The Palm Is Dead

2.9k · October 27, 2004

On Monday we set out to complete the Zodiac series in a day. Got the first 3 caches using the hint for the last one. Got into the car and Lynn put the Palm into the CD store and it dropped in with a clatter (no more than a 3inch drop) we got to the next stop got the palm out and the screen was a solid block of colour . No amount of work would help it recover. So officially clueless :huh: but with an autoroute map and the Garmin for the other caches we carried on and found the remaining 9 caches and got close to the final bonus cache (part of the co ords were in the palm) and we completed the series yesterday again without any clues. We were really surprised how easy it was to cache by co ordinates alone.

Edited October 27, 2004 by markandlynn

1.2k · October 27, 2004

I would have preferred a palm because of the OS maps rather than vector style, but when I chose my GPS it was to map a ski holiday and I went for a Garmin becuase they were more sturdy.

I keep considering palms now, but their fragility for a clumsy fellow like me is worrying.

Fragility is the only reason mind, so pro palm people could give their side of the argument.

Anyway - caching without clues, or more accurately, with just coordinates _ i have done this several times as I drive alot at work and sometimes will check the gps to see of there are any local caches. This worked well, until I stumbled across a multi and didn't realise. At least I only hunted around for about 10 mins before I twigged. :huh:

October 27, 2004

Well, my palm has been dropped 3 feet onto concrete, 4 feet onto carpet, down a flight of 20 stone steps (it bounced on almost every one) and down a steep nasty muddy hill (One of Teasel's caches approached from the wrong direction)

The case is a little scratched (ok, and buckled) in places, but it still works perfectly. It is a Tungsten T, and even the slide thingie still works!

Good job really, I don't know how I'd survive without it (OK, yes I do, I'd buy a replacement very fast and claim it on the house insurance)

October 27, 2004

I keep considering palms now, but their fragility for a clumsy fellow like me is worrying.

Fragility is the only reason mind, so pro palm people could give their side of the argument.

I have a Sony Peg T625C - Apart from it not working on some planes (I think the screen expands and pushes on the case)

I have dropped it loads of times onto concrete and hard floors, its worked perfectly

I have had a couple of Sonys and IMO, the Sonys always seemed to be really solid PalmOS units .. very relaible etc

However Sony withdrew from the PalmOS unit space about 4 months ago..

Can not comment on the Palm manufactured units

G

3.8k · October 27, 2004

We were really surprised how easy it was to cache by co ordinates alone.

How lucky you are :huh: I normaly need a BIG hint and even somebody pointing it out for me (ask Domheknows, Puppy Galore, aRRKS, Pyoung1s or anybody that has ever cached with me) :P

I think all caches should have those key rings in that make a noise when you clap :huh:

3.3k · October 27, 2004

I dropped my iPaq yesterday morning... about 3 feet onto tarmac. It bounced, and still works fine. Thank goodness!

October 27, 2004

Welcome to the 'Real world'. Some of us only have a GPS !

LOL !

Maybe one day I will enspire and spend some dosh... that way I can make geocaching easy !

October 27, 2004

I just bough a second hand Handspring Visor to use just for Geocaching. I didn't want to risk using my main Palm incase it got damaged (it has so much info on it I would be lost without it).

I had a look on eBay and got one complete with memory backup and cradle for £9.99 plus postage. It looks like new!

There are some bargains to be had on the older B/W units which are ideal for my needs.

Martin :huh:

October 27, 2004

My palm m515 fell off my car roof at about 20mph (this site really needs an 'embarrassed' emoticon) and it was only slightly scratched. Phew!

Learnt my lesson and bought a hard case for it now! :huh:

Lisa

Edited October 27, 2004 by minstrelcat

1.2k · October 27, 2004

I see they are not as fragile I suppose.

- you get to see yourself walk across an O/S map which I like and I suppose it does the usual with the 'Go to' function. I guess you can scale up and down.

Q - how many waypoints can be loaded on and will they store an entire UK map?

My Garmin I think holds 500, but I can only hold maps for about half the UK.

Any tips?

October 27, 2004

My Garmin I think holds 500, but I can only hold maps for about half the UK.

Any tips?

Don't go caching in the other half :huh: :huh:

October 27, 2004

I see they are not as fragile I suppose.

Well, remember the post that started this thread. Sometimes you just get unlucky.

- you get to see yourself walk across an O/S map which I like and I suppose it does the usual with the 'Go to' function. I guess you can scale up and down.

Personally I use Pathaway for moving map stuff, and I load 1:25k maps for the area(s) I'm caching, along with a 1:200k map for most of the north-west of england. If I move off the edge of one of my 1:25k tiles, it automatically zooms it out. You can also zoom in and out on the individual maps, and you can have fun with things like the local maps of a country park / site / whatever scanned in from their brochures and calibrated. For gotos cachemate / cachenav is far superior in the final approach, although I have used just pathaway before....

Q - how many waypoints can be loaded on and will they store an entire UK map?

My Garmin I think holds 500, but I can only hold maps for about half the UK.

How much memory do you have?

There is no real limit on the number of waypoints - you could load every cache in the UK into it if you wanted to, but performance would suffer when it tried to calculate the distance to every single one of them in turn.

I've got a 64Mb SD card in mine, and it is enough for maps of wherever I am caching at the time (or for a few weeks) However, you couldn't store the whole UK in it. But then, you can get up to 1Gb SD cards now, and you could indeed store vector maps for the whole UK in that (very easily) or 1:25k rasters for most if not all of it. Raster maps are a LOT bigger than vector maps - that is the price for being able to see all that detail, sadly.

Any tips?

What is your budget? A little b/w palm will hold thousands of waypoints, but not manage maps, and will cost you about a tenner. Something like an M515 will be just about up to map display, will cost you about 30-50 quid, will take an expansion card for more memory (you can get 1Gb for 50-60 now), or, for a nice fast palm, you're looking at upwards of £100 for a Tungsten, which gives you a much faster processor and a higher resolution display. It also means that if you do drop it, your heart beats that much faaster :huh:

Also bear in mind that you'll need to shell out for the software.... Fugawi is about £40 -£50 per quarter of the country, Pathaway is $30, but you need to supply your own maps, Cachemate is $7, but I'd recommend GSAK as well for waypoint management, at $20, so it soon adds up...

Questions? Corrections? Comments?

Jim

1.2k · October 27, 2004

I started thinking about what information I want, but it seemed alot. I want to know where all the caches and trigs are, but I know from autoroute that the entire UK is covered with map pins. It's OK once you zoom in, but it's very busy while you are zoomed out. So I need a way of selecting what I want to show up and I've just thought of a way.

What would be really good is to have interactive map from GUK on PDA. This way I can use advanced search for whereever I am to locate trigs and caches. So I need Broadband, so I need a 3G phone, but there are still coverage issues.

From there, I can link to GC.com and read the clue, and it would be nice if I could select the cache or trig I want to go to and use GPS on an OS map to get there.

In two years this will be possible and affordable. I reckon the biggest costs will be mobile broadband use.

So that would allow me to cache and trig without being in any way organised. Nice and easy.

For now then it looks like I need a tungsten or similar - and I assume an attachment for the GPS, then worry about software.

Q - what is a raster map - it's a term I've heard before.

October 27, 2004

Welcome to the 'Real world'. Some of us only have a GPS !

I have only ever used a GPS, and in fact I don't even know what a "Palm" does!

Is it something to do with storing maps? I always use OS maps to see where the caches are roughly hidden, then park in nearest likely spots and use GPS for the rest of it. Am I missing out on something unbelievably useful/amazing?!

Any replies to this would have to be in the most basic non-technological form for me to comprehend!

1.3k · October 27, 2004

:huh: Allie, I am with you. I bought the other half a PDA for his birthday a few weeks ago and all we have figured out so far is that it is not compatible with the GPSr, we don't know where to get mapping programs and he uses it for work purposes only right now. I get the GPSr and the OS maps and it works just fine for me.

BTW where can you get a case for these things? Right now we just keep it in bubble wrap and a small tupperwre container while transporting.

Lynn

1.8k · October 27, 2004

allieballie wrote:
I have only ever used a GPS, and in fact I don't even know what a "Palm" does!

...

Any replies to this would have to be in the most basic non-technological form for me to comprehend!

A Palm is a handheld computer, small enough to fit in the pocket. I use a program called Cachemate on it, which displays the details from cache pages. So you can load all the caches in any given area into it (or all the caches in the UK if it's got enough memory) and all the info you need is there for any cache you choose to do. No need to plan in advance and print out cache pages.

Mine's a fairly low-range model, but ones with enough memory can hold all the maps you want too. And if you want to take it a stage further, you can connect a GPS to it and see your position displayed on the map and updated as you move along.

October 27, 2004

Bump.... Come out of the closet

I can drop mine from any height .... crush it ... fold it ... expose it to sunlight , and it still works

:huh:

6.2k · October 27, 2004

Now that's just showing off! I like my notebook I take caching. It holds whatever info I choose to enter into it via the stylus-like 'biro' I keep with it. I've dropped it dozens of times and apart from getting a bit muddy, it's fine. The batteries never go flat as it uses solid-state wood-pulp non-electronic technology to store data and it's storage is only limited by the size of my writing and the sharpness of my eye sight. Notebooks are available in a range of colours and sizes from a few pence each. If you have several different pens they can then have a full-colour display. Mine also has my mobile number written in the back of it so if I ever lose it there's *some* chance I'd get it back.

'NOTEBOOKS'

"Like a notebook computer, but without the computer"

SP :huh:

October 28, 2004

Welcome to the 'Real world'. Some of us only have a GPS !

:lol: And even that is steam powered

LOL MaxKim

3.8k · October 28, 2004

A Palm is a handheld computer, small enough to fit in the pocket. I use a program called Cachemate on it, which displays the details from cache pages......

I use a Garmin iQue 3600 which is just a Palm thingy with a built in GPSr. Like most 'Palm People' I use CacheMate to store and display the cache information but CacheMate has a couple of drawbacks when it comes to totally paperless caching. First, it doesn't display any images that the cache setter may have included in the cache description.

Second, it doesn't handle some HTML formatting too well (check out the cache page and then CacheMate for 'OVERDUE' GCJWRK)

Recently I was introduced to 'Sunrise Desk Top' (on the PC) and 'Plucker' (on the iQue). This allows me to display the cachepage in glorious HTML exactly as it is on the cache sheet, complete with photographs, images, decrypted hints, previous logs... in fact the whole shooting match. Also, depending on how much time you have and how much memory you have on the Palm, you can specify a 'depth' for any 'hotlinks' on the cache page to be loaded as well. So you can click (sorry, tap) on a link and display that web page as well.

I wouldn't use it for more than a couple of dozen or so caches at a time but for just loading enough for a days caching (about 15Mb of memory needed) it a great addition to CacheMate.

Edited October 28, 2004 by Pharisee

1.2k · October 28, 2004

Team Maddie - This is what I worry about - buying a PDA and not figuring it out, a real liklihood. I know vaguely what they do - the answer is - anything you can afford.

Bill D's solution sounds just the ticket. Combine that with Pharisee's tips and enough memory to cope with a decent number of caches (and trigs?) and that is the solution.

These things have slots for memory card thingy's don't they? Is is feasible to store the local caches on one, the ones around my parents house in another, the ones around my brothers house on another, etc?

It's starting to sound like I know what to ask for for Christmas!

3.7k · October 28, 2004

Pharisee: do you have a link to information on 'Sunrise Desk Top'? It sounds like a great extra! I never use paper for caching (and I did drop the Ipaq on tarmac last week - it bounced and finished up in a puddle but the hard case (bought the previous week!) ensured that there was no damage). This can be a disadvantage on a few caches where extra graphics/picture clues are necessary (unless you've done some prior research and downloaded the pictures). I usually download HTML to the PDA from pocket queries, which works fine in 99% of cases.

To those who prefer to use paper - how do you manage when you have a few days touring around, or are on holiday outside your home area?

Do you have to print off hundreds of sheets before you go, or become restricted to just a selection?

What if you stop on the journey and realise you have time for a cache - if only you knew whether there was one nearby?

What if you're away from home for a week or two - do you have to seek out an internet cafe every day to log caches (or write copious notes then wait until you get back home?). What if you find a problem with the cache and need to contact the owner?

Do you have to type out your written notes when you get back?

If you use OS maps, how many times do you have to visit book shops to get a 1:50000 map which you might only use once (not every map is centred just where you need it!).

None of these are a problem with a fully set up PDA, and it's only one small, light item which fits in a pocket.

Of course, not everyone has the money or desire to go totally paperless. I'm not criticising those that want to continue using paper and pencil, but I'm just trying to highlight the problems that the PDA approach solves - it's not just a gadget for the sake of it.

HH.

October 28, 2004

These things have slots for memory card thingy's don't they? Is is feasible to store the local caches on one, the ones around my parents house in another, the ones around my brothers house on another, etc?

OK, as a test, I just dumped the WHOLE of the UK's caches into CacheMate on my palm,

that is close to 4 and a half thousand waypoints, including the descriptions, hints, and logs (all the logs I've collected in GSAK, anyway). The sum total database size was 17Mb which could happily live on a memory card (well, it is more memory than my Palm has, so it needs to.) It also took up just over 900k of system memory for the indexes, user notes, etc. which it couldn't store on the memory card. It took around a minute to calculate the distances from a fixed point and sort the caches by proximity. It then saved that data so that re-visiting the sorted list (e.g. as the day's caching progressed) was instant. So, with a few minutes of setup time, cachemate can happily handle every cache in the UK - I don't know how many trigpoints there are, but T:UK is offering gpx downloads of them at the moment, so they could all be stored similarly - either in the same or a second database depending on your personal preference. You wouldn't need multiple memory cards - a single large one is cheaper than lots of little ones. (a 64Mb SD card is about £20, a 1Gb (16 times the size) SD card is about 3 times the price)

In answer to your earlier question about raster maps. A raster map is one like an OS paper map. It is an image at a fixed resolution/scale. You can zoom in on them, but you just get a magnified view of the same thing, no more detail. A vector map is more like what routing programs use, just lines representing the roads, but when you zoom in, they can dynamically add the finer detail of minor roads etc.

Vector maps of the UK (useful for driving directions) come to a total of about 80-150Mb depending on the mapping program you use.

For raster maps, at, say 1:25000, you would be talking several Gb to cover the whole UK. But then, you tend to know in advance where you are planning to go, and you could get more maps than you can shake a stick at onto a 1Gb card, even if it also held vector maps for the UK, and every cache and trigpoint on it.

As for GPS connection, you can get leads from eBay for garmins to a palm for the region of a tenner. I use a bluetooth GPSr with mine, which is quite handy sometimes as it lives in a pocket, or can be placed exactly in the cache hide location for taking waypoints, which I can then easily take an average of on the palm over several minutes while standing nearby not even looking in the direction of the hide

3.8k · October 28, 2004

Puppy Galore
I don't know how many trigpoints there are, but T:UK is offering gpx downloads of them at the moment

There are 7316 Trigpoints at the moment. But you dont need to download them all. The gpx will import into GSAK with no problem's.

Edited October 28, 2004 by Deego

1.2k · October 28, 2004

Puppy Galore - that is some fantastically useful research, I have just been looking at real top of the range PDA's thinking I would need alot of memory, but what you say here means that I can look with knowledge rather than a guess.

Happy Humphrey - you've hit the nail on the head with your questions and when you put it like that I feel a bit of a Luddite.

So if I get this right all I need is :

a PDA of my choice.

a cable to attach my Garmin to the PDA or a GPS jacket.

a memory card - say 1GB would cover a decent number of OS style maps with waypoints.

GSAK & Cachemate (or Sunrise and Plucker (is this iQue only?)!)

Having just browsed over Globalpoistionsingsytems.com I see I can get a PDA/GPS that does SatNav for my car - My car now has it built in but I'm just about to buy a new car that won't. I can see a good excuse coming on and that would mean I had vector maps, so may not need OS maps.

Any opinions on Palm or Pocket PC? I'm all Microsofty here, so I guess Pocket PC will be nice and compatible. Any opionions on the different navigation systems?

3.8k · October 28, 2004

Pharisee: do you have a link to information on 'Sunrise Desk Top'? It sounds like a great extra!

Yes, I do... but at home, not here at work...whooops, shouldn't have said that, sorry, Boss.

I'll e-mail you when I get home.

Incidentally, 'Plucker' is much more than just an HTML viewer. You can sort the stored cache information by:- Name, Placed by, Waypoint, Travel bugs to name but a few. They can also be sorted by bearing and distance from an entered location.

All this in full HTML. The big drawback is the amount of memory it requires.

With CacheMate, you can get all the UK caches into about 15MB (give or take a bit). Using Sunrise and Plucker, about 20 caches would take the same amount of memory, so I would only use it to display a days caching information. It's not a substitute for CacheMate, just a very useful addition.

October 28, 2004

Well, the first decision is between Palm and PocketPC. You'll find people on here that will tell you that each of them is vastly superior to the other. I've never used a PPC, so I can't comment on that There are software equivalents on each of them, but they're totally not intercompatable.

As for MS compatability, well, PPCs do not run windows apps, so neither one will help you there. Both are capable of opening Word/Excel/etc with the right software, both can sync your contacts to Outlook, yada yada yada. Palms are slightly smaller, but not a lot, and the OS was designed from the ground up to be palmtop/stulys friendly, rather than just familiar, but then, PPCs are familiar, which gives less to learn :lol:

For satnav, I use mapopolis on my palm. many people swear by TomTom (it won't work on my palm) Watch out for some of them, though - especially the bundle type ones. I've used demos of street-routing software where they needed not only the maps in main memory (which is reasonable) but also a further 6Mb of free memory to be able to run the routing/navigating code, rather than just display code. On a 16Mb device, with a 2Mb app, and a 6Mb map, that really didn't leave much space for any other use whatsoever of the palm...

You'll still find raster maps useful for caching (unless you only seek caches that you can drive right up to...) Since the vector maps only cover streets. Not even footpaths, or rivers, or canals, or railway lines, or huge mountains that you find you need to climb.

SatNav is great, though - I'd be lost without it *grin*

Oh, Plucker works on any Palm, Sunrise can be found at http://laurens.typepad.com/ for those who are interested.

Hve fun shopping.

1.2k · October 28, 2004

You'll still find raster maps useful for caching (unless you only seek caches that you can drive right up to...) Since the vector maps only cover streets. Not even footpaths, or rivers, or canals, or railway lines, or huge mountains that you find you need to climb.

It is quite exciting caching with vector maps

Hence my feeling that I'm 'making do' when things could be better.

I'll keep an open mind on Palm/PPC, thanks for the even comments.

Money permitting I'll use the vector maps for sat nav and get raster maps for caching. I seem to remember that you can scan maps and use them via Fugawi so the costs may not be too bad. Otherwise I suppose it's memory map?

56 shopping days til Christmas. :lol:

October 28, 2004

I seem to remember that you can scan maps and use them via Fugawi so the costs may not be too bad. Otherwise I suppose it's memory map?

Fugawi 3 can import scanned maps. FugawiUK can NOT. This is because of the licencing issues imposed by The Ordinance Survey. If you want to be able to use Scanned maps with Fuaawi, you need to buy a version other than the UK one.

I use Pathaway, which is very simple, very friendly, about 10 times faster than Fugawi, and allows waypoints to be exported from cachemate *grin* In fugawi, you cannot plot a point while out in the field to work out where you're going. Pathaway allows scanned maps, and costs $30ish Only disadvantages are that it didn't come with any maps, and the converted palm databases are somewhat bigger than fugawi maps - tho the speed trade off, and the fact that they can live on a memory card full time (needs no maps at all in main mepory) are well worth the tradeoff IMHO.

Memory Map is the PPC one, and I've heard a lot of good things about it.

October 29, 2004

To those who prefer to use paper - how do you manage when you have a few days touring around, or are on holiday outside your home area?

Do you have to print off hundreds of sheets before you go, or become restricted to just a selection?

What if you stop on the journey and realise you have time for a cache - if only you knew whether there was one nearby?

What if you're away from home for a week or two - do you have to seek out an internet cafe every day to log caches (or write copious notes then wait until you get back home?). What if you find a problem with the cache and need to contact the owner?

Do you have to type out your written notes when you get back?

If you use OS maps, how many times do you have to visit book shops to get a 1:50000 map which you might only use once (not every map is centred just where you need it!).

Oooh er... this thread is becoming a bit technical for me, so I'm going to revert the topic back to the old fashioned ways..

Best example I can give is our summer holiday in Wales. Yes I had to plan well in advance and read up about the caches both on route and in the area, then print off details of any suitable ones. But to be honest this all added to the anticipation! Think I had about 50 sheets or so in total.

We didn't need to think about stopping on the journey etc, because all that had been taken into account when I was planning it e.g. "we're going to stop for lunch here because there's a cache nearby"!

I did write notes on the back of the cache pages of those which we had done to remind me of what to write when I got home, but this was quite a relaxing routine over the week as I'd put wee man to bed, then sit down every night with a big glass of wine (or two!) and write about that days caches!

Typed out logs when I got home - again with wine!

Because I'd worked out the caches I wanted to do before we left, I went into Waterstones and bought the relevant OS maps prior to our holiday (needed 4 for the area of Wales we were in), and for those caches planned on route, I printed off the appropriate OS section from the OS website. Yes, I might just use the map once, but then again maybe I will be back in the area again. One of the maps we bought was used every day during our holiday.

I know that this probably seems a big waste of time to all you folk with your gadgets, but you see, I LOVE maps - always have done - think they're fascinating and could spend hours looking at them - so I am just so happy and content to sit and look at a map. In fact, using maps is a big part of geocachings appeal for me!

October 29, 2004

I LOVE maps - always have done

And in fact, if there hadn't been an almighty confusion regarding which extra courses I was allowed to study at University I may well have ended up working for OS. That would be my dream job!

Hmmmm.... strange to think that my career path may have been a result of having a mentor who didn't know about what courses went with which!

October 29, 2004

We dont use many technical thingys either .My gps is set to lats /longs .Him in doors either has his on British grid or lats/longs because he can remember and is capable of doing such things .We dont use "go to" .(is there anyone else who doesn't)I cant remember which buttons to press in which order .He can ,but we tried it one in an area we know well and we didn't like the route it was trying to send us .We knew there was a more user /environmently friendly way to destination .

.We had long weekend in Somerset last week .I spent ages printing out sheets and he downloaded some os maps .They were a great help for parking ,but we have managed fewer caches with just the AA road map ,but that does lead to a bit of friction between us trying to get near .We rely solely on gps ..When I'm by myself and only have a road map it entails much stopping to check gps to see if I'm getting anywhere near to final location ,then its park car and walk .

Great views from some of the caches around Weston-s Mare.

3.7k · October 29, 2004

Allieballie,

I love maps as well: you should see my collection! You need to be well-organised to have everything you need printed out before you go on an extended trip (obviously you are very well organised!). But having a bit more flexibility adds to the experience for me - often the original plan is out of the (car) window fairly quickly when we get to the area. Mrs. Humphrey is reasonably keen on geocaching but has limits, so a few changes have to be made on the fly to maintain the holiday atmosphere :lostsignal: .

The weather can be a factor as well - on the last trip I spent some time trawling the cache descriptions and logs and avoiding those that mention mud (and trying to find any that mention "good shopping"!).

I use Memory Maps on the PC/PDA and would recommend it (except for the price :unsure: ). My Ipaq 2210 has 2 memory card slots (CF and SD) with room for loads of maps (and/or a CF GPS). For a map lover, having OS maps for the whole of GB on the PC is fantastic, and hardly a day goes by when I don't consult it for one reason or another. I still buy OS paper ones, but only for areas where I'll probably return fairly often, and usually their fantastic 1:25000 series.

HH.

October 29, 2004

As you hardly need telling Allieballie...I really have no need to resort to such mundane things as OS maps...not with my infallible sense of misdirection :lostsignal: :unsure:

But a couple things you mentioned there struck a chord with me....and ones future hanging on the balance of a Uni advisor (or in my case force of circumstances) is unfortunate to say the least....but at least you are young enough to perhaps consider a post graduate course or two???

That's what your namesake did and it turned out very well for her!!

Right on the subject of maps....I collect them like most people collect stamps or foreign coins Some of my OS maps are museum pieces and might be worth a few bob

Considerations such as will I ever use it again never seems to occur to me...and the more detail I can get the better....that is one of the reasons I went for Fugawi rather than MemoryMap....because I could get the north of Scotland in 1:25000 bundled with the orginal package! The other two maps with the package are not too shabby either....and all for no extra cost

As for maps on PDA's ... I think you might find them very very slow to scroll when searching it on the small screen....I have just recently managed to use this facility on my Palm....and I can see me losing patience with it in the field and resorting to my OS map (that is if I've remembered to collect it from the boot of the car where I keep all my OS maps...just in case I get lost...perish the thought ).

I can see this trip to Glen Doll requiring a few extra ones too....so how about we pool our resources and you let me know which OS maps you have of the area we will be caching and I will buy the ones you don't have but think we might need???

Ullium.

October 29, 2004

I bought an old Palm IIIxe for a few pounds on eBay after a tedious time with mounds of paper in the cab of our hire vehicle while working and caching during a visit to Yorkshire (thank you Harrogate Hunters).

It is the dogs for paperless caching and, being old hat, you can get all the bits for it dirt cheap.

Since buying it, I have picked up a battery powered modem for £3 and a brand-new, shrink-wrapped Palm folding keyboard for a £4! The combo is brilliant!

It is B & W so no super maps but the mass of UP-TO-DATE information you can get into it is super. I upload on a Friday for the weekend - no more fruitless searching for archeived caches.

3.7k · October 30, 2004

Ullium - "As for maps on PDA's ... I think you might find them very very slow to scroll when searching it on the small screen".

If you're going to use maps on the PDA, you might have to buy a more powerful (expensive) PDA. The Ipaq 2210 has no problem smoothly scrolling across OS maps, but then it costs quite a lot!

I forgot another advantage, by the way: you can have waypoints saved on the PDA and download them to the GPS unit. Although many will already do this from the PC to GPSr, when you're away from home and move areas it's nice to be able to clear out the old set of waypoints and load the new ones.

HH.

2.9k · October 30, 2004

Good news. We now have two palms courtesy yet again of ebay £31 for two Vx'x with 8 mb each. Muchos bargain. Also my paperless caching guide is now complete but more accurately titled how to run an offline database and download it to your bits of kit. Just need somewhere to host it. Seriously considering a homepage but dont know how to start.

1.2k · October 31, 2004

When we started geocaching did I found an used Palm Vx at my brothers work that I could buy very cheap. We used it only for geocaching and it lasted for 10 months. Suddenly did the screen break one day while caching, I placed the GPS in one of the pockets on the back of my jeans and I had to go over a small wooden fence and I hear a loud breaky noise, the screen got damaged.

This was one week before our (geocaching) vacation out of town. Didn't want to spend a lot of money on a new one. So I started to hunt down places that could fix or replace the screen, but it turned out that a new screen costed more than a new Palm. Of course could you buy cheap parts from the US and ship them, but in a few days..!?

I browsed some Swedish ebay-lookalike-site and found a few affordable PDA's, but not a single cheap one.

Suddenly I got an idea, lets call my brother and ask for a tip. His job might even have yet another used one, who knows? He says "No we don't, but my wife has an old Vx that she doesn't need. She bought a new cellphone with built-in-PDA yesterday.", and we got it for free from here.

We just reseted it and named it "hedberg" as our old was named, and when we placed it in the charger (that also connects it to the PC) did it actually get synchronized as the old one, and every single data was transfered from the PC to the (new) PDA. So the PC thought: "Here is the 'hedberg' Palm Vx, and look - it has no data so I gonna give it all data back since I took a copy of it last time it was connected".

So now are we a little bit more careful, and we would recommend you to buy a metal case instead of the original leather case.

November 1, 2004

(obviously you are very well organised!). But having a bit more flexibility adds to the experience for me ... Mrs. Humphrey is reasonably keen on geocaching but has limits, so a few changes have to be made on the fly to maintain the holiday atmosphere .
The weather can be a factor as well - on the last trip I spent some time trawling the cache descriptions and logs and avoiding those that mention mud (and trying to find any that mention "good shopping"!).

I am chuffed to bits - this is the first time that someone has ever mentioned my name and "organised" in the same discussion!! However, thinking about it, maybe this is actually the only thing I am organised at... having an ex-soldier for a partner makes me have to be organised for this kind of thing - he likes an itinenary in advance, everything planned - there is little room for flexibility or spur of the moment decisions - come to think of it, it's a wonder he hasn't asked for ETAs at caches as well! Experience has taught me that he hates to turn back for caches if we have taken the wrong turn off, missed the road we want etc - so if I am not totally on the ball about where I want to go, I may miss that chance to do it (unless of course if I am driving, then it's a different story!).

Know exactly what you mean about the holiday atmosphere though!

Our other factor is not weather, but having a 4 year old - any caches which mention very long walks, difficult terrain, steep drops etc are not even considered!

November 1, 2004

I can see this trip to Glen Doll requiring a few extra ones too....so how about we pool our resources and you let me know which OS maps you have of the area we will be caching and I will buy the ones you don't have but think we might need???

You see this is a perfect example of my other reason for avoiding Palms etc - I don't even know how to write a topic reply including quotes from two different contributions! That's the level of my technological knowledge!

Ullium I will email you just now with details of my map collection for Sunday! (afraid to say it's meagre for this area!), but seeing as we both have a map fetish we may argue as to who will buy (and therefore get to take home!) any maps we collectively don't have but need for the weekend!

November 1, 2004

but seeing as we both have a map fetish

Psst! want a copy of Fugawi!! <_<

November 1, 2004

I've got Fugawi Snaik...and it came with the North of Scotland in 1:25000....but the problem with printing out sections of it is that they are limited in size....with an OS map one gets a better perspective of where you are....and has the benefit of being able to be used with a compass to navigate...something I wouldn't want to risk on a printout...even if it had the northings and eastings marked on it!

Ullium.

November 4, 2004

After my PPC got run over, do not ask but 8 in my old company got run over with car, fork-lifts and other assorted vehicles ( suprisingly non survived). We decided to stop issuing small computers including laptops as we kept having them destoyed, usually by having them run over. Our staff were not very technically equiped, on serveral occasion we had people e-mail people to ask them for thier e-mail address and occasionally phone people to ask them for their phone number.

I now use a A925 with nhGPS, the new version works very well even with the inbuilt GPS reciver.

The Palm Is Dead

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