Palms

[The Cachesnatchers]

How many of you use palms while geocaching. Do I really need one?

[+Moe the Sleaze]

Do you NEED one? No. But many of us find it more convenient than carrying reams of paper print-outs and maps into the field.

[CoyoteRed]

Well, I need one to keep my fingers and thumb attached to my wrist.

 

 

[+planetrobert]

i use one with Cachemate. It is SOOO nice. you get all the information that is on a cache page. if you get PQ's in gpx format.

 

also this topic probably should be moved to the units and software forum.

[+SeventhSon]

i use one with Cachemate. It is SOOO nice. you get all the information that is on a cache page. if you get PQ's in gpx format.

 

also this topic probably should be moved to the units and software forum.

I use Plucker, but it doesn't include images unless they are included in the cache description. A "visual hint" image will not be included. Does Cachemate include these?

 

7

[+planetrobert]

no

[+OzeMo]

no cachemate wont show visual hints but it has spots for you to log your find and mark that you found it it has the hint in there decode or coded and you can just click the button and it will decode or re-code and you can put cache's into diffrent lists like have a Saved list where i put legs to muliti caches in that i have found and i have a Today list that i put all the caches that i try to get in that day.... I love my palm and cachemate i only wish i would have had it out west :-(

[+ZackJones]

How many of you use palms while geocaching. Do I really need one?

Need, absolutely not. Will it make caching a whole lot easier - you bet! What I really like about paperless caching is it allows me to load a whole bunch of waypoints into the Palm and if I'm traveling to some part of the state that I haven't cached out yet I can do a little caching if the opportunity presents itself. I don't have to lug around a bunch of paper printouts.

 

I will print out cache pages for puzzle or multi-stage caches. I find it's much easier to do those types of caches with a printout.

 

Zack

[CoyoteRed]

Okay, okay.

 

"Need?" No, but IMHO it ranks right behind a GPS for usefulness.

 

We found our first few caches without a GPS. Discovered it was a pain in the butt without one.

 

We found our first few dozen caches without a paperless solution until a 4 mile round trip hike forgetting the printout and not realizing the cache was an offset was the last straw.

 

A few minutes of preparation before heading out saves a ton of time in the field.

 

We've done the paper binder route. You have to sort the caches you're going to do. Find them in your binder if you haven't. Deal with stale data on old printouts or have to reprint new ones every week. ...and if you forget the printout, you have to rely on memory.

 

"Need?" No, but it dadgum well will make caching more enjoyable if you plan on doing more than 2 or 3 in a day.

[+The Puzzler]

I love my palm. Oh yeh, that little computer I keep in my pocket comes in very handy also.

 

My palm has turned caching from a highly organized filing system into a more effective seat-of-my-pants activity. The data is always on my palm and my palm is always with me. I don't have to plan ahead with anything close to the same level or voracity that I did when using paper. My printer ink bill is also much less.

[+Kaslo]

Not to brag, but I use a Garmin IQue 3600. It's a Palm WITH built-in GPS. Cachemate works seamlessly with it. Only two drawbacks:1: battery life- 3 hours max using gps . 2: If I ever drop it in a creek, it's toast. There is NO substitute for paperless caching. I have about 630 caches loaded into my unit, much more efficient than hauling a filing cabinet in my caching backpack...

 

Kaslo

[+Cache Rabbits]

Additionally if you have wireless web on your cell phone, there is a web site you can use to get cache information. I prefer Cachemate and my Palm M500, but in emergencies I use my phone.

[+Riddlers]

We started with realms of paper, when we did the Portland cache machine we had over 300 pages. Now we can put all that information on our palms. Yes, plural. We got the 21 and he liked it but I wanted back light and more memory to use also for work. The ease of downloading a PQ when we plan to travel and uploading to my palm is a world of difference. And you are right, when we did virtuals in Klamath Falls, we didn't know they required looking at pictures and finding the pictures in the city so we couldn't do that series, but for the most part cachemate has been great. And it is easy to use even for non computer people.

[+Maeglin]

I use Plucker, but it doesn't include images unless they are included in the cache description. A "visual hint" image will not be included. Does Cachemate include these?

Those images wouldn't be in the GPX file either, so nothing could give you that until they are put in there.

[+nicolo]

Before I started using Pocket Queries which gives me everthing that I need about a cache I used my spare Clie SJ33 and Documents to Go. I maintained a Word file of caches that I'm interested in for the day. I synced it to my Clie then, when out geocaching quickly read about the cache before I go out for the hunt.

 

For the most I actually still use the Documents to Go method as look-ups are faster than Mobipocket.

Edited October 26, 2004 by nicolo

[+Shawn&Holly]

We use a Toshiba Pocket PC with GPXSonar, I would never go back to a paper system. I had to large folders for the areas we go caching, it was keeping them up to date that was the hard part, caches get archived or updated.

[+Nuwati]

I use cachemate with my palm zire 31. I also read e-books on my palm. After you by the e-reader ($10) books are about as expensive as paperbacks if not less. Don't get me wrong if you want the newest release you will pay the same price as you would in the book store. When you read these things there is no need for bookmarks. The cool thing is that you can read in bed at night and not disturb the wife. E-reader.com has a wide selection of books. Today I downloaded acrobat reader for my palm so that I can read today's cacher on my pda. Way Cool. Not to mention that I have the new Beasty Boys CD to listen to when I need my moment of zen. I also keep a few reference materials like the clingon dictionary (Not a Trekky, not that there is anything wrong with that) and the cherokee dictionary to help with clues for finding and hiding those multi-caches. Soon I will be connecting my old Sony Clie to one of my old GPSrs. Don't no why, I guess just for kicks. At any rate if you buy a palm keep in mind that you want something that will grow. I love using my palm for geocaching, but I really enjoyed all the other things that it can do.

[+Cache Viking]

Pocket PC with GPX Sonar loaded and GSAK on the PC. Used to keep a large stack of pages in the car in case I had time and was near a cache. Not anymore.

[+Anonymous']

Well, I need one to keep my fingers and thumb attached to my wrist.

 

 

[+The Blind Acorn]

Well, I need one to keep my fingers and thumb attached to my wrist.

 

 

My first thought as an answer too.....

[+CompuCash]

Well, I need one to keep my fingers and thumb attached to my wrist.

 

 

My first thought as an answer too.....

 

same idea - I was thinking -

 

yes - to hold the gps in -

[The Cachesnatchers]

Thanks to everyone who gave input about needing a palm. One more question. Which palm should I get to use while geocaching?

[+Semper Questio]

That's like asking which GPSr you should get. It all depends on your needs. I've been using a Palm IIIxe fro several years and it does just fine. They are no longer made but can be had pretty cheaply from many sources. You can select from a wide variety of features including whether you want a color screen, rechargeable batteries, built-in camera, WiFi capabilities, etc. Take your time, learn what's available, then decide what to get based on what you think you'll need over the next, oh, 3-5 years and what your budget will allow.

[+mtn-man]

***Merged two topics together.

[+one4zorro]

I use a Palm but was worried about taking my main unit with me. Looked on ebay and ended up buying one for £9.99 (about $14). Now I can carry all my data using Cachemate and Plucker and at that price not worry about it!

 

The way to go.

 

Martin

[+Bear_Left]

A model with a memory card option (SD cards in the case of Palms) is recommended, as the files involved with carrying lots of caches can get quite big and take a long time to Hotsync to an older, serial interface model.

 

I can see some value in having a cheap second-hand Palm for caching, keeping your expensive 'external brain' out of harm's way when you're out bashing through bushes and streams!

 

Personally, I'd recommend getting a fairly high-end one (like a Zire 71/72 or a Tungsten T2/3/5/E) and a good hardcase for it, so that you can use it for all the myriad day-to-day uses of a Palm as well as geocaching.

 

If you use it for everything, you'll always carry it. If you're always carrying it, you'll use it for everything!

 

I think the Zire 72 might be the ideal device. The 1.3megapixel camera's good enough for most cache-snaps, it has a great 320x320 screen that you can see in the dark and in bright sunshine, it's fast enough to search large files in iSilo, Mobipocket, etc., it has Bluetooth to let you use a BT GPSr with it, and you can use the voice recorder to take audio notes of your impressions and swaps for later transcription.

 

Oh, and apparently you can keep addresses and appointments on it...

[+PSGeo]

After I ran through $65 of ink, before we actually tried hauling the laptop around in the desert! When I realized that just wasn't too smart, I hit ebay and found a Palm VII set up for about $30. That model no longer has internet access, so the prices are dropping quickly, but for accessing the data on the GPX files, it's perfect.

 

I personally have no use for a PDA in my normal world, since I am usually in the same room with at least 3 computers, and prefer the old "folded note in the back pocket" for anything really important and the Palm is small enough to fit in my back pocket for geocaching.

[+WalruZ]

I have a zire 71 ($100+) and like it alot - nice bright screen. I use GSAK ($20) to get my GPX files into cachemate format and then sync them to the palm. I carry hundreds of cache descriptions on the thing. Once the caches are on the palm I can use cachemate ($7) to view them and also export them to the palm address book. I can then run Mapopolis ($30 for maps) on the palm to see a map of the area, and all the caches that I exported into the address book show up on the map. If directions are a problem, I can select my current location as a starting point and the cache as the ending point and get turn-by-turn directions.

 

A hard-shell case is essential.

 

Do you need it? Depends. How many caches do you do in a week? In a day? If it's just the odd one here or there, no. If it's alot, then yes.