Cheapest PDA?

[Angus]

Anyone advise on the cheapest PDA capable of running one of the 'deco planning' programmes? It only needs to be basic as I want it to do very little other than this. I'm sure someone on here has already done the research so would be very grateful for ideas/advice.

Cheers

ATB

[Garf]

If literally all you have to do is run deco software, then just pick up an old second hand one off ebay. Save you a fortune.

[Dominic]

Ah, you might THINK that's all you'll want it for...

But then you'll see the cool dive-logging software for the PDA, and the gas-blending software, and the dive camera download software, and the...

[Darren27]

I got my PDA Toshiba e750 from a dealer in the US via Ebay, over £150 off the uk high street price. I also got an e400 for the wife as she kept nicking mine, that only cost me £85, second hand and you could not tell, only a few weeks old. Runs PPC 2003 so all the latest stuff will run fine.

Plenty of Palm based machines on there as well, cant really comment on prices of them as I didnt want one. If you have not used Ebay before, sign up for a PAypal account, its a safe way to pay using your credit card, without ever giving out your details, other than to Ebay. It will also pay out if the goods you order never arrive, so no worry about being ripped off.

Happy hunting

Darren

[aclivity]

reiterate what's been said above, get a cheap Palm off eBay (I'd avoid the early models and stick with a minimum Palm OS v4.0.

Deco planning, I've got a couple:
J-Plan is freeware, you can get it from the various Palm download sites (like www.palmblvd.com) and get an unlock code by emailing the author.
M-plan is also freeware, it has a slightly less friendly interface than J-plan but it does also have a PC version so you can plan dives on both platforms in the same way. I tend to use this a lot less, in fact only ever to compare with the J-plan output.
DCAP is another one but I haven't used it since installing it.

I would add that I don't 'plan' my dives on the palm per se, I tend to use my dive pooter and/or tables but if I know what profile I'm likely to follow in advance I'll model it on j-plan. I don't do decompression dives - well not on purpose and if and when I move to that level I'll probably use 'purchased' software - but keep the free stuff for ease of use and comparison of plans.

There are other shareware or freeware apps for divers, Dom has mentioned the dive logging software.

There's an app called DiverAC that helps calculate air consumption (if you need help doing that), one called Nitrox that helps with partial pressure blending calculations.

There's loads of resources for PDA's on t'interweb; try www.pdacentral.com for downloads, www.pdastreet.com for reviews of ALL types of PDA and also downloads. I've had various types of PDA over the last decade or so and whilst the Psion 5 was my favourite overall, I'm pretty much stuck on the Palm now as there is so much software available for it. And it's not Microsoft, which is a huge plus point IMHO.

Andy

[japandiver]

Suggest that you check out Amazon for prices - Palm Zire is the probably the cheapest and it will run deco software / blending calcs.

I`d suggest being careful with second hand PDA`s - when the batteries fail there is nothing you can do. PDA`s tend to live 4 - 6 years.

I wouldn`t go gas diving without one - load it up with J-Plan, D-Plan (not as good as J-Plan, sold by GUE for 50USD) and Gas Blender and you are good to go. PC based deco software is good to play with and understand how changing mixes and GF`s changes the profile - but a PDA is more than adequate for planning a dive - especially if you use two different codes for a consistency check.

Hugh

[aclivity]

just seen this: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=108457 at the bottom of the page there is a link saying "8 grade 'b' available" - a 16Mb palm powered PDA for just over £30. Refurbished, so not brnad new, but at £30 not a bad deal.

[Angus]

Thanks for the replies guys, I ended up getting a good deal on one of the dearer HP Ipaqs.

Having done a bit of research I realsied that it would take the SD cards direct from my camera (your fault Dominic) so I can review the pics on a reasonable screen and will also run a nuber of other useful applications (diving or otherwise).

Cheers again

[parahandy]

Yeah I got an ipaq for work, not yet run any deco software on it, although it will be ok if I load a dive log on it. Anyone using these to log dives etc?

[ian Price]

I bought the IPAQ 2210 and run Vplanner on it. It seems very good I am really impressed with it! Have yet to find any dive log software though.
regards
Ian