Just Got This Off Ebay?

[The Cap Man & Swallowtail]

Just got this of ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...item=5786152433 and am currently awaiting it to arrive by post. As can be seen it is only cheap which is why I got it.

 

One reason for purchasing it is for reading e-books on so I don`t have to waste paper and time printing them out.

 

Now what I was wondering is if this would be any good or any form of paperless or semi paperless caching as I don`t have a clue about these PDA things hence getting a cheat secondhand older grey scale model for now until I can save the money up for a modern colour model. (Or have just wasted £20???? ).

 

The Cap Man (Keith)

 

&

 

Swallowtail (Tricia).

[+naffita]

Its a newer model than my Visor, and mine works OK.

Welcome to the 21st century

[+Belplasca]

That will certainly carry a huge chunk of the country's caching information if you get Cachemate.

 

Do a search for messages on paperless caching and Palm. It's of a similar capability to the Palm 3ex.

 

Bob Aldridge

[+crunchiespg]

if you are paperless caching can you save all the details of the cache page before you go. or do you have to use a mobile to connect to the net whilst out and about?

 

or do you just need to connect if you want to log your finds whilst out.

[+rutson]

yes, no, yes

 

[edit]

Whoops! Hit submit too soon, see mark and lynns guide to paperless caching.

Edited July 8, 2005 by rutson

[+crunchiespg]

would that have all the text from the cache page too?

and how many could i save on a palm (ie could i save most of the countries?)

 

if so, how do i then search ones in the area im in?

[+rutson]

yes

lots (several thousand)

 

See mark and lynns guide for running a PQ for your area of interest.

[+Learned Gerbil]

The device you have bought is the Handspring equivalent of the Palm IIIxe many people buy for running Cachemate. It has some advantages, such as the improved time manager (datebook), and an expansion slot (I presume it has that as most Handspring devices do) that will support the range of Springboard devices. However, it will require leads designed for Handsprings if you want to use it with a GPSr, and it has a curious feature meaning that the serial connection is more limited than a PalmIIIxe.

 

What this means is that if you connect your GPSr to your Visor Cachemate can read the position from the GPSr and tell you the nearest caches in your Cachemate database. What it can't do, unlike most PDAs is send the coordinates of a cache to the GPSr - you will have to enter them manualy - so is only a minor limitation.

[The Cap Man & Swallowtail]

Cheers all for the replys.

 

So it appears that I did`nt make to big a error in getting this PDA as starter unit to learn on.

 

This now leads me to another question which is that I only have a basic membership to GC.com will this be a problem or can I use the basic .loc files in conjuction with the PDA, GSAK and Cachemate? Or will I have to open a bank accout plus a PayPal account to be able to get premium membership to GC.com to get acess to PQ`s?

 

The Cap Man (Keith)

 

&

 

Swallowtail (Tricia).

[+Flackadder]

So:

 

1) Shall I rush out and eBay myself one.

2) Rush and eBay myself a similar item, namely?

3) Carry on as normal.....paper.

 

Cheers

Bob

Edited July 8, 2005 by golddust1000

[+rutson]

This now leads me to another question which is that I only have a basic membership to GC.com will this be a problem or can I use the basic .loc files in conjuction with the PDA, GSAK and Cachemate? Or will I have to open a bank accout plus a PayPal account to be able to get premium membership to GC.com to get acess to PQ`s?

Without premium membership you will not get the cache descriptions as loc files are basically just the coords and name.

 

To get the full bag of mashings you will need to be a premium member. You can pay by credit/debit card, paypal or money order.

 

As you don't have a bank account the first two options are out. I've not had cause to get a US money order for a long while, but I suspect the fees will be almost as much as the $30 for a years membership.

 

I suppose the only other option is if you can pursaude a friend or family member to allow to to use their card for the transaction. $30 equates to somewhere around £17 IIRC.

[The Cap Man & Swallowtail]

Cheers Rutson I will look into opening a bank account next week. May be a few weeks before I have every thing up and running and if I have any question with regards to PQ`s I`m sure kind folks on here will point me in right direction.

 

The Cap Man (Keith)

 

&

 

Swallowtail (Tricia).

[+crunchiespg]

surely tho, if im reading this correctly.

you dont need to connect your gps to the palm. as you can add 500 geocaches to the gps, then search for the nearest. then just read them from the palm.. you would only need to connect it to change the stored waypoints.

 

how do you connect the palm to the gps if yu have a usb gps connection (like on the gps60) ?

[+civilised]

Cap Man

 

Regarding your lack of a bank account - where do you live ?

 

I ask because if you were local to me I'd be happy to take your cash and set you up as a premium member.

 

I hope this isn't too presumptous.

 

civilised

[The Cap Man & Swallowtail]

Thanks for the offer civilised but its ok, it`s about time I got a bank account sorted out and become a member of the 21st century. Should`nt be to much of a problem getting one. My sister in Huntingdon got an account with Natwest last and she said she also gets a SOLO card as well. I know SOLO is`nt the best card in the world but it will be a start.

 

The Cap Man (Keith)

 

&

 

Swallowtail (Tricia).

[+Learned Gerbil]

Yes - yo ucan put 500 caches on the GPSr - but I find it far far better to have only the gcaches I am looking for on the GPSr and use the palm to manage them. The Palm can also hold far more caches than the GPSr. It has always worked best for me to use the Palm to manage data, and the GPSr to navigate and not to mix the two.

[+Mustard Devil]

Be careful and dont get the thing wet! I got real lucky when I turned the canoe over and dumped my Garmin, compass and everything else in Village Creek near Beaumont,Texas.Fortunately my Tungsten T5 dried out after a few days and works fine now

[+crunchiespg]

Yes - yo ucan put 500 caches on the GPSr - but I find it far far better to have only the gcaches I am looking for on the GPSr and use the palm to manage them. The Palm can also hold far more caches than the GPSr. It has always worked best for me to use the Palm to manage data, and the GPSr to navigate and not to mix the two.

ok, but how do you connect the gps to the palm? my gps uses a usb connection, now im pretty sure palms dont have a usb socket like on a normal pc do they?

so how would i connect it?

[+Learned Gerbil]

If your GPSr uses USB only then you can't connect it to any other USB client device. Most PDAs will connect by USB as a client, but only things like PCs will have USB controllers and for USB to work at least one end needs to have a controller.

[Andys101 & Redfrock]

ooooh this is all terribly confusing

 

i too have purchased a second hand PDA as when we were on holiday in the peak district we had to keep going to local libraries to print off more caches for areas we didn't realise we would be visiting - aside from the 60 or so I printed before we went. One day hubby opened the car window and all these sheets of paper flew around the car and it was very confusing trying to see if I had printed off ones which we were near to ...

 

so paperless definately seemed the way to go - well for when we are on holiday anyway.

 

So we now have a Garmin Map60, are about to receive a 2nd hand Palm Vx (hopefully good value at £25 incl metal case and new screen) and then I will have to learn how to use the two items and how they connect etc etc etc

 

Mark and Lynne's page here I come!

[+crunchiespg]

ooooh this is all terribly confusing

 

i too have purchased a second hand PDA as when we were on holiday in the peak district we had to keep going to local libraries to print off more caches for areas we didn't realise we would be visiting - aside from the 60 or so I printed before we went. One day hubby opened the car window and all these sheets of paper flew around the car and it was very confusing trying to see if I had printed off ones which we were near to ...

 

so paperless definately seemed the way to go - well for when we are on holiday anyway.

 

So we now have a Garmin Map60, are about to receive a 2nd hand Palm Vx (hopefully good value at £25 incl metal case and new screen) and then I will have to learn how to use the two items and how they connect etc etc etc

 

Mark and Lynne's page here I come!

i too have a gps60. when you work it out can you e mail me. as i cant see how i will connect the gps to the palm as the gps is usb.

let me know how you get on.

[+Sue and Bernie]

We regularly used a Palm IIIxe to run Cachemate. Our field GPS is a Vista C so the two coulnd not be connect as the Vista C only has a mini USB port.

 

However, this never caused a problem because we use GSAK to do all the waypoint management (this is where your Pocket Queries will most likely find a home too).

 

Once your PQ data is loaded into GSAK, this programme can squirt the data out in multiple formats - for the Palm, your GPS, MemoryMap - whatever.

 

When we plan an excursion, we select the caches via filters in GSAK, say 50 or so caches around my brother's home for a possible hit over a weekend visit. We then push the exact same subset of waypoint data into the Ipaq (that has displaced the Palm), MemoryMap, our Vista and the Streetpilot. Each bit of kit gets the same set of WP in the appropriate format.

 

After the trip, we clear out all of the downloaded data ready for the next trip. This ensures we leave home with the latest, most up to date information in each of the bits. It takes longer to write this blurb than it does to load up the data...

[+Learned Gerbil]

If it only has USB then you can't connect it to a PDA. That doesn't stop yoiu doing anything - you can enter positions manually and copy over waypoints manually etc - it just means yo ucan't automate these.

 

The only other disadvantage is that if you have someting like Fugawi or Memorymap on the PDA you can get the GPS to display your exact position on an OS map if the two devices are connected.

[+crunchiespg]

i believe i can get a serial cable for my gps60 as an option, but even then how would it connect to the palm? cos as far as i can see the palm only has a usb input.

[+Sue and Bernie]

The only time we find have to resort to manually entering a waypoint is for multicaches where the destination varies along the route.

 

All the "fixed" or predefined or start WPs we load directly from GSAK. This saves a lot of finger trouble in the field too.

 

We find the information for the next nearest cache either through the Vista C (a built in function) or by using the current cache as the centre point in GPSonar in the Ipaq. The Cachemate programme in the Palm has a similar search for the next nearest location.

 

Whichever solution you choose, you will like having current information on tons of caches on hand wherever you go. When visiting, we upload blanket coverage of the area we going to. When you meander off into the locale, you can always look up the nearest treasure....

[+derrylynne]

I bought a palm zire 31 from ebay last week and loaded cachemate. What a bit of software for about £5. We load all caches within 40 miles into the gps and the palm. That way if we are near a cache, we can look it up on the palm, read all the info, hints etc, and not have to worry about bits of paper. Paperless caching is the way to go for sure. We can't link the palm up to the gps as we use a quest, but that does not matter as the quest gets us to the parking, then to the mark. The palm only used for the info. Another useful thing about the info in the palm is being able to log the visit into the palm, by date and time, and what was took, left, travel bugs, etc, meaning if we are away for a couple of days we can have a good record to refer to when we enter it onto the geocache site without worrying about bits of paper all over the place.

[+Learned Gerbil]

i believe i can get a serial cable for my gps60 as an option, but even then how would it connect to the palm? cos as far as i can see the palm only has a usb input.

Which Palm? Most other than Zires other than the 71, the Tungsten Es and some Clies have built in serial hardware.

[+crunchiespg]

i believe i can get a serial cable for my gps60 as an option, but even then how would it connect to the palm? cos as far as i can see the palm only has a usb input.

Which Palm? Most other than Zires other than the 71, the Tungsten Es and some Clies have built in serial hardware.

yeh they have serial connection, but thats serial from a pc into the palm.

whereas to connect the gps that way you would need a serial socket (like on the back fo a pc) which im sure palms dont have (cos there not big enough)

so how would one connect the gps to the palm?

[+Learned Gerbil]

You buy the appropriate cable - the makers of these devices nearly always sell one - but far better (and cheaper) is buying a combo from people like www.pc-mobile.com.

[+crunchiespg]

You buy the appropriate cable - the makers of these devices nearly always sell one - but far better (and cheaper) is buying a combo from people like www.pc-mobile.com.

ah, that explains it then, i looked for those cable on the palm website/supplier sites, with no luck. but i assumed that would be the only way.

 

just to clarify your earlier post, do you mean the zire 71 is the only one with serial? ie does a zire 31 have the serial connection, cos if it does then it would connect to my garmin gps 60 as that has another socket for serial as well as the usb.

 

thanks for your help, its much clearer now (its hard trying to work things out from the palm site, its not the best for listing full specs)

[+Learned Gerbil]

The only Zire that can be connected using a serial connection is the Zire 71 - all others are built with no serial (RS232) hardware.

[markandlynn]

Welcome to paperless caching.

We use a Palm Vx with cachemate installed and paid for (www.smittyware.com)

Premium membership of GC.com to get pocket queries in GPX form

GSAK to manage the PQ's on the PC

A data lead to link the PC to the GPS.

When we go weekend caching we only export 490 nearest caches to the palm and to the GPS

We also export from GSAK a CSV file to use in autoroute to help us drive to the location.

As mentioned above there is a guide on our website (see sig line)

would be nice if someomne could fill us in on what to use for pocket pc handhelds as well.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I run Fugawi on my PPC (I use a Clie for Cachemate).

 

The PPC runs TomTom and I download all the cache locations from www.geocacheuk.org using POIedit to automate the process - (in beta until a POIEdit bug is fixed).

 

I use GSAK to generate the Cachemate database for where I am going, and GSAK also allows me to export the cache locations to Fugawi.

 

Using Fugawi I export maps of the location, and the waypoints to the PPC.

 

I have pc-mobile cables which means I have seperate PDA connectors I plug in to swith from Palm to PPC as needed.

 

This allows for road navigation to the cache - topo maping using Fugawi and cache descriptions using Cachemate - all with a cheap low spec GPSr, cehap low spec Palm and cheap low spec PPC costing much less than £200 for the three.

 

The Palm can run Fugawi - but it is painfully slow at doing so.

[+__chris__]

The Handspring Visor and its cousin, the all-colour Handspring Prism are both capable of accepting the specially-designed GPS unit that will go into the expansion slot at the top. (see ebay item 5787999378 for PDA + GPS unit as an example)

I used mine for ages as a basic GPS unit and my brother-in-law still uses it.

As the OS is a version of the basic Palm OS system (3.5.2 I think) , you shouldn't have any problems finding a suitable software solution on the GC website that will work.

Essentially it will just be a case of synchronising the files which will t/fer them to the PDA.

 

Best of luck