Registered: May 2001
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 9

Prism and GPS Combos

I have a Visor Prism with VisorPhone. I want to get a Garmin eTrex GPS and
use it with my Prism. Markspace makes a cable to connect the two. My intent
is to use the GPS stand-alone (with old fashioned paper map) for "in the
woods" use and use the cable to connect it to the Prism (with mapping
software) for in the car "road work". A Prism/GPS module (Magellen,
HandyGPS, Geode, etc) is not rugged enough to use in the woods in my line of
work.

My questions are:

1. Is the cable for outputting raw location data to a PDA/Laptop or only
for uploading data to the GPS?
2. The cable hooks to the bottom of the Prism. Would I still be able to
leave my VisorPhone attached and/or on while using the GPS?
3. What are good sources of mapping software (Free/Share/Commercial)? I've
got a MemPlug so storage won't be a big problem.
4. Has anyone used any combos such as this (excepting the DeLorme
Earthmate)?

Thanks in advance,

Barry

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: NJ,US
Posts: 94

Its been over a month now, and I am still waiting for the
cable from markspace. They supposely have not received them yet.
I have the Etrex Legend. There is a program call NMEA monitor, that
you can find at palmgear, that may do what you want.

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Utah
Posts: 19

I have a VDX and an Etrex Summit and I love the combo. I have the Matchbook drive with 64MB to store my maps. I purchased my cable from http://www.pcables.com. I have used a number of programs, but as of now the best ones I have found are Street Finder Deluxe and Solus Pro 2.0. They are both pretty much the same but it seems like I can store more detailed data with Street Finder. Solus Pro uses the web to download maps while Street Finder has maps on CDs.

You should be able to use the Visorphone while your GPS is connected. You just can't use the IR while your GPS is connected. You may be able to access Solus's map page through your Prism and then save the maps you find directly to your Visor instead of saving to your PC then Hotsyncing.

I tried the Mapopolis 3.0 Beta, but ut kept making my VDX crash. If you get a PC to GPS cable them you can swap data beteeen the two. That's the only way to upgrade the firmware in your GPS. If you have a PDA to GPS cable I don't think you can change info on your GPS through the PDA. I hope I understood your question correctly.

Registered: May 2001
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 9

Thanks, you answered all my questions.

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Utah
Posts: 19

I juse found out that Solus PRO 3.0 will allow you to access maps on a PDA with wireless internet capabilities.

This looks like it's the program for you.

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 832

As far as the software, there is a program from portableinternet.com that has entire US maps, GPS support and is supposed to support point to point directions in the future. I havn't tried this program, though, I will buy it when the directions become available (They even claim Voice prompts when this feature becomes available!)

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 76

Source for Visor <-> GPS cables

There is another source for Visor to GPS cables. That would be:

www.pcables.com

They have a couple of different types (for "regular" Garmins and for the eTrex.) All are in stock.

Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Chelmsford, MA USA
Posts: 20

Visorphone and Delorme GPS don't get along

Grrrr ....

My visor deluxe doesn't get data from my Delorme GPS Tripmate with the visorphone module plugged in.

It does get GPS data with visorphone removed.

Anyone else have a better story or hints to try??

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 8

The problem is that Springboard modules tend to override the serial communications library to handle talking to apps on the Visor. They do this so that any app that uses the library can work with their module. In this case, it allows the Visorphone to work with existing browsers, etc.

The GPS also wants to use the serial library but the Springboard overrides it. Hence, no luck using both. In the end Solus will try to talk to the GPS unit but will end up talking to the Visorphone instead...

Sorry, but that's probably what's happening.

Michael

Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Chelmsford, MA USA
Posts: 20

H'mmmmm - but my USB sync cradle and the visorphone get along - can I assume the serial sync and the visorphone get along too? don't they use the same serial lines (same connector) as the GPS ??

(I'm obviously in denial here)

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 8

Looking at Handspring's technical documentation, the USB and RS-232 lines are separate on the connector. The GPS and Visorphone probably both want to talk over RS-232 but you can still HotSync since the USB is separate.

My guess (haven't verified...) is that they have a separate library for USB communications and the Visorphone only takes control of the RS-232 communications.

Michael

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Posts: 29

I use the lowrance map100 GPS. I really wanted the E-Trex but at 189+tx CND (probabely worth about 20 US by now!) on a trade-in for an old Lowrance GPS, I couldn't refuse the Map display on the GPS eventhough the mapping support and accuracy aren't quite up to Garmin standards. To hook it up to the Prism I went to www.pcables.com and got their PDCH-M9EPOW-6 cable. It works well and made it through customs in less than 2 weeks. I hook that cable up to the data cable for the GPS and connect the optional power hookup to either a battery pack or a cigarette lighter adapter, both items from www.talestuff.com. It's a lot of wire, but when I'm off-roading in the woods I know that if I get stuck, I have enough wire on board to trap food for a week.
As for software, I couldn't find anthing half-decent that covered Canada, so I ended up using GPS pilots Atlas program. It's not a bad program as a whole, but there's a fair bit of work involved in getting maps converted and then calibrated for the PDA. There's my two cents worth. Good Luck.