Help me chose GPS hardware

[OSUKid7]

Well, I'm sure this question has been asked more than a few times, but I'm considering getting a Bluetooth GPS device to use with my Axim, and perhaps my Cingular 2125 smartphone and laptop.

I'd like something that works fast and accurately while driving and walking. Which units have the best battery life? Do most come with car chargers?

Since I have both a Pocket PC and Smartphone, how easy is it to switch between the two if I decide to get software for my Smartphone as well?

Thanks!

[axe]

hey OSUKid
While I haven't played much with it beyond setting it up for her, I bought my mother-in-law the Dell Bluetooth GPS offering about 4 months ago as she is a charter bus driver. She has used it very happily with her Axim. In with the Dell package is a pass-through power cable that will charge both the GPS receiver and the Axim using the included cigarette-lighter plug so battery life is a non-issue. as well since you can set the Axim's backlight on if on external power, you can see it even at night without issue.

The hardware comes with north american maps and you can download maps to the device (obviously to the storage card, not on-board) by state/province, by city, by area (ie xx miles around yy city or address) up to 512 Mb of maps. BTW, Ontario, quebec, and the states surrounding those provinces took about 300 Mb i think it was and Lots of details.

Before this, her Axim was a glorified gameboy to her. With her BT headset connected and saying "turn here" and the BT GPS, she is better set up than me! :roll: Ok so I am a little envious...

She did say the GPS receiver does have one drawback as she was driving through New York... It couldn't penetrate when she was driving in tunnels. I don't know whether a different receiver would do better, but be aware 'cos it never crossed my mind when I was looking for devices for her. The bestest selling point to her was the fact both devices were "Dell" therefore she wouldn't get the line from their support "well it's not _our_ device that's causing XX problems!" if she called them. that was a lot of piece of mind for her.

bottom line: I would buy it for my iPaq if I could convince the other half :lol: .

TTYL

[Cybrid]

Well, I'm sure this question has been asked more than a few times, but I'm considering getting a Bluetooth GPS device to use with my Axim, and perhaps my Cingular 2125 smartphone and laptop.

I'd like something that works fast and accurately while driving and walking. Which units have the best battery life? Do most come with car chargers?

Since I have both a Pocket PC and Smartphone, how easy is it to switch between the two if I decide to get software for my Smartphone as well?

Thanks!As per the earlier poster; GPS will not work underground. Signal is too weak. :D
Sirf III has the best receptivity. look for that. II and I are older.
WAAS/EGNOS correction within (Sirf II and III) N. America get you to about 2m HDOP.
Nearly all I've seen come with car chargers. Pharos' unit sells with wall outlets as a separate extra. :!:
Switching may be difficult. Some BT accessories are designed with one pairing in mind. It was designed to keep others from interfering with your setup. It will be the equivalent of a hard reset on the GPS and re-pairing nearly every time.

Not sure how many companies have smartphone software.
co-pilot (poor maps though).
mapopolis (try their demo.)

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9991&highlight=gps

[leebrendalee]

My personal experience hasn't been with the bluetooth......but with my Dell Axim 5 and my GPS (name escapes me at the moment)...is fanastic....

I used to go last year to around 30 calls a day and I had NO CLUE where to go. This thing litterally told me voice..turn here..turn here..house is 100 feet on the right..I LOVE MY GPS......I'm sure they have a bluetooth version if your interested..let me know and I'll check my email for the name of the company.........

[Edgar_]

I use Iguidance on my PPC - its great and comes with desktop software as well - www.inav.com . www.gpspassion.com has a great thread on various Bt GPS units - a good read. Its why I ended up with the BT338

The BT unit I use is the Globalsat BT-338 it has a 17hr Li-on battery, comes with a belt case, wall charger and a car charger. Its a SIRF III with WAAS/EGNOS as well. The size is diminutive as well and I regurlarly pick up all the satellittes for NorCal with no problem - I love it. Fast setup, quick sat find, etc

I bought it at semsons, good place - here's the Us Global Sat page for the BT338 http://www.usglobalsat.com/category.asp?catid=12

-Edgar

OSUkid - Buckeye?


For my MPX-220 I just use Pocket Streets 2005 - Im not going to buy a second piece of software, although there are many. THE Pocket Streets tells me where I am and basic stuff.

On my Ipaq 4700 Iguidance is great, I just drove to San Francisco from Washington DC with side trips, I experience no problems except sometimes it tells you to get off an exit and back on. I look on a map and see that the exit ramp has an off/On ramp together and that route is less distance so the system tells you to go that way, weird huh.

[OSUKid7]

Thanks for the help, everyone. :) There's so much I don't know about GPS, so I'm gonna investigate a little more before buying.

That Dell Bluetooth GPS sounds great since it'll charge both my Axim and the GPS receiver. The battery life of the BT-338 also sounds great though, and it seems like it's worked well enough for people to recommend it.

I really should browse GPS Passion and get a better feeling for what all is out there.

OSUkid - Buckeye?Well, I'm from Columbus, Ohio, yes. However, I'm not a student at OSU...I've just had this name for nearly 10 years and it'd be too hard to give it up. So instead, I just confuse people as I now go to college near Cleveland, Ohio. :)

[emuelle1]

I use one of Delorme's products:

http://www.delorme.com/bluelogger/default.asp. It works very well with my Axim x30.