DIY Moving Map from PDA and GPS Mouse (XMAS 2009)

[brian whatcott]

This is a Public Service note for others who might want to go the same
way in the next year or two (2010 to 2012) After that - this
technology will be stale - it's moving so fast.

I set out a few weeks ago with the idea to make something as useful as
the Garmin aviation gadgets in the 196,296,396 series which Big G
has been selling at progressively higher prices, bucking the trend to
lower unit costs that I prefer.

I had in mind a moving map, ADI (Attitude Director Indicator) look
alike, HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator) look alike, look up list of
nearby airports by distance and bearing: all based on a PDA and a GPS mouse.

I consulted rec.aviation.soaring group for advice first, because these
folks are low on trolls and high on early adopters, and feature helpful
vendors for the soaring fraternity.

I pulled a Garmin proprietary PDA with a built in GPS antenna flap
off eBay. iQue M5 with 64MByte RAM 64Mbyte ROM, 2 GByte SD card,
416 MHz processor, Microsoft mobile 2003 2nd edn OS. Under $200.
(2003 cost $750 apparently)

At Christmas 2009, this is already an abandoned, unsupported product
so it's probably not the best choice. A PDA with at least a 600MHz
class processor seems more desirable.
A GPS mouse (<$80) that can be optimized for antenna location seems like
an optimal idea, though I can say that this Garmin PDA product showed
quick acquisition and steady hold using its built in antenna.

Anyway, after faffing around, scanning the market for software
applications - of which there seem to be at least six of interest, I
loaded a trial version of APIC. This is basically the first application
I tried that loaded and worked well enough to encourage me to keep going
with it. No claims that it is best in the field, though it seems well
done. And it shows a history of bug fixes and enhancements - always
encouraging. British, I think.

After the inevitable reloads, PDA downloads, screwing around, enabling
this, disabling that, and setting up the correct COM port (#4 at 4800
baud, not as Garmin advertized BTW) I was running excellent displays.

If you have done any research at all, you will not be shocked to read
that the display was somewhat dim in bright sunlight. This is the
product area that could really do with improvement in the next year or two.

I can touch an airport on screen on a heading up display, read its
runways and frequencies and select Direct To, and get course and
distance and current heading, with Altitude, Speed (in klicks, Kts or
mph). I see terrain elevation color coded in (if I may say) cool pastel
gradations of pink, orange through red). In other words: pretty much
the displays I wanted to see.

If I try to specify too much detail in the moving maps I have seen a
lock up or two, and this seems like the weakest feature of a DIY rig:
plenty of resources in memory seems like good insurance.
Cutting out unwanted applications like excel, calender etc., etc seems
like a good idea too.

Hope this helps the next person traveling this road....

Brian W