THSCC Forums

I bought Microsoft "Streets and Trips 2006 with GPS antenna for 79.00 on Amazon.
Plugs into your laptop USB and turns it into a full fledged GPS trip minder complete with voice commands just like the 600.00 dedicated units. The 2" square antenna sits on your dashboard againgt the windshield and is held there by a suction cup that on the cord you stick to the glass. Works FANTASTIC! we used it on the AR prosolo trip, and was impressed that it even showed when we changed lanes on the interstate. Gives current coordinates, elevation, direction and speed continuously. You can set it to rotate the map automatically so you are always driving straight ahead, to auto zoom in on route turns, and keep your position centered on the screen.
The only downsides were the voice sounds like Helga, Shewolf of the SS, and she nags you to "proceed to the route" if you sit still too long, and tells you you are off route if they moved the road even a few feet from what the mapping program expects. It's interesting to take a new road and it shows you driving cross country. There is no way to update the maps until the 2007 S&T is released. You also need to restart the GPS each time you bring the computer out of sleep mode, which includes having to "accept" the warning that using the GPS may be dangerous to your driving, but it's a minor annoyance.
Highly recommended for anyone who takes their laptop on trips with them.

_________________
SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

Chuck - I use the Delorme GPS, it sounds just like the one you describe. Very cool indeed.

adamb

_________________
Adam Breakey
Founder - www.autocrossforum.com
SS 75 Red(isfasterthanyellow) Z06

I've got the TomTom bluetooth GPS receiver and software that works with my pocket PC. It's great for travelling and I can use software for golfing that works with the GPS to show distance to the pin.

_________________
Colin O'Connell

'94 BMW NASA SPEC 3
'02 F350 tow vehicle (not bad for a tow vehicle)
'97 Miata STO (autoX and sunny day spoils vehicle)
'97 BMW 328i (loaner to the kids when their cars don't work vehicle)
'05 Toyota Highlander

I've spent a fair amount of time lately looking for a GPS system to display my lap times while on track as well as record speeds and g's at locations on the track/lap. Something like the traqmate, but they're all really pricey. For the best I've been able to determine, there aren't any such applications available for a Pocket PC application. Would anybody know of one?

Thanks,

_________________
“I feel safer on a racetrack than I do on Houston's freeways.” - A.J. Foyt

Kevin Butler
Mobetta Autosport Spec E30 #612
2003 C5 Z06 Corvette
AFR Miata, SM2 61, '93 w/200 SC'd RWHP - soon to be resurrected
Waaaay too many other projects....

I honestly can't imagine trying to do what you want that way. The units like the Traqmate and Race Tech DL series use accelerometers along with the GPS to get the data they get, and without the accelertometer portion, your data isn't going to be very good at all. Combine that with the fact that I simply can't see a PocketPC lasting long in a race car environment, and I think you have your answer.

I've used a Traqmate and it was okay, though not great. The biggest drawback for me is that you either have to hook a laptop up via a USB cord basically to the cockpit -or- remove the brain to download data. It's also limited in data amount to just a couple hours at reasonable data rates, which I also don't find acceptable. Oh, and it the one I used had a very stupid "feature"...when the memory *did* fill up while on track, the display just went to "MEM FULL" and wouldn't keep at least giving me cockpit lap times. Very stupid.

I've got a DL1 on order, which I understand also has a couple of annoying shortcomings (though I'm not sure what they are *yet*). But it does use CF for storage, and a 2G CF will store three days of data, so it should handle a complete 13 hour enduro at VIR. Plus you can yank the CF and swap it quickly if you want your data but don't have time to download *now*. Also, and this is the best part, the DL1 works fine with autocross whereas, at last check, the Traqmate did not (though they are promising support, they have been for months).

Sorry to hijack the thread further. For a car NAV system I prefer my Garmin GPS-376C. But I use it for boating, too, which is a plus over some units. I like the size and the interface. The screen is nicely outdoor viewable. It also has XM built in, which is nice for trips...but the best part is that if you're willing to be raped for $30 per month, you can get weather data overlayed on the maps that's up to date (including radar loops, forecasts, temps, etc). Of course, at some point you're gonna be able to combine your laptop with a USB GPS (like the one mentioned above) *and* connect to the Internet via your cellphone or data card or wifi or whatever and download that same weather data to your GPS app. Eventually.


--Donnie

Donnie,

Good information. I started another thread in the Track forum to not hijack the origninal intent of this one.

_________________
“I feel safer on a racetrack than I do on Houston's freeways.” - A.J. Foyt

Kevin Butler
Mobetta Autosport Spec E30 #612
2003 C5 Z06 Corvette
AFR Miata, SM2 61, '93 w/200 SC'd RWHP - soon to be resurrected
Waaaay too many other projects....

The Microsoft ne Delorme unit I bought can also be used with a pocket pc that has a USB port (and running windows OS?). It's not a data tracker, but hard to beat for the price for a navagation system if you carry a laptop anyhow.

_________________
SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.