PDA recommendation

[alex8735]

In the past years I have been flying with an old Ipaq 3130 (monochrom
display) with GPS_Log running on it. Now I am looking for an upgrade.
As far as I know Ipaq series 36xx - 39xx have the best displays for
use in a bright cockpit environment. Only catch is that these PDAs are
getting somewhat old and hard to get in a good condition.

Does anybody have recommendations for a more modern PDA? Is there
anything coming soon to look forward to (new display technologies?)?

[Marc Ramsey]

alex8735 wrote:
> In the past years I have been flying with an old Ipaq 3130 (monochrom
> display) with GPS_Log running on it. Now I am looking for an upgrade.
> As far as I know Ipaq series 36xx - 39xx have the best displays for
> use in a bright cockpit environment. Only catch is that these PDAs are
> getting somewhat old and hard to get in a good condition.

The 39xx series use transflective displays, so stick with the 36xx
through 38xx if you are having problems with display visibility.

> Does anybody have recommendations for a more modern PDA? Is there
> anything coming soon to look forward to (new display technologies?)?

ClearNav is the obvious choice (I have personally verified that they are
quite readable in sunlight), but at a cost...

Marc

[alex8735]

> ClearNav is the obvious choice (I have personally verified that they are
> quite readable in sunlight), but at a cost...

Looks good but it's way outside my budget;-)

[[email protected]]

I have been using a HP IPAQ "Travel Companion" which I think is the
5150 although this does not appear on the unit, neither in the manual.
The display is similar to the 3850 series which means poor in bright
sunlight. You have to de clutter the display of terrain etc and use
only waypoints, restricted airspace and major roads for an acceptable
display. This means that there is almost no advantage to a color
display over the older black and white displays. There are several
advantages of this unit:

1) Large lithium battery for several hours use.
2) Internal GPS
3) Comes with full navigation software plus audio for auto usage.
4) Latest version of the horrible Microsoft Mobile operating system.
5) Using either SeeYou or GN11 you have a self contained soaring
flight computer with recorder suitable for generating IGC files (files
are not secure for badges or records).

I use this unit on the SparrowHawk without connecting it to the
transponder battery. I unclip it from its cradle after every flight
and carry it home to download, through a USB port, the IGC file into a
computer with SeeYou for reviewing flights. Very convenient system!
I expect in the near future the new organic displays that are super
in bright sunlight will be on all next generation PDAs although I am
not sure there will be too many PDAs in the future because there are
really not too many useful applications for them. The soaring flight
computer is an exception. However I personally, would like a
significantly bigger display than most current PDAs have. Maybe some
day?
Dave

[Henryk Birecki]

" > wrote:

> I have been using a HP IPAQ "Travel Companion" which I think is the
>5150 although this does not appear on the unit, neither in the manual.
>The display is similar to the 3850 series which means poor in bright

I do not think so. The only "Travel companion" I know of that is a PDA
(not the newest one 310 which is not) uses display that is very
different from 3850. It is a transmissive display (not reflective)
backlit with LEDs and is totally invisible in strong sunlight. On the
other hand 3850 is a fully reflective display and is quite good in
sunlight

Cheers,
Henryk Birecki

[[email protected]]

I went straight to the HP site and found what I have is a iPAQ 5900
although that is not mentioned anywhere on the unit nor in the
instruction manual. Having also a iPAQ 3850 which I use in conjunction
with a Cambridge LNAV system in the Stemme I have found both to be
wanting in the display area as previously reported. Have I compared
them side by side? No. Both are marginal but certainly the 5900 is NOT
totally invisible in bright sunlight. If I were to choose one over the
other I would take the 5900 - with a display that can be orientated in
any of 4 axis, a more stable MSN Mobile 5 instead of MSN Mobile 2003,
the other reasons given previously and so on.
Dave

[Mitch[_2_]]

On Mar 22, 12:45 am, alex8735 > wrote:
> In the past years I have been flying with an old Ipaq 3130 (monochrom
> display) with GPS_Log running on it. Now I am looking for an upgrade.
> As far as I know Ipaq series 36xx - 39xx have the best displays for
> use in a bright cockpit environment. Only catch is that these PDAs are
> getting somewhat old and hard to get in a good condition.
>
> Does anybody have recommendations for a more modern PDA? Is there
> anything coming soon to look forward to (new display technologies?)?

Hi there, I posted here ( http://tinyurl.com/3dmdcg ) a message asking
for more info about using the Iphone with a palm emulator, but got no
replies. I'm a pc user (for now..), but I'd love to see the Apple gang
design navigation software! Any thoughts?

Michele

[ContestID67]

First, Remede's site has a greate amount of information on all the
PDAs. http://cumulus-soaring.com/pda.htm

I might be a contrarian but .... you might want to stick with your
monochrome display. There is no more readable display, except
possibly the very latest color technologies.

The Compaq Aero 15xx monochrome series is very popular. Even though
this PDA is very slow by today's standards, most of the available
soaring software uses it. You can regularly find them on eBay.

Giving up color has its disadvantages if you want all the maps, gee-
gaws, etc, that the newest software has. For me, I turn off most of
that and go for the simpler-is-better-and-safer mode of flight.

Good luck, John

[Cats]

On Mar 21, 4:45*pm, alex8735 > wrote:
> In the past years I have been flying with an old Ipaq 3130 (monochrom
> display) with GPS_Log running on it. Now I am looking for an upgrade.
> As far as I know Ipaq series 36xx - 39xx have the best displays *for
> use in a bright cockpit environment. Only catch is that these PDAs are
> getting somewhat old and hard to get in a good condition.
>
> Does anybody have recommendations for a more modern PDA? Is there
> anything coming soon to look forward to (new display technologies?)?

I guess you are looking for a Windows solution of some kind. If you
are willing to consider Palm, the Tungsten T is rated by the Soaring
Pilot folks, and SP is *free* software! You can get them pretty
cheaply on Ebay.