Hey guys, I've been wanting a GPS in the worst way for almost a year now and I may have a solution now...and at a great low cost!

I work for a small IT department and we each just got a new Dell mini 9 for testing as we may consider rolling them out to the students in our district. For those of you don't know its Dell's new ultra mini sub-notebook or "netbook". Sweet little device, solid state hard drive and no moving parts. The 9 is meaning its size in 9". I've only had the thing about 24hrs and I'm already thinking of personal uses for it LOL.

Anyway I'm looking at this USB GPS/data logger dongle. For $40 if it works well enough I can do everything I want which is mainly tracking/recording trails and manipulate them on the fly if the mood strikes.

Here is the unit I'm looking at: http://www.buygpsnow.com/Canmore-GT-730F(L)-USB-GPS-Tracker-Stick-Data-Logger-with-A-GPS-Support__1038.aspx

It states that the technology improves reception and will work plugged in directly to a laptop usb port. If needed however I could make a usb extension cable and locate the receiver in a more open area on the dash. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with type of setup or not or has any thoughts about what I hope to do?

 

I've been considering the same thing as I am currently shopping around for a GPS but don't want to drop $500 on a Rhino

I want to get a USB GPS module as a compliment to map software, a backup GPS as well as a planning tool. As a primary navigation tool, my laptop is not a viable solution to me. And I have a rather small Dell Latitude D430 that "could" be mounted up front but nah... too much. Space is already at a premium in a Wrangler. 9" laptop, another story altogether. Just hope that solid state drive has enough free disk space for a map program! Have they gotten over 36GB yet? I'm sure they have.

On another note, I found refurbished Magellan Crossovers on Ebay for $100.

Can you say "Merry Christmas to ME!!!!"?

 

We got the 16GB SSD drives in our minis. I'm not sure if dell offers a larger capacity at this point or not...but you can buy them. I found today 36GB for around $120 and 64GB for a little under $250. Prices are not bad but you have to consider the minis starting price is around $350. Also you can throw in a mini SD memory card on the mini for more space...I had an older 8GB card I put in mine, its not fast but its somewhere to store stuff. If you really had to you could run an external hard drive (laptop size) which i have also...but then you'd definitely want to have power to the mini. The size this unit is makes it about perfect for the dash above the radio. I'll have to figure out something to stabilize it but it wouldn't take much...thing weighs nothing!

 

Nice, post up pics when you get it installed

 

I sure will! I'll probably order the dongle tomorrow. I will have to think about the mount so it looks decent. I could probably slap a chunk of heavy duty velcro on the bottom but don't think I want to do that just yet.

 

Have you looked at the DeLorme laptop GPS unit? They list it for $70 (including street atlas s/w), but you should be able to find it cheaper with a rebate deal. Their Topo s/w is very nice too...

shop.delorme dot com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10091

 

The Delorme looks like a decent unit but I'm not sure it would do all I wanted...maybe it would.

The Canmore GT-730F(L) does data logging which helps with recording tracks along with some other new technology:

It also has A-GPS which assists in satellite acquisition. You can download data that contains sat locations which is supposed to speed up connectivity (15 seconds it says on the site).

I figure play with a few different software application and find which one(s) suit my needs best.

 

Well I got the "dongle" yesterday, nice wasn't expecting it for another day or two. Didn't get to play with it much since the neighbor brought his laptop over and wanted some work done on it

I got the driver installed and think I updated the AGPS (was trying to watch tv shows at the same time). The software includes an app that shows the data coming in and the satellites its connecting to. Seems to connect very quickly! I didn't fire up the data logger program yet. I am wondering what software to use now? I wouldn't mind having two separate if it meant the best of both worlds, one for offroad and tracking and one for regular road trips. I downloaded google earth but then realized you have to pay to enable GPS support. I also have to keep in mind that the screen is small and the resolution is 1024x600. Google earth warned me about the resolution but looked ok when I opened it.

I'll do some searching on the forums and elsewhere to get an idea of what apps to use. My comment about not paying for google earth is not meant to say I won't pay for software simply that I want to be sure that before I pay I know it will do what I want.

 

Haven't played with the setup much yet but I've played with Delorme street atlas a little bit and the dongle works fine with it. I need to start looking at something for offroad now or something that can do both decently. I also still need play with a secure mount for the Dell mini.

Ended up buying my wife a mini for a christmas present LOL...there is a code on the net to get it for $299 with the 8gb SSD and windows XP

 

I use Delorme Street Atlas on a laptop with a GPS antenna plugged into the USB port. Works very well, you can plot routes with it and it tracks your location on screen as you move. Delorme also makes a topo map software that I would imagine works with an external antenna too. My antenna is a Holux unit, about half the size of a pack of cigarettes.