Palm Pilots and Exbal

[Kenster-Boy]

I was looking at getting exbal for a palm pilot but have not used either. It looks like a very effective tool for quick calculations in the field.

I have a couple of Palm pilots picked out on ebay but it seems that some of them are missing small things such as the "cradle" etc. and I was wondering what I need to load the exbal program onto it with. Is there some sort of cable or something that I have to have to make this all work. I just want to avoid buying a palm that doesn't come with all the nessesary stuff.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jimm]

Hey man ,

I bought my palm on ebay fron a fella that sells and repairs them all the time . His name is Chris Short and his email is [email protected]. Probably could go straight to him and save a lot of hassle. You want a rechargeable battery palm , a cradle for synching with your computer and a hard case for the palm . I too bought the Exbal program and it is great ! Almost forgot , the cradle that hooks to your comp. also charges your batteries and they last for several days.

Hope this helps , Jim

 

[Willy 1]

Is their any special make of palm pilot that any of you guys would say is the best one available

 

[EZShooter]

I would put forward the following suggestions... take them as you will with a grain of salt.... as I don't have Exbal... yet. I am not meaning this post to sound condescending by any means, I don't know how much you know about PC's and PDA's and only intend to help out here. Another thing, my experience with Palms within the last couple of years has been on their higher priced models... so that may explain any errors I put forth below... as most of the expensive ones can work/interact several different ways with a PC.

I have used both Palm devices and Pocket PC's for the past 5 years... ( IMHO the Palm devices seem to be more reliable Operating System wise... also, the devices seem to be less cluttered with junk programs that you may not need). Just my 2c... I would look for the following - a new Palm device (an old one may not have the right cradle, cable, CD with extras... etc.) with a Lithium battery (won't develop battery memory... another reason to not buy used - a lot of the older models use Nickle-Metal Hydride batteries that don't work as well as the Li-on batteries) with a storage slot - say an SD or CF memory slot, or something that you can use to store info... most of the Palm's I have used in the past were lean on built in memory... the new ones are so inexpensive compared to 3-4 years ago for what you get now with them... I am assuming that since the Exbal program has been out for a little while that it is relatively small memory wise... a new base model palm (read - cheapo base one-no color display, not very much built-in memory - but I am not even sure that these are made without color anymore to be honest) can be bought for very little money - another thing to look for - a new Palm will most likely use a USB connection (almost univerally prevalent on new computers now) while an old Palm may use a Serial connection (such as a 9-pin connector - a lot of new, cheap PC's don't even have Serial connectors, since they don't get used on the new hardware much now, while 3 year old PC's may not have USB conx on them - my first two Palms used Serial connectors). Try www.newegg.com and look for PDA's/handhelds - reliable online retailer for computer stuff. Paste in this link -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16858101128 - I don't know if this fits your price range ($170) but it has more than you would need. With a factory warranty. Also, this site has a good selection of parts/cables, etc. So if you go used or refurbished, you might find what you need here cable wise - Palm has a website as well, and a search through Ebay or Google may net you plenty of persons with extra cradles, etc as you were already heading in that direction.

Sunmmarizing:
Check to see - type of battery, memory slot, built-in memory, display type (if you want color), connection type to your PC and also what OS version the Palm unit has - some of the newer programs will only go onto the newer Palm OS's and likewise for older programs and Palm OS's - I have not used Exbal but am thinking about it for myself as well as said above - I would double check the Palm OS's that Exbal works on. Definitely post / update your experiences please as I am interested in how this works out for you.... I may be asking you the next questions on Exbal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BTW, I use a Palm Treo 650 PDA/phone right now, way cool device. I work in construction, use it as a contact manager for phone calls (stores my 1200+ contacts)... it has a built-in (kinda crappy) camera that works in a pinch when you didn't remember your camera... also records video. Way cool - way expensive too. I use a phone all day long, so its worth it to me. Warning - these things are addictive, but they make your like easier than before. I will be installing Exbal onto it when I can get past Christmas bills.

Good shooting!

 

[Willy 1]

EZ Shooter
Hi That is the type of information that I am looking for,I want one to put exbal on but I also want to be able to use it for work. That is my way of justifying buying it.So do you use yours for contact number storage only or as a phone also? Just checked into some of them and they seem to do almost everything you can think of.
Thanks Lloyd

 

[EZShooter]

Willy 1,

My PDA is indispensible. I use it for a contacts manager, a task manager, a calendar / scheduling tool for meeting's, a spreadsheet/word document reviewer, a remote email retriever/viewer, a storage device for MP3's/Jobsite pictures/jobsite videos, etc. I was very pessimistic about using a combo PDA/phone, didn't think that it would be that handy. I was wrong! Can't do work without it now - it probably saves me 1 hour a day just in not having to log onto a company computer for email. The Treo was the best in features model when I got it 6 months ago, so I am not sure if there is anything better yet. Two of my buddys told me this - and I find it true - the Treo is a crappy to ok camera, crappy video recorder, good phone (but nowhere near as nice as a high end stand alone cell phone), good to great contacts manager, fair to good MP3 player, but when you add them all up together in one piece of equipment, it becomes something you can't work/play without.

Want to impress someone? Sync your PDA to MS Outlook, setup your Contacts Manager, enter in a new contact, and put in info on them as you get it... I have a buddy of mine, Sr Project Manager at a GC outfit, he told me that his wife was expecting and their due date was 10/20/05. So up pops a reminder to check with this guy that I haven't talked to in six months, I call him, just to say congratulations and did you get my gift for the new addition... he really appreciated the personal touch. I get calls from him for business now.

On top of it, I can use it for things like Exbal, or with the GPS attachement for GPS/Roadmaps, for internet surfing (small screen but works in a pinch). I can install most any Palm program from literally thousands of existing Palm programs and there are so many people out there using them that there is something else always being written program wise that comes along and can be added to the unit - ala Exbal.

At $450 plus just to buy the phone and then a monthly $100 cell phone bill it hurts to get started.

I probably use 1200 to 1500 minutes of cell phone time a month on my personal phone, so take this into account. If you can live without a cell phone, then this thing is no better than the $170 PDA - and it has recurring monthly fees that a regular PDA won't have.

Not to be too long winded (I am known for this though) the GPS is pretty cool, it would be neat to see if this could be used in conjunction with Exbal for automatically inputing range conditions - elevation, distance from one point to another if you are preprogrammed for certain spots, etc.. I could see a Kestrel unit being synced to a PDA for the same thing - weather, temp, humidity, wind speed, etc. for LRH use. If Exbal doesn't do this yet, I wouldn't be surprised to see this available in the future. Are you listening, Kestrel/Palm/Exbal? Back to the original question of the post - does anyone have a good bit of experience with a PDA and Exbal?

I can see a program that captures data from a Weather unit, then uses GPS for location to known coordinates (distance of shot - i.e. if you know that the Mouflan rams always sun themselves in the winter on the north face of yonder cliff, then program it into the PDA in the summer when you can walk to the spot - maybe useful, maybe better to use a rangefinder), then presto walla, out spits your data... don't know how far I am off here, it would be neat though.

Regards,
Erik