RBT-2001 Any Good?

[Quantum]

In pilfering through this forum I find nothing about the new RBT-2001, aka BT GPS x-mini. Has anyone bought/tested this?

I'm planning an IPaq 4700, TomTom, and some sort of GPS BT pod.

I was going to buy the GlobalSat Sirf3, but unfortunately it powers down when bluetooth goes off. I can't have this because my pod will be embedded under the car's defrost grill, and will be hard to get at to power back up. Of course it will get power from the car's battery.

So I'm wondering whether the RBT-2001 has the same, or other, problem?

[Quantum]

Aaall righty then, no responses. I guess no one has bought this, and I am not getting a response from Royaltek.

I guess I don't trust them then.

[drrbr1]

Don't know how good your French is but there is a test dated 30/6/05 at www.gpsandco.com.Came out well against BT338 and others. They think it is now the benchmark.
Also there tests on Fortuna Slim and TomTom MkII.
Looking for a replacement for TomTom Mk1 myself and totally confused!

[drrbr1]

:D Just bought one off Ebay from the continent with the latest SIRF III chipset firmware 3.1.1. Couldn't find anyone in the UK who has one.
It's not just good, it's brilliant.
My TomTom MK1 would not get a fix on the window cill. This thing gets 7/9 and sometimes 10 satellites in the centre of the house in a downstairs lounge and under a bookcase. Even the time to hotfix there is only some 5 seconds. It's unbelievable. The only issue is - will it last?
TomTom failed after 14 months so it shouldn't have a lot to beat.
Comes with some interesting demo software but it seems not compatible with Pocket PC 2002 (only 2003) but it works on my desktop PC.
Easy to set-up with Navigator 5.1 and IPAQ 3970 - no problems at all.
Would be interested in anyone else's findings.

[eymarvin]

OK first ever post on a message board, please be gentle :-)

I also have just bought one of these on E-Bay to upgrade from a Fortuna Clipon BT, the seller was based in Germany, and he/she provided an excellent service, it is a new unit, and eas ordered on a Monday evening and I received it on Wednesday morning. Exapansys seem to be the only other UK supplier, but after waiting a week I gave up on them.

The unit has three lights, a charging light, a green fix light (flashes on fix) and a flashing bluetooth connection light. It also has a socket for DC power (standard socket) and for an external aerial (whic probably will never be used). It uses the SIRF III chipset with firware version 3.1.1. The overall buid quality appears good and it is a good size.

I paired it with my IPAQ HX4700, and used it to navigate back home from the DHL depot where I had collected it (about a 45 minute drive through varying conditions using Tom Tom Navigator 5.1, with the unit placed in the well under the handbrake that you find in Audi A2s (if you know the car). I usually place the clipon behind the windscreen.


The pairing process was straightforward and troublefree, the unit uses a standard 0000 code.


Tomtom found the device with no hitches, and I was impressed with the cold start time of less than a minute despite the suboptimal placing and being parked in a seltered area of an industrial estate with no clear line of site to the sky.

On the drive home the fix was held perfectly in all conditions (urban canyon, forest, open road) with the maximum reception indicator shown in TT at all times. Th only exception was travelling in a 150 m tunnel which has several large buildings built over it, but that is to be expected, nevertheless the unit regained its fix about 5 metres before exiting the tunnel (very rough guess). There was no appreciable lag on the positon, (unlike with my previous receiver that caused me to miss turns on occasion!).

In doors ti gets a fix on 7 sats in the centre of a groundfloor room in a three storey townhouse that is surrounded by buildings. I also forced a cold start, this time it took about 90 seconds to get a fix and there was no positional drift.

Overall, thus far, I am impressed with this unit, it appears to be exceptionally sensitve. I don't have access to another receiver with a SIRF III chipset, but that would make for an interesting comparison. It seems a shame that there are not more UK stockists for this unit as I am sure it would do well over here. The only negative is that due to the nature of the battery (a replacable Nokia style 680 mAh) Isuspect that battery life may be less than other units (advertised at 6.5 hours, but haven't tested this).

Would I recomend it? On initial impressions, yes. I will psot again if I have any problems with it in the future.

[ginosergio]

I've bought one of these, too.

I also compared by myself with a Bt-338 3.0.2 firmware and a Bt-338 3.1.1 firmware.

Same impressions as Eymarvin. This RBT2001 is really a great receiver. It was immediately clear to me that is a lot better then the Bt-338 3.0.2; bugs removed (obviously), better TTF both in cold and warm start. Better sensitivity: in completely open sky, without buildings and trees, I've seen Bt-338 3.0.2 with 8/9 satellites and signals varying from 65% to 95%. In the same place, the RBT2001 has same satellites, but all signals were very close to 100%.

Then I've done some comparison with a Bt-338 3.1.1. Bt-338 is now very very close to RBT2001, but its signals are still a bit lower (really just a bit). The drift in static position is also still better on the RBT2001.

The Royaltek battery last between 6 and 7 hours, with discontinued use during the same day. This battery is the same as the Nokia 6100/1100 phone, but if you buy the Nokia battery (BL-5C) it is 850 MAh, not 680. About 3 GBP on Ebay !!

Regards

[Pedro-G]

I've used the RBT-2001 for a couple of weeks now, and I've been very impressed by how sensitive the unit is. The only comparisons I've made have been with TomTom MkII. The Royaltek is much more sensitive. To be fair, though, the practical differences don't arise in normal, outdoor conditions; the TomTom works very well in-car and when hiking.

However, I noticed that the Royaltek doesn't work when speed is over 300km/h. The unit goes in to a short of "semi-fix" mode, where the green light on the unit is flashing to indicate a fix, but in all the PDA software the status is "No Fix". Altitude is displayed correctly.

I posted a more detailed message to the GpsPssion forums.

[@lexis]

[@lexis]

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