Palm Software

[+Belfrypotters]

Yesterday my husband spent $400 on fishing tackle , and felt so guilty that he bought me a Palm Tungsten E2 to distract me .

1. Is this a good model for paperless caching or should I exchange it for something better?

2. Several forum posts have recommended Cachemate and GSAK, but Geocacher University has lovely detailed instructions to download GPX Spinner and Plucker, which even I should be able to follow. What do you recommend? Please answer in plain language, since I'm a technophobe

[+Team Teuton]

I have an E2 and use Cachemate and GSAK. Works great.

[+Markwell]

I'm going to pop this from the "Getting Started" forum to the GPS Units and Software forum, where I think you'll get some better answers.

[+geobc]

Yesterday my husband spent $400 on fishing tackle , and felt so guilty that he bought me a Palm Tungsten E2 to distract me .

1. Is this a good model for paperless caching or should I exchange it for something better?

2. Several forum posts have recommended Cachemate and GSAK, but Geocacher University has lovely detailed instructions to download GPX Spinner and Plucker, which even I should be able to follow. What do you recommend? Please answer in plain language, since I'm a technophobe

*caution - I have never used Plucker for Geocaching - I only use it A LOT for reading *

 

IMO the big difference is that Cachemate can be used to sort a large number of caches (sometimes I need to search by cache ID, other times by cache name) and its data (the FINDS) can be synchronized back into GSAK. GPX Spinner + Plucker is a way to get cache info into the PDA but it's a one-way street.

 

As for which would be easier for you to use, I really can't answer that. GSAK, while a wonderful tool, can be daunting at first glance. Cachemate requires some thought about how you want to categorize your data.

 

If you're really that much of a technophobe, go with GPX Spinner + Plucker for now, and once you're comfortable with that, you could move on to other options.

 

OTOH, once GSAK and Cachemate is setup, it is VERY easy to manage. But sometimes you need to suffer with inefficient methods in order to be motivated to climb the learning curve to greater productivity.

 

GeoBC

[burbster]

Yesterday my husband spent $400 on fishing tackle , and felt so guilty that he bought me a Palm Tungsten E2 to distract me .

1. Is this a good model for paperless caching or should I exchange it for something better?

2. Several forum posts have recommended Cachemate and GSAK, but Geocacher University has lovely detailed instructions to download GPX Spinner and Plucker, which even I should be able to follow. What do you recommend? Please answer in plain language, since I'm a technophobe

*caution - I have never used Plucker for Geocaching - I only use it A LOT for reading *

 

IMO the big difference is that Cachemate can be used to sort a large number of caches (sometimes I need to search by cache ID, other times by cache name) and its data (the FINDS) can be synchronized back into GSAK. GPX Spinner + Plucker is a way to get cache info into the PDA but it's a one-way street.

 

As for which would be easier for you to use, I really can't answer that. GSAK, while a wonderful tool, can be daunting at first glance. Cachemate requires some thought about how you want to categorize your data.

 

If you're really that much of a technophobe, go with GPX Spinner + Plucker for now, and once you're comfortable with that, you could move on to other options.

 

OTOH, once GSAK and Cachemate is setup, it is VERY easy to manage. But sometimes you need to suffer with inefficient methods in order to be motivated to climb the learning curve to greater productivity.

 

GeoBC

[+overtaxed1]

I used Plucker and GSAK for about six months and then went with Cachemate on my Tungsten E. Beside being unable to make notes, in my experience, Plucker took hours to compile the data for export to the PDA. I tried changing various options such as page depth, which helped the process go faster, yet then I wouldn't get the hints when I opened the file on my PDA.

 

After getting frustrated on a particular day waiting for Plucker, I purchased Cachemate ($8) and never looked back. Cachemate still has its quirks and I'm still trying to learn it all, but I am much happier.

 

HTH

[+N8OFP - Del]

I prefer Cachemate and GSAK. I've tried several others and prefer Cachemate.

[+IronmOn]

Yesterday my husband spent $400 on fishing tackle , and felt so guilty that he bought me a Palm Tungsten E2 to distract me .

1. Is this a good model for paperless caching or should I exchange it for something better?

2. Several forum posts have recommended Cachemate and GSAK, but Geocacher University has lovely detailed instructions to download GPX Spinner and Plucker, which even I should be able to follow. What do you recommend? Please answer in plain language, since I'm a technophobe

Try this site, he explains how to use Cachemate and GSAK extremely well:

http://65.34.18.106/content.php?article.15

Edited May 10, 2006 by IronmOn

[+Runaround]

I previously used GSAK and Plucker and recently started using Cachemate. Plucker worked well if I kept the file size to 300 caches or so. I could process this file in under a minute. Any larger, and the PC processing time seemed to jump exponentially. A 700 cache file took more than an hour. 500 cache files took 45-50 minutes on average. Cachemate has been easy to use once I got the hang of it and it runs very quickly. For me, the $8 was worth it.

[+Fish Below The Ice]

I previously used GSAK and Plucker and recently started using Cachemate. Plucker worked well if I kept the file size to 300 caches or so. I could process this file in under a minute. Any larger, and the PC processing time seemed to jump exponentially. A 700 cache file took more than an hour. 500 cache files took 45-50 minutes on average. Cachemate has been easy to use once I got the hang of it and it runs very quickly. For me, the $8 was worth it.

 

This is because of Pluckr's bizarre decision to add new text at the top of the window while it's processing your data. For boring technical reasons, this means that all the data that's already in the window gets moved around internally by Windows every time a new line is added. The more information that's in the window, the longer it takes to move. The fix is to right-click on the window where the data is scrolling by and to select "Clear Buffer". This will cause Pluckr to speed up again.

[+jasond]

I use Plucker and Spinner.

 

I only run 2 PQ's per day...150 caches for Baton Rouge and 150 for New Orleans.

 

Getting them from PC to Palm and PC to GPS takes about 5 minutes total for me.

[+Belfrypotters]

Try this site, he explains how to use Cachemate and GSAK extremely well:

http://65.34.18.106/content.php?article.15

 

Wow! That's a great site, easy to read and step-by-step. I can handle this. Thanks for your help.

[+naviguesser74]

I would get a blue tooth GPSr for that Palm Tungsten and use GeoNiche. Great software -- routes, navigation, SD card storage to save to and merge out of. Palm may be more delicate than a dedicated GPS unit, but you can do so much more on a Palm and you can always buy protective covers/lanyards, etc.