Choosing a GPS Unit

chewiee · 08-04-2004, 11:37 AM

OK,they all looklike no-name GPS mice on Ebay, and I don't know what to go for, or evenif I am being ripped off!

Seen this baby, and I'd be interested in your thoughts:

pcmediastore co uk /shop/product_info.php?products_id=69

I would prefer UK shipped (No VAT or Import Duty).
Compliant with destinator
Value for Money
etc

If you know of a better one, please let me know,ive removed the dots etc, so it don't censor it.

dodgetimes2 · 08-04-2004, 11:58 AM

That's the one that most people refer to as the "GPS mouse", I have the same one BU-303 (DConnex branded) and it works great. The price on that sight seems a bit high though.

Falken · 08-05-2004, 07:32 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by chewiee

OK,they all looklike no-name GPS mice on Ebay, and I don't know what to go for, or evenif I am being ripped off!

Seen this baby, and I'd be interested in your thoughts:

pcmediastore co uk /shop/product_info.php?products_id=69

I would prefer UK shipped (No VAT or Import Duty).
Compliant with destinator
Value for Money
etc

If you know of a better one, please let me know,ive removed the dots etc, so it don't censor it.

When we started seeing other companies significantly undercutting us we started investigating how. Apart from being back bedroom part-time operations (I don't have a problem with that, it's how I started!) they are essentially using cheap GPS. We tested the DConnex version (amongst others) and found it to be pretty average. Slow to lock and quick to lose the lock again. Not the ideal situation for a sat nav system!
Another strange problem we encountered on these is the current they require is quoted as 80ma. We found on a couple of laptops that they couldn't power the GPS. Worked ok in one laptop but plug it into another laptop and it just didn't work. Further research showed that the 80Ma is actually the current draw in power saving mode and that in normal operation it needs a LOT more than that. It is entirely probable you won't have the problem. We tested with a dozen different systems of different ages and spec and only found it a regular problem on one laptop.
At the end of our experiments we decided not to stock these cheaper GPS, They're just not good enough value for money.
We sell the Haicom 204E (about 100 a month) and can recommend it. Good performance, holds onto the lock well. First fix takes less than 30 secs and reacquiring a sigal coming out of a tunnel is about 3 secs. It also has the interchangeable connectors, A number of my customers use it for both a laptop/pc and a PDA.

Doug
www.action-replay.co.uk

chewiee · 08-11-2004, 07:25 PM

I'm gonna go for a GPS unit for my CarPC once I have my PSU and Touchscreen, but I wanted to know what one I should go for?

USB or GPS, I noticed on the A/R site /GPS/Haiicom_204E_Serial.htm is a serial unit for basically a hundered quid. Is this my best option? I wanted it to work from out of standby on an Epia Mii 12000. I would have gone CF but I had to take the f-ing cf/pcmcia unit out to fit it in my C134 case... and typically today I find out that there is a fabled C150 that this mobo fits!!!

So anyway back on-topic... USB or Serial?

Shamon, can I get a hee hee?

Chewiee

VanMan69 · 08-11-2004, 07:48 PM

I got the eBay DConnex USB mouse. I think it went up to about $56 US. Mine gets locked pretty damn fast, pretty much as soon as Routis gets going. I haven't had any problems losing the lock, except when I was down by Market & Fremont in SF, with 50 story buildings on all sides.

Falken · 08-12-2004, 04:24 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by chewiee

I'm gonna go for a GPS unit for my CarPC once I have my PSU and Touchscreen, but I wanted to know what one I should go for?

USB or GPS, I noticed on the A/R site /GPS/Haiicom_204E_Serial.htm is a serial unit for basically a hundered quid. Is this my best option? I wanted it to work from out of standby on an Epia Mii 12000. I would have gone CF but I had to take the f-ing cf/pcmcia unit out to fit it in my C134 case... and typically today I find out that there is a fabled C150 that this mobo fits!!!

So anyway back on-topic... USB or Serial?

Shamon, can I get a hee hee?

Chewiee

That page should have been updated months ago which could account for why sales of the serial mouse have declined in favour of the USB.

The correct price for the 204E is £69.99 with either the USB or Serial adapters. We also sell adapters to fit most PDAs as well as a PDA holder. This is a big advantages of the Haicom 203/204E. You can just change the adapter to use it with a different connector.
The USB version gets it power from the USB port whereas the serial version has a pass-through to plug into the mouse or keyboard port. The USB version requires a driver but the serial version doesn't. Both of them may require a tweak to the boot.ini. Add /Noserialmouse for Win 2k and /Fastdetect for XP.
The advantage of using the serial version is that hibernation should work properly. I'd go with the serial version particularly as you can purchase the other adapter later.

Regards
Doug
www.action-replay.co.uk