What GPS software for MDA Vario III? Aviation/Car????

[pioneer77]

Hi Guys.

Thought i was a bit of an expert in the GPS field as i have a tom tom in my car but after reading your forums for an hour ive decided i'm a beginner.....!!

My tom tom works great but now I want a hand held, I have the MDA Vario III and apparently it has GPS built in but i have no software and the manual dosent even mention the built in GPS! Is there one? any good?

I want basic info, even just coordinates/compass would be ok, wouldnt want to pay loads for road maps as i would use the tom tom. What would be great is something geared up for aviation in some way like moving maps with airspace but not even sure if this exists for Vario??



Basically i want to know..
Is there a built in GPS receiver on the Vario III if yes is it any good?
Is there a product range to choose from for MDA Vario III?
If yes.. What is it and are there any aviation geared product?

Is this soultion going to work good or should i just forget the MDA route and get something else!!??

Any info gratefully received.


Best

Dan

[mikealder]

Depending upon what you really want and are prepared to pay for as maps are far from cheap, have a look at Memory Map, they do aviation related mapping and the PDA Phone you have will work very well with this application installed (and it will use its built in GPS receiver).

Another one to consider is the GPS Speed Sentry application, this can log what you have been doing for later analysis, it also offers heading/ compass etc - it does show height but I wouldn't use that for an aviation related activity, GPS altitude is not referenced to sea level and can be considerably inaccurate depending upon location and signal coverage -


to the forum, I am sure you will find other useful information on here.
Vario III is a decent phone that lots of people have found to be a great device, although I think in a couple of months the Vario IV will make further progress in the Vario product range - Mike

[pioneer77]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Was looking at the memory map software and think if i can get it doing what i want for less than £100 then ill probably go for it. The FPS system looks a little expensive £75 PA and a little over the top for what i need, i dont want the all singing all dancing just dont want to get lost! probably an etrex with the arrow would do me! (might even get one as a backup)

What isn't clear with the memory map setup (atleast to me!) is do you just buy the 1:250.000 aeronautical chart (thats the one im interested in not 1:500.000 as its for mostly local microlighting and we rarely go over 4000ft!) or do you need the software and then the chart, if you need the software, what one as there seems to be loads of em!!

If memory map make this a bit clearer on there website i probably would have ordered it last night in the excitement of finding it! Now its going to be more of a considered purchase and i think ill give them a call later to find out exactly what i need.

Thanks again for your help. Top forum

[xrighty]

with memory map you buy the application and install it on your pc then you install on your mda vario 3 from the desktop pc. you also need to buy the maps,

EDITED by philpugh

We do not condone piracy of any sort on this site. I have removed the offending phrase

[TerryWalsh]

Hi Pioneer77.

Take a look at XCSoar. This is completely free open source moving map software intended for use in gliders. The maps and airspace files are also free. I run this on a PDA for gliding use and find it to be very good.

Regards

Terry Walsh

[TerryWalsh]

Mike:

Your statement that GPS altitude is not referenced to sea level is not quite accurate. The link below gives a much better explanation of why than I can. I have suffered from the sirf II problem and as a result bought a sirf 3 receiver and this is much better. Your underlying caution of not relying on GPS altitude is however still correct as there are substantial and variable errors in reported altitude.

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10915

Terry Walsh

[Burty1969]

Dear All,

New here. I also just bought a HTC Kaiser (well, the T-mobile version of it) but I am living in Vietnam and wanted to use it theer. Now I know that there are very few good GPS maps of Vietnam for this device (none, actually). But to my great surprise neither of the countries here (Laos, VN, Cambodia, even Thailansd) are covered by Papago, TotTom, Copilot etc. Bummer, because I wanted to use it.

So, anyone has a recommendation on software which also has good maps of this region? Furthermore, a more general, and perhaps 'beginners' question: If I install TomTom software (or any other software), is there a chance that sofware will 'allow'/ read maps from other companies once I found them? Or is TT really only for TT maps, and the same with PaPaGo etc.

Looking forward to any help/ suggestions I can get, thanks and best regards

[mikealder]

You cannot open other vendors maps with a competitors product, the suppliers write the code and supply the maps to work together per application TT will only open and use TT maps, Co-Pilot will only use Co-Pilot maps etc, I am not too sure of any mapping packages for the area you are in though - Mike

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!