XDA II/TomTom for motorbike

[PaxRomana]

Hi all.

I'm a motorcycle courier. I do a lot of distance work these days all around the south of England. As it's not practical to carry paper maps I'm considering a PocketPC for route finding. Due to constant exposure to the elements/risk of theft I would be carrying the PC in my jacket rather than mount it on my bike.

I'm considering a XDA II with/without GPS. I understand TomTom is a good piece of GPS kit. Can anyone advise me of the practicalities of this? I.E. how bulky is the GPS receiver and its power considerations. I would be wearing an earpiece under my helmet (as I do now with my mobile phone) to receive calls from base while on the road (presumably the GPS software would work through the same earpiece). Obviously the on-screen map would be no use to me while actually travelling, so is it a worthwhile solution for audio instruction only? If not, then I guess there's not much need for GPS if I have to stop to consult the device anyway, so off-line map software would be adequate (assuming I know where I am at that moment lol).

I'm an experienced computer techie (riding motorbikes is much more fun than IT, hence current job ), but I know virtually nothing about mobile hand-held kit. Can anyone please advise me or point me to somewhere I can get some really useful info?

Thx for help .

[popabawa]

I don't know much about the XDA II but generally speaking....

There are a few options with a PPC and GPS, cable connection, compact flash or bluetooth.

I guess the first two are out as you need a power supply to the PPC as that supplies to power to the GPS unit. You'd only get a couple of hours out of an XDA II I imagine (and I don't this it has a CF slot so that's out anyway).

That leaves Bluetooth.

OK, with GPS, there ate two types of chipset, SIRF and XTRAC.

SIRF is generally considered to be the best choce for navigation as the updates are immediate so your position is very accurate. The drawback (for you) is that SIRF requires a decent view of the sky so it would need to be mounted appropriately. I guess on the handlebars.

XTRAC is more sensitive and doesn't need a good view of the sky as it makes some fancy calculations of rebounded signals and the like. The drawback is that there can be a couple of second lag in your position and it is generally more inaccurate. This can make a big difference in a city whether you miss a turn or not.

I have the Fortuna Clip-On GPS device which has both XTRAC and SIRF chipsets and is bluetooth so is the best of both worlds, it's pretty small, think of a slightly bulky matchbox. This might be worth further consideration. The rechargable battery in it lasts about 8.5 hours so it easily outlives my iPAQ 2210 :)

Have a look at www.pocketgps.co.uk especially the reviews and forums where there's loads of good advice and very helpful folk.

If there's anything else I can answer, just shout.

Regards, Iain.

[dMores]

there are special all-weather cases for pdas, some let you take it underwater.

you could get one of those and mount it to your handlebar with a sort of quick-release type thing. this way you could take it with you when you leave your bike outside, and just snap it back on when you ride.

[PaxRomana]

Thx for replies.

The Fortuna looks like what I need to go for. Does it come with a mains charger? The only one I can see in the photo I'm looking at seems to be a car one.

The reason I'm going for an XDA II is that it has an in-built mobile phone. I can't really wear 2 earpieces under my lid - it's hard enough getting one on!

My only real concern then now is the power supply for the XDA II, which apparently is replaceable, so I guess I could carry a spare battery. As the PDA would be my only source of comms to base, the power thing is crucial. No problem for the Fortuna, as would only activate the whole GPS thing when arriving in target town (u don't need GPS for motorways unless u REALLY have an attention span problem :lol: ). Presumably these PDA things have power-saving functions, so that the unit only powers up fully when receiving an incoming call or something? Effectively 95% of the time it'll just be sitting in my pocket doing just that - waiting for a call (damn expensive mobile phone - thing is, it's easy to lose 30-40 mins a day trying to find a street with no maps, so it'll soon pay for itself). I need up to 10 hours of juice 8O .

dMores - yes m8 I was looking at them. Thing is though, when ur on the road up to 10 hours a day getting on/off bike many times everything takes punishment, even in good weather. I suspect the quick-release bracket would break first! Then there's 10 hours a day of vibration, leaning over, accelerating/braking, skids (crashing!!) etc. The whole thing would just be too much hassle for the small use I'd be putting the GPS to. I use a tank bag anyway so I could put the receiver under the clear plastic map-holding bit on top, at least in dry weather.

[popabawa]

The Fortuna Clip-On comes with a mains charger, a neck strap and a clear case with a belt clip (might be useful for your bike-mounting options).

It also takes a Nokia phone battery so a replacement battery is easy to find (apparently - haven't looked myself).

Make sure you do plenty of research on the battery life of the XDA II, PDA phones have CONSIDERABLY less battery time than a standard phone.

Iain.

[woffles]

Just curious, Could you use a Bluetooth headset, phone, gps and something like a 2215 with the extended battery installed?

[Andy Whiteford]

A Bluetooth GPS receiver would be your best bet. I use this with TomTom Navigator 2 and it works a treat.
The GPS receiver I have was bought off Ebay fairly cheaply and fully charged will work for up to about 7 hours. I'm guessing during your working day you could turn it off when not it use i.e. lunch, in a building making a delivery - heading home etc. so this will probably be sufficient for you without the need of powerint it during use. This would leave any cigarette style socket free ( I don't know if a bike has this) to keep your Pocket PC powered.
I would recommend a unit that doesn't estimate your position because as stated in a previous post, there is a slight lag and this is all the more important when only using the voice prompts. A unit that doesn't approximate your position will give you the prompts at the correct time no problem.

Regarding the GPS receiver itself - these are typically small units - the one I have has a magnetic base. Just wrap this in cling film (to protect from the elements) and sit it on your bike and it should be good to go. If you can't fasten it magnetically I'm sure you will find a good way of securing it such as velco or similar

[Jon Westfall]

I use Pharos SDIO GPS on my XDA II, which works fine for me but takes a bit of time to acquire a signal. The only thing I see as an issue is keeping your XDA II in a jacket and needing a view of the sky to get a GPS. Other than that, inputting your destination and using earbuds to hear the turn-by-turn direction should work for you.