Using PDA as a navigation system

---

Hardware

GPS receiver

I got a SIRF II based GPS mouse with adapter cable and car power supply for 79.-EUR (ebay): HAICOM HI-204S Mini-DIN GPS Receiver

iPAQ 3630

Nice software can be found for an IpaqRunningWindows. Actually I wanted to sell this fine peace of hardware but now this is beeing used as a car navigation system. The German maps take about 256MB so you might need a CF-Card (128MB, better 256MB). If you have less than 256MB you can also select a sub set of smaller maps. Without CF-Card it might only be possible to use city maps.

Palm V

The palm is used as my daily organizer. It is somewhat limited in computing power and memory but it is ideal as a simple GPS receiver.

Software

Navigation

• Mapopolis (iPAQ/Palm)
• Tomtom (iPAQ)
• gpsdrive (GNU/Linux)

Tools

• visualGPSce - Visualizes NMEA data, freeware (iPAQ)
• GPS Buddy - records data like latitude, longitude, UTC, date, and other data, freeware (Palm)
• Leadtek navigator - Visualizes NMEA data - simple, small and free (Palm)
  • This software is giving me PalmOS_Startup.cpp, Line:455, Error launching application and a reset on every 2nd launch.
• Cetus GPS - opensource, nonfree license. Navigation, Positioning and tracking among its features. (Palm)
• CruxView - shows GPS Information and can do programming of the receiver. free (Palm, PocketPC, Windows)
• nmea monitor - shows NMEA data (doh!), free (palm)

Battery powered GPS mouse

This is the cable system that came with the receiver. Here the car power adapter supplies the GPS-receiver and charges the PDA.

                         car power 
                          adapter
                              o
                              |
                              |   _
                              \--| |--------> iPAQ
    GPS    ------------> >-------|_|
 receiver            mini-
   mouse             DIN 6

For using this is outside a car we need batteries, a few connectors and cheap serial hotsync cables to connect the pda. The GPS-receiver needs something between 3.8V-8V, so 3-4 mignon alkali or 4 NiCd cells should be OK. The batteries are only supply for the GPS receiver! According to the receiver specification the current consumption is 80mA @ 3.3V so roughly a runtime of 10 hours and up can be expected.

                           4*1.5V 
                          batteries
                              o
                              |
                              |   _
                              \--| |       
    GPS    ------------> >-------|_|------> >--------> iPAQ/Palm hotsync cable (serial)
 receiver            mini-               D-SUB 9
   mouse             DIN 6

Wiring of the battery adapter is quite simple:

       Mini-DIN 6 (female)                  
       solder side view                     
                                   
                                                   9-pin male
           ()   TX                     
                ()                             
   GNC ()      ___           RX  ---------------------o2 RX    
              |___|          TX  ---------------------o3 TX  
   VCC ()                    GND -----------o---------o5 GND      
                ()           VCC -------+   |                
           ()                           |   |                
           RX                           |   |
                                        o   o
                                      VCC  GND
                                 
                                      4* 1,5V
                                     Batteries

Links

http://home.wtal.de/noegs/mtg-faq.htm - maus.technik.gps FAQ

-- MatthiasWientapper - 06 Oct 2004