PDA GPS Advice
Submitted: Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 00:22
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Old Bushie
Gday to you all
I have an Ipaq Hx4700 Pda. I plan to replace the trusty Etrex by setting my Ipaq up with Ozi Explorer and Auslig 250k/Hema Desert Maps etc, as I gather many of you have done. Any advice, from your experience, on the following would be great.
GPS Receiver:
My thought was to go for a CF GPS Receiver because I have had no problems with signal strength in the dash area of my 100S with the Etrex and the advantage of a CF or SD GPS Receiver would appear to be it will get its power from the Ipaq rather than have to keep a Bluetooth Receiver separately charged. (Got enough to keep charged already with the Cdma phone, digital camera etc)(The old days in the 55S with paper maps, wire over the tree HF were great??!!??).
Any thoughts on brand/model appreciated. I have been researching the Holux GM270 U, GlobalSat BC307, Haicom 303MF and the PDA Cradle Holux CR100.
Mounting System:
Looking at internet pics of the Holux CR100 Cradle on this website and a few other suction cup style holders on Ebay I wonder how stable they would be on severe corrugations. Is a vent mount better? My Ipaq has its own cig lighter charger so I dont particularly need a "bells & whistles" mount with with charging and speakers etc. Just looking for the most stable quality built mount.
Memory Requirements:
I have a 1GB SD card for the Ipaq. Looking at the new Auslig Raster setup on my PC it is 2.6GB but that includes sat photos etc. What memory capacity will I need to have all the 250k charts, Hema Desert Maps and Ozi Explorer running on the Ipaq?
Being an "Ol Bugger" seeing stuff rather than buying from pics over the internet is more comfortable. Any advice and especially info on outlets in
Perth will be appreciated
Regards
Reply By: Outnabout David (SA) - Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 07:44
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 07:44
Old Bushie,
You are getting to technical for me but I run an Etrex Vista to an Ipaq 3870 with a 1G SD card and 512Mb CF card and get pretty
well everything of Australia on there. I figure I am not travelling in all states at once so I just have what I am likely to need on there and if I head over to the west I can load WA and delete say NSW.
I found the best mount was a RAM mount suction cup which is a large cup and was purchased from GPSOZ. They have a web site and pictures. Travelled a lot of corrogations and not had any problems with it and with the ball mounting is easily swivelled for passenger to see or to get away from
bright sunlight. I also got a power cable to run both from the one cig lighter point from thye same place,
I will leave the technical advice for someone else to answer.
AnswerID:
117842
Follow Up By: The Explorer - Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 10:34
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 10:34
I will second the recomendation for gpsoz supplied window suction mount for Ipaq. Pretty cheap too.
Cheers
Greg
| I sent one final shout after him to stick to the track, to which he replied “All right,” That was the last ever seen of Gibson - E Giles 23 April 1874 Lifetime Member
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Follow Up By: geocacher (djcache) - Thursday, Jun 30, 2005 at 14:25
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005 at 14:25
Even better than the large RAM suction cup is the RAM twist lock suction cup.
Talk to Johnny Appleseed in Melb or
Brisbane.
10,700 km in May including the Tanami & the Canning. Put the mount on in Shepparton, took it off at Shepparton on return. Didn't fall off once. Just moisten slightly before attaching. Twist the lock and on she locks.
Dave
FollowupID:
373428
Reply By: Chaz - Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 10:03
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 10:03
Old Bushie,
I have a similar setup to what you are proposing. I went with the GlobalSat CF unit originally because it was compact and powered from the PDA, but it is a bit flimsy if you use it as a hand held unit. So now I only use the Globalsat unit in the car with its remote antenna, and when I go walkabout and need a handheld, I switch over to a Bluetooth unit that I switch on and leave in my pack or shirt pocket. My Bluetooth GPS will run for 17 hours continuously and charges up very quickly. I see no drama in having both because they are so cheap. I paid just over $100 for the CF and Just under $100 for the Bluetooth on ebay. So far I’ve bought around 20 items on ebay and no problems with delivery and quality.
I am using the suction cup mount that attaches to the windscreen and zip tied to the air vent on my GU for extra support. So far I’ve had no problems with it coming loose on rough roads.
If you convert all your Hema Desert track maps to .ozf2 format they will total 197MB. You can also convert all your digital maps to ozf2 format with OziExplorer and they still work on your PC or laptop with much smaller file sizes than the original tiff’s. A 1GB SD card should be heaps.
Chaz
AnswerID:
117860
Reply By: The Explorer - Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 10:51
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 10:51
Hello - passed comment on mount already. With respect to GPS I would head down the CF gps path. I use
mine mainly on foot in the bush (inside aquapac) and have not had an issue with CF card breaking - though i did on my old 3660 with dual batteries as it was heavier - it flew around the car a few times and CF card cracked at thin section (superglue has fixed this and still works 100% with Ipaq2210). Advice is to remove CF card when not in use (ie in case or glovebox etc)....and don’t drop it. I heard a few reports of bluetooth being a pain in the B*t and would not get one unless you get a 100% guarantee it will not annoy you. Reports I have had relate to unit jamming up - If you do not turn of bluetooth , then ipaq in the right order you can not regain connection again until a reset of ipaq is done. This has been addressed to a certain extent by upgrades in software (OziExplorer and Ipaq OS) but not sure if completely solved. Get a Holux from Ebay if you can - good value and good unit though Globsat also does the job fine (I have one of both). Not sure about the memory requirements. Hema maps come it at ~48.1mb. The natmap mosaic is ~700mb (ecw format) - not sure about individual map sheets? I suppose your best bet is to use what you’ve got and see if you need more memory.
Cheers
Greg
| I sent one final shout after him to stick to the track, to which he replied “All right,” That was the last ever seen of Gibson - E Giles 23 April 1874 Lifetime Member
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Reply By: grutnip - Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 19:13
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2005 at 19:13
Ol Bushie
Sure you don't want bluetooth? PDA's take a big charge when they are low on battery (like 2.5A) and if you exceed the capacity of your power adapter then your PDA will just keep going lower until it is flat. They are a touch harder to set up though if you feel comfortable with a PDA you will be fine. There are plenty of PDA forums and even Ipaq 4700 specific forums to help you out.
I have just kitted myself out with a dell x50v (same vga screen as your ipaq) and a holux gpslim 236. I am putting the gps receiver down the back of the car, permanently wired to aerial and power and then I have the PDA up front. Purchased items from
http://www.semsons.com/ and recieved 4 days after order was placed!
Also, with that whopper of a PDA, investigate "true vga". Microsoft poxy-ness removes 50% of your available resolution......
DJ
AnswerID:
117949
Reply By: Old Bushie - Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 01:46
Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 01:46
Thanks for all the input. You have given me much food for thought.
Ram mounts for the Hx4700 are a bit thin on the ground but I have found a few leads.
Please keep the input coming. It is very valuable.
Regards
AnswerID:
117997
Follow Up By: geocacher (djcache) - Thursday, Jun 30, 2005 at 14:27
Thursday, Jun 30, 2005 at 14:27
Not that thin. Non powered mount bought at Johnny Appleseed yesterday.
Dave
FollowupID:
373429
Reply By: Niko - Friday, Jul 15, 2005 at 03:33
Friday, Jul 15, 2005 at 03:33
First of all, have you ever considered hooking up the Etrex to the hx4700 and using a re-radiating Holux AR-10 antenna? Have you considered asking Exploroz if they can sell you a mount for the PDA?
The GPS brands you speak of all work with the hx4700 but the Holux CR-100 PDA cradle cannot work with the hx4700 as far as what the manufacturer has told me.
I can show you what there is available but you will need to buy from Exploreoz. email me and I will send you my details.
AnswerID:
120453