Which Pda For Paperless Caching?:

[+BaloneyCacher]

Im looking into buyin a PDA for geocaching and have narrowed it down to these ones. Got any advice from experience or just plain knowledge?

 

so which one should i get?

 

Palm m500, Palm m515, Palm IIIxe, or anything else???

 

Thanks

[+qattales]

i bought my caching partner the palm m515 can use a card with it..it works great. got it on ebay for his b/day

[+sbell111]

If geocaching is going to be its primary use, get the cheapest one you can find.

[+BaloneyCacher]

does color matter? make it better?

[+sbell111]

Kinda. If you will use software that will download pics from the cache pages to the pda (like the Sunrise/Plucker combo), color might be better. However, many of the color screens are hard to see in direct sunlight.

[+qattales]

no..it is more important to have the info, hints, descriptions etc. we use it with cachemate .

[CoyoteRed]

We used to use a m105 and it worked just fine. It didn't have the horse power to run CacheMate, though, so we used GPXspinner and iSilo. Worked great.

 

You can get just about any Palm with 8 megs of memory and it be adequate. I've been seeing m105's on eBay for $15 or so.

 

Additional information on them105 running CacheMate: it's not that it couldn't run the program, it could. It simply couldn't handle sorting a large number of caches quickly. That's all.

 

With GPXspinner each page had a certain number of the nearest caches to it. It was simply to go from page to page. You can do something similar with GSAK and some other conversion programs, but GPXspinner's templates are highly customizable, something I really like.

[+Jhwk]

Think any of those will work. As long as you have about 2 megs of memory, you'll be ok. I run an M515 that has 16 MB of memory. My cachemate file runs anywhere from 500k to 3.5MB depending on how many caches I load to it. 2-300 caches should be less than one meg. Good luck.

[CoyoteRed]

does color matter? make it better?

 

What's important is being able to read the screen outside. It's the only thing I'm disappointed with on the T|X.

[+Seek+Hide]

Rule of thumb - hardware purchase depends on what software you will use.

 

Older - cheaper palms tend to have less memory. Some geocache programs need to run in the main memory, not on an sd-card.

 

Cachemate software can run on a palm (v3 or higher) in main memory. I use a Palm M-125 which has only 8mb of main memory. Cachemate takes 2mb and the data takes about 4mb - which doesn't leave much room for anything else.

[+sbell111]

Good point. Plucker works fine on the old PDAs with less RAM. Some time ago, I picked up a used Palm V for my dad to use. It only has 2mb, but works fine with Plucker.

[+Jhwk]

the new Z22's run ~$99, have the latest OS, can charge via USB, are small, and can run cachemate etc.. Yes it's more expensive than an old palm, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

[+sbell111]

the new Z22's run ~$99, have the latest OS, can charge via USB, are small, and can run cachemate etc.. Yes it's more expensive than an old palm, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

Which is going to bother you more if you destroy it on-trail, a $20 used one, or a $100+ new one?

[+Wacka]

I had a m100 (2M). I could put Cachemate and about 500 caches on it.

[+TEAM 360]

Get the best one you can afford, so you can use it for other things as well.

Read the hints and then leave it in the car, so nothing bad will happen to it.

[+RayDar_]

does color matter? make it better?

 

The older non-color Palms (like the Vx) are much easier to see in bright sunlight. However, you might have trouble finding a GPS receiver specifically for them and have to go with a cable that connects to a non-Palm GPS receiver.

 

In either case, you'll need some software for Geocaching. GeoNiche works on everything from an old Palm Vx to the newest Lifedrive and T|X.

[+TEAM 360]

does color matter? make it better?

 

What's important is being able to read the screen outside. It's the only thing I'm disappointed with on the T|X.

 

Yea, me too...even though the Palm website says it's a TFT screen, it isn't, really...

Edited June 9, 2006 by TEAM 360

[+Miragee]

I have a Palm M500 with the data card. I can put more than 1000 caches on it.

 

The screen is very easy to read in bright sunlight. You can't read the screens of the color units in the sun . . .

[+sbell111]

Get the best one you can afford, so you can use it for other things as well.

Read the hints and then leave it in the car, so nothing bad will happen to it.

I like to write notes either on-site or while walking back to the Jeep.

The older non-color Palms (like the Vx) are much easier to see in bright sunlight. However, you might have trouble finding a GPS receiver specifically for them and have to go with a cable that connects to a non-Palm GPS receiver.

Most people don't bother hooking their PDAs up to a GPSr. They just use Plucker or CacheMate (or some other software) to be able to access the cache pages and keep a good history of cache hunts.

[+Groovy Cachin' Dude!]

Can you find the answer in this post?

[+Cornerstone4]

Since there are two similar threads going, I'll post this here as well...

 

Another thing to consider is the new project the folks at Groundspeak are working on.

 

This new project will only work with a pocket pc. They tend to run more than Palms, but if you end up liking the new project, you'll want to have one.

[+CheshireFrog]

Since there are two similar threads going, I'll post this here as well...

 

Another thing to consider is the new project the folks at Groundspeak are working on.

 

This new project will only work with a pocket pc. They tend to run more than Palms, but if you end up liking the new project, you'll want to have one.

 

What Pocket PC project?

[+slightlynorth]

Since there are two similar threads going, I'll post this here as well...

 

Another thing to consider is the new project the folks at Groundspeak are working on.

 

This new project will only work with a pocket pc. They tend to run more than Palms, but if you end up liking the new project, you'll want to have one.

 

And what is this new project? Where can I get information about it?

 

I personally use my Treo650 with Cachemate. It works much better then my old Handspring Visor Deluxe. With the Treo's wireless data connection I can use wap.geocaching.com to get a cache listing's latest information no matter where I am.

[+Cornerstone4]

Since there are two similar threads going, I'll post this here as well...

 

Another thing to consider is the new project the folks at Groundspeak are working on.

 

This new project will only work with a pocket pc. They tend to run more than Palms, but if you end up liking the new project, you'll want to have one.

 

And what is this new project? Where can I get information about it?

 

I personally use my Treo650 with Cachemate. It works much better then my old Handspring Visor Deluxe. With the Treo's wireless data connection I can use wap.geocaching.com to get a cache listing's latest information no matter where I am.

 

They haven't given out too much info yet, but I explained as best as I could in this thread.

[MiloBloom]

I use a M105, with Geoniche, with a cable connecting it to my Etrex Vista, and sitting on my dash. Get to the parking site, read the clues, leave it behind so I dont drop it or lose it (again).

Simple works for me....

 

In the attached picture I have a cache sitting next to it, and my car keys with a Marvin on it hanging onto it, as my normal TB was absent today.

[+suemac]

Get a cheap one! I have yet to find an old, cheap pda that wouldn't run Plucker and had too little memory for my cache files. You don't need color. A pda that takes a removable mem card of some type would be nice and I much prefer one that runs Palm OS.

 

My preferences are colored by my experiences: I've dropped my pda on the trail (found that one by backtracking) and lost another when I left it on the hood of the car and drove off.