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Home / Web Pads / Epods One General Post GPS Works! - Part Two

GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) zhensel The original thread (http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=EpodsOne&Post=242&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=0&Session=) just reached 90 posts, so I thought it fair to start a new one. Here's what we know so far: 1. Pharos GPS works with NMEA compliant GPS receivers in full screen on the epods - you can purchase it at www.mobileplanet.com (http://www.mobileplanet.com/product.asp?dept%5Fid=2320&pf%5Fid=MP730902&listing=1) 2. Without a GPS reception program, you can set up a session with pegterm (comes with epods) and read the raw data. Assuming that you have a NMEA receiver and not a binary receiver, it should be reasonably decipherable. 3. The Earthmate GPS does NOT output NMEA and thus will not work with Pharos. Apparently it will work with Teletype GPS, but this product has received bad reviews from those who have tried it. It also works with Solus Pro 1.5, but this was not discussed terribly thouroughly in the previous thread. 4. The ostia.exe program should work with any of the current shell versions (regular, v1, v2), and hasn't been reported to have many problems thus far. With the exception of the earthmate and pcmia receivers, everything has worked so far. As long as a receiver outputs NMEA data through a rs232 serial connection it should work. 5. Lastly, trading maps is fun and all, but if you find yourself getting serious use out of the program, please purchase it. If you want your epods to have a use in the future its a good idea to support the companies making decent software for it, eh? Hopefully this will kill the old, oversized thread and we can concentrate GPS-related activity here. Perhaps we can even aid in lessening the California power crisis with the associated reduced flow of electrons with a smaller information transfer. 03-17-2001 21:46:36

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) ionizer ostia.exe what is this program? where does it come from? is this the .exe for pharos or something? i cant find any mention of an "ostia.exe" program anywhere secondly, anyone reccomend a cheap place to get an NMEA compliant gps receiver? people keep talking about cheap $50 ones, but all the stores ive gone into have 100$+ ones -Ionizer 03-22-2001 01:41:30

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) Pete I currently have Magellan which is nice but falls off the dashboard. I did purchase a Trimble GPS module for $50 though and now in process of putting it in a housing. I had to connect it to a power supply I built (12 to 5 V) and to a TTL to RS-232 converter that I built. So far total cost has been around $70. 03-22-2001 06:31:06

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) edmeister I went out to Joshua tree on the weekend and took my epods and my Earthmate GPS with me. I downloaded a map generated by Street Atlas 8, and used it with Solus Pro 1.5 and it worked wonderfully. Outside of the actual map area I had saved, Solus Pro has an area view that showed all the local highways and freeways with a box around the detailed map area. Once I was inside the box, Solus zoomed in to a more detailed street level view. We used it inside the park to go from one exhibit to the next and decided to double back when we realized that our planned route was going to take a lot longer than we expected. Only thing Solus Pro 1.5 didn't have was an elevation reading. I would have liked to see how high up in the desert we really were. 03-22-2001 09:14:43

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) MASJM For those who is currently using GPS on their epods. Can you tell me if the Pharos GPS software voice prompt/warning features work on their epods. The website said it supports this feature "Features voice prompted navigation and an off-route warning with one touch re-route!" Where can I get a good GPS receiver in around $50 range? Thansk in advance, MASJM 03-22-2001 09:34:05

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) Pete Please tell us about Solus pro....is it faster on the Epods than the Ostia application....don't really need voice if the updates to the maps are quick.... 03-22-2001 09:47:59

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) edmeister I'm sorry. The only GPS software I've tried is Solus. I didn't bother with the other programs, so I can't compare. The Solus maps are pretty decent, but there aren't a lot of details depending on how closely you zoom in. When I get ready for my trip, I use several different views of the area, and generate several different maps at different zoom levels. Like I said earlier, a map will have 2 zoom levels automatically, but I like lots of detail so I use several maps. I can create maps and routes with waypoints in StreetAtlas 8, and then download those maps and directions to the epods. Once the maps are created, they are pretty static. You can't do anything to it, like find an address or change your preprogrammed route. I've used Solus on my Palm VII and my Casio Cassiopeia E105, and the 2 versions are vastly different. I prefer the CE version just because of the higher resolution of the screen and the larger maps that the CE version can handle. Battery life on the epods was severly impacted while using the GPS, so if you take a trip longer than 4 hours, I suggest you get a cheap power inverter so you can plug the epods in to the inverter and have it on AC instead of battery. 03-22-2001 11:15:24

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) Nicky Does anyone know of a cheap NMEA complaince GPS reciever that is available? Please let me kno where to get one. I am looking for the $50 ones that is mentioned on this board. Thanks, Nicky 03-23-2001 18:51:14

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) ouzome The only $50 GPS unit I have heard about was on clearance at Office Depot, and they're all long gone. I read about it somewhere in this i-appliance bbs. ouzome 03-23-2001 20:09:31

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) cestar PharosGPS does give voice notifications like right turn ahead, left turn ahead. When you are still about a block away or so, it will tell you turns ahead. It will not tell you how far you are from the intersection where you need to make turns. It will not read out any street names. It can only say a few things, Right turn, left turn, highway entrance.. highway exit..etc. I think only right turn and left turn are useful. In any case, you need to know where you are going and not relying on the voice notification to tell you what to do. Since epod has a big enough screen, it's easier to follow the route. PharosGPS does warn when you are off-route, which is nice. Basically, two-touch reroute. But, you need to take a look the new route before you keep on going though. When you are driving, you must not be constantly looking at the epod screen, otherwise you are setting yourself up for a car accident. Therefore, take a look at the route the GPS software got for you, and know basically where you need to turn. The epod will act only as a way to CONFIRM whether you are on the correct route or not. Since it's very accurate about where you are, the moment you are off route, it will tell you. 03-28-2001 17:08:43

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) Pete The trimble is a good deal but it will cost u some time and some additional hardware total cost @ around 85.... I am looking at an all in one deal similar to whats currently available for around $80...let me see how it works and will get back to you. 03-28-2001 17:19:25

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) zhensel Yeah, I would probably suggest against using the epods for personal automotive navigation. If you have a navigator riding shotgun, it'd be alright, but the thing works too poorly in naturally lit areas to work in a car without having to look away from the road for too long. I'd probably end up using it more for walking around cities and the like (though in some places this could be just as dangerous - walking around staring at an apparently expensive computer is tantamount to shouting, "Hey! Mug me!") 03-28-2001 22:34:21

Garmin GPS12 Works! Need an evaluation map, though. (modified 0 times) HunterGreen Profile | Email Just used the old Ostia software someone posted to verify that, in NMEA/NMEA mode, Ostia (and therefore Pharos) can talk to my Garmin GPS12. Next step: evaluate Pharos and Solus Pro to pick which one I want. Does anyone have a map that includes Vermont at all? I'd really like to see it in use on an actual map before I commit to spending money on software and maps. By the way, I use the Garmin GPS12 right now for some basic navigation, but it's pretty limited at supporting maps and routes. It's mostly oriented towards hiking and stuff. By combining it with the ePods, I'll get the best of both worlds; carry it alone when hiking (it's waterproof and rugged), and in the car (always me and my wife together, one of us navigating) use it with the ePods for cities and highways. Cool deal! 07-10-2001 18:55:03

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) elowe Profile Don't bother with Solus if you have Pharos.. Pharos is so much better than Solus for Windows CE. I've been playing around with Solus on my Casio Cassiopeia and the ePods, and the maps are pretty bad, with no advanced features. You can zoom in to an area, and the maps are limited in detail by the desktop software used to generate them. The Pharos maps are much better, with much more advanced features for finding destinations and route building right on the ePods. With Solus, you have to build your routes on a PC and then transfer them to your CE device. Only problem I find with Pharos is that you can't build a route between two different maps. IE. LA to San Diego, because the maps are two separate entities. There doesn't seem to be a way to combine the maps to create a route for you to travel when driving between 2 cities. I haven't tried Pharos with a working GPS, but the more advanced features in Pharos make it look pretty attractive to the static maps from Solus 1.5. I've been using Solus 3.0 with Street Atlas Road Warrior Edition, on my Palm with my Earthmate instead of version 1.5 on my WinCE devices because you can use raster maps on the Palm (much smaller size maps) and you can zoom in and out for different levels of details. You can also search for places and addresses on the Palm maps, which you can't do on the CE maps. 07-11-2001 09:28:48

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) HunterGreen Profile | Email My Pharos order has been placed. Probably next week I'll have it. Still would like a Vermont (or at least central Vermont) map to play with in Ostia for a few days, if anyone has Pharos and can generate it for me, just as a demo. Like I said, I already paid my money so it's hardly piracy, just impatience. :) 07-12-2001 15:48:57

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) elowe Profile The version of Pharos I have has pre-rendered maps of major citys and their surrounding areas. You can't generate a custom map between two cities to build a route for driving or anything like that... I was just reading a previous post I had in this thread where I said I prefered the Windows CE version of Solus 1.5 to Solus 2.0 on the Palm. I now use version 3.0 of Solus on the Palm with Street Atlas Road Warrior Edition. The improvements between version 2.0 and 3.0 for the Palm are minimal, but if you use the Road Warrior Edition of Street Atlas versus the regular edition, you get much more feature rich maps with adjustable font sizes, zoomable maps with more than 5 different zoom levels, map orientation so that your map follows your direction of travel, and the vector maps are extremely small in size so you can load a ton of them into your Palm. I now prefer the Palm setup over my CE setup, since the only thing the ePods/CE/Solus setup has to offer is a larger screen. If only they would release a new version of Solus for Windows CE.. I already called and there are no plans to do so.. :( 07-12-2001 16:07:28

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) LDePod Profile How long ago did you call and ask about a new WinCE version of Solus? I wrote via E-Mail about a month ago, and the person responded that there was no official announcement, but that I should keep watching the website for something 'interesting.' I wasn't too impressed with the Palm versions of Solus 2.0 or 3.0, so I tried Pharos, and considered it rather slow on the ePods though feature rich. I've since tried and purchased Teletype. Its got a very odd interface, but has tons of shortcuts and features buried beneath its rough exterior that I now use it above all the others. It still has some problems that need addressing, but of the three different pieces of software, this is the one I found really useful on the road. One note about it, large metro areas (like San Jose) push the memory limits on unmodified ePods. I had 12MB free, and can use the software with a large map loaded, but I have to be careful what else is running on the device or it just stops responding. 32MB Glitch upgrade recommended. LD 07-12-2001 17:50:49

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) neon96rt Profile I have pharos (Ostia) which I bought for my HP 540....I love it and can't wait to try it on my soon arriving epod....my only complaints were the screen on my pockect pc was too small....I also wish you could view your speed and direction at the same time as your map.....The version I have allows you to have 2 maps open at once so routing betwwen long distances isn't a problem....the voice prompt is awesome 07-12-2001 20:40:34

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) elowe Profile Hmm. I guess I'll have to play around with Ostia (Pharos) some more.. I've been playing around with it on my Casio Cassiopiea Palm-sized PC and not the ePods which is based on the same toshiba family of processors. I need to find/borrow a NMEA compliant GPS to test Pharos with my ePods. I called Delorme over 2 months ago about it, so they may have developed a new version. I hope they do and add some of the functionality that they have in Solus 3.0. I used Solus 3.0 just a few days ago to get me to San Diego and I thought it worked great, with the zoomable maps. 07-12-2001 21:08:47

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) cyberguy Profile Following link shows a gps for $59. Does this work withe epods ? http://www.randmcnally.com/rmc/store/strProductDetail.jsp?OID=16073&POID=-9421&SeqNo=2&BV_SessionID=@@@@0798363447.0995121239@@@@&BV_EngineID=gallgkfimkebfdmcfhjchhcjh.0 07-14-2001 07:52:12

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) HunterGreen Profile | Email Highly doubtful. It won't even connect to the ePods, and if you should finagle some kind of cable adapter together, I doubt it would work with anything but the software that comes with it. 07-14-2001 08:38:54

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) Drjay Profile | Email Hey, If anyone needs any maps for any of their surrounding areas I have just gotten MS Map Point 2002 and I could make your map and post it on the web @ http://nidius.virtualave.net. Hopefully this will help out a few people and these maps will work with their software. You can e-mail me your request of your area and I will do my best to get it posted. Just trying to help others out who might not be able to afford expensive software. 07-18-2001 22:07:30

RE:GPS Works! - Part Two (modified 0 times) HunterGreen Profile | Email Nevermind on that request for Vermont maps, I got my Pharos disks. And it even works! 07-19-2001 17:52:16

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