CE based automotive gps units

Wasn't sure where to post this..

Ok, I've been looking to rig up my intermec with routable maps and a cf gps for the car. Maybe I've been doing it backwards.

There's a fair number of car gps's with 4.2 and 5.0 at the core. I've read they can be hacked to restore some pda functions.

Anyone here have an experience with this?

Haven't read the CE 4.x .net/CE 5 forums lately, have we? (Just poking fun - I know you haven't been around here for a while.) There are lots of threads there on this. It generally involves putting explorer.exe on an SD card, renaming it to the name of the file that executes the GPS' proprietary GUI, inserting the card in the device, and pushing the reset button. (There's more involved than that, of course.) Several of these threads are among the most recent.

The CE5 units often have a PNAShell.exe on a small flash storage in the unit.

I have a replacement PNAShell that starts explorer as a service.

This means on a Soft re-set the unit boots into CE.

Unfortunately the CE5 PNA's seem to restore registry and windows directory on a soft re-set. So if you wanted to run programs from CE you may need to pop any dll's required in app directory rather than windows.

I moved the original PNAshell to a diffrent location on the built in flash so if I want to run the original nav software I just navigate to the file and double tap it.

As already said for 4.2 a favourite is to pop a renamed explorer.exe in place of the nav software’s .exe

Depends what you want to do really. Most PNA's have screen resolutions that are smaller than optimal for a lot of CE apps and although they have a battery they do not tend to last as long as a PDA's battery.

I would much rather take a CE device and run satnav from it if I wanted a good, do everything, solution. If keyboard isn't important maybe a CE tablet would be a good option (albatron TeePC maybe???). I have had tomtom running on Sig3 and Smartbook G138, Route 66 8 for WM running on the smartbook, Igo 8 ran on smartbook but couldn't find a way to make an 800x480 theme work on the version I had. Would have thought the intermec would be great for Satnav, Just get a copy of the software recommended in the other thread. re. your problem with GPS receiver is there not a Bluetooth card that will work in the intermec? If yes then just get a Bluetooth GPS receiver.

Hope this helps

Cheers

John

I'm with mr-mac on the last point. I'm more interested in getting a core CE device to do GPS than in adding functions to a GPS that happens to have CE underneath. (Thus my setup of Ostia 5.1 on my PenCentra.) However, even I have to acknowledge that OEMs are taking our choices away by focusing on the latter.

hehe.
I got to get out more.

That's great info guys. My hope is to take a PNA I'll be using on my motorbike and give it enough CE apps that I won't need to carry a dedicated CE device.

I'll do some searching but ask this anyway. for now. Anyone get pocket office or a PIM running on a PNA?

not tried but guess the databases wont be included as standard.

John

Still mulling over my options.

If I could get a cheap enough BT card working on my 6651 I can buy S&T2008 with a BT gps for $30. Not shabby.

But I guess I'm still thinking a PNA modded to run a few CE aps (couple games, wordpad, tcpmp, gsplayer, maybe a Pim, thought agenda might work or the other full featured one, can't remember it's name.) That and being able to use different gps stuff on the PNA if I find it better than the builtin gps stuff would be cool.
Again, this will b mounted on my bike in a housing so if I kill a $85 pna not as big a deal as killing a 6651.

Anyhow, I can get the Magellan Maestro 3250 for $85 and it has BT, voice recognition, 4.2 core ( I think) and a SD slot. I hope it can be hacked easily.

That's cheaper and faster than scrounging bits amd software for my 6651.

John, any experience hacking Magellans?

Shouldn't be too tough to get Pocket Office working. Ask cmonex about that.

That's what I figured. Pocket office will do it for me. Guess I'll order the $85 PNA and hope for the best. Worst case case when I'm done, I have a brick. Best case is a PNA with decent enough hpc features to get me by.

BTW, search YouTube with the keywords "Windows CE" and you'll see several videos showing how to boot CE from some PNAs.