Quesstion about Paperless geocaching and GPS units

[+MonkeyDucks]

I'm a newbie at this geocaching thing. I would like to go paperless so we downloaded Geocache Navigator on our phone. It worked great when we tried it out on our recent vacation to NYC. I loved having the cache descriptions and logs right there with the navigation. BUT it costs a lot - $15 a month extra to have the web on our phone, + $7 a month for the GN. So .... Here's my question. Are any of the better GPS units capable of dowloading the cache descriptions and logs? Or do we have to get a PDA to do that? I just have an Explorist 100 and would be willing to upgrade, IF there is such a thing.

thanks!

[+N8OFP - Del]

I'm a newbie at this geocaching thing. I would like to go paperless so we downloaded Geocache Navigator on our phone. It worked great when we tried it out on our recent vacation to NYC. I loved having the cache descriptions and logs right there with the navigation. BUT it costs a lot - $15 a month extra to have the web on our phone, + $7 a month for the GN. So .... Here's my question. Are any of the better GPS units capable of dowloading the cache descriptions and logs? Or do we have to get a PDA to do that? I just have an Explorist 100 and would be willing to upgrade, IF there is such a thing.

thanks!

 

A lot of the newer hand held GPSr units are able to store some extra data. The Garmin 60Cx series and the Magellan Explorist 500 are able to store some extra information for each waypoint. There isn't enough available space to store the entire cache description or even a long hint. If you want the entire cache description, hints, past logs you will need to go with a PDA.

[+Timpat]

I used this Paperless tutorial to get going. I would suggest picking up a cheap PDA on eBay. I found my Palm IIIxe for $30, $8 for Cachemate, $20 to Clyde for GSAK.

[+jwernerny]

I used this Paperless tutorial to get going. I would suggest picking up a cheap PDA on eBay. I found my Palm IIIxe for $30, $8 for Cachemate, $20 to Clyde for GSAK.

 

I've been doing my own form of paperless caching.

 

Since I started geocaching a couple of months ago, I have been going out with a Palm III with a GPS attachment (Rand McNally Palm III GPS "antenna"). I use CetusGPS on the Palm. I use GPSBabel to move from GPX files to Cetus data files. CetusGPS can handle multiple lists of waypoints. For each each waypoint, you can have a large description and even a user hidable hint. (BTW: Cetus is Freeware.) When I make a find, I make notes directly on the waypoint.

 

I have also loaded another freeware program called Geocache Log Book, but I have not yet used it. I find I can do almost anything I want with Cetus.

 

You can find similar Palm + GPS setups on ebay quite often. The Palm III (IIIx, IIIxe) and GPS I have seen in the last few weeks go for around $50. Two weeks ago a Palm m515 with GPS went for $47.01 (I bid only up to $46 and didn't check it in time :-( ). Last week a m505 & GPS went for ~$80. Garmin iQue 3600 have been trading from $160 - $245 depending on what they come with and when they are being sold. [if you haven't guessed, I looking into upgrading.]

 

- John

[+tomandheather]

I used this Paperless tutorial to get going. I would suggest picking up a cheap PDA on eBay. I found my Palm IIIxe for $30, $8 for Cachemate, $20 to Clyde for GSAK.

 

I have the new Garmin 60csx model and i have added a 512meg memory card. Is it possible to forego the PDA in this process and go paperless by loading a program like cachemate on my PC then transfering to location info and descriptions directly into the Garmin?

[+JSWilson64]

I have the new Garmin 60csx model and i have added a 512meg memory card. Is it possible to forego the PDA in this process and go paperless by loading a program like cachemate on my PC then transfering to location info and descriptions directly into the Garmin?

 

Here's a post that shows how much info you can store in your 60 CSx. It's not much.

[+tomandheather]

I have the new Garmin 60csx model and i have added a 512meg memory card. Is it possible to forego the PDA in this process and go paperless by loading a program like cachemate on my PC then transfering to location info and descriptions directly into the Garmin?

 

Here's a post that shows how much info you can store in your 60 CSx. It's not much.

 

so the post thread you sent me suggests that I should take adantage of the large microsd memory card to load the geochacing info in points of interest. Can the material I mentioned in my earlier note then be easily imported to a POI from a PC, rather than manually making a custom POI for each geocache?