GPS navigators

I would think that one of these


http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/215348-215348-64929-314903-215384-3544499.html

With

http://www.travroute.com.au/index.php

for routing.

The HP PDA will also required a external bluetooth GPS. The advantage of the HP PDA is that is has a high res screen which makes for easier reading.

The ASUS one is this

http://www.travroute.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=9&category_id=27&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

It has the built in GPS but it has a lower resolution than the HP.

If you are in Melbourne I would suggest visiting

http://www.ja-gps.com.aushop at St Kilda as they should be able to provide support you need to get a solution up and running

Forget all the other crap, if you drive a truck and want truck routes ,not available yet but the Garmin units can be set for trucks, and the only way you'll get routes is to make them yourself The units Route Planner lets you save 50 routes , on the Garmin mapsource software you will get to put on your PC , and the best unit for that is the Garmin SP2700 .

See Details Here

The StreetPilot 7200 can keep you entertained during your travels, with an internal MP3 player. The built-in MP3 player lets users browse music by artist, album, song, or genre. Music can be loaded onto an SD card and is “drag-and-drop” easy – no special software is required. All music or speech files can be transmitted over the vehicle’s existing speakers, through the StreetPilot’s built-in FM wireless transmitter, The entertainment audio is muted when navigation instructions are given

Any of the Asus or Hp pda's will do the job, The rx5965 can be brought from $ 400 and it has an inbuild sirf111 gps and Tom Tom installed, you can also add OziCe with your maps from your Laptop onto a SD card , I wouldn't recommend taking it out to sea they aren't waterproof.

Jay,

If you want to run OziExplorer you will need a PDA that runs Windows Mobile 5 operating system.

A PDA with an inbuilt GPS like the HP units would be a good choice. These accept SD and CF cards and you load the maps to the card to save on board memory. NATMAP Premium maps are excellent for country wide travel, but you need to run a conversion on the maps to enable them to be recognised by OziExplorer CE, the version that runs on the PDA.

If you already own OziExplorer (it's on your laptop right?) the additional cost for a CE version through the ExplorOz shop is minimal.

For street navigation you will require something like CoPilot Live 6, available from GPSOZ, or TomTom Navigator 6 if you can buy it.

Another option to consider is to enquire with GPSOZ on the suitability of buying the CoPilot Live Pocket PC, which runs windows mobile and then install OziExplorer CE and the maps on it.

The folks at GPSOZ will give you practical advice.

I have both CoPilot Live 6 (running on my PDA) and a TomTom street navigator and I would have to say they compare favourably with each other. The 3D view in TomTom is better than CoPilot but all other features are similar.

TomTom Navigator 6 is available, but only from overseas, which means you would need to buy it with UK or US maps, then buy the Aus maps separately. TomTom UK

The other advantage of TomTom over its competitors is the availability of a wide range of maps for other countries if you are travelling, otherwise CoPilot is fine.

I have just completed a trek using both a laptop running OziExplorer and the PDA as a "backup".

I have now convinced myself the ease of reading the PDA screen (despite its smaller size) plus "tapping" the screen to record a waypoint leaves the laptop operation for dead.
My laptop (Dell Inspiron 6000) appears "washed out" in sunlight and is therefore very hard to read properly.

The PDA was sitting just above the instrument panel, attached to the window and was always easy to read the map.

Just my experiences for your reference.

Jay
Have a look at a Magellan Crossover GPS at www.nextdestination.com.au it might help.

Hi All,

We use Imate K-Jams/JasJams with Bluetooth GPS's and CoPilot 6.5 (soon to be 7) and have found this to be a fantastic combination. Just two devices to deal with, and the GPS we use run for 26hrs between charge, so they are great for multi vehicle use.

We travel a lot around NSW & VIC for work and found it to be 99% accurate door to door. Even off road we have found that CoPilot covers around 90% of the tracks we have travelled (but routing on fire trails can be a bit poor) but nether the less capable of getting you in and out without much fuss. The routing optimiser is great for plotting fast 'milk runs'.

I believe that CoPilot will be releasing their Heavy Vehicle version in the near future for Australia (due the massive success in the US).

As far as marine use goes, CoPilot is useless, except for the fact it can act as a standard GPS and direct you from point A to point B via Long & Lat Coords.

Regards,
JohnS