To Fortuna or not to Fortuna

Will · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2003 Posts: 44

Hi all.

Every 6 months, usually before a trip, I contemplate a GPS solution. I have an excellent little Ipaq (2210/5), and having seen Fortuna's review here, I'm very tempted by its BT capabilities and the screen.

What I'll mainly use GPS for is for walking & trekking (I'm not a serious hiker, but GPS would definately come in very useful) - i.e. setting a "start" point on the device, and other waypoints, to keep me on course. I'm off to Aus in a month, and will be bush-walking - so, again, it would be really useful to have GPS (assuming I get a fix through the trees).

Would the fortuna be suitable for this type of use? I'm a photographer, and my camera goes wherever I go - I was thinking my Fortuna could sit in my camera bag on my back, whilst I use my Ipaq (with its nicer screen) - again is this realistic? Would the Fortuna get a fix from inside my bag?

Aside from walks and treks, I'd also like to use it in the car for navigation along with my Ipaq.

Anyway, that's enough questions for now. Any answers of advice much appreciated

Will

lbendlin · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 2:41 am Post subject:

The Fortuna should be just fine (like any other BT receiver). Given the receiver sits high enough in the bag reception should not be a problem either.

For the bush walks you can use OziExplorer, for street navigation there's a package from ALK/Travroute.
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Pc-Mobile · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 4:51 pm Post subject:

The Fortuna BT GPS is a good form factor - a BT GPS with display which can be used as a standalone.

I am surprised so far no one else has come up with another and "better" unit.
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Will · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2003 Posts: 44

I'm still undecided folks! The Navman 4400, with its amazingy battery life, comes with loads of maps. As does, I think, TomTom's offering. The Fortuna doesn't come with any software. So I'm thinking of possibly just a BT device, and am trying to decide whether using an IPAQ whilst walking is a good solution. i.e. can I set waypoints, and see how far I've travelled (from each waypoint, and backtrack to each one). Apart from the maps, do the Navman and/or TomTom come with software to do these tasks?

Thanks for all your help

Will

lbendlin · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 10:24 pm Post subject:

No. Neither TomTom nor Mavman are suited for outdoors / hiking. They are street navigation programs that need streets... And, TomTom doesn't even have Aussie map coverage.
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Will · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2003 Posts: 44

So is there no softwae that can do this on a PDA/iPaq? A sort of replica of what handheld GPS devices do (show you your bearing, allow waypoints to be added..etc). I'd have thought it would be quite useful and it seems strange the big players like TomTom and Navman don't support it.

Will

lbendlin · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 11:18 pm Post subject:

There are vendors that offer topographical "navigation" for Australia. Particularly , as the name might suggest, OziExplorer. Of course it is you who has to find and calibrate the map material...

As far as I know there is only one vendor of street routing software that covers australian street data, and that is ALK/Travroute. Let's hope that others will join in rather sooner than later, but that's the current situation.

Just to state it again: TomTom is Street Routing, not waypoints or bearings or trails. Street routing software uses vector maps whereas topographical software predominantly uses raster maps (mostly scanned from paper)
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Will · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2003 Posts: 44

I see. So let's say for instance that I'm just going for a walkabout, nowhere in particular. On my Ipaq I set my starting-waypoint, and start off on my walk. After an hour or so I want to head back - are you saying I *have* to use map software in order to do these basic "waypoint"/direction type functions? I'm not necessarily concerned about having detailed maps if I'm just going for a trek/walk to see where it takes me, or to find some views to photograph. All I want to see on my Ipaq is my starting point, and to be able to just "follow" that back.

Am I making sense?

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2003 12:36 am Post subject:

Check out http://www.jgui.net/gps/followme/index.html
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Dave · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2003 8:03 am Post subject:

Will, if you are going for walks around streets, then you could use the street navigation programs, they're not really geared up to walking speeds, they prefer much faster speeds, but they will probably work. If you want to go off street, you need something like OziExplorer, if it's just waypoint type and track back features if you're out in the bush, then something like Follow Me would be good. It won't really give you any maps, but will be able to get you back to your start position.

BTW, the Navman won't get the max 30 hours like suggest, in our tests on road usage we got no more than 15 hours out of the Navman Receiver. Still it's a lot more than you would get out of any other BT Receiver in terms of longitivity, but don't expect the 30 hours usage.

Will · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 09, 2003 Posts: 44

"FollowMe" looks really great. Am I the only one who needs/wants this kind of function? Sorry to go on about, but it seems quite a basic feature really

Right, it's decision time. The Emtec seems to get Dave's approval in terms of "it works." The Navman, I think, comes with a load of maps for the UK. And the TomTom seems to attract a particular section of people, as yet uncategorised! Thoughts?

Will

lbendlin · Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2003 4:57 pm Post subject:

Maybe you want to get clear on your own requirements.... What's more important for you, what are you planning to use the GPS system for mostly (not necessarily the same thing). Once you're through that then you should be able to decide for one or the other.
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