Pocket PC vs handheld GPS

[vilasman]

I have a lowrance global map 100 and I am investigating getting a set up for my ipaq 4705.
I pretty much know that I want either the sirF 3 gps reciever or 1 other that is supposed to track 20 sats at ounce.
I was looking at software and I see the following things.
1) I don't think that there is a single gps pocket pc combination that can do as good or as accurate a job of tracking exactly where I am as my lowrance and
2) I don't think I'd be able to anything else with the ppc while using it as a gps.
3. I would want a ppc moving map gps software that had all the orienteering functions that my lowrance has cause on the highway I like that info
but also can give turn by turn directions for in the city.

I realize this will probably be 2 programs and maybe 2 recievers and a lot of memory.

I am getting the feeling that I will probably keep my global map 100 or get an ifinder and put something like streets and maps in the ppc.

Any thoughts

[jsloan]

I use a combination of two programs with my hx4700 + Socket Blue Tooth GPS. One is Oziexplorer and the other is GSP Dash 2. GPSDash is strictly oriented to navigating in a car and it has a nice map import and calibrate feature in conjunction with some other nice gauges for speed, altitude etc. Oziexplorer is a more generic and very sophisticated navigation package that has both a Desktop version used for calibrating and managing maps and the PDA version which can be used for general navigation with a GPS. I prefer Ozi when I navigate in a kayak. It allows me to download waypoints to a GPS but also maps to a PDA so you have your choice. Because the maps can be of high quality (scanned or in other formats) they usually are far better than anything I've seen for a generic GPS.

[Sven Johannsen]

1) I don't think that there is a single gps pocket pc combination that can do as good or as accurate a job of tracking exactly where I am as my lowrance andNot sure why you would think that. There are two things going on with any GPS system. 1) how well does the GPS compute the location based on the data received from the satellites? The basic functionality there is pretty consistent across the industry. You pay more, you get better results. For the most part the available GPS units available for use with PPCs or laptops are every bit as good as the standard consumer dedicated GPS units. 2) the map data. Even if the location is perfect, if you have cruddy map data, it shows you somewhere you ain't quite. For almost all GPS systems there are really only two sources of base data, and neither are perfect. The level of detail is something that is licensed by the navigation vendors at various prices, and that level is passed on to the customer. Again, generally the more it costs the better data you get. Same if you get MapSource for your Magellan, or DeLorme for your PC/PPC.
2) I don't think I'd be able to anything else with the ppc while using it as a gps.
Can you not multi-task?, because the PPC can ;) You can listen to music while the nav program is running, and just listen for driving directions, or have the nav screen up while listening to music. You could work on a spreadsheet too, but most of the time I find that if I am using a nav function it is because that is my primary need. I am normally not in a situation I need to do something else, but the device can do it.

3. I would want a ppc moving map gps software that had all the orienteering functions that my lowrance has cause on the highway I like that info but also can give turn by turn directions for in the city.Turn by Turn directions is fairly typical of navigation programs on the PPC (Pocket Streets is not a navigation program BTW). Audible directions is commonplace in fact. Not sure what all orienteering functions you are referring too on the highway, since I understood orienteering was a sport conducted with map and compass off road. If you mean direction, bearing, speed, ETA, etc, then most Nav programs can provide that.

I realize this will probably be 2 programs and maybe 2 receivers and a lot of memory. Maybe more than one program if you have some very specific things you are looking for, but certainly not 2 receivers. All any of them do is provide provide a position to the PPC. It is then up to the PPC program to do something with that continuously updating position. A lot of memory is only an issue for map storage. All the PPC Nav programs run in the typical memory that PPCs have these days.


I have several dedicated GPS units (Garmin, Magellan), and a couple of BT GPSs and assorted mapping/nav programs to use with PPC and Smartphones. The advantage to the dedicated devices is that they are rugged and the batteries last a relatively long time. I'm not taking my PPCs backbacking, too fragile, don't last long enough.

I find that map selection and transfer is much easier on my PPCs, the navigation capabilities are much superior on my PPCs (my GPSs don't route, they just tell you where you are and the direction to get where you want to go. Great if you are a crow.) My PPCs generate a route on the roads and Tell me when to turn. I can type in an address with a keyboard instead of selecting letters one by one with a button or two. I can label a waypoint, 123 Main Street, instead of being limited to 5-8 characters.

I don't think the Nav functions on a PPC are necessarily going to rival a dedicated Navigation Box like a TomTomGo, but for general navigation they beat the heck out of general recreational GPSs. Now neither the recreational GPS or the Nav Box have the added attractions of having my contacts, calendar, music, videos, games, assorted docs, etc.

When it gets right down to it, each genre has it's own strengths and weaknesses. One way you could get the best of both worlds is to get a cable to hook your Lowrance to a PPC. Not sure if you can but I can with my Garmin and Magellan. Just needs to be a 4800B NMEA output for most PPC mapping programs to read it. Generally that is serial and the PPC needs to accept that too, which is getting a bit rarer, but not unusual. If you can do that you can actually still display the nifty info you like on the Lowrance, while the Nav program on the PPC does it's thing at the same time, with the same data.

[vilasman]

This is the info that i have been looking for, thank you...

The reason why i wanted that orienteering info is , I have a farm....

I wanted the routing info cause my wife has this habit of having to go to meetings in cities all over and I wind up driving her there.

The multi-tasking thing is she tends to play computer games while I am driving to these out of town meetings and I sorta wanted to be able to hear the turn here notifications while she is playing solitaire or watching a movie or tv show. I thought that might be a bit much.

But I get what you are saying about the ruggedness, and that would be important on the farm.

The lowrance has the nema output I dont know if i can get a serial input into a ipaq 4705

[Sven Johannsen]

With the farm reguirement, you might need two pieces of software. You can get software that uses scanned maps of whatever form, but they typically don't do routing as that really depends vector data. You can get a common interface though if you go with Delormes Street Atlas handheld. You can cut maps from both their PC Street Atlas and their Topo products to use with it. It's not my favorite program, but has some interesting features. Also a WM5 device might be more useful if you don't already have the 4705, because many WM5 devices have a GPS splitter function, where you can route the incoming data to more than one application.

I'm not sure but I have a good feeling that you might be able to get the data into the 4705. Every iPaq I've had does allow serial in at the sync connector, don't see why they would have left it out of the 4705. You might look at www.pc-mobile.net for cables. Looks like they have ones for the 4xxx series, and HP hasn't changed connectors in years, and some for some Lowrance stuff.

Please be aware that Pocket Streets and a GPS does nothing for you but display your location on a street map. You need to go beyond that for routing and voice directions.

You may have some volume issues doing music/games and navigation. You might wind up with the music/games overpowering the directions. There is no provision to cut off the other stuff when directions happen. Not sure if a nav program could even do that, but I don't know of one that does.

[axjax]

I'm not an expert, so I will only suggest my answer will be in layman's terms and as simple as possible:

1. Most PPC GPS/Software setups will give you dead-nuts accurate vocal directions including things like "turn right 500 feet ahead" or "wrong direction". IIRC, most of the modern GPS units are accurate to 3 meters.
2. These same programs will display a combination of moving maps and directions in a split-screen mode. And while I've only used Mapopolis, you can set the moving map to autorotate so that your map is always heads up.
3. As far as playing games on the PPC while using it for directions, again I'm thinking the map program could be minimized and in the background while the wife plays pac-man or whatever... but I would suggest that she play the game with the audio turned off somehow so you can hear the directions.
4. I'm on the road almost 5 days a week logging in as much as a 1000 miles on some weeks and while I'm in a particular region, most of my desinations are unique. I've been using Mapopolis and a iPaq 3970 with a Navman sleeve GPS and it was certainly more than adequate for my needs. While I like the voice prompts, I always did a quick eyeball of the map to confirm my location and get a sense of distance. So my wife doesn't dare touch my PDA while I'm using it to give me driving directions!
5. In your case, it sounds like a BlueTooth GPS would do the trick since it would not have to be physically connected to the PPC to deliver the info from the GPS to the program inside the PDA.

You have tons of options with regard to equipment and software. You might want to buy something used that is all set up and in good condition to save some bucks and if you really like the setup... then you can upgrade down the road.

Have Fun! :D