Cheap PDA ?

[dtmyers]

I have read numerous posts, and get the general idea that I could get a cheap Palm for about $50 or a PPC for about $100 on ebay for paperless caching. However, which model would all of you recommend? Could you list a couple Palm and PPC models with expected ebay cost? Thanks!

 

Dave

[+welch]

$20-50

IIIxe or m500. Make sure they're in working order (some people sell dead units for parts), and factor in shipping costs. Get one that has a data sync cradle or cable (and for the m500's a charger), if not figure out what ordering a cable/cradle seperate will cost you.

 

Might also look be able to get a m505 or m515 towards the higher end, these have color screens (but may not help you see better in full sun), and the 515 has a bit larger memory. (but 8mb is fine)

And again for the m500's make sure the cable/cradle can charge the unit for you since they have internal batteries.

[Clan Riffster]

Palm Zire 21. Cost me $20 on Ebay. I think it came with 8mb of storage, which is about 4 more than you'll need for holding Cachemate & a few zillion caches.

[+Mtn Summit]

Would a Palm M100 work?

[+Miragee]

Yes.

 

I have Palm M500 and it works great. I like the fact that it connects to my computer with USB. If you don't have a Palm yet, you should be able to get that model for $30.00 on eBay, including the shipping.

[+Mtn Summit]

Would the veterans of geocaching, in attempting to find a cheap used PDA just for geocaching, prefer one of these or others over another model, assuming the pricing is about the same? And further assuming the only reason to get it is to help with geocaching/going paperless?

 

Palm IIIxe

Palm M500

Palm Zire 21

 

I see Tigerdirect.com is offering the Palm IIIxe, Refurbished, for $19.99 after $10.00 rebate. 3 month warranty, $11.99 buys a year another year warranty. $7.49 to ship. Its says a hot synch cradel is sold separately, other than that, i do not know what else it comes with or needs. I have never owned a PDA before.

[+niffir]

Would the veterans of geocaching, in attempting to find a cheap used PDA just for geocaching, prefer one of these or others over another model, assuming the pricing is about the same? And further assuming the only reason to get it is to help with geocaching/going paperless?

 

Palm IIIxe

Palm M500

Palm Zire 21

 

I see Tigerdirect.com is offering the Palm IIIxe, Refurbished, for $19.99 after $10.00 rebate. 3 month warranty, $11.99 buys a year another year warranty. $7.49 to ship. Its says a hot synch cradel is sold separately, other than that, i do not know what else it comes with or needs. I have never owned a PDA before.

 

The only one I have any experience with is the Palm IIIxe. I got it on ebay with a cradle for about $16 shipped. By the time I got a serial-usb converter for it, I had spent under $25 total including shipping.

 

This PDA uses a serial connection, which is said to slow down data transfer times-- but I'm not ever really transferring enough data for that to be an issue.

 

Sometimes it can be a bit slow in processing data -- like when it needs to put those new records into the database or if I ask it to search for caches near a cache that I just did. I assume that newer Palms would handle those tasks faster, but don't know how much faster or if any on your list there would be noticeably different in processing speed. We're talking a matter of 20-30 seconds here, so it isn't a huge deal anyway.

 

The IIIxe runs on 2 AAA batteries, which I like much better than an internal recharging battery.

 

It uses a serial connection, so if you don't have a serial port on your computer you will have to get an adapter. I got one for a few dollars on ebay and it works like a charm, but some people have reported problems using the cheap ones from ebay.

 

The Palm IIIxe has 8 megs of memory. I have no idea what that means in terms of the number of caches it can keep track of, but it has worked well for me. It holds far more caches than my GPS, which only lets me save 500 waypoints. I have several hundred more than that (plus cachemate) loaded on my Palm and haven't had any issues with memory space yet.

[+welch]

Would the veterans of geocaching, in attempting to find a cheap used PDA just for geocaching, prefer one of these or others over another model, assuming the pricing is about the same? And further assuming the only reason to get it is to help with geocaching/going paperless?

 

Palm IIIxe

Palm M500

Palm Zire 21

 

I see Tigerdirect.com is offering the Palm IIIxe, Refurbished, for $19.99 after $10.00 rebate. 3 month warranty, $11.99 buys a year another year warranty. $7.49 to ship. Its says a hot synch cradel is sold separately, other than that, i do not know what else it comes with or needs. I have never owned a PDA before.

Like niffir I'd get the IIIxe, but then I'm bias as thats the pda I use for paperless.

I also like the ability to change the batteries... don't get me wrong I like rechargables, I use rechargable AA in my gps and camera etc but the ability to change batteries to fresh ones is just much quicker than waiting for an internal batt to recharge.

The downside is that all the cables/cradles for that one are serial, while I think the m500 and zire21 are usb already. The m500 has an SD slot, so you could expand the memory. However all three already have a 8mb memory which should be enough for a couple thousand cache pages.

[+Miragee]

I have had my M500 for several years. I bought it long before I learned about Geocaching. The internal battery has never failed me. It recharges quickly and lasts a long time between recharging. I like not having to carry even more batteries with me, since I carry AA rechargeables for my GPSr and my flashlight.

 

The USB connection for that Palm is also easier to configure than working with a Serial to USB cable on newer computers that don't have Serial Ports.

[+Cardinal Red]

I have gotten two Palm m500's off ebay. $35 or less (includes shipping) is possible if you shop long enough.

I am not a big fan of the bulky charging/syncing cradle for normal use, but it has allowed me to hot sync on several occasions when my aftermarket cable would not. After an initial cradle sync the more convenient, more flexible aftermarket cable works fine. There is a a sync button built into my cable and it even charges the m500 off of the computers USB port. And a good battery will last for a LONG time. If I could stay awake to Cache for 72 hours straight my battery would still hold enough charge to power the unit.

[+StarBrand]

I like the Dell Axim x3 or x5 models. Pair it up with GPX Sonar and you are good to go. Found some for the $50 to $75 range.

[+jerpete]

I just got a handspring visor (2mb) up and running this weekend with cachemate, you can find them on ebay for less than $20. The visor deluxe has 8mb of memory and they can be found for ~$30. They use the palm OS, I just downloaded the latest version of palm destop for my computer and followed the instructions for cachemate and away I went.

[+Night Stalker]

Looked on Ebay and found to used Ipaq 3955's for $50.00 each there was a new one for $150.

 

This is the pocket PC that I use and it has been great.

[+welch]

I have had my M500 for several years. I bought it long before I learned about Geocaching. The internal battery has never failed me. It recharges quickly and lasts a long time between recharging. I like not having to carry even more batteries with me, since I carry AA rechargeables for my GPSr and my flashlight.

 

I don't carry batteries for the pda with me, I check the battery level and change them to new ones before leaving home if needed. If I always remembered to charge things up the night before it wouldn't matter, but I procrastinate or forget sometimes

[+Thrak]

I use a Palm Vx from eBay. I've been through a few of them - not because they don't work well but because I tend to stick it in my back pocket and then sit on a rock to sign the log. D'Oh! They're cheap and hold more caching info than you could ever need. I have two of them currently. One for caching and one to use as a cheap phone number reference that I can toss in my laptop case. I can't see getting a fancy one since I've smashed a couple of them and the Vx does everything I need.

[+Mtn Summit]

Great info - thanks!