[GeoStL] Re: PDA
- From: "merkin" <merkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 07:43:59 -0700
-
All I can tell you about is my experience, but I am paperless and all in one
unit now.
I've got a Palm m515 with a Magellan Companion GPSr that snaps onto the back of
the Palm Pilot. The GPSr came with full US maps on 4 CDROMs, so I can load
full-color road maps onto the Palm and have turn-by-turn directions displayed
as I drive. (I also got a windshield mount and cigarette lighter adapter for
it, so I can have it on all the time when I'm on a trip. The lighter also
re-charges the Palm batteries, so I don't have to take a charger with me when I
travel.)
The CDs came with two software programs for the Palm. The first is the
full-color map utility. I can store several maps at one time on the Palm. A
50 mile by 50 mile block of St. Louis takes up 4,619 K of memory. But, that
includes all street addresses to within half a block, all the stores, eating
establishments, airports, bars, and tourist attractions. The map also zooms
out if I'm doing 70-something on the interstate, and zooms in if I'm doing 15
mph in my neighborhood. I can also load point-by-point directional maps, and
it gives me audible beeps to alert me to upcoming turns. I can set the beeps
to occur 10-60 seconds ahead of the turn. These maps take up much less room
than my wide-are StL map - directions from here to Rochester, Minnesota took up
114K of memory. My only beef is that if the maps are loaded to the SD memory
card, they refresh so slowly that I'm off the page before the maps appear. The
maps MUST be held in main memory to be useful, but they can be stored on the
card (so if I'm in California, I'll move the St. Louis map to the card).
The second program for the Palm is much more like a basic GPS unit. I can set
waypoints, enter destinations in DD MM.MMM format, and get a "plot" screen
showing distance and direction to the cache. Accuracy is within 3.3 meters,
and there's a utility to see how many birds I've got a lock on and how strong
the signal is.
The last program I've got on here is called Cachemate. It was $6 on-line, and
it coverts GPX files from Geocache.com into the Cachemate database. I have the
500 caches closest to my house, and 500 locationless caches sent to me every
Friday. I convert them on the PC and load them to the Palm. But, it gives me
the descriptions, the coordinates, the last 5 logs, the hints, and a page on
each cache to record my own log notes. The best feature, IMHO, is one where
you can re-sort the entire list based on distance from either a cache or from
your current location if you are plugged into the GPS. We placed two caches
this weekend, and I used this feature in the park to verify that the closest
cache was 0.3 miles away. I can't speak highly enough of this program. I
tried using the iSilo from geocaching.com and found it very difficult to use.
I've since deleted it from the Palm and just use the Cachemate program.
Between Cachemate and the GPS-supplied software, I'm paperless and have
everything in one unit. If Cachemate had the ability to show a plot of current
position vs. the cache, with distance and bearing, it would be perfection
incarnate. But, being able to sort caches based on current position is pretty
darn cool too.
Just my thoughts. I realize the Palm PC vs Palm Pilot camp is about as divided
as Mac vs PC or Irish Protestant vs Irish Catholic, but this is what fills my
needs. Palm m515s can be found on ebay or half.com for as low as $150. The
GPS unit can also be found on ebay for $80-$100 or less. That puts a complete
paperless system with color maps in your mailbox for around $250.
merkin4
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SISNA...more service, less money.
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