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Aine Seitz McCarthy
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Bleg: Advice for PDA hardware?

6/16/2012

3 Comments

 
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I'm leaving for Tanzania in a week to begin the adventure of a rural community household survey for my dissertation research. As I rapidly finish up questionnaires, training manuals, IRB letters, rabies vaccinations and taking my last written prelim (two days before departure), I'm also attempting to procure a set computer assisted interviewing devices.

I previously blogged about the advantage of using personal digital assistants (PDAs- like old smart phones) or computers in data collection. The World Bank also has some great resources on software programs to use. We've decided on using the Pendragon Forms version 5.1, also recommended here. So now the the begging part: I need advice (quickly!) on which hardware to accompany this software.

As you can tell, these devices look like dorky outdated un-smart phones. Here are my constraints:
  •  Due to using the slightly older version of Pendragon (new version requires wireless, exceedingly unlikely in this case), the hardware has to run these older operating systems: Windows Mobile 6.1-6.5 or Palm OS 5.2.
  • Rechargeable battery with a long life (electricity may also be sketchy)
  • Has a good GPS (for household identification)
  • Under $250

Trimle's Juno was a recommendation and seems ideal but its upwards of $600. And this was compared to SoMo 650, which apparently has a mediocre GPS. Pendragon costumer service recommended the Aceeca PDA32, which is semi-rugged, however, it doesn't have a GPS.

Anyway... to the point. The IT world of information is limited on this subject as these are all pretty outdated devices, but does anyone have any advice?

3 Comments
Gabriel
6/26/2012 08:19:22 am

Hi, are you sure Pendargon Forms VI needs wifi? Their site says
"Typically, a client device will use a WiFi, 3G or 4G wireless connection to reach the Staging Server."
If you use Forms VI (and 3G) you have the beauty of Android devices at your disposal, with stuff like Samsung Galaxy Ace (198$ on amazon) or even Galaxy Mini (132$). Good GPS for both, as far as I know. Regarding battery life, not sure. I know of a field project that used the Mini in Nigeria, and it worked well; however they recharged every evening. Check out http://www.kobotoolbox.org/products/kobokit for ideas regarding power.

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VJ
7/15/2012 02:36:17 am

I've noticed a lot of dev econ people relying on Pendragon, but it looks a bit clunky to me. I'm not sure of all the features Pendragon offers, but it seems like any HTML5 capable phone should do the trick (that includes older iPods/iPhones and budget Android). If the goal is just to have customized forms, store the data on the phone (i.e you don't need an interent connection to save data), and have data validation on the fly, then HTML5 + JQuery is well equipped for this.

Could you explain what's the benefits of Pendragon? Would you be interested in trying a pure HTML5 approach to collecting data?

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Maria link
8/31/2013 05:08:17 pm

Loved your blog layout that I created a weebly account too.

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    Aine Seitz McCarthy

    International development, economics and some pretty ambitious ideas from a stubborn graduate student clinging to her sense of adventure.


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