laptop gps for 4x4

[blade828]

hi, i will be setting up a gps for my laptop soon and ive got a few q's. What exatcly will i need?, already have the laptop. the laptop wont be needed outside the car, so i dont need a handheld unit. Im not exatcly sure how it all works, like what gps receivers etc. I think a bluetooth receiver would be best? (no wires). ive also been playing around with oziexplorer, i would mainly use it for finding/following 4x4 tracks, but also would like to have a street map too, is oziexplorer a suitible program for this? Can i use oziexplorer while im driving to see a moving map, speed etc.. or will i need other programs? What maps would you reccomend for both 4x4 and street? are there any decent ones i can download, or will i need to buy them? Maybe also mount a 7-8" screen on the dash and have the laptop stored safely out of the way, what screens do you reccomend and are they easily connected to a laptop (laptop is brand new)
thanks!!
luke

[ddingle]

hi, i will be setting up a gps for my laptop soon and ive got a few q's. What exatcly will i need?, already have the laptop. the laptop wont be needed outside the car, so i dont need a handheld unit. Im not exatcly sure how it all works, like what gps receivers etc. I think a bluetooth receiver would be best? (no wires). ive also been playing around with oziexplorer, i would mainly use it for finding/following 4x4 tracks, but also would like to have a street map too, is oziexplorer a suitible program for this? Can i use oziexplorer while im driving to see a moving map, speed etc.. or will i need other programs? What maps would you reccomend for both 4x4 and street? are there any decent ones i can download, or will i need to buy them? Maybe also mount a 7-8" screen on the dash and have the laptop stored safely out of the way, what screens do you reccomend and are they easily connected to a laptop (laptop is brand new)
thanks!!
luke

If your laptop has bluetooth then a bluetooth GPS can be handy. My laptop and PDA both use bluetooth to communicate with the GPS. OZIExplorer (on PC and PDA) has a moving map feature so you can watch your movement on the map, along with current positional information.

I've had mine for a while now; the BT338 seems to be talked about a lot right now.

I bought some maps from MapTrax when I originally got my GPS, maybe the ones from this site are OK? I don't have any city maps. You can also download 1:250000 maps of anywhere in Australia from here:

https://www.ga.gov.au/products/servlet/controller?event=DEFINE_PRODUCTS


DD

[jrs]

> hi, i will be setting up a gps for my laptop soon and ive got a few q's. What exatcly will i need?, already have the laptop. the laptop wont be needed outside the car, so i dont need a handheld unit. Im not exatcly sure how it all works, like what gps receivers etc. I think a bluetooth receiver would be best? (no wires).

a USB gps does need a wire - but does not have flat battery issues.

> ive also been playing around with oziexplorer, i would mainly use it for finding/following 4x4 tracks, but also would like to have a street map too, is oziexplorer a suitible program for this?

definitely.

> Can i use oziexplorer while im driving to see a moving map, speed etc.. or will i need other programs?

ozi will do all this.

> What maps would you reccomend for both 4x4 and street? are there any decent ones i can download, or will i need to buy them?

I like the NSW stateview for getting to the 4WD site on the highway.
250K topos are useful there too, but the stateview is good, cheap and has good town maps.

25k topos for 4WD offroad.

I bought mine but seems much can be downloaded now.

UBD australian cities v3 works well for city street maps.

> Maybe also mount a 7-8" screen on the dash and have the laptop stored safely out of the way, what screens do you reccomend and are they easily connected to a laptop (laptop is brand new).

I use a 15 inch LCD on the passenger side dash. works well. 12v, small surround. gets 1024x768 and is bright enough for daytime use.
Just big enough to see things, any bigger would get too much in the way.
I'm wondering about something smaller for everyday city use though.

[blade828]

thanks for the info, very helpful! im not sure if the laptop has bluetooth, but its running XP. i could just plug a bluetooth dongle into the usb?

[UncySpam]

yup definitely. bluetooth dongles can be had from about $15 at the markets...