To bluetooth or not to bluetooth ?

Spyder · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2004 Posts: 3

Hello,

I'm in the process of deciding whether to buy a bluetooth gps mouse or not. My primary use would be for car navigation, but from time to time I would also like to take the gps out for a walk.

However I have two questions concerning bluetooth car navigation :

- batteries : is it possible to leave out the battery and just use a car charger as power source ?

- on/off : as I understand, one always has to turn a bluetooth model on/off. Can you avoid this step when you connect to a cigarette lighter ?

If I can overcome these two issues, I definitely am going for bluetooth. The model that sounds very appealing to me is the Holux GR-231 since I could just use USB for in-car usage.

Thanks for your comments,

Kristof

icsys · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:35 pm Post subject:

Dave · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:17 pm Post subject:

There's no way of auto-powering on/off a BT GPS simply by connecting a power chord. It would need some extra circuitry to do this which none of them currently have.

Some BT GPS's will let you power them without battery, but some won't.

Spyder · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2004 Posts: 3

I think the following scenario would suit my needs :

- take the battery out of the gps
- when car is started -> cigarette lighter power on -> gps automatically turns on (at least for Emtac models)
- when car is stopped -> cigarette lighter power off -> gps is 'gently' forced to turn off ;-)

This way, the bluetooth would behave exactly as a regular gps mouse and I can install and forget about it (until I decide to go for a gps walk).

Can anyone confirm this scenario ? Are there any other bluetooth gps receivers that automatically turn on when power is applied ?

Thanks !

Kristof

Brunop · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 07, 2004 Posts: 3

The cigarette lighter in my car works regardless of whether the keys are in the ignition or not. Just a thought, you might want to check Smile

Spyder · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2004 Posts: 3

I have a standard Nokia carkit that plugs into the cigarette lighter. On all cars that I have used it with (must be 4 by now), the led on the carkit turned off when I took the keys out of the ignition ;-)

MarkHewitt · Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 4:22 pm Post subject:

In my car the cig lighter is always powered. So I guess it varies from model to model.

DavidW · Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 12:13 pm Post subject:

It does vary from model to model. The dashboard cigarette lighter socket in my Zafira is ignition switched. The one in the luggage compartment is permanently live.

David

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