REVIEW COMMENTS: Emtac BlueTooth GPS

Dave

Peter, check out the Fortuna forum it's been around since 22nd of April.

Mike would be best in answering your question, we will have a fortuna review out very shortly also

My personal preference (not having used the Fortuna) would be a Pocket PC and Socket BTGPS. You can always charge the Emtac with a battery extender which carries 4xAA batteries.

Peter Kessler

Dave

I've asked the following question in the Fortuna forum by mistake: which of the PC-Mobile battery extenders is the right one for the Emtac?

Thanks
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Peter Kessler

Dave

Peter, I haven't tried it, but I believe it will be fine. The Emtac/Socket BT GPS accepts a Compaq iPAQ charger, and I use the PC-Mobile Battery Extender to charge the iPAQ so I would think it would be okay.

RobMob · Regular Visitor Joined: 31/12/2002 09:37:48 Posts: 103

At last I have become brave enough to start investigating the settings on my Emtac using Crux View. I now have a few questions which I hope someone can help me with before I go any further.

1) I have v1.6.3 of Crux View - is this the latest version. On the review screen shot I noticed a WAAS tab - on mine it shows SBAS

2) Having changed to SiRF binary protocal everytime I try to open a session I get the message "Now the GPS is sending SiRF Binary Protocol. Do you want to change to NMEA - option are Yes/No - If click No the programm just exits - is this normal?

3) If I set to SiRF - do I have to change the driver in TTNAV2 to SiRF Bluetooth - or will the Emtac Bluetooth still be best?

4) Having tried to set SBAS to auto - the next time I went into Crux - having had to set it back to NMEA to access the program I found the setting had not been changed and was now OFF again - is this correct?

I look forward to thoughts on these issues.

Thanks

RobMob

MikeB

Rob,

1) You do have the latest version. The review copy was much earlier. WAAS is now universally called SBAS.

2) The CruxView application only seems to work in NMEA you can set SiRF but cannot use it in this app.

3) Setting TomTom to SiRF will automatically change the protocol to SiRF. This was a big problem with the early pre-production receivers, and also with the GlobalSat BT308 as it used to break the communication between GPS and Bluetooth within the receiver if you did not reset to NMEA at 34800 baud.

4) Are you sure you are looking at the right box. The top box which says SBAS Channel is the one it will set it to if you hit the apply button. Just underneath that there is a SBAS Setting box. This shows the current setting. A bit confusing and had me going for a while.

It really is about time that someone comes out with a generic toolkit which can handle the new GPS devices and provides information in a user friendly way as opposed to an engineering tool which is tweeked a bit for users.
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Mike Barrett

forest.rangers

We are presently using garmin gps76s on animal surveys here in NZ.
The terrain is quite rough with dense bush and gps reception sometimes difficult.
Generally we have found the gps76 the best receiver for this type of country.
We also use the IPAQ 5550 for data collection and have been considering using a bluetooth gps coupled with fugawi on the IPAQ for improved mapping.
However gps performance is critical to us as the whole operations are based being able to locate gps waypoints.
From the reviews it would appear that the socket bluetooth gps is the pick of the bunch, Has anyone any experience using one on dense bush or forest areas, and could their performance be considered to be equal to or better then the gps76.
we are after performance with price not a consideration
regards
Murray

Dave

Unfortunately not. A Pocket PC runs Microsoft Pocket PC (Windows CE) Operating System. The Tungsten T I believe is a Palm running Palm OS ?

MikeB

Quote: Originally posted by kingy on 15 January 2003

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.

Kingy,

SiRF and NMEA are different protocols which define how your GPS sends information to the navigation application software on your PDA/PC/other equipment.

The main difference is that the NMEA protocol is ASCII meaning that if you look at the datastream using one of the GPS tools avbailable you cn actually read what is being sent. SiRF works in binary mode and sends chunks of data that would not be readable if you monitored the feed. This is a very simplistic explaination theresa re lots of other differences.

What does it mean to you as a user? Probably not that much. It doesnt affect the actual positioning information being sent from the GPS. SiRF provides a lot more features including the ability to send commands to the GPS. All of this is well and good but currently there is not a lot of software that can actually use SiRF.

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Mike Barrett

Dave

Please post any comments about the EMTAC BlueTooth Review in this message.

The full review is available here.

DanAxel

I have to say that your review is excellent and the EMTAC too.

I have it for a month a i'm still testing it in differents configurations

I've noticed that you didn't mention oo test the sirf mode and i'd like to know what does it brings...

When you configure it in Sirf Mode you can see the EGNOS sattelite - 120 - in the winfast CE monitor...

I'd like to know what are your feelings on this mode and what does it brings functionnaly ?

Thanks

Cessquill

Having a 3870 I was looking for a truely portable solution, and I think I've just found it. If it holds its power for long enough for normal use, then that's fine for me. Especially if it is a better receiver than normal. OK, it's a bit more expensive, sure. But no wires!

Is it operable whilst on charge?
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What's going on? Where am I?

wjrs5

Sounds tremendous but it is so expensive!

Cessquill

All in it's what, 270 plus 80 for some software plus 50 for an SD card to put the software on (or cheaper if you've got a CF jacket). That's £400.

Navman 3400 - about 360, CF card about 30 (and potentially a re-radiating antenna at about 45). That's between £390 and £435.

That's roughly the same price really. OK, it's expensive if you're upgrading from other hardware maybe, but if, like me, you've got a bluetooth iPaq, you're going to have to shell out the best part of £400 anyhow. If this solution gives you improved performance and less wires but has the bind of being charged between then it's not too bad for me. I can see why it's not for everybody, but...

I have a socket in my boot - perhaps I can put it on my parcel shelf and leave it on permanent charge...?!
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What's going on? Where am I?

wjrs5

This receiver is really expensive but I suppose it will come down dramatically in price. After all it has no screen and no mapping software.

JEREMYB

We are looking to get a portable satnav system for car use and are torn between a Garmin SP111 DL and a PDA and 'jacket' solution. The Emtac looks like a good option if we couple it with a (Palm) PDA. What I need to know though is whether anyone offers a software package including voice as a stand alone purchase, as so far I can only find these packaged with a GPS receiver like the TOMTOM Navigator.

Any help much appreciated.

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