Why Get a PDA to go Geocaching?

Aushiker · Post by **Aushiker** » 16 December 04 5:22 pm

Hi

An emerging discussion in the WA forum has led to me posting two questions on paperless (PDA) geocaching. The first question is this general one as to why go down this path. I guess I am interested in the advantages of this approach over a paperbased approach.

I am not interested in taking my laptop in the car with me geocaching. Just too important to risk it.

The second question on an actual setup is posted at http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=1941 and is on the ideal setup.

Thanks 
Andrew

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 16 December 04 6:57 pm

Why did I go paperless? Convenience in the first place, I carry around every active and disabled cache in Australia now, in my PDA (palm 500M).

Why?? Because my work has a habit of sending me off around Australia at a moment's notice. So even if I don't get home to update my GPS with the geocaches in the area I am heading to I already have the required data at my fingertips.

Secondly I got tired of printing out dozens of sheets of paper that end up being recycled at the end of the day.

Aushiker · Post by **Aushiker** » 16 December 04 7:08 pm

Thanks. Next stupid question. Is it possible to upload the waypoints from your PDA to the GPSr, a.k.a. one can do with the computer?

Andrew

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 16 December 04 7:13 pm

To be honest, I have no idea if that can be done. If a PDA had a serial port and the right software., but as my PDA lacks a serial port, I am not the right person to ask.

oznaturist · Post by **oznaturist** » 16 December 04 7:20 pm

The ability to spontaneously cache does it for me. All the WA caches inclubing the previous 7 logs is all at the finger tips. I was on a real budget so I purchased the Palm Zire 21. No expansion slots and only a mono display. But all I wanted was diary, memo, and cache pages. I still have 5.5mb of space free. NOOOOO paper.

Dooghan · Post by **Dooghan** » 16 December 04 7:24 pm

yes you can. I use a program called GPilots on my palm (also a M500) to upload and dowload waypoints, routes and tracks from my etrex. It's a good program as you can place waypoints into different categories eg people, caches etc. I have a number of routes in the program as the etrex can only one at a time. As for the tracks you can use it as a track data logger for long trips. I'm sorry to say this program is only for garmin gps.

Dooghan

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 16 December 04 7:29 pm

Dooghan wrote:yes you can. I use a program called GPilots on my palm (also a M500) to upload and dowload waypoints, routes and tracks from my etrex. It's a good program as you can place waypoints into different categories eg people, caches etc. I have a number of routes in the program as the etrex can only one at a time. As for the tracks you can use it as a track data logger for long trips. I'm sorry to say this program is only for garmin gps.

Dooghan

Oh Mr Dooghan, you have got my interest now.... what lead do you use and where did you obtain it? I have a Garmin 12 (the steam driven one)

Gunn Parker · Post by **Gunn Parker** » 16 December 04 7:48 pm

Cetus GPs available here wil connect to your palm if you have the cable, I dont have one so I do not know how it works, cetus also works with cachemate for palm here

Dooghan · Post by **Dooghan** » 16 December 04 7:57 pm

swampgecko wrote:
Dooghan wrote:yes you can. I use a program called GPilots on my palm (also a M500) to upload and dowload waypoints, routes and tracks from my etrex. It's a good program as you can place waypoints into different categories eg people, caches etc. I have a number of routes in the program as the etrex can only one at a time. As for the tracks you can use it as a track data logger for long trips. I'm sorry to say this program is only for garmin gps.

Dooghan
Oh Mr Dooghan, you have got my interest now.... what lead do you use and where did you obtain it? I have a Garmin 12 (the steam driven one)

I got the serial cable for the palm on ebay. Its a Y-serial cable meaning its got a usb and serial plug. I see there are 2 on ebay right now but they are just serial with out the usb

Dooghan

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 16 December 04 8:06 pm

Thanks, I just played a hunch and looked in at GPSOZ, they have a good selection of cables too. Looking at Ebay now.

team unicycle · Post by **team unicycle** » 16 December 04 8:32 pm

Does anyone know of software to upload waypoints from PocketPC to Garmin? Frustratingly, gpxsonar only downloads.

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 16 December 04 9:29 pm

Aushiker wrote:Hi

An emerging discussion in the WA forum has led to me posting two questions on paperless (PDA) geocaching. The first question is this general one as to why go down this path. I guess I am interested in the advantages of this approach over a paperbased approach.

I am not interested in taking my laptop in the car with me geocaching. Just too important to risk it.

The second question on an actual setup is posted at http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=1941 and is on the ideal setup.

Thanks 
Andrew

You won't go back to paper based caching again, paperless has the following advantages:
1) It's much quicker than printing out pages
2) It's cheaper than printing out pages (if you get a cheap $50 PDA)
3) It's eco-friendly. Well, that's debatable actually. Energy cost of making a PDA vs energy cost of a 1000 sheets of paper and the priner and ink/toner to print them. Hmm...
4) You have ALL the caches for your area, so if you suddenly deice to do one on the way to somewhere you have the info to hand.
5) You will never leave a bit of paper in the car or at home. Unless you leave the whole PDA at home

6) You can store other things like maps, photos and other hints.

I know a cacher back in the old days who went to the trouble of printing out every Sydney cache and putting it in a folder. Didn't work very well because the prinout was often out of date when he went to use it.

Interestingly, talking to Tangles last year, he said he still caches with paper printouts and doesn't use a PDA. Incredible for a prolific cacher like that.

EcoDave

ving · Post by **ving** » 17 December 04 2:48 pm

of course the next obvious step is to attach a GPSr to your PDA. then you dont have to carry your PDA and GPSr seperate

while not as rugged as you etrex, if you dont drop it it quite accurate and cost effective. mines not been out by more than 4 m so far

.

so those who own the palm m500, look on ebay for a magellan companion too

..... umm if you want to got tht way

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 21 December 04 11:58 am

EcoTeam:

2) It's cheaper than printing out pages (if you get a cheap $50 PDA)
3) It's eco-friendly. Well, that's debatable actually. Energy cost of making a PDA vs energy cost of a 1000 sheets of paper and the priner and ink/toner to print them. Hmm...

Are $50 PDAs any good? If yes who sells them. I hadn't even considered one but if this is the price well.....

What are the batteries made of lithium, cadmium, lead

? Must admit I have my share of these already

.

At present I only print multis and distant caches but this sometimes means revisits. When printing, cut & paist is now used as the so called printer friendly function isn't friendly at all most times.

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 21 December 04 2:29 pm

Geof wrote:Are $50 PDAs any good? If yes who sells them. I hadn't even considered one but if this is the price well.....

What are the batteries made of lithium, cadmium, lead ? Must admit I have my share of these already .

Look for Palm IIIxe on eBay or similar. It's got 8MB of memory (enough for all the Oz caches!) and a pretty readable screen in bright light or using the backlight (only really suitable at night and do look at one of the little screen-inverting programs to make it more readable.)

Best of all, in these circumstances, it uses 2xAAA batteries, so you're not plagued by the "worn out battery syndrome" that you usually get with second-hand electronics.

Avoid earlier Palms (Professional, III, V) as the screens are quite murky by comparison. A IIIe, IIIx or Vx are all OK.

Geocaching Australia

Why Get a PDA to go Geocaching?

Why Get a PDA to go Geocaching?

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