Dell Bluetooth GPS Feelin' the Love

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2156' target='_blank'>http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2156</a><br /><br /></div><b><a href="http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2156">From BargainPDA:</a></b><i>"I was actually rather surprised at the sensitivity of the receiver. For one thing, it was able to consistently maintain a lock while inside the second story of my house. Upon checking the specs, I noticed that it is sensitive to movement as little as 0.1 meter per second, 95% of the time. One tenth of a meter is less than 4 inches. Not a big deal for driving, but if you want to take your GPS out hiking, then such accuracy is nice to have."</i><br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.brighthand.com/article/Dell%5fGPS%5fReview">From Brighthand:</a></b><i>"When I'm driving through a strange area, I'm not fond of taking shortcuts if they involve making a lot of turns. I don't like to have to watch the road and a map at the same time. But with the GPS this shortcut was a breeze. I just followed the spoken directions and had no problems at all. And, best of all, I never had to take my eyes off the road."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20040819_dellbtgps.jpg" /> <br /><br />It's nice to see more bluetooth GPS units making it onto the market. Personally, I think GPS is one of the best uses of bluetooth; it's very easy to just toss the unit on the dash and forget about it. Since this particular unit looks to have a pretty good battery, you can afford to forget it for several hours. :mrgreen: Who else here is using a bluetooth GPS? What do you think?

[mkheraj]

I have been thinking seriously about purchasing the IPAQ GPS unit but I haven't seen a review for the unit so I am a bit hesitant. It looks a lot like the Dell unit but is sold for +$80. Anyone try it out? How is the PDA Holder? Is it a windshield mount? Does the cigarette power cord power the PDA, too?

Thanks,

Murad

[Sven Johannsen]

Been using the Socket for quite some time and love it. Might be a little pricey now that more and more are hitting the market. I just picked up the Delorme Blue Logger with the SA 2005 and SA 2005 handheld bundle. That's a $180 bundle with desktop/laptop and handheld software, with a BT GPS that can log data independently of any processor (and then download it), and it has a removable LiIon battery and a charger cradle that can charge the unit and a spare battery.

Haven't had the chance to play with the DeLorme software much but have used earlier versions. They have made improvements in the areas that needed it according to the 'what's new' list. The GPS itself seems comparable to the others that are out there as far as performance.

[Zack Mahdavi]

Man, this Dell unit is beginning to look better and better. I'm waiting for a good Dell coupon to come around. Then I might go ahead and buy this.

How do you guys navigate with these GPS units in your car? Do the programs speak directions to you, or do you have stare at a small screen to figure out your route?

[nirav28]

I have one of those fortuna clones sold by belkin.

Its a decent GPS, however the initial satellite lock time is way too long. It takes it about 3-4 minutes to get a decent lock on 4 sats. Thats in ST mode. IF I have it XT..I'm looking at about 6-7 minutes.

Wish I could just turn it on and have a fix in maybe like 1-2 minutes. Thats enough time to get my shades out, pick out and insert my favorite tunes, put the seat belt on , start the car and punch in my destination into the PPC.

The plus side to bluetooth GPS is the bluetooth connection. It takes less then 5 seconds for my PPC and bluetooth to connect with each other. The battery life is great. I recently took a 6 hour trip. One overnight battery charge lasted me the whole trip and couple of hours on the return trip. So 7-8 hours is average. Heck, the battery on the GPS outlasted my PPC battery twice over.

But it was also cheap. $150 from buy.com and it also works with my Symbian powered Nokia 3650.

[Sven Johannsen]

How do you guys navigate with these GPS units in your car? Do the programs speak directions to you, or do you have stare at a small screen to figure out your route?

Both actually. Many have spoken directions, but all have sufficiently large direction displays that they are clearly visible if the PPC is appropriately located in some sort of dash mount. I use Mapopolis and like it a lot, though others have their favorites. The speech synthisis in the latest version does actually give you the street names in the voice prompts now.

In a rental car the voice prompts have typically been sufficient to guide me, withut me having to look at the screen. The screen will give you more info, such as the fact that it is 50 miles till the next turn. That way you can relax a bit.

[DiGiTYZED]

Does baud rate matter when selecting BT GPS receivers? Cuz I notice some cheap looking ones have 9600 baud rates and others average about 56k baud rates

[Pat Logsdon]

Does baud rate matter when selecting BT GPS receivers? Cuz I notice some cheap looking ones have 9600 baud rates and others average about 56k baud rates
Nope. The standard NMEA protocol runs at 4800 baud. There's not a ton of data that needs to be exchanged, so speed doesn't really buy you much.

[powder2000]

I have a little article and pics at my bloggy (address below) on a bluetooth gps mount I just made for the roof of my rig. I actually use this for work (public transportation) for both navigating and with arcpad. If you have the time, check it out.

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/272/937/320/SV400006.jpg

[T-Will]

I've got a question, can you turn your PPC off then on and will it automatically reconnect to the GPS unit, or do you have to manually reconnect everytime your PPC turns off?

[powder2000]

I've found that if my ppc turns off or I turn it off, I first need to stop the connection or it will not reconnect when I turn it back on. I then need to establish the connection again. Others results may vary depending on what program you are using, but I feel this is the way it is for the most part.

[ucfgrad93]

I use a bluetooth GPS with my Palm T|3. I got the package from TomTom. Its great. My main usages is how far to my destination and the voice directions.

[SeanH]

Its a decent GPS, however the initial satellite lock time is way too long. It takes it about 3-4 minutes to get a decent lock on 4 sats. Thats in ST mode. IF I have it XT..I'm looking at about 6-7 minutes.

Wish I could just turn it on and have a fix in maybe like 1-2 minutes. Thats enough time to get my shades out, pick out and insert my favorite tunes, put the seat belt on , start the car and punch in my destination into the PPC.
Go to Radio Shack and buy a connector and some cable to hardwire a power connection to the GPS. Leave the device powered up all the time so its always tracking. When you need to move it to another car unplug the power and move it. I do not own a Bluetooth GPS yet but I will when I get a new PDA with VGA, BT, and WiFi I will upgrade. My current unit is serial and it starts working in less then one second after I plug the connector in to the bottom of the PDA. It even works in my garage with a a few windows.

http://mbu.com/garage/

Sean

[disconnected]

I have a Fortuna GPSmart bluetooth GPS receiver. It has a few issues (using battery power even if plugged in is the most annoying one), but it mostly works well. My 5500 is a little fussy -- have to turn off GPS before turning off the iPAQ, or it hangs when it's turned back on; my 3970 (PPC 2002) did not have this problem. Also, the 5500 speaker is less powerful than the 3970, so the voice isn't quite as loud as it should be.

For software, I have Mapopolis, and the only real issue it has is less than convenient map management for long trips.

We only use the GPS when there are two of us in the car, me with the PPC and my husband driving; the directions are clear enough when you can look at the screen, but the voice directions alone can be a little confusing at complicated interchanges.

On the whole, I think it's great. I used to miss a lot on our vacations because I'd be constantly looking at a map instead of out the window, and fumbling around with flashlights at night. Now I can't imagine navigating unfamiliar places without the GPS.

[BevHoward]

http://www.delorme.com/bluelogger/

note that it's bundle price with ppc software is as low as $149 plus it has standalone gps logging capabilities.

Does anything else do this for a similar price?