Your thoughts!

[Pickle]

Any one have any experience or thoughts with these.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2009-New-Model-HD-LCD-7-GPS-WIRELESS-REVERSE-CAMERA_W0QQitemZ300348613180QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Electronics_GPS?hash=item45ee2c223c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Dave

[Kemsley]

Looks ok.

Does the SD card slot support SDHC, that is SD cards of capacity greater than 2Gb like 8GB etc?

I would not be too hopefull with the wireless camera, most of this type are not the best.

I guesss that someone needs to buy one and report back!

[RoyHarvey]

Chinese GPS

About 3 months ago I bought one of these....

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/7-GPS-Navigation-FM-CAMERA-OP-2GB-SD-OZ-AU-MAP-G711_W0QQitemZ120471678214QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Electronics_GPS?hash=item1c0cabed06&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I have a wired camera with a separate screen so don't use the monitor function.

As far as the GPS goes I'm very happy for the price. The map appears to be out of date by a year or two, but it's way better than my old non voice Magellan.

[nj swb]

It looks OK, but what do you intend to do with it?

If you're thinking about hacking OziExplorer, I'm not sure how a 400MHz processor with WinCE5.0 and 128MB of RAM will work. I find it's a bit slow with a 533MHz processor and 512MB, but I'm using a PC with XP; I would hope CE is a little less resource hungry.

[Pickle]

Exactly what I was thinking of doing with it Scott! But you raise some interesting points.
Not overly worried about running Ozi but more so wireless reversing camera.
Dave

[sharkcaver]

Dave, you might want to ask the seller a q? I've heard a couple of stories now where people have bought the no-name gps units with "free" aussie maps only to find out 12 months down the track that the mapping was in reality a "trial version" which expired and they were left to then purchase a genuine mapping package. This is only hearsay, I do not know anyone personally suffering from this, but worth asking about I suppose. If you go ahead and hack this with ozi, can you let me know what the 7" screen is like. I find my 4.3" is just too small as it doesn't give a reasonable field of view, hence I'm looking into a 9- 10" permanent dash mounted monitor only unit for both ozi and rear cam.

Cheers,

Shane.

[Pickle]

Dave, you might want to ask the seller a q? I've heard a couple of stories now where people have bought the no-name gps units with "free" aussie maps only to find out 12 months down the track that the mapping was in reality a "trial version" which expired and they were left to then purchase a genuine mapping package. This is only hearsay, I do not know anyone personally suffering from this, but worth asking about I suppose.
Cheers,

Shane.

Thanks Shane, will look into it. But I suppose it's the old saying that you get what you pay for.
Dave

[nj swb]

If you go ahead and hack this with ozi, can you let me know what the 7" screen is like. I find my 4.3" is just too small as it doesn't give a reasonable field of view, hence I'm looking into a 9- 10" permanent dash mounted monitor only unit for both ozi and rear cam.

I'm running Ozi on an 8" touchscreen with 800x600 resolution. I don't have any issues with the field of view, although the controls are a little on the small side. Although, I'm only really using it for a moving map display, primarily for interest sake - I haven't tried to use it for "real" navigation.

[nj swb]

Not overly worried about running Ozi but more so wireless reversing camera.
Dave

This is something I consider occasionally, but haven't done much with. The best solution I've seen was in a Camry owned by a colleague in Brisbane. He had an aftermarket kit which replaced the rear-vision mirror with a screen (same width, probably double the height of a typical mirror). Under normal circumstances, it worked like a normal mirror, reflecting what's out the back. Select reverse & the screen fired up and displayed the output from the camera.

[Pickle]

I'm running Ozi on an 8" touchscreen with 800x600 resolution. I don't have any issues with the field of view, although the controls are a little on the small side. Although, I'm only really using it for a moving map display, primarily for interest sake - I haven't tried to use it for "real" navigation.

Gunna give us some details on the unit Scott?
Dave

[nj swb]

Gunna give us some details on the unit Scott?
Dave

Search, N00b! (Sorry, couldn't resist. )

Carputer was cobbled together a few years ago, with surplus R&D bits from my old job. I did a deal for VIA Mini-ITX motherboard (800MHz, from memory), 2.5" FDD & touchscreen. I bought case (incl. 12V-ATX powersupply), RAM, slimline CD burner + Windows XP on line, put it all together, and a mate loaded the OS for me. I've cut up the tray under the passenger's seat, and it's mounted there. Original intent was to download pics and burn to CD as we did our Cape York trip - which we did. My ex also used it to keep a trip log in MS Word, and I hooked it up to the stereo to play songs using Media Player. (First night on the OTL, as the camp fire was cranking up, so was Dire Straits - Telegraph Road. )

Has worked pretty reliably for a few years, although just before this trip it started shutting down on me while driving. I eventually tracked it down to the power supply not liking the input voltage. As soon as the PSU input hit 14.1V, down she went - and wouldn't reset until power was removed.



One 6A diode later, it hasn't missed a beat since.

It's a little slow to boot and load OziExplorer, but the moving map works well enough. I think I'll upgrade RAM before the next trip (currently 512M, I'll have to see how high I can go, and $$$), or toss the MB for something faster (or both... )

If I was to start again, I think I'd look hard at the EEE and similar. I'm not sure how they stack up, but I suspect it would be "easier" all round.

Looks like I was wrong on the MB speed - we had 533MHz and 800MHz units, I thought I scored 533MHz, because it had a feature I wanted which the 800MHz units didn't have.

Either way, I now think it's too slow, particularly the USB ports - they're only 1.1, so painfully slow. But I don't use it enough to justify buying a new MB, so I probably won't do anything any time soon.

[Pickle]

Ya cheecky bugger , that was years ago. Thought you might have been playing with something else
Dave

[nj swb]

Ya cheecky bugger , that was years ago. Thought you might have been playing with something else
Dave

Sorry - I've become really boring lately.

[marcthelegend]

I find that using my 300 dollar EEEpc with a bluetooth GPS device works great! just built my own mount yesterday (thanks icysyrup for the idea!) which consisted of a small piece of alluminium and 2 pergola (spelling?) bracket things (basically strips of 4mm thick steel) and bolted them into the little pocket under the clock (plastic is soooo strong!!) and then riveted the aluminium plate on.. hardly any movement, just a little wobbling over strong road bumps etc. It runs Ozi and also Centrafuse (street mapping) very very well .. just figured out how to make it 'hibernate' with the ignition turning off and 'wake' when it comes back on! Below is a pic of the setup.

Regards

Marc

[Pajit]

Hi All, Just picked up my NT VRX and chose not to get the MMCS package with all its limitations. Been looking for a double DIN dvd,reversing camera,blue tooth,GPS unit and have found several options available. There is the chinese units available on Ebay some include steering wheel controls. These however are unknown, all some people report good results on this website. I have found one called DN4402

http://www.hitv.com.au/images/media/newsletter/090818.pdf

It comes with a trial version of Ozieplorer on it. It is around the $1500 but you need to add the camera onto the price. It is supported in Australia. Still trying to decide which way to go as the other units are only around $300-500. The replacement rear view mirror units are supposed to be quite good if that is all you are after.