Any Hints or Tips for using PDA with GPS..?

Hi All,

If anyone has any hints or tips on using a PDA together with a GPS on a bike, I would be very grateful!

I currently have a Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX and plan to hook it up to a TomTom: Navigator in order to save myself a few quid.

I am not sure how to go about mounting it to the handlebars. I see that Touratech do mounting kits for specific GPS systems, and some phones. But I dont see any mention of PDAs, has anyone seen anything mentioned elsewhere?

Also, any tips on mounting the GPS receiver - ie does it have to be somewhere with a good view, or can you just stick it to the tank?

I would'nt be using the GPS much (apart from a trip to the Sahara in May with Greg Masters) so cannot really justify spending the £1K on a StreetPilot III, hence the PDA/GPS combo.


Any salient comments greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

SilverFish

SilverFish said:

Hi All,

If anyone has any hints or tips on using a PDA together with a GPS on a bike, I would be very grateful!
SilverFish

Click to expand...

I run a Garmin ETREX Summit attached to an IPAQ 3970. I have it on my BMW 1150 GS-A and my Husky TE 610-E. However... The IPAQ sits in my Cycoactive barpack and in my backpack most of the time. I usually preprocess tracks I want to follow at home, then back load them into the GPS and follow them (The Etrex is a sturdy waterproof beast, and the Summit has enough memory to load a few tracks, and then I use the back track feature to follow them. Using routes is out of the question). If I get lost confused (aka "lost" ) I connect the GPS in the field to the IPAQ and find out where I went wrong.

The GPS is mounted on a RAM Mount on my handlebars. The IPAQ sits in my bar pack. I do have a RAM mount for the IPAQ and will connect it to my BMW GS-A but am unure about using it off road (vibrations and weather are my concerns)

I ordered the RAM Mount for the GPS from Cycoactive and the the RAM Mount for the IPAQ from GPS City . Both in the USA (I am in Aus)

I would not recomend using a GPS and a PDA at the same time.. You should have at least one hand on the handle bars

Keith Chapman said:

I would not recomend using a GPS and a PDA at the same time

Click to expand...

Ho ho!

But what you guys want is this!




Greg

Sweet!

Ho ho!

But what you guys want is this!

Click to expand...

Looks fab, pity it doesnt come out till the summer!

Trever: Being in Aus, have you heard of OziExplorer ? It looks like it might be pretty useful (being able to import digital or scanned maps)..?

I think the RAM Mount might be the best way to attach the PDA, not sure if it will work for the GPS though as that is designed to be 'suckered' to a windscreen...

Would the GPS work if I left it in my jacket pocket?

Thanks,

SilverFish
aka Michael

Re: Sweet!

SilverFish said:

Trever: Being in Aus, have you heard of OziExplorer ? It looks like it might be pretty useful (being able to import digital or scanned maps)..?

Click to expand...

I use it exclusively... both on my desktop and on my IPAQ. I have been using it for a couple years to do all my route planning, coupled with the National Mapping of all of Austraila at 1:250,000 for $99 it's a good bit of gear. You can use it with ANY raster map, assuming it can be calibrated. For all you ever wanted to know about Oziexplorer join
Oziexplorer

and for discussion on the PocketPC version, join

OziCE

SilverFish said:

I think the RAM Mount might be the best way to attach the PDA, not sure if it will work for the GPS though as that is designed to be 'suckered' to a windscreen...

Click to expand...

Nahhh.. the attachement at the end is up to you I have a bar clamp as per

http://www.cycoactive.com/gps/gps_mounts_ram.html#greth



See the example clamped to the pushbike handlebar ? At either end you can attach whatever mount you want ie you could attach a sunction mount for use in a say a car, or a clamp to hold it to the yoke of a joystick in a plane. I use the handle bar clamp as per the photo. At the instrument end you attach whatever "mount" you want eg GPS, IPAQ etc.

As per this photo, see the instrument end is blank, you just buy whatever holder you need and it screws on.


The bits are all interchangable and work well. ie you decide want _you_ want at either end

SilverFish said:

Would the GPS work if I left it in my jacket pocket?

Click to expand...

Yes, I have put it in the pocket of my jeans and it has sucessfully recorded a track. Reliably ? No. If you have a tank bag put it in that, remember you will want to run it off your bikes battery power so it might be better to mount it on the handlebar with RAM mount. I then plug it into the front power socket of my BMW 1150 GS-A

I get my combined data and power cable to feed power to the Etrex and IPAQ and data to the IPAQ from GPSOZ

I hope this is making some sense

Thanks Trever,

That is all dead useful stuff. I think customising the RAM handlbar mount will do the job nicely.

I think I will need to get a front power socket in order to tidy up the cables.

Thanks for all you suggestions!

Michael

I use a Haicom CF GPS card in a Compaq 3660 and TomTom Routeplanner. This is mounted on a RAM mount.

A few observations.....

Make sure you have the iPAQ configured properly, i.e. no auto switchoff, screen brightness, etc. Very annoying to get 15 mins down the track and have the thing shut down. ( I'm a slow learner. Only did it half a dozen times.)

RAM mount worked very well. Secure & handled vibes well.

Waterproofing. I planned to use an Aquapack but you can't make it 100% seal, so might as well use a cheap plastic cover or one of those see-through washbag thingies.

TomTom routeplanner was good apart from not being able to save and restore routes. This means that you can't prepare your trip in advance.

I purchased the RAM mount and CF card from GPS Warehouse in Feltham www.gpsw.co.uk They seem to know their stuff and provided a good service.

I use a compaq iPAQ 3850 with NAVMAN 3400. Altough most of the time its used in the car, I have put it the map pocket of a tankbag on a bike on a few occasions where it was useful for getting my bearings when I stopped at a junction, but wasn't much use for detailed navigation as I couldn't keep referring to it on the move due to safety considerations.

For use on a bike I'm considering using an ear plug with speaker (Such as the Etymotic ER6) so I can listen to the spoken directions. This of course is no use unless the software you plan to use has a speech synthesis capability.

The GPS location is not that critical so long as it can get a reasonable view of the sky without many metal objects in the way (sitting on a car dashboard where the car roof blocks half the sky is still acceptable, so anywhere on a bike bar under the seat or tank should work). You might also consider a Bluetooth equipped GPS which you can locate whereever it is convenient on the bike, the Bluetooth wireless then communicates the GPS position information to the PDA.