The future is here now...

[Snoopy]

HTC Diamond Touch with Garmin XT and Microsoft Voice Command 1.6. Tell it what to do like "next track", "Start Garmin", "what's the time"

It's held in an Aquabox (RAM-HOL-AQ2). Touch screen works great and its fully waterproof ... unlike Zumo It's bright in daytime abit like the Quest and far better than Zumo. Screen dims automatically when it gets dark. Very cool. Love the Aquabox + mounts for having its natural frequency outside the bike range. This is a first.

MotoSonic bluetooth 2.0 helmet device. Bargain £100 quid on eBay. Murders Autocom for quality (both sound and craftsmanship). Been at 80mph today saying "shuffle", "call mam" and it works spot on. Happy days! Buy two and talk to your passenger. Another version has a 400metre range for talking to another bike. No PMR support just yet though.

£5 HTC car adapter pulled to pieces, converted and places at bottom of Aquabox. Still waterproof. Can't be seen. Wires into Canbus socket.

Helmet has a 13hr range, but outside that I can charge it using the USB lead which plugs into my "three way adapter + usb" in the right pannier.

The future or what!

Got questions? Stick em below. For the record, I've owned a Quest, Zumo and Autocom which is how I can safely compare.

 

[Dreamer]

... and I thought my Quest was state of the art...

 

[Snoopy]

Links:

PDA

£24 on orange over 18mth, 600mins calltime & free txts every month. You'll need to barter a bit to get this rate (at least 3mths ago I did).

GPS software

Garmin XT. MS Voice command. Search these two and you will find both somewhere...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=430

http://www.ipmart-forum.com/

Aquabox

http://www.gpsw.co.uk/details/prod2829.html

Motosonic Bluetooth 2.0 for Helmet

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150288079096

Power charger

(wire to BMW socket on pannier wall, then flex wire from that to to bike power outlet)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250324533731

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

I've got a HTC diamond thingy - hated it at first.

I'm running tomTom7 and google maps on it - bloody good.

I'll be checking out your other links though

also using SPB as the front end instead of touchflo - much quicker

 

[Snoopy]

Likewise I hated it at first, then likewise I disabled Touchflo and now use the normal Windows interface. I know people don't rate it but it's simple and fast to get at everything once properly customised.

I tried TomTom and CoPilot. Garmin XT soundly tramples on both.

It's like being on the bridge of Star Trek when talking to it to control the audio etc. A weird feeling when doing 80mph on a bike!

 

[Cole]

Thanks for that ... I will check it out

I too have a Touch Diamond and disliked it for the first 3 months. Then I downloaded a new ROM and new Radio firmware and the phone was reborn. As you say, a handful more tweaks and its fantastic. The touch flo interface actually flows. Only criticism now is that the screen scratches too easily. Wish I had used screen protectors from the start.

Have tried installing IGO8 on it (numerous versions) ... with no luck at all. Will give the XT a go ... what version did you use? 5.00.20W?

 

[Snoopy]

Yes that's the one.

I've done a few mods since then. The RAM screen has been cut out and replaced with an acrylic sheet which cost £1.50 delivered on ebay . Although GPSW sent a better problem it had the same issue as I described on another thread and TBH I dont need the touch screen on a daily basis because of the hands free. In theory I should only need it for postcodes...

The bluetooth module has an issue with Microsoft voice command the first time it inits. I'm in contact with the manufacturers but basically you need to press the third (mic) button twice, e.g "Play stereophonics" then "Play".

Otherwise very happy with the setup. I also bought some £3.99 Sony headphones and am snapping the head part and wiring into the System 5 to replace the stock speakers which are good but will never compensate for the speaker enclosure on the Sonys. The System 5 has deep speaker pockets so they'll fit.

I get music 30metres from the bike which is kinda cool.

 

[Snoopy]

Thanks for that ... I will check it out

I too have a Touch Diamond and disliked it for the first 3 months. Then I downloaded a new ROM and new Radio firmware and the phone was reborn. As you say, a handful more tweaks and its fantastic. The touch flo interface actually flows. Only criticism now is that the screen scratches too easily. Wish I had used screen protectors from the start.

Have tried installing IGO8 on it (numerous versions) ... with no luck at all. Will give the XT a go ... what version did you use? 5.00.20W?

One came in the HTC box.

 

[Snoopy]

Replacement speaker units:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300289023290