Bluetooth gps

Have a workmate uses one of these and as far as i can see they have a big advantage over standard GPS.You can download up to date maps on where you plan to go as well as having all you personal and misalaineous info with you. The PDA he uses has a built in camera that he uses quite often and it wil take good res pics.

Krish

Bluetooth works well but keep an eye on the battery usage. I run a PDA in the car but it is connected to the cig lighter plug and when I was using the bluetooth I would run that of an auxillary cig lighter plug as well.

The only thing I found with bluetooth is when the PDA oes to sleep you sometime have to recoonect the bluetooth. I prefer the serial GPS receivers as they run of a y-cable that also goes to the cig lighter plug. So it powers the GPS receiver, the PDA all in one.

Paul

I have never used Bluetooth because can not fault CF type GPS.(requires spare CF slot of course)..and dont like disadvantages of BTGPS.
Disadvantages of Bluetooth
1. Seperate power/battery supply required - so if you go walking for any length of time you need to keep an eye on both PDA and BTGPS.
2. You have to two things to break/lose/carry.
3. There was (is?) serious issues with connections - if you turn PDA off with first before disconnecting BTGPS some PDA units would jam up and have to be reset - major pain in butt. Maybe this has been resolved?

Advantage of Bluetooth over CF GPS
1. Need CF slot (or SD slt if using SDGPS)
2. PDA unit becomes slightly longer

I would imagine that for some using BTGPS is only option apart from using a "normal" GPS connected with wires to PDA (a pain if you want to go walkabout and like PDA maps)

Cheers
Greg

I personally use a ipaq hx 2750 pda with a clobalsat CF card & maps stored on SD card
I would if you have 2 slots in your pda use one for GPs & one for storing maps
Advantages of using CF or SD card GPs
fully portable
only using one power sauce
compact
no cables except for gig lighter socket running all over the place
There can be conflict issues between bluetooth gps & pda
bluetooth another thing to loose
I though long and hard before i got my setup & after seeing Glenn's setup @ Murray Sunset on a EO gathering earlier this year
I was sold & havent looked back
& maps arent a problen plenty on here wiill help u out with them including me
Warren

Hi Krish, to answer your question:

Bluetooth GPS Receiver advantages-
- Can be put on the dash near the glass with PDA away from it, getting best reception whilst having PDA closer for viewing. Can be remote from PDA.
- no cables to get in the way
- will work with a PDA with bluetooth that may not have other expansion options
- relatively cheap now
- can be mounted and left in vehicle whilst still removing PDA.

Disadvantages-
- another thing to charge
- some don't work whilst being charged
- if it goes flat you have no reception
- can be easily lost
- need bluetooth on your PDA and BT uses battery power on the PDA too
- can be tricky to establish connection if you don't have a very recent PDA

Recommendation-
I use a BT Leadtech receiver and when it works, it's convenient. My I-Mate is in a cradle and powered, so no issue there. BUT the BT went flat last trip and I was USCWP. If I was buying new, I would get what I NEED which is a reliable serial receiver using a Y cable that powers the PDA and the receiver. I'd put up with the cable.

Hope this helps.

Jason.

Thank you all for the information

If you only got one CF or SD slot you can purchase a CF or SD GPS with onboard memory or a slot to add a datacard. If you want a BT GPS to last you longer than 8 hours or so, consider the F-Tech Solar 7 BT GPS which is available from this web site. It lasts up to 30 hours. Some BT GPS have the facility for you to use a cable if the onboard battery dies or you can even buy a BT GPS with a replaceable battery.