Pda Choices

[+Poidawg]

I am new to caching (have not hit 10 finds yet, and am still thinking about where to place caches I want to in the future) ANYWAY. I would love to go paperless and am seriously looking into PDAs. I have a GARMIN etrex Legend GPSr and find it easy to use. I would like a PDA which is also easy to use. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks.

[+JohnnyVegas]

I use a Pocket PC rather than a PDA, they are the same idea just differant Operating Sysytems. I do not think any one PDA or PPC is going to be any easier to use. You might find some software applications may be easier than others. I use GPXsonar and I have found if very easy to use as far as P.Q's. I also have Micro soft pocket streets and trip that I find easy to use. I think a lot of the PDA owners have been happy with cachemate.

[PodunkPaul]

I have both a Palm and a Pocket PC and really like the Pocket PC / GPXSonar combination the best. That said, my Palm and Cachemate come in a close second. Each combination has a specific purpose for me. The Palm goes into the woods with me all the time because of the minimal investment in the whole setup, $25 for the Palm and $8 for Cachemate. The Pocket PC will come out if I get near a hotspot and can check geocaching.com and/or have more time to just sit back and enter field notes.

 

Since you're relatively new, keep your costs down. Go find a used unit (Palm IIIxe or Handspring Visor Deluxe) with 8 megs of memory on eBay and pay the $8 for Cachemate. I've heard some people complain about the color screens in daylight. My color screen on the Pocket PC (iPaq H4355) works great for me in daylight.

 

Happy hunting!

[+sbell111]

I love my Palm with Plucker. It works great for me. (A quick search will find what specific programs I use.)

 

You need not spend much for a palm. I bought an old Palm V on ebay for about $15. I set it up so my dad could go paperless. It worked fine. I had been using a m505 with great results, I've since upgraded to a Tungsten E.

[+Thrak]

I use a Palm Vx that I got inexpensively on eBay. I have a hard clamshell case for it that can travel in my cache bag or in my back pocket or wherever.

 

I use Spinner and Plucker with it. Low cost and quite effective. I get the actual cache page on the Palm using this combination - including the first few logs and the encrypted hint and a one tap decryption.

 

I don't use the Palm for entering my cache notes because I hate entering text on things of this sort. I make my notes in a small spiral notebook.

[+Timpat]

I'm with PodunkPaul. I found a Palm IIIxe 8mb on EBay cheap and paid for Cachemate. That's all I need for going paperless.

[gps_gurl]

Try:

http://stores.ebay.com/Mobile-Crossing-Out...storeviewQQtZkm

 

for reasonably-priced refurbished PDA/GPS units. I've got one that is previously loved (with the west coast street maps installed). The UI is all Pocket PC so it is quick to learn.

 

-Jen

[+StarshipTrooper]

I've had great service from a Palm IIIxe and cachemate.

 

I recently upgraded to a Palm 515, with cachemate and the GPS Companion attachment. This was a package deal that I got on Ebay with a bunch of other stuff (cases, keyboard, etc) for about $140. I considered it a bargain.

 

BTW - I don't have any problems with the 515 screen in sunlight.

[+hikergps]

I use a Palm IIIxe, Cachemate, and GSAK. I have a couple games for the kids loaded on the palm, too. I checked and right now I have over 1300 caches in the palm and I am using about half of the 8meg memory.

 

It took some time to get comfortable with GSAK, but it was worth the time I spent to learn it. Wish I had more time to cache and use it. I still carry a memo pad with me to take notes.

Edited October 28, 2005 by hikergps

[+501_Gang]

We use a Palm Zire 31 with Cachemate. We write our logs in the log book and then take a pisture of it with our digital camera, then just view the picture to see what we wrote.

[+Renegade Knight]

Pocket PC with GPXSonar

[ImpalaBob]

Palm Tungsten E with Cachemate. We also use the Palm for viewing pictures off the camera SD card and keeping track of our geocaching phone-a-friend numbers. ImpalaBob

[+NomadVW]

I've been using Tungsten E/Cachemate. Because I wanted features not readily available on the Tungsten E, I'm upgrading to the new Tungsten T/X and also adding a bluetooth adapter from Pc-mobile for my 60cs (also compatible with the eTrex models with the right cable for them). Depends on how techy and what other things you are going to use it for.

[+BaldEd]

NomadVW wrote:

I'm upgrading to the new Tungsten T/X and also adding a bluetooth adapter from Pc-mobile for my 60cs

 

Reading the FAQ's on the Bluetooth Adapter for GPS it seems that the adapter may not work with GPS 60's.

 

I'm sort of in a similar position to NomadVW and have been researching how I can connect my new Tungsten E2 to a Garmin GPSmap76CS so that I can upload/download waypoint and track data between the Palm and Garmin, using software like GPilotS. From what I have found out so far it seems like it can't be done. But..., I would like to be proved wrong!

 

If anyone regularly does such transfers between these two hardware items I would appreciate learning how it is done.

[+NomadVW]

Wow, I hadn't read that far down the line to see that it doesn't work with the 60CS. That's going to suck if it's truly the case. Though, I had a lot of issues making the 60CS work with other PC based nav programs. Hopefully it's other peoples inability to use correct port/baud settings than it is anything else.

 

Will report back to these forums next week after I get the gear.

 

VW