Newbie to PDA and GPS

aligebes · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 5

Having been offered an Ipaq 4150 with an extra memory card, I would appreciate some advice please:

Myself and 3 friends are planning a trip to the USA next year and hiring a car and going touring. We figured that having a GPS system would probably be better than loads of maps(we would have them as well!)

So I have been looking around at various GPS systems for sale and would appreciate users comments on the following please

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4668&item=5767308661&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

and

http://www.handtec.com/acatalog/Tom_tom_3_Powered_Kit.html

I have seen the bluetooth devices as well, but decided that as we will be in a car alot, a system that plugs into the cigarette lighter would be better for our use.

The sort of trip that is being planned is to start either at Las Vegas or Houston and travel towards New York. I have also read about Maps coming on CD, so would 1 or 2 large memory cards hold enough info for that sort of journey?

I'm not too clear yet on using a PDA with GPS, or different versions of PDA GPS software so any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks to all who read and reply.

lbendlin · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:56 am Post subject:

No Bluetooth? Are you sure? It would be a lot less cables, and much easier to remove from the car to prevent unvoluntary removal.

Other than that the second option would be better because you can position the receiver in a more favorable spot. Not that the US cars had tinted windscreens, but sometimes the dashboard is pretty far away from sky view.

For software you have a pretty big choice. If you can spare the money for a 1 GB SD card then you should also be able to load the majority of the US maps and would not have the need for any CD jockeying while on your way.

Just a word of warning - TomTom doesn't do cross map routing so you will have to switch maps manually at some point. But the map chunks are pretty big (six chunks for the whole US) so that should not be a big issue.
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aligebes · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks for the prompt and informative reply. I shall investigate bluetooth receivers then, Are there models which can be powered by the cigarette lighter?

I shall price out 1gb SD Cards on Ebay, that way as you say we won't have to do any CD jockeying on route.

Thanks for the warning about TomTom, is there any other software that I should consider instead? from what I have read TomTom seems to get good reviews, but if any users can recommend better software it would be appreciated.

What is the general GPS reception like in the USA? As a friend can get a loan of an aerial, would this improve GPS reception? Or would we not need it?

Thanks again for the reply.

lbendlin · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 5:37 pm Post subject:

I don't need to remind you what the G stands for in GPS, right?

Reception is the same like everywhere else. As I said you have the "advantage" that tinted windscreens are virtually unknown in the US (for whatever reason)
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Lutz

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BBB · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 206

I think I'd be tempted to buy in USA

For planning purposes any old maps - even web based could help with the pre-planning

aligebes · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 5

We do have a map of the USA which is being used for pre-planning purposes.

I don't actually have the Ipaq yet, but am trying to read and learn what I can about the whole idea of GPS via the Ipaq, which software is better, any pointers that I should be aware of etc.

Have been reading through the beginners forum here as well.

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