Geomate.Jr User's Guide
Contents
1. Left Button Press Next item Press amp Hold Go home ME stores Handy Loop Thing Figure 1 Handy to know bits and pieces of your Geomate jr The Buttons Your Geomate jr has only two buttons Yep only two But it s quite amazing what you can do with just two buttons There are three possible ways the buttons can be used They are 1 A simple press 2 Apress and hold for a few seconds 3 Press and hold both buttons at the same time The symbols that are on the buttons themselves indicate the action that will be taken if a button is just pressed The icons above and below the buttons indicate the action if the button is pressed and held Go home eee Mark a cache as found Press amp Hold Press amp Hold We call this the We call this the BIG button SMALL button Next item in list Next page Press Press Set a home position Press amp Hold both buttons Figure 2 Buttons and their actions of your Geomate jr Batteries Needed The Geomate jr needs two AAA batteries To get the batteries inside and around the right way 1 Remove the battery door by pressing on the Geomate jr guy on the battery door slide the door back and then lift it up 2 Insert the batteries making sure that they follow the battery diagram located in the battery compartment 3 Don t forget to replace the battery door What you did in step 1 but in reverse Turning it On amp Off To turn the Geomate jr2. There are three most likely reasons why you would want to clear the found list These are e Because you want to give your Geomate jr to someone else and they want to keep track of their own found geocaches e You have filled up the storage capacity of the found list Congratulations This means that you have recorded 1000 finds on your Geomate jr sF Low Battery e Finally you have a really bad memory and you want to re find the same geocaches again To clear the Found List 1 Press and hold for a really long time something like 10 seconds the SMALL button You will know you have successfully cleared the Found List when you see a message that says CACHE CLEAR Your Geomate jr has a low battery warning symbol to make sure you don t get caught out When the batteries are running low a battery symbol will flash Once you see the battery warning symbol you will have approximately 30 minutes before your Geomate jr will stop operating It is important to change the batteries as soon as you can when you see this symbol as low batteries can start to impact GPS performance ___ Low battery warning Figure 19 The low battery warning symbol You should change batteries ASAP if you see it Bae s
3. geomate get out there Geomate Jr User s Guide Part Number 04 0003 01 Date May 2009 Notices The Geomate jr is a device designed to assist you in locating geocaches and participating in the outdoor activity of geocaching Safety is important to us and we remind you to follow the following safety rules to prevent accidents Vehicular Use Do not use the Geomate jr while driving It is the sole responsibility of the driver of any vehicle to operate the vehicle in a safe manner Taking your eyes off the road is dangerous and can result in an accident in which you or others could be injured If the Geomate jr is used in a vehicle it must not be used by the operator of the vehicle Good Judgment and Care The Geomate jr can provide navigation to a geocache location and also provide the ability to navigate back to a previously marked location It does not replace the need for careful planning an awareness of your surroundings and good judgment Never rely solely on the device for navigation GPS Accuracy The Global Positioning System GPS is operated by the U S Government which is solely responsible for the accuracy and maintenance of the GPS network The accuracy of resultant positions can be affected by the periodic adjustments to GPS satellites made by the U S Government and is subject to change in accordance with the Department of Defense civil GPS user policy and the Federal Radio Navigation Plan Position accuracy ca
4. as some messages to help you such as GPS SRCH and FIND CLEAR SKY 3 Once your Geomate jr has found the satellites and has calculated its position the satellite symbol will stop flashing and signal bars will appear The accuracy of the position calculated by your Geomate jr depends on many factors including where in the sky the satellites are the strength of the signal or signal interference by nearby objects The satellite symbol shows the current status of the GPS and the position quality If you see It means Your Geomate jr is searching for satellites and does not have a valid position It is not possible to hunt geocaches in this state Make sure you have a clear view of the sky Your Geomate jr has a position but the quality of the position is not good It is possible to begin hunting geocaches but it may not get you very close to the geocache The position quality is OK and getting better We think you should be fine searching for geocaches but you may need to search harder az PoJ Your Geomate jr has pretty good position quality and you fa should have no problem searching for geocaches with this o see position quality Your Geomate jr has the best quality position it can get Those geocaches don t stand a chance If the satellite symbol keeps flashing after a few minutes make sure you have a clear view of the sky and or fresh batteries 1 3 Geocaching Wi
5. geocache To navigate to where the goecache is hiding 1 Hold your Geomate jr straight like a compass in front of you and walk You will see an arrow appear This is the arrow that will keep pointing you to the geocache It s important that you keep your Geomate jr straight in front of you and not twist it around when following the arrow 2 Keep following the arrow and watch the distance The distance should keep getting smaller as you get closer to the geocache 3 When you get the distance as small as possible somewhere from 0 to 10 feet this is ground zero This is where you start searching for the geocache Figure 7 When hunting your geocache hold your Geomate jr straight and in front of you just like holding a compass You must be walking for the arrow to appear If you stop walking the arrow will disappear This is because you must be moving for the arrow to be meaningful ee Marking a Geocache as Found Going Home Once you have found a geocache you can mark it as found This is really handy to make sure you don t accidently try to find a geocache that you ve already found Unless you really want to of course By marketing a geocache as found it also gets added to the Found List that you can review later and log your finds on www geocaching com To mark a geocache as found 1 Simply press and hold the SMALL button Once a geocache has been marked as found it will be added to the F
6. on or off 1 Simply hold the power switch down for a second or two Figure 3 Hold the power button for a second or two to turn it on or off Start Up Messages When you first switch on your Geomate jr you will see numbers and words appear is sequence The following table will explain each of the items you see This Item Means This VIO02 This is the software version running on your Geomate jr You may be asked for this if one day you have some questions about using your Geomate jr 4J 19 The next thing you will see is a month and day This is the date of that the geocache list that you are using was compiled 2000 You will see a year as well This is the year that the geocache list that you are using was compiled HLO A nice warm greeting to start your day right Getting a GPS Position Your Geomate jr uses signals from GPS satellites to calculate its position on the earth Each time you switch on your Geomate jr it must search for these satellites obtain information from them and then do a bunch of number si crunching This process may take a minute or so Also as GPS signals do not pass through buildings the Geomate jr only works outdoors To get a GPS position 1 Take your Geomate jr outside a good clear view of the sky is the best and switch it on 2 Wait while your Geomate jr searches for satellite signals While it is doing this you will see a little satellite symbol flashing as well
7. what a GC Code could look like When on the GC Code page you can scroll through each of the geocaches and see their GC codes by pressing the BIG button To view GC codes of the geocaches 1 Press the SMALL button until you are on the GC Code Page 2 Press the BIG button to scroll through each closest geocache and its GC code The Navigation Page When on the Navigation Page you can scroll through and view GPS information like heading latitude longitude height above sea level and GPS satellites being tracked and used To view GPS information 3 Press the SMALL button until you are on the Navigation Page 4 Press the BIG button to scroll through heading latitude longitude height and GPS satellites being tracked and used The heading view displays the heading that you are currently moving orientated to true north as opposed to magnetic north Just like the arrow that directs you to the geocache you must be moving in order for your Geomate jr to calculate your heading 21 Figure 15 You will see something like this when viewing your heading The latitude and longitude values are in the WGS 84 coordinate system and expressed in decimal minutes The height value is height above the WGS 84 ellipsoid which approximates mean sea level Figure 16 This is an example of what a longitude would look like When viewing the satellite tracked and used information you will see two numbers The one on the left is
8. e In this example the currently selected geocaching is the 1 closest to your location If the geocache was the 2 closest this would be a 2 And this is the size of the cache Ranging between 1 and 4 with a 1 being a very small micro cache which could be as small as your thumbnail and a 4 being as big as a bucket This is the Terrain Difficulty rating Out of 5 with 5 being the hardest this gives you an indication of the type of terrain you need to cover to get to the geocache This cool little satellite symbol gives you an indication of the position quality The more bars the better This is the distance to the geocache This tells you what units the distance is in You will see FT for feet and M for miles If you are closer than half a mile it will display feet Any more than that the distance will be in miles This little guy shows you that you are currently viewing the Geocaching page More about this and others later 600 O O OO OO s43 Selecting Your Target Geocache to Find Now it s time to decide on which geocache you would like to try to find You can use the information about each geocache to help make your decision You should consider things like how close it is to you how hard it is to find and also how difficult the terrain might be If the terrain difficult is a 4 for example it could mean you are about to cover some very rough or steep terrain One impo
9. ed daccnsicaederuciscsundd RE EEn A ENERE EEE TEA 14 Selecting A Different Geocache ccccsesccssosssscscsssrenscusseceuoussscncussscnecusrestocussseucuesteneussrensecusresse 14 BOG ACS AUNE r E E E E E N A 15 Marking a Geocache ASF OUI Oeissecevessccneccsacessuaccansncsaienvessecnmauaesnashe E EEEE 16 COME AONO ore AA EE ANE E E E E ior nguacueemenmounennts 16 4 Other Features amp Functions essssessssssseressessreresssseressssrrrsresssreeesssseressssereeeesssrrressseereessereeressserreessene 18 AVDE PIT EE E E E eee ere 18 TE CONE care err AEE EE ve een ee rere 19 A a Ge COJE Pae een er nen nee ec Ce ene ee eee eT ere eee 20 HEN A OU aoia E ease tac i i eE O A E 21 nerona Lst Pe araga E EA aad nessseweereneeaaeseseed esuucomecn an 23 LON BEV a ec E E E E E EA E E E E EAEE EE ET 24 Preface So you now have a Geomate jr Good for you Your geocaching adventure awaits If you are reading this User s Guide however you probably have some questions This User s Guide contains information like e An introduction to the Geomate jr and the objective of geocaching e Getting started with the Geomate jr e A step by step guide to geocaching with the Geomate jr and e Detailed information about each feature and function of the Geomate jr MyGeomate To make sure you get the latest info about what is happening in the geocaching world to register your product and get exclusive Geomate jr offers you may want to crea
10. he selected page geocache A GC Code is a unique identifier for geocaches The navigation Accessing the GPS heading position page and satellite tracking information The found list Viewing the list of geocaches that have page been marked as found To change from one page to the other 1 Press the SMALL button to move from one page to the other You will cycle back to the first page after the last page sig Figure 11 You will cycle through each of the pages and back to the start by pressing the SMALL button The Geocaching Page This will always be the page you see when you turn on your Geomate jr It is the page used to select and hunt geocaches and is where you will most likely spend most of your time For information about the items displayed on the Geocaching Page please see the section Reviewing Geocache Information More on the Closeness Order When you first switch on your Geomate jr it will immediately calculate the closest 20 geocaches to your current location It will order them from 1 being the closest through 20 being the furthest from your position This is known as the closeness order Geocache Closeness Order oom 4 Figure 12 The closeness order tells you if the selected geocache is the closest geocache or the 2 3 etc All 20 closest geocaches can be cycled through by repeatedly pressing the BIG button It is also possible to go back to the start b
11. inkets make sure you replace what you take with something of equal or greater value Keeps it fun for everyone Once you have finished with your geocache you need to hide it in the exact Same spot as you found it Hunting Geocaches Finding geocaches can be tricky But it s half the fun The GPS receiver in this case your Geomate jr will only get you close to the location of the geocache By close we mean something like 10 feet or so The rest is up to you You need to look around and find the hidden geocache They can be hidden almost anywhere Common hiding places and tricks include In or behind bushes Inside or under logs Magnetically attached to the back of street signs Underneath park benches Between rocks or small caves In gaps in rock walls So you have to look hard and don t give up too easily Keep in mind that there is a chance that the geocache that you are looking for just may not be there anymore It doesn t happen often but they can disappear Geocaches can be hidden almost anywhere but remember they are never ever buried To help in your hunt the following information is provided for every geocache The Geomate jr Size To know how big the geocache that you are looking for is a rating between 1 and 4 indicates the size of it A 1 is a very small geocache or micro cache while a 4 is a very big geocache something like a bucket or large metal box Terrain This is a rating betwee
12. l rights reserved Other trademarks are the property of their respective companies Contents Te PANO QUIGTION a E E E A E a 6 aae A oe G1 216 6r2 6 01 9 lt 2 A EE ee nee ee E rere 6 More About Geocaches eiisccccecinaustivccsnatesceaseaainanediocainandsvecwtevoanedld E r aan E ENE i iE r Eer Paai erare 6 Hunin GeO CNE eaa E E 6 Te CCom E aoan ner enna arn rer nS gen eee eer ee eee eter eer eer een 7 A ERE Gl E a Tee ne ORES A ene moe eer ee ere 8 Bits amp Pieces Of Your GEOMATE jf ccccccescccccssccccceeseccceesececeeeccecseuececsuaeceesenceseesuecessunecesseeeeteeeeas 8 TE BUI GOW S ee staaecareessestcetoausnaeasstadsssanstsadancnpenensniunanteeessaacenmeoauequenens used saniamaanaintatesssdastneesesssavebesteeae 8 Batteries Nord odee a te ates pce ert ae esto A ecto en te st cuteness daa ce Sosa T T 9 TUM VE Oi Se OI Biers cette canoe E E 10 Start Up Messages isca ica easceeecene cas oman coacmannt anes apuaie oouewatasewetnegenutaatuenceuaremutiaes NEEE EERE A EET EErEE enr 10 Cerme a OPS POSION sateen rane oc ote cicinsints E A E T E 10 Se Geocaching With YoUr GOOMALC AE sermraciaiinigis ii renin e eii E EEEE EEEN EE 12 DOE POUL HOME POSION sesecinecacceceete scene seecusnoncatneeueesiaeteesessatnesiacctueatseresuneohenaeeeeneusucsanoucceoeescente 12 REVIEWING Geocache INFOFMAtION cccccccesecccccessecccaesececceeccceceusececsuneceesenecesesauaeceseugeceesaneeeeeas 12 Selecting Your Target Geocache to Fin Cac siscsueiea
13. mply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct eh interference by one or more of the following measures e Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna e Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver e Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected e Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help Shielded interface cable must be used with the equipment in order to comply with the limits for a digital device pursuant to Subpart B of Part 15 of FCC Rules C Copyright 2009 Apisphere Inc All rights reserved Apisphere the Apisphere logo Geomate jr and the Geomate jr logo are trademarks of Apisphere Inc The Geocaching com logo Cache In Trash Out and the CITO logo are trademarks of Groundspeak Inc Use with permission Al
14. n 1 and 5 and you can have halves and tells you how difficult the terrain is that you will have to cover A 1 rating will be a walk along a garden path or something just as easy while a 5 means you will probably be climbing a mountain Difficulty Another rating between 1 and 5 this tells you how well the geocache is hidden A 1 means it should be easy to find while a 5 is very very hard to find So how does the Geomate jr fit into all this Well let us tell you The Geomate jr is your geocache hunting tool It comes out of the box loaded with approximately 250 000 geocache locations that cover all 50 U S states When you switch the Geomate jr on it works out which geocache is closest to your current position displays the size terrain and difficulty information for that geocache and then guides you to it All you need to do is follow the arrow and distance and it will lead you straight to where the geocache is hidden 2 Getting Started The following is a quick rundown of the things that you need to know to get your Geomate jr up and running and ready to go hunt your first geocache Don t worry it ll be quick Bits amp Pieces of Your Geomate jr cece Cool Logo On Off Switch On top Display Right Button Connector Cover 5 i e Press Page advance For update kit Press amp Hold Mark geocache as found Battery Door On back Both Buttons Mark a home location
15. n also be affected by poor satellite geometry and obstructions like buildings and trees Geocaches Geocaches are owned and placed by members of the geocaching community with the placement and maintenance of any geocache the sole responsibility of individual members of that community It is possible that a geocache could have been removed or destroyed In no event shall Apisphere Inc be liable for the placement quality maintenance contents location accuracy or availability of any geocache Liability In no event shall Apisphere Inc be liable for any incidental special indirect or consequential damages whether resulting from the use misuse or inability to use this product or from defects in the product The user assumes all responsibility associated with the use of this product Apisphere Inc is not responsible for the location or condition of any geocache License Agreement Apisphere Inc grants you the right to use the software embedded in this device the Software in the normal operation of the equipment The Software is the property of Apisphere Inc and or its suppliers and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions You may not use copy modify reverse engineer or transfer this Software except as expressly provided in this license All rights not expressly granted are reserved by Apisphere Inc and or its suppliers FCC Note This equipment has been tested and found to co
16. ound List and a smiley will be displayed on the main Geocaching page if that geocache is selected This geocache has been marked as found Figure 8 This geocache has already been marked as found See the smiley You ve found the geocache Congratulations It s now time to go home Remember when we saved a home location Now we can use that to navigate home To navigate home 1 Press and hold the BIG button for a few seconds A HO will be displayed to show that you are heading home It will look like this sie HOME is the target C 9 Figure 9 You will see something like this if going home 2 Now just follow the arrow and distance to get back to the point where you stored your home location Figure 10 To be guided back to your home location just press and hold the BIG button sire 4 Other Features amp Functions Now for some information about all of the other features and functions of your Geomate jr There will also be a little more detail about certain operations We hope you find it helpful Available Pages Your Geomate jr has four pages that are dedicated to different functions There is a unique page icon for each page to make it easy to tell which page you are currently on You are on Which is for The geocaching Selecting and hunting geocaches This is page the page that you will soend most of your time The GC Code Viewing the GC Code of t
17. rtant consideration is the size of the geocache you have selected Micro caches shown by the smallest square can be very small difficult to find and very rarely have trinkets to trade So if you are looking for an easier find with some trading potential a larger geocache may be more your style For your first hunt you may want to consider hunting larger geocaches sizes 2 3 or 4 They are easier to find and can be more rewarding than a micro cache a size 1 Selecting A Different Geocache If you don t want to go to the closest geocache it is very easy to select the next closest geocache instead To select the next closest geocache 1 Press the BIG button The closeness counter will go to 2 and the size terrain and difficulty ratings along with the distance will be updated Figure 6 If you don t like the current geocache just hit the BIG button to select the next closest geocache s Tae You can keep clicking the BIG button to see the 2nd 3rd 4th etc closest geocache up to 20 When you reach 20 it will go back to the start of the list A quick way to get back to the start of the geocache list is to press and hold the BIG button It will take you straight back to the start of the list Geocache Hunting OK we ve reviewed the geocaches closest to where we are and know which one we want to find We have stored a home position so we can get back safely Now it s time to find the
18. te your own MyGeomate account www mygeomate com sign up Support For all your support needs you can e Visit www mygeomate com support e Email geomate support apisphere com e Call 1 510 898 1731 Ext 55 Contact Apisphere Apisphere Inc 2107 Dwight Way Suite 2100 Berkeley CA 94704 Phone 1 510 868 2655 Fax 1 510 898 1731 Email info apisphere com 1 An Introduction We would like to introduce you to our friend the Geomate jr The Geomate jr is the anywhere anytime works out of the box geocacher and is the easiest way to get in on the geocaching fun But first a little about geocaching What is Geocaching Hidden all over the world are geocaches The objective of geocaching is to find these hidden geocaches Think of it as a world wide modern day treasure hunt where a GPS receiver is used to navigate you to the location of the treasure And the treasure is the geocache More About Geocaches A geocache is a container that can look almost like anything and be almost of any size They are typically a clear plastic container the size of your hand But they can be as tiny as your thumbnail or be as large as a bucket They will usually have an official geocaching sticker on them or be marked as such Inside a geocache you will find a log book and often small trinkets Once you find a geocache you should sign the log book and if there are trinkets you can trade If you trade tr
19. th Your Geomate jr Now that you have your Geomate jr powered up tracking satellites and with a position you are ready to start hunting geocaches This section gives you a quick overview of what it takes to go geocaching with your Geomate jr Set Your Home Position Before you go running off into the woods park or open space to go hunt some geocaches it s a good idea to Set a Home Position so you can find your way back later To set your home position 1 Make sure you have a valid GPS position The satellite symbol should not be flashing 2 Hold both buttons down for a few seconds You will see the message HME SAVED flash on the screen This means that you have successfully stored a home position Figure 4 You can set your home position by holding both buttons for a few seconds Reviewing Geocache Information As soon as your Geomate jr has a valid GPS position it will calculate the closest geocache to your current position and display information about that geocache Your display will look something like this 12 Figure 5 Your display will look something like this This Item Means This This is the Find Difficulty rating it tells you how hard it will be find this geocache It is out of 5 with 5 being the hardest This is the arrow pointing in the direction of the geocache If you are not walking this arrow will not be available This is the closeness order of the geocach
20. the number of satellites that your Geomate jr is currently tracking The number of the right however is the number of satellites that your Geomate jr is actually using to calculate its position Number of GPS satellites used Number of GPS satellites tracked Figure 17 Here s an example of viewing the satellites tracked and used 2a Generally speaking the more satellites being used to calculate a position the more accurate the position will be However it is common to not use every satellite available as some satellites have a noisy signal or are in a bad position and it is better to leave them out The Found List Page If a geocache is marked as found it will be added to the Found List The found list is useful for viewing the geocaches that have been found during a day geocaching so they can be easily logged on www geocaching com To view the Found List page 1 Press the SMALL button until you are on the Found List page When you first get to the Found List page you will see the text FAND and the number of geocaches that are in the found list 2 Press the ACTION button to see the first geocache that is in the found list Displayed is the GC code the date it was marked as found and the order it is in the list The most resent finds are first in the list GC Code Date marked Order in list as found Figure 18 An example of a found geocache listing on the found list page Clearing the Found List
21. y pressing and holding the BIG button 54 Bz The Closeness Order amp Home If a home position has been stored Home becomes the first item of the Closeness Order List So if you cycle through the 20 geocaches or press and hold the BIG button it will take you to the Home entry Pressing the BIG button again will advance you to the first geocache e eeeaeeeee e eeeccoen co Figure 13 If a Home position has been saved it will become the first entry in the Closeness Order List Recalculating the Closeness Order The closeness order is calculated when you turn on your Geomate jr The order of geocaches will remain exactly the same and be relative to the position that your Geomate jr was turned on To recalculate the closeness order of geocaches 1 Turn your Geomate jr off and back on again When this happens the geocaches will then be ordered by closeness based on your new position The GC Code Page Every geocache has its own unique identifier This is known as its GC Code You can use the GC Code to e Make sure you are going to the same geocache as your geocaching buddy e Select a geocache that you already know the GC Code of that you want to find e Identify the geocache that you just found so you can log your find at www geocaching com e Identify the geocache that you didn t find so you can look up the hints on www geocaching com and try again sF PAA oS Figure 14 This is
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