Palm Zire 72

[+Cal78]

i'm new to premium membership, and am looking at a pda, was thinking about a palm zire 72, and was wondering if this a good one for geocaching

[+geobc]

It's nice although much more than is needed for 'Caching. I returned the one I bought because I felt its construction wasn't as good as my Zire71 (the rubbery paint started to peel the same day I bought it). The built-in camera also seemed less light sensitive and didn't seem to be set for as close a focus as my Z71 (which I could use to photograph price tags, etc).

 

Of course, other Z72 owners love 'em. This is just my opinion.

 

I ended up with a T3 but for 'Caching, pretty much any Palm would be good, although I'd choose one that supported some kind of memory card. Oh yeah, the Z72 doesn't support a serial cable like most of the earlier Palms. So if you want to exchange data btwn a GPS with a serial connection, you'll need something else, like a T3, T2, T, Z71, TRG Pro, etc etc.

 

GeoBC

[+Marky]

I have the Zire 72 Navigation pack and highly recommend it. It's a bargain (in my opinion) for $450 and there may still be a $50 rebate.

 

The 1.2 mp camera is nice for cache photos. Having an MP3 player capability is nice (although generally, when I'm out hiking I want to hear all the wildlife.)

 

--Marky

[+NightPilot]

Just be aware that the only GPS you can use with it is a bluetooth model, which reduces the battery life on both units. You cannot use any wired unit, because the Z72 has no connector. The mini-USB connector can only be used for syncing and charging, not for connecting to any device other than a PC. For the money, a T3 is a far better buy, if you can find one.

[+keyman121]

I love my Zire 72/ GPS Combo.

Some posts have dissed it because a palmpilot is not a hearty outdoor unit. I have had to protect it from wet snow. and I have even dropped it in the snow a couple times. but so far so good. The Tom Tom software compares with other GPSr units of $1000! The Road Mapping software is excellent. Of course at this point the T/T software is pretty worthless for off road, but they may have a software upgrade sometime down the road. I had to upgrade to the latest software version to load Waypoints into T/T maps, but now i can nav to them and see them everywere on the map.(Thank God for Marky!) When I get off road, I switch over to Cachemate/CacheNav Software (only $8 at smittyware.com) and it works great. I have found this unit to be pretty accurate.

 

You will need an SD Card. Get at least a 128Mb. I bought a 512Mb SD card(around $50) and have room for plenty of maps(all of Ohio is 30MB), Pics and MP3s. I also bought a Card Reader Writer(around $20). It is a lot faster for MP3 downloads and is required to write the GSAK exported GPX files to the T/T software.

It is not required to write the GSAK exported GPX files to the Cachemate/CacheNav Software.

Check out my other post: Considering A Palmone Zire 72 / Gps Combo?

Battery life and Memory card info.

 

Best Price I have found for the Combo is at www.pagecomputers.com

Do a search on "Zire 72 GPS" to get to ZIRE 72 GPS NAVIGATION PACK for only $387.33 plus shipping

 

I use my Palm ALOT. Am never without it. Address Book, Calendar, Games, Bible, Still and Video Camera(the quality isn't that great, but you always have a camera with you),MP3 Player.

 

Well, I guess you do need to be somewhat of a TechnoHead to productively use this Combo for GeoCaching. But if you can live with that, it is by far the best bang for the buck.

 

Keyman121

PS. E-mail me if you have any questions. Glad to help.

[+pdxmarathonman]

Can somebody provide a quick set of instructions for entering waypoints into the Zire72/GPS combo unit? It's for a friend. Really

[+Dan_Edwards]

Can somebody provide a quick set of instructions for entering waypoints into the Zire72/GPS combo unit? It's for a friend. Really

Quick, not possible

 

You have to remember there are dozens of programs they could be using to keep track of the waypoints.

 

Probably the easiest option would be to get Cachemate and GSAK and download the GPS plugin for Cachemate. Then just have GSAK export everything to cachemate, sync and your done. I kept about 10,000 geocaches on my palm at any one time, complete with description, hint, and past logs. My first GPS was a Handspring/GPS combo, but now I use a Meridan as my GPS and just use a TunstenT for paperless caching.

[+pdxmarathonman]

My first was Handspring with the SpringBoard GPS module. I have a GPS V and a PPC now! I may not necessarily be a power-user of GSAK but I love it and used it to cache my 1400 mile drive to Phoenix over spring break.

 

 

Back to the question that I didn't state very clearly the first time:

 

How can they type in a waypoint? They don't think it is possible.

They have searched for caches without having a waypoint to navigate to.

 

Real basic question. Nothin' fancy. No cables.

Edited April 2, 2005 by pdxmarathonman

[+NightPilot]

Type in a waypoint to which program? That's what Dan was asking. You use Grafitti to enter data, but exactly where and how depends on which program they're using.

[+pdxmarathonman]

So then, until they grab a 3rd party app they have no "built-in" waypoint entry method?

They have the bluetooth enabled GPSr (the only option apparently).

[+NightPilot]

A Palm has no relation to geocaching or GPS, so no, there is no waypoint entry method other than putting the numbers into a memo, which does nothing except have it available for viewing. There are many third-party programs which do interface with a GPS, many of them free. Cetus is one of the best, and it's freeware, a complete GPS application.

[+keyman121]

The Tom Tom software that comes with the Combo, currently has no way to enter Coords in the field. You need a third party software to do that. You also need a 3rd party software to have a compass style viewer to let you know how close you are to the cache. I use Cachemate/CacheNav for both these things and GSAK to export Cachemate PDB files and TOm TOM OV2 files to the Palm.

 

To add a coord in the field, I open any Cachemate Cache, copy the coord text from the info page, open a NEW Cache, paste into the coords line at the bottom, modify the Coords text appropriately, and Name the new Cache something like Temp1 or "Cachename"2, etc.

Another 3rd party software is GeoNiche, but it is kind of complicated and also a pain to work with unless you buy the full version.

 

It can be a hassle to switch back and forth between TomTom Navigator and Cachemate and sometimes the GPS won't connect unless I soft reboot the PDA but the excellent Tom Tom Street Mapping Software makes this Combo great for the money.

 

Mike

[+Marky]

So then, until they grab a 3rd party app they have no "built-in" waypoint entry method?

They have the bluetooth enabled GPSr (the only option apparently).

Yes, that is basically correct. I haven't tried, but I believe the free CacheNav app will allow you to enter a waypoint and then go to it with a "compass" style screen. Hmm, I just tried and it looks like there isn't a way to just use CacheNav to enter a waypoint.

 

I use CacheNav with CacheMate. Any time I am entering a waypoint, I am doing so in CacheMate and then just clicking on the Nav button to automatically switch over to CacheNav. That combo works fine.

 

I am also going to write an app to allow entry of a waypoint directly into a Tomtom custom POI file, so you can enter waypoints in the field (for those times when you want Tomtom to route you to the next stage of a big multi, for example). I don't currently have a Palm development platform, which is my main holdup.

 

--Marky

[+cyne]

The Tom Tom software that comes with the Combo, currently has no way to enter Coords in the field. You need a third party software to do that. You also need a 3rd party software to have a compass style viewer to let you know how close you are to the cache. I use Cachemate/CacheNav for both these things and GSAK to export Cachemate PDB files and TOm TOM OV2 files to the Palm.

 

To add a coord in the field, I open any Cachemate Cache, copy the coord text from the info page, open a NEW Cache, paste into the coords line at the bottom, modify the Coords text appropriately, and Name the new Cache something like Temp1 or "Cachename"2, etc.

Another 3rd party software is GeoNiche, but it is kind of complicated and also a pain to work with unless you buy the full version.

 

It can be a hassle to switch back and forth between TomTom Navigator and Cachemate and sometimes the GPS won't connect unless I soft reboot the PDA but the excellent Tom Tom Street Mapping Software makes this Combo great for the money.

 

Mike

I dont think that GEONICHE is complicated, It is true that you have to do a lot of setings at the begining, but after that there is no problem and it is simply to use. you just download .loc file from geocaching.com with waypoints, load it with desktop and choose which information do you want have like hints, logs etc. and it will make you pdb file which you sync to palm. And now you have evrything you need in palm and you can start the HUNT.