Latest toy...PDA & Otterbox

Been looking through the threads regarding PDA fitments and have finally taken the plunge and fitted one to my 1150.

Thought I'd share a few of the problems & solutions ..

Setup is a Dell Axim X51v (the 640 x 480 screen res one) in an Otterbox 3600.

Have a 4gb CF and 4Gb SD card installed so plenty of memory. (tried an 8gb SD and it will not work...doh!)

Am running Pocket Music Pro software as it's skinnable and has big buttons so it's easy to use on the bike...(have designed my own skin which has no frills, just big buttons for the menu items I need...see picture...BMW logo is the play/pause button in which the blue bits of the roundel go green whilst it's playing).

Powered up via a 5 volt dc-dc reducer under the rear of the tank, wired into the fuse box power supply, and switchable from the instrument binnacle. Did this so I can start the bike and then switch over to 'mains' power to avoid power spike horror stories I read on the forum.

Connections in/out of the otterbox are via an autocom EL7 lead cut in two...socket end wired to the bikes electrics/ autocom and plug end wired to the power in and audio out plugs of the PDA. (used green/black wires for power and std red/white/bare for audio)

Problems came with the electrical feed to the PDA which was corrupting the audio signal...quick call to Autocom and one isolated music lead (part No. 1314 - £28) later and it all works a treat....

Can be disconnected and removed from the bike in seconds due to the RAM mount and autocom plug/socket setup.

Also running tom tom navigator and memory map software on the unit which connects via a blutooth GPS receiver. (Still prefer the Nav II unit for long trips though cos i can set the routes up on the computer in advance.)

Hope it's of use to someone....if anyone is interested in more details pm me

Dave H

whats the stuff on the left?
music rotate bluetooth tom tom... how does it work?




another Rush fan i see

It's just Dymo labelling...if you look to the right of the labels you'll see four small round silver buttons on the PDA. I have re-mapped these keys to give the functions on the labels...it's just so I remember which is which.

The centre oval button also works as volume up/down by pressing top/bottom respectively and for previous/next track by pressing left/right respectively.

Dave

Very neat........A little 'Fisher Price' perhaps though??

I 'spose that's the design and so on......obviously it has to be chunky and the GUI simple to use and read but it does look like a 3 yr old's toy a wee bit .

Also you don't drink enough wine

the only thing is the case is a tad big.... pity someone could make one just a bit bigger than the pda....none the less it looks very functional

Agree with the Fisher Price bit...box is a bit gaudy I suppose, but it does match the colour of the bike..

Otterbox do a smaller box (1900 & 2600) but they aren't as versatile re connectivity as the big 'un....plus i got it for £40 which is less than half price !

Doesn't look as bad in the flesh when there's some scale to it..

You can see now why I didn't reply to the 'how much alcohol' thread..

purely medicinal of course...

hmm, where from? (the box)

I have a HP 4150 that i use just for tomtom on the bike (ipod shuffle does the music)

but was thinking of something along these lines (its all in my tankbag at the moment)

scottykm said:

hmm, where from? (the box)

I have a HP 4150 that i use just for tomtom on the bike (ipod shuffle does the music)

but was thinking of something along these lines (its all in my tankbag at the moment)

Click to expand...

£29.99 + a fiver P&P on an ebay shop

Got the otterbox from Planet Gizmo.....here

http://www.planetgizmo.co.uk/produc...cat=0&page=1&gclid=CIvsgsKjwooCFTYNQgoduhIKkg

cost £44.99 inc vat.

Got the 'through the box' cable connector from Rugged Peak..here

www.psalmgear.co.uk

Makes the case & cabling totally watertight..

only have to plug in to the Autocom connector lead now for everything.

Well............ it certainly catches the eye

but............ why would you want a button marked "TomTom" when you have a Garmin GPS on top of the instruments

Are you hoping that the TomTom learns some navigation from the Garmin?

Al

Easy...with tomtom 'active' I get audible warnings of speed cameras...( & easy to update via GPSW) ...don't need it visible, just running in the background....my nav II does not do this...just a visible overlay which is ok if you want to ride glued to the screen all the time.....dont want to fork out loads of dosh for the nav III just yet as I'm convinced the next generation of garmins will be loads better.

Nice to see some original thinking. Ignore the "fisher price" brigade, there will no doubt be plenty of people looking to do something very similar and personalising the touch screen configuration for their own PDAs. If only we were smart enough.

grandtrousers said:

Nice to see some original thinking. Ignore the "fisher price" brigade, there will no doubt be plenty of people looking to do something very similar and personalising the touch screen configuration for their own PDAs. If only we were smart enough.

Click to expand...

It wasn't meant to sound negative....I like it, and it looks like it'll work well....it was just an honest opinion

Just looked at it again and I reckon it would look really good sort of techno'd up...black case, steel line around the window, sort of high tec looking rather than....er, Barney and friends if you see what I mean

if anyone would like a copy of the skin I can email it....the black text above & below the BMW (play/pause) logo is customiseable (?) to to whatever you want.

Will only work with pocket music player and a VGA pda (ie 640 x 480 not the usual 240 x 320 resolution)

Dave