Garmin handheld to attach to iPaq?? Help deciding please!

Greetings!

I am intending to get an iPaq 3950 with software for gliding and the recommendation is to use Garmin's mouse GPS-35-HVS. It accepts the 12v available in the glider and has the adjustability to suit the application well. NMEA GPRMC and GPGGA sentences are needed apparently, 1 sec interval ideal.

Issue is that at ~us$200 the GPS-35-HVS price is such (in Australia) that it may well be just as expensive to buy a handheld and have the advantage of a standalone GPS for other applications when 12 volt power and/or the iPaq is not convenient!

Would anyone who understands the innards of these beasts care to offer advice as to the merits of this idea please?

Al, I noted that you are happy with the Pharos unit connected with Winpilot, but not sure if it is available/supported in Australia?

Accuracy is most important, especially altitude, as we do not have WAAS available in Australia. Temperatures can be quite extreme too (hot and cold). 12v input needed with low current drain (the 35 draws about 80ma).

The Garmin brand seems to be clearly preferred in the gliding community and I expect that this may be important for competitions, etc? It seems that the models to consider for use to drive an iPaq in this way are: Garmin 12 A$352 but is only 5.8v Garmin 12XL A$533 is 12v, has alarms, and antenna socket. Garmin 76 A$574 (and GPSmap76s A$1,090 with gliding functions) Garmin eMap A$600 Garmin Legend A$629 (and Vista A$860 with gliding functions) Not 12v . . . (but the displays are too small for my eyes!) Garmin eTrex??

or Garmin 35 'mouse' at A$370??

Would be good if I could eliminate some of these options!

Power may not be a problem as the 5v models claim long (18hrs for Legend, 24hrs for Garmin12) battery life?

If the Garmin 35 is a great engine, then I am happy to run with it, but the handheld-gps approach begs to be considered. Even paying a little more for a basic mapping GPS may be a good idea?

Any help much appreciated.

Best regards,

Jim Kelly.

' · . ¸ T ¸ . · ´

Not sure if the Pharos unit is for sale down under but I think you will find that any of the car solutions style puck type GPS will drive your winpilot Advanced no problems

This also takes care of having to mess with power supplies and cabling. I just soldered some fly leads to the 12v adapter for a quick and dirty fix and wired that into the plane (center pin is +)
http://www.pharosgps.com/products/compaq/ Compaq_Complete1.htm

notice the connector on the gps piece. this is a mini DIN. By breaking out the GPS signal out at this point you can take the signal in and out of a Bogelt B50 This will give you everything you will need to run winpilot Pro. I have still to make my converter and test this all but in theory I think it should work a charm.

Hope this helps

Al

Does the 12V adapter provide the power for both GPS mouse and the Ipaq?

It all looks very neat Al. Not sure what you mean by your 'converter'?

Do you think the gps units vary in quality or accuracy or are they becoming a commodity?

Thanks for your help on this.

Regards,

Jim

Not sure if the Pharos unit is for sale down under but I think you will find that any of the car solutions style puck type GPS will drive your winpilot Advanced no problems

This also takes care of having to mess with power supplies and cabling. I just soldered some fly leads to the 12v adapter for a quick and dirty fix and wired that into the plane (center pin is +)
http://www.pharosgps.com/products/compaq/ Compaq_Complete1.htm

notice the connector on the gps piece. this is a mini DIN. By breaking out the GPS signal out at this point you can take the signal in and out of a Bogelt B50 This will give you everything you will need to run winpilot Pro. I have still to make my converter and test this all but in theory I think it should work a charm.

Hope this helps

Al

Yes.

Al

The converter is the Mini DIN female to MiniDIN male connector I am making to add the Borgelt B50 connection to the ouput. With this I can get Winpilot Pro to work which gives me all the other cool goodies over Winpilot Advanced..

I think that these days the GPS units are more commodity than anything else. With units like the Pharos coming out it will drive prices still lower.

Al

Lovely, Jim.

The converter is the Mini DIN female to MiniDIN male connector I am making to add the Borgelt B50 connection to the ouput. With this I can get Winpilot Pro to work which gives me all the other cool goodies over Winpilot Advanced..

I think that these days the GPS units are more commodity than anything else. With units like the Pharos coming out it will drive prices still lower.

Al

Apparently the Garmin 12 series does not log altitude. Time to remove it from my (long) shortlist!

Anyone see any other shortcomings in the models being considered??

Thanks,

Jim Kelly.

Greetings!

I am intending to get an iPaq 3950 with software for gliding and the recommendation is to use Garmin's mouse GPS-35-HVS. It accepts the 12v available in the glider and has the adjustability to suit the application well. NMEA GPRMC and GPGGA sentences are needed apparently, 1 sec interval ideal.

Issue is that at ~us$200 the GPS-35-HVS price is such (in Australia) that it may well be just as expensive to buy a handheld and have the advantage of a standalone GPS for other applications when 12 volt power and/or the iPaq is not convenient!

Would anyone who understands the innards of these beasts care to offer advice as to the merits of this idea please?

Al, I noted that you are happy with the Pharos unit connected with Winpilot, but not sure if it is available/supported in Australia?

Accuracy is most important, especially altitude, as we do not have WAAS available in Australia. Temperatures can be quite extreme too (hot and cold). 12v input needed with low current drain (the 35 draws about 80ma).

The Garmin brand seems to be clearly preferred in the gliding community and I expect that this may be important for competitions, etc? It seems that the models to consider for use to drive an iPaq in this way are: Garmin 12 A$352 but is only 5.8v Garmin 12XL A$533 is 12v, has alarms, and antenna socket. Garmin 76 A$574 (and GPSmap76s A$1,090 with gliding functions) Garmin eMap A$600 Garmin Legend A$629 (and Vista A$860 with gliding functions) Not 12v . . . (but the displays are too small for my eyes!) Garmin eTrex??

or Garmin 35 'mouse' at A$370??

Would be good if I could eliminate some of these options!

Power may not be a problem as the 5v models claim long (18hrs for Legend, 24hrs for Garmin12) battery life?

If the Garmin 35 is a great engine, then I am happy to run with it, but the handheld-gps approach begs to be considered. Even paying a little more for a basic mapping GPS may be a good idea?

Any help much appreciated.

Best regards,

Jim Kelly.

' · . ¸ T ¸ . · ´

It doesn't log altitude in its internal memory in proprietary format, but sends it through the serial port when configured for NMEA. My own Garmin 12 has been used in this way for experimentation of a real time tracking transmission to a ground station.

Thanks Robert.

Seems that as a standalone or backup device to not log altitude makes this series a little limited for gliding purposes.

Cheers, Jim.

> > Apparently the Garmin 12 series does not log altitude. Time to remove it > from my (long) shortlist! > > Anyone see any other shortcomings in the models being considered?? > > Thanks, > > Jim Kelly. >

It doesn't log altitude in its internal memory in proprietary format, but sends it through the serial port when configured for NMEA. My own Garmin 12 has been used in this way for experimentation of a real time tracking transmission to a ground station.