New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Discussion about software such as GSAK, OziExplorer etc, as well as all things hardware, GPSrs, laptops, PDAs, paperless caching, cables etc
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Big Matt and Shell
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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by Big Matt and Shell » 03 April 12 1:39 pm

colleda wrote:I have just bought a Garmin Etrex 10. Can somebody point me where to go to find out how to instal GSAK step-by-step in plain language?
I'd suggest you start here. http://gsak.net/GSAK101_English.doc

This is the how to from the GSAK site.

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by quiet1_au » 03 April 12 10:04 pm

quiet1_au wrote:
quiet1_au wrote:I've used the backup/restore trick to get GSAK running on my Macbook - it runs under WINE albeit with corrupted button icons.
Well, I'm not sure if it was a GSAK update (I'm running v8.1.1.19) or a WINE/Macports update but the button icon corruption issue appears to be almost all fixed (apart from the GPX/LOC one, and a couple of partial buttons on the Macros for instance - much better than the random pixels I previously had). Under WINE, GSAK doesn't run as nearly as quickly as natively on Windows (although the speed of my PC vs Macbook is a small factor too) but it still works very well and costs "nothing" (no need to purchase a copy Windows to run virtually or as a dual-boot BootCamp setup, obviously you'll want to register GSAK eventually to lose the nag screen!).

So if you have a Mac and want to run GSAK give WINE a go - the bit of command-line stuff and (long) time taken on the initial download and setup of WINE is well worth it IMHO :-)


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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by colleda » 05 April 12 1:21 pm

OK, thanks.
I have struggled to the stage where I have to Set Up my GPS however the Etrex 10 is not on the Garmin list. The nearest to it is Etrex Basic Yellow (next are Etrex 20 & Etrex 30) so I selected that.
Next I go to Send Waypoints to send all in my database (512) but I get an error message "Error sending Waypoints: No output file or device name specified"
What am I doing wrong here?

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by quiet1_au » 05 April 12 6:28 pm

colleda wrote:OK, thanks.
I have struggled to the stage where I have to Set Up my GPS however the Etrex 10 is not on the Garmin list. The nearest to it is Etrex Basic Yellow (next are Etrex 20 & Etrex 30) so I selected that.
Next I go to Send Waypoints to send all in my database (512) but I get an error message "Error sending Waypoints: No output file or device name specified"
What am I doing wrong here?
I would have thought the Etrex 20/30 would have been closer options being in the same Etrex range as the 10?

If all else fails you can export out of GSAK to a GPX file and copy that to your GPS.

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by colleda » 07 April 12 5:39 pm

I accidently posted the following in the wrong forum thread. Not having a good run lately (except for 2 FTFs today).


colleda wrote:
OK thanks. I tried set-up as Etrex 20 and it seemed to work, that is, no error messages.
I then checked the GPS and can only find 19 caches listed in Geocache File (all close by) and only 19 items listed under Waypoints. Also, only one cache hsa shown up on Map.




I seem to have had some success of sorts. The pocket querie (500) seems to have loaded itself to my Garmin Etrex 10. I attempted a similar thing with my Nuvi 2360 and got a message saying something about installing POI which I couldn't figure out how to do. Anyway, yesterday we went caching with both GPSs and, lo and behold, there are the caches in a favourites folder of the Nuvi. So far so good. We went and succesfully found 9 out of 9 searches.
Today we went to look for one cache but this time the Nuvi (using installed coordinates) was 100 metres off compared to the Etrex which was spot on. We input the coodinates to the Nuvi manually and it was still off by 100 metres. How can that happen?
Also the Nuvi did not show cache names only their GC code number. Is it possible to change this?
I have been muddling my way through this so far, and appreciate the advice I have received, and I eventually hope to become more proficient at this before long - fingers crossed.

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by quiet1_au » 08 April 12 9:12 am

colleda wrote: Today we went to look for one cache but this time the Nuvi (using installed coordinates) was 100 metres off compared to the Etrex which was spot on. We input the coodinates to the Nuvi manually and it was still off by 100 metres. How can that happen?
I have used a Nuvi for geocaching overseas when my first Oregon hit the Belgian cobblestones in Brugge and died... I'm not 100% sure but one thing to check is that its switched to Pedestrian mode (or with mine, Cycling/Bicycle mode seemed to work more like I was used to with the Orgeon). The Nuvi, being a in-car GPS, would normally use Automotive mode which locks on to roads, not allow free movement off-road which could explain your problem.
colleda wrote:Also the Nuvi did not show cache names only their GC code number. Is it possible to change this?
I have been muddling my way through this so far, and appreciate the advice I have received, and I eventually hope to become more proficient at this before long - fingers crossed.
There is a setting in GSAK to do this - reverse the process of this GSAK FAQ :
3. I want the GCXXXX code sent to my GPS but currently I just get the abbreviated cache name. How do I fix this?
When you send waypoints to your GPSr there is a box that says "You can build the waypoint name using tags" and the default entry in this box is %smart. This special tag generates a unique smart name for each cache but if you want to see the GCXXXX code then change this to the special tag %code. You can use any combination of special tags in this box but remember to keep the total length of your generated code to the same or less than the maximum length your GPSr can take.
Unless its a limitation of the Nuvi that is...


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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by colleda » 08 April 12 9:35 am

Thank you Quiet1.
We have used the Nuvi overseas (NZ) before we bought the eTrex and its been fairly accurate. We also use the Walk mode when not in the car. It's just this one time that its been so far out and coincided with the first time download of waypoints. Maybe its just a glitch. We've only had the eTrex a week or two and still working out its capabilities. We'll be using it again today so will see what happens.

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by LouiseAnn » 28 November 13 5:44 pm

Does anyone know if it's possible to send some caches to a GPS (in this case an oregon) from one GSAK database, then send some more from another database, without blatting the first lot? I could of thought it would be possible by unticking the "Clear GPS before sending" tickbox, but it didn't seem to work....

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by LouiseAnn » 28 November 13 6:06 pm

Solved it! The macro GarminExport let me do it :)

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by gmj3191 » 28 November 13 7:34 pm

It might have been possible using the first method if you changed the filename in the box above the Clear GPS before sending checkbox. Did you try that?
I always use the macro.
Around home I do this.
I have two filters 1) Unfound within 200 kms (no mysteries) and 2) Mysteries with corrected coordinates.
I run them one after the other, checking the user flags.

Then I select the set user flag caches and load those.

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by ian-and-penny » 29 November 13 9:56 am

gmj3191 wrote:It might have been possible using the first method if you changed the filename in the box above the Clear GPS before sending checkbox. Did you try that?
I always use the macro.
Around home I do this.
I have two filters 1) Unfound within 200 kms (no mysteries) and 2) Mysteries with corrected coordinates.
I run them one after the other, checking the user flags.

Then I select the set user flag caches and load those.
Try this filter to get your sorting all done in one hit.

Code: Select all

Where=Distance<= 200 and ((NOT Found) AND Status='A' AND (CacheType<>'U' OR HasCorrected=1) OR Code IN(Select aCode from Attributes Where aID=47 AND aInc=1))  

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by gmj3191 » 29 November 13 12:19 pm

Nice, thanks Ian.

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by jusojara » 29 November 13 12:37 pm

I use the different filename method on my Montana when I travel so that I can then delete the file for the caches that are not in my local area when I return and it doesn't affect my usual upload.

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by wileyclan » 29 November 13 8:42 pm

gmj3191 wrote: I always use the macro.
Around home I do this.
I have two filters 1) Unfound within 200 kms (no mysteries) and 2) Mysteries with corrected coordinates.
I run them one after the other, checking the user flags.

Then I select the set user flag caches and load those.
I use a macro called "FilterAvailableAndSolved" that does pretty much the same thing except first I have a filter set for the general area that I load each week.

So, what I do is choose my area filter, run my macro and then load my GPSr. I only throw it out there as it sounds as if it would save you one whole step each time you loaded......

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Re: New Program - GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife)

Post by LouiseAnn » 01 December 13 10:23 pm

Wow, I love all these tips!! Why did I not think to ask this question earlier!! Thanks everyone :)

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