Marine Options Tough Decision

RangerGuy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Posts: 3

Hi Everyone,

I just found this board and have been reading the posts for the last couple of days. VERY INFORMATIVE! So I thought I'd see if anybody can help me with this tough decision

Here is my situation. I spend a lot of time in my boat fishing. My boat is open so my electronics have no shelter from the elements. I am trying to find a viable solution for the digital navigation charts. I have come up with the following set up.

Dell Axim v50x
EMTAC Trine Bluetooth GPS
Otterboxes for both
NDI Charts

My concern is with the gps receiver I would like to purchase one that will not loose signal in bad conditions like heavy fog or clouds and keep a solid connection to the PPC device. Since this is when you need it most when your on the water. Does anybody on this board have experience navigating with a PDA on the water. Do you find the screens show enough map to make it easeir to navigate?

If anybody would mind suggesting changes or upgrades to this set up that would increase the performance or reliability of this set up I would really appreciate it. I have read a lot of reviews but most of them are from 2000 and 2002. I would like to read some recent hardware reviews but am having a hard time finding them.

I choose this set up because the NDI charts are closes to the Canadian Government Nautical Charts that I could find,I'm also a developer so I can benefit by using a PDA and building my own custom apps on it as well. Instead of paying all that money for a unit that just does Chart Plotting.

I look forward to all the responses Smile

RangerGuy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Posts: 3

Did I post this in the wrong area? Wondering why nobody has offered any suggestions Sad

DavidW · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:53 pm Post subject:

I think the issue is probably that there's not so many of us with marine experience. Hold on and hopefully you'll get some sensible answers!

There is a dedicated Aviation and Marine forum here - you may find more answers there. If you like, I can move your post into that forum.

David

RangerGuy · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 20, 2004 Posts: 3

Sure if you think that will help get responses Smile

I am just looking for advice.

Do I need to spend 300+ US dollars to get a decent BlueTooth GPS reciever or ARE the one I am starting to see in the $150 range SOLID performers etc.

DavidW · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:22 pm Post subject:

If the key question is about comparing different Bluetooth GPS receivers, maybe the thread is better left here.

Most of the Bluetooth GPS receivers are a patch antenna, a SiRF GPS chipset, a Bluetooth chipset and a battery in a box. However, there are differences.

Some offer a choice of standard SiRF or SiRF Xtrac operation (Fortuna Clip On - possibly others).

Some have user replaceable batteries.

Some have a built in data logger.

The Emtac Trine allows multiple devices to connect at the same time.

Obviously battery life may be an issue if you're not going to supply external power on the boat.

I suspect there's no great performance differences between different Bluetooth GPSes - but maybe others have specific experiences to share.

David

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