Which Pda To Use Whilst Caching?

May 27, 2004

After going geocaching with various reams of paper containing cache notes,spoilers etc,I've decided to get a pda (or similar) to go with my MagPlat.

Does anyone have any recomendations for which unit to get? I don't want to spend more than £250 if possible,but I would like to be able to run Memory Map.There seems to be so many different ones out there!

May 27, 2004

Having delved around masses of sites on the Internet and read loads of reviews I suspect that it is not a good idea to go for a PDA with a GPS package and that for the GPS bit you'd be better sticking with the usual box of tricks.

However, a PDA certainly cannot be touched in terms of storage of information against reams of paper so I'll watch what the experts say with great interest..

Bren

May 27, 2004

£250, and what happens when you drop it crossing that burn? I use an old Palm IIIxe. got it from ebay for £30. 8megs of mem, plenty for anything I use for geocaching.

3.8k · May 27, 2004

It was seeing TartanT using his Palm that got me to buy one from Ebay. I got the Palm III with 2mb of memory for £20. Does the trick just nicely and you can connect your GPS up to it so you can find out your nearest caches. personally I wouldn't pay any more than that, as I use it in all weathers.

May 27, 2004

I have been a Palm user for years (long before I became a Geocacher), so that is my choice at the moment. I user a Magellan Sportrak Pro for the caching, and a Megellan Companion in the car with the Palm 515 to get to the right area (not the best mapping software, but it gets me there). I then bought Cachemate and became a premium member, and now I set off without any paper.

Is this the best option? Probably not, but the most important part for me is the metal case on the Palm. I have dropped this so many times, and it has always come up smiling (just wait - it'll break on my next trip). For me, this is one of the main criteria in choosing a PDA - can it stand being dropped on a rock?

Whichever route you choose - good luck and enjoy!

Stan

May 28, 2004

I recently got an iPAQ 4150 which is just fantastic. I matched it up with a bluetooth phone (R520m big but cheap) and loaded GPXsonar. I download the loc file for the UK from http://www.roblisa.com/geocache/uk.html . Just make sure you edit the file replacing any "&" with "and" as it messes up the gpxSonar import.

It all works a treat. I still have my Garmin Legend for the search and use the iPAQ to get the cache details. There is nothing worse than finding out that the cache was an offset cache after you get home. I'm not that convinced a bluetooth gps unit would help as I don't use the ipaq to map.

Once you start using a decent PDA you find all sorts of uses. I wouldn't leave home without one.

Now where did I put it?

Useful links

http://www.roblisa.com/geocache/uk.html

http://rtr.ca/geo

http://gpxsonar.homeip.net/default.aspx

http://ulanoff.com

May 28, 2004

We've got an iPAQ 3970 (bought off e-bay for £190) which we use for caching, TomTom 3 BlueTooth does the navigating and when we've parked up we use it to read the cache details. We've also got a program that downloads the spoiler pics to the PDA incase we get really stuck !

We use a Geko 201 to actually find the cache though as these seem virtually indestructable, we carry the PDA on belt case for clue decrypts / spoiler pics.

Like most - we started out on paper prints but it's so much easier with the PDA.

aRRKS

May 28, 2004

I'll admit to being a technological dinosaur, my interest in caching derives from the navigational element rather than the technological element. As a consequence, I only know what I 'need' to know about the more recent technological developments and am quite happy to leave it at that. However, last week we were in the Yorkshire Dales and I had somewhere in the region of 50-60 print-outs lurking in the car/bottom of rucksack/fleece pocket/mountaineering-jacket pocket, 'just in case' we happened to be passing within sensible range of a cache. Sod's law dictated that when we were walking near 'Gaping Gill', the print-out was in the car.. you get the picture ! I'd love one of these simple PDA jobbies just to store, say, a hundred cache details, to cut down on all this paper, but we've only got an old PC (about 8 years) running on Windows 95 (I assume that's 1995, but knowing us it could well be 1895..). So, now comes the stupid question : is it possible to link a PDA into the aformentioned computer and download the relevant info or are we really going to have to shell out some serious cash (should that be cache ?) and buy a more updated computer, in order to be able to reduce the amount of paper we carry around with us ?

Martyn B

2.2k · May 28, 2004

i'm even more out of date, i stick to a notebook and pen. only advantage is it doesn't take batteries and i get an immediate hardcopy of all caches i've done and intend to do. i do some letterboxing aswell so it doubles as my log book for collecting the stamps.

might get round to joining the technical world one day but not today!

May 28, 2004

So, now comes the stupid question : is it possible to link a PDA into the aformentioned computer and download the relevant info or are we really going to have to shell out some serious cash (should that be cache ?) and buy a more updated computer, in order to be able to reduce the amount of paper we carry around with us ?

Martyn B

An inexpensive Palm IIIxe, cachemate (best $7 you will ever spend IMHO) and GSAK (GeocachingSwissArmyKnife - free btw) and you'll be all set.

May 28, 2004

An inexpensive Palm IIIxe, cachemate (best $7 you will ever spend IMHO) and GSAK (GeocachingSwissArmyKnife - free btw) and you'll be all set.

Rather than clog up the forum, any chance you could expand on the two latter items by e-mail to me ?

Many thanks

Martyn B

May 29, 2004

It took two years of caching to discover memory map and then realised when I bumped into another cacher using his PDA with the maps, that I really needed one. (Thanks Mr Stead)

I didn't want one with GPS nav on as I use the Garmin GPS V with map software, so to looked at my options.

After checking out all the handhelds I opted for a brand new IPAQ 1930. It's the baseline PDA. It did however, have everything I wanted. An expandeable memory. And I discovered I can transfer films to it and watch them whilst out and about, as well as all the other functions, and it's less than £220. Check out ebay as I discovered to my cost, I could have bought it cheaper.

The memory map software is fantastic with it. I now take it everywhere and wonder how I ever managed without it.

Hope this helps in some way.

May 29, 2004

Sparticus... sorry to be a pain... "Memory Map"? Does this provide a readout something like Autoroute by any chance?

We use Autoroute with the dowloaded .csv file to plot all the UK caches and find it very useful. It sure would be nice to have such a facility in the field but we don't like humping a laptop about!

Edit: Having posted that I found the memory Map site on the Internet - and saw the prices! Phewwwww. I think we'll have to make do with our £2.99 road atlas we bought at the Little Chef!

Thanks

Edited May 29, 2004 by Birders

3.8k · May 29, 2004

Like Haggis Hunter I also use a Palm III (2MB) from ebay (£20) I also use cachemate (£4 ish) Its memory is plenty big enough its only 60% full and has in 155 trigpoints and 320 caches stored at the moment and is always ready to go.

Brian

May 29, 2004

I currently use my dell axim x5 with gpxsonar to store the gpx files and make my field notes. I got a gps which unfortunately only works whilst powered by the 12v car adapter which I use to navigate to the caches with the supplied tomtom citymaps europe - which is fine for local journeys but to get from my house to the alchemy quest I'd need at least three maps loaded. This is easily done, but it is not recommended that you switch maps whilst driving down the m6 (unless you are approaching birmingham and stuck in the jam!)

Having said all that I am nervous about breaking it, and a palm 3 for £20 on ebay sounds a bargain and great to use whilst out on the cache itself. The problem is i'm not sure if it would be *too* complicated to get my gpx's synchronised with my home pc, office pc, laptop, pocketpc, palm AND gps.

I do actually have the original palm pilot so it would be interesting to see if this works with cachemate (although not having usb connectivity it would be a pain.

May 29, 2004

Right you lot!

On the strength of this debate, I have just bought a Palm IIIxe (for the statutory £20 from eBay) because I too have suffered with the paperchase thing.

Why do the neatly printed and organised sheets of A4 refuse to slide neatly back into the folder in the right way and in the right place? Like a tetchy child, the more the weather is unfavourable, the worst the data and pages behave! I get back to the bike/car with everything all over the place - so I would like to get the hang of this more organised way of doing things.

Any chance of a quick overview of the best way to get a number of cache pages around a given destination into the aforementioned Palm III thingey (my first electronic PDA). I get hold of the box on Wed and Fri night I'm off for a quick "war" in Cornwall - so I need to do this job quickly...

Cheers

May 29, 2004

Do I need to run a PDA and caching workshop? ;-)

Find a pub, all attendees keep me in coffee and pay for the petrol and I'll bring PC and Mac and cover Palm and Pocket PC.

Sound like a winner?

- Neil.

May 30, 2004

Yes - we'd have some of that, provided the pub isn't in Sumburgh!

Edited May 30, 2004 by Birders

May 30, 2004

Any chance of a quick overview of the best way to get a number of cache pages around a given destination into the aforementioned Palm III thingey (my first electronic PDA). I get hold of the box on Wed and Fri night I'm off for a quick "war" in Cornwall - so I need to do this job quickly...

Cachemate for the Palm is the probably the best bit of software you could get. And only $7!

1) install cachemate onto PC and then download it to palm

2) install CMConvert (part of cachemate)

3) download custom query from GC.com in XML format

4) use CMConvert to convert the XML to Cachemate format

5) sync up the palm, which will download the data to your palm

6) enjoy

www.smittyware.com is the place to find it.... there is a demo version.

Cachemate has a search facility, so just type in where you are, and tell it to find the nearest caches...

paul

1.8k · May 30, 2004

GSAK is far more versatile than CMconvert, but runs CMconvert under the hood to ensure that exports are 100% compatable with Cachemate.

May 31, 2004

GSAK is far more versatile than CMconvert, but runs CMconvert under the hood to ensure that exports are 100% compatable with Cachemate.

For more info on using GSAK & CacheMate check out my Paperless Caching article on Floridacaching.com (if the words don't make sense at least it has pretty pictures :blink: )

http://www.floridacaching.com/content.php?article.15

May 31, 2004

:blink: Thank you all for your assistance, particularly TartanT for his emails that put me in the right direction and Clan_ Barron for the all-embracing article that cleared up all the mysterious bits.

Now I have all the bits in place ready for the arrival of the Palm IIIxe - and once I have sorted out the mystic rites of determining my "hot-sync name", the last piece of the jigsaw, registering "CacheMate" will allow us to join the paperless fraternity.

Thanks again people...

P.S. Sue's not impressed - another gadget on the rack!

Edited May 31, 2004 by Sue & Bernie

May 31, 2004

GSAK is far more versatile than CMconvert, but runs CMconvert under the hood to ensure that exports are 100% compatable with Cachemate.

Well, I'll be darned.... I NEVER realised that GSAK had support for Cachemate.... they must have sneaked it in recently when I wasn't looking!

Thanks for that useful snippet!

Paul

June 2, 2004

I am pleased to report that I am hot-to-trot with my new (second-user) Palm IIIxe.

I had GSAK already installed and CacheMate downloaded. The Pocket Query arrived and was imported into GSAK and spat out again in the PBD format. All ready to rock...

It arrived today, getting the Palm hooked up and sync-ed was easey-peasey!

The registration details for CacheMate arrived, sorted out on the Palm - another hot sync and Bingo! 200 caches in Cornwall stuffed into the Palm. Brilliant!

Thank you all for your insight and pointers, it enabled me to get things ready in true military manner and, in minutes, I am ready to trundle off to my "war" in Cornwall. On the days that "peace" is declared there, I will be wandering about the hills with a Vista in one hand and the Palm in the other...

...and it's all your fault!

Thanks again people.

June 2, 2004

I am pleased to report that I am hot-to-trot with my new (second-user) Palm IIIxe.

I had GSAK already installed and CacheMate downloaded. The Pocket Query arrived and was imported into GSAK and spat out again in the PBD format. All ready to rock...

It arrived today, getting the Palm hooked up and sync-ed was easey-peasey!

The registration details for CacheMate arrived, sorted out on the Palm - another hot sync and Bingo! 200 caches in Cornwall stuffed into the Palm. Brilliant!

Thank you all for your insight and pointers, it enabled me to get things ready in true military manner and, in minutes, I am ready to trundle off to my "war" in Cornwall. On the days that "peace" is declared there, I will be wandering about the hills with a Vista in one hand and the Palm in the other...

...and it's all your fault!

Thanks again people.

Glad to hear it all worked out for you! Paperless is the only way to go. Best wishes during the "war" and "peace".

June 2, 2004

Spoke too soon...

While my 200 caches are neatly in the Palm, the last 5 cache logs for each cache are not! That page is blank for every cache.

I have loaded the Palm through GSAK (which will display the logs so the data is in the GPX file) and I have loaded it with a file converted with CMConvert. Both produce files without the cache logs.

What button have I failed to press?

Doh! Forget it - I've found it, the default setting for GSAK is "0" - zero logs! Isn't that a daft selection? Changed that to 4 and all's well!

Hurrah!

Edited June 2, 2004 by Sue & Bernie

June 3, 2004

As a final comment, I have just uploaded another load of caches into the Palm IIIxe - 450 caches with all the data you get on the printouts (or webpages) and it fill 1.4 mb of the 8 available.

I am quite impressed so far...

June 4, 2004

Just bought a Palm iiix from ebay for £13.60 arrived yesterday. Downloaded GSAK and Cachemate, upgraded to Premium membership, installed all software and transferred my first 100 caches to the Palm last night. Gave all the printed copies to the kids to scribble on, looking forward to the weekend paper free!! Now looking for a cheap colour Palm to live in the car loaded with Memory Map or Fugawi for navigation.

June 4, 2004

Now looking for a cheap colour Palm to live in the car loaded with Memory Map or Fugawi for navigation.

The cheapest colour that's probably suitable is the M515. Possibly the M130 but I can't remember the exact spec of it.

For mapping your one and only choice as far as OS maps is Fugawi. Unfortunately Memory Map doesn't have a Palm client.

However I'm not aware of anyone who does a combined power/data connection for Palm<->GPS connectivity.

- Neil.

1.8k · June 4, 2004

PC-Mobile.com is the place for the cable you want.

As for colour Palm OS devices, there are some good Sony Clie options. I run Tom Tom Citymaps and Fugawi on my SJ22 - available for about £100.

PC-Mobile does the cables you need for the Clie also.

As for keeping charged, spend about £20 on ebay. That should get you a car charger, and unit to recharge or power from AA batteries.

With one in the car, and the other in your pocket, you will never be without power.

June 4, 2004

We have a Palm Tungsten but haven't tried using it for Geocaching yet.

Sooooo... if I use Cachemate, does that mean that I don't need iSolo or GPX Spinner?

June 4, 2004

We have a Palm Tungsten but haven't tried using it for Geocaching yet.
Sooooo... if I use Cachemate, does that mean that I don't need iSolo or GPX Spinner?

Yes, you can do away with both of those (unless you just really like them :lol: ) CacheMate is all that you need.

June 4, 2004

:lol: It is really nice to see an interesting and informative thread in this forum amongst all the spam.

You lot have have really broadened out our geo-geeking outlook - and got me carrying one of them there yuppie things that I never expected to bother with! I've really enjoyed "playing" with it, particularly the effectiveness of the hot-sync function.

I have made a memo page and added all the GPS co-ordinates of my family and friends so that when we go visiting, it is a simple copy-and-paste to find the nearest caches in CacheMate.

The only problem is, Sue is showing an interest in my new toy, er...equipment, er...accessory.

...now I've gotta find some-one else with one an do some beaming!!! Scottie? Scottie?

Edited June 4, 2004 by Sue & Bernie

June 5, 2004

While my 200 caches are neatly in the Palm, the last 5 cache logs for each cache are not! That page is blank for every cache.
.....

Doh! Forget it - I've found it, the default setting for GSAK is "0" - zero logs! Isn't that a daft selection? Changed that to 4 and all's well!

Don't worry, I too got caught out by that: I was up in Staffordshire for a couple of days, and wondered why there were no logs.... luckily I had my laptop & the files, so in the evening I re-loaded the info WITH the logs.

Yes, its an odd default, especially when you consider that CMConvert defaults to 10, I think.

Have you linked your PDA to your GPS yet?

Paul

June 5, 2004

You lot have have really broadened out our geo-geeking outlook - and got me carrying one of them there yuppie things that I never expected to bother with! I've really enjoyed "playing" with it, particularly the effectiveness of the hot-sync function.

I never had a PDA until I got my iQue.

Shortly after getting it, we had a big crash with our exchange server... luckily I had also made notes of my appintments etc in my iQue, so had nor problems. Following on from that, any appintment now goes into BOTH exchange and my PDA.

I don't sync to exchange, but just use my palm desktop.

I recently had a need to have a list of member details... so we exported them from the database, via Excel, where I merged some of the details, then was able to import the data into my palm address book.... the end result is I have all the details on my PDA!

I also use it to keep lists of "things to buy" and all those sorth of things.

Not to forget the sat-nav, cachemate etc......

Paul

June 19, 2004

:lol: I have just returned from my 2 week war in Cornwall using my newly acquired Palm III xe for paperless caching.

It was simply brilliant! I had just 4x A4 maps back-to-back in 2 poly pockets and no other paperwork. No muss, no fuss, just looking up each cache and the recent logs on the box as you travel to each location. The Palm lived in my back pocket while walking about. A really neat and effective solution.

Thank you all for your pointers and making our caching so much more organised and neat - and saving all those printouts.

I've not got the cable to link the GPS to the Palm - at £25 it is more expensive than the palm! My solution is to keep a memo of useful co-ordinates and cut-n-paste them into the CacheMate search function as required.

I actually find the Palm quite useful too...

1.8k · June 19, 2004

A back pocket is a bit dangerous if you tumble backwards.

I think a breast pocket is safest.

For some pointers ojn how to protect your Palm, check this out.

June 20, 2004

I like the Palm IIIxe so much - I've bought another one on eBay:

My great buy...

... is this a cheap way to go paperless or what! :huh:

This second Palm will be for Sue, I was so impressed with the perfect synchronisation with Outlook that I think this will be the way to keep work, home, him & her all singing from the same hymn-book as well as making the geo-geeking easier.

June 20, 2004

This second Palm will be for Sue, I was so impressed with the perfect synchronisation with Outlook that I think this will be the way to keep work, home, him & her all singing from the same hymn-book as well as making the geo-geeking easier.

Now all you need is DualDate. This will allow you to beam your calendars to each other's Palm, so you can each have a copy of the others diary.

Yorkstan

June 21, 2004

Thanks for that pointer, downloaded this freeware from PalmOne.com today - only 275kb! Amazing!

Lots of software available on the web too...

June 23, 2004

So, now comes the stupid question : is it possible to link a PDA into the aformentioned computer and download the relevant info or are we really going to have to shell out some serious cash (should that be cache ?) and buy a more updated computer, in order to be able to reduce the amount of paper we carry around with us ?

Martyn B

An inexpensive Palm IIIxe, cachemate (best $7 you will ever spend IMHO) and GSAK (GeocachingSwissArmyKnife - free btw) and you'll be all set.

What he said, but I use a sony clie SJ20 (B&W) although pretty much any of the Sony range would be fine, they are very well designed and mine has taken quite a beating over the last 350 caches, it doesn't even mind the screen getting rained upon, although I would recommend protecting it as much as possible.

The only thing that has happened to it is all the paint has worn off the back where it's in my pocket rubbing against my spare battery case all the time.

I wouldn't recommend folding ones for caching though, could be a little more fragile. The SJ22 is pretty cheap not, and there are Palm os 5 versions too.

June 27, 2004

As as final word, this is me actually using the black box of tricks:

...with only some map printout, otherwise completely paperless.

Hoorah!

Which Pda To Use Whilst Caching?

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