Bluetooth GPS - which one?

[fraggle69]

Hi as some of you are aware my BT 308 is broken.

Can anyone recomend a replacement? The only criteria is that it has to be the same size or smaller than the globalsat308 and it must have bluetooth. Perhaps you can tell me things I need to look out for.

 

I currently have my hands on a BT unit but does not have WAAS, and I am finding this a little slow at updating. Great for car nav but not so great as the hunt nears GZ.

 

Aii

 

Thanks

Edited February 15, 2007 by fraggle69

[+keehotee]

I bought a Fortuna Clip-on last year.

 

It's tiny - about the size of a matchbox car, with a belt clip.

It's got a dual chip set - Sirf Star II and Sirf Xtrac (surf star III?) - but no WAAS - but I get down to 2-3 metre accuracy on Xtrac anyway.

 

There have been some issues with them failing, but I think this was an earlier incarnation, and I've never had any probs with mine.

 

Oh - and it runs on a Nokia mobile battery - I've used mine for up to 10 hours continuously without charging.

[+John Stead]

I too have been using a Fortuna Clip-on for a couple of years and it has been excellent. Although the Sirf Xtrac chip is not a III, mine has performed very well in all conditions. It also survived falling from the roof of my car at 20 mph when I left it there!

I see there is now on the Fortuna site a Fortuna Slim which has the Sirf III chip and is a little smaller!

[fraggle69]

Can you also tell me how responsive you think your GPS is? What I mean is when you move, does it take a long for the arrow to point the way forward or backwards ??

[+John Stead]

I am not sure that I can answer that properly as I rarely use it for finding the direction to the cache for which I have a Garmin 60cs and mainly use the Fortuna to feed Memory Map for which it is fine. However I did by coincidence turn the "go to" function on Memory Map on today and noticed it was very slow.

I may be corrected by someone who knows better but thought it was the software on the PDA which determines how quickly it responds to the GPS signal. I shall try again sometime with GPS Dash which I also have on the PDA.

[NickPick]

I recently bought a Bluenext GPS for £44 inc p&p from www.youwantone.com It works very well with ViaMichelin navigator on my palm, and it interfaces with CetusGPS, although I haven't used it to find any caches yet.

[+Gralorn]

My wife uses a BT-338 with her Palm and is well satisfied with it, the Palm of course only has 1:50.000 mapping from Fugawi, but she is still pretty accurate with it, she then uses the Etrex Legend for the final kill. Small, neat and very reliable due to to the Sirf III.

[+Alboy]

I use a BT 338 with my PDA and am very happy with it, just turn it on and leave in in a pocket, and keep my PDA in hand. It's better than the SIRF II one I had. I've not idea about WAAS etc as I'm not sure if either Beeline or Memory Map indicate if a WAAS satellite is being seen or not.

 

Out of interest, why would you not use Memory map / Fugawi for the final kill? Does the accuracy differ?

[fraggle69]

I use a BT 338 with my PDA and am very happy with it, just turn it on and leave in in a pocket, and keep my PDA in hand. It's better than the SIRF II one I had. I've not idea about WAAS etc as I'm not sure if either Beeline or Memory Map indicate if a WAAS satellite is being seen or not.

 

Out of interest, why would you not use Memory map / Fugawi for the final kill? Does the accuracy differ?

 

Off the top of my head I think Fugawi accuracy is some 20ft. My old 308 used to get me to within 3meters, using CETUSGPS!

[+Alboy]

Thanks Fraggle. Though I would have thought that accuracy was a function of the receiver not of the program?

[+John Stead]

I use my Garmin 60cs for the final kill because it has an electronic compass, i.e. the direction pointer continues to give the correct direction even when you stop moving. I don't think any PDA based GPS system can do this.

[+Gralorn]

You cannot put Memory Map on her Palm, so she uses her Etrex Legend GPS for the final kill, Memory Map does not come into the equation. But she's happy the way that she does it and likes the BT-338 which she has in her pocket.

[+Bob Smith]

What ever you buy make sure that you can disable static navigation this link explains

 

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/board/index.php?showtopic=3048

 

I have a BT 321 which is great in the car but totally useless for caching because I cannot find out how to disable the static navigation.

 

Bob S

[fraggle69]

Thanks Fraggle. Though I would have thought that accuracy was a function of the receiver not of the program?

 

My mistake, I was looking at the alarm function that activates at 20ft. Doh And I found the navigation menu, so that may well work for the final kill.

Edited February 18, 2007 by fraggle69

[+rutson]

What ever you buy make sure that you can disable static navigation this link explains

 

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/board/index.php?showtopic=3048

 

I have a BT 321 which is great in the car but totally useless for caching because I cannot find out how to disable the static navigation.

 

 

No time to check now, but I THINK the BT321 is a RFMD chipset, pretty sure it's not a Sirf III anyway. Static navigation is specific to the Sirf III. So... you can't disable it, because it aint got it.

[+Jaz666]

If you want to pickup a Bluetooth unit on the highstreet, Maplin are currently selling a SirfIII receiver for £50

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...ps&doy=21m2

 

It's identical to one I bought from another company last year, picks up a signal indoor no problem!

The only slight niggle I have with it is the fact you have to pair up the devices everytime the reciever has been off for more than a few hours.