Bundle For Driving/Walking/Cycling

a_richardson99

Hi

Excellent site - have learnt a great deal in a short time reading through.

I'm looking for a GPS for use when driving, when walking and also when cycling. For use in the UK and France, for motorways, cities and also offroad.

I would have liked to get a TomTom II bundle but read that the dongle and power requirements mean that this is really an in car only solution.

So I was hoping that the following should do the job ?

IPAQ 3970 - £400

Emtac Bluetooth GPS - £240

TomTom Navigator II software - £99

If so I have a few follow up questions...

1. Where should the GPS be mounted when driving ?

My car has a heated front screen and I've read of reception problems with these. Will the GPS be able to find a signal, can it be placed anywhere other than directly in a window ?

2. When walking is it as simple as placing the GPS in the top of the rucksack and holding the PDA in your hand ?

3. Are there any cycle mounted cradles available for the IPAQ ?

4. How long would the IPAQ/GPS hold power for on a long walk between charges ? i.e. walk for 45mins or so - check your position, walk a bit more check again, would I need to keep the IPAQ on to achieve quick position checks or would powering off/on the IPAQ still give a reasonable time while saving battery ?

5. Is the suggested setup reasonably 'future proof' + expandable, or is there something big just around the corner worth waiting for (couple of months wait for example).

Many thanks in advance

Andy

TimB

Dear Andy

I am a relatively new user of the Emtac BT GPS receiver and had some similar concerns to you before buying it - have to say that having done so I am thrilled to bits with it and its performance easily matches my expectations (incidentally none of the strange observations referred to in other posts regards holding it or touching it.......I often hold it!!!!)

Anyway, mine works very well on the rear surface in an estate car with near vertical windows (Subaru legacy).

When walking it also works fine either in my pocket, in a rucksack or in it's little leather pouch (came with the socket version)on my belt. I don't switch it on & off because it can confuse the software and take a minute or so to re-fix, but it easily lasts six and a half hours on a charge.

If anyone reading this has much experience of using the emtac on trickle power mode I would welcome their comments - what settings did they use, how does it affect performance and does it reasonably extend it's battery life? Similarly does using the Ipaq on low bluetooth transmission add much to it's life?

The ipaq 3970 only lasts about 2.5 hrs with the backlight on (using Ozi explorer or Memorymap) but I have used the battery extender box. I did find that with the battery extender that if you charged as you used it (with the backlight on) you only got one charge out of the extender plus the time taken to charge (about five to six hrs in total from a full start)

You can switch the Ipaq on and off (provided the emtac remains switched on, the ipaq just picks up where it left off). I presume that if you, say, switched the Ipaq on for five minutes in every 30 you could do this twenty or so times and therefore go for ten or more hours. However the thing is such a joy to use that it is tempting to keep it on all the time and record tracks properly. I would think that with a battery extender box and using the backlight sensibly you could still get ten hours out of it, by which time the emtac would be flat anyway!

I am sufficiently pleased with my set up to order another battery box to extend both the Ipaq and the emtac for long walks for even further (they are relatively cheap, light (in a backpack) and the wires are interchangeable so can charge either the Ipaq or emtac.

Cannot comment on TomTom as I have been alarmed by all the hullabaloo on the forums and will now wait abit. As for what may be round the corner.....?

Yours Tim

MikeB

Andy,

I have been using the Emtac and 3870 for some time now. I have recently bought a 5450 and would advise anyone against that combination unless they want the WiFi. It does not work as well as the 3x70 series.

If you want a bike mount you sshould checkout our Ram U-Bolt mount I use this on my mountain bike with Memory-Map and Oziexplorer software.

Most users report 6-7 hours from a single charge. The main issue is the iPaq. I have managed to get 4.5 hours solid use out of the unit again using Memory-Map and OziExplorer. It is quite practical to have the backlight switched off and the display can still be readable. I normally expect to get at least 4 hours from a single charge on the iPaq, using some judicious battery conservation methods. One of which is to use the Bluetooth on low power, you dont need 10M range so the power can be reduced. This is something you cannot do with the 5450.

One issue to be aware of with the battery extender is that when the iPaq has been charged the battery extender will drain the iPaq. If you keep on top of the charging the extender will give about 2 and a half charges per set of batteries.

I have installed TT2 with no problems using the Emtac. TT have now released a patch which may make things better. Even so I would probably still use Memory-Map or OziExplorer when cycling.
_________________
Mike Barrett

a_richardson99

thanks for the advice guys - I hadn't realised that the 3870 was bluetooth, as I'm only intending to use it for GPS it's probably not worth me paying the extra for a 3970, I'll start searching out the cheapest 3870 deals today.

Thanks for the tip on the bike mount Mike, will order one asap.

cheers

Andy

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