Loading a GCA GPX to an Oregon 300

[Fuddley]

Does anyone else have trouble loading GCA GPXs to Oregons?

I have always used GSAK to load my GPX files to my Oregon 300, but I have just noticed that it will only load the first GCA cache on the list (no wonder I haven't been finding many) normally I combine the GC and GCA file together then upload to the OR, I have now also tried just loading the GPX for the GCA caches (230 of them) on it's own with nothing else loaded and still I only get the first cache on the list. I have checked the GPX file by loading it back into GSAK (in a new Database) and all of the caches are in the file, it would just seem that the Oregon can not read them.

Any ideas.

[oldfella]

Hi Richard. I discovered this same thing when I was in Bundberg last weekend. I was going to ask you when I was talking to you, but as I have only just started to use GSAK I made the presumption that I had done something wrong. Looking forward to seeing an answer from someone who can help.

[CraigRat]

I've got a 300 and it loads fine if I go via GSAK

The oregon wont load the .gpx straight off the site however as the oregon (and most other GPS devices) only recognises groundspeaks format, which doesn't actualy adhere to the proper GPX standard, but is obviously the most common.

The individual 'upload to gps' works fine off the site too.

[CraigRat]

I've opened up discussion in our Developers forum, I'd like to work out a proper solution for you all that doesnt require using another bit of software!

[Fuddley]

I've got a 300 and it loads fine if I go via GSAK

The oregon wont load the .gpx straight off the site however as the oregon (and most other GPS devices) only recognises groundspeaks format, which doesn't actualy adhere to the proper GPX standard, but is obviously the most common.

The individual 'upload to gps' works fine off the site too.

I have been trying to load it from GSAK, but it still only loads the first cache in the file (this is only the case with GCA caches, GC loads fine) Have you change anything in GSAK to account for the different prefex i.e. GA as opposed to GC??

[CraigRat]

What version of GSAK are you using (Latest or Version 6?) I've done NO changes to anything, I just import the GPX and then I upload to the Oregon using the Upload to GPS method in GSAK

[Fuddley]

Using Ver 7.6.1.27 of GSAK, and I import the GPX from GCA the export a GPX/LOC direct to the SD card in the Oregon.

[CraigRat]

I'll do some more investigation.
THe GPX files from GCA I'm loading come from the weekly email, and imp[orted via email along with GC GPX's, I'll see if GPX's taken straight off the site are missing something.................

[Fuddley]

By the way I also send POIs and HTML of the same caches to our TomTom and that works ok

[CraigRat]

Using Ver 7.6.1.27 of GSAK, and I import the GPX from GCA the export a GPX/LOC direct to the SD card in the Oregon.

So you don't do the 'Upload to GPS' from GSAK, but instead export a GPX?
I'll look deeper when I get back home in a few hours.

[Fuddley]

My GPX come via email as well, but I load it to GSAK manually

[Fuddley]

Using Ver 7.6.1.27 of GSAK, and I import the GPX from GCA the export a GPX/LOC direct to the SD card in the Oregon.

So you don't do the 'Upload to GPS' from GSAK, but instead export a GPX?
I'll look deeper when I get back home in a few hours.

That's correct, if you upload POIs to Garmin do you get cache notes etc as well?

[smerrall]

This problem annoyed me enough on my Oregon that I had to find out what was causing it. After some investigation I found that GCA caches have no "groundspeak:cache id" tag. This tag is what the Oregon uses to check for uniqueness of caches. A simple GASK macro is all that was requires to change this value within GSAK. Once exported everything works properly with all GCA caches now displayed:

$NewCode=0
$NChar=0
MFilter Expression= Left($d_code,2)="GA"
GOTO Position=Top
WHILE NOT($_EOL)
$Length=Len($d_Code)
$DropCode=Right($d_code, $Length-2)
$NewCode=val($DropCode)
$NewCode=90000000 + $NewCode
$d_CacheID = "$NewCode"
$NewCode=0
GOTO Position=Next
ENDWHILE

[caughtatwork]

Hmmm.

We have a conflict of elements and the way that different programs handle them.

GC: element is cache and attribute is id
GCA: element is geocache and attribute is id

I can't change the element in the GCA files from geocache to cache because 3rd party applications expect the element to be geocache.
Programs that read the GPX file should be validating the elements against the xsd schema which we provide on line.
However, GSAK (at least) does not validate (well my copy didn't) in real time against the schema.
So what happens is that GSAK expects either groundspeak:cache or geocache for these elements to determine what to do.

This is a failing of the 3rd party applications in that they are NOT validating against http://geocaching.com.au/geocache/1/geocache.xsd

I have added the id attribute to the geocache element.
It is 98000000 + the last 4 digits of the waypoint. i.e. GA1234 gets an id of 98001234.
These will be unique and will not conflict with GC ids.

Now, the next problem.
GSAK exports GA caches with an id of 99999998 regardless of what has been imported
So, even though I am now setting a unique id for the geocache, GSAK is either ignoring it in the input or output (I don't know which).

Ultimately this means that with a standard id of 99999998 your Garmin device sees these as the same id and only loads one of them.

This guys has a macro that works around the same problem.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~reej/ColoradoExportBeta.gsk

The best solution to this is to get GSAK to validate the schema in real time, pick up the id in the GPX file and use it.
Until then, the macro from smerrall should work around the issue as even if GSAK gets up dated, it will only be new versions with the fix.

The developers are discussing using the GC namespaces and schema, but these are restrictive and not in the best interests of the open nature of eiother GCA or the GPX schema overall.

[caughtatwork]

This problem annoyed me enough on my Oregon that I had to find out what was causing it. After some investigation I found that GCA caches have no "groundspeak:cache id" tag. This tag is what the Oregon uses to check for uniqueness of caches. A simple GASK macro is all that was requires to change this value within GSAK. Once exported everything works properly with all GCA caches now displayed:

$NewCode=0
$NChar=0
MFilter Expression= Left($d_code,2)="GA"
GOTO Position=Top
WHILE NOT($_EOL)
$Length=Len($d_Code)
$DropCode=Right($d_code, $Length-2)
$NewCode=val($DropCode)
$NewCode=90000000 + $NewCode
$d_CacheID = "$NewCode"
$NewCode=0
GOTO Position=Next
ENDWHILE

When do you run this? After the GPX file has been imported? Why don't you have this problem CR?