Ebay and others seem to be bristling with GPS dangles at the moment, for about £35. I guess that you would need the software to go with these.

Has anyone tried them yet, which are any good, which sotware is the best/worst, any inobvious pitfalls?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GPS-RECEIVER-for-PDA-HP-XDA-X3-more-LAPTOP-USB-reciever_W0QQitemZ110101721621QQihZ001QQcategoryZ64371QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZ ViewItem

I think you can use it with autoroute. But never tried it myself.

Have a look for a cheap PDA maybe , then you can get hold of tomtom for it. Some PDAs have it GPS built in too, although these might be pricier due to being newer.

Interested to see what GPS software you can get for laptops as I bought a bluetooth reciever not so long ago.

I was told the other day the TomTom are bringing out some PC software, dont know when though.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mark Allanson
any inobvious pitfalls?

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Have a go with the OS memory map software, Its is very good!

As for which one, I bought a nokia one, little bit more than the £35 ones, but thought I would go for the branded one especially as it was for my Nokia Mobile.

Works fine, had a few problems with the bluetooth disconnecting, but updated the firmware on my phone and havent had a problem since.

I wasn't thinking of the bluetooth ones, just a dongle which plugs into the USB on a laptop, nice to have a 15" screen rather than a 2" one.

I've used one for a few years now, along with autoroute, works great, took us round france the past 2 years no problem plug a headset into it and stick it under the seat, voice guidance works a treat

Cheers
Alex

quote:

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Originally posted by ecosse
I've used one for a few years now, along with autoroute, works great, took us round france the past 2 years no problem plug a headset into it and stick it under the seat, voice guidance works a treat

Cheers
Alex

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Hi,

I use a laptop with a bluetooth dongle and a bluetooth gps, for power i got an inverter (cheaper than a dedicated charger). I use both autoroute and infomap with very good results. I then got myself a 7" lcd screen and mounted it into the dash of my old car. looked the business.

Regards

Bob

Mark, All you need is a usb gps whatsit and autoroute (and a laptop of course).

Job done.

As others have said, it works well just on voice guidance, plug in some head phones and you are off

David

[Edited on 12/3/07 by flak monkey]

My laptop doesn't have bluetooth, but I do have a little plugin jobbie.

Is there any advantage with the bluetooth GPS over a USB one?

"Just to clarify, all I would need is the laptop, one of these dongles, and autoroute software?"

Yes indeed, that's all you need

Cheers

Alex
PS
Mine is just a basic USB one

Any particular version of autoroute? (I'll be asking one of you to come install it in a minute!)

Autoroute 2006 if you want the voice guidance, 2005 didn't have the option.
Although if you intend purchasing it I would say don't and go buy a dedicated gps instead (yes it is or was that expensive), I, of course, bought mine

Cheers

Alex
PS
Aldi have one on offer this week for £120!

When I tried this a few years ago (serial GPS unit) the only problem I found was that my laptop really (even placed on a seat) didn't like going over bumpy road surfaces. I think the hard disk suffered a bit!!! Put me off laptop based GPS units... but then again, maybe modern laptop based HD units are more vibration resistant...

Anyone want to buy my Inforad.
Its a speedtrap detector. The beauty is that it runs off a USB connector. In the car you have a Cigar type power plug, and this has a USB type socket.

However, you can run it directly off a PC USB socket as well, and you get GPS direct into the PC / Laptop.

If you want the Speedtrap data, you need to subscribe to the service. If you dont subscribe, its just a good littl GPS unit for a PC.

U2U me is anyone is interested.

Make sure whatever dongle you buy has one of the later chipsets like SIRF3 as they'll usually work without needing to be in line of site of the sky (mine plugs into a 12v power socket in the boot and works fine under the parcelshelf), and they get a fix more quickly which is important if you're turning it on and off quite often.

Mine is a Holux GPSlim 236 which is bluetooth but it also has USB connection. It would be worth getting something similar that does both if you think you might change to a PDA / smartphone based system later on.

[Edited on 13/3/07 by ChrisGamlin]