Best Caching Equipment

[GerritS]

I introduced some friends to Geocaching last night, 1DNF to start with did not seem like a good start...

 

The following two where Multis and where a great success... Now the problem is what equipment to recommend.

 

I cache on an N95 which has its moments but normally gets me the cache it allows near paperless caching which I enjoy being able to pick up caches in passing...

 

Now what would you recomend for:

 

1) A start up Cacher with no GPS, on a budget. No particularly technical phone (the last cacher I introduced bought blue tooth GPS Dongle £20 ebay now on 102nd Cachefound and 3 hides).

 

2) What is the ultimate Caching System?

Allowing down load of Caches on the go easy waypoint transfer the full hit. Can you build up to this step by step?

 

All advise appreciated..

 

Edits for grammer/spelling mistakes!

Edited June 29, 2008 by GerritS

[reelcutter]

You can pick the old e-trex yellas chip as cheaps, I've had mine nearly 5 years and it does a fine job, not paperless I know, not being very gadgety myself I find a note book and pen does the trick for me, others may disagree. I suppose it depends how much your willing to outlay.

If they decide it's not for them what have they lost just a few quid, if they go for a basic setup they can always upgrade later if they feel the need to.

[+MartyBartfast]

At the cheap end =iIt's perfectly possible (and still enjoyable) to go caching with just the most basic GPS and printouts of the cache pages, you should be able to pick up a bog standard Etrex for about £60-£70, or less if you go second hand. In order to go paperless you can pick up some sort of PDA for under £50, I used to use a Palm Zire (available on Fleabay for about £15) with Cachemate, nowadays I use my Sony PSP.

 

Don't know about the top end stuff as I can't afford it

[+tombraiders3]

I have just started geocaching with my kids - found 1st one without GPS! but when you say e-trex yella do you mean a Garmin?

Seen some on ebay - thinking of bidding - hoping to speak to a geocacher this weekend so can find out a bit more but just wondered what the e=trex yella was.

[+tombraiders3]

I have just started geocaching with my kids - found 1st one without GPS! but when you say e-trex yella do you mean a Garmin?

Seen some on ebay - thinking of bidding - hoping to speak to a geocacher this weekend so can find out a bit more but just wondered what the e=trex yella was.

[+MartyBartfast]

I have just started geocaching with my kids - found 1st one without GPS! but when you say e-trex yella do you mean a Garmin?

Seen some on ebay - thinking of bidding - hoping to speak to a geocacher this weekend so can find out a bit more but just wondered what the e=trex yella was.

 

Yes, all Etrex models are made by Garmin, the basic model was just called Etrex and is yellow, but the Etrex range includes various models (vista, legend etc) which have various more advanced features such as mapping, so if you're going to bid I would suggest going to The Garmin Website to check out the features of the model you're bidding for.

[+MartyBartfast]

Guess....

Edited June 29, 2008 by MartyBartfast

[+Primitive Person]

I introduced some friends to Geocaching last night, 1DNF to start with did not seem like a good start...

 

The following two where Multis and where a great success... Now the problem is what equipment to recommend.

 

I cache on an N95 which has its moments but normally gets me the cache it allows near paperless caching which I enjoy being able to pick up caches in passing...

 

Now what would you recomend for:

 

1) A start up Cacher with no GPS, on a budget. No particularly technical phone (the last cacher I introduced bought blue tooth GPS Dongle £20 ebay now on 102nd Cachefound and 3 hides).

 

2) What is the ultimate Caching System?

Allowing down load of Caches on the go easy waypoint transfer the full hit. Can you build up to this step by step?

 

All advise appreciated..

 

Edits for grammer/spelling mistakes!

 

Ahh, well...in the year or so I've been caching, I've gradually built up my system...although to be honest anything above a very basic GPS is all bells and whistles, and you don't need to fork out much money. As has been said elsewhere in this thread, even the simplest unit will get you going just fine.

 

I started off with - and still use - a Garmin Geko 201. It's pretty much the most basic GPS on the market, and I got mine for seventy quid. It's led me successfully to the vast majority of the caches I've found. No mapping or anything, but it's small, robust and enjoys excellent battery life.

 

Next, I started using GPXSonar to go paperless on an old XDA IIs I was using as a PDA. Worked pretty well - I had 3 pocket queries loaded into it and it found me caches whenever I happened to be out and about. I didn't have any GPS kit for it, though, so I'd use the Geko to get my co-ords and tap them into the XDA manually, get cache details and then put the co-ords into the Geko. Worked OK.

 

Now I have a T-Mobile MDA Vario III (aka HTC Kaiser or TyTN II) - and this is a serious caching bad boy. I use CacheMate and Memory Map on it, and this has everything you need to find caches without any other kit. I also do most of my logging with it, out on site, as soon as I make the find. It does have several disadvantages, though - battery life is very poor, and GPS use thrashes the battery into the ground very quickly. Also, phone/PDA-based GPS systems are not weatherproof. In the rain, the Geko re-emerges as the tool of choice, as it is much more robust.

 

Sometimes, I just enjoy going "old skool", printing off a few caches and just using the Geko. It's possible to allow all the gadgetry to get in the way of the real fun of the hobby, which is getting out and about in new places and enjoying your surroundings, so stripping it down to basics does no harm now and again.

 

Lee

[yatesDELTA]

went on the garmin website and the etrex yello has been replaced? is there any real diferences between them?

 

Not planning on replacing my one, just interested really

[reelcutter]

I have just started geocaching with my kids - found 1st one without GPS! but when you say e-trex yella do you mean a Garmin?

Seen some on ebay - thinking of bidding - hoping to speak to a geocacher this weekend so can find out a bit more but just wondered what the e=trex yella was.

 

Yes they are yellow sorry for the confusion, mine has a globe icon on the front but I don't they are available new anymore, the later ones don't have the icon on them, so are probably better value watch out for that.

I think the e-trex is a great little gpsr, very robust bounces very well and fits into pockets and bags easily. You could try outdoor shops I have even seen em in well known stationary shops.

[+nipperoon]

At the cheap end =iIt's perfectly possible (and still enjoyable) to go caching with just the most basic GPS and printouts of the cache pages, you should be able to pick up a bog standard Etrex for about £60-£70, or less if you go second hand. In order to go paperless you can pick up some sort of PDA for under £50, I used to use a Palm Zire (available on Fleabay for about £15) with Cachemate, nowadays I use my Sony PSP.

 

Don't know about the top end stuff as I can't afford it

 

on this never haveing a pda befor

i take it you get the pda download and install cachemate then what do you have to do, like how do you get the caches off the web site, i take it you have to be a premier member to get them.

if you can help i would be most gratfull.

 

i just use the old method, print sheet off take it with me and using the basic e trex

 

cheers

[+Donmoore]

At the cheap end =iIt's perfectly possible (and still enjoyable) to go caching with just the most basic GPS and printouts of the cache pages, you should be able to pick up a bog standard Etrex for about £60-£70, or less if you go second hand. In order to go paperless you can pick up some sort of PDA for under £50, I used to use a Palm Zire (available on Fleabay for about £15) with Cachemate, nowadays I use my Sony PSP.

 

Don't know about the top end stuff as I can't afford it

 

on this never haveing a pda befor

i take it you get the pda download and install cachemate then what do you have to do, like how do you get the caches off the web site, i take it you have to be a premier member to get them.

if you can help i would be most gratfull.

 

i just use the old method, print sheet off take it with me and using the basic e trex

 

cheers

 

When you are a premium memebr you can download Pocket Queries which are lists of caches that you want information on. For most caches this will give you most of the information you see on a cache listing page and the last 5 logs if you want. If you use use a windows based PDA you can convert this information to HTML using GSAK then transfer all the require data on to the PDA. now when you use your pda it will be like you are viewing the website with the caches that you plan to do stored on there.

 

I use cachemate for the same thing as above but on my palm based garmin ique again it all does the same thing. To be honest I have only started using this and I am still working my round it.

[+MartyBartfast]

At the cheap end =iIt's perfectly possible (and still enjoyable) to go caching with just the most basic GPS and printouts of the cache pages, you should be able to pick up a bog standard Etrex for about £60-£70, or less if you go second hand. In order to go paperless you can pick up some sort of PDA for under £50, I used to use a Palm Zire (available on Fleabay for about £15) with Cachemate, nowadays I use my Sony PSP.

 

Don't know about the top end stuff as I can't afford it

 

on this never haveing a pda befor

i take it you get the pda download and install cachemate then what do you have to do, like how do you get the caches off the web site, i take it you have to be a premier member to get them.

if you can help i would be most gratfull.

 

i just use the old method, print sheet off take it with me and using the basic e trex

 

cheers

 

If you're going to go paperless then it helps to be a premium member, this is how I do it, and is probably the most common method, although not the only one.

 

As a premium member you can set up PQs (Pocket Queries) to get cache details in bulk.

You take the PQ output and feed them into GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), which is a program you run on your PC which gives you your own mini Geocaching database.

You can then get GSAK to create an export of chosen caches in a format for Cachemate.

You then load the Cachmate file onto your PDA and import it into Cachemate.

 

All this sounds complicated at first but it's not. You need to pay for the various bits and it will cost you:

 

You have to pay the premium Groundspeak membership every year

You can use GSAK for free but it starts nagging you after 30 days, you can then pay a one off fee to register it (IIRC it's about £10),

Cachemate is also a one off fee of about £10.

[+steve_c]

When you sayu you take the output of the PQ, do you mean the .gpx file one gets in epost? I'd like to look into paperless too, having just printed off 200 cache sheets for the South West Coast Path

 

At the cheap end =iIt's perfectly possible (and still enjoyable) to go caching with just the most basic GPS and printouts of the cache pages, you should be able to pick up a bog standard Etrex for about £60-£70, or less if you go second hand. In order to go paperless you can pick up some sort of PDA for under £50, I used to use a Palm Zire (available on Fleabay for about £15) with Cachemate, nowadays I use my Sony PSP.

 

Don't know about the top end stuff as I can't afford it

 

on this never haveing a pda befor

i take it you get the pda download and install cachemate then what do you have to do, like how do you get the caches off the web site, i take it you have to be a premier member to get them.

if you can help i would be most gratfull.

 

i just use the old method, print sheet off take it with me and using the basic e trex

 

cheers

 

If you're going to go paperless then it helps to be a premium member, this is how I do it, and is probably the most common method, although not the only one.

 

As a premium member you can set up PQs (Pocket Queries) to get cache details in bulk.

You take the PQ output and feed them into GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife), which is a program you run on your PC which gives you your own mini Geocaching database.

You can then get GSAK to create an export of chosen caches in a format for Cachemate.

You then load the Cachmate file onto your PDA and import it into Cachemate.

 

All this sounds complicated at first but it's not. You need to pay for the various bits and it will cost you:

 

You have to pay the premium Groundspeak membership every year

You can use GSAK for free but it starts nagging you after 30 days, you can then pay a one off fee to register it (IIRC it's about £10),

Cachemate is also a one off fee of about £10.

[GerritS]

UPDATE

 

A friend of mine has just achieved a good cache find... On Ebay, she found herself a GPS Enabled Palm type thing with Memory Card,car holders, car chargers cables etc. The full kit for 55 Pounds. She is setting it up for Paperless caching ONLY another 20 or so for Palm software (any advice as to whats best?) and she will be paperless caching in no time!

 

Infact Friday to be precise

 

Thanks for the advice, keep it coming there are plenty of gadgets out there and its good to keep learning more about them.

 

GerritS

Edited July 3, 2008 by GerritS

[+jenandberry]

UPDATE

 

A friend of mine has just achieved a good cache find... On Ebay, she found herself a GPS Enabled Palm type thing with Memory Card,car holders, car chargers cables etc. The full kit for 55 Pounds. She is setting it up for Paperless caching ONLY another 20 or so for Palm software (any advice as to whats best?) and she will be paperless caching in no time!

 

Infact Friday to be precise

 

Thanks for the advice, keep it coming there are plenty of gadgets out there and its good to keep learning more about them.

 

GerritS

 

I'm using a palm with seperate bluetooth GPSr and I use cachemate and the cachenav add on to find caches and gsak on the pc to sort out PQ downloads. It works ok, I'd like something with maps and a better screen for bright sunshine, but I've found caches with this set up and it didn't cost much. I think the software is about 25 pounds to register and I'll continue to use both if I ever get a seperate gpsr so it isn't wasted money.