yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] del4:
:eek: Have you even read the first post? Do you even know what this app is for? If you don't know what geocaching.com is, then methinks not... :rolleyes:
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] acejavelin:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=geocaching&l=1

or even more simply: http://www.geocaching.com/

geocaching.com is the very reason this software was written and what it works with to function properly.

And as del4 said, did you read the FIRST post in this thread?
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] zephxiii:
^ lol!

Anyways, here's a couple of minor usability suggestions...sometimes the app hangs up with the spinning wheel for a long time during searches or cache downloads due to interrupted data connection...it would be nice if we had a "cancel" button to stop the spinning wheel if it gets stuck too long so we can restart the download instead of force closing the app etc. I'm not saying the app is freezing up or crashing, it's just waiting on data that has been interrupted, and would be nice to hit cancel so I can restart the download etc.

Also when using the Dpad while selecting a button on the screen, would be nice if the border was much more bold for the currently selected item (before you hit the center Dpad button) as right now I have a hard time seeing right away where my selection is most of the time.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jack_Brody:
Hi Tom,

this is nearly perfect. I've also found one issue:

Look at the first attached picture. The target (red ball) has gone off the screen. This happened when I was walking AWAY from the target. After I took this picture and walked a few more meters, the scale zoomed out and the ball was visible again. So the distance from the center taken into account for zooming out should be adjusted.

Well, I think that if we have automatic and manual scaling modes here, it should be clearly determined that we are in either of them. When I tap in top left or bottom left quadrant (zoom in / out), the scale ratio changes and I would assume I have entered the manual scaling. But when I check the setting (Menu - Auto Scaling), I can see it is still "on". This confuses me. I think this should toggle to "off". For quickly getting back to automatic scaling you could sacrifice :) the bottom right quadrant. The top right corner should be enough for displaying the Lat/Lon, PDOP etc. values I guess.

At the same time the automatic mode should be indicated somehow - for instance by adding "(auto)" to the ratio value. Or maybe better would be inverse - nothing there if we are in auto (which will be probably used in most cases) and add "(man)" or "(manual)" when in manual scaling. I draw this idea to my second picture.

You could also link these scaling functions to HW keys as Nibbler wrote, it is reasonable.

And one more suggestion for you to have enough work (I wouldn't want to be in your skin man ;) ):

- would it be hard to add (as an option) this navigating line plotted from the center to the target as could be seen in my second picture as well? This certainly has low priority.

I admire you for this work...

Jack
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Lord.Nibbler:
Agreed :) Yet I would rather suggest to merely change the color : blue if manual, gray if automatic :D
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] khaytsus:
Aww man, I actually hunted a cache today before I noticed the new version ;-)

Worked out pretty well though, even without the scaling. I'm hoping the next version doesn't rotate the compass back to north a soon as you stop moving, I think I saw a few other people mention that so hopefully it's fixed now. :)

At least the Azimuth was still right. I've gotten often where if I'm hunting a tough cache, or hard to get a good clear signal on the GPS I'll stand still until the GPS settles and I'll use my compass to go X feet at Az.

Looking great!
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] khaytsus:
Anyone notice that the distance doesn't seem to be quite right? I've compared between GCzII, GeoNiche, Google Earth, etc..

Everything else says 1.4 miles, but GCzII says 1.69 miles. Perhaps a conversion error?
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] eyecannon:
The new version is really awesome... GPS works great on my Touch Pro with COM4 and 4800 baud. Can't wait until you implement the searching!
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Gech:
Hiya

I modified lots. please visit below and test it pleeeeease. ;D

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Gzh/20090416#1239867887

GCzII_20090416_1615_0233h.cab

------------

1) Change "GPS Trail" drawing algorithm. (should be more natural. I hope.)

2) Add "GPS Trail" setting to set drawing point count.

3) Fix target distance calculation bug. (Thx khaytsus) ;D

4) Change "Auto Scaling" behavior and color.

------------

[Auto]: North pointer and Scale text are GREEN

[Manual]: GRAY

------------

5) Change Navi key and Tap action assignment.

------------

[Tap action]

TOP LEFT -> ZOOM UP

BOTTOM LEFT -> ZOOM DOWN

RIGHT TOP -> GPS Info

RIGHT BOTTOM -> "Auto Scaling" ON/OFF

[Navi key]

UP -> ZOOM UP

DOWN -> ZOOM DOWN

LEFT -> "Auto Scaling" ON/OFF

RIGHT -> GPS Info

CENTER -> Back to TOP

------------

When test it, please not forget to set "LOGGING ON" to save log.

if you find something wrong, it really help me to debug.

thank you

tom
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Lord.Nibbler:
Hi Tom ! you're inexhaustible man ! :p

I didn't have the possibility to test the drawing trail algorithm right now ... but just having a brief look while standing still it seems to reduce the brownian motion :cool:

Yet what seems strange to me, is that at each new point all the trail seems to change its whole shape (like if you were constantly rearranging all the points of the trail each time :confused: ) From my point of view it seems more logical to apply the smoothing algorithm only for computing and smooth last position received, then keep the value and not modify it further once inserted into the trail.

Maybe your algorithm will give better results on a real trail while moving (I'll have to test it latter), yet it seems quite strange to have the trail modifying itself :rolleyes:

Also just a little detail : as "Set GPS accuracy" menu confused some users, I think that when you'll go on final release, you should move this setting in Options | GPS Settings (where you set also the com port and baud rate) : because GPS accuracy is an intrinsic "one shot" value of the GPS not a value to modify in the GPS Monitor.

Cheers,

Nibbler.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] paulpille:
Hi Gech :)

you're a hell of a guy, rarely saw s.o. implementing complex things such quick and brilliant, chapeau.

I tested your latest version in the field (there is a very nearby cache to my home) and distance measurement seems to be ok now.

The only thing I was facing with (some others also have mentioned yet) is the jumping around radar when not moving anymore.

One way to possibly overcome this could be adding another configuration table regarding speed of moving. With my external GPS mouse (Bluemax SirfIII) I noticed speeds between 0 and 0.5 km/h although not moving. Other GPS receivers might show different so it could make sense to configure this -> don't show changes when speed is less than 1/0.8/0.5/0.3 km/h.

Last but not least I'd like to ask you: please end the torture of waiting for your nice geocaching features :rolleyes:

Referring to this I played a bit with your original application and would also like to propose some improvement ideas:

- enable storage of infos from geocaching.com site locally on SD card in order to allow offline caching

- enable configurable limit of number of caches to be downloaded (e.g. in case of postal code or current location search)

- additionally enable configurable distance limit with regard to searching caches from current or postal code locations

The first point could be the most complex one because I fear this will force you to change the complete program architecture.

As I noticed, your application does not a complete download of all cache infos but retrieves detail info as needed. Sure, on one side this makes the application very fast, but unfortunately this will not allow offline caching.

Enough now, hope you will consider my suggestions. Looking forward to your next releases !

Greetz, Paul
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Lord.Nibbler:
Worth the try ... but it probably would be an ineffective setting ... because when walking near the cache you are not moving a lot and your speed is low, so the GPS will freeze your position at the moment when you precisely need the best accuracy. As your GPS is a sirf one, you could probably turn "Static Navigation" using MMSirfSetup this will do what you want ... but you will see that static navigation is not really effective for geocaching :(

The "sliding window" averaging algorithm would be more efficient as it would limit or smooth the jumping around yet it will still report your movements even if you move slowly or on short distance.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] paulpille:
Thx for the link, I will check that. However, switching to geocaching "mode" will then probably cause problems with my navigation "mode" which is implemented by TomTom software. Hence I'd have to toggle the SirfMouse to either run in geocaching or in navigation mode ... (could eventually be done by mortscripting).

Nevertheless, if this feature would be implemented in the geocaching SW nothing would have to be changed elsewhere ... :rolleyes:

Sounds logical, however what is moving slow ... if I am not wrong a movement speed of 0.5 km/h equals approx. 15 cm per second and this seems to me 'slow motion' enough for moving very near to caches, isn't it ?

Agree, could be worth a try, however I'm not sure if Tom already has implemented kind of that ...
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jack_Brody:
Well, after good lunch I went to a nearby playground (luckily no yelling kids there :) ) and gave the new GCz a try. Looks great now (I use north up, maybe guys which required the heading-up mode will have some notes). You can pass any coordinates to this GPS monitor and we'll surely find the cache. ;)

The disappearing trail is cute and works well. The trail shape changing - I suppose this just has something to do with re-rendering the screen after every slight coordinates changes and since I have only 320 x 240 screen I understand this won't be perfectly smooth.

I have also noticed slow movement of the target while standing still - but this is related (I think) to the GPS technology itself. We do not have geodetic GPSrs (at least I don't) and the accuracy is approximate. The GPSr recalculates our position continually and modifies it even while we are standing still. I wouldn't want to stop this process - that's what static navigation does as Nibbler said.

But basically, not much more to say on my part - it's good. :)
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] khaytsus:
Wow, steamrolling! :)

One suggestion I forgot to make yesterday, is it possible to make the arrow to the cache a little larger? Here's an example of the program I use today, the targets overlay the arrow when approaching the target (ie: arrow doesn't cover the target) and it's large enough to just glance at to see the direction to go. It doesn't necessarily need to be as large as this example, but larger would be nice. :)

FYI if you're curious, this is GeoNiche which I run in StyleTap, but these screenshots were from my previous Treo device. The left is at 3 mile range, right at .5 mile, and the GPS was actually disabled when I took the shots.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] paulpille:
I Fully agree :) If you don't want to stop this recalculating process within very low speeds then you can set the configuration table to 0 km/h and thats it !
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] alx6ths:
outstanding job Tom! Do you ever sleep some times? :D

I thought i might help a bit and sort and update the feature requests me and others made

Feature requests

+ make sort of favorites/bookmarks. Save and selected found caches locally (SD card?) for offline hunting.

+ make an option to select amount and/or distance of caches to be search for

+ make a possibility to access the bookmark listing at geocaching.com to be able to access saved bookmarked caches

+ at displayed single cache screen with all the functions showed (like Description, Hint, Cache Logs, Map, etc.) the GPS button should directly set the navigation to the cache and open GPS compass.

+ when you retreiving the caches trough data connection, there is no progress showing up, would be nice to see some progress bar or whatever :)

+ make the arrow facing the cache little bit bigger

+ screen lock (look at the oziExplorer's screenshot and check the bottom "slide to unlock" slider and the lock button in the menu)

+ night/dark mode. Maybe just inverted colors, except the coloured parts?

- add some sounds? :p I know this has nothing to do with basic functionality and it is just cosmetic stuff, but i like to mention that :D Sound for: GPS fix/lost fix, finished downloading of data (after search), ....

+ data export/import? (*.loc, *.gpx, *.kml)

+ don't show changes when speed is less than e.g. 1/0.8/0.5/0.3/0 km/h. You can select 0 to disable it

+ the ability to take a picture on the camera and have it upload to the cache's gallery on geocaching.

- ....

don't kill me :D
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Lord.Nibbler:
Hi Tom,

I'm sorry to say that the new trail doesn't seems to work correctly for me :(

Today it was raining so I wasn't able to go test it in real conditions, but I made a short trip on car and the trail lagged a lot and really didn't represent the trajectories of the car. The previous version was way more accurate.

Beside the issue when zooming on a trail is still there (as displayed in the screenshot of my yesterday post).

Also tonight I made a little stroll around my house and :

- there is a lot of lag between my movements and a really approximate repercussion on the trail

- the trail doesn't seems to represent my walk it isn't even roughly like the shape of my walk :(

- the trail is continuously auto-modifying its shape

If you can't reproduce the issue by yourself, if it can help you, tomorrow I will try to log the data received and I will send it to you ?

Cheers,

Nibbler.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Gech:
Hi Lord.Nibbler

You might live nice place to have the GPS signal for testing.

(I have not get the signal pattern like yours.)

Please get the LOG and send it to me.

It might help me to improve GPS Monitor. ;D

thanks

tom
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Gech:
Hi

I changed some codes.

Please test it ;D

http://1942.rocketspace.net/PQzII/GCzII_20090417_1600_0233i.cab

I'm going to take a walk to test it now. ;D

thanks

tom
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] marcuswar:
On the subject of feature requets, can I add ;

+ the ability to take a picture on the camera and have it upload to the cache's gallery on geocaching.

Cheers

Marcus
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] paulpille:
Hi, am I right that you didn't implement the not moving feature ?

My radar is still jumping around from one side to the other :(

Anyone else having this drawback ?

Tom, is it very hard to implement ?
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Lord.Nibbler:
Hi Tom :)

thank you for this new release ! I'm looking forward this afternoon to be able to test it :)

For now just standing still I've noticed that the whole trail is no more modifying itself :cool: (except maybe for the last or last two positions which I suppose is by design the way your averaging mechanism is implemented)

I noticed you moved the GPS accuracy menu :p Could you also please add in this GPS settings window an option to enable/disable the averaging mechanism ?

I will report you results of my afternoon further testing ASAP.

Cheers,

Nibbler.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Mr-Fly:
same problem here. If the network is even not lost, but has some problems (which might occur in the woods anyhow), the app will be in spinning-wheel-mode for over a minute, until it comes back with a problem.

It would be great to have some kind of scrollbar, that it is moving or even maybe a status how much elements have been done (if downloading caches) and a cancel button to stop the wait.

Greets Thorsten
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] acejavelin:
I agree, a cancel button would definitely be nice...

As far as the borders of the buttons, try installing the Focus Image add-on on Nicque's GCzII software page (http://www.nicque.com/PQz/GCz.htm) its about 1/2 down and a custom add-on called CACHE_DETAIL_BUTTON_FOCUS_CUSTOM. It is fairly simple and makes the button borders much easier to see.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] khaytsus:
Thanks for finding that, I was about to attempt to in this thread, whew ;-)

As for a cancel button when downloading, I agree. Sometimes GCzII will hang forever if it loses connectivity at the wrong time.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] del4:
Tom, just wondering if we can look forward to any more updates in the near future? Guess I got spoiled with all the frequent updates you provided us in the past... :o
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Master Darko:
ditto... Tom used to as prompt as anything but I guess times are changing... At least it all seems to work still... so we cant complain
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] khaytsus:
Yep, works great. I'd still love to see a radar view so it'd be easy to visualize the next cache nearby without launching Google Earth.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Master Darko:
oh yeah radar view was discussed recently. There were few more interesting ideas around but we have to settle with what we got at the moment... until Tom comes back and drops a bombshell, version 0.3 with every feature ever discussed implemented... :D

Does anyone know where Tom is? Does anyone know him beyond this forum?
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] ruipgouveia:
ih

When a version for the iphone? :):):):):)
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Mr-Fly:
I really hope, that he will stick with WinMobile.

If you want an app for the IPhone, GC makes one and they dont support WinMobile.

So I am glad, that GCz supports WinMobile.

Regards Mr-Fly
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] arghness:
Last I heard, I thought Tom was planning to work on an Android version.

Perhaps that's why there hasn't been a reply from him for a while.

Hopefully if he does release this, he will have refactored the code so that improvements for Android and WinMo can proceed in parallel.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Ernie:
Change on GC.com again!!

UUUpps.

It looks like, that GC.com has changed their sides a couple of minuites ago - again. The site was not availiable due to maintenance.

After coming back - about one hour ago - all (!!) funktions on GCzII are not working any more :-( The complete gc.com-site is looking slightly different.

Result: Either searching, logging, cache-overview, ...

Can somebody please doublecheck this?

Ernie
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Psyberdude:
I can confirm the same problem here :(
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] NevadaWolf:
Same thing here. I'm getting Cache not found, or User not in system errors.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] htc_touch hd:
Tom, please save us!! :)

Oh myy, they completely changed the structure of the web, so it needs apropriate changes in GCzII. Jut hope Tom will save us soon, many thanks for that in advance. ;)

Here is complete list of changes forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=239821&st=0&#entry4187900
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] sbrown2680:
TOM HELP!!!!!
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] jmbillings:
The forum login page won't even work for me, just times out... anyway, depending on how much they changed it might or might not be a quick fix for him to do, so lets just bear with him!

(Glad I downloaded all the caches for my holiday next week a couple of days ago!)
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jake Bullit:
Same here:(

Tom are you there?:confused:
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] jllbee:
Cache Not Found.

I thought i had Screwed something, so i Reset my back to defaults.....Damn i should have came here first....-----> ME= DUMBASS! :o
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] martinhe:
Same here. TOM HELP!!!!! PLS.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] ryaske:
yup I just did a new install on another phone. I thought my install went hay-wire. glad to hear its a known issue.

I am also subscribed and waiting for the fix.

This program is the best GCing program out there!:D
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] matze2000:
cache not found!:eek:

please help me!:(
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Babba067:
"Cache nicht gefunden" / "Cache not found"

Hallo alle mit einander!

Einer von Euch hatte mir schon einmal sehr geholfen mit dem Umgang bei der Software GCzII - 0.2.35.35 und dem Deuteschen Skin auf dem Xperia X1.

Nun ist mir seit heute wieder etwas aufgefallen, wo ich keine Lösung weiß.

Seit heute Morgen kann ich kein Cache auf den neun Seiten mehr abrufen, hatte auch schon mal die Software neu Installiert aber dieses hat auch nicht geholfen. Jeden falls wird immer die Fehlermaldung „Cache nicht gefunden“ angezeigt. Es währe sehr nett wenn mir jemand von Euch bei der Lösung dieses Problems helfen könnte.

Danke sage ich schon mal im Voraus an die Problem Lösungen.

Danke Babba067

PS: Entschuldigt bitte das schlechte englisch, ist übersetzt von Mr.Goggle!

Hello all together!

One of you had already helped me much with how to deal with the software GCzII - 0.2.35.35 and german Skin on the Xperia X1.

Now I noticed again today has been something where I know no solution.

Since this morning I can not cache on the nine pages to retrieve them, had sometimes even re-installed the software but this has not helped either. Every case is always the Fehlermaldung "Cache not found" message. It Währe very nice if anyone of you could help me in solving this problem.

Thanks I have said time in advance to the problem solutions.

Thanks Babba067

PS: please excuse the bad English, is translated by Mr.Goggle!
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] sbrown2680:
Geocaching.com changed a lot of the code on their website. This is what is causing GCzII to not work properly. We will have to wait until Tom (the developer) creates an updated version.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] tobit:
Lies die letzten Seiten des Threads, bist nicht allein mit dem Problem. Geocaching.com hat gestern die Seite erneuert, so dass nun viele Programme und Skripte nicht mehr korrekt auf die Datenbank zugreifen können.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] macdo:
Not Cache Found

I understand that GC.com changed their web structure or code and we depend on Tom's only efforts and for free!

I'm thinking on some ideas to make this great app easier to get up to date:

1-Become part of the official software at gc.com. With this the developer would be noticed in advance of changes and even he will be able to connect straight to db to get data.

2- The seccond idea is to make the app open source and let some other developers to continue with Tom's work if he can't keep supporting it.

3- The 3rd and last, I guess there are a lot of users of this app, why doesn't Tom make this app donation ware and he'll have an incentive to continue updating it...

My 3 cents
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] topomad:
Have just emailed Tom requesting help.

I hope he checks his email often!! (and has time available to help us out)

Thanks for a great program Tom! Although I had heard of Geocaching before, and more or less knew what it was about, it was YOUR PROGRAM that actually got me to start Geocaching, and now I am hooked!

You past response to user's requests, and the pace at which you produce them is quite extraordinary... THANK YOU!!

PS: Although I have never posted before, I have been following this thread for some time (and have read ALL 241 pages of it!)