Cables

[+Fangsy]

Hiyas, quick querry. I need a cable to connect a Garmin Venture to a Palm IIIxe so they can communicate. I've been looking through the substantial list of items on globalpositioningsystems.co.uk but am a little beffudled by the huge variety.

 

CacheMate and CacheNav are installed on the Palm, plus the plugin for CacheMate to let it listen for GPS speak.

 

Thanks in advance!

[+roolku]

Have a look here. I wanted to order my cable from their UK branch but they were out of stock and so I ended up making my own cable. You may want to check their other European sites or order it straight away from the states.

 

Roolku

 

Edit:

 

They seem to have stock. I believe it is article BH121900.

 

Roolku

Edited September 14, 2004 by roolku

[+Learned Gerbil]

PC Mobile almost certainly have what you want. You can email them to be sure - service is very good.

[+Fangsy]

Thanks for those. I considered making my own cable but would have to acquire a propper palm connector to do so anyway, so ordering online will most likely work out with the least solder burns

[+choccymandm]

or order it straight away from the states.

ours came from the states - supplynet, emap to palm cable with detachable cigarette lighter plug for powering both devices in-car. Very neat and tidy little cable and worth the money spent.

 

The only problems ...

 

1. Having to pay import duty

2. Being charged £4 by the Royal Mail for paying that import duty on our behalf

 

So we had to add an extra £10 to the cost of the cable!! and as "sod's law" would have it a few weeks later all these links appeared on the forums about where to get cables from in the uk.

[+Sue and Bernie]

When I looked at this, I determined that there was little point in having a cable to connect the Palm to your GPS - especially when it costs more than my Palm IIIxe did!

 

As I understand it, the only additional functionality the cable affords is to enable the current position to be passed direct to the Palm. Then the Palm can display the nearest cache! (and/or a crude display on the Palm).

 

Therefore, in reality, all the cable has done is to save you actually enterring the current location!

 

...so I did not go for the cable but to make the "Nearest Cache..." search of Cachemate more user-friendly, I maintain a memo list of all the locations that form the starting points - family, friends, holidays etc. These match my Pocket Query searches. It is then a simple matter to use the Palm's copy and paste functions to put these co-ords into Cachemate.

 

When out in the field, the next use of "Nearest Cache..." appears with the last used co-ords already inserted. These are then easily updated to the current location.

 

Mine you, my new Vista C automatically brings up the next nearest cache when the current one is marked as found...

[+Sue and Bernie]

Oops! Double post...

Edited September 16, 2004 by Sue & Bernie

[+Learned Gerbil]

Depending on your GPSr, cachemate plugins can read the position fro myour GPS and then tell you the nearest caches and then update the waypoints in your GPSr accordingly. I find this function well worth the cost of the cable.

[+Sue and Bernie]

Sorry LG, we may be missing something - how are the waypoints updated? Surely they're fixed?

 

We understand the nearest waypoint/cache bit, my old Vista would automatically list them in that order anyway.

 

The new Vista C has geo-geeking specific functions, as soon as you click that a cache is found, it logs it in the calendar in the GPS (its a real dead-basic organiser) and lines up the next nearest.

 

We tend to use the Palm simply as a database/notebook enabling us to go paperless (except maps). Get a Vista C - it costs the same as 10 of the cables!

[+yorkstan]

I run Fugawi on my Palm, so linking it to a GPS is wonderful (actually I use a Magellan Companion GPS with the Palm - see here for info), as it shows where you and the cache are. The other great thing is that is also shows if you are still on the public footpath, when it is not clearly marked.

By the way - link is one example of many suppliers - not necessarily the best price.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I am not sure what you mean about updated waypoints. Of course they are fixed. But I find it much more convinient to search closest waypoints on the Palm where I can read full descriptions logs etc, then, if I wan to to search for one I update the waypoints in the GPSr to include that cache. That way my GPSr is not cluttered by hundreds of waypoints I am not looking for. The process is very quick and means I almost never have to use any buttons on the GPSr.