Geocaching with the AT&T Tilt

After successfully paperless caching with my Magellan CrossoverGPS and iPaq PocketPC for the last year, I have decided I wanted to carry less with me when I head out to do some geocaching. A few months ago, I picked up the AT&T Tilt and have been using it daily ever since to organize my life. Not only does it have all the functions of a normal Windows Mobile device, but it also has a built in GPS. What better way to go out caching than having your cell phone, PocketPC, camera, and GPS all in one device!

Now, I know there are a lot of people who do not like all-in-one type devices. If you are one of those people, then this is not the device for you. However, if you have (or are thinking about buying) the AT&T Tilt and would like to learn how to use it for geocaching and other GPS functions, then read on!

What do you need to get started?

That’s it!

OK, now that you have all the gear needed, how do you use it? It’s actually a pretty simple process thanks to the BeeLine GPS software. Here’s my short step-by-step process.

1. First, you need to go ahead and create a Pocket Query on Geocaching.com to have the GPX file emailed to yourself. If you do not know how to do this, go here.

2. Once you get the GPX file in your inbox, you need to copy it over onto your Tilt. I usually do this via Bluetooth, however it can be copied onto a MicroSD card or can be transferred via the USB cable and Activesync.

3. Next, you need to import the GPX file into BeeLineGPS. That is accomplished by going to the ‘Waypoint’ menu, then selecting ‘File Operations’ and finally choosing ‘Import Waypoints’. From here you just need to choose the GPX file you just uploaded to your device. This process will import all of the geocaches contained in the GPX file you generated from Geocaching.com.

4. If you need to see a list of all the geocaches you imported, all you need to do is go to the ‘Waypoint’ menu again and choose ‘Waypoint Management’. You will get a screen like this:

From this screen, you can click and hold down on the cache you would like to find, and then choose ‘Goto’ from the menu that appears.

5. When using the map mode of the software with geocaches in the area, this is what your screen will look like.

The geocaches in the area are represented by the little treasure chest icons.

6. From the map screen, there are also a number of actions you can take by clicking and holding on the cache you want. This brings up another menu that looks like this.

From here you can make this waypoint ‘found’ or ‘not found’ and you can also see the geocache information, which will bring up a webpage in Pocket Internet Explorer similar to the pages found on Geocaching.com, including comments and hints. Here’s a sample page.

  

7. From the menu above, you can also choose “Goto This Waypoint” which will direct you to the cache. Then your map screen will look like this.

This maps screen shows a line between your position and the cache, as well as your speed, distance to the cache and heading. I really think this screen has a great layout for geocaching.

These are the basics to geocaching with an AT&T Tilt. Hopefully this article helps some of you out there. Even if you don’t follow my exact process, I hope some of this information will help you use your AT&T Tilt for geocaching. If you have any further questions, please feel free to leave me a comment here, and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Also, I am still working on refining this ‘how to’ article so there may be some changes in the near future.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 9:07 pm