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Newbie Pda Questions


Osoling

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Hey all, and thanks for letting me ask a newbie question.

 

My GPSr is in the mail, and I was given a PDA that was retired from my wife's office. So that's where I am starting from.

 

The PDA is a Palm i705. Not the greatest thing in the world, but the price was right. So here is my question...

 

Do I really NEED iSilo and the Spinner program and all that? Before I learned that those things existed, I copied and pasted the text of some of the waypoints into the memo section of the PDA. That gave me all the info I needed, I think. Everything that is on the page that relates to the cache is there. Am I trying to do too much, or can I just get by with this?

 

My GPSr isn't the greatest unit in the world (MEgellan Explorer 200) but, hey, I am new. I just want to travel light, find stuff, hang out with the wife and kid doing something productively useless and have a good time.

 

THanks for your responses...

 

Osoling

 

P.S. Lurking taught me one thing... always trade up!

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Depending on how "cache rich" your area is, I think you will soon want to become a Premium Member for only $3.00 per month. Then you can create Pocket Queries, which will give you up to 500 caches in each file that is emailed to you.

 

After you are set up with a third-party software on your computer, like Spinner or GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), it only takes a bit of manipulation of the data to then send the data to your PDA and your GPSr (I assume that one has the computer cable.)

 

This will take a lot less time than copying and pasting . . . and you will have Past Logs, which are often the best hints for finding a cache.

 

Although several people like Plucker on their Palm PDAs, I have been very happy with Cachemate on my Palm M500.

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It's all a matter of ease of usage. If you are happy pasting info into a memo then go right ahead. It sure beats my cutting and pasting into a word doc and then printing it out.

 

I moved up to a B&W palm vIII I got for 40 bucks and if it didn't keeping dropping from a power issue I'd still be using it.

 

You can find free and cheap programs that'll save you an hour or two. And if it means a one time cost of eight bucks (e.g. Cachemate) I think it's worth it.

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Great response!

 

I downloaded that CacheMate to the PDA, and it works great. Once I get a few finds under my belt, I will grab a month or two of the premium service and download like a madman. $8 for the ease of use seems like a fair deal. I'll do that too, but I have to wait a little bit until a new credit card bill cycles. Not that it's a lot of money. I just have a lot of hobbies. My wife is a saint.

 

So thanks huge for the help. That was exactly what I was looking for.

 

O

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Depending on how "cache rich" your area is, I think you will soon want to become a Premium Member for only $3.00 per month. Then you can create Pocket Queries, which will give you up to 500 caches in each file that is emailed to you.

 

After you are set up with a third-party software on your computer, like Spinner or GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), it only takes a bit of manipulation of the data to then send the data to your PDA and your GPSr (I assume that one has the computer cable.)

 

This will take a lot less time than copying and pasting . . . and you will have Past Logs, which are often the best hints for finding a cache.

 

Although several people like Plucker on their Palm PDAs, I have been very happy with Cachemate on my Palm M500.

Ditto all of that. I've found that these very easy to use and very inexpensive tools have really cut down on my prep time, which means more family fun caching time and less "MOM! Come on!! Let's go already!" :)

--Kristin

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For two years I made do with a yellow Etrex and a binder full of cache page print-outs, entering coordinates by hand.

 

Then I spent $11 on Ebay and bought a data/power cable. Coords are now uploaded through GSAK, and I saved more than $11 in batteries, as it is hooked up to the cigarette lighter whenever I'm in the car. No clue how I ever used to enter the coords by hand anymore.

 

Then about 6 months ago I bough a Palm III for $8, 10 minutes after it arrived in the mail I registered CacheMate, and I have no clue how I ever managed with all that paper.

 

All that high tech stuff isn't neccessary, but once you get used to it, it's hard to imagine how you ever made do without it.

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For two years I made do with a yellow Etrex and a binder full of cache page print-outs, entering coordinates by hand.

 

Then I spent $11 on Ebay and bought a data/power cable. Coords are now uploaded through GSAK, and I saved more than $11 in batteries, as it is hooked up to the cigarette lighter whenever I'm in the car. No clue how I ever used to enter the coords by hand anymore.

 

Then about 6 months ago I bough a Palm III for $8, 10 minutes after it arrived in the mail I registered CacheMate, and I have no clue how I ever managed with all that paper.

 

All that high tech stuff isn't neccessary, but once you get used to it, it's hard to imagine how you ever made do without it.

 

Exactly.

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Hi- excuse the cutting in, we have a simple etrex which I am thinking of upgrading-

what is the name of the cable with power that I would need to search for on ebay?

Thanks.

 

For two years I made do with a yellow Etrex and a binder full of cache page print-outs, entering coordinates by hand.

 

Then I spent $11 on Ebay and bought a data/power cable. Coords are now uploaded through GSAK, and I saved more than $11 in batteries, as it is hooked up to the cigarette lighter whenever I'm in the car. No clue how I ever used to enter the coords by hand anymore.

 

Then about 6 months ago I bough a Palm III for $8, 10 minutes after it arrived in the mail I registered CacheMate, and I have no clue how I ever managed with all that paper.

 

All that high tech stuff isn't neccessary, but once you get used to it, it's hard to imagine how you ever made do without it.

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Hi- excuse the cutting in, we have a simple etrex which I am thinking of upgrading-

what is the name of the cable with power that I would need to search for on ebay?

Thanks.

By "cable with power" do you mean the plain 12-volt adapter that you can plug into your cigarette lighter, or the cable that has both the serial connector (for attaching the etrex to your PC) and the 12-volt adapter?

 

The 12-volt adapter alone is Garmin part # 010-10203-00. It looks like this:

010-10203-00.jpg

 

The combination serial/12-volt cable is part # 010-10268-00. It looks like this:

010-10268-00.jpg

 

There's also a plain serial PC cable with no cigarette-lighter attachment. It doesn't sound like what you were asking for, but just in case, it's part # 010-10206-00 and looks like this:

010-10206-00.jpg

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Great response!

 

I downloaded that CacheMate to the PDA, and it works great. Once I get a few finds under my belt, I will grab a month or two of the premium service and download like a madman. $8 for the ease of use seems like a fair deal. I'll do that too, but I have to wait a little bit until a new credit card bill cycles. Not that it's a lot of money. I just have a lot of hobbies. My wife is a saint.

 

So thanks huge for the help. That was exactly what I was looking for.

 

O

GSAK ($20) & CacheMate ($8) is for life...$30 per year for Geocaching.com...Not bad :anitongue:

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Hi- excuse the cutting in, we have a simple etrex which I am thinking of upgrading-

what is the name of the cable with power that I would need to search for on ebay?

Thanks.

By "cable with power" do you mean the plain 12-volt adapter that you can plug into your cigarette lighter, or the cable that has both the serial connector (for attaching the etrex to your PC) and the 12-volt adapter?

 

The 12-volt adapter alone is Garmin part # 010-10203-00. It looks like this:

010-10203-00.jpg

 

The combination serial/12-volt cable is part # 010-10268-00. It looks like this:

010-10268-00.jpg

 

There's also a plain serial PC cable with no cigarette-lighter attachment. It doesn't sound like what you were asking for, but just in case, it's part # 010-10206-00 and looks like this:

010-10206-00.jpg

 

More questions. The combination cable- with this attached can I bypass using batteries while I am in the car, and just run off the cigarette lighter- ie conserve my batteries for when I am in the field?

And I have a Mac (PowerBook G4), - would that cable work, or would I need an additional one?

 

(I'm trying to figure out if I should go this route, or just bite the bullet and get a new GPS....)

Thanks again for letting me butt in.

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I'm waiting for my Palm Zire 31 to arrive in the mail tomorow and learning what to do in the meantime. On the battery issue, I have the e-trex legend and while I'm connected to the 12V in my car, I conserve my battery life. I can't wait to go paperless...

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