Which Pda?

[+Fitzdawg]

I'm interested in adding a PDA to avoid printing out cache info, and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions. I'm on a budget, and will most likely buy one used from ebay (or the like), so I guess I need to know what the basics are (brands, necessary memory, etc). Thanks

[+tirediron]

If you are going to use Cachemate (which, BTW is the best $7.00 I have spent on 'caching) than even the most basic Palm with 2MB (M130) of RAM will work fine. You can get into the whole PocketPC/Palm debate, but there is more available for the Palm, and it's generally cheaper. If you want to have maps on your PDA as well, such as Fugawi or Mapopolis, than a colour display and at least 8MB (>16preferred) is what you should aim for.

Edited June 1, 2004 by tirediron

[+Renegade Knight]

Budget means Palm based PDA's. Pocket PCs have simplar and easier applications to go paperless and better mapping software available but the Pocket PCs are more expensive than Palms. You can go paperless in the Palm world for 50 bucks or less by going used on eBay.

[Boomer&theNudge]

I have a similar question, say you have a PDA, what is the best way to upgrade it so that it has GPS capability? A co-worker recently won an HP IPaq at work and he wants to get into geocaching, but has no idea what he will need to get to upgrade his IPaq...any suggestions?

[+Fitzdawg]

Does anyone have any idea as to how many cache pages I could realistically load with 8mb of memory on a PDA. My wife and aren't world travelers, but we would like to be able to download and keep basic info (probably not maps) about caches for neighboring states if possible.

[+Imajika]

I use a Palm Tungsten E. My pocket queries that get emailed to me each week contain 300 caches and I can load all of them to my PDA with no problems at all...and there's plenty of room to spare.

 

I also used a Palm Zire 21 until I upgraded and I didn't have any trouble with loading mass amounts of caches to it either.

[+wolf452]

Does anyone have any idea as to how many cache pages I could realistically load with 8mb of memory on a PDA. My wife and aren't world travelers, but we would like to be able to download and keep basic info (probably not maps) about caches for neighboring states if possible.

My Palm IIIxe with 8 meg currently has 791 caches in the cachemate file and 400+ in my plucker file. Used isn't expensive.

[+NightPilot]

To give a PPC GPS capability, all you need is a GPS and a cable. With a PPC you may be able to use CF card GPS units - a GPS on a Compact Flash card. Probably won't work as well as a standalone GPS, because the antenna isn't as efficient, but it will work. More expensive than a basic standalone handheld, but it doesn't need cables.

[+harleycache]

Does anyone have any idea as to how many cache pages I could realistically load with 8mb of memory on a PDA. My wife and aren't world travelers, but we would like to be able to download and keep basic info (probably not maps) about caches for neighboring states if possible.

I have 1087 caches in my Sony Clie and have room for thousands more (it's got 15 M total and not using anywhere near the limit).

[+clan_Barron]

I have 2100+ caches in Cachemate in my Palm IIIxe (8meg) with the optons set to store the last 10 logs and they only use 3.7 meg.

 

For info on paperless caching with a Palm checkout http://65.34.18.106/content.php?article.15

[+Smogman]

I use a Zire 21 and have had no problems, I have several hundred caches loaded and still have room. If I were going to by again I would buy a Zire 31 because the Zire 21 has no backlight and it's hard to night geocache. The Zire 31 has a backlight and is color.

[+RPW]

I say "go cheap". If/when you drop the PDA into the water or it gets rained on or dropped then you won't cry as much. I use to use my Palm C -- color, lots of memory, and a fast processor -- however at $400 it is really not a plaything. So I went with a Palm Zire 21 -- grey-scale (good for the sun), limited memory (but enough for 800 caches) and a slow processor -- but at $50 if I ruin it then so what?

 

Yes, there are waterproof boxes you can stuff your PDA into however it is undoubtedly the time when a person is stuffing the PDA into/out of the box that it is most likely to get dropped.

[+Renegade Knight]

I have a similar question, say you have a PDA, what is the best way to upgrade it so that it has GPS capability? A co-worker recently won an HP IPaq at work and he wants to get into geocaching, but has no idea what he will need to get to upgrade his IPaq...any suggestions?

It depends on teh iPAQ. You can go CF GPS but you will probably need a CF (compact Flash sleeve) You can go with a Bluetooth GPS.

 

HP does sell GPS solutions for their PDA's.

[+Nuwati]

I own a sony clie and a palm m100 that I purchased from e-bay. They were all cheap so there was no real loss. They came with there own little scratches and dings and corks. The clie came with an incorrect cradle and I had to modifie it to fit and the palm m100 just lacked storage.

Well I discovered that the pda is kinda cool and versitle. I wanted a pda that could grow with me and my geocaching experience so I purchased a palm Zire 31. This pda comes with a nice color screen, 14 MB memmory, expandable memmory(I bought a 256 MB SD card), and a whole bunch of different bells and whistles. For the money this is a nice setup. I now tell my friends that when you buy a GPSr or PDA look for something that has room to grow with you. It was also nice just to own something with all the right parts and to get it through free next day shipping you can't beat that.

 

Nuwati

[dampeoples]

Handspring Visor PDA's are nice and cheap, I think someone had one for sale in the marketplace not too long ao. Cheap enough to not cry if you drop it, and they even have a magellan gps module you can attach to them.

[+Fitzdawg]

If I get a PDA that has a slot for a memory card, can I save caches to that, and then work from the card? (ex. - can I save all of the caches around my family's vacation cabin to a separate card, and then plug it in when I want to use it?)

Edited June 4, 2004 by Fitzdawg

[+EScout]

Fitzdawg:

I have a Sony Clie TJ25, which after rebate was $130, a very good deal for the 320x320 quality screen, fast processor, etc. Add a 128MB memory stick card (just got one for $30) and you have a lot of space and versatility.

I use Plucker. You can create different "documents" which are data bases of caches, and save them in the main memory (my clie has 11MB available for programs and data.), just name them differently. You can move or copy these to your memory stick, and move them back when you want to use them. So, you can create lots of different databases, archive and manage them on the stick.

Another great thing about the stick(or card) is that there is a back-up feature, where you can recreate your entire PDA on another. I keep a stick at home with back up so that if the Clie gets lost or broken, I can replicate, even without my Palm Desktop program.

The high resolution screen is great for .jpg photos and topo maps and more. These are stored and accessed from the stick.