Need PDA recomendation

[+Fred/Mary]

Ok. I'm tired of buying printer ink. What is a good PDA to send the cache information to so that I don't wander around the country with this stack of papers blowing around in the wind? Also, what software will I need with a recomended PDA to achieve my goal of going paperless?

 

Ebay has a ton of Palm Z-22 units for around $50-$60 plus shipping at $5-$15. Are these good deals?

 

Thanks!

Fred

[+SimonTuffGuy]

I just won a Palm IIIxe off EBay to do mine... The seller had upgraded to a new unit, but used this one previously to do paperless caching.

 

Got it for $25 shipped.

[+Groovy Cachin' Dude!]

Lots of Palm III's and Handspring Visor Deluxe's for ~$20.00 on e-bay. They work great with the Palm version of Cachemate.

[+MSea]

I currently have a Palm VIIx on ebay. $15 starting and free shipping. I used it for caching too. I just got a newer one too.

 

Take a look anyone! Love to unload it to a fellow cacher!

[+storm180]

I use an Ipaq 2795 for geocaching. Its very rugged has a protective top over the screen. Very durable. I have dropped it a few times and it survived. However the price tag is about $400.00. I also carry aerial maps using backcountry navigator on that pda where you need alot of space and memory to run it.

 

All depends on how much you want to spend.

[+The Jester]

I've bought two Palm M125's off e-bay - one for $11, the other (with a serial cradle & a USB cradle) for just a buck! I use CacheMate, a very powerful little program.

[+TheBattons]

I've refurbished lots of PDAs, and I did some testing a while back to see what a 2 meg PDA could do with CacheMate. I found that I could load over 1400 caches (with 5 log entries each) before filling the PDAs memory. By that reasoning, anything that will run CacheMate (CacheMate requires Palm OS 3.0 or later.) will be fine for the average cacher.

 

Anything above and beyond Palm OS 3.0 and 2 megs of RAM is just gravy...

[+JohnTee]

Ok. I'm tired of buying printer ink. What is a good PDA to send the cache information to so that I don't wander around the country with this stack of papers blowing around in the wind? Also, what software will I need with a recomended PDA to achieve my goal of going paperless?

 

Ebay has a ton of Palm Z-22 units for around $50-$60 plus shipping at $5-$15. Are these good deals?

 

Thanks!

Fred

 

I'm using a Palm Tungsten E2, which works great for paperless. That's not a getting started unit, but I use it daily for everything else. I have a large database with over 2700 geocaches, which uses over 9MB. That would top out some PDA's, but you don't have to have that many geocaches on file. The E2 has an SD Card slot which allows me to be memory abusive. [] In addition to over 2700 caches, I've included ALL the logs for ALL the caches, child waypoints, etc.

 

Purchased a Palm Z22 for my dad for Christmas for paperless caching. It was $30 here in the Garage Sale forum. I really liked that little unit and had a hard time sending it off after setting it up for him. He didn't like the way the screen washed out in the sunlight and wanted to go to a monochrome screen. No memory card slot.

 

I helped him find a Palm M105 for $20 on ebay, which he is very happy with.

 

I have a Handspring Platinum which I suspect would work great for paperless, however, my son has it now. []

 

I'm using GSAK on my laptop and occasionally on my desktop to organize all the data in my pocket queries. It is a very powerful program and I'm very satisfied with how it works. I can use it to send files to my PDA as well as create data for M$ Streets and Trips. v7 is now about $25.

 

EasyGPS is another alternative for manipulating pocket queries and is free. I have not used it, so can't tell you a lot about it.

 

I use CacheMate on my Palm. $8 to register. Great program. It will sort files nine-ways from Sunday and let you manipulate data a number of ways. One of the best is the 'Nearest Cache' feature'. Finish one cache and you can find how close and in what direction the next nearest cache is. Another 'best' feature is the ability to project a waypoint. Very handy on those multis that call for you to do this.

 

I run a number of PQ's (from different areas) weekly and update my Palm at least once a week. More often if I'm traveling someplace.

 

JohnTee

Edited February 26, 2007 by JohnTee

[+team5150]

I use a Z22 for caching and I love it! The only drawback is that it is a bit hard to see in bright sunlight, but that can be overcome by adjusting the contrast and brightness.

[+Fred/Mary]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I bought a Palm Z22 off of Ebay last night. If it doesn't siut me, I'll sell it and get something else.

 

What's the next step for paperless caching? What I've been doing is printing out the information with 5 logs, and taking them with me. I use Easy GPS to send the caches to my Venture CX. Now do I need GSAK, Cachmate, something else?

 

It's been rather breezy here lately, and I'm tired of chasing these loose sheets down the street.

 

Thanks again!

Fred

[+The Jester]

To get the most out of paperless caching, the first thing is to become a Premium Member. This will allow you access to .GPX files for every cache. This file type (as opposed to the .LOC) contains all the data about the cache. This then can be loaded onto the PDA so you can carry it with.

 

As for other programs, I like GSAK ($25) for the computer and Cachemate ($8) for the PDA. There are other programs that also work, but I've not used them, so can't offer any advice.

[+gunpowder]

As for other programs, I like GSAK ($25) for the computer and Cachemate ($8) for the PDA. There are other programs that also work, but I've not used them, so can't offer any advice.

 

I use the same here with a Tungsten T3.

[+Elfdelite]

Personally I use a Dell Axim X50v running Windows Mobile 2003SE coupled with a bluetooth GPSR. I use Beeline GPS and it is a great piece of software for Geocaching. Not only am I able to use my PDA for Geocaching, but I also use it for finding addresses using TOMTOM and/or MS Streets and Trips. TOMTOM is pretty expensive but if you know how to use Bittorrent and you don't have any moral issues using stolen software, you should be able to find it pretty easily. MS Streets & Trips runs pretty cheap and is OK to use. Beeline GPS is nice even if you don't use the GPS functionality, you can use it to read your .gpx files and it is very simple to use. I get all this along with the use of a pretty powerful PDA that I use for my side business repairing computers.

[+Fred/Mary]

Actually, I paid to become a Premium Member last week. I paid the annual rate, but I notice that when I post a message, the Premium Member designation doesn't appear. Does anyone know how to email the management of this website?

 

Thanks

Fred

[+Cardinal Red]

Actually, I paid to become a Premium Member last week. I paid the annual rate, but I notice that when I post a message, the Premium Member designation doesn't appear. Does anyone know how to email the management of this website?

 

Thanks

Fred

 

contact@Groundspeak.com

[smokingpipe]

Can you get these programs for free else where? It's going to cost me another $100 just to go paperless.

PDA + Shipping + GSAK + Cachemate + becoming a PM.

[+NightPilot]

Can you get these programs for free else where?

No. They're not free. However, you can get by with just Cachemate, or you can use Plucker, which is only a viewer, with no editing or changing possible, for free. GSAK isn't essential, just nice to have. If you thought this was going to be a cheap hobby, you thought wrong. It's fun, but it's not cheap. Gas, swag, GPS, PDA, and everything else add up.

[+Firefighter Skippy]

For a good tutorial, check: http://65.34.18.106/content.php?article.15

[+The Gnomads]

Can you get these programs for free else where? It's going to cost me another $100 just to go paperless.

PDA + Shipping + GSAK + Cachemate + becoming a PM.

 

Hi. We've recently gone paperless with an Acer N50 pda running Windows 2003 second edition. We use a Socket bluetooth GPS receiver. We've downloaded a freeware geocaching program called Smache which is easy to use and does everything. We really like it. You have a direction finder and basic map screen which at least allows you to see where plotted caches are in relation to each other. We are not Premium members yet so we just import .loc files or copy and paste co-ordinates into Smache and then, using hotkeys on pda, flip between this and word files when we need to view cache details. This is not necessary if you are able to access .gpx files as everything is displayed with options within Smache. Hope this is of some use.

[+pearle]

I use the Garmin Ique 3200. PDA (Palm OS) with built in GPS. Actually works really well with Cachemate and CacheNav. Found about 1100 or so caches with it. I have used with an external antenna in the past but the port got broken so now I just use the external antenna. Unless you are in extremely heavy tree cover, the external antenna is not required. You can pick one up on buy.com for around $200.00. That is more than some of the ebay PDA values, but it does contain GPS and for all-in-one usit, I think it is tough to beat.

[+niffir]

I decided a couple weeks ago to give paperless caching a try. I got a used Palm IIIxe with a cradle off ebay for $10 (plus about $6 shipping). When it arrived, I discovered (not to my huge surprise, as I'd been reading the forums) that it could not plug directly into my computer because it had a serial port connection and my computer is too modern to have those. So I hopped back on ebay and bought a brand new adapter with software for $.99 (plus $5 shipping and insurance). The adapter arrived today and I now have it all set up with cachemate and already loaded over 300 caches onto the PDA. Grand total for PDA, cradle, adapter, plus all the shipping was well under $25, and it all works perfectly. Now I need to get more familiar with the caching software I'm trying out and get out there and give it a try. Just wanted to assure people that those older PDAs are still compatible with geocaching

[+Hi-Tek]

My recommendation would be to go for a Palm based PDA.

 

I have both a Palm (Garmin iQue 3600) & a Pocket PC (Garmin M4) PDA and ran cachemate on both. The Palm will load the whole of the UK (15000+) in about 30 minutes, whereas the Pocket PC takes all night to load the same and coughs at about 3000.

 

I, personally speaking, find the Palm cachemate version much better from a user point of view. It is responsive and does what I expect. I no longer use the pocket pc version due to its limitations and sluggish response.

 

Note that this is not a criticism of cachemate, it's a criticism of the Pocket PC OS. The Palm works so much better with CacheMate.

[+storm180]

My recommendation would be to go for a Palm based PDA.

 

I have both a Palm (Garmin iQue 3600) & a Pocket PC (Garmin M4) PDA and ran cachemate on both. The Palm will load the whole of the UK (15000+) in about 30 minutes, whereas the Pocket PC takes all night to load the same and coughs at about 3000.

 

I, personally speaking, find the Palm cachemate version much better from a user point of view. It is responsive and does what I expect. I no longer use the pocket pc version due to its limitations and sluggish response.

 

Note that this is not a criticism of cachemate, it's a criticism of the Pocket PC OS. The Palm works so much better with CacheMate.

 

Yeh it does take a while to build the database on a pocket ppc for cachemate. They did come out with a new version. It is suppose to be faster. However you can load up gpxsonar and I can load all the caches into the ppc in a matter of seconds. Granted development seems to be stalled on 1.5 but still useable.