On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:45:51 +0000, Mr.Nice.
<mr.nice@*nospam*clara.co.uk> wrote:
>
>Is there something very similar to the tomtom go, eg big screen,
>similar price and similarly easy to use, that will connect to a laptop
>and feed it a location signal?
I don't know about tomtom because I have never seen one, I have used a
garmin 12xl for a few years and I connect this to a p133 laptop via
the serial port running an obsolete program called personal navigator.
If I were to upgrade I think I would go for a garmin 60cs for walking
and then run it via the serial port with free software like
trackmaker, with this you scan in your own maps (or lift digitised
ones from a government agency).
You will probably need two programs, one for street work with voice
instructions and re routing and the other for using with your own topo
maps.
As my laptop (ancient ibm thinkpad with defunct battery) has only
500MB hdd I think I might get a ide interface for a memory stick, I'm
not sure what's best, smart card, compact flash etc. I am told this
will then run win98se and store the image files without the hard disk
being a problem.
For walking I generally upload a few waypoints from the map program
and take a print of the 1:25,000 with me, on the road I select a route
in the personal navigator and only look at it when I need to, although
the bitmap is 1:250,000 so not as detailed as autoroute (which I have
not used on the laptop.
There used to be a free voice router called gpss, I don't know if this
is still available.
My current setup cost GBP125 complete (exc 25 for an inverter).
AJH