+southdeltan Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 I'm looking to buy a pda/palm type device and I'm curious what the minimum requirements are to run programs necessary for paperless geocaching. How much RAM is needed to run the various programs necessary for paperless geocaching? What's the difference in Ram and Rom? I've been looking at the HP Jornada series on Ebay - anybody have experience with this model? southdeltan Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 I don't have a good answer on what is needed. Pecause PDA's use RAM the same way computers use hard drive space as always more is better. But I suspect if your only goal is paperless caching a 32mb PDA will work just fine. Having said that the two Pocket PC PDA apps that are avaialble to read a GPX file GPXview and GPXsonar both were written with Pocket PC 2002/2003 operating systems. I don't know if they work for systems older than that. ROM is where your OS resides. The more ROM you have the more likley you are able to upgrade your PDA to the newer OS such as 2002 or 2003. Sometimes with enough ROM the PDA will let you isntall programs there also in a file area that is available. Link to comment
+Marky Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 I have a visor (PalmOS) with 8 megs and it does fine. It's pretty old school (about 4 years old, not color) but gets the job done just fine. I use CacheMate to display the cache pages. If you're talking minimum, this is about it. --Marky Link to comment
+PDOP's Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 You can run the programs needed for paperless caching on as little as 2MB but you're limited to the number of caches it will hold (say a few hundred). If you want to use a mapping program then you'd definitely want more memory and a faster processor. Link to comment
+southdeltan Posted May 19, 2004 Author Share Posted May 19, 2004 I'm not necessarily looking for the most minimum system - just something inexpensive (on Ebay). I'm hoping to spend less than $100 if possible. I just wondered what the minimum was - I have no experience with PDA/Palm devices. I'm not up to date on the various programs needed for paperless caching either - aside from what was said earlier in the thread - so I don't know much about the system requirements of those programs either. southdeltan Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 southdeltan... If you go the Pocket PC route, make sure that the device runs Windows Mobile 2002 or 2003. Anything older will have trouble running GpxSonar or GpxView. If you go the Palm route, which may meet your price criteria better, CacheMate is the way to go. Link to comment
+southdeltan Posted May 19, 2004 Author Share Posted May 19, 2004 Thanks for the help. I will probably be going the PocketPC (winblows) route. Some local cachers said their device runs Windows CE and they use GPXSonar. Back to Ebay... sd Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted May 19, 2004 Share Posted May 19, 2004 southdeltan... I will probably be going the PocketPC (winblows) route. Hummm... If you think it blows, why are you going with it then? Some local cachers said their device runs Windows CE and they use GPXSonar. The requirement for GpxSonar is Pocket PC 2002 of 2003. It does not run on older versions of the OS. Make sure you know what they mean by 'Windows CE' before making assumptions. Link to comment
+southdeltan Posted May 20, 2004 Author Share Posted May 20, 2004 southdeltan... I will probably be going the PocketPC (winblows) route. Hummm... If you think it blows, why are you going with it then? I imagine you know the answer to that one. Some local cachers said their device runs Windows CE and they use GPXSonar. The requirement for GpxSonar is Pocket PC 2002 of 2003. It does not run on older versions of the OS. Make sure you know what they mean by 'Windows CE' before making assumptions. So what do they mean? I ASSUMED that CE was an OS. I will ask them to clarify on our local forums. Back to the drawing board.... sd Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 (edited) southdeltan... I imagine you know the answer to that one. Well, I personally truely like Pocket PC 2003 and I would use that over a Palm any day. I would not have written GpxSonar for PPC 2003 otherwise. So what do they mean? I ASSUMED that CE was an OS. Of course. But there's been many versions of it. To keep things simple when you select your device, make sure it runs the latest version of Windows CE which is called Windows Mobile 2003 a.k.a Pocket PC 2003. No need to go back to the drawing board. Edited May 20, 2004 by -=(GEO)=- Link to comment
+SCOTUS Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 southdeltan, I think that the minimum would be 8MB in order to keep the operating speed at a normal clip and also to store a sufficient number of caches. There are Palm III's out there that will serve you well in this vein if you like Palm and want to keep costs down. However, I just switched from an III to a Tungsten T3 and love it. If you don't like PalmOS, I would urge you to keep away from WinCE as it caused my friends and I who used it to wince. (Sorry, I know that was bad). I use CacheMate and love it. It presents all the data I need to go paperless. Link to comment
+southdeltan Posted May 21, 2004 Author Share Posted May 21, 2004 Thanks, but I've pretty much decided to go for something with the Windows OS. The information I've recieved has been helpful, and after basically looking at every device in my price range I've been able to find more than a few that run Windows Mobile 2002 (or whatever MS want's to call it this week) or higher with what I'm gonna assume to be plenty of RAM for less than 100 bucks. I haven't made my final decision but I think if I play the ebay cards right I can get something that may be useful for stuff other than geocaching for less than 100 bucks. sd Link to comment
+Alan2 Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 Dell has a special for an Axim for $200. Link to comment
+Smogman Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 I'm Running a Palm Zire 2MB and have had no problems and I have right at 400 caches stored and it is plenty fast, the only thing I would change is I have no backlight for night caching But....... I only paid $35.00 on Ebay. Link to comment
Major Catastrophe Posted May 23, 2004 Share Posted May 23, 2004 Speaking only to the original question: ANY pda that can sync to a PC will be adequate for paperless geocaching. I got along very well using a Palm Pro (1MB total) and always had plenty of room for everything, and not just geocaching. It's really amazing how little space the data takes up; it's the OS and bloated apps that make us think we need gigabytes of memory everywhere. OTOH, with a minimal system you can expect minimal tools. With the Palm Pro, I cut and pasted the essential info into text files, no automated tools to do it for me. Link to comment
+southdeltan Posted May 23, 2004 Author Share Posted May 23, 2004 Thanks to all those that replied. I've found out the information I needed. I'm going to get something that will run GPXsonar since every geocacher in my state (that I've talked to) who does paperless geocaching uses that and has great things to say about it. southdeltan Link to comment
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