Recommended GPS solution?

[blade_of_narsil]

I have a friend that wants a pocket pc and a GPS add-on. I have a year old iPaq with GPS, but I was wondering if any of the newer slimer pocketpcs have GPS sleeves, and what people's experience has been with them.

Thanks

[aroma]

Now, I would recommend a BlueTooth GPS solution. Purchase one of the newer PPC's with BlueTooth and get one of the new BlueTooth GPS receivers. Much more convient than the sleeve/CF/cabled solutions.

- Aaron

[clbsvi]

I've been wading through the same decision path as Blade_of_Narsil about a new Pocket PC plus a GPS receiver for same. Personal opinion: a Dual Slot (Compact Flash + SDIO slot) is my choice, probably an HP 2215 together with a Compact Flash GPS receiver. There are SD receivers out there but the small card size will compromise antenna size and sensitivity; CF GPS Receiver cards are also less expensive and more abundant. There are lots of good receivers out there, most using the newer SiRF GPS chips which are more signal-sensitive and battery-friendly; suggest you read the HW and SW reviews at www.GPSpassion.com (great site) and similar websites from their links, or do a Google search and wade thru the most promising links. Webchat with those GPS enthusiasts who are into the sport of GPS geocaching, an outdoor sport using GPS receivers to "treasure hunt" for hidden prizes placed by other enthusiasts. I DO NOT plan to use a GPS solution involving Bluetooth; my opinion is that BT is a pain in the ---. In the US, the DeLorme.com GPS people have a bunch of good GPS tutorials embedded in their site. I have used DeLorme as long ago as 1998 with an old Palm Pilot IIIe, with good results, though you should select your own receiver and software. Good luck and have fun. If you leave the GPS receiver turned on continuously, the battery drain can be severe; plan for spare batteries until you gain experience with long-term usage.[/b]

[hollis_f]

I'm with Aaron - you can't beat a BT GPS receiver.

I've got one of the worse memories in the world (I've even driven off with my GPS reveiver on the roof of the car) but I've only forgot to switch it off once. No problem though - I just plug it into the car charger (I have a Y-adaptor so I can charge the GPS and the iPAQ at the same time).

Its great advantage is that it overcomes a major problem of CF and sleeve options. Often the optimum position for the PPC (so you can actually see the screen) is nowhere near the optimum to pick up the GPS signals (especially if you're in a car with a heated windscreen). With a card or sleeve you're scuppered - either you can't see the screen or it can't find the satellites.

Sleeves and cards can also have problems getting a fix due to electrical interference from the PPC. My Navman sleeve was almost unusable because of this.

[Jereboam]

I have seen information that suggests the lithium ion batteries in most GPS units (suspicions are that the hardware is all the same, just repackaged) are good for only 400 charge cycles.

That would mean, if you used your Bluetooth GPS unit a lot (ie you used a charge up a day, about 6 hours) then your GPS would last a little over a year before the battery craps out.

Now, that might sound reasonable, but I personally do not like devices with built-in obsolescence. The screws on the units are mostly weeny hex screws, which is fine if you have a set, but is the battery a standard type?

A friend has just bought a Sysonchip CF GPS for this very reason. It is the smallest CF GPS about, and he has been testing for about a week and reports fantastic signal, no loss of fix under foliage or around tall buildings, and of course no battery issues, 'cos it doesn't have one. Also cheaper...

Your choice, but I recommend avoiding BT for GPS use, despite the sheer coolness of it.

For software, I can highly recommend TomTom Navigator 2, especially for Europe, but US users don't like it so much because of the way the maps are split...you apparently can't plan a route across different maps, might be a problem for long journeys or even just local journeys that happen to cross a map section.

J'bm

[hollis_f]

I have seen information that suggests the lithium ion batteries in most GPS units (suspicions are that the hardware is all the same, just repackaged) are good for only 400 charge cycles.
That would be interesting - where?

[Jereboam]

Have a look at this thread (http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3908&sid=8cafe841a36e7a7f8687182860cef1d8) on Pocket GPS World, a great site for all your GPS needs.

As most are aware, Bluetooth GPS has been around for approaching a year now, the first to hit the market was the Emtac BT GPS, and a flurry of other GPS manufacutrers brought out Bluetooth editions. One thing that is increasingly concerning me is the lifespan of these devices. We know the lifespan of the batteries are around 400 charges. However, the TomTom Bluetooth GPS we had been using under review for 4 weeks died (no signal or BT light flashing), last week our original Emtac BT GPS died (no signal), and yesterday another Bluetooth GPS receiver we have had in review for around 3 weeks has also died.

This greatly concerns me! Although interestingly enough, the latest BT GPS we have had die, it appears it's only the internal patch antenna, plugging in an external patch antenna works. All of these are under a year old, all seem to be exhibiting similar problems, so why is this happening ? To tell you the truth, we don't know, but to me it would suggest that similar parts are being used in multiple GPS Receivers. I really don't want to scare anyone off purchasing Bluetooth GPS because they are still superb little devices and work extremely well, but if you plan on buying one and plan on using it for 2 years, you have got to seriously ask yourself, do you mind if it only lasts for no longer than 6-12 months ?

I know a lot of you who follow Pocket GPS World avidly have had problems with Bluetooth GPS, what I want to do is create a running forum thread that logs these problems. Strangely enough the last two BT GPS's that have died on us were all after a single charge. This makes you wonder whether the charging circuits are up to scratch on some of these BT GPS's. I don't want to paint all GPS manufacturers with the same brush, as I'm sure this is only a selection of manufacturers that will experience these problems, but lets face it, if we alone have had 3 different Bluetooth GPS Receivers fail on us, then that's quite a high failure rate!

J'bm

[Scott R]

I read that there and it gave me pause about buying a BT GPS unit. There are BT GPS units with replaceable batteries, but these seem to be even more expensive.

To answer the initial question, I think you need to decide where/how you want to use it and what your budget is. If you really only need to use it in the car, the best choice would be a "mouse" style GPS as you can place it in the optimum position on the dashboard while keeping your PDA fairly flexible. I have a cheapo Radio Shack DigiTraveler which uses its own AAA battery supply but is tethered to my iPaq with a cable. I got it because it only cost me $30 and it came with cables for using it with a variety of PDAs. That's another thing to think about. Are you sure you're going to keep the PDA you currently own for a while? If not, you may want to make sure whatever GPS you get can be used with other manufacturers' PDAs. Right now, you can accomplish that with a BT GPS, CF GPS (though new CF-equipped PDAs may be nonexistent next year), and some "mouse" GPSes that offer swappable connector options.

Scott

[blade_of_narsil]

Thanks for the help guys. If it were me I probably would get at BT GPS guy, but I don't think my friend is savy enough to trouble shoot bluetooth nonsense. Thanks for the great links.