new toy (GPS)

[daverules]

Just ordered a new toy for my PocketPC, a GPS receiver. Does anyone use GPS? What are the DVD navagation capabilities of the Vibe? Does the DVD Nav unit include GPS?I can't wait until I go on vacation with it!

[kaybeejay]

You might be interested in this.....its a (basically) new sport.http://www.geocaching.com/

[esjones]

The DVD nav system in the Vibe does, indeed, use GPS to locate its position in the world. As I understand it, there is also a gyro to detect vehicle movement, and a link to the car's speed sensor. (There is a maintenance menu in the system where you can tell it when you replace the tires on the car. I guess this is so that it can recalibrate itself for slightly different tire diameters.On the screen, there is a small "GPS" icon that appears when the system is locked on to the satellite signals. If you stop in an underpass, the icon will go out. In my garage, sometimes the icon is on and sometimes it is off, so the wooden ceiling and roof of the house must be marginally blocking the signal.There is no way (that I have found) to input a destination via latitude and longitude coordinates. If you go to the destination menu, though, and press "Emergency" the screen will read out your current Lat/Long, so I suppose that police, fire and other emergency services could use this to find you if you don't know where you are. (Of course, the map display shows you where you are, but you might not be able to communicate map displays to an emergency dispatcher.)Somewhere on GenVibe, there are instruction on how to put the unit into diagnostic mode. There, it shows you how many satellites it "sees" and also some of the signal data it is receiving.The owners manual supplement really SUCKS, and offers only the most basic operating details. You have to play with the unit to discover all it can do.Hope this helps.

[ullbergm]

quote:You might be interested in this.....its a (basically) new sport.Cool, someone else doing geocaching Personally i have a laptop that i bring with me on roadtrips, Partly because the computer can hold detailed maps of the whole country and partly because i also enjoy wardriving.GPS units are cool

[Triton]

WOW! That's quite a setup there! Very cool.

[bh357]

quote:You might be interested in this.....its a (basically) new sport.Cool, someone else doing geocaching Personally i have a laptop that i bring with me on roadtrips, Partly because the computer can hold detailed maps of the whole country and partly because i also enjoy wardriving.GPS units are coolI found my first cache just last week, but I think I'm going to be hooked.

[mu_ohio]

I think I'm also going to purchase a GPS add-on for my Toshiba PPC. Not a bad deal at $250 for a fully functional GPS system. Where did you purchase your add-on from?

[ullbergm]

quote:I think I'm also going to purchase a GPS add-on for my Toshiba PPC. Not a bad deal at $250 for a fully functional GPS system. Where did you purchase your add-on from?I got mine a while back from radioshack (wife works there), but you can probably find it cheaper online. If you are only going to use it with your computer there are some $100 units that dont need batteries.. pretty cool.. dont know how good signal they get thou.. They are powered by the usb cable.

[Sputnik]

There is also http://www.confluence.org

[daverules]

quote: Where did you purchase your add-on from? I ordered my Holux HM270Ultra from http://www.semsons.com/. The unit itself was $180, but I haven't purchased any software for it.I'm looking at http://www.mapopolis.com/ for my street and trip mapping.

[kaybeejay]

Any truth to this about GPS units and the WAR in Iraq?http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/03031815 ... uva5u.html

[daverules]

grrr, I saw that earlier today. It figures that as soon as I order my GPS they'll hobble the network for security reasons. Hopefully, mine won't be affected.