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#1
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Cheap Glide Computer
I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots
to use. Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shipping http://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. |
#2
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Cheap Glide Computer
In article
, Uncle Fuzzy wrote: I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shipping http://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. That's a good setup. How do you power the IPAQ for the duration of a x-country flight? Here's a comparable system I like, and have used for the last 5 years or so here in the USA: Palm Tungsten T: usually around $35 on ebay Power To Go battery pack (clips onto the Palm): $20 The same bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 SoaringPilot - Free Cheap enough to keep a spare PDA in the side pocket. This system will run for at least 8 hours (assuming the Power To Go is not worn out). I have flown flights of over 7 hours with no sign of battery exhaustion. Also, for less than $5, you can buy an AA battery pack that will run the unit for hours in flight. Of course, a Goddard power converter will let you run off ship's power. The Palm Tungsten T is very readable in bright sunlight. In fact, the brighter, the better. Best of all is SoaringPilot is mature software that is very well supported. Has all the features one would expect for x-country/contest flying. It is easy to set up on the PDA, easy to load waypoints, polars, and airspace, easy to enter and fly tasks. Automagically loads the igc file onto the card at the end of the flight if you like. Go to: http://www.soaringpilot.org/ Oh, and you can run SoaringPilot on the IPAQ with a Palm emulator called "Styletap". I haven't gotten around to trying XCSoar yet. I have a 5 inch screen Windows CE car gps that I may try to hack for XCSoar. |
#3
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 8:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote:
I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. XCSoar will generate valid OLC files. I had two logged Cambridge 302A flights that failed security checks this past season, and was able to use the XCSoar generated logs successfully. |
#4
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 7:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote:
I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. make sure you have the GRECORD.DLL file in the root directory, that has been working for me to generate valid files using XC soar. Brad |
#5
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 12:05*pm, Mike wrote:
On Nov 5, 8:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote: I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. XCSoar will generate valid OLC files. I had two logged Cambridge 302A flights that failed security checks this past season, and was able to use the XCSoar generated logs successfully. I had a similar setup last year. I was running SoarPilot on my old palm Treo 650 Using a bluetooth GPS. Since the battery setup in my Ka-6 uses a 12v cigarrette lighter plug to connect the panel to the battery, I just plugged the car adapter into the other socket on my battery. Worked out great. I've since upgraded to an Ipaq running SeeYou and a Volkslogger. Pete |
#6
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 12:22*pm, Brad wrote:
On Nov 5, 7:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote: I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. make sure you have the GRECORD.DLL file in the root directory, that has been working for me to generate valid files using XC soar. Brad Mike/Brad, Thanks for the info. I'll try to get a flight in this weekend to try it out. The cigarette lighter adapter that comes with the GPS outputs the same voltage required to keep a PDA happy, so I'll probably just make an adapter to go from it to the PDA. Another 7 bucks added. D'oh! The manual for the GPS unit says it's good for 12 hours, so I'm not going to bother with power for it. Jim |
#7
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 1:10*pm, Uncle Fuzzy wrote:
On Nov 5, 12:22*pm, Brad wrote: On Nov 5, 7:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote: I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. make sure you have the GRECORD.DLL file in the root directory, that has been working for me to generate valid files using XC soar. Brad Mike/Brad, * Thanks for the info. *I'll try to get a flight in this weekend to try it out. The cigarette lighter adapter that comes with the GPS outputs the same voltage required to keep a PDA happy, so I'll probably just make an adapter to go from it to the PDA. *Another 7 bucks added. D'oh! The manual for the GPS unit says it's good for 12 hours, so I'm not going to bother with power for it. Jim I've used a similar gps (Freedom Keychain) and the battery life was never an issue. I have to say that a HP310 for $150 was worth the extra money not to have to keep track of the level of charge and location of that little gps, or getting them to link up, ect. Works great though. |
#8
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 9:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote:
I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. I use a homemade prayer wheel that I copied from a free program off the web somewhere. For the cost of laminating two pieces of paper, one screw, a nut, and a washer I have a fail proof circular computer. And it has a scale on the side for measuring distances on a sectional map too. |
#9
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 5:59*pm, RT wrote:
On Nov 5, 9:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote: I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. I use a homemade prayer wheel that I copied from a free program off the web somewhere. *For the cost of laminating two pieces of paper, one screw, a nut, and a washer I have a fail proof circular computer. And it has a scale on the side for measuring distances on a sectional map too. It is as you said: Praying you read it correct in rough conditions. Praying you figured the winds correct. Praying you have time to redo the calculations for that second airport when the conditions deteriorate. Praying you estimated you position correctly. Sorry the days of praying have been gone for 40 years. |
#10
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Cheap Glide Computer
On Nov 5, 6:10*pm, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Nov 5, 5:59*pm, RT wrote: On Nov 5, 9:42*am, Uncle Fuzzy wrote: I just put together a REALLY cheap system for budding LVVSA XC pilots to use. *Here's the breakdown: iPAQ 3870 - ebay $22.50 including shipping (I bought a 'lot' of 5) New battery - $20.00 Bluetooth GPS from Semsons $23.60 including shippinghttp://www.semsons.com/amabg108blgp.html XCSoar - Free I haven't determined if I can make OLC valid files yet. I use a homemade prayer wheel that I copied from a free program off the web somewhere. *For the cost of laminating two pieces of paper, one screw, a nut, and a washer I have a fail proof circular computer. And it has a scale on the side for measuring distances on a sectional map too. It is as you said: Praying you read it correct in rough conditions. Praying you figured the winds correct. Praying you have time to redo the calculations for that second airport when the conditions deteriorate. Praying you estimated you position correctly. Sorry the days of praying have been gone for 40 years. I saw the secret, I deserve to make that airport.................I do, I do, I do.................! |
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