What Pda Do You Use?

[+George1]

I would like to see just what others are using and why. It has been an exhausting search trying to figure out what I should get.

 

What PDA, with what system, PC or MAC and would you recommend it.

[+Old Sailor]

I'm using a palm zire 71, cashemate, windows xp, gsak, everything works great, no more carring around paper.

[+The Jester]

I'm using a Palm M125 (which I got off ebay for $1), CacheMate for paperless caching, and GSAK on the computer to filter/sort the caches I will hunt (or ignore).

[+kayak-cowboy]

I use a Palm Zire 31, Cachemate on Palm, and GSAK on the computer, along with Garmin Legend.

[+ricstone]

Palm TX here with Sunrisexp desktop an plucker on the palm. GSAK to transfer html to the palm works great. also have cachmate but i dont use it much.

[Overland1]

The good news: Palm Zire 72

 

The bad news: Windoze

[+Bear Paughs]

Palm Zire 21 with GSAK and Cachemate. No bells and whistles, no complaints.

[+Pablo Mac]

The good news: A used Sony Clie PDA with a field-ready magnesium body (I carry it in my back jeans pocket, even while seated!). Runs CacheMate quite well.

 

The great news: MarkSpace Missing Sync makes my non-Mac compatible PDA Mac compatible.

 

The fantastic news: Mac OS X on a rip-snortin' 64-bit dual processor PowerMac G5. Duuuude...

 

This former Windoze slave highly recommends Mac OS X and especially the new Intel Macs that can boot Mac and Windoze. That's a no-brainer.

[+Team Dubbin]

Palm Zire 31, GSAK, Cachemate, Win XP, Garmin 60cs and Magellan SporTrak map. Thats the best money I have ever spent

[+Miragee]

Palm M500 in a hard case, Cachemate. GSAK on my PC running Win2K.

[lakeuk]

Palm VIIx with cachmate which has been adapted to take high capicity AA, increasing the battery life by 8 times

[+ThreeTrees]

Palm Tungstun T, GSAK, Cachemate and 60CS & 60CSX

[+GordoSlim]

Palm zire 72, cachemate, windows xp, gsak, Streets and Trips 2006

[+baloo&bd]

Treo 650, cachemate and GSAK. The trea replaced my Clie so I reduced what I carried, otherwise the Clie worked great.

 

I have only used my set-up on computers, so not sure how they would work on a mac.

[+Cheminer Will]

For about a year, my son and I used Palm M500's which work great. Now he, my daughter, and I all have M515's.

 

Also use MapSend, CacheMate and GSAK extensively.

 

Also use a 4 year old Toshiba laptop with a wireless card. It is dedicated only to caching.

 

So, be careful, you can get really into it!

[+GIDEON-X]

Palm m500....Spinner........Plucker...........Cache Log-Book.... This works for me no problems...

[+BlueDeuce]

PQ - GASK - IPAQ HP - GPXSONAR

 

I mean it works okay, but it's not like I am driving a sports car.

[+slightlynorth]

Treo650 (700p once they go GSM) with Cachemate. GSAK to transfer into Cachemate. I use an SD card to store the data and for transfer between GSAK and my Treo.

[+What rock?]

Palm Zire 21 with GSAK and Cachemate. No bells and whistles, no complaints.

 

Same here. Except I would like to be able to change a battery instead of recharging. Hubby uses a Palm IIIc.

Edited June 27, 2006 by What rock?

[+naviguesser74]

Treo 650. not cachemate -- instead, geoniche. check it out. great software for the palm. i also use TomTom Navigator with the cache locations as POIs so I can street navigate to get close.

[+nscaler]

iQue 3600. Palm and GPS in one package. Find the cache and log it right there. Sync it up later and copy the log entry to the GC site.

[Dale_Lynn]

She stands 4'-11", and weighs in at 97 lbs, brand name "Wife".... But does no do digital every well...

 

Dale

Edited June 27, 2006 by Dale_Lynn

[+Steel City Seekers]

PQ - GASK - IPAQ HP - GPXSONAR

 

I mean it works okay, but it's not like I am driving a sports car.

 

PQ, GASK, Asus A716, GPXSonar, Mapopolis, GPXtoMaplet, Haicom HI-303III GPSr, Haicom Bluetooth Slipper, Windows XP, and probably a thing or two I can't remember at the moment.

 

Wow, all these posts and I'm only the second Pocket PC user. I do use mine for much more than caching, however, which likely explains the difference.

 

I have the same as BlueDeuce, except mine is an Asus rather than an Ipaq. In addition, I also have Mapopolis and some associated software such as GPXtoMaplet that allows me to place a .gpx file into Mapopolis and see all caches as waypoints while I'm driving along or research them on the map while sitting in the living room. Also, I have a Haicom HI-303III GPS receiver with SirfIII, WAAS, a bluetooth connection, a few bells, and a couple whistles. I have in the past, but do not now use the Pocket PC+GPS for the actual cache hunt. I have what will tomorrow be two handheld units for this purpose, after UPS releases my new Lowrance Explorer from hostage status in a delivery depot a few miles away.

 

So . . . in the original post, you didn't specify exactly what you'd use the handheld for. If you're just looking to grab some pocket queries and review detailed information while out and about, then just about any handheld will do the trick -- you can set your price point for under $50 and about any Palm will do. If you're looking to go beyond that, you'll have to up the ante. When I'm talking about going beyond that, I'm talking about having something like a unit with bluetooth and/or wi-fi built-in, and using the handheld for more than a geocaching purpose such as an MP3 player, movie player, etc. -- the list goes on quite extensively. I use mine with my bluetooth phone as just one example of expanded capability to access the internet. I could, if I wanted to, log my find while standing right next to the cache. I'm not starting a war here as some of the Palms will do the same, but you gotta up the price to get this functionality either way.

 

If you want to talk about expanded functionality, I could point you in many directions for research that would extend beyond the scope of the forums at this site. If you just want basic PQ stuff, you're better off with a cheap Palm and a program like cachemate.

[+ergomaniac]

I recently picked up a factory refurbished Palm IIIxe for $24.95 on Ebay. There are lots of them available and when loaded with Cachemate they do a great job of paperless caching. I currently have over 1600 cache pages loaded (including user logs) and I still have a few megs of memory left. My son has a high-end PDA but doesn't like taking it out on our bushwacking treks (often in the rain) so I purchased the the IIIxe as a disposable caching accessory! One nice feature for caching is that it takes AAA batteries so no worries about running down the charge on extended trips.

[ImpalaBob]

Palm T/X with Cachemate. I like the built in WIFI and the ability to stop at hotspots to surf geocaching .com when needed .... or to check E-mail and such. Most Libraries have free WIFI which is very handy. ImpalaBob

[+Maingray]

A now-aging Tungsten T + cachemate. Been using Palms for ages, more than for geocaching. Amazingly intuitive OS plus a bazillion handy apps.

Edited June 27, 2006 by Maingray

[+Sharnie]

I'm another pocket pc user. I have the Dell Axim X5 with Cachemate on it. GSAK for the pc.......

 

I just happen to have the Dell Axim before caching. So it came in handy.

[+hikergps]

GSAK on an older PC with Windows 98SE. Palm IIIxe with Cachemate. I also use a program that converts benchmark data to gpx format, and have benchmarks in GSAK and on Cachemate as well.

[+markp99]

I'm using a new iPaq 1955 and I LOVE it. Nice and small/thin/light compared to my old iPaq 3600.

 

I've been loading the GSAK HTML export file for my various GPX files. This works great.

 

I the display is large enough to allow me to zoom the text sightly to let me actually read the display easily with my old eyes.

 

Edited June 27, 2006 by markp99

[+5thwheelfinders]

Old Pentium III desktop

w/windows 2000

Palm IIIxe (8 meg memory), have over 2000 waypoints loaded

Cachemate

GSAK to tie it all together!

[senecaripple]

palm tungsten c. hardly use it. for the wifi feature.

[+Thrak]

Palm Vx with hard case. Spinner and Plucker. Cheap. Works great.

 

I've broken two of these in the field (even a hard case doesn't help if you put it in your back pocket and then sit down on a lumpy rock when you weigh 240 lbs.) and they are cheap to replace from eBay.

[+cicijay]

Using the Eten M600 with a Globalsat BT-338 bluetooth GPSr.

 

I havn't decided on all of my software yet but appear to be leaning twords Mapopolis and Beeline GPS.

 

I create a custom map overlay for Mapopolis that includes all Cache's within 50 miles of my house. I also load the details of those Cache's into Beeline. Last weekend we went out to brekfast and decided to see what caches were around and found 4 that where within a mile of where we were. Since my M600 is also my cell phone with GPRS data, I can log the cache as we find it. I think it would be a great feature to be able to upload my finds directly from within Beeline but I guess I need to wait for software to catch up with the technology.

 

I've got the technology, now I just need to learn how to actually find the cache without my Wife or son finding them first.

[+Trial and Error]

Windows XP, Refub Palm M125, Cachemate, GSAK, Magellan Meridian Gold, transfer cable from pc-mobile.net. Easily load 800 caches to Palm and only transfer a few to GPS.

[+Sputnik 57]

Like a few others, Treo 650/Cachemate/GSAK. I used a palm 505 before I got the Treo, and all things considerred, I should still do that, since dropping the 650 wouldn't be pretty. If for some reason I don't have all the data in the 650 for a cache, though, I can get on the WAP site and get latest logs, hints, etc., "so I got that going for me."

[+Night Stalker]

I am using an Ipaq 3955, not because of geocaching, but for several other programs that I need. It has worked very well for geocaching as well. Other good news. PC-3.4 gigahertz processor, 1.5 gig ram, 250 gig hard drive. I haven't even had that much of an issue with Windows XP. Bad news.-dial up access. Can you say SLOOOOOOOOW.

 

Wife doesn't think it is worth it to get broad band.

 

[+WalruZ]

zire 71, which many cachers I know call "the best unit they made". Not necessarily true, but it's nice. IMO you do not want to go any older because their older slower processors manifests their weaknesses when using cachemate. The zire and tungsten lines are soooo much easier to see. I have a tungsten from when the zire got sat on, and use the zire because it came back right around the time the tungsten got sat on.

 

With either I run cachemate and mapopolis. cachemate has the cache details. mapopolis shows me street maps and the locations of caches on the map. I have an SD card that contains county maps for much of norcal, where I cache. all in all it's a nice setup.

[+PocketSierra]

I use an Axim X50V (Pocket PC) and Rikaline Bluetooth GPS.

 

I use BackCountry Navigator 2.0.

 

I like the VGA (480x640) screen for topo and aerial maps.

[+STurgisSTeele]

Besides playing crosswords on, we use the Sony Clie for paperless caching. Registered Cachemate and GSAK for the sync and conversion. At present, 8mg is working fine, but if need more memory I can use a memory stick. The display is mono but is very readable in and out of sun light. Sturdy case and with a screen protector applied, it has survived several years of use and still looks like new. Haven't checked eBay for these, but figure since they are getting older they are probably going for a good price.

[gerboa]

I have been using an Ipod, simply to transfer cache info as notes..It was fine until I left it at a cache (inadvertently).

I want to find a cheaper device that I just transfer text files to e.g.. copy and paste from cache page into Notepad

I've searched the web and can only find very expensive stuff.I have the spondulux but would have no

need for all the functions..wi-fi, telephone,camera et al, and I would lose it.

Edited July 1, 2006 by gerboa

[gerboa]

Sorry I should have read the posts..looks this Palm Zire will do it!

[Tymbee]

iQue 3600. Palm and GPS in one package. Find the cache and log it right there. Sync it up later and copy the log entry to the GC site.

 

Howdy fellow iQuer. I also have/use the iQue 3600 and really like the unit. Biggest problem I have with it is the weird (to put it kindly) inability to talk directly to a computer-- to upload routes or waypoints e.g.

 

I have all kinds of workarounds that can get the job done as most people who use the 3600 do, but it's a pain.

[+fireman121]

Palm Zire 22 with GSAK and Cachemate.

[+skinny 1]

Palm M500 GSAK and Cachemate

[+TheDenvernators]

My setup: Palm tungsten C, cachemate, GSAK, and Tomtom 5, an older windows pc, or my laptop.

Tomtom is nice, you just use GSAK to import the caches as POI's and they're everywhere!

 

Her(the wife) setup: Ique 3600, cachemate, GSAK. Works equally as well, but wish it had the same GPS setups as our legends. Cachemate will export to the IQ, but so far I've only had it do it by GC name, not a descriptive name.

[+Miragee]

My setup: Palm tungsten C, cachemate, GSAK, and Tomtom 5, an older windows pc, or my laptop.

Tomtom is nice, you just use GSAK to import the caches as POI's and they're everywhere!

 

Her(the wife) setup: Ique 3600, cachemate, GSAK. Works equally as well, but wish it had the same GPS setups as our legends. Cachemate will export to the IQ, but so far I've only had it do it by GC name, not a descriptive name.

What format do you Export from GSAK for the Ique? If it is .gpx or .html, you should be able to use the Smart Name codes like this for the Waypoint name:

 

%smart=6 %con1%typ1 %Dif1%Ter1

 

That gives you 6 characters for the name, the Size of the container, the Type of cache, and then the Difficulty and Terrain based on a 10-point scale.

 

I use that same Smart Name code for my GPSr, my Mapsource maps, and for Cachemate on my Palm.

[+DconBlueZ]

I use Cachemate with an old Palm M105 I had laying around. GPSr is an eXplorist 210. I use GSAK on a semi-old Compaq laptop which is alo running MS Streets & Trips 2006. I use IR to sync the Palm to GSAK on the laptop.

 

I made a rig where the laptop is strapped to a short piece of 12' wire shelving which also has a 12V adapter and 2 USB extension cables attached so I can carry the whole rig around as a single unit.

 

I put it in the passenger seat, plug in one USB cable to the GPSr, another to my Blackberry, plug in the power to the cigarette lighter and then MS S&T can navigate me to the closest parking to a cache at which point I grab the GPSr off the windshield mount and go on foot.

 

Takes longer to describe than to do.

 

Using the Blackberry as a GPRS modem for the laptop allows me to log my finds when I get back to the car, or if coverage is acceptible at the cache site I've used the geocaching.com WAP page to log finds (though that is a bit of a pain).

 

Somehow this message got much longer than I meant it to be... :-)

[+Lizzy]

I'm using a Palm IIIxe (lots of these on Ebay). I purchased one then another I keep as a backup in my geocache bag. Both cost less than $25 (incl shipping) on ebay. I use CacheMate and GSAK on my PC to filter & transfer info to my Palm & GPSr. LOVE this setup.

[+Wing Rider]

palmOne Tungsten E2 in a hard case with GPX Spinner, Plucker and GSAK with a Magellan Meridan.

Edited July 5, 2006 by Wing Rider

[+2Wheel'in]

Handspring Visor, MobiPocket, Win XP, and EasyGPS...plain vanilla, but it works