Suggestions On Pda For Caching

[+E = Mc2]

Forgive me and shoot a Markwell my way if this has been covered before, but...

 

I'm thinking about investing a couple of dollars in a PDA to use primarily for Geocaching. I've got a Merigreen and eTrex camo already (use one against the other!), and have decided that I might want to try paperless. Can anyone recommend a sub $100 PDA that would fit the bill? I'm really way behind the curve on PDAs, and eveyone seems to have their own personal favorite, regardless of which one is actually better (sounds like some of us talking Garmin v/s Mag!).

 

I'd like for it to have a decent amount of memory, and expandability would be a plus, too. Ease of use is important. Color screens, bells and whistles, etc. are not really necessary. Older models would be fine. Getting the most Bang-for-the-buck is really the determining factor here.

[robertlipe]

If you're willing to squat a few days for a bargain, http://www.techbargains.com lists deals on less-than-top-end PDAs regularly. Today they show a 16Mb Color Clie for $70 and regularly have links to repack/refurb 8MB Zires in the sub $50 category.

 

The 2MB zires are being closed out for even less.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00...3371774-3955808

 

If you're doing nothing but caching with it running caching s/w that doesn't suck (i.e. CacheMate or Plucker or pretty much anything BUT mobipocket), 2MB is still enough for a couple hundred caches with logs.

[+Doc-Dean]

That is exactly what I am doing...

 

I have an old Clie PegT.... with 16 meg and a 64 meg memory chip and it holds all my Plucker files including all of the locationless caches right at my fingertips.

[blocko1000]

I bought my Palm zire, with only 2 mg of memory just to cache paperless from Amazon.com for 59.95 and I get a 20 dollar rebate. Not a whole lot of bells and whistles with the basic zire, but plenty good for geocaching. I use cachemate and have downloade one file with 50 geocaches onto it and still have 1.5 mg of memory. So for just geocaching the 2 mg zire is perfect. It is not upgradeable, and doesnt have a backlight.

Like a previous poster stated, dont use mobipocket. I installed it first before getting cachemate and it took up 1.6 mg of the memory, and of cours slowed the PDA down quite a bit.

Like you I am, or was behind the curve on PDAs. Now that I got one, I almost wish I had one with more memory and bells and whistles. I am amazed at what you can do with them and how easy they are to add information to. I think you will find once you have one that you will use it for other things besides geocaching because of this. I know I did. Good luck and have fun.

[+Katetrex]

I have a Sony Clie SL-10, opted for the black and white display, because I was told it was easier to see in bright sun. I also wanted to be able to replace the batteries in the field, sometimes I just can't find those outlets out there in the woods to plug in a cradle. I also have a memory stick with 128 mg of storage space. I paid $60 for it at circuit city floor demo unit. I liked it so much I wanted until I could buy the next floor model and got one for my mother at the same price, now we can beam info back and forth between the two. It also fits nicely in the back pocket of my jeans. Easy USB hook up to download cache pages and real user-friendly graffitti allows easy entry in the field of answers for virtuals.

[+E = Mc2]

Thanks to all who responded. I got the Clie at Staples and already can't live without it. Now to get the other stuff installed and start going caching without carrying paper everywhere I go... except for the roll in my pack!

 

Thank goodness I bought the multifunction card reader when I got my SD card for my Meridian, instead of one that only works with SD. I now have three different types of flash memory cards! (SD,CF,MS)