gurachn

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on this BT reciever?
It uses the MKT chipset. Is this as good as the commonly recommoned SiRFIII?

It sure is tiny, but is it any good?
Thanks for any help

Matzoh Man

I bought one today. I love it. It was charged out of the box. I got a bluetooth hookup in seconds. It locked onto 5 satellites within 15 seconds, probably less, of the bluetooth hookup. This, while I was sitting in a moving bus and the M1200 was in the inside pocket of my leather jacket. Not too shabby!

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gurachn

That sounds good.
How much did you pay for it?
I would also be interested in how long the battery seems to last.
A bit of a report after you have had a chance to play with it a bit would be much appreciated.

Matzoh Man

I bought it in Sweden for 699 Swedish kronor. So far it's been great. I used in the car today. Again, the bluetooth connection was fast and unproblematic. While the M1200 sat on the front passengers seat I was locked onto 8 or 9 satellites. Cold starts are really fast, a few seconds. I haven't yet taken any long drives so I cannot comment on battery life.

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Matzoh Man

Also, today I was driving in the city. I didn't once lose the signal. So far I can't say anything bad. My only reservation is that it's so small I'm concerned about losing it. This wasn't an issue with my previous gps, a Holux dm270 (sirf II). It was so slow to get a lock on that, mostly I left it home, using it only on long trips. With the M1200 I can keep it in my pocket when I travel and consult TomTom when I need to.

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gurachn

Yeah, I can understand your concern about losing it.
Did you look at the m1000 at all? It is slighly larger and cheaper, but has the same chipset.
It also seems to use fairly common cellphone batteries which could be good for longer hikes?

Matzoh Man

I'm not sure the battery in the M1000 is user serviceable. Beyond the risk of losing such a small object I still prefer the M1200. The size and fast acquisition times means I can drop it in my pocket for use whenever and wherever.

Today I again put the M1200 to the test in the city. I switched it on while standing in an alley maybe 5 meters wide with 5 story buildings to either side, probably a worst case for a cold start. It took maybe 45 seconds to lock onto 3 satellites. From then on it held the signal as I continued my stroll.

Later on, while walking down a city street, I turned on the pda. Again, bluetooth connection was almost immediate. The M1200 saw maybe 9 or 10 satellites but locked onto only one. Even so, that was enough for TomTom to track my movement as I walked down the street. This I don't understand but there it is.

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Matzoh Man

Finally, the conclusion to this tale. To test battery life I turned on the M1200 4pm yesterday. So far it's been almost 20hours and still going strong. That works for me.

Good luck!

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gurachn

Thanks for the excellent follow up on this Matzoh Man!
It sounds like a good unit!

TooManyGames

I'm completely new to the whole GPS experience so pardon me if this is a stupid question. 8*) What software do you use with your M1200? Does it come with its own software or does it work with any of the standard GPS programs for Windows Mobile?

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keet

I'm new to using GPS, too, period -- not just on an X51v, but I bought my Holux M1200 a few weeks ago and it's great. For software, I recommend GPS Tuner (currently on version 5.3). You can load all sorts of maps to it and it uses Map Calibrator, which you can download on the GPS Tuner site, which.. downloads maps and calibrates them, surprise.

The program can have a bit of a delay when loading a new map, but overall it's quite accurate. I live in an urban environment with tall buildings all around, and even on foggy, overcast, or rainy days, I get a signal. It might take a minute or two, but usually it's basically as soon as I tell my X51v to use the GPS that I have a signal and multiple active satellites.

It's a few (several every great once in a while) metres off here and there, especially when the signals are bouncing off buildings, but it's quite good. My only qualm is that I wish that there were any easy way to download and save Google maps of a wide area in a close zoom level; you can do it with MC, but you have to download each section manually.

Tomtom is great software, but pricier. I tried another program called Tracky, but found it awkward, confusing, and nonfunctional. Of course, I already had GPS Tuner so I didn't spend much time figuring it out. By the way, though, GPST is OFF-ROAD software; ie, the software doesn't care about roads. It'll still track you accurately as you drive along them, though. If you want it for driving, you might be better with Tomtom.

msummers80

I have an x50v running Windows Mobile 6 Classic. I just received the Hollux m1200 in the mail today. It was pretty simple to connect, and the documentation is pretty good. The bundled smart2go software, which has a 7 day trial, seems to be a different story. It has some of the most useless documentation I have seen. It supports WM5, so if anyone can tell me how compatible software is between 5 and 6 I would appreciate it. The documentation offers no clues about install on either.

Also, if anyone would like to suggest any free mapping options, or cheap options I would appreciate it. I'll show my appreciation by using the software and GPS unit and providing my experience ;-)

bigtsr

I have a Axim 51v WM5 and a HTC 7501 WM6 and run the same apps
on both without any hassles.

Here are 2 GPS apps that work well on both using WiFi:

Turbo GPS and PPC Software

Nav4All Worldwide Mobile Phone Navigation and Tracking & Tracing

You might want to check out this sight lots of GPS freebies:
Free GPS Software - An Up-to-Date List

msummers80

Ok, I got some TT software that works great when driving. I wouldn't recommend the software that came with this thing to anyone. Since I'm still shopping for a car charger I didn't want to leave the Axim on while I drove 3 hours (it wouldn't last 1 with the screen lit up and BT running anyways), so I started up TT, let it start directing me on my way, and then turned off the Axim. I left the M1200 on the whole time, and it seems to have fantastic battery life. Just for a test I would turn on the Axim from time to time and as soon as the BT connected it knew where I was and updated the directions to that point, and it only took about 30 seconds. I tossed the M1200 in the open ash tray of my car which is on the bottom of the center console, and it had no problem keeping many satellites. Of course the only obstacles were trees. Overall I'm pretty happy with the thing, and have now begun looking for a car charger and mounting system.

icefist

About the car charger thing, if there is a charger with a bt gps unit (holux or any other), wont it be compatible with axim's dongle ?

like this http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...5L._AA280_.jpg

thanks a lot!