Pda V/s Laptop

[Nick_T]

Thinking of going with one of these 2 to go paperless. For the price of one of the better PDAs I can get a pretty decent laptop, and with a 12V converter I can have it up and running in the truck. The laptop would give me alot more capabilities, but I notice that a bunch of ya'll around here are using PDAs. Am I missing something?

 

Nick T

[+Mastifflover]

With a pda it doesn't have to stay in the truck. You can have nearly limitless cache pages with all descriptions and hints in your pocket. If you want a pda just for cache pages for on the go you can go with a very basic pda for very cheap that will work fine.

[+Stem]

It is much easier to carry a pda into the woods than a laptop . There is software available to put all the info on a cache page onto a pda. That way you can slip it into your pocket, and pull it out while your hiking to check details, logs, hints etc. It would be difficult to do that with a laptop.

 

IMHO do not buy an expensive pda for caching. Cheaper is better. They are not waterproof or designed for the trails. By all means use a high end model for the office, but when (note I didn't say if) you drop the pda in the stream, mud, or whatever, you'll be glad you spent $50, not $600.

 

I reccomend a pda with at least 8 mb memory. I use a palm m125 ($40 on ebay), and it works wonderfully. For software I use cachemate $7, and it is wonderful. Hope this helps

[+Mastifflover]

I'll have to second the Cachemate suggestion for the pda. Great little program!

[+IMLost]

A laptop and a PDA are quite different animals.so to speak. A PDA fits in yoour backpack if you are using something like CacheMate you'll have the clues with you on the trail if needed plus the cache descriptions.

[+Renegade Knight]

My PDA hits the trail with me. It's got maps, caches, and other helpful information on it. For caching it does me 98% of what I need. The other 2% is handled via a route from the computer or a print out of a topo map for trails.

[+javamutt]

Try to count the tears you would cry the first time you slid down an embankment and smashed your backpack against a rock, shattering the LCD of your geo-laptop into oblivion.

 

In contrast, imagine the old Palm pilot you bought on eBay for dirt wrapped in an otterbox. You drop it and lightly scratch the otterbox, but no damage to thew PDA.

 

Personally, I print out the cache pages for the area I'm in and stick 'em in a ziplock freezerbag. I'm never so far from the Internet that I can't supplement my mobile catalog. On the other hand, I'm a totaly gadget freak, so do what's right for you

[+JeepCachr]

I use a pocketPC with a bluetooth gps receiver. I put the GPS where it can get a good view, in the car it goes on the dash and in the woods it goes in the side pocket on my pack. The PPC contains street maps, topo maps, and aerial photos along with all the cache detail for every cache within 100 miles of here. The only thing I'm lacking is internet access so that I could log my finds online while I'm still at the cache.

 

Many people only use laptops and PDA's for the mapping capability then they leave them in the car when they get close.

[+Melrose Plant]

My PDA hits the trail with me. It's got maps, caches, and other helpful information on it. For caching it does me 98% of what I need. The other 2% is handled via a route from the computer or a print out of a topo map for trails.

I finally got my PDA (which is so cheap it was free--I think it's a fairly ancient model) to accept information from the PQs, and I think it's a big improvement over what I was doing before.

 

But how are you getting maps onto your PDA, even rudimentary ones? This is the one reason that I haven't given up paper completely, although I have cut down a lot.

[+Monkeybrad]

You could always do what we do and opt for both. Cheap pda's (Sony Clie) for the woods, old dell laptop that had outlived it's usefulness in business in the truck. We reformatted the pc and only loaded necessary system software and geo related programs. The fairly clean operating environment helps with the speed problem of an older laptop, plus if someone breaks into the truck and steals it, it is not the end of the world. Mine was an office leftover but i am sure you can buy a five year old dell inspiron for next to nothing.

[+ScurvyDog]

Hi there, I just got a PDA (PEG-TJ25) for caching. Sony Clie` w/ 128 mb memory stick.

Is there someone who could email me the way I could put a number of cache sheets on this PDA? Reading above notes, cachemate is a good program. What I need is step by step instructions. If you have time.

 

ScurvyDog

Edited March 24, 2004 by ScurvyDog

[+Maeglin]

Is there someone who could email me the way I could put a number of cache sheets on this PDA? Reading above notes, cachemate is a good program. What I need is step by step instructions. If you have time.

Check out either of the following URLs...

 

http://negeocachers.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=1

http://www.smittyware.com/contrib/

[+New England n00b]

What is an otterbox? Sounds interesting.

[+Maeglin]

What is an otterbox?  Sounds interesting.

OtterBox is a company that makes some rather rugged cases for PDAs and storage of other types of things as well.

[+New England n00b]

I shoulda guessed it was a company name. Google would have pulled it up - sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for the info!

[+JeepCachr]

But how are you getting maps onto your PDA, even rudimentary ones?  This is the one reason that I haven't given up paper completely, although I have cut down a lot.

What kind of PDA do you have? The 2 basic flavors are Palm and PocketPC. The process and programs involved is different (but similar) for each.

 

What is an otterbox?  Sounds interesting.

Here's a pic of mine doing the hot tub test with my ipaq in it.

I have full functionality inside of the case except for the biometric scanner.

[+sledgehampster]

Some one on Ebay listed a GPS/PDA combo for sale because their new car had a nav system. Hope they are not cachers, would choose to carry a laptop into the woods as opposed to a Buick!

[CoyoteRed]

For the cost conscience you can get BOTH a PDA and laptop.

 

I use an Palm m105 and it works great for caching. It's too slow for cachemate, but GPXspinner and Plucker works outstanding. You get them day in, day out on eBay for less than $50. It's great to have several hundred caches in your pocket.

 

A laptop can run MSS&T with a GPS hooked to it. We have a hand me down 350mHz laptop with the nasty smeary screen (not the TFT) and it works very well for getting where we need to go in the car. Around here you can pick up a refurb laptop with 850mHz and 40g for around $500.

 

Another thing about a laptop is you don't need to put ALL of the waypoints in your GPS. You can par down so the sort screens are faster and when you move into a different area just download more from your laptop.

 

So, if you shop around you can get a laptop AND a useful PDA for the price a highend PDA alone.

 

Plus, if you screw up and take too long changing your PDA batteries, you can sync up again if you have both.

 

That's what we've done.

[+The Leprechauns]

I agree with CR: one good answer is BOTH. After a successful conversion to paperless geocaching with a PDA, my next purchase will be a used laptop or a low-end new laptop. I feel a need to do this before taking off on some marathon geocaching trips I hope to take this summer. I worry about the PDA resetting -- no worry, just resync with the laptop's backup copy. I worry about running out of waypoints or changing my route, as has happened to me before -- no worry, just have extra PQ's stored on the laptop for downloading to the GPS. I worry about driving in unfamiliar territory and getting into an accident while trying to read a tiny GPS map -- no worry, hook the GPS up to the laptop and display large readable maps that I can glance at while at the stoplight (never while moving, OF COURSE). I worry about the PDA running out of juice and needing a recharge -- no worry, if I rely on the laptop in the car and only use the PDA for quick references during the cache hunt, it should last for days. Laptop in the car, PDA in the field. Simple.

[+EScout]

Regarding some of the points here on using a PDA:

Scurvy Dog: I got the Sony TJ25 a couple of months ago and it is a great little unit. Love that 320X320 color screen. I got mine for $120 after rebates. The memory stick was extra.

 

It has a rechargeable lithium battery that has a good life. I recommend getting the after-market USB sync cord. Compared to the USB sync cord that comes with it, the new one can charge your PDA from the USB port of your laptop/desktop. You can also get a cig lighter plug, and a small wall-wart that this USB sync cord plugs into. You can also get a small auxillary power box with a cord that plugs into the PDA. The box holds 4 AA batteries and is supposed to charge your PDA 4 times before the AA batteries are dead.

 

The memory stick is great because you can hold lots of .jpg files of topo maps, aerial photos, etc. You can also back up all of the internal memory, settings, applications, onto the stick. That way, if your battery goes dead, you can replicate your PDA instantly (or put the stick in another unit and do the same.)

 

I use Spinner and Plucker to put the PQs into the PDA. GSAK works well also. Use GPSBabel to put the caches on your maps before saving as a .jpg and loading to your PDA. USPhotomaps takes the cachepoints directly from the .gpx files for your aerial photos.

[+Melrose Plant]

I use an Palm m105 and it works great for caching. It's too slow for cachemate, but GPXspinner and Plucker works outstanding. You get them day in, day out on eBay for less than $50. It's great to have several hundred caches in your pocket.

I also use a Palm m105. It was given to me about a year and a half ago. It has 8 MB of memory. When I first started doing PQs, I limited the number of caches I put in the Palm to about 50-75. Then one day I figured out how to tell how much memory was left in the Palm, and I am only using about 5% of the memory available to me. I guess those pages don't take up all that much room.

[+NightPilot]

To get maps on the PDA, use USAPhotomaps, and use it to download the maps you want. You can get topo, photo, or both. Save them as jpg images, then put them on the PDA. Cheap, old Palms may not work for this, but a newer color high-resolution version will give you very good maps to view. You certainly require an SD card to install them. You can scroll as necessary, and save the maps in several resolutions, depending on how much detail you need to see and how much area you want to cover.

[+Night Stalker]

If you are concerned about the cost of a good PDA maybe you should look on Ebay. I am using a Compaq Ipaq 3955 which I purchased almost a year ago on Ebay for $250. This was when they were still $499, so you can get a pretty decent peice of equipment if you are careful and don't need the latest and the greatest.

[+JeepCachr]

If you are concerned about the cost of a good PDA maybe you should look on Ebay.  I am using a Compaq Ipaq 3955 which I purchased almost a year ago on Ebay for $250.  This was when they were still $499, so you can get a pretty decent peice of equipment if you are careful and don't need the latest and the greatest.

You can get the Ipaq 1945 now for about $200. It is very small (much smaller than my 5550) has a a very nice screen, a bunch of memory a SD card slot and bluetooth wireless. I'm thinking about picking one up to carry in the woods with me instead of my $750 5550.

 

I use a Fortuna blue tooth clip on GpS and I love it.