Purchase EMTAC Sleeve

[johnmar]

I have just purchased a separate EMTAC sleeve for my iPAQ on which I intend to run Tonm Tom Nav 2.



The item does not seem to be widely available on UK sites but I have purchased a unit from Premier Electronics who are featured on Pocket GPS.



The sleeve/jacket is retail-boxed as an EMTAX CruxII and is supplied with a CD (charger or external aerial optional extras) which includes a product guide in PDF, as well as set-up software Cruxview, COM port selection, GPS aquisition status and location etc. I still have to purchase TTNav2 next week but TTFF was OK both in vehicle and in house by window.



Very good service from Premier and price paid was £149 + VAT. They were advertising this as a Transplant IGPSJ at £149 + VAT, but they now show price at £155 + VAT. This is still far less than £199 + VAT which I have seen elsewhere.

[Ianh100]

Hi John, Thanks for the post, I was looking to order one myself as I am less than impressed with the Navman unit that shipped with my Compaq INS kit. I am assuming that my CoPilot CF card will work in this unit.



Does it come bare or is there a vent bracket or anything?



Do let me know how you get on with TT2.



Cheers

[johnmar]

Hi Ian



If you are referring to the CoPilot CF card that came with the Navman sleeve as part of a bundle, you may find that it will only operate with that hardware. This is certainly true of the most recent Travroute bundles. If however the CF card was a 'software-only' purchase then it only relies on the presence of the ORIGINAL CF card to run, i.e. you cann't copy the software to say a 256MB card.



I stress that my knowledge is not practical, but has been recently acquired from research on this excelent site. Sorry if the information is not accurate.



The unit is bare apart from CD. I have ordered a vent mount from http://www.theclip.com as reviwed on this site. As regards charging, you can either charge via the sleeve with a 5v barrel shaped connector or directly into the iPAQ depending on which model you have.



John

[Dave]

Ian, I believe the new EMTAC sleeve's have an extra chip/code built into them to detect for CoPilot. I don't think you can just purchase an EMTAC sleeve and use CoPilot with it. You may want to check with Team Warrior in the UK who do the UK support for CoPilot.

[Biju]

Hi John

Thanks for this information. Premier Electronics website is now quoting £190 ex vat for EMTAC Bluetooth GPS.




_________________
<font color="magenta">Biju......</font>

[johnmar]

Hi Ian

You asked me to let you know how I got on with TTNav2.



As you will have seen from the TTNav2 forum, many are experiencing dire problems. In this instance I have been lucky in that my iPAQ is a 3830 which I purchased new as a discontinued model at a reduced price. It seems that the major problems are related to 39** series which use XScale for their higher processor speeds.



I do get a cetain amount of 'tempremental' behaviour from the software, but since I am relatively new to pocket PC's (as opposed to desktops) I had been attributing that to Windows and brand new software. Most of the problems have occurred when playing with the system 'offline'.



Importantly, the software transferred from the PC and installed itself on the iPAQ without difficulty, and so far the routing and re-routing seems accurate and works as one would expect.



My major gripe with TT is the poor search facility of addresses and the complete lack of understanding as to how UK locations are associated with counties etc.



Signal acquisition and fixes from the EMTAC are very good in my vehicle, particularly as I haven't yet received my mount which I ordered over two weeks ago from the US. This means that the iPAQ spends its time on the console and the font passenger seat. I wonder whether it helps by having a glass sunroof, even though this is shielded by a sliding pannel? I have yet to drive in the middle of town to experience the effects of signal loss from buildings etc.



If it helps to know, I have a 256MB CF card in the EMTAC and the whole of the GB map is loaded here, the TT software being stored in the PPC. As the card was brand new, the map information would have loaded contiguously.



The settings for the EMTAC I use for TT GPS are: Emtac GPSJAQ (Emtax CRUX GPS is also there and seems to work) and CoPilot iJacket_GPS, the IPAQ reccognises the device as a CoPilot GPS Jacket in the Expansion Pack Information.



I have gone into additional detail, as it might be of use to Dave and Darren in assessing the ongoing problems.



Hope you don't encounter too many difficulties.



Regards
_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[Dave]

Thanks John, it's starting to look like the problems exist on 38xx with Bluetooth and the BTGPS. This is where everyone appears to be having the problem now, so if you're running a non-bluetooth setup then you should be okay.

[Ianh100]

Hi John , Thanks for the update. I have the latest greatest 3970, X-scale with Bluetooth, sounds like I should wait until the problems are sorted out. As a second option I have a 3870, doesn't sound much better.



I notice teh price on the Premier site is still £155 ex vat. Not sure where Biju was looking.



Cheers

Ian

[johnmar]

Hi Ian

Biju was referring to to the EMTAC BT GPS, not the Jacket.



Looks like the problem might be related to the driver associated with the BT version rather than the Jacket which you were contemplating.



Regards




_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[JimC]

John



I have also bought the Emtac sleeve; the ipaq detects it as a copilot sleeve but reports no battery present even though the premier web site and other information indicate that it should have a battery.



I wondered if yours was the same and whether this was significant. I have asked Premier about this, but they are having to contact Emtac....
_________________
Jim

[johnmar]

Jim



My system reports exactly the same as yours i.e.



External Battery:

Not Present



I believe that this is purely confirming that there is no additional battery present in the sleeve which is available to POWER the iPAQ, since some Compaq expansion jackets have additional removeable (External) batteries for that purpose.



The battery which is in in the EMTAC does not provide any operating power for the system, it is there to power a memory chip which holds recent data from the satellites to help the unit obtain a 'fast' fix when you switch the GPS on.




_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

[JimC]

Thanks for the confirmation. After the initial panic I did think that might be the answer, but I was worried about whether the small internal battery was getting charged - the manual is quite firm in stating it is not charged by the powercord input, which is merely a passthrough, but if the ipaq does not know it is there, then how is it going to get charged from the ipaq?



Apart from that it all seems to work OK with the test program and with pocket streets; still waiting to get a copy of TT2.



Jim
_________________
Jim

[johnmar]

I suspect it is getting charged either from the sleeve power input or from the iPAQ and the translation in the manual is on the 'weak' side.


_________________
John


iPAQ3830 (32MB) PPC2002 ROM 1.20
CF Expansion Pack
Holux GR-213 GPS Mouse (GSW3.1.1 -3.1.00.07 C23B1.00)
Kingston Elite Pro 1 GB CF Card for maps
Viking 512MB SD Card (not used for navigating)
TTNav 5.210 (5430) Maps of W Europe

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