PDA's and GPS

[Ralph]

PDA\'s and GPS

Is there any software for a PDA / Palm Pilot / Psion that could be used with a link to a GPS as a sort of chart plotter? I thought it might be useful when coming into an unknown harbour or river to be getting a 'rolling' chart in the cockpit without having to keep diving down below or trying to work out position with a pilot book. Some piece of vermin stole my Psion 5mx yesterday so I have to replace it and I would like to replace it with something useful. Any ideas?

 

[ceeagr]

Re: PDA\'s and GPS

I would go for a Pocket PC..... look in particular at the ipaq 3870 as these have the most software on them and best future proofing and bluetooth. I have soem good tidal software on mine and there are a couple of chart plotting software.

Very good deal from Vodafone where I got mine....about £500 quid but they threw in a bluetooth GPRS. Very impressed for getting new weather forecasts even in France.

Regards

Alistair

 

[davel]

Re: PDA\'s and GPS

Take a look at Oziexplorer CE version (www.oziexlorer.com).
As the name implies, this is suitable for use on CE devices (Journada, iPaq etc)

Dave L.

 

[tome]

Re: PDA\'s and GPS

Tried this with an iPaq Pocket PC, but the screen is so tiny (1/4 VGA) that I found it next to useless.

Much better too use a Yeoman plotter with your GPS. I've arranged mine so that I can use it in the cockpit so don't have to poke my head down below

 

[tim]

Re: PDA\'s and GPS

I use a Palm Vx with the Magellan Palm GPS Companion. The GPS Companion clips onto the back of the Palm (very slim) and uses two AAA batteries (it doesn't drain the Palm battery). It ships with some basic terrestrial mapping software, but instead I use 2 superb plotting applications: -

o SailPalm (www.sailpalm.com) is a chart plotting program that uses cut-down versions of Navionic charts. All you do is download the charts of choice (I use Irish Sea North, and South) and all together, including the application, the cost was about £70. The only downside to SailPalm is when zooming for great detail, when the quality isn't great. However, for more detailed maps ie when entering an unknown estuary etc, I use;

o Pathaway (www.pathaway.com) which is a chart plotting program into which you store scanned charts. I have scanned in various areas of my Admiralty charts. The only requirement is to calibrate the charts by entering the Lat and Long of known points. If you scan in charts of different scales for the same area Pathaway will detect this and allow you to zoom between them.

Of course, when using any of these applications it is important to disable the auto-poweroff feature on Palm.

I've been more than happy with my 'plotter in a pocket'. Screen size isn't an issue because i want to be able to concentrate on particular areas, and the zoom features allow me to be selective.

As an aside, I also have a Palm app called CelestNav which takes all the sums out of celestial navigation.

Tim

 

[steveh]

Re: PDA\'s and GPS

I use a Jornada 720 with a program called Memory Map - it uses Maptech raster charts. I have connected my Garmin 12 GPs to it and works very well. The large screen on the Jornada gives good detail. You can lock the GPS to the centre of the screen and it will automacticly pick the best chart and keep it central.

 

[Guest]

Re: PDA\'s and GPS

I tested both the Palm and iPaq offerings in a previous job. They may be around at www.networknews.co.uk - but I'm not sure. A couple of points:
* There's generallya lot more (and a greater variety of) software for the Palm, expecially shareware. For example, there are tons of apps for pharmacology and (for some reason) tennis. Most of this is pretty good shareware. However, Palm are going to be making a pretty hefty leap with Palm OS 5, and the rumours are that rather a lot of the exisiting software for the Palm won't work, because the people who wrote mostly used clever hacks to get round the limitations of the OS and the hardware. Not a problem if you're not planning on upgrading in a hurry, as the new Palm OS is still at least two years off.
* A lot of people complain about the battery life of the iPaqs, but I didn't find it a problem in test conditions compared to the colour Palms. Obviously, this is pretty subjective, so take it with a pinch of salt.
* PocketPC 2002 isn't as great as its predecessor. It appears to be buggier than PPC2001. As a habitual Mac and Palm user, it took me a while to get used to the interface, but I was really impressed.
* Bluetooth seemed pretty good, especially if it gets cheaper. I was testing with a Madge/Red-M LAN access point, and trying to compare a Palm with an iPaq. It's useful, but not transparent (ie, you need to do a little bit of setting up whenever you connect).

Features editor, Practical Boat Owner