Which PDA?

[+Rubarbb]

Been thinking about a PDA/Pocket PC to log our caches but wanted to ask a few question.

 

1. Is it worth the expense?

 

2. Is the software easy to use?

 

3. What should I look out for?

[+tteggod trackers]

i would say yes worth the expense,as far as saving on printing ink and paper.

you'll have to become a premium member for pocket queries though.

 

software is easy to use i use mobipocket which is free

 

gsak is free but a nominal fee to register is worth it so as not to receive nags after trial period.

 

as far as which pda i'm not sure really as i just used a pda i possessed already, i'm sure someone will answer that for you. plenty around on ebay cheaply i believe.

hope this helps

[Not So Lost Puppies]

many people use old PDAs such as Palm III or Palm m100 or m500 series units, which can be found on e-bay pretty inexpensively and do the job well. (2mb can hold about 1000 caches using the cachemate software)

[+The Blorenges]

My two pennyworth..... been happy with my Garmin Vista C as GPS with Garmin maps (street map level only - have the UK topo maps too but they are not that good). Use my Palm with Cachemate to hold the pocket queries (saves paper). And GSAK on my PC to manage them there. Works well. But I wanted the OS maps as well so this Christmas Mrs B found a Mio P550 (pocket PC with built in GPS) on ebay so I am now about 1 week into using it. I can't say how good or bad others are but this Mio seems excellent. The GPS is remarkable sensitive. Really useful having the OS maps (Memory Map) loaded onto it (I've got a 2G card for map storage). Battery life is always a bind with Pocket PC's but its about 4 hours continuous use with GPS and I've also got an external USB battery pack that will give me another 6 hours so no problem there.

To sum up? Yes, go paperless, apart from saving the planet it does make things easier having everything in one place!

You'll find lots of others doing it so any problems you have you'll be guaranteed of an answer! Worth doing a search in the forums for the keywords PDA, CACHEMATE, GSAK etc - there are plenty of posts!

 

Chris - MrB

[+Spnoo]

Was wondering myself which PDA to go for once I've saved up a bit (around Easter maybe), and was tending towards one of the Mios since they have built in GPSrs. 10 hours sounds like more than enough for any sort of expedition, where did you get the USB battery pack from? Looks like the P550 is probably what I'll end up buying

[+The Blorenges]

Battery pack was from Expansys. I wanted one I could put rechargeable or alkaline AA batteries in - there are plenty of similar boxes with fitted LiIon batteries but I wanted flexibility. Seems to work fine!

Chris

[TheWeston's]

I use a Mio A701 with Memory Map, and its a mobile phone as well. Bbattery life can be an issue (3-4 hours). I will investigate the external battery pack myself.

[+DutchGeek & Lollypops]

I just got a Palm Zire 31 off e-bay for £26.00 incl. P&P. This included a 256Mb SD card. I have Cachemate loaded and I've just started using it. Very cool, and for the sake of a fiver for the Cachemate software, free (so far) GSAK and less than 2 quid a month for Premium membership of Groundspeak, I can't complain about the cost of going paperless. Am very impressed by the Zire 31 BTW, seems to be the poor relation in the Palm family, but it is a great piece of kit and at £26.00, i'm more than happy with it.

[+Dobunnis]

We would say yes it is well worth the expense after having a Mio P550, 2GB memory card, GPSSonar and Memory Map and an AquaPac for protection for some 7 months. Having all the caches stored for an area saves on planning, time and paper. All the cache software is fairly easy to use although each has it own quirks and uses differient formats; to convert between you can use GSAK or the underlying free software in GPSBabel which we tend to use. Memory Map has also saved us a few times by making sure we are on the right side of rivers, etc, and where (most of) the footpaths exist. The GPSr has proved itself very accurate and pretty much always has a signal.

 

If you just want cache storage/logging any old PDA will do. We went for a Mio after researching because of the built-in GPSr. Memory Map needs 8Gb to store all the maps so you would need any expansion socket for a memory card. Note, however, that the maximum memory capacity of an old SD card is up to 2GB (they changed the format to go higher which is not comptable) so we can only get about 4 regions out of the 12 for the whole country at one time. We also have TomTom software on our PDA but the GPSr gets locked out by the first program opened. Specialist software to switch between TomTom and MemoryMap, which is available, does not appear to work correctly according to others.

 

Apart from Memory and the Palm or PC operating system, all PDAs are pretty much the same. You may want to invest in some pretective packaging for your new toy. An AquaPac while expensive is totally waterproof (we have tested thoroughly) and protects from minor bumps. If you want a hard case you can get those too although they are very bulky and cumbersome. We once forgot our AquaPac and the PDA got very wet on a caching trip to the Isle of Wight resulting in the GPSr dying for a few hours and the display waterlogged. It has since recovered so shows the robustness of the unit. In fact all the reviews we have read have rated it highly and the only "fault" always mentioned is the fact the on/off switch is too easy to hit.

 

So all in all yes get a PDA, old or new. Whatever you go for we would recommend getting a built in GPSr for caching (if you want to use it as such) as this saves using the expansion slot or draining the battery using Bluetooth connecting to an external GPSr. For new we would recommend from our experience the Mio P550 but if you do not want Wifi or Bluetooth go for the cheaper P350; more expensive, the A701 is also a mobile phone. There are old Medians that are similar. If it is just for cache storage/logging then any old PDA will do. Any of the software is good and while we have not optimised our system due to lack of time it has not stopped us finding caches and chosing them while out and about. An AquaPac is useful and an external battery pack would take the PDA life beyond the usual 4 hours. Memory Map can also be very useful.

[+stora]

Which type of Aquapac did you get for the P550. I don't want to end up getting one too small.

[+Dobunnis]

Hopefully the link will work http://www.aquapac.net/ukstore/erol.html#598X1142

 

The "PDA Classic Case" we bought for our P550

Edited January 1, 2007 by T-girls

[+stora]

Hopefully the link will work http://www.aquapac.net/ukstore/erol.html#598X1142

 

The "PDA Classic Case" we bought for our P550

 

 

Thanks for the link, I've just ordered one.

 

cheers.

[+The Blorenges]

Just taken my Mio P550 for it's first serious use over in Bristol. Excellent! Having Memory Map is a real bonus. I've a 2G card which stores enough maps of our local area - I've got a 1G card which I can load up specific maps of an area (I'll get another 2G as well - they are cheap enough - 7dayshop.com). Also loaded GPS Tuner which with Cachemates Cache Nav theoretically gives you the same control that my hand held Garmin Vista C does - but as the T-Girls mention Windows Mobile software in the Mio has some difficulty letting multiple applications use the built in GPS! Much swearing today about that so I just used Cachemate for the information, memory map for the maps and GPS (same GPX file runs in both apps) and then for final coords if there is any difficulty I use the Garmin. You can set a velocity vector in Memory Map that gives you a direction arrow and time to destination (ish...). I got a waterproof pouch for it from my daughter for Christmas. She got it from a shop in Bristol somewhere but its from Ortlieb.com - cheaper than the Aquapac but does the same job. The Mio touch screen can be used through the cover very easily. If you check other posts about water damage to PDA's its well worth getting a case!! The Mio has a SiRFIII GPS chip which is remarkably sensitive and capable of locking onto 20 satellites.

Chris

[+Carlos & The Birdie Crew]

Guided by other cachers I went paperless a few months ago but I started this sport with only an yellow Etrex. I soon realised that my pda (bought as a package with TT3) could help by saving my printing costs etc. so I started by joining GC.com and used GPX Sonar initially but, as mentioned, advice from others pushed me toward GSAK and MM4. The pda I use is a HP IPAQ RX 3115 with a 2gb card. I loaded a program called Franson GPSGate which allowed TT5 (bootleg copy!) and MM4 to use the wired GPSr reciever/antenna at the same time. My last investment was in a SirfIII bluetooth GPSr which I got from ebay for 45 squiddlies (new). Only problem I have had (and it took me ages to nail it down) was caused by a faulty SD card otherwise all now seems well.

GSAK exports allow me to use the points of interest feature of TT to get as close as possible then its out of the car using MM4 (again with exports) showing me icons that suit the cache and links to a preloaded cache file of HTML pages. If it ain't raining then the etrex stays off but it ALWAYS comes with me as back up.

My only concern is the new waypoint 7 digit naming which will throw me a bit I think.

 

Good luck, Carlos

[+melmur]

I use a Mio A701 with Memory Map, and its a mobile phone as well. Bbattery life can be an issue (3-4 hours). I will investigate the external battery pack myself.

 

I use one of these:

 

http://shop.eten.hu/mugen-power-a701-batte...mp;currency=EUR

 

bit more expensive, but a much neater solution than an external affair.

 

Be careful of some of the "3000mAh" batteries on Ebay. If a battery is the same physical size as the standard one, then it's unlikely to be 3000mAh.