Palm Zire Pda?

[+Bob&TheGang]

I was wondering in the Palm Zire 21 or 31 is any good for paperlesss caching?

 

It seems that the Zire 21 might fit my needs. It has 8 MB of storage. It has a a USB connection. And it is compatible on a Mac. It sells for $99 in retails stores or on the web. And on eBay you could probably pick one up for about $60 to $70.

 

So does anyone have any experiece using Zire 21 for paperless caching?

[+LittleBlue]

I have a Zire 31, which I think is just the same as a 21, but with 16MB memory. It also has an expansion slot, which I haven't needed to use, but might for listening to mp3s. Works great for caching! Don't have to carry around all those sheets of paper anymore. I use cachemate and it works like a charm. It even glows bright green when I'm on top of the cache. Ok, that last part might not be true . Do you have specific questions?

[+Learned Gerbil]

The only disadvantage of the Zires (except for the 71) and the Tungsten E is that they do not talk to almost all GPSrs as they have no support for a serial connection (and USB won't help either).

[+woggs1]

I want to get a PDA for geocaching but I have not done enough research to determine what is the best one for the sport. I would like to connect my 60CS with USB and I want to use NG Topo also. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks.

[+Mauison]

I bought a brand new basic Zire on ebay for $42 shipped in April of this year. I also purchased Cachemate for $7. I only use the Zire for caching and have over 700 unfound caches on it. I don't have a need to connect to my GPSr so it suits me just fine. All for less than $50 and saving a lot of paper.

[+Mr Lost]

I was given a Zire 21 as a birthday present by a buddy (Lucky me!) and I couldn't be happier. Spinner, Plucker and GSAK are good tools to use with this device. I have over 500 pages stored, and the space consumption is minimal. I just invested $20.00 on an Otterbox for this unit on Ebay, and I am all set. I love it, and it would still have been cheap as dirt even if I had paid for it. Not being able to link directly to my GPSr is not that big a deal to me. I am not that much of a 'tech-head' that I need that capability. For basic paperless geocaching, a Zire 12 is just fine. In fact, a Palm V fits the bill nicely for most people. I use the PDA for other things, so the memory limitations of the Palm V would be a problem for me, but if it is used exclusively for 'caching, then even that is a great tool.

[+Cocacola1820]

I have a Zire 31 and it fits my needs just fine!! No more paper, no more printing. Just grab it and go.....

[+Learned Gerbil]

I would like to connect my 60CS with USB and I want to use NG Topo also. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks.

can't be done. The 60CS is a USB client device, as are all PDAs. A client PDA can't talk to another client, they need a USB host adaptor like you willlfind on the motherboard of your computer.

 

You can get a serial connection to work, but these days a lot od palms do not support a serial connection.

[+NightPilot]

I think the 60 can also accept a serial connection, if you buy a serial cable. At least the Garmin site says it can. You have to buy a Palm that has a universal connector, which means either a Zire 71 or the Tungsten series, minus the Tungsten E and T5. The older models, such as the 5xx, M125 and M130 will also work - anything with the later universal connector. The T5 has a connector, but it's not compatible with the earlier models, and I haven't seen any cables available for it. Cables can be purchased at various online retailers, and I've used both Pfranc and PC-Mobile with good results. AFAIK their cables will connect the 60CS.

 

As for the NG Topo, that's a PC program and won't run on a Palm or the GPS, although you can use it for making routes. The maps won't work, though. Outdoor Navigator is a mapping program for the Palm, with a reasonable price, but I haven't tried it. The developer posts here, and is working on integrating it with Cachemate. You can get a trial version.