It was a few days ago that I’ve published some test results of the HTC Wizard (a.k.a. i-mate K-Jam, T-Mobile MDA Vario, Qtek 9100, MDA Vario, XDA mini S, SPV M3000, VPA Compact II, Dopod 838), Bluetooth and infrared power consumption-wise. Now, the HTC Universal follows suit.
Bluetooth
First and foremost, the case of the Universal seems to be very similar to that of the Wizard: that is, it’s almost impossible to measure the additional power consumption of the Bluetooth module. The difference between the switched on and the switched off case was 1% (at most!) a day (if at all).
This, incidentally, corresponds to my measurements of the BT unit with the PDA switched on. According to my measurements, the BT unit burns between 1 and 2 mA’s in those cases. This, as the device has a 1620 mAh battery, corresponds to between 800 and 1600 hours battery life alone - that is, not taking into account the need to power the dynamic RAM, which is pretty much the same as with the HTC Wizard, which is around 1.25 mWh corresponding to about 2% battery level drop/day (don’t forget that the Wizard has a smaller, 1250 mAh battery; this is why it had a bigger, 2.5% battery charge level drop figure).
Infrared
The same stands for the infrared unit: when switched on, the device consumes about 1% more a day (as opposed to about 1.5% on the Wizard; again, the latter is because of the smaller battery used in the Wizard) – that is, the power consumption of the unit is around 0.8 mWh (just like with the Wizard).
Again, with Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, the Bluetooth and the infrared unit is always on, as opposed to "plain" Pocket PC devices, and actively listen to incoming requests. This is why a desktop Windows device (for example, a notebook equipped with an infrared port and running Windows XP) notices Pocket PC Phone Edition devices at once as an infrared modem (see this screenshot) - or, for that matter, any WM5+ non-Phone Edition Pocket PC devices when not suspended (again, the wireless units of non-Phone Edition Pocket PC devices are only activated when they are on, as opposed to Phone Edition devices).
This is certainly very good news and shows the two devices may use exactly the same Bluetooth / infrared modules & hardware drivers & for example code to listen to incoming infrared requests.
How much power does the GSM radio consume?
Incidentally, I’ve also run a lot of tests to correctly measure the power consumption of the phone module itself with a removed SIM card (to avoid for example incoming calls’ having an adverse effect on battery life; the device was all the time connected to the phone network to be able to start emergency calls any time). It’s about 9%/day at a given location.
Don’t forget that this value is pretty meaningless when used as an absolute measurement: on other locations (for example, far closer/farer from a cell center (with far better/worse radio field strength) the figures would have been entirely different. It’s, however, offers great relative measurement possibilities: I’ll measure the power consumption of my other Phone Edition devices to see whether their phone radio unit is better/worse, power consumption-wise. I’ll publish some Wizard-related results soon.
Verdict
All in all, it’s only when you almost never use your Universal as a PDA (that is, switch on the screen and run something) that there will be ANY difference in the battery life between the enabled and disabled wireless state.
If you switch on the PDA a lot, play games on it and/or receive/initiate many phone calls a day, the additional power consumption of the Bluetooth / infrared unit will be totally negligible. (Let’s point out again and again that the PDA unit in the Universal is really-really power-hungry. While the Wizard – or, for that matter, power-sparing devices like the Pocket Loox 720 or the HP iPAQ hx4700 – only need to be recharged every second or third day with moderate PDA use, the Universal needs to be recharged far more frequently if you often use it as a PDA.)
i disagree on it being power hungry as a pda
mine can go 2-3 days just fine if it receives moderate pda usage
so i would love to hear the exact mA measurements on this
Very interesting, thanks for that!
Could you also test power consumption of Wi-Fi in both "Best Performance" and "Best Battery" mode? That would be very interesting, as I'm guessing Wi-Fi uses a lot more power than IR or BlueTooth does!
cmonex said:
i disagree on it being power hungry as a pda
mine can go 2-3 days just fine if it receives moderate pda usage
so i would love to hear the exact mA measurements on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1219&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Related
Hi,
Did a search and couldn't find exactly the question I have so here goes. I'm looking to buy a phone/PDA unit and am currently stuck between the Prophet/JAMin and the Atom.
Main uses will be standard PDA stuff, however I do a lot of 4WDing and will be installing Oziexplorer mapping software (for offroad use) and perhaps TomTom or Destinator for city/urban use.
I am leaning more towards the JAMin for its fullsize SD card slot (I have a few cards already available), however I am concerned about the speed of the unit when running mapping given its 200Mhz chip compared to the Atoms 416Mhz one.
Anyone out there able to shed some light on this and allay or confirm my concerns? Other than the chip speed and slot size, I don't really see much difference between the specs for the two that would impact me - I can live with either Bluetooth 1.2 oe 2.0 and tri-band will suit as much as quad-band, although the one thing I haven't seen on the spec sheets is that the Atom will playback music files in AAC format whereas the JAMin will. Can anyone confirm this?
Hi!
I don't know much about the Atom, but as a recent switcher from JAM to Qtek S200 I would advise you to made a carefull move.
S200 Omap processor is slow, not by Mhz itself, but a poor performer, specially doing Bluetooth-GPS navigation.
I know it depends on ROM and radio versions, but mine is definitely lagging behind any other machine I had before, HTC machines I mean.
I'd rather stick with Intel processors and even WM 2003 if you are not fully commited to something that only WM5 provides... and I see nothing really.
Too early and poorly implemented the last HTC changes......
Jamin is better in so many ways
1. Atom screen my self-identify as transflective but it is not. Prophet (Jamin) screen is HQ TFT transflective. As result the Atom is almost "blind" outdoors. This is a serious drawback, specifically for SatNav
2. Atom has a 416 MHz CPU but it's integration leaves a lot for improvement. Prophet may be relatively slow 195 MHz (nothing realy disturbing but for demanding games and/or number crunching), but so is Atom, the latter for bad engineering.. Besides, comparing TI OMAP and Intel Bulverde only by numbers is wrong to start with...
3. Prophet on latest AKU2 ROM (all Jamin/Qtek/Dopod) is stable enough, Atom on latest ROM still gives headache, freezes, etc.
4. Prophet Quality of build materials is years better than Atom's.
I had both, had to choose one, finally chosen the Prophet sold the Atom (for what it's worth..)
my opinion about prophet
First of all I must say that I do not have an atom and I did not have a chance to use it.
So far I had XDA, XDA II, XDA IIi, HP ipaq 4150, and a number of GSM phones including Motorola V600 and Nokia 6230i.
I was never happy with PPC phones. There was always a PPC feature that was missing like Wi-Fi or widdcom stack.
Then came XDA IIi. Ever since I saw it on expansys, I waited it like a lover Oh my god, what a disapointment it was. As a PPC it was perfect, simply perfect; but as a phone it was horrible. There was echo on the conversations and camera was the worst I have seen with a 1.3 MP sensor. If you look at i-mate site it is still written under the "known issues" topic that "there is a slight echo reported by users which will be solved soon" :-D
And I gave up using PPC phones. I bought an ipaq h4150 and Nokia 6230i, both which I find the best.
Then after a year, just for curiosity, I bought a prophet.
I changed the ROM to the latest Dopod. I loaded a number of applications and tried to test it. At the very beginning it was very very slow. The starting was taking 2:15 minutes after soft reset and for Resco explorer 5.20 it was taking 13 to 19 seconds to open windows folder (Where all the files wer choosen to be viewed, ie "hide ... files" choice was unchecked). I have loaded and removed a lot of applications; most likely the registry was full of weird keys.
After a week, I hard reset the device and reloaded the applications. Now I am using a number of applications like spb diary, imageer, weather, pocket plus, time, gprs monitor, omega one calculator, Adope 2.0, Agile messenger, Resco explorer and Keyboard, Megasoft2000 Pocket Clock, Lygea 12C; TCPMP and some more and relativeley light applications. It takes 1:35 minutes from soft reset to open and 4 -5 seconds to view windows folder.
I do not use any overclocking or registry tweak to run the device faster.
I find the ppc very acceptable. The phone is very stable. No hang ups or freezing. The camera is very acceptable, not same, but very close to nokia 6230i or Sony K750 camera.
If you plan to have a ppc phone and if you do not want to wait for future products, I reccomend the device.
But I must warn you about one thing: You will see a number of people that are suffering from loosing the GSM signal after they lost it once. This should be very annoying. I don' t have any of the problems that people write here and there. But for some reason there are people that have serious problems like this.
Before finishing, let me take your attention to ipaq 4150. It is, in my opinion, the best PPC that has been designed. The lightest and fastest of all PPCs that has 400 MHz processor and built in Wi-Fi and BT. It also has a very sharp screen and built in widdcom stack. It is also very cheap in ebay. It may be a solution to processor power demanding applications.
These are all I can write.
Cheers.
What about the MIO A701. It has a built in GPS receiver. 8)
You can pre-order at Expansys: http://www.expansys.com.au/product.asp?code=134278
No transflecting TFT
Had an A701 for a while. Having a transmissive TFT LCD (versus Transflective) is a serious handicap for any daylight/outdoor navigation, while this is one of device's main reasons of being.
In principle, I would suggest to avoid transmissive LCD for any use model involving outdoor activity, inclusive of Dailight driving. This technology is older than Transflective (actually was replaced by the latter) and comes back now as a measure of lowering production cost .
To those unfamilliar with the terms, the transflective LCD self reflects any front lighting (including Sun's), while at same time being backlit. This is "enjoying both worlds" and allows near optimal viewing all-arround (indoors/outdoors). Of course it is also expensive. On the opposite side there's Transmissive LCD that usually involves back lighting (exclusively) via a transparent LCD panel. Direct front light practically kills any decent chance to view the screen which becomes (in various levels) a mirror...
There were some discussions on this forum, where some claimed that a certain provider in Europe offers "dimmer" and narrower angle-of-view Prophets, different than generic iMate/Qtek. A quick search here will show screenshots which are pretty clear.
I haven't materially seen this provider's Prophet, but a look on a Mio A701 screen outdoors can easily be self explaining (BTW so is Atom and a whole new line of new devices with "retro" cheeper screens.
Go prophet! Mine loads slowly, 2:25 due to WA2 and WAD, but afterwards is quite snapy. 3 secs for opening win folder! No regrets whatsoever...
OK, my mind is now made up.
After some comments here, and a review of the JAMin against the Atom on another forum (in particular using Oziexplorer which is one thing I specifically want), I am buying the JAMin. Seems much better and faster in many respects, and cheaper, and I can use my full size SD cards.....
Now I just need to find the best deal.
Hello,
I own a s200 since last week. My first impression:
improved in many ways in comparison to my old Qtek2020 with WM2003
- better usability with WM5 and the additional buttons
- better power management
- better integration of phone (had problems on my old device with missing calls and missing sound at calls)
- size now so small that I can carry it like a normal cellphone
- speed is OK for my purposes (standard programs plus OziExplorer)
- power drain better than with Qtek2020
Not so good:
- sound at phone calls should be louder
- WiFi works good, but range should be larger (my s200 works up to 10m if there is no wall in between)
- small touch screen more difficult to operate (but I prefer a small device, that I can carry all the time)
I think the s200 will very useful for me (it will be my brain extension ...)
Cheers, Gerd
ICH STIMME DIR ZU"!!!
DU FREAK!!!
aber....
Die range vom wireless ist bei mir super
Hi, I'm thinking of buyig a S200, nevertheless I'de like to satisfy some doubts? Is it really as bad as its said with movies and apps like tom tom and route 66? I heard it was slow...
I have the possibility to try it for a few days and then exchange it for a S100 (magician) if I'm not happy with it, but the Wi-Fi is the main reason I'm gonna buy it, so I really need to know...
GerdH said:
Hello,
Not so good:
- sound at phone calls should be louder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try searching the forums for a registry hack, it can be set louder!
- WiFi works good, but range should be larger (my s200 works up to 10m if there is no wall in between)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use a .G router and do you use maximum power. I use a .G router and I have a connection through walls and everything till about 20 m. My laptop can go further, but still I'm impressed.
- small touch screen more difficult to operate (but I prefer a small device, that I can carry all the time)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll get used to it
Is it really as bad as its said with movies and apps like tom tom and route 66? I heard it was slow...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No the newest Dopod ROM is fairly fast for everyday uses. For movies I would use some overclocking @240mhz almost everything is as fast as the 416 mhz intel. But for Tomtom that isn't really necessairy, although overclocking will speed up, the starting-up time of the program...
I tried some of the registry hacks regarding the sound level and up to now I don´t found a sufficient setting. But I will invest a little bit more time for playing around.
My WLAN router operates with B/G setting, the s200 with maximum Wifi power. With one wall in between and perhaps 8m distance i got about 20% signal level. But that may be also a problem of my router or the environment.
Are there tools available which show the signal strength of all WLANs around?
Cheers , Gerd[/quote]
Gerd, you could try Ministumbler from http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/
The PC version has a nice graph showing connection quality, not sure about the Mini version, but give it a try.
I can overclock to 264 or so ..anything over that blows up (slow down)...Id suggest 264 rather than 240..since I beileve 264 is stable anyhow...however, i use a pretty cool custom rom that may have been configured just for that
Sadly I dont agree with screen size being good..its small and as small things go, leaves out lots of functionality..the processor is SLOWER than the HTC Magician according to Microsoft Tech Team..which means...the smaller you go, the diff processor you use (to make it look fast) yet the OS WM5 uses a bit more resources (as expected) and so the new processor is still ****..oh well..size vs. speed.
GerdH said:
I tried some of the registry hacks regarding the sound level and up to now I don´t found a sufficient setting. But I will invest a little bit more time for playing around.
My WLAN router operates with B/G setting, the s200 with maximum Wifi power. With one wall in between and perhaps 8m distance i got about 20% signal level. But that may be also a problem of my router or the environment.
Are there tools available which show the signal strength of all WLANs around?
Cheers , Gerd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[/quote]
Hello.
I have a Qtek 9100 and as i have posted in 9100's thread, all HTC new devices and especially 9100 and S200 have crap wifi.
I have tested many many ppc's and ended up that the signal of wifi in S200/9100 is about 50% less than other devices!
S200 - all-in-one
I used to own an AXIM X5 then after 2years X3 with a separate mobile phone, which i carry all the time together.
Yes the S200 is slow but all functionality works fine (wifi,bt,gprs,msoff,,,etc). i cant ask for more for the size of this.
My question is, does anybody here who owns an S200 have tried overclocking it (omapclock), if yes can you please send me the instruction to do this.
thanks in advance.
/gerald
I'm really happy with my S200, contrary to some of you, I have great WiFi reception even trhough walls.
I wardrive a lot and I can connect to hotspots from really far away. I can tell because the SSID broadcast sometimes display the company name and I often realize the building is not near at all.
On the movie watching side, I can see full movies with no OC at all. It really depends on how you encode the movie in the first place.
You'll love it!
Hello together,
yesterday I made a test about the battery runtime using Bluetooth.
Conditions:
GPS mouse connected by Bluetooth in 1m distance with free view.
38400 bits/s transfer rate.
Oziexplorer is only program running at Qtek s200 and stores track points.
Backlight is switched of.
Measurement was at standstill, so Oziexplorer doesn´t need to change/move the map.
Result:
After 4.5 hours the battery was at 50%. Power drain was almost linear over time.
I´m satisfied with this result, because my old Qtek 2020 died already after half the time.
Cheers, Gerd
Hello,
here are my experiences.
Oziexplorer is only program running at Qtek s200 and stores track points.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thera are a few more than Oziexplorer. For simply track logging i'm using POIObserver. It writes a comlete NMEA log to sd card or other locations, even when i switch the device in standby. In that way the battery lasts for round about 14 hours, longer than the battery in my gps receiver!!!
Other apps i'm using which support track logging are Pathaway and Garmin Que. Pathaway has an special pocket mode, in which the keys are locked an the display is off. And Que also writes a track when the device is in standby.
Both applications are running for approx 11-12 hours with a fully charged battery when in pocket mode or standby, even if the have a moving map (bitmap/vector).
The measurements are made while moving, using bluetooth and writing the log every second!
I'm also very satisfied with that result, whereat the gps receiver wont last longer (Holux GPSlim 236, 10-14 hours, according receive conditions)
Joerg
Hello Joerg,
thank you for your hint. I will give POIObserver a try.
It will be useful for me if I´m walking around with my digital camera. In this case I use the stored tracks to achieve GPS positions for the EXIF data of the fotos.
But for this I also need a new Bluetooth GPS mouse. I´m considering the Navilock BT-338. Should have 20h operating time with one charge.
Thanks, Gerd
CompeGPS Pocket also doing this job quite as well :lol:
This is a continuation to my previous article on how much power the Bluetooth / infrared units in the HTC Wizard (a.k.a. imate K-Jam, T-Mobile MDA Vario, Qtek 9100, MDA Vario, XDA mini S, SPV M3000, VPA Compact II, Dopod 838) consume.
Now that I don’t really use my HTC Wizard (official i-mate AKU2 ROM version 2.16.9.1 WWE), I have time to run some really lengthy power consumption tests (with the Wizard being uninterruptedly suspended for even days) to properly measure the additional power consumption of the Bluetooth (including it being discoverable) and the infrared unit. Note that, during this, I’ve kept (I’ve just switched it off in the wireless manager) the GSM radio disabled to keep out the “random” factor of the measurements and also keep down the overall power consumption so that the results can be measured with more confidence.
Without the two wireless units,
the battery charge level of the device decreases about 2.5% a day, which means about (2.5% a day means 2.5/24% (0.1%) an hour. That is, in an hour, the Wizard consumes about 1250 (the Wizard has a 1250 mAh battery and) * 0.1 * (1/100) mWh – that is, 1250/1000 = 1.25 mWh.
Infrared
If you don’t disable the infrared auto-receive in Settings/Connections/Beam (by just unticking “Receive all incoming beams”), then, the additional battery level will decrease with about 1.5% a day (with the standard, 1250 mAh battery). This means about 18/24 = 0.75 mWh power consumption.
Note that with WM5 PPC Phone Edition devices like the HTC Wizard, the infrared unit is ALWAYS on when the device is suspended and is looking for other, discovering infrared devices (in passive mode). This is why it is promptly found by desktop Windows computers / notebooks having an infrared unit and this is why it's consuming power even when the unit is suspended.
Bluetooth
If you enable Bluetooth, including enabling being discoverable (!), the battery consumption doesn’t increase – at least not in a way properly measurable in a one and a one-and-a-half-day-long test phase.
Note that I’ve sometimes tested during the discoverable-enabled test whether the device is indeed visible to the outside world (other Bluetooth devices discovering their Bluetooth neighborhood). This was always the case.
But you…
Note that the Bluetooth figures are a bit different from my previous article. The reason for this is very simple: with the AKU2 ROM, the Wizard likes “sticking” with a previous battery consumption level and only displays the current level after a soft reset. I didn’t take this into account when I’ve told you the battery level of the Wizard decreased between 6 and 7 % a day with enabled Bluetooth (I’ve forgotten to reset before starting with the test – only after the test and reading the battery meter – and, therefore, the difference was bigger than with properly resetting the device before starting the test.)
Verdict
You can safely keep the Bluetooth always enabled – it consumes even less power than I’ve previously thought.
You may, however, want to disable auto infrared-receive. The infrared unit of the device, while, compared to the GSM radio, has a negligible power consumption, disabling it will still result in a device availability that is some (dozens of) minutes more than otherwise under normal (with enabled GSM radio) circumstances. If, for example, you don’t recharge your Wizard for three days (which is perfectly imaginable with a not power hungry device like the Wizard), then, the enabled infrared unit will cause a 4.5% more battery level depletion.
Future work
I’ll elaborate on the HTC Universal (a.k.a. i-mate JasJar, Qtek 9000, O2 XDA Exec, SPV M5000, MDA IV/Pro) in the same way. I’ll also try to test some other devices. Stay tuned
Cool deal, thanks for the info. I have always enabled bluetooth all the time and shut off IR because I have bluetooth devices and don't care about IR, but it's nice to know it's not killing anything by doing that.
Can you give me a number for power usage while actively using bluetooth? It seems like my ht820 just sucks power from my 8125.
I was looking into getting a bluetooth GPS for my 8525, anyone have good suggestions as to which one is the best one to get?
Look for something with the SiRF Star III - There are quite a few with this chipset.
I have a Holux GPSlim236 and it works great for me, but it may have since been replaced with a different model, or you might like a different unit.
I recall there was one SiRF Star III-based unit that had built in solar cells for charging, but was a bit larger.
I ordered from semsons.com around a year and a half ago.
ooo the 236 looks really nice...what is G-Mouse? it says that its a bluetooth gps and g-mouse...also, does it drain the battery quick on the phone?
also, is the Holux M1000 any good?
Depends what your needs are. I don't use the full range of possibilities you can get with some of these devices. Some will internally store a host of settings data/plots etc etc.
My needs were simple. Something that was small - easily kept in the pocket, had a good battery life, Sirf Star III and easily set up with google maps / Tomtom etc.
After lots of searching I found the:
Navicore Slim Sirf Star III
It is quick to acquire a lOcked signal but the main benefit is its size - roughly that of a lady's lipstick and a similar shape. It is so small I have added a small sleeve to my TyTn case to hold it. So when walking I don't need to carry it in my pocket and it's always with me and my Tytn.
You won't get all the bells and whistles, but if it's to use with regular GPS applications it's great.
Mike
Specification:
* Tracks up to 20 satellites.*
* Receiver: L1, C/A code.
* Update rate: 1 HZ (max).
* Antenna Type: Built in Patch Antenna.
* Minimum signal tracked: -159dBm. *
* Dimensions: 64 x 22 x 15 mm.
* Weight : < 35g.
* On/off switch: slide switcher.
* 900 mAh Lithium-ion battery lasts for more than 8 hours of use.
* Operation Temperature: -10 0C to + 60 0C.
* Store Temperature: -20 0C to + 70 0C.
* Operation Humidity:5% to 95% No condensing.
* 3 Led Function: Bluetooth, navigation update and battery / charger status indication.
* Position accuracy - Non DGPS (Differential GPS): Position : 5 - 25 m CEP without SA.
* Velocity : 0.1m / sec. Time : 1 μsec sync GPS time.
* EGNOS / WAAS / Beacon: Position :< 2.2 m, horizontal 95 % of time < 5 m, vertical 95 % of time.
* Reacquisition: 0.1sec. Cold start: < 42 seconds. Warm start: < 38 seconds . Hot start: < 1 seconds.
*: SiRF's original chipset spec.
Navicore Slim SiRF III Bluetooth GPS receiver
Interface:
* Output terminal: Mini-USB (DATA I/O CMOS Level)
* NMEA protocol output : V 2.2
* Baud Rate: 38400 bps
* Data bit: 8
* Parity: N
* Stop bit: 1
* Output Format: Standard : GGA(1),GSA(5),GSV(5), RMC(1),VTG(1). Optional : GLL, SiRF Binary
* Compatible Bluetooth device with Serial Port Profile (SPP) Bluetooth version 1.2 compliant
* Bluetooth Class 2 operation (up to 3 meter range)
* Frequency : 2.400 to 2.480 GHz
* Modulation: FHSS / GFSK
* RF channels: 79
* Input sensitivity: -80dBm
* Output level: 4dBm
What's in the box?
* Navicore Slim SiRF III Bluetooth GPS receiver
* Software CD
* Car charger
* Quick-start guide
Some honest reviews here:
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/12398-Navicore-Slim-SiRF-III-Bluetooth-GPS-Receiver-Reviews.htm
MTK chipsets works as well if not better.
im using a BT Q818
bapski said:
MTK chipsets works as well if not better.
im using a BT Q818
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree 100% the new MTK is really awesome. Check out www.ncix.com as they were having a sale on the i-blue 737 which has received several good reviews. All the sirfIII only posts are a little dated IMHO.
Here is the direct link if you are interested. (sorry if links aren't allowed)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=23763&promoid=1055
yu130960 said:
Here is the direct link if you are interested. (sorry if links aren't allowed)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes links are allowed so long as they are not blatant Spam or folk trying to sell their own goods / services for cash and of course that they are relevant to the subject in question.
Cheers
Mike
I dont recomend the Holux Bluetooth slim236 had 3 of them break within a year.
the device that has superseded it is very good. m1000 i think its called.
Personaly i wont buy a GPS device that doesn't have a physical power switch. a propper switch rather than button allows you to hard wire it to a car on ignision power and it will doesn't then need any interaction to turn it on for satnav when you startup the car.
(just my 2 cents worth)
I picked up this one from semsons.
http://www.semsons.com/im5blgpsre32.html
I had a Sirf Star III receiver which I lost. I see no performance difference Sirf and MTK chipsets
What sold me on this was is two things, 1) the amazingly long battery life 2) if you leave it on, it will go to sleep and automatically re-activate when a bluetooth connection is established.
I have had 0 problems so far, although it 'feels' as cheap as you can get
I just bought this sucker and can hardly wait for it to get here http://www.buygpsnow.com/WonderX-BT...o-OnOff)-(Your-Choice-of-Free-Mount)_900.aspx. If you download A-GPS data to it, it will get a fix in 5 seconds. The data is good for 7 days. Without the data, it gets a fix in less than 30 seconds. It also has 44 hours of battery life. That should come in handy on some of my longer canoe trips. I am replacing a Earthmate BlueLogger. It was a nice SiFRII unit, but it sometimes took a minute to get a fix with my wife complaining about us sitting in the drive not moving. It also only had 8 hours of battery life, so I would have to use a battery extender for long canoe trips.
Keep in mind that the GPS receiver is not much use without software and maps. You may need two programs with maps, one for street navigation definately and maybe a topographic navigation program. The first is self explanitory, the second is for GPS Cacheing, hiking, backpacking, canoeing, boating, off-road driving and etc. I use OnCourse Navigator 6 for street navigation and Memory-Map Navigator for topographic navigation. Unfortunately there is no perfect GPS navigation program. Depending on what you use it for another program may work better for you. Some additional street navigation programs are TomTom, iGuidance and Destinator to name a few. Topographic navigation has even has more choices. A few addtional topographic program to look at are OZIExplorer, BackCountry Navigator, Fugawi and GPSTuner to name a few.
I'm leaning on the Holux M1000
oh,,,
replaceable batteries is another major plus for me. rechargable batteries never keep their charge after a few hundred cycles, the m1000 and 236(mind) are easy to get batteries off ebay for less than a 10er. I keep a spare charged battery for when i go hiking with my phone and GPS.
I'm using Globalsat BT-359 it's also on Sirf Star III and I'm very happy with it. Never loses signal, accurate, battery time is enough for me, and car charger that also fits to TyTN is a nice addition
I have the Globalsat 359 that I use with my 8525 and TomTom PDA software and it works wonderfully. Also has the cheap replaceable battery and the battery life is forever long.
My 8525 doesnt work with the G-359 car adapter like the above posters did though.
Myself, I've liked the Garmin software since my iQue3600, so I picked up a Garmin GPS20SM. It does the Bluetooth GPS and provides Bluetooth hands-free (although it's a speaker, not a headset). Cyberion Voice Dialer works fine with it.
It also will charge the 8525 if you connect it, but the mini-USB cable needs the solder trick to ground pins 4 and 5 together.
It's portable between cars, but not suitable for hiking (it uses a cigarette lighter for power). I think that it will supposedly only work with Garmin software/maps, but I have gotten it to work with Google Maps. It uses the Sirf III chipset.
-- Joe
Malik05 said:
ooo the 236 looks really nice...what is G-Mouse? it says that its a bluetooth gps and g-mouse...also, does it drain the battery quick on the phone?
also, is the Holux M1000 any good?
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G-mouse is rather weird terminology for a USB tethered GPS. (Which happens to look like a USB mouse, hence the name.)
i.e. it can be used as a wireless BT GPS or as a USB GPS with a laptop.
Enabling bluetooth by itself will reduce battery life of the phone somewhat, but running whatever navigation software you're using will reduce the phone's life significantly more. External power for the phone is strongly reccommended. External power for the GPS is less important - it lasts quite a long time.
Another poster said he had reliability problems with the 236 and then slammed it for having a button instead of a power switch. I don't know what he had, but it wasn't a 236, as the GPSlim236 has a quite robust power switch (not button). I've had mine for a year and a half without problems.
lcohen999 said:
I picked up this one from semsons.
http://www.semsons.com/im5blgpsre32.html
I had a Sirf Star III receiver which I lost. I see no performance difference Sirf and MTK chipsets
What sold me on this was is two things, 1) the amazingly long battery life 2) if you leave it on, it will go to sleep and automatically re-activate when a bluetooth connection is established.
I have had 0 problems so far, although it 'feels' as cheap as you can get
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I just picked up an M3 on ebay for $33 shipped. Hope it works as well as an M5
Visiontac VGPS-700... i love it... it's small to the point that i can actually attach it via velcro to the back of my battery cover...
Methadras said:
Visiontac VGPS-700... i love it... it's small to the point that i can actually attach it via velcro to the back of my battery cover...
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is battery user replaceable though? when i was searching for my gps receiver, i shied away from receivers that were taunted to be either small or smallest as most of them if not all do not have user replaceable batteries.
just something to consider..
bapski said:
is battery user replaceable though? when i was searching for my gps receiver, i shied away from receivers that were taunted to be either small or smallest as most of them if not all do not have user replaceable batteries.
just something to consider..
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guess not..............