Jim Weir: Moving map GPS

It is all the rage among the geeky crowd to build tiny PCs to put
under the seat of your car for GPS navigation, music, etc. You can
buy them off the shelf, designed to run on 12vdc. For example:

www.mini-box.com
www.mini-itx.com
www.logicsupply.com

Some of them even have composite video outputs. Or you could use a
cheap VGA-to-composite video converter. I have one that I use for
presentations at venues that have only video screens. Cost about
$50 and draws power from the USB port of my laptop. But you definitely
lose some resolution.

EarthLCD (www.earthlcd.com) sells a 7.8" LCD screen with VGA input,
but the resolution is only 640x480, and contrast is only 45:1.

A lot of the mini-itx form factor PC motherboards can drive an LCD
screen directly, but I have not had much luck finding bare color LCD
screens in the 5-7" range, nor details on how to hook them up to
a mini-itx motherboard.


Happy hacking,

Ross Oliver

John S wrote:
Jim, I like some of the PDA based nav software (TeleType, Control
Vision),
but can't live with the tiny little screens on a PDA. And a nice
little
subnotebook computer--even used--is outrageously expensive.

I don't know what you consider outrageous, but you might look into the
Sony Vaio Picturebook. I use one of these for a moving map display for
both aviation and vehicular travel (with a USB GPS receiver). The PC
is about the size of a VHS videotape, and amazingly bright (can be
read in direct sunlight, though I wouldn't do so by choice). The model
I have is a Pentium 266 and runs Windows 98 - kinda obsolete, but does
what I want it to very well. The cables are a nuisance, but that is
also true of my portable aviation GPS. There is one offered right now
on eBay at a buy-it-now price of $399.

David Johnson

Try ebay:
http://tinyurl.com/5vva8
for vga car video monitors.

I bought a MIO 168 Pocket OC running Windows CE with the intent of
using it with one of the movingmap/nav software packages. It has a
beautiful, high-resolution display in subdued ambient light but
completely washes-out and becomes unreadable in sunlight. I allowed
myself to be fooled by the various "product reviews" wherein the
reviewer apparently failed to get off his butt and actually go outside
and use it. Try before you buy! YMMV.

Sid Knox
Oklahoma

Velocity N199RS
Starduster N666SK
KR2 N24TC
W7QJQ



John S wrote:
Jim, I like some of the PDA based nav software (TeleType, Control
Vision),
but can't live with the tiny little screens on a PDA. And a nice
little
subnotebook computer--even used--is outrageously expensive.

J.C. Whitney sells a Pyramid 7" TFT/LCD monitor for DVD or
Videocassette
players (System: NTSC. Video input: composition video signal.)
$150.
Will this kind of monitor work with a cheap laptop computer?

Thanks.