GPS, phones and more… April 4, 2008
Posted by Martin in Geocaching.Tags: Geocaching, pda, software
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A few months ago I started posting about my search for a GPS enabled phone. As I have already written, I settled for a HTC Touch which made an external GPS receiver a necessity. The receiver that I have bought is the Holux M-1200.
This device meets all my requirements as it is small, can receive the GPS signal even from inside a bag and lasts long on one battery-load.
Now I have my own GPS enabled phone, one of my hobbies has taken a new direction. I love the game of geocaching and for that I always had to rely on my mothers Garmin eTrex device. Now I have my own GPSr I can go out whenever I like. Since I’ve bought my phone and GPS receiver I have already found 113 caches.
Geocaching and PDA’s
On both the forums of geocaching.com and their dutch counterpart geocaching.nl you will find furious discussions about whether or not PDA’s are suitable for caching-purposes. I think they are suitable since I can find lots of caches with one. The only disadvantage I have with a PDA instead of a outdoor GPS device like an eTrex is that my phone isn’t capable of withstanding very wet conditions…. but hey… I don’t want to go out caching when it is that wet….
Software
Out of the box, a phone and a GPS receiver isn’t enough to go out searching for caches. One needs software which points to the correct location. Road navigation software like TomTom can bring you to a good parking spot near a cache, but is not suitable for off road navigation. As soon as you leave the tarmac, you’ll need software that shows you a compass with an arrow pointing to your waypoints.
I have tried some and wanted to write about them here. If I missed out some or if I take conclusions based on nonsense please write me a comment and I will look in to it.
RichesseGPS
RichesseGPS is the first program I have used successfully for geocaching.
It is a program with very little coverage on the internet. I feel that is very weird, because it’s such a nice little application that meets all the minimum requirements.
It can import .loc files which means you do not need to manually enter all the coordinates. The geocaching website offers this functionality to all with a basic account i.e. you do not have to be a premium member. For those that are premium member this software can also import the .gpx files. Richesse however ignores all extra data in the .gpx file so you could just as well use the .loc files instead.
To sum it up:
| Feature | Available |
|---|---|
| Compass | YES |
| Waypoint manager | YES |
| import .LOC | YES |
| import .GPX | YES |
| Editing field notes | YES |
| Shows geocache info from GPX file | - |
| Moving map or grid | - |
| Importing custom maps | - |
| Tracklog with export | - |
| Waypoint projection | - |
The program is free of charge and can be downloaded from: http://pda.jasnapaka.com/richessegps/
More software reviews will follow as soon as I find some time for it.
Hello Martin!
How are you doing? It’s been an awfull long time since we talked. But today I was checking out Corine’s weblogs and then I started on yours. And it seems like we are on the same track: the gps track. I also got an HTC Touch. Ralf has got something similar; the Toshiba Portege. And we are using TomTom to track our paths by car and on the bicycle, it’s just great!
Well, nice to see what you are being busy with, let’s email a litle bit more!
And we might use our GPS to meet some day