PDA Reccomendations

[+James Lobb]

I was thinking about buying a PDA for geocaching and other things, what PDA would be good for geocaching.

[ImpalaBob]

Any PDA with 8MB of memory is fine for geocaching. You can spend from $30 to $500 or more. I use a Palm T/X with Cachemate. I like the T/X because my "other things" include having WIFI and being able to stop into a hot spot to get on the internet. It displays my photos from the camera SD card, and can be used as a sudo-I-pod for audio. Zire 22s have had good reviews on the forums. Koikeeper uses a Palm Tungsten E2 and after a years plus use and over 1100 caches it is not so shiny and new .... but still works great for caching. Get a hard case like a Rhino! ImpalaBob

[+parker313]

I got a Z22 b/c it was there. If I'd taken the time to research for good buys, I probably would have gotten an older used one off ebay. The Z22 is great and I love it (it was only $100) but I'm sure I would have been equally happy with an older one. Paperless caching is awesome.

[+team5150]

I also use a Z22, and I like it. The only thing I would say about it is that it can be a little hard to read in bright sunlight. Other than that, I love paperless caching, it is so much easier than printing all the pages out and trying to keep track of them.

[+StarBrand]

I use a Dell Axim X3 and I love it but keep in mind that PDA's are somewhat fragile and are not intended for field use. One drop in the mud can lead to a disaster. Shop eBay or the like. I often hear about cachers grabbing a few years old model for under $50. Either way, buy some kind of case to help protect the thing.

[+briansnat]

I use a Dell Axim X3 and I love it but keep in mind that PDA's are somewhat fragile and are not intended for field use. One drop in the mud can lead to a disaster. Shop eBay or the like. I often hear about cachers grabbing a few years old model for under $50. Either way, buy some kind of case to help protect the thing.

 

Agreed. Get a used one on Ebay. You can pick one up for under $50. Something like a Palm M500 will do the job perfectly. I have mine in a hard aluminum case (actually the case could cost more than the unit) and it stays in my pack until I need it.

[+the hermit crabs]

I use a Dell Axim X3 and I love it but keep in mind that PDA's are somewhat fragile and are not intended for field use. One drop in the mud can lead to a disaster. Shop eBay or the like. I often hear about cachers grabbing a few years old model for under $50. Either way, buy some kind of case to help protect the thing.

Agreed. Get a used one on Ebay. You can pick one up for under $50. Something like a Palm M500 will do the job perfectly. I have mine in a hard aluminum case (actually the case could cost more than the unit) and it stays in my pack until I need it.

I got a used Palm IIIxe from eBay for about $20. Very basic, greyscale, 8 MB, works splendidly for caching (although there are certain lighting conditions where it can be hard to read the screen). I didn't buy a separate case for mine. I have dropped it in the driveway, I have dropped it on a rocky hillside, I have dropped my caching bag with the Palm inside it -- so far the thing refuses to break and give me an excuse to get a nicer one

[+...The Girl]

My boss gave me his old PalmIIIx. All I use it for is caching and it's fine for that. Wouldn't wanna dump a boat load of cash into something that could get dropped in a creek or off a cliff.

[+Alan2]

What do you mean "...caching...and other things?..."

[nitemonster]

i use a palm tungsten e2 works great and on one trip it was used as a flash light on THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT

 

works great for me beats fliping through a stack of papers out in the field

Edited September 15, 2006 by nitemonster

[+Civisi]

About a year and a half ago, I bought a PDA mostly for work purposes. It was pretty much a stand alone device.

 

Last November, I bought Microsoft Streets and Trips with GPS Locator for my laptop. After doing some research, I found out there was a Bluetooth dock available for it. I bought one fairly cheap on ebay. Now I can use it wirelessly with my laptop. Also, I can use it with my PDA. AND it doesn't add drain on the battery.

 

The drawback now is that if it is raining or snowing, I can't use my PDA. But I'm going to resolve that by getting an Otterbox.

 

The overall cost is quite high, but keep in mind that I didn't buy all this equipment for the sole purpose of Geocaching. My interest in Geocaching was fueled by the fact that I had all the equipment already.

 

HP iPAQ rx3115 from Sam's Club (Feb 2005): $310. Doing some quick price checking, they're still selling new for near that price. Yikes.

 

MS Streets and Trips 2006 with GPS Locator: $110 from Sam's Club. I see it's available online for around $90 at some other places.

 

Bluetooth Dock for GPS Receiver: $75 from ebay. (Can still find one at this price).

 

Very near future purchase: Otterbox 1900. $50 from www.ExtremePDA.com (View direct Link)

 

BeeLine GPS: $30.

 

Premium Geocaching.com membership: $30 / yr

 

Total: $565 + $30/year.

 

Not the cheapest solutiion like I said. But it's a great setup. Also, if you have two people, one person can do the dirty work with the GPSr while the other directs from a distance using the PDA.

[Major Catastrophe]

I was thinking about buying a PDA for geocaching and other things, what PDA would be good for geocaching.

 

They're ALL good. The lowliest first-generation Palm Pilot beats the heck outta hauling a pile of paper.

 

Assuming you wind up with something relatively current, it's just a matter of which software works on your choice of PDA.

[+busterstone]

I use a Handspring Visor (Amazon.com $14.00) with a Magellan GPS Companion (Amazon.com $11.95) for cacheing and an Old Palm IIIe (2 meg Amazon.com $7.00) to be paperless. I just upgraded to a Palm IIIx (4 meg from Freecycle). I started cheap to get my wife hooked, She is not Kewl with "bushwacking" but enjoys Urban caching. My bubby has a high dollar Garman with a Palm IIIx. We both are Linux users and use Geoclipping to stay "paperless". The only paper we carry is a map of the area we are going to hunt. That could change with a more Powerful PDA that could have Google maps cut and pasted as a .jpg. I see i am rambling but ANY PDA that can hold text files will work. The cheaper the better.

[+sbell111]

I use a TE that works great. I previously used an m505 that was also very good.

 

A few years ago, I bought my dad a used V when I introduced him to the game. It worked great. The great thing about buying an old one off ebay for a couple of bucks is that you don't have to spring for a fancy hard case to protect it. Many of them came with a hard plastic cover that will give it some amount of cover. Also, if you break it, who cares? It only cost a few dollars.