UK GPS - for a noob!!

[Guest 5aboy]

hello,

got my spv some weeks ago (1 week! to be precise!) and im sorta liking it.

thing is, i got a new car also, about 1 week ago!

now im thinking - great phone+new car=GPS SATNAV-thingy?!

ive had a little look around and heard of TOMTOM, EMTAC, LINKSYS xxxx, FORTUNA CLIPON etc, but dont really know what it is that i need.

i assume that all i need is a way of getting gps data to the phone (ie a reciever) and something to decode the info and put it on the scree (a program)

i am a student though, so money is tight - i would love a satnav gps system thingy but dont really know where to start, and what i need - i hear of 5m/10m/20m something, and something else displayed in seconds (TTFF or something like that) but dont understand what these things mean.

theres a guy on ebay selling tomtom 3 hardware for 99.99 and i think ive seen the hardware only at gps-specific shops for around 160?

how much should i spend - would love it to be just like need for speed underground 2 - arrows, plus some sort of voice output, but dont want to spend too much

also whats this parrot thing?!

thanks for all your help guys! i do appreciate it!

[Guest chucky.egg]

The Parrot things are in-car Bluetooth-enabled systems that act as handsfree systems, and (if you get the one with GPS) a GPS receiver.

Whether you get the in-car system or portable system depends on how you want to use it - the portable GPS receivers (similar in size to a packet of fags) are battery powered and send GPS data to the phone over Bluetooth, so you can use them anywhere, whereas the car kits run off the car battery and are out of sight (less likely to get nicked, but fixed to the car so you can't carry it down the highstreet).

For the phone software you could try Mapopolis, TOMTOM and/or CoPilot. They all offer roughly the same things, but each "specialises" in a slightly different area.

I use an EMTAC CruxII Bluetooth GPS receiver with Mapopolis. The total came to about £180 (£100 for the GPS, £0 for the Mapopolis software and £80 for the maps).

There are several threads on the software options and the GPS devices, so try a search and have a read. There's loads of info available, so take some time and think about what you need, to avoid buying the "wrong" system.

[Guest mavisdavis]

I use a Fortuna BT Clip-On and TomTom on my C500 its works a treat and the thing about Fortun is you can replace the battery with a nokoia battery if it dies :wink:

[Guest 5aboy]

yeah, great!

so, where should i start to buy this stuff from? and what kit do i need?

is it just a bluetooth GPS receiver + some software (tomtom3?!) + an arm to mount the spv on in the car!

right.........just point me in the direction of your suppliers, and ill see where i can get the best deal!

thanks.

[Guest mavisdavis]

Ebay for the fortuna clip-on and try tom tom direct but they onlt supply the software with a GPS Reciver and not the software on its own, there is also Mapopolis which is good :wink:

[Guest Confucious]

TomTom 3 is a big NoNo - it is not for the phone but for PPCs. You need either TomTom mobile (approx £170 for hardware and s/ware- you CAN'T buy the s/ware alone), Mapopolis where the s/ware is free but you buy the maps and you would have to buy a BT GPS receiver or CoPilot which you can buy with or without receiver (about £220)

CoPilot comes on a 128Mb MiniSD Card for the others you would need a card to put the maps on but you would probablly want a bigger card anyway. None AFAIK come with a phone holder for the car - I bought one for a fiver from Halfords.

Personally I went for CoPilot - but only 'coz someone was selling it cheap :lol: