Bluetooth GPS for PDA

[anniesdad]

Are these any good or am I better going for a wired connection?

I've got an XDA II and I'm looking at a Leadtek GPS receiver like this

[fidgits]

Actually, the Bluetooth ones are better...

Fully charged, mine lasts about 5-6 hours. Plus you can hide the unit..

[GregE240]

Steve, a friend has an IPAQ with a bluetooth GPS unit, don't know which one exactly.

But...having been in the car the other week, its a piece of cake to setup and use....he has hard wired the charger into the top of the dash of his car, so just plugs it in when needed, and stores it out of sight when he does not.

It works a treat.

[anniesdad]

Cheers guys,

Bit of a numpty when it comes to these things. So does the GPS receiver plug into a cradle/charger at home/work is then fully portable as per the PDA. And provided its within a certain distance of the PDA, the PDA/tom tom software picks up the GPS signal?

I'm assuming the GPS receiver can get a charge from an in-car charger shared with the PDA charger?

Steve

[mike_e]

I've got the TomTom3 bluetooth with the in-car kit. The car kit is a bit of a necessity as the Ipaq battery life isn't brilliant with the backlight on all the time.

The Ipaq cradle plugs into the fag lighter and the cradle has the facility for a second lead that runs to the bluetooth module power socket (which kind of makes the bluetooth link a bit of a waste of time when you think about it). That said, the GPS unit will run quite happily for a number of hours without recharging so can be sited anywhere in the car.

I've managed to do a run to Santa Pod and back from the south coast without the in-car kit and both Ipaq and GPS unit running on batteries alone. Ipaq gave up 10 mins from home, GPS still running fine. Time was equivalent to about 9 hours use.



>> Edited by mike_e on Monday 11th April 13:46

[anniesdad]

Best manufacturer of bluetooth GPS anyone?

[Dr Steve]

What's the speaker volume level like on the iPAQ PDAs?

I am looking at buying a complete package based on a HP hx2750 or h6340. Several packages I have seen include a cradle including amplified speaker, but many don't.

[fidgits]

My 1945 has the TomTom cradle, without speaker...

and the internal speaker is fine.. I can hear the directions at *around* 70mph easily on 75% vol.

[Alicatt]

I use the XDA II with the TomTom bluetooth GPS and it works great, it lasts most of the day without a recharge but most of the time I leave it plugged in but I am able to move around with it and carry the receiver in my pocket and it still works, I also use it with Fugawi maps and M$ pocket streets and trips (autoroute)