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Big Dog Joined: 18 Oct 2000 Posts: 4419

Feel free to post any questions, comments, or feedback regarding this article. We will do our best to answer any questions you may have, and look forward to your feedback on this article!

Original Article - http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_hardware_00028.asp

Moderator Joined: 05 Dec 2000 Posts: 5941 Location: USA

Quote:
"Why would I want to lug a laptop through the woods just to have GPS capability?".

That's true ... but that option to connect to a palm device ... grrr ... now you got me thinking Rover ... wOOf-wOOf (good job) !!!

[b]I'm sitting in a magic chair ... Evil Smile

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Stray Dog Joined: 16 Apr 2001 Posts: 26 Location: USA

I have to say that when they get one of these for my Cassiopeia Palm PC, I might actually pick it up. The concept is cool, but I don't have, nor want, a Laptop now, and I am not going to get one just so I can, um, find myself! Great review though...

Talon

"I see Dumb people. Their everywhere....They walk around like everyone else, they don't even know their dumb" -Quote taken and edited from "The Sixth Sense"

Cat Chaser Joined: 24 Oct 2000 Posts: 951 Location: USA

Dam, you sure do get cool toys to play with. Nice review...but you gotta stop putting ideas in my head. Like i have the money for a gps unit. sheesh. [ Wink

]

keep it up dawg

=========================
"which one was logjammin?"
- the dude

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2001 3:31 am Post subject:

Good dog, Rover, I mean, good review. I liked the intro. Too bad we didn't have this back then!

As far as the accuracy goes, that's as good as it gets for any GPS unit for public use. There's sort of a scrambling signal transmitted by the GPS satellites to reduce accuracy for anyone except govt. agencies. I read about a GPS unit awhile back that used the satellite signals along with LORAN-C to increase accuracy to just a few feet but haven't heard anything about it for a while.

I guess that receiver doesn't have an antenna connector. An external antenna on the car roof or rear window would increase reception remarkably.

- Ed.

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2001 4:46 pm Post subject:

Thanks all for the compliments. I had a lot of fun playing with and showing off the GPS to friends. Talon I think they might have software and a connector for your Cassiopeia Palm PC? have you looked at Delorme's website? I know they have software for both the Palm and WindowsCE devices.

Sorry Ed I wasn't really in Vietnam, I was in the Army during the Gulf conflict, never made it to the desert though. They didn't have a use for my speciality...Czech linguist and Interrogator!

As for the accuracy, the government has already allowed better accuracy once. It went from +/- 100 meters to +/- 20 meters. They used a process called Selective Availability to hamper the accuracy of public sector GPS units. Now they have proven after 4 years of research that they can do this on a regional basis aka over foreign hostile countries. On May 5, 2000 the US government relaxed the Selective Availability to what it is today.

I didn't mention this in my article but there is a shit load of software available from Delorme:

Quote:
3-D TopoQuadsä, GPS PostPro, XMap Businessâ, Street Atlas USAâ 7.0, DeLorme Topo USAä 2.0, AAA Map'n'Goâ 6.0, Solus Pro 1.5 and Earthaä Global Explorerâ, with several titles also available on DVD-ROM. The DeLorme Earthmateâ GPS receiver, co-developed with Conexant/Rockwell, pioneers in satellite technology, is designed to work with DeLorme software. The company also produces the Atlas & Gazetteerä series of paper topographic maps, available for all 50 states, as well as other paper atlases and maps.

Rover

Toilet bowls...the chalice of dogs everywhere.

Stray Dog Joined: 02 May 2001 Posts: 17 Location: USA

Would be great mounted on the dash of my Land Rover and attached to my laptop while cruzing through baja.

Stray Dog Joined: 06 Jun 2001 Posts: 1 Location: USA

Good review, I am buying one of these. The info I read, says the earthmate is NMEA compatible, which can be used with any software.

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2001 4:16 pm Post subject:

Quote:

As far as the accuracy goes, that's as good as it gets for any GPS unit for public use. There's sort of a scrambling signal transmitted by the GPS satellites to reduce accuracy for anyone except govt. agencies.

I heard a story a while back about the Gulf War. Apparently, one giveaway thet the war had kicked off was that civilian GPS units suddenly became more accurate. Since I didn't have GPS unit then I can't verify this personally. Anyone know if it's true?

My £0.02,
Demon
---=== ===---
Seal clubbing - otariidae discoteca

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2001 5:29 pm Post subject:

I've never heard that Demon, but it's possible. There is other ways to get more accurate GPS readings using local radio towers for triangulation, but not all GPS units support it and not all radio towers pump out a signal.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Big Dog Joined: 20 Oct 2000 Posts: 3689 Location: USA

Quote:

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:

I heard a story a while back about the Gulf War. Apparently, one giveaway thet the war had kicked off was that civilian GPS units suddenly became more accurate. Since I didn't have GPS unit then I can't verify this personally. Anyone know if it's true?<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote>

not perfectly accurate . . . but close

the standards for GPS have been relaxed . . . once upon a time the algorhythms inside civilian gps units had to be tweaked so that they were only accurate to "within a 100 ft square" of where you actually were

now the standards for civilian are "within a 10 ft square" (except for cell phone GPS)

i might not have the wording perfect, but i think you get the idea

anyway . . when they war kicked off they turned up the signal intensity on the gps satellites . . . this made the gps units able to latch onto more satellites with better signal integrety

for civilian units it just made the "100 ft" variance pretty much disappear so when the gps said you were at XXX.xx.xx by YYY.yy.yy you were actually in the center of the "square" . . . instead of "someplace" inside the square

does that make sense ?

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2001 12:34 am Post subject:

Quote:

does that make sense ?

It certainly does.

Stray Dog Joined: 01 Jul 2001 Posts: 1 Location: USA

I've used this system for quite some time. Business travels - finding hotels, etc., an invaluable tool. Never go anywhere without it and my laptop.

I tried the Road Warrior and even the Street Atklas 8.0, but am sticking with the 7.0 release due to some personal useability issues.

But it's a great product. One of the few time that new-fangled technology is bundled into a user-need solution...

Stray Dog Joined: 28 Apr 2006 Posts: 2

Hello

I have an Eathmate Hyperformance GPS receiver, and i
would like to know how do I put it into operation.

I bought it from an antiquity shop for, with no maps or software. How can I get these?

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:37 am Post subject:

Holy thread resurrection, Batman! 5 years has got to be some sort of record.