REVIEW COMMENTS: Emtac BlueTooth GPS

Dave

You can purchase TomTom Navigator, Pocket CoPilot and PowerLOC Destinator separately, but personally I would prefer to go with a Pocket PC setup because there are many more options available and the thing that really brings it home is the colour screens are superb.

JEREMYB

Thanks. Would a Tungsten T fall into Pocket PC rather than PDA as this is the handheld we were condidering.

MikeB

Expansys are expecting to take delivery of the Socket badged Emtac today. Their quoted price has now changed to £292.47.

See the Expansys site for more details at http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=CRUXIIBTGPS
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Mike Barrett

Cessquill

That's a bit annoying - plus a fiver or so for delivery and you're looking at the best part of £300. That is starting to look a bit steep now.

A poke around on eBay, methinks...
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What's going on? Where am I?

easydo

Received my Socket GPS today from Expansys, No CD, No Manual, But it came with a car charger with extensions for PDA and GPS but no AC charger.

Not quite sure how I am meant to adjust the settings without the CRUX view software, any ideas.

MikeB

Easydo,

First I would get on to Expansys and find out what they have sent you. The Emtac package comes with a CD which has PDF format manuals on it, and an AC charger with multi region plugs. I know that the Socket version is an OEM version but it should still have an AC power supply. Good news is that you can use an iPaq style power lead to charge it. But check voltages and polarity first.

Secondly although you dont have the CRUX-VIEW application this will not affect your reciever. It works out of the box and the application is used for fine tuning and enabling WAAS/EGNOS. I checked the Emtac site and they do not have a download of the app neither do Socket. This seems to be an issue with the Socket version as reported by a number of users on the Socket Forum

You could try getting in touch with Socket, in the mean time I have asked Emtac for permission to upload the CRUX-VIEW application to our site. Should hear tomorrow.
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Mike Barrett

easydo

Thanks Mike

Spoke to John Daub at Socket, they are working on a socket version of Crux View which should be available in a few weeks. They are also planning an oem navigation software.

I have asked them to put the manual on the website. It seems they rushed this out and forgot a few minor details like a manual.

The GPS charges Ok from my Loox charger and the car lead is actually better for me as I didn't have one but it is a strange product mix.

Thanks Daniel Neumann

John

The emtac works fantastic with my Palm Tungsten T. Mapopolis has a program showing most major cities in Canada and street addresses as well as schools, & other civic & public bldgs.

I am wondering if there is any other sources of software showing rural Ontario locations along with lakes etc. for hiking & snowmobiling.

Can you enlighten me re this subject.

Thank you, John

john.phillips@sympatico.ca
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dorset

John

Quote: Originally posted by JEREMYB on 13 December 2002

Thanks. Would a Tungsten T fall into Pocket PC rather than PDA as this is the handheld we were condidering.

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dorset

MikeB

John,

You could look at Fugawi, their software runs on the Palm and they also sell some maps of Ontario at 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 scale.

These should be a good combination for hiking and snomobiling or 4x4.

Check out Fugawi.com.

There are also other sources of maps that you can use in this application including the FREE USGS DRG maps, or you can scan and calibrate your own maps.
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Mike Barrett

kingy

The emtac is an amazingly small gadget, I picked one up about a week ago fom premierelectronics. their price of 229 + vat seemed pretty competitive to me. The ease of use and lack of clutter in the car easily makes up for the price.

I saw another member comment on the SIRF Binary protocol mode, I have also been wondering what exactly this does and what switching to and from it means. Can any one enlighten me.

Bluecan

Received the Socket version from Expansys two days ago. As previously reported no CD and the power supply is for the car.

One point however is that the two page instruction leaflet says to use an Ipaq AC adaptor for charging, confirming what was mentioned in the review. SoIpaq 12v and AC adaptors are OK.

Alan
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Alan

NickG · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 7:04 pm Post subject: Why 100%?!

I'm unsure why this unit has been awarded it 100% and when this unit is obviously not perfect? 100% should be reserved for a GPS that is absolutely perfect and suits everyone's needs whilst being reliable and very reasonably priced. This receiver is none of those things.

As far as I can work out, it doesn't even have really basic features like the ability to be permanently powered from a car power source. It doesn't even come with a car power adapter! It doesn't have any data logging like the Royaltek RBT3000 (very useful if you want to log your track, without using up your PDA's batteries (or even needing to take the PDA with you!) - eg when skiing/ hang- or paragliding/biking when you wouldn't really want a PDA in your pocket. It's also very expensive, bearing in mind it's nearly double the price of some other bluetooth GPS units which use the exact same chipset and have almost identical performance (eg the Rikaline X7. It also has poor battery life - achieving only 6 hours when there are many units around that can manage double this. The battery is sealed into the unit and cannot be replaced - meaning the entire unit is useless once you've exceeded the maximum number of charge cycles for the lithium ion battery.

OK, I haven't used it myself, but I suggest that awarding it 100% when it doesn't even have these features and is VERY overpriced, is very misleading to potential buyers.

I'm guessing that the 100% in all categories is because the categories don't include "value for money" or "features". Both of which this unit would not fair well in. Perhaps these categories should be added, and retro-populated (cool word huh?) for the units that have already been reviewed. Additionally, the summary screen for each category of receiver should have the ratings on and should be sorted by the rating (descending).

I hope Emtac release a unit as small as this, but with a datalogger and better battery life (preferably using a user-replacable battery and choose to include a 12v power input which can be used to permanently charge the unit without overcharging the battery.

For the time being, I'm just going to get the HAICOM Compact Flash receiver, and wait for a better, more reasonably priced receiver to become available (and one definitely will!).

Nick...

MikeB · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 10:39 pm Post subject:

Nick,

You have to bear in mind the date of the review. This was almost a year ago.

At that time the Emtac was the first and ONLY BT GPS receiver and as such was very different from anything else around at the time.

Technology has moved on over the last year, but I still believe that the Emtac is one of the best BT GPS receivers on the market. The ones you are quoting are only now 12 months later coming on to the market.

Which version of the Emtac are you talking about when you say it doesnt come with a car power supply. Originally the Emtac one didnt, but the socket version only had a car power supply. I am not sure how the Co-pilot, or Wayfinder versions are packaged.

If you have a look inside the Emtac you will see that there isnt a lot of room for much else in there which is why the Globalsat is larger.

Basically I suppose it is like anything the first to market with a new and inspirational product will influence the price to try and recoup some of the R&D investment. It is much easier and cheaper for others to bring secondary models to market.
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Mike Barrett

NickG · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 11:22 pm Post subject:

Mike,

Thanks for your comments. I hadn't realised the review was that old. Perhaps the reviews should be updated now and again so that they're always current. I certainly think that the scores should receive regular reviews as new and better models with more features and better performance come out.

I'm finding this pda-gps lark all a bit confusing to be honest! I just want someone to tell me what I need, and where it's cheapest. A kind of GPS - A-List. But all the different sources give you different answers. A lot of the tests on other sites are far from scientific.

In my eyes (as a scientist) the only fair way to test the performance of GPS systems, would be to take them all out on the same trip, connect them all to dataloggers, and then retrospectively examine the logs to see which units had the best fixes/least drop outs etc along the journey (providing you can get that info from the NMEA/SIRF output somehow?).

My comments about the Emtac came from the fact that most other websites refer to it as a "charger", and one site specifically stated that it shouldn't be left permanently connected as it might damage the battery through over charging.

Is the Emtac still regarded as the best BT GPS, or are any of the newer ones considered to be just as good for a more reasonable price?

I think I'm still tempted to get the HAICOM Compact Flash GPS and wire it permanently into my car. I've also heard that Haicom will soon be releasing a bluetooth module, which will convert this particular GPS into a bluetooth GPS (good news for me as I have a bluetooth iPAQ 2210).

Now I just need to work out how to mount this lot in my car without making a huge mess!

Nick...

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