Medion/Aldi device

wildduck · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 24

I'm thinking of looking at these cheap PDA's tomorrow, and would be very grateful for any answers, as the 'brochure' is a bit vague. I am wary of Medion, but have been pleased with Aldi in the past.

I use a cheap Palm PDA at the moment, which I find excellent. Battery life of weeks, b/w screen which is readable with no backlight and all the functions are simple & work. (This is relevant because I've had to scrap a Nokia mobile phone with a colour screen & revert to b&w so that I could read it).

I use an old Magellan GPS receiver when sailing. It is not very sensitive and eats batteries.

The excuse to myself for buying the PDA would be to use it as a backup for the Magellan unit. I have never tried a combined PDA/GPS thing before, so these questions may be stupid:

1. Can I expect it to provide absolute lat/long data and accept waypoints etc.?

2. Will it show the compass direction to steer the boat?

3. Can it be set to have the backlight permanently on when it's powered?

4. How does it connect to the PC? USB? I've never found optical communication terribly reliable.

5. Is it likely it could be adapted to join a wi-fi network?

6. If it doesn't do what I want, is it likely that I'd be able to install software that did? I'm thinking not only of GPS software, but some specialist audio apps.

7. Are marine charts available for this sort of device, and are they of any practical use in a smallish boat?

8. How waterproof are these things? I've never had any trouble with my Palm, but it just stays in my pocket out of the spray.

wildduck · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 24

Sorry to add yet another question, but here it is! Embarassed

The unit appears to use a mmc/sd card. My previous experience with an mp3 audio recorder that used these cards was that this made the unit worthless because of the SD (Secure Digital) functions.

If I recorded something into it, I couldn't play it back in another unit because of the absurd copy protection (I was trying to use it for journalistic interviews).

Do these restrictions with these cards always apply, and if so to what parts of the data?

budgie55 · Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 2:45 pm Post subject: Re: Medion/Aldi device

Yikes ok lets have a bash at some of the questions m8.....

1. Can I expect it to provide absolute lat/long data and accept waypoints etc.?

Dunno for sure but I guess you can using software like http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=11665 and http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=11820 not sure what you mean by absolute though perhaps someone else may shed more light.

2. Will it show the compass direction to steer the boat?

See above software and you can get other today page snapins that show a compass position using the GPS. How accurate it is however is another matter for sailing etc. One would presume accurate given people use them for road travel.

3. Can it be set to have the backlight permanently on when it's powered?

Whether this is a feature or not I do not know. However you can get software to turn the screens on and off and I presume this will include the backlight aswell.

4. How does it connect to the PC? USB? I've never found optical communication terribly reliable.

It can talk with the PC via Infrared (IR port) or it also comes with a cradle which connects via USB to the PC.

5. Is it likely it could be adapted to join a wi-fi network?

On the previous model Aldi offered I believe the sandisk WiFi SDIO card worked along with one other. A search on the forums will reveal more. I cannot vouch for the new PDA one would presume that it will but I cannot be sure until I get it tommorow.

6. If it doesn't do what I want, is it likely that I'd be able to install software that did? I'm thinking not only of GPS software, but some specialist audio apps.

Yes there are many pieces of software out there for these PDAs. In many respects they are as versatile software wise as a normal home PC. However you do of course need the memory capacity to store it all on. In this case SD cards. Careful with some as there have been problems with certain brands of cards. I will be doing further looking into these cards when I get my PDA tommorow from Aldi. I dont want to spend £££ on cards that have problems. Again as forum search on this will shed more light for you.

7. Are marine charts available for this sort of device, and are they of any practical use in a smallish boat?

Pass ??? 8O

8. How waterproof are these things? I've never had any trouble with my Palm, but it just stays in my pocket out of the spray.

Ermmm not a clue. As with any electrical device I would not want to get it to wet. Im sure somewhere out there waterproof casings are available. Or you could improvise Smile

[/quote]

For marine software try.....
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=5129
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=2775

Failing the above I have found the pocketgear site to be very good in so far as programs go for the PDAs.

Perhaps another more senior member here could point you in a better direction regarding marine/sailing software.

Anyway have a look around this site use the search function and check out the rafts (no sailing pun intended :P ) of software out their for PDAs.
You may wish to look at software which runs on XSCALE or ARM processors which all the new PDAs have including the Aldi one.

Hope these answers are of some little help to you my friend.

Cheers

Allan

eeeeek did I type that much Mr. Green

budgie55 · Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 2:59 pm Post subject:

on the waterproof front just came across this link http://www.sailgb.com/sshop/prod_info.asp?PID=890

Smile

maybe other stuff of interest to you there also hehe god I love google Smile

Other links I came across for PDA software are....

http://www.c-map.com/news/Articles/SportFishing/handynavigation/article.asp

http://www.stentec.com/software/pda_i.html
http://www.memory-map.com/

Maybe of some use but I dont really know the first thing about them. There is I am sure better stuff out there or maybe one of the other forum members knows of some better software out there for boating?????

wildduck · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 24

Thanks for the replies - very useful. The PocketGear site does indeed seem to have some useful stuff, so it looks as though it might be worth taking a chance with the pda.

I'm still concerned about the SD issue, though. With audio if I recorded it on one machine then moved the card to another machine, the copy protection wouldn't let me access it. What happens if I scan a map or chart in on the main PC, then move the SD card to the PDA? Will it work? Am I getting paranoid?

This is really a general question about SD cards, rather than about this particular PDA.

The other info was really helpful. Thanks again.

poolie · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 12, 2004 Posts: 1

Hi,
if its any help Halfords are selling the same unit for £399.99 and there is a download available on their website with limited info .

Ta

DavidW · Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 9:46 pm Post subject:

Darren · Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 7:38 am Post subject:

Just to add, the software suuplied is a re-badged version of Navigon intended for street navigation so you won't have compass bearings, waypoints etc BUT the GPS is a standard NMEA type and so coupled with other software it will do what you want, it can run Memory-Map Marine charts for example.

It uses USB to sync with the PC, is not in any way waterproof, an Otterbox is what you need on the boat and can be enabled for WiFi using an SD Format WiFi card.
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