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I must admit that I have never even touched a PDA. I met up with a fellow Geocacher in the woods this weekend, and he showed me some pretty cool things. I’ve decided that I want one.
I am looking for some good feedback on which ones would be good (or not so good) for taking out on the Geocaching trail.
I’d suggest something running the PALM operating system, and out of those, the Handsprings are about the most affordable.
One caution, get yourself a good durable case for out in the woods. We are a strictly ‘paperless cacher’, we have all the cache pages we are hunting on the PDA, use a PDA decrypter if we have to resort to the hint, and have a PDA database where we log who on our team found each cache, what each person took and left, the date and time etc.
The downside is that I have now had to send my PDA in for repair twice due to their inability to take much field abuse (we use a Handera 330).
Its also handy to be able to use the PDA with our cell phone to email in virtual find answers, and to pull down geocaching.com pages in the field.
One thing I didn’t mention in my long-lost 27-cache frenze story is that I went (almost) paperless. The only paper I used was a Mapquest printout to get me down there and to find a Starbucks.
First, I created a Pocket Query for the nearest few hundred caches in the area I was headed. This went into ExpertGPS and then uploaded to my Etrex Legend so I had the coordinates for 500 caches at my disposal.
Next comes cache descriptions. I took the GPX file from the Pocket Query and used GPX Spinner on it to convert the file into HTML. The result is a folder full of cache description pages which I uploaded to my Sony Clie NX70V with Plucker. (And actually, if you have a Palm that can display 320×320 or better like the Clie, you can use the hires version of Plucker for a better looking display.
Armed with all this, I could go anywhere, use my GPSr to search for nearest caches, then look up the GCxxxx number in Plucker to get the description page. The only thing I was really lacking was a detailed map like you’d get from Mapquest, but the built-in map in the Legend worked well enough. In retrospect, I probably should have printed out at least one area map for where I was, just to help with finding parking for some of the county parks.
Oh, and the Starbucks? The first cache I visited was the Photographer’s Cache:Chicago Style. I needed to snap a picture of the stadium formerly known as Comiskey Park and be the first to upload it to the GC.com. Unfortunately, since I took the picture around 6 AM and wasn’t planning on getting home until after dark, I didn’t want to risk anyone getting a picture in before me. The Clie has a built in digital camera which takes pictures that are nothing to write home about, but are almost passable. I used the Clie to get my Sox Park pictures, then headed to Starbucks. Many Starbucks now feature WiFi access for people who want to pay for overpriced burnt coffee and surf the web at the same time. I took advantage of this, a wireless card for the Clie, and a free offer and logged onto GC.com and was able to not only log my find, but upload my picture as well!
Overall, I was very happy with the setup. I’m glad that it was a sunny day, so I was able to turn the backlight off on the Clie to conserve power. Otherwise a car charger may have been in order. If you’re going to the campout, I’m planning on bringing it all with if you like to see it in person. Just find me and ask!
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Originally posted by Cheesehead Dave:
(And actually, if you have a Palm that can display 320×320 or better like the Clie, you can use the hires version of Plucker for a better looking display.Cool setup Dave! While not the reason I purchased my Handera, the hires of its display is indeed very nice for a Palm based PDA. The monochrome has the distinct advantage though of giving ne about a month on the batteries, even when paperless caching
I use IE2PDB for my web clippings, but I’ve heard good thinks about Plucker.
I think I will need a special program set up to explain the last couple of posts. I want to get a PDA also, but think that I will need an interpretor when I get it.
I just tried my first two two paperless caches yesterday. I really liked it. I got a Palm M515. No more hand entering coordinates and printing each cache page I desire. It is so easy to get a Pocket Query e-mailed to you with 100’s of caches in Mobipocket reader and their waypoints in Easy GPS. Now if I happen to be driving in the area of a cache I can look up the description page on the Palm and off I go. No more missing caches that happen to be right in the area of another cache I’m searching for. Well worth the Premium Member Fee of $30 for the Pocket Query service.
I have the chance to get a Palm III or a Palm IIIc, each for the same price. Which would be best?
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Originally posted by Buy_The_Tie:
I have the chance to get a Palm III or a Palm IIIc, each for the same price. Which would be best?While the IIIc certainly would be nice, keep in mind that the display will chew up the batteries much faster than the III. If you have no use for color, I’d go with the III.
Just to add to Dave’s comment on battery life, the difference is measured in hours vs. weeks.
I’ve been wanting a Zaurus 5500 for its Linux features, but I sure wish it was availlable in greyscale. I’m so used to running my Palm greyscale PDA for weeks without battery changes, and don’t know if I could get used to daily recharges on a color device.
The III has 2 Megs of memory. The IIIc has 8 Megs of memory. I will only be using this for paperless caching. Is 2 Megs going to be enough? How many different cache descriptions will fit in 2 Megs? In 10 Megs?
Following Cheesehead Dave’s advice, using GPX Spinner and Plucker, 500 caches consumed a little bit more than 1 Meg of space.
I Think 2 megs is a little on the low side.
I have a Sony Clie with 16 MB, and has expansion slot to hold a Sony Memory stick. I have a 16 MB memory stick in it, which gives me 32 mb total. I’m currently using about 8 megs of space with all my Geocaching stuff, and other programs.
I have a mono screen with suites the purpose. Battery life is very good. I recharge it once ever week or two. My friend has a Sony Clie with the Color screen. It is really, really nice. The only problem is that she gets a couple hours battery life before recharging, versus weeks of battery with mine.
[This message has been edited by GrouseTales (edited 05-13-2003).]
Dittos to what Grousetails said. My Sony is a little dated but I sure have it loaded up with stuff. Pictures, spreadsheets, technical documents and even powerpoint presentations from work. Oh, did I mention a bunch of pocketbooks too? I don’t think people realize the full potential of these great little devices. I have webpages on it, the current news, some magazines. I read the books to put me to sleep and it wakes me up in the morning.
Steve Bukosky
WaukeshaTwo more questions: Do you think there will be any use for one of these at the campout this weekend? For geocaching, do most people do as Cheesehead Dave has and use Plucker, or do they use the E-book format?
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Originally posted by Buy_The_Tie:
Do you think there will be any use for one of these at the campout this weekend?At last years picnic, all of the caches were made available by WGA as TODO lists. It was very simple to pull up the cache, read its details, hints etc, and when the cache was found, just check it off the todo list. You could see folks all over the picnic beaming the list to each other.
I don’t know if WGA is doing that for the campout, I hope so… you could ask over on the campout thread.
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