+TownFam Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I've been at this for almost a mounth and have allready gotten tired of the paper. I'm wondering which unit has provin itself to the task of our new found game. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 (edited) Just get thee cheapest one you can find that has about 8 megs of storage. Your best bet is buying an old Palm off Ebay. You can pick an M505 for around $30 with all the accessories. Its foolish to waste good money on an expensive PDA and expose it to the abuse it will receive while geocaching. Then shell out the $8 for Cachemate and you're paper free. Edited January 9, 2006 by briansnat Quote Link to comment
+Ladycacher Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I use a Palm Zire 72 and love it. Quote Link to comment
+jiminpotomac Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I'm using an Imate Jam. It is a PocketPC/Phone combo that isn't sold in the US. I love using it as a paperless cache. I use the GPRS signal (which is quite prevalent here in the DC area) to call up online maps and websites and to IM if necessary. I have GPXSonar installed right now so I can open .gpx files in it. I was considering moving back to a PDA/cell phone combination but now that I'm geocaching the old Jam has found a new life! Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I have a Palm M500 and it is all I need. It is also very easy to read, even in bright sunlight, unlike some of the color models. I also got a hard case for it so when I drop it, and it does happen, the unit is protected from damage. There are some M500's on eBay right now for less than $40.00, including the shipping. Cachemate on the Palm works very well. I Export the data for the Palm from GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife). Quote Link to comment
+Night Stalker Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 I bought an Ipaq 3955 for $200. This was more than a year ago so they should be a lot cheaper now. It has a lot more capability then you need, but that is not all bad. It comes with excel and word and can play games. Most people use GPX sonar to read the caches on their PDA. I also have Pocket Streets and Trips which I import my pinpoints into. This allows me to plan a caching day. I sometimes use the word documents to write notes about my finds. I don't miss paper at all. Quote Link to comment
+Team Flashncache Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 Palm IIIxe here, can be found dirt cheap at a variety of websites. Works really well, if you dont mind the fact that it's only back and white. (Actually black and green...) Then; as Brian said, get your hands on Cachemate and you're ready to go. Quote Link to comment
+Alan2 Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 If you're willing to spend more, you can get smoething a little more snazzzier. Full colo with an auto-routing program, with 24k topo maps, etc. check the Ipaq Pocket PC line. Quote Link to comment
+Thrak Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 (edited) I use an old Palm Vx with a hardcase to protect it in the field and in my cache bag. I got it from eBay. It does everything I could want for caching and it was cheap. [Edit for stupid typo] Edited January 11, 2006 by Thrak Quote Link to comment
+badlands Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I got the cheepest one I could find on e-bay and I'm glad I did. Can't tell you how many times I've dropped it. I also spent the extra $8 and got an aluminum case for it. Quote Link to comment
+FlyfishermanMike Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I have a Sony Clie, they stopped making them last year but are identical to the palm. Mine's color high-res screen, 16mb, sony memory stick compatible, lithium battery and works great! It was pretty cheap and I haven't looked back. ^^ike Quote Link to comment
+Jhwk Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 palm M515 with a hard case GSAK ($20) and Cachemate ($8) All you need! Quote Link to comment
+baloo&bd Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 I use a sony Clie and the ability to add memory is a big plus. Also, you may want to only use it for caching, but will find other uses as well. My Clie is being retired at the end of the month as I am swtching to a Treo 650 so my waist no longer looks like I am wearing a "bat belt". Going forward it will be my pager, the Treo and the built in spare tire. Quote Link to comment
+Zzyzx Road Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Just got a Palm M500 on eBay - 48 with shipping. Yeah! Now, How do I use it? Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Congratulations!!! Download Cachemate and pay your $8.00. Then, if you haven't already, download GSAK and put your Pocket Query data in it. You can export the data for the Palm directly from GSAK. GSAK is $20.00 after your trial period, but it is well worth that amount of money . . . even if the learning curve for someone like me was very steep. Quote Link to comment
+Thrak Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Lots of folks use Cachemate - I get the feeling that they like to enter their cache notes in the field and then upload them. I can't imagine wanting to enter my notes on the darn Palm. I hate trying to write on it (too lazy to learn to do it efficiently) and entering notes with the stylus and onscreen keyboard would be horrid. I make my field notes in a small spiral notebook. Since I don't write field notes on the Palm I use Spinner and Plucker rather than Cachemate. I end up with the exact same cache page that I get online. I like it and it works well for me. I've never used Cachemate but the screen shots I've seen didn't seem nearly as nice to me as having the actual web page on my Palm. Others can give you better info on Cachemate - maybe it does more than I've seen on the screen shots. For me, Spinner and Plucker work really well. Of course I also use GSAK - can't live without it. I also registered Spinner and GSAK since I find them so very useful. Quote Link to comment
+Gummi Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Just recently got a palm VIIx for under $10 with all the books, software, cradle and keyboard from ebay. Doesn't even look used! Installed cachemate, 550 caches and 227 benchmarks exported from GSAK with all the logs. HackMaster and a few hacks (battery & greenlight), along with plucker, cspotrun, some ebooks and games and still have over 4MB of mem left, with contacts too. I would also say anything with 8MB or more will do fine. Cachemate looks awesome but is only for the palm OS, I haven't seen gpxsonar yet (for pocket pc) so I can't comment on that. If all your gonna use it for is caching and maybe the addressbook, notes and simple things, go with a cheap palm on ebay. Quote Link to comment
+Zzyzx Road Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Congratulations!!! Download Cachemate and pay your $8.00. Then, if you haven't already, download GSAK and put your Pocket Query data in it. You can export the data for the Palm directly from GSAK. GSAK is $20.00 after your trial period, but it is well worth that amount of money . . . even if the learning curve for someone like me was very steep. I now LOVE GSAK. I agree, the thing is a little closer to basic computereese than I am used to, but by way of trial and error, I have figured most of the hard stuff out. I can't wait to be able to see the notes and logs while in the area. Sometimes the hints or even the full cache name are really important while you are looking. (At least for more dense individuals like myself!) I hope this little jem we got is easy to use. Hubby will need to learn how to use it also. THAT will be fun! Thanks for the positive info! Quote Link to comment
+Miragee Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 The Past Logs can be very helpful. I wouldn't have found one cleverly-hidden cache if I hadn't looked at all the Past Logs on my Palm and noted something about "having worked for Toro, I knew this was not a "normal"installation." That was my very first Sprinkler-hidden cache . . . Quote Link to comment
+switchdoc Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Since I figured I would use the PDA for other things, I opted for a Dell Axim running the Pocket PC OS. Its a great unit and I find a lot of uses for it in addition to geocaching. For my geocaching software, I use a program called CacheDragon. Its possibly the best geocaching software I have seen because rather than just display the data in web page style, it breaks everything up into tabs. There's a tab for the general cache info, a tab for the description, a tab to look at the most recent logs, a tab to log your notes into, etc. It'll also work as GPSr software if you have something to connect it to. In a twist of bad luck, the guy who wrote it appears to have dropped off the planet and hasn't done any updates or bug fixes in several years, but all in all I find it very handy and not that buggy at all. You can find it here. I like it so much I paid for the full version (only 20 bucks). CacheDragon Quote Link to comment
+BeavTeam Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 I use a Palm Z22, i dont have a need for anything else on the pda. Well, maybe some sudoku puzzles. It is $80-100 and works great. I use cachemate on it. MightyBeav Quote Link to comment
+LiahonaHoosiers Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 A great article to get started: http://www.geocacher-u.com/resources/paperless.html Quote Link to comment
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