PDA GPS power issues (i.trek Mouse)

If your PDA has bluetooth then that is the only way to go. If it
doesn't then see if you can get bluetooth with an SD or CF card. Then
sell your GPS and get a wireless bluetooth GPS. I use an Altina GPS and
it works great, about 10 hours on a charge. If you have to have a wired
GPS then do a Google search for a cable. My first PDA I used a cable
between my Garmin Pilot III and my PDA. The cable had a jack for
external 12V power but you didn't have to use it.



Mark Morissette wrote:

Hello everyone.. I've posted this question in a few different NG's
and forums, so appologies in advance for anyone reading it again.

Anyow..

I have a Sony Clie TJ25 Palm-OS PDA that I recently purchased an
i.trek mouse GPS receiver for from Semsons & Co. in the USA. I'm
located in Canada, myself...if that matters.

Anyhow, I plan on using the GPS mainly for general-aviation navigation
as well as the odd Geocaching adventure.

However, I have discovered a problem - The i.trek unit will *not* work
unless the cigarette lighter power plug (Which is part of the PDA to
GPS interface cable) is plugged in. I didn't know this ahead of
time.

Now, this presents several problems:

First, when Geocaching, I'm obviously not near a 12v cigarette lighter
plug.

Secondly, not all of the rental aircraft that I fly are equipped with
cigarette lighter power sources. Additionally, most planes I fly
(Cessna's) are a 24v power system, and I'm unsure yet if the power
adapter that is part of the i.trek PDA interface cable will accept
this high of a voltage. I'd hate to fry the GPS itself, and the PDA,
finding out the hard way.

In a pinch, I can band-aid some sort of "portable" 12v power supply
using non-spillable batteries and some sort of backpack for
portability sake, but it starts to get cumbersome at that point.
Additionally, everyone here knows that every pound counts - carrying
around extra batteries to power a GPS isn't ideal. As it is, with
myself and another sturdy individual in a 152, we're already running
less then 3/4 tanks to stay within W&B. :-)

I know that other "direct" cables for mouse-style GPS units actually
power the GPS from the PDA (Which is what I desire), but I'm stuck
without that option apparently at this point.

I'm wondering if anyone else has run into this problem, and what the
solution might have been? Can I buy a PDA connector for my Sony from
eBay, and hack it into a direct cable successfully? Is there some
sort of modification possible to the cable I have now to enable
powering the GPS from the PDA even when it's not plugged into the
cigarette lighter?

I know that many mouse GPS units *can* be powered directly from the
PDA..but unfortunately mine doesn't appear to be one of them..yet.

I'm quite happy with the actual i.trek unit at this point, regardless
- it's been performing excellent to date, although I have not yet
taken it airborne.

Regarding batteries, the TJ25 has an *excellent* battery onboard, and
even with the GPS draw I would still except several hours of runtime -
fine for 90% of my flights.

Anyone have any "Been-there-done-that" stories, or solutions?

Any assistance appreciated!

Email me or respond here, either is great. Any emailers will need to
de-munge my antispammed email address first.

Thanks everyone!
Mark

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 20:42:04 -0700, Newps wrote:

If your PDA has bluetooth then that is the only way to go. If it
doesn't then see if you can get bluetooth with an SD or CF card. Then
sell your GPS and get a wireless bluetooth GPS. I use an Altina GPS and

Two problems:

First, my PDA isn't bluetooth capable.

Secondly, being a Sony PDA, it uses Sony's (admittedly stupid)
proprietary Memory Stick format. Not only is finding a bluetooth
adapter to fit in a Memory Stick slot nearly impossible, but the last
problem is that I have a 256k memory stick in there now, which is
pretty much required due to the limited memory of the TJ25 to begin
with.

It's kind of a vicious circle... :-)

I don't mind the cables, really, it's no big deal, but I *would*
really like to power from the PDA..