Advise Needed - Product Suitability & Fitting

SDQ · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 31, 2003 Posts: 2

Hi all, im after some advise and would be gratefull if someone could help.

I had a Navman 3400 GPS System, however I have just bought a new car wich has a heat reflective windscreen. So, I have sold the Navman because I didnt want to fit a repeater to the car.

So... Im now considering getting a CoPilot Live system with the bluetooth receiver. The plan is to put this somewhere at the back of the car, on the parcel shelf. Is this suitable, or will the heated screen also interfere and will it get a decent satellite fix, or should i consider an external antenna?

And.. Can any-one recommend somewhere for the system to be fitted so that there is a mains power source at the rear of the vehicle for the bluetooth system to remain charged. And.. somewhere that could fit a bluetooth handsfree system at the same time?

Any other comment or suggestions are also appreciated.

Thanks.

SDQ

SDQ · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 31, 2003 Posts: 2

P.S

The copilot live system that allows two way communication looks good. However.. what i cant find anywhere on the web is some details about the PDA Connecting to the web. I understand a bluetooth GPRS connection is the how, but i want to know if its a constant connection, or if the system is configured to dial up say every 5 mins to update position etc? Oh, and what sort of data volume are we talking about?

Dave · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 9:42 pm Post subject:

Anything with electricity/power travelling through it could interfere with GPS signals or any other radio type signals, but saying that others have put a BT Receiver on the parcel shelve and not had problems. I guess it depends on the car rear windscreen and the coil.

Wiring an accessory socket to the boot can be done quite easily, it just needs a long flex of cable connected to the car battery and passed down through the car (good place is along the door seals) and into the boot. This cable can be purchased from Maplin, and you can also purchase an accessory socket to wire the cable up to (and put an inline fuse in place just in case). I'm sure any main dealer or other repair garage would do this for you but probably charge you an arm and a leg for doing it.

Regarding GPRS, GPRS is always on. You don't need to dial-up. Well apart from the first connection, then after it's like an ADSL connection, it just sits dormant until it's needed and you're on the net. With GPRS you are charged per kilobyte of data sent/received, but if it's not doing anything you won't be charged. Volume, not sure it really depends on the data it needs to send. Other traffic alert systems will use on average 1mb a month, I would think that CoPilot would use more than this as more data is being sent/received, but it depends on how many hours a day you are using it.

bigfatjohn · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 2:57 pm Post subject:

I took power for my GPS receiver from the permanent live side of the boot light.

Much easier than running a cable from the front of the car and it works well.

Dave · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:12 pm Post subject:

That's a good idea, the thought never crossed my mind.

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