Which type of GPS or Device do you use for caching?

[DrDick&Vick]

What do you use for caching, a dedicated GPS, a phone or some other device?
Choose which device(s) you use in the poll and post any pro's and con's that you think applies.
We can then try and collate the info for others to use when they are looking for a new item of kit.

[DrDick&Vick]

GPS Map60Cx, good quality, rugged and strong signal reception and retention. Holds 1000 caches, used with TOPO maps.
Oregon 300, excellant piece of kit as it allows paperless caching, holds 2000 caches (using PQs), signal retention under tree cover is not as good as the GPS Map but is more than adequate.
Android phone with the GC app, only use it to get up to date info if needed and also to store more cache for unplanned caching as it can hold 5000 +, not rugged enough to use for caching at all times as unlike the dedicated GPS's it is nor waterproof.

[Jacaru]

Oregon 550t

Pros

Paperless caching
holds 5000 caches
Touchscreen
Decent compass
Camera
Long Battery Life
Rechargeable
Large bright easy to read screen

Cons

TBH I find it difficult to find any cons with this device.
The camera is basic, but as an emergency camera is is certainly sufficient.

We have had it for a year now and it has served us well in all weather conditions, it has got wet in recent snow and rain and still doesn't stress about it.

[sandvika]

Suunto M9 - No caching functionality. 500 waypoints. Very long cold start time. Short battery life with GPS on. Useless under trees.

1999 eTrex Vista - No caching functionality. 1000 waypoints. Very long cold start time, very short battery life, pretty useless under trees...... Replaced within 3 months of starting caching when cachers I was caching with had found the cache before my GPSr was even ready to search.

2007 eTrex Vista HCx - Basic caching functionality, much improved by smart use of GSAK, 1000 waypoints. Excellent under trees. Long battery life. Unlike the original Vista, the gasket soon came adrift on this one (and on every other I've seen) which slightly impairs use.

Oregon 450T - The mutt's nuts for caching. 5000 cache listings. OS maps. Fastest start time yet. Long battery life. Maybe not quite as accurate as Vista HCx so I'll take the Vista too when placing caches but no complaints. Opted for 450T rather than 550T as I prefer real cameras and have a crappy camera in my phone if needed for photo-with-GPSr shots for locationless and virtuals.

[Fermentum]

Megellan eXplorist GC

• Paperless Caching
• 2.2 inch colour screen (non-touch)
• 18 Hour Battery Life
• Worldwide map base
• Upto 500 Waypoints
• Upto 10,000 Geocaches
• Geocaching awards for finds
• Waterproof
• Preloaded with the top 1000 Geocaches around the world
• 1 Months free Premium on Geocaching.com
• £150.00 with delivery from USA off ebay (I think I got a really good deal here and not seen one as good since.)

As this is my first GPS I can't really compare but I will say I have had no problems with it. You can set searches on the screen to find certain caches. Whether that is a type of cache or just search for the nearest. You can then log your find and make comments on the find. Then plug it in and automatically upload all of your logs. The GPS will remember your found caches and then award you with certain finds. Really good!

The bad thing would be that it is specific to Geocaching so that could put people off (not me I got it for Geocaching only).

[The Wombles]

Oregon 400T, love the paperless and other functionality, not quite as accurate as GPSmap60 series. Use this with Topo V2 maps (not as supplied) which are much better than old Mapsource, car routing functionality really useful.

GPSmap 60CSx and 60Cx (son's GPS): Excellent accuracy including under tree cover, robust (I've fallen on the CSx a few times and it survived). Battery life on the Cx better due to lack of electronic compass which I don't use.

iPhone: Good to look up nearby caches, caching when opportunity strikes whilst visiting somewhere for work. Con: accuracy. It's pretty poor most of the time in urban canyons.

Also used for caching in the past:

eTrex (yellow and camo) very good basic device

eMap (no longer available): First GPS, good basic road mapping, accuracy not as good as modern devices

Magellan Sportrak Colour (no longer available): accuracy good but couldn't get on with it, replaced it quite quickly

Fortuna GPSsmart (no longer available): poor accuracy, no mapping, slow but very early bluetooth device

[Fantasyraider]

Oregon 300 .....

[border caz]

Etrex Legend with Garmin Topo maps - excellent for off road.

Garmin Nuvi - for paperless caching and great for drive bys, but not so good for trails due to battery life and tends to lose signal under tree cover.

[agentmancuso]

Vista Cx, with talkytoaster mapping, 30,000 Pois and plenty leckie tape to keep the rubber gasket in place. opcorn:

[Bear and Ragged]

How long is a piece of string...

Garmin 60CSX for preference, -It's wot the others are judged against.
Oregon 300 cos it's got paperless and OS maps, -OS maps. Nuff said! (And paperless...)

Mobile phone with Trimble app, so I can cache 'on the fly...'
(Not really working, cos I'm not getting the chance to cache! Roll on the lighter nights.)

Started with the old Garmin yellow, moved on to the Legend, then the 60CSX and now Oregon.

[tony72]

Garmin yellow, used since 2004, now used by other half.
60Csx, main unit just under a year now.
Mio 168, O K if not walking to slow, tends to take ages to update, good as a sat nav with TT.
Nokia 5800 with Trimble app for spur of the moment stuff.

[Palujia]

Oregon 550 - paperless, holds zillions (quite a lot !) of waypoints etc. Good accuracy - mostly. Also use the Android phone app for quickies - find a cache on phone, transfer co-ords to the oregon and orf we jolly well go

[Nevryan]

GPS Map60Cx, had it a couple of years now and really like it. I also have an iPhone. I periodically download 500 closest to home caches and use GSAK to send HTML files for the iPhone. For me this combination does everything I need, I have as much of the clue loaded to GPSMAP as allowed so I can use that for most caching, the phone helps if I get stuck. When abroad (like now in China) I will use the iPhone alone although there are no caches near here (Huizhou).

[g0akh]

Garmin 60CSx with UK Topo which I've used for a couple of years - excellent under tree cover, with separate PDA running Cachemate for paperless caching.

Just upgraded to 62s, but not enough experience with it yet to form a proper list of pros/cons.

[Graculus]

Previous: eTrex Legend, Vista Hc. Both excellent. Now Oregon 550 (MrsB has a 400t).
Pros:

• Paperless using PQ's
• OS Maps (OS GB Discoverer)
• Talky Toasters maps (better for towns than OS Maps)
• Battery life
• Touch screen and ease of inputting data
• Rugged
• Electronic 3 axis compass (hold the device in any position)
• Accuracy compared to iPhone and PDA!!
• Camera - not brilliant but good enough for quick use.

Cons:

• None really to be honest!

Chris

[amberel]

Got dozens of GPSrs, but in practice mostly use the Oregon 550t. It doesn't do anything particularly well, but it does just about everything adequately .

The Acer PDA is best for accuracy, followed by the HTC Desire Android, followed by the Etrex HCx. But the Oregon is mostly good enough. The iPhone (3GS) is the pits.

All the PocketPC PDAs are best for maps (Memory Map + Cachemate). The iPhone uses my MemoryMap maps, and they look good, but without the ability to link to CacheMate or equivalent that doesn't help much for caching. The Oregon screen isn't so good, they use JPEGs for the maps (yukk) and I've only got wide coverage in 50,000. It takes a very small area of custom maps so I generally preload the area I'm going to with 25,000 - sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't, can't work out why. But doing it each time is a fag, and I can't always cover the whole area I need for one day anyway. So not so hot on maps, but I have to live with it.

Cache details. Cachemate on the PDAs is good, and integrates well with MemoryMap. GeoSphere on the iPhone is good, but doesn't integrate with offline maps. The Oregon is fairly good, and does integrate with the maps, of course. But it's a real pain on multis, I can't keep the cache details and the secondary waypoints linked. So I have to print multis out before I leave home.

The Asus P750 PDA is the best for battery life. The Oregon isn't too bad, but doesn't last a whole day on rechargeables (the satnav uses more juice than caching mode), and changing the batteries means the pesky compass has to be recalibrated AGAIN.

The iPhone has the best compass. It seems to calibrate itself. The Oregon's compass is poor, it has to be recalibrated frequently and isn't that good if it's not held flat, even though it's supposed to be 3 axis. The HTC Desire Android has by far the worst compass, it's completely wrong most of the time.

For car SatNav I use TomTom on the Acer PDA. It has a cold start of a few seconds even without "assistance" and picks up satellites OK at the bottom of a coal mine (slight exaggeration, but it is amazingly good). But it's not very rugged, so on the motor-bike I use the Oregon for SatNav. It's not brilliant, but it's a lot better than nothing, and it doesn't mind getting wet.

Mostly I prepare my cache listings before I leave home. For ad hoc I have to use whichever phone I have with me at the time, which might be the iPhone 3GS or the HTC Desire Android. I find the Groundspeak app to be quite poor, but it just about does the job. But the iPhone will lose the phone coverage at the drop of a hat, it's really very poor, and I'll probably get an iPhone 4 in a few days. The HTC Desire Android has better coverage than the 3GS, but the iPhone is a better phone for the times it is in coverage.

For ruggedness the Etrex wins, with the Oregon close behind.

But I can't carry 12 GPSrs with me when I'm caching, and the Oregon seems to be the best compromise for most situations.

Rgds, Andy

[redsox_mark]

I use an eTrex Legend® HCx.

Advantages:

- Relatively cheap
- Rugged (except the rubber seal came off, but Garmin sent me a replacement free of charge).
- Works with Talky Toster's maps (which I use)
- Seems pretty good on accuracy

Disadvantages

- Not fully paperless
- No chirp support

[hazels]

Wow...

I've had loads of GPSs, and always just upgraded, rather than breaking them etc... (yeah, I know I fall over a lot, but I don't always break them!!)

I've JUST bought an Oregon 450, but usually cache with a Colorado 300, which I like, but find multis a PITB, so I don't ususally bother!

Before that I had a 60Cs, which was given to me by a caching pal as I was contrantly moaning about my Garmin Legend.

I bought the Garmin Legend when Phill and I split up and he got custody of the GPSs (I got the cat!!)

In my prior life with him, we had a plethora of GPSs, a bigger Gadget Man you could never meet...

Our first GPS (which we had prior to caching) were the Garmin Emap and an Etrex yellow - both of which we used for walking, but soon ended up with a Vista and a Magellan something or other at some time.... I don't remember what it was, I just remember how fiddly it was and that I didn't like caching with it!

Think I've had a good fiddle with most GPSs now!!!

I use my iPhone for "emergency caching" - you know, you're somewhere different and waiting for someone, so chance you hand at grabbing a sneaky cache!! I don't like it though, eats my battery and isn't particularly accurate!

Use a Tom Tom with caches downloaded as POI to get me to caches, wouldn't use anything other than a Tom Tom now....

My favourite part of caching, (apart from the walk) surprisingly isn't the find, it's the planning... I LOVE maps and cache planning.... if only I could find a job that would enable me to just sit and cache plan all day!!!

[Dan1980]

Garmin eTrex H

Pros:
VERY accurate
VERY rugged
Long battery life
Easy to use
Cheap

Cons:
No maps
No facility to store descriptions or hints

I originally used this as my sole caching device, using printed paper descriptions/hints. I then got a cheap PDA to replace the paper, and this enabled me to store many more caches than was practical on paper as well as giving me electronic mapping. That was until I trapped it in a car door at Mega Scotland - it's definitely not as rugged as the GPS! :lol:

I've recently started using a HTC Desire, which I hope will replace the PDA and give me even more functionality. I've not actually used it for geocaching yet, but I anticipate that I will still use the eTrex for 99% of the actual finding, with the phone as a backup/cache storage device.

[L8HNB]

Originally a mono screen Etrex Legend then a Mio P550 with OS maps.

Legend was ok, but not particulalry acurate. Liked the control on the front for entering co-ords. Still got it.

Mio was/is very good. 4+ yrs old now and I'm thinking it may need a new battery otherwise ideal for our needs. It's used with an aluminium hard case to protect it and we always have a coulple of zip-loc bags to pop it into when it rains. We have a battery pack for it, that just velcros on, if we know we aren't going to get a charge into it in the day. Accuracy is fine and with the OS 1:50k maps of the UK and cachemate I can't see a need to change it at present.

[Palujia]

Started with a Leg end (as she who must be obeyed called it) then upgraded to an Oregon 550 (didn't get the 550t as not sure why two cameras needed - use a proper camera for finds) Oregon good for paperless. Use the Android app on phone in new locations when not downloaded - take co-ords and put on 550 (as more accurate) seems to work for me

[The_Street_Searchers]

Oregon 300

Pros

Paperless caching - especially the hint function
Recent upgrade for Multis and Chirps
Good Battery
Rugged / Waterproofish (I dropped it in a puddle and it survived)

Cons

Only 2000 caches - now this sounds rediculous but I do a bit of travelling and I always have 2000 caches in 2 PQs centred around home and work, I get the PQ once a week. If I go anywhere I have to delete one off the unit and then put it back on when I get home. 5000 would be much better :-)

But all in all a brilliant unit that I am really happy with.

[Smithbats]

Etrex Legend and our trusty yellow etrex.

We do paperless caching by using geosphere on my ipod.
These have been dropped, soaked and generally knocked about and they still work a treat.

[esim]

Started with Fujitsu Loox PDA with external BT GPS running the BeelineGPS application. Great for cache details and accuracy, but with max 3 hour battery life on PDA it meant turning it off all the time between caches.

Now using Etrex Vista Hcx with talkytoaster maps and loaded with ~6000 caches (+waypoints) using GSAK macro.
Using HTC Desire with the Groundspeak app for cache details and logging. (the Android app from Groundspeak is getting there, though still not quite as functionally rich as c:geo)