Palm Pilot as a Road Book??

[Gregorius]

So - has anyone done it?? I have a Palm Vx, nice biggish screen, and was wondering if I could use it with route notes to complement the waypoint navigation of my GarminIII... I'm also getting a folding keypad so that it wil lserve as a small wp/diary...

Any thoughts??

Greg

[MarkLG]

I assume your thinking about mounting the Palm on the bike somewhere. I had a similar idea of using a PocketPC running TomTom software. In the end I gave up on it for a couple of reasons:

• Not weatherproof
• Poor visibily of screen in bright sunlight, not having it in a tank mounted map case - it was pretty well impossible to read at times
• Unreliable - I tried 2 different models, and could get neither to operate consistantly. They don't seem sturdy enough to cope with the heat and vibration.

In the end I gave up on the idea and managed to find a cheap Garmin Streetpilot III on ebay which I've been very pleased with.
If you're looking for more navigational information and route planning then you'd probably be better off updating your GPS unit, rather than using the Palm on the bike.

[Gregorius]

Thanks Mark - yes, I was going to Ram-Mount it alongside the GPS so that I could read relevant notes about my route as I progressed (I'm going to Morocco next month and am following a loop which includes some of Chris Scott's routes and I was going to crib his notes just as a kind of double check if you like... ) I already have an SPIII - bloody marvelous piece of kit - but also have the smaller and much lighter GPSIII which is a waypoint only navigator. I'd considred using the SPIII, but it's a bit of a lump and I'd be worried about it being damaged whilst off road...

Greg

[MarkLG]

Originally Posted by Gregorius

I'm going to Morocco next month and am following a loop which includes some of Chris Scott's routes and I was going to crib his notes just as a kind of double check if you like...
Greg

In that situation I'd go with the older GPS with the waypoints programmed into it and photocopy the route guides and keep them in a tank mounted map holder, along with a regular road map. I believe it's better to keeps things simple, and minimise the amount of gadgets you carry. If you worried about damaging the SP III, then would you be happy about risking the Palm on the bike?
I'm planning a similar trip in may next year and will probably be using the SPIII. If you haven't already then take a look at this website for Morroco routes and waypoints:
http://www.voyages4x4.com/roadbook_maroc.htm

I used the Google translater to get english notes.

[Gregorius]

Hi both .. thanks for the comments.

Mark - I bought my Palm Vx about three years ago on Ebay, it cost me £45 and I thought it was the bog's dollox, but sadness of sadnesses, I was looking for a keypad for it a few nights ago, and was amazed to see that you can 'steal' a complete Vx kit for less than £15.00 - almost disposable money!! The GPSIII I bought was virtually brand new and cost me less than £50.00 .

In fairness, the gps and palm would have been mounted on a Ram Ball just behind the fairing, both are quite low mass so probably would survive any minor spill.

One thing however I did realise is that it's almost a sad inditement of the way in which we take computerised solid state digital solutions so much for granted these days - I'd not even thought of using paper notes in the tank-bag!! Maybe I'll even consider using a pen for my trip diary!!

Greg

[mmaarten]

I had the same idea. Used the palm (4 or 5 years ago) and even bought a very expensive water and shockproof case....

I gave the idea up and used a oldfashioned paper-roadbook holder.

Why?

Try entering Urdu, or Farsi, or Hindi, or Thai, or arabic script into your palm...... Does not work.
Unfortunatly, many roadsigns are written in these scripts.

So, what did I do?
I planned my route on the map. Wrote all the important city-names on my roadbook-paper and asked a local guy (or gail) to write the local script behind it.
This way you can find any place, anywhere..... except in Mexico (see my website for the mexican national sport and the letter X)

By the way, my roadbook-holder was made out of a old lunchbox, some (also old) radio knobs and somealuminium-curtain-rod. It still works! (after years of torture)

Hope this helps
Maarten

[Frank Warner]

I agree on the PPC screen washing out in sun. THe garmin 60Cx screen is ok in sun, but the ipaq 2190 screen is not. Both Ram mounted. Vibration and dirt .. tested and survived .. sorry not much in the way of rain around here at the moment..

I run Oziexplorer on the PPC and it is good for raster maps .. certainly takes less space and weight compared to the paper maps ... and you don't have to find out where you are on the map. Just where you want to get to (or where you should be).

Yes .. I have a pen or two .. and some paper .. and a paper map .. but not the amount I used to carry before the PPC and GPS ..