Pdas

February 3, 2005

Sorry if this has been done before, I searched and could not find enough information.

I am thinking about buying a PDA, 5 years ago when I used to work in an electronics store, I knew what was good. I've been out of the business for sometime and I don't know whats out there anymore and where to start researching for my buy. [i like to do a lot of looking on the net before I go get hounded by salespeople]

Suggestions please? I want it to be good for geocaching but also for other things - keeping an extensive contact list, use it for small updates to my own website, balance my bank acct, etc.

What do you guys use? What do you like and dislike about it?

3.3k · February 3, 2005

Suggestion number 1 is to have this thread moved to the GPS units and software forum. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=11

Suggestion 2 is a Palm PDA. They work very well with Cachemate.

http://65.34.18.106/content.php?article.15

Edited February 3, 2005 by Kit Fox

February 3, 2005

Check out this website. There are forums there as well as reviews. You can get tons of info.

Personally I like Pocket PC. I have a ppc 2003 second edition todhiba e800. If you like the 'feel' of a windows pc then this is the best bet. Nothign wrong with palms either. I've just had better luck with the ppc's personally.

Ford/chevy

Garmin/Magellian

White/Black

PPC vs palm can be a nice big old can of worms :rolleyes:

5.3k · February 3, 2005

I am using an Ipaq 2315 PPC, it works great with GPXsonar and with Micro Soft pocket streets and trips.

February 3, 2005

I didn't post in the GPS Units/Software forum because I didn't think it was a GPS Unit or software :rolleyes:

Sorry if thats where it really belongs.

20.7k · February 3, 2005

Don't be sorry. Just about any palm pda will work for you. I don't use a ppc, so I don't know about those. I don't use Cachemate, I use Plucker and Cache Log Book on my palm and it takes up very little space.

February 3, 2005

Moving to units and software forum, you will get the best replies there.

February 3, 2005

I had a old Palm IIIxe, but had trouble seeing the display in anything approaching normal light. So I purchased a Tungsten E. It worked great for running cachemate, but I was always concerned about running the batteries dead and loosing all my information. So I splurged and bought a Tungsten T5. I has flash type memory, so if I do run the batteries all the way out, I don't loose any data. It is also a lot faster processor, which is great if you are running Delorme Streets and Atlas, which seems to run really slowly on the Tungsten E. I realize that the T5 is a bit expensive, but it does the job. :rolleyes:

February 3, 2005

I'm have been using a PDA for about amonth now. Mine works get for caching and it has some extras for noncaching. I have a Palm Tungsten E. I use plucker and spinner to get my downloads. Here is a easy guide I found this page to be helpful Paperless Caching.

Edited February 3, 2005 by The Old Fogies

February 3, 2005

Well the Palm Zire 72 has wireless connectivity to web/email, as well as being a GPS! How about that?

Check it out:

http://www.palmone.com/us/products/handhel...2/index_gps.epl

February 3, 2005

I was always concerned about running the batteries dead and loosing all my information. So I splurged and bought a Tungsten T5. I has flash type memory, so if I do run the batteries all the way out, I don't loose any data.

Another option is to buy a Palm that uses external storage cards (SD or CF, typically). Then use something like BackupMan to backup the Palm's internal data to the card. That way, if your battery ever dies, just restore. Just takes a minute or so, depending on how much data you've backed up.

If your PDA doesn't have swappable batteries, buy a portable power pack that uses AAs. I bought one with a Palm Universal Connector for about USD$10 on eBay. Now I can watch movies, read a book, or listen to MP3s even on long flights.

A Palm M505 will be fine for 'caching and Amazon lists some used ones for as low as USD$40.

As for updating your site, that depends on how you want to do it. Live, or just update files on your PDA and then upload later on?

GeoBC

Edited February 4, 2005 by geobc

February 4, 2005

I have a Palm M130 and an HP iPAQ 4150.

If it were me and I were buying a PDA from scratch I'd want built-in WiFi for fast websurfing and downloading of big .gpx files.

I'd also want Bluetooth just in case I ever got a GPS 10.

I'd also want a CF slot just in case I ever got a CF Que.

I'd want an SDIO slot capable of addressing at least a 1G SD card.

My 4150 does everything above except for the CF slot.

20.7k · February 4, 2005

I use an m505, but last year, I bought my dad an old palm V on ebay for something like $20. I loaded plucker and Cache Log Book. It works great for him.

edited to fix spelling error and horrible grammatical issue.

Edited February 4, 2005 by sbell111

11.3k · February 4, 2005

I just started using my Palmie, an M500, with Cachemate software. I'll never print out a hard copy again. :rolleyes:

February 4, 2005

I've been using a Palm IIIxe, a Rand McNally GPS to fit it (made by Navman), and Cetus GPS software (free!), which downloads gpx files very nicely. I do a lot of paperless stuff... Cetus holds enough information that I mostly don't bother with cache printouts or html-style downloads (although Mobipocket works just fine, if you want all the details). GPSBabel (also free) will convert loc or gpx files to the Palm database format for Cetus. Like many, I also use GSAK for gpx data manipulation... although I still have a few custom-written Perl scripts, which make dealing with my regular Pocket Queries automatic. My wife and I (she doesn't geocache) have both had the Palm IIIxe for years... buying replacements on eBay when we damaged a screen or (once) when one of us left one on an airplane.

I do print overview street maps, with a lot of cache waypoints on them, for driving help.... they stay in the caching-stuff folder in the car, until they either become old, or I've found enough caches in that area to print another. I've been using Micro$oft S&T for this... it was reasonably cheap, and Costco had a rebate to make it even cheaper. It reads huge files of "pushpin locations" and puts them on the map... GPSBabel (or GSAK, which uses GPSBabel for file format conversion anyway) generates this format easily.

I'm in the Chicago area, and like urban caches... but even in the suburbs or the sticks, a paper map is easier for me to route with, even if the GPS/Palm combo is clamped to the windshield and showing a big direction arrow. I usually cache alone, between work appointments and at other odd times... and I don't want to make a lot of keypresses while I'm in traffic. Besides, the paper maps are ideal to share with Forest Preserve police, who are curious about the GPS while reminding you that it's almost sunset!

I don't have the problem described earlier in this thread about reading the Palm display... except in some very odd lighting conditions. Yes, the backlight sucks batteries fast... I do carry extra at all times. But I don't worry all that much about losing my data to dead battery... it's been hotsynced with my PC regularly, to receive the latest Pocket Queries of my local but unfound caches, which also backs up all my other Palm data. Also, my experience with the Palm IIIxe (and similar black and white units) is that you have a fairly long time after the first battery warning before you are actually dead. This is NOT what I've heard about PDAs running the Microsoft O/S.

The only problems with those old Navman units, which sell fairly often on eBay, are: (1) they are slow to find sattelites upon initial powerup, and (2) the serial connector between them and the Palm can be flakey. This second issue may drive me to another GPS, although at this point I'm thinking that I might take a Radioshack Digitraveller (a discontinued serial unit probably intended mostly for in-car nav, also available from time to time on eBay) and pin it to a hat, running a serial cable from it to the Palm. Then I can keep running the same software.

I can't help it... it's fun playing with electronic junk. Yes, I could buy a new GPSr... Costco seemed to have big piles of them at Xmas time.... but what fun would that be.

This is a long post... hope it's helpful to someone.

Dick "RheS" Smith

2.4k · February 4, 2005

You can keep using the same software with any GPS, as long as it will output NMEA sentences, and almost any consumer GPS will do that. It seems Garmin cables are easier to find, for some reason.

February 4, 2005

You can keep using the same software with any GPS, as long as it will output NMEA sentences, and almost any consumer GPS will do that. It seems Garmin cables are easier to find, for some reason.

Yes, but if there is already a display on the GPSr, the Palm would be partially redundant... right now, EVERYTHING is in the Palm. Besides, I'm really cheap... and like playing around with the hardware. Hmmm... for that matter, I like playing with the software, too. No wonder I haven't found enough caches!

Dick "RheS" Smith

2.4k · February 4, 2005

Well, if you have to be masochistic, then have fun. I have a Digitraveler, and it sits on a shelf in the closet. It's obsolete, no WAAS, only maybe 6 channels, and takes a long time to get a lock. If you ever take the batteries out, it returns to California and takes 15 minutes or so to find itself. It loses lock easily. But hey, it's cheap, right? <_<

But the main reason it sits in the closet is because it's worthless for caching. Not only does it lose position under the trees, trying to carry it with the cable swinging around while connected to the Palm is a real pain when you start bushwhacking. If all you ever do are parking lot micros and caches in manicured parks, it's not a problem, but if you start going through briars, bushes, and thorns, you'll soon regret having that cable. That's why I have a Garmin for caching. The Palm stays in my pocket until I need to read a cache page for details, or I'm ready to log the find.

February 4, 2005

I bought a Palm IIIxe when it came out years ago, but never really got into using it, so it sat in the closet for many years.

Last week I bought Cachemate and GSAK, along with a CG.com membership. dusted off the old Palm. The IIIxe does a great job, and you could buy one cheap on eBay. With a cheap unit you don't have to be that worried about getting it wet or losing it out in the woods.

If I where to buy another Palm fo Caching, I would probably get a Palm Vx, which is also ~$50 on ebay.

February 4, 2005

I have a Palm M130 and an HP iPAQ 4150.

If it were me and I were buying a PDA from scratch I'd want built-in WiFi for fast websurfing and downloading of big .gpx files.

I'd also want Bluetooth just in case I ever got a GPS 10.

I'd also want a CF slot just in case I ever got a CF Que.

I'd want an SDIO slot capable of addressing at least a 1G SD card.

My 4150 does everything above except for the CF slot.

Both the iPaq 4700 series and the Dell Axim x50v will give you all of the above (plus a full VGA screen, not the QVGA that most PPCs have). They have both CF and SD slots, Bluetooth and WiFi. I personally use the Dell, but the screens on the iPaq are a bit sharper.

February 4, 2005

I use an iPAQ 4705 and a Bluelogger bt gps. I use Mapopolis, which let's me navigate streets and caches. This setup does not allow me to track caches I've been to (that I know of anyway <_< but that is not a requirement for me.

The iPAQ is PocketPC and there are apps that log caches, too. CacheDragon is a popular one.

February 5, 2005

Thanks for all the replies... I see a lot more talk about PalmOS products vs PPC type products..... can anyone give me some insight as to why that is?

2.4k · February 5, 2005

It's a religious thing, Us against Them, and only We have the One True Way. <_<

1.8k · February 5, 2005

I am a long time Palm user and have always liked its uncluttered interface and the ability of the OS to make maximum use of the available resources like memory and processing power.

I recently obtained a PPC (IPAQ 1710) as part of a car navigation system. The TomTom is very impressive, the PPC version of Fugawi UK works much better than the Palm alternative - but I can't help thinking something has gone wrong here. The PPC is unnecessarily complex and slow. Everything seems to take loads of clicks - for example, as it comes out of the box, there is no obvious display of battery power - the help file tells you to click - Start - Settings - Power just to find that out! On the Palm there is a power display on the desktop all the time. Yes I know you can get a power display with freeware, but why should you need something so basic? The same istrue of a memory display.

I am also not impressed with the quantity or quality of free software for the PPC. Compared with Palm there seems far fewer options, and with some exceptions, seems poorly executed.

Overall I would say that the Palm is best for text based apps like viewing caches and running diaries and contacts. The pocket PC seems much better for mapping and navigation.

Right now I find myself using both, but find the battery power of the PPC very poor compared with the Palm (Sony Clie SJ22). And unlike the Sony where you can turn the backlight off and still see the screen in a lot of lighting conditions, the backlight seems essential all the time on the PPC.

I recognise that the IPAQ is not the most powerful PPC available, but then again, the SJ22 is also an older model. However importantly, the Sony is smaller, lighter and aavailable new for about a third of the cost of the IPAQ.

Finally, people often talk about how PPC is better integrated into Windows as it is based on Windows. I can't say I have found that. For example, transfering files to the PPC seems to involve lots of opening and closing explorer windows instead of just running the Palm install application. Also, the interface pretends to be like Windows isn't - I was surprised to find that when I clicked on what looked like the cross i nthe top right that closes applications in Windows, on a PPC the application continues ot run in the background. I spent an hour trying to work out why TomTom couldn't see the GPSr until I discovered that Fugawi was still running invisibly and was hogging the Com port. To close Fugawi from that point, like everything on the Pocket PC involves several clicks.

As I said, the two devices are good for different things, but for day to day use, the PPC drives me nuts compared with the Palm's simplicity.

3.8k · February 5, 2005

Thanks for all the replies... I see a lot more talk about PalmOS products vs PPC type products..... can anyone give me some insight as to why that is?

because garmins are better, that's why!

oops, wrong thread...

February 5, 2005

I'm a Palm PDA user (Sony Clie SJ-33), and work in a large datacenter. Places like that almost by default will be filled with lots of "gadget hungry geeks", and sure enough there are lots of PDA users, not just Palm and PPC based, but probably all the PDA formats in recorded history

So we often have friendly ravalries between Palm & PPC, as both camps are proud of their choice. So far there hasn't been much of an obvious conclusion in which format is better, actually it's been fairly well proven that neither one is "universally superior" in all areas. So far whenever a PPC user shows off some app that he thinks puts his unit on top, I've been able to match it with the same or similar app. It's been more a comedy than anything else

But one of my few advantages is that Palm based PDA's are smaller lighter cheaper and better on battery power than PPC's in general. That to me is a significant advantage when considering a unit for GeoCaching.

February 5, 2005

Thanks for all the info..

My purchase will not be soley for caching however, I am just going to use it so I have no paper.. most of it's uses will be like a check book register, and contact list and mobile internet.

1k · February 5, 2005

If mobile internet is important to you, make sure you research your Palm PDAs well! I bought a Tungsten T under the false premise that WiFi will be supported when in fact it will never be supported. Still works very well for many other things, but WiFi was an important factor and something I really wanted.

Kar

20.7k · February 5, 2005

If mobile internet is important to you, make sure you research your Palm PDAs well! I bought a Tungsten T under the false premise that WiFi will be supported when in fact it will never be supported. Still works very well for many other things, but WiFi was an important factor and something I really wanted.

You still have options.

1k · February 5, 2005

If mobile internet is important to you, make sure you research your Palm PDAs well! I bought a Tungsten T under the false premise that WiFi will be supported when in fact it will never be supported. Still works very well for many other things, but WiFi was an important factor and something I really wanted.

You still have options.

Yikes!! I have seen that thing many, many times! I would never spend that much for such a bulky, fake leather looking portfolio. It kind of defeats the purpose of having a nice slim collapsible PDA.

Sooner or later I will upgrade my cell phone for something with bluetooth and take advantage of mobile internet that way, but it still would have been nice to implement this device into my home network using an SD WiFi card

Kar

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