Re: CF GPS for a Toshiba E800 - anybody got one working?

From: Peter (nowhere_at_anon.com)
Date: 01/21/05 

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:12:36 +0000

 Robbie <robbiex@bellsouth.net> wrote:

>Garmin's iQue 1620 compact flash GPS and their software works fine on
>the Tosbiba e800. The only catch is that the 1620 software unfortunately
>lacks some of the important features of the Palm based iQue 3200/3600
>and the Windows Mobile 2003 based M5. I do not recommend the 1620
>because, at least with my units, the receiver sensitivity is no where
>near as good as that of the 3200 and there is no provision for an
>external antenna.
>Another alternative is to use a CF or SD Bluetooth card (only use
>version 2) in the e800 and any of the GPS programs that are compatible
>with Windows Mobile 2003 and a Bluetooth connected GPS.

This is what I've been doing but bluetooth connections to a GPS aren't
reliable. If one powers down the PDA and powers it back again, the
application (which was placed into standby) always fails to re-open
the GPS comms. A soft reset is usually needed. That's why I am going
the CF GPS route.

I have used a Mitac 168 (a fantastic little cheap PDA with built-in
GPS, with 5hr battery life and costing a fraction of the E800) and on
that everything "just works". I don't know how the GPS is interfaced;
it appears as a virtual com port but somehow they handle the standby
issue properly.

>This applies to
>the new Garmin GPS 10 Bluetooth GPS receiver and its associated PDA
>software. Note again, that this version of Que software doesn't have the
>same capability as that of the M5.
>Toshiba has apparently stopped producing PDAs or has at least stopped
>distributing them in the USA. It is unfortunate because the e800 is a
>nice PDA and it is very helpful to have a 4" size and relatively high
>resolution LCD display for GPS applications. I think that it was a bad
>blunder for Garmin not to have used this newer type of PDA LCD display
>for the M5.

Yes, Tosh aren't putting a lot of work into this market now. They have
just released (here, UK) the E830 which combines the bluetooth and
wifi into one unit - very nice as few if any CF wifi cards work in the
E800, except no doubt Toshiba's own one which is unobtainable :)

HP have just killed off Toshiba's 640x480 market with their 47xx
range. Even though I think HP is a really cr*p company on all fronts
today (low quality, terrible customer service staffed with complete
morons, poor updates, etc) they are still better than Toshiba and most
other people.

I have decided to set up my E800 as purely a "hiking GPS" type unit,
running Memory Map and the 1:25k terrain maps. OziExplorer doesn't
work on it reliably (in any res), TomTom doesn't either (unless
320x240), bluetooth works on a good day, occassionally everything
works fantastically but then stops. But for a single application, plus
perhaps running Media Player 9 into a headset :) it is just fine. Even
installing wm2003 *SE* made no difference although it looks prettier.

Peter. 

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