pc gps

[brownie142]

Hey guys, does any one know what is needed for a laptop to be turned into a gps/navigation system. I was thinking a cheap laptop $500-600 to be turned in to a dedicated gps/nav system. Thought??? any computer experts out their???

Todd

[kaistuff]

Have a look in the GPS section of this forum and ask you question there

or try gpsaustralia.com.au

[abaddonxi]

For about $50 you can get a USB GPS receiver on a string.

Probably want at least a P3 laptop, mostly so you can run XP so that you know the USB will work.

You could try Linux, but you might have to write your own GPS driver etc., although I'm sure there's someone else out there who's already done it. The other Linux drawback - I'm guessing - is that there probably won't be any advantage in buying a lower-spec laptop - Linux will probably need as much power to run the mapping stuff as XP would.

Next problem and I reckon the pain in the arse is that you're going to have to power the laptop which probably means a dedicated thingy that goes into your cigarette lighter. Jaycar, Dick Smith, etc. sell them for about $100. They step up the 13.8v from the battery to something your laptop will accept.

Or maybe you already have an inverter and could charge the battery off that.

My experience with Etrex Legend - handheld - is that it doesn't work all that well in the cab. You can get a fine signal as long as you hold it in exactly the right place - all the time - or your tracks have blank spots on them.

For the Etrex, which doesn't come with an external antenna mount, you can buy an antenna repeater - about $80, ebay - mounts an antenna outside truck, runs cable to amplifier/antenna/ dingus in car for Etrex to pick up.

So, if your USB GPS doesn't want to mount on windscreen or outside, you might also want one of those fellas.

And a laptop is usually just too big.

Maybe pickup a secondhand tablet. Grays online have them come up regularly for about $1200. The screen folds back on the keyboard so you halve the footprint of the laptop. And you get pen input.

Yeah, great idea Simon. Can you imagine driving along trying to pen onto the tft screen, hit a pothole, there goes the screen.

Y'know a car mount GPS with a decent screen isn't all that much after all.

Unless you're a wireless wardriving freak, in which case you've already got all of the car stuff sorted and all you need is the GPS sensor. Not me.

Simon

[HangOver]

For about $50 you can get a USB GPS receiver on a string.

Hi
Can you point me in the direction of receivers for around that price?
All the ones I have seen USB are a lot more, I'm sure I'm just not looking in the right places.