard!!! I have to power off, power on, go to HELP, where am I? to see new location.

There has to be a better way!!!!

 

[martinp13]

This is driving me crazy......anyone have a solution.

I may be at one set of coordinates, walk 20 feet, and the darn thing acts like I haven't moved.

This makes Geocaching hard!!! I have to power off, power on, go to HELP, where am I? to see new location.

There has to be a better way!!!!

Yes, there is a better way. Don't use your TomTom for geocaching.

A TomTom is a VEHICLE GPS receiver. As such, it shows you a presentation of you driving along a road. To help with that presentation, it locks you onto the road, so lane changes and minor map inconsistencies don't make your vehicle move back and forth all the time. You can prove this to yourself: grab your TomTom and stand next to a road on the TomTom map. Walk slowly directly away from the road. Your position on the map should not change (except maybe along the road a bit!). Once you get about 30 feet away from the road, your position on the map will jump to your actual position. You were locked to the road, because the TomTom should be in a vehicle on the road. Once you have unlocked from the road, you should see your movements displayed correctly.

I'm an avid geocacher. I LOVE my TomTom (I'm on my 3rd one now), but I have a Garmin handheld for the actual cache-finding. The TomTom gets me to the vicinity, but the Garmin gets me to the cache.

 

[kberry70]

Geo Caching with TomTom

Thanks for the response Martin, but a second GPS isn't in my budget, or my wife's tolerance, if you know what I mean.

I am curious to hear from others that are using the Tom Tom for Geocaching.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[geocacher]

You can buy a handheld for less then $150....

 

[kberry70]

RE: GEocaching

That's about $150.00 too much!

 

[1XL-on-XR650L]

I have just started playing the geocache game, and admit that I have a lot to learn! With that said, I have found that my tomtom ONE XL gets me withing 10~20 feet of a cache with great consistancy! There are some serious draw backs in using a car nav system when not on the "designated" roads, but there are work arounds if you are willing to put up with some extra work. Your TT has a bit more horse power than mine does, so "offroad" 3rd party software would be a good option. To make that software super useable, you really need to go to the trouble of doing raster overlays. It will allow you to "unsnap" from the roads, but there is a refresh rate issue that I have not been able to work around with my 266mz processor (you may have better luck). I use the browse map feature with raster map overlays. As long as I am a good 50 feet away from a designated road, the snap feature gets over riden and the cursor kinda follows reality (I did say "kinda", right?). It works well enough to get me pretty close to the cache (I useualy make them POI's), but then I switch over to the satellite configure screen and watch the cordinates change. With a bit of practice you can estimate distance and direction quite well. Like I said before, I'm useually pretty confident that when my TT says I'm standing right on the cordinates, the cache is within 10 feet or so. By the way, use "degrees decimal" setting for the best results. The math says that .00001?= 3 feet resolution (@34? latitude & longitude -119?). 1 second = almost 24 feet at the same latitude/longitude! If I could find and afford a hand held that would overlay sat photos I might retire my TT for geocaching. But I haven't found one yet for less than $400, and you still have to buy maps after that!

 

[kberry70]

Geocaching

"To make that software super useable, you really need to go to the trouble of doing raster overlays."


OK, what exactly is that and how? As for 3rd party, what do you recommend? I have tried tripmaster, but it seems buggy and hangs on any screen other than the primary screen.

 

[1XL-on-XR650L]

Raster overlays=
Captured images from Google Earth (JPG format),
acompanied by a text file that defines the upper left corner and the lower right corner of the image. Also in this text file are scaling notes and pixel resolution. The text file (plane ascii format) must have the same name as the image file, but will have a "SAT" extension.
The following is an example of one on my TT (go ahead and cut and paste this into a simple text editor and save as plain acsii text. Don't forget to rename it as santa-barbara.sat). Copy that file into your tomtom into the "raster" folder.
The file name is "santa-barbara.sat"



-
-120.398740
34.954341
-119.316285
34.377242
150
1500
1024
666

The image that goes with it is at this link (go ahead and down load it and put it into your tomtom in the "raster" folder. The file name should be "santa-barbara.jpg"

http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e5/RandyTrent/Tomtom/?action=view&current=santa-barbara.jpg

(I hope that image did not get screwed up by photobucket. Sometimes it reduces the file size with out me knowing,, it should be 1024 x 666 pixels)

Once that is done you can fire up your TT and go to the browse map feature (make sure the image feature is on). Scroll over to santa barbara, California (or navigate to the 93111 zip code if that is easier for you) and start zooming in. You will be able to tell when this map takes over the screen image. The TT will still put it's version of the roads in, but the background graphics are all from what you just installed. Keep in mind that this is a wide area view and will not have super detailed high zoom resolution. I add more detailed overlays on top of this one (typically at 500~700 feet eye elevation), for all of the cache sites that are not near roads. It is a lot of work, but it is worth it in my oppinion.

3rd party software:
I use "offroad" written by the same guy (and downloaded from the same place) as Tripmaster.
It works a little smother than "browse map" because the maps scroll along as the position cursor moves off the screen. You do not get to do dynamic zooming (that is set in the configuration file that you create within the offroad folder,, again a plain ascii text file called config.map). The text file is quite different than the one that works from browse map, but the principle is the same. also the images that are captured must be in BMP format. Again, a lot of work, but it is a lot cheeper that buying a dedicated hand held nav unit, and paying for a divorce because you are spending all the rent money on toys!
Hope this helps. There are a ton of guys on this forum that know about all this file manipulation far better than me. Maybe one or two of them will help exlpain what I just tried to convey?

 

[sanchezkk510]

Yes, there is a better way. Don't use your TomTom for geocaching.

A TomTom is a VEHICLE GPS receiver. As such, it shows you a presentation of you driving along a road. To help with that presentation, it locks you onto the road, so lane changes and minor map inconsistencies don't make your vehicle move back and forth all the time. You can prove this to yourself: grab your TomTom and stand next to a road on the TomTom map. Walk slowly directly away from the road. Your position on the map should not change (except maybe along the road a bit!). Once you get about 30 feet away from the road, your position on the map will jump to your actual position. You were locked to the road, because the TomTom should be in a vehicle on the road. Once you have unlocked from the road, you should see your movements displayed correctly.

I'm an avid geocacher. I LOVE my TomTom (I'm on my 3rd one now), but I have a Garmin handheld for the actual cache-finding. The TomTom gets me to the vicinity, but the Garmin gets me to the cache.

You can set it for walking also.

 

[martinp13]

You can set it for walking also.

Where do you set a TomTom for "pedestrian mode"??? Garmin, yes... but TomTom has never included that (unless it's in the x30 software).

I don't want it to just show "walking lanes" and all that... I want it to just let me go wherever I want to go and also not auto-zoom the screen!

 

[will381796]

Where do you set a TomTom for "pedestrian mode"??? Garmin, yes... but TomTom has never included that (unless it's in the x30 software).

I don't want it to just show "walking lanes" and all that... I want it to just let me go wherever I want to go and also not auto-zoom the screen!

My GO 720 (navcore 8 map 7.20) has an option under the "Planning Preferences" menu to select "Always plan walking routes" or "Always plan bicycle routes." I've never used it but I assume it will simply stop your car icon from jumping onto the nearest road. I don't know if it will change your position refresh rate.

 

[martinp13]

My GO 720 (navcore 8 map 7.20) has an option under the "Planning Preferences" menu to select "Always plan walking routes" or "Always plan bicycle routes." I've never used it but I assume it will simply stop your car icon from jumping onto the nearest road. I don't know if it will change your position refresh rate.

With a 510 I'm still stuck on Navcore 7, but I think it has similar menus. But that will just use roads that have been deemed "walkable", including defined pathways that a car/motorcycle/bicycle cannot use (long stairs, unpaved paths, etc).