stuck Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Hi all, Forgive me if this is a FAQ but I have searched and cant find anything. Can anybody recommend a good USB GPS Receiver for use with a Toughbook? Cheers. Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Anything SiRF-III or better. eBay isn't too bad a place to find them. If you have a Serial (RS-232) port I'd suggest using that instead, as, depending on the chipset, the USB ones change their virtual port every time you plug them in - which means the nav software then can't find it. Serial ones will always be on COM1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Cheers Fridge. What software do people use? I've come across the following: 1) X-nav 2) Navigator 9 3) Memory Map Any pros / cons or is it just personal preference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishbosh Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Memory map for UK lanes / big play sites. Tomtom for UK / Euro road nav. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yogibear47.lee Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 i use this one for memory map http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Waterproof-GPS-RECEI...1QQcmdZViewItem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I use OziExplorer, it can't do the TomTom style route navigation but it has the massive advantage of being able to use any old map you can download/scan in at any level of detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plantpot1961 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I use Memory Map on a PDA mainly. I sometimes use a Garmin GPS and notebook computer + Memory Map. The best feture is you can record your route then transfer it to a desktop system. You will then always have it if you do the route again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 The best feture is you can record your route then transfer it to a desktop system. You will then always have it if you do the route again. To be fair, pretty much any GPS / nav program will do that. As an aside, GPSBabel is very handy for converting all sorts of GPS-related files (waypoints, tracks etc.) into other formats to get data between laptops & GPS units etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM_110 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Anything SiRF-III or better. eBay isn't too bad a place to find them. If you have a Serial (RS-232) port I'd suggest using that instead, as, depending on the chipset, the USB ones change their virtual port every time you plug them in - which means the nav software then can't find it. Serial ones will always be on COM1. You can permanently attach/force a COM port to a USB device in Device Manager. It also helps to use the same USB port, but that's all you need to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Cheers Gent's, appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted July 9, 2009 Author Share Posted July 9, 2009 As we all know RS stock numbers can come in handy but can anybody have a look at stock number 445-080 and tell me if it's any good please? Thanks, Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Seems expensive compared to a generic Sirf-III mouse, and the generic ones speak NMEA whereas Garmin can be proprietary about some stuff. Millions of SiRF-III ones on eBay for even cheaperer, just keep an eye on the specs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henk Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Seems expensive compared to a generic Sirf-III mouse, and the generic ones speak NMEA whereas Garmin can be proprietary about some stuff.Millions of SiRF-III ones on eBay for even cheaperer, just keep an eye on the specs. Holux GR-213 is good and works even when located on the rear bulkhead. For greenlaning I use Oziexplorer and for roadnavigation NDRIVE which is very easy to use on a touchscreen like the toughbook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted July 14, 2009 Author Share Posted July 14, 2009 Hi All, Have downloaded Oziexplorer and first impressions are it's bloody complicated! Does anybody know of a location from which I can download decent maps as the UK one that comes with it seems to be useless (unless I'm missing something!) Any web sites around with decent info on how to use Oziexplorer as the built in tutorial hasnt really helped much! Cheers, Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 No short tutorial for Ozi but you don't need at least 70% of the buttons. My general routine is: - Plug GPS in - Hit "Start NMEA" And wait for it to find a map. Apart from that, creating, editing and saving waypoints is about all you need to worry about to get where you need to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted July 15, 2009 Author Share Posted July 15, 2009 No short tutorial for Ozi but you don't need at least 70% of the buttons. My general routine is:- Plug GPS in - Hit "Start NMEA" And wait for it to find a map. Apart from that, creating, editing and saving waypoints is about all you need to worry about to get where you need to go. Fridge, Sorry to be a pain in the arse but when you say "And wait for it to find a map" I take it you have more than the huge scale map that comes with the software? If so did you have to scan them in or can I buy / beg / steal them from somewhere?! I can see the map import function and the list including Kompass, Maptech, Quo Vardis etc but can't find anything of relevance on Google. Cheers in advance, Mick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Yes, I do have the odd map or two but can't really give them out to all and sundry I'm afraid. You can scan maps, convert various maps to Ozi format (I believe you can convert Memory Map files to Ozi, for example, which I think means you can buy a CD of maps and convert it legitimately). You can also find maps in the, ahem, public domain via bittorrents - try ThePirateBay, BTMon, etc. and just a good ol' googling for anything in .ozfx3 format. There are lots of GPS forums out there especially if you look for geocaching, you may find useful stuff there. You can, if you want to make yourself really unpopular and get banned from Google (no, really), download maps from Google maps & other mapping services and calibrate them straight into Ozi (I think there's even software to do it) although obviously it's frowned upon by the map sites and, as I mentioned, you may find yourself banned from Google Maps if you try to download half of the world in hi-res... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted July 16, 2009 Author Share Posted July 16, 2009 Thanks very much fridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henk Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 UK 1:50.000 for Ozi: http://rapidshare.com/users/XCRMK4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 UK 1:50.000 for Ozi: http://rapidshare.com/users/XCRMK4 There's nuffink there - do you need to be logged in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orgasmic Farmer Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Something I tried recently in Morocco which worked well but proved to be a bit unstable was to use Google Earth "offline in combination with a GPS receiver (Holux GPSSlim236) to do real-time route tracking on high res aerial pics of the route. What you have to do is Fly-through your chosen route in GE at as high a resolution as you can get while connected to the internet. Then when you are actually on that route you can open GE and it will use the images looked at earlier from the computer cache. Use Tools to open a link to the GPS and use real-time tracking to show your position and progress. I found although it worked well it seemed to time-out regularly and then you had to restart the programme all over again which got to be a pain. This may be related to my computer only though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henk Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 There's nuffink there - do you need to be logged in? No login needed but maps have been removed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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