This is a command line tool that can be used to make a Garmin device raise an acoustic alert every time the distance to a geocache falls below a certain threshold.
This command line tool takes one or more geocache .gpx
files as input and generates a .gpx
output file (default: proximity_alert.gpx
).
The generated .gpx
file contains one additional proximity gpx-waypoint for each cache.
If this generated .gpx
is placed inside the Garmin\GPX\
folder, the Garmin device will raise an alert every time a geocache is near.
The following instructions assume that your geocache GPX files are stored in Garmin\GPX\geocaches\
on your Garmin device.
- Install Python 3.8 or higher and the py launcher (windows only, selected by default). Windows download: https://www.python.org/downloads/
- Download the latest release Geocache-Proximity-Alert.zip and extract content to
Garmin\GPX\geocaches\
.
The following will create a proximity_alert.gpx
file containing proximity alert waypoints for all caches found in all .gpx
files in the current working directory (recursive search).
- Open
cmd
inGarmin\GPX\geocaches\
. - Run command
python.exe proximity_alert.py --recursive --verbose
.
It is possible to create alerts for multiple distances.
The script proximity_alert_5m_50m.bat
(part of the release) creates alerts at 5 m and 50 m.
- Download custom 0.bmp and save it to
Garmin\CustomSymbols\
.
This will make the icons of the proximity waypoints invisible on the Garmin device. Reference: Saving a Custom Symbol to a Device.
- Navigate to
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My Garmin\Custom Waypoint Symbols\
. - Delete or rename any existing
000.BMP
or000.png
files. - Download custom 0.bmp and save it as
000.BMP
. Reference: Creating a Custom Symbol.
usage: proximity_alert.py [-h] [-r] [-o OUTPUT] [--distance DISTANCE] [--verbose] [--version] [gpx_input_files [gpx_input_files ...]]
positional arguments:
gpx_input_files input files containing geocaches in gpx format
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-r, --recursive use all gpx files in the current working directory (recursive search) as gpx input files
-o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
filename to which this tool will write proximity waypoints to (default: proximity_alert.gpx)
--distance DISTANCE alert radius in meters around a geocache (default: 50.0)
--verbose print extra information
--version show program's version number and exit
- eTrex Touch 35t