lawman

Heheheh ... the power adaptors are the only weak point I would say in this package, unless they change it or have improved the quality. But on my original G2500 mount, the failure of my power adaptor was causing the blow out of my car fuse. I had to take the car to my mechanic and find out there was nothing wrong with my cigarette lighter port or the car electrics. The problem was actually the power adaptor not doing its job. There is a 3A fuse built into the power adaptor. This 3A fuse should have blown first instead of my car's 10A fuse. But it did not. Once I figured it out, I resorted to a cheap third party power adaptor (made by Radio Shack now known as Circuit City in Canada) as a power adaptor replacement. It cost me around C$17.

Seidio did offer to replace, but I do not have the time to send back to them to get it changed. So, I opted to just a cheap power adaptor from Radio Shack. Now, saying that the Radio Shack power adaptor is cheap, the Radio Shack model as a 2A fuse and has an ON/OFF switch built into the cigarette adaptor head. So, I can leave it plugged in and switch it ON/OFF to power the mount.

The 2A fuse is sufficient to power the X50v when it is nearly drained (~20% battery power left), even when being used. So, I believe a 2A fuse is more than sufficient. I was also powering/charging a secondary BT GPS device (GPS10) from the same G2500 mount. So, I know it works well.

I would recommend getting the Radio Shack power adaptor since you really need an additional backup. I can't see myself having only one.

The episode above that I suffered (blew out 6 10A car fuses before I got wise to it) cause me to travel without being able to use the mount for like 2 weeks until I found this Radio Shack model with help from "dlweston" another Aximsite user.

Other than that, the G2500 mount is very good. And now the G4850 mount continues the very good Seidio mount design from the first mount. Its just the power adaptor you need to be careful of.

My recommendation is to use the Seidio power adaptor (the one that came with the package) and have a RadioShack power adaptor as a backup. Or, use it vice-versa.

Hope that answers your question above.

lawman

That said, I've been using the Seidio G2500 mount since end of March till now and its rock solid. Best buy so far compared to my colleague's Arkon mount. I wanted a customized mount but he opted for an Arkon "universal" mount. Pros and cons of course. "Universal" does not have a snug fit like my Seidio mount. I can just Plug and Go. He has to Plug and Fiddle to tighten the side clasps on the Arkon.

seidioseidio

Originally Posted by lawman

Heheheh ... the power adaptors are the only weak point I would say in this package, unless they change it or have improved the quality.

Fair enough. It is true that we had design flaws in our first generation of car chargers for the 2500. Those flaws were discovered, acknowledged, and manufacturing updates made. To our knowledge, there have been NO car charger related problems as discussed in the above post for quite awhile. Have you had any charger problems with the 4850 and accompanying charger you are using? If you are, please let us know and we'll look into it immediately. Thank you for a fair and unbiased product review.

lawman

Thanks, I usually am very frank and unbiased.

The car power adaptor on the G4850 has so far been working fine. To reproduce the problem, there is a procedure I use. Initially, I leave it plugged in and never remove the power adaptor. Over the next couple of days, I usually have to pull and re-insert the power adaptor a couple of times. When I plug the power adaptor in again, the power adaptor should not work since my 10A fuse will be blown.

So far, this problem has not occurred with the G4850 power adaptor. I'm going to continue this over the course of this week, and I also expect my car 10A fuse to survive my week of torture on this G4850 power adaptor (I'm currently on Day 4 of torture), in which I'll update my review to include this fact once I'm satisfied.

So far, its working very well on Day 4. Another couple more days should suffice.

dealhunt_101

hello everyone, i am new in this community and to the GPS lingo. i was gifted a Axim X30 a couple months ago and have been using it religiously. A couple of my friends have been using it as a GPS device with the HP iPAQ Bluetooth GPS receiver and seem to be happy with it. Per the reviews on this site, people seem to be happy with their OnCourse SiRF Star III Bluetooth GPS Receiver (WAAS enabled). Could someone please tell me which one is better over the other? I am looking for a bluetooth enabled receiver. Any advice will be highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

lawman

Considering this is your first post, you should ask this as a "New" post in this forum and not get it lost embedded within this train of messages. And welcome to Aximsite!

jing0124

Hi Lawman,

Since you have seen both Seidio car kit (G4850) and Akron car mount. Can you comment on the sound quality on each unit ? This is the main reason I want to buy the car kit-the amplified speaker with good audio quality.

dealhunt_101

Originally Posted by lawman

Considering this is your first post, you should ask this as a "New" post in this forum and not get it lost embedded within this train of messages. And welcome to Aximsite!

thanks for the advice lawman!

lawman

Originally Posted by jing0124

Hi Lawman, Since you have seen both Seidio car kit (G4850) and Akron car mount. Can you comment on the sound quality on each unit ? This is the main reason I want to buy the car kit-the amplified speaker with good audio quality.

Originally, I did not expect the Arkon DM320 mount to have voice stutter (its dependent on your fiddling session, but you'll need to check with JakeRich's Arkon review which pretty much sums up what I saw my friend go thru) as I never heard it in action until recently and after someone here mentioned that the voice stuttered. So, I asked my colleague to demo his new Arkon model. He loves it because he can use it with different PDA models.

My impression of the Arkon is that its loud but the voice does break when its being delivered but it is dependent on you having patience to fiddle with the volume settings to get the right balance.

Just watching my colleague go thru his routine of "calibrating" the sound volume just right probably sent me to the hospital with a high blood pressure. And that's adjusting it for one GPS mapping application. If you have different GPS routing applications that has voice, you can imagine another fiddling session whenever you switch between the two. Else, you have to live with the "stutter" as what is a "good" setting for one program might not be "good" for a different program.

Personally, I hate to waste time to play with the volume. I like to set it once and that's it. A GPS mount is supposed to do two basic things (if it does more - great!);

1. hold the PDA properly
2. have an adjustable sound volume that a user needs to set only once

If the mount gives me hassle on these simple items, it goes back to the manufacturer. Those are the most simple requirements to get right. If not, you're paying too much.

Think about it, I am going to be using this mount for the next 3+ years so I cannot expect it to give me hassles like the above for 3+ years. That's just plain wrong. When you buy something, you want to use it. Not perform lobotomy on it ...

You don't want to fiddle with it every time. Example, I have a very good sound amplifier system that I set up from Day One, which I have not needed to tweak since Day One! Can you imagine tweaking your sound amplifier home system every time you used it, if you were playing a different record? Would drive my wife freakin' nuts, but that's just my wife ... :)

dlweston

Originally Posted by seidioseidio

Fair enough. It is true that we had design flaws in our first generation of car chargers for the 2500. Those flaws were discovered, acknowledged, and manufacturing updates made. To our knowledge, there have been NO car charger related problems as discussed in the above post for quite awhile. Have you had any charger problems with the 4850 and accompanying charger you are using? If you are, please let us know and we'll look into it immediately. Thank you for a fair and unbiased product review.

I am pretty sure lawman had the second generation power adapter. His adapter did not look the same as mine and I am sure mine was a first generation. I had a round fuse in my adapter and I believe he had one on the new fuses with the two blades that were in line with each other.

You guys should look at the adapter from Radio Shack, Part Number 270-1594 Description 8FT DC Coiled Cord 2A, 12VDC. The added power switch is great. For me the right angle cable output is also a plus and the reason I never bothered getting a replacement from you. I do not carry a spare as lawman suggests. I have been using mine for quite some time and it has always worked flawlessly.

JakeRich

I have the new mount and the power cable is well made. I've used it in two cars and two bench power supplies and it works perfectly. I think it's time to stop beating that particular dead horse. They have fixed it...

jing0124

Originally Posted by lawman

Originally, I did not expect the Arkon DM320 mount to have voice stutter (its dependent on your fiddling session, but you'll need to check with JakeRich's Arkon review which pretty much sums up what I saw my friend go thru) as I never heard it in action until recently and after someone here mentioned that the voice stuttered. So, I asked my colleague to demo his new Arkon model. He loves it because he can use it with different PDA models. My impression of the Arkon is that its loud but the voice does break when its being delivered but it is dependent on you having patience to fiddle with the volume settings to get the right balance. Just watching my colleague go thru his routine of "calibrating" the sound volume just right probably sent me to the hospital with a high blood pressure. And that's adjusting it for one GPS mapping application. If you have different GPS routing applications that has voice, you can imagine another fiddling session whenever you switch between the two. Else, you have to live with the "stutter" as what is a "good" setting for one program might not be "good" for a different program. Personally, I hate to waste time to play with the volume. I like to set it once and that's it. A GPS mount is supposed to do two basic things (if it does more - great!); hold the PDA properly have an adjustable sound volume that a user needs to set only once If the mount gives me hassle on these simple items, it goes back to the manufacturer. Those are the most simple requirements to get right. If not, you're paying too much. Think about it, I am going to be using this mount for the next 3+ years so I cannot expect it to give me hassles like the above for 3+ years. That's just plain wrong. When you buy something, you want to use it. Not perform lobotomy on it ... You don't want to fiddle with it every time. Example, I have a very good sound amplifier system that I set up from Day One, which I have not needed to tweak since Day One! Can you imagine tweaking your sound amplifier home system every time you used it, if you were playing a different record? Would drive my wife freakin' nuts, but that's just my wife ... :)

what a reply for a short question. Thanks lawman ! For Seidio G4850, you made some comments in your review, do you have any additional comments on audio quality ?

lawman

The audio quality is very good and much louder than G2500. I'm only using 2/3 of its full range and its loud enough already for me. On the G2500 mount, I'm using the volume at max and its volume is less than the 2/3 range of the G4850 mount.

jing0124

Thank you Lawman

seidioseidio

Seidio is offering the following additional discounts for Aximsite members.

1) G4850 car kit for Dell X50/X51 - 5% additional discount
URL: http://www.seidioonline.com/index.a...PROD&ProdID=176

2) G4850 Navigational kit(G4850 car kit and iGuidance 2.0)for Dell X50/X51 - 10% additional discount
URL: http://www.seidioonline.com/index.a...PROD&ProdID=185

SEE MEMBER DISCOUNTS FORUM FOR CODES AND DETAILS.

This promotion is only available at www.seidioonline.com.

If you have any question, please contact me dsc@seidio.com

David Chang
Seidio