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rragan

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Posts posted by rragan

  1. 1 hour ago, Nic Hubbard said:

    No, it is just in the dialog where you can save your offline list and choose lite or full data.

    Pretty sure I have a feature request for a global switch. Seems like that would then apply to both cases if the feature request needs a clarification. 

  2. 1 hour ago, barefootguru said:

    Don't rely on live mode if you're going off the grid:  if Cachly is restarted for any reason, maybe iOS decides it's short of memory, you will lose the live data.

    Guess I'm spoiled. Geosphere puts full data from searches in the DB so even if search results are torpedoed, I can still find them when offline. Maps are another matter in G offline. Whatever is in the cache is it and zooming in/out can easily lose it. Cachly is much better when off the grid and in map handling with offline vector maps. I survived by opening my G caches into Pocket Earth where I have full offline topo maps. 

  3. 48 minutes ago, Nic Hubbard said:

    We must have an option to download lite caches so that Regular users are able to use the offline feature. You can choose the Full option and Cachly will remember that option for next time, so you won't have to worry about accidentally downloading lite caches, since Full will be auto-selected for you if you used that last.

    Ah, would not have guessed that. Does it also apply to live search results?

  4. I got a bunch of caches by search and save to offline list. I was about to head out the door to an area likely to have no cell service when I decided to check -- sure enough offline list caches had no descriptions, hints, etc. So the light search results are just placed in the DB which is fast but not useful if I head off into the woods. I immediately did a full update on the list and all was well later in the woods. 

    To my mind, saving offline means I can work completely without a data connection. The default behavior is going to trip me up sometime. One can argue that I have to remember to download offline maps also so why not remember to get full cache data. Since I have the whole state maps offline, that is not an issue  

    Maybe I'm stuck in the Geosphere behavior rut where full data is used everywhere and I need to learn new behavior but I'd rather have an option to just get full results on searches. Then the full data would go into the DB and I wouldn't get caught out with missing info in the wild  

     

  5. When you say "loading offline lists" do you mean opening an existing one or do you mean creating one from the results of a search or an import?

    Geosphere does a full cache load on searches and puts all search results in the DB. Therefore, adding search results to an offline group is nearly instantaneous as all the data is already local in the DB. Cachly loads light search results and search results are not put in the DB. When you save to offline, each cache then has to be fetched in full via the API. I don't know if each is fetched with a separate request? If so, that could have a lot more overhead than a request for a batch of results like the search with full results done by G. Nic can comment on how it is done. 

     

  6. 4 hours ago, Highlands_guy said:

    I'm a new cachly user (thank Josh) and so far very impressed. Thanks for your efforts in putting together this app.

    After playing with it for a bit, I have some questions. Any assistance would be appreciated.

    Questions:

    1). Can I do a search with a given radius? I was trying to do a search that contained all the caches in about a 10 to 15 km radius. I found I had to keep touching the circle/arrow icon at the top right corner to progressively increase the radius, then if it wasn't right, move the map again and start from scratch.

    If you turn off Fit To Map in Settings it won't expand the map view to show more caches. Use Map Center in Search in Live options will start the search at the center of your Map View. There is a distance scale on the map so you could zoom out to show roughly 10km and keep tapping the circle/arrow icon. This will not stop it from finding caches further away that won't be visible on screen so you could try using 15 km and stopping when it looks like the 10 km area is well populated.  There is a feature request to restrict finds to only the visible map area but that does not exist today. Search on geocaching.com supports a radius so you could search there and make a bookmark list to bring into Cachly as an offline list  

    4 hours ago, Highlands_guy said:

    2) Is there a zoom in/out that maintains the center point of the screen (like a +/- feature on many maps).

    Not that I know of but a double tap will zoom the tap target and you can drag it to the screen center if you want the zooming centered  

    4 hours ago, Highlands_guy said:

    3) What counts toward my daily cache download limit? I was playing with different searches moving the screen a bit to try to capture the correct area, but before I knew it, I had a pop-up indicating "Error: Cache download limit has been exceeded"

     

    Non-premium members have a cache download daily limit of 3. This is a Geocaching.com server enforced limit and not something Cachly does. It just relays the message. Premium members have a limit of 6000 per day.

    4 hours ago, Highlands_guy said:

    4) What are the 2 orientations of the map when I toggle the "Center on my location" icon on the bottom right? True and magnetic north?

    From the help text

    The current location button is used to return the map to your current location. Tapping it will also cycle you through the different follow mode including follow and follow with heading. Follow with heading allows the map to rotate based on your compass heading.

    4 hours ago, Highlands_guy said:

    Thanks again.

     

     

  7. Reporting in with today's experiment. I applied all the techniques in the article I linked above. Today's hike was about the same duration as an earlier one where the iPhone went from 100% down to low 20s before engaging external battery. Today it dropped to 52% by end of hike. Cell was LTE much of the time so that may have helped. Encouraging but need more data. 

  8. 38 minutes ago, Nic Hubbard said:

    Another thing if out in the field to save battery is to put your phone into Airplane mode. GPS will still work but everything else will be turned off. This will maximize your battery when caching.

    I was just about to pop back in and add that tip. If your at poor cell signal strength, the phone ups the power to the antenna to try to keep connectivity. Unless you really need the phone, turn it off, especially in the woods. 

  9. Take a look at the Battery info in Settings and see usage percentage by app.  I found a couple of bad actors that way 

    My iPhone 6s acts roughly the same -- slow decline followed by faster drop. But then so does my gas gauge. Non-linear. 

    This article has a lot of good tips. https://www.payetteforward.com/why-does-my-iphone-battery-die-so-fast-heres-the-real-fix/

    That said, if I'm in the field Geocaching more than about 4 hours, I will need an external battery to replenish. Also activating Settings>Battery>Low Power Mode before setting out helps some. 

    I'd guess, having the option on in Cachly to sort the list by distance once a minute is not free so think if you need that on. 

    2-3 years is my general expectation for cell phone batteries to start having trouble holding a charge. There are finite number of charge/discharge cycles. 

  10. I do have a feature request on a setting to always download full details on Live searches but a UI that changes on an obscure setting is not ideal. There is also an icon for personal note that uses space on that line and an open feature request to add a live direction to cache arrow there near distance. 

  11. This may have come up. It's a question of space. Adding that info could well make list entries one line taller reducing the number that can fit on a screen. Offline lists have powerful filtering so I'd be inclined to consider new filters like "Last n Logs all smiley" and a more general "Last Found date" filter. The API won't deliver all the old logs but for such filters as these you wouldn't need them all. 

  12. 8 hours ago, Nic Hubbard said:

    Richard, are you meaning the additional of a cache solver?

    Not specifically. I believe I asked for that one for multis already. Having dug into that to see if I could build something, I appreciate how hard it is likely to be  

    It's really a random collection of small things I run into when trying to solve puzzles without leaving Cachly and trotting to the computer or loading the web page. Seeing archived caches via Friends was just the most recent. Some are intractable in Cachly like seeing the background image which came up recently. I'll keep an eye out for them. It was more of a direction question. I don't see solving puzzles as a prime thrust.

  13. I was trying to solve a puzzle last night and thought "Oh Cachly can help" so I went to Friends and searched for the owner and wanted to see an archived puzzle.  Oh, only non-archived hides are shown. Solved by opening in web site so only momentarily stymied. This would be a low priority feature for me but raises the question of should Cachly embrace features more suited to solving puzzles or just leave those to other tools?

  14. I was trying to solve a puzzle last night and thought "Oh Cachly can help" so I went to Friends and searched for the owner and wanted to see an archived puzzle.  Oh, only non-archived hides are shown. Solved by opening in web site only momentarily stymied. This would be a low priority feature for me but raises the question of should Cachly embrace features more suited to solving puzzles or just leave those to other tools?

  15. I'm unclear on how an AirDisk Pro app can get files into a Garmin. It's only an app and you would need to write GPX to an SD card. This device might work as it can transfer files from ipad/iPhone wirelessly to it and write them on an SD card. The only hitch would be if it can handle .gpx file type. If not, you have the same issue I mentioned earlier with my Tripmate. That said, the device has other nice features that might be useful to you. 

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AQUMZRA/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

     

  16. This inconsistency does not arise in Geosphere because results of Live searches are added to the database and assigned to a System group "Online Searches". This means the Live view sees data that is offline.

    Negative: the Online Search group can leave caches in the DB that don't get cleaned up unless the user manually empties this group (something I've only done once). For this to work well, full downloads are needed for Live searches. 

    Positive: Often caches are found in the DB when no data signal exists. No need to save a Live Search to offline explicitly -- the caches will be there. 

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