So here's a quick rundown of available portable aviation GPS units:
Dedicated Devices
Garmin
GPS496 - The standard by which all others are measured. Definitely the most popular unit. It is very capable and interfaces with XM Weather and passive traffic advisory devices. All of this comes at a cost, only the large screen unit from Garmin costs more.
GPS696 - Basically, a larger version of the 496. The extra screen size really enhances the usability of the split screen modes.
Lowrance
600C - Very high quality GPS unit. The screen size is similar to the 496, but the unit fits much better on the yoke than the Garmin. The big drawback to the Lowrance models is that they do not interface with XM weather or taffic systems.
2000C - One of the earliest large screen GPS's. Again, very high quality and yoke mountable, but no outside interfaces.
AvMap
EKP-IV - A large screen GPS with interfaces to traffic and weather systems. An innovative feature here is the ability to upload photos of airports that are viewable in-flight (you can see an overhead of the actual airport before you get there).
PC Based Devices
ControlVision - The makers of AnywhereMap, which is the leader in this market segment. The software is fairly easy to use and quite reliable. They produce versions for PDA's and laptops which interface with traffic and weather. These units were also the first to have approach plates and taxi diagrams.
PCAvionics - This company produces the MountainScope software package for PDA's and laptops. The big advantage to this package is that terrain features are very detailed - no blockiness on the display. MountainScope does interface to both traffic and weather.
Hybrid Devices
ControlVision ATC - This unit is from the same folks who offer the AnywhereMap product. It runs on a modified PDA platform so that the unit functions much more like a dedicated unit, while offering the abliity to upgrade the software.
Clear skies and tailwinds!
Mike
Showing posts with label PCAvionics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PCAvionics. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
More Portable GPS’s
Last time around I spoke about the differences between portable and permanently installed units. There are also 2 main types of portable units – purpose built and general.
The purpose built units are those from Garmin, Lowrance, Bendix-King and AvMap. They consist of a “sealed” unit that cannot be upgraded like a computer – although mapping data is field upgradeable. The main advantage of a unit like this is that since they cannot be fiddled with a whole lot, they tend to work all the time. The disadvantages of these models is that they cannot be upgraded – every few years a new model comes out with new features and you will need to throw away the old unit and buy everything new (trade-ins are sometimes available to reduce this cost).
The non-purpose built units are typically based on PDA’s, Tablet PC’s or UMPC’s and come from Control Vision and PCAvionics. The vendors of these models combine a computer from a third party with their own software package that provides mapping and weather services. These units provide great upgradeability and the ability to add different pieces to tailor it to exactly what you need. Of course, the disadvantage to all of this flexibility is less stability. Are they unstable? Most of the time no and manufacturers take great pains to test their configurations thoroughly before they offer it for sale. But in some configurations, with different PC’s, GPS units or some odd ball software package – they certainly can be.
Which one do I use? I use a PDA with the AnywhereMAP WX software package from Control Vision. I purchased the PDA and software from different sources and put the system together myself. I was able to save money on the purchase and then add weather later small incremental cost. If I had used a purpose built unit I would've spent more money upfront and then had to buy a whole new unit when I added weather. As for reliability, I did have a problem with a GPS module that I had to replace and one version of software that had problems with weather (Control Vision fixed the problem within a couple of days). Overall I have been very pleased with the performance and reliability of the unit.
Next week will be a list available models.
Clear skies and tailwinds!
Mike
The purpose built units are those from Garmin, Lowrance, Bendix-King and AvMap. They consist of a “sealed” unit that cannot be upgraded like a computer – although mapping data is field upgradeable. The main advantage of a unit like this is that since they cannot be fiddled with a whole lot, they tend to work all the time. The disadvantages of these models is that they cannot be upgraded – every few years a new model comes out with new features and you will need to throw away the old unit and buy everything new (trade-ins are sometimes available to reduce this cost).
The non-purpose built units are typically based on PDA’s, Tablet PC’s or UMPC’s and come from Control Vision and PCAvionics. The vendors of these models combine a computer from a third party with their own software package that provides mapping and weather services. These units provide great upgradeability and the ability to add different pieces to tailor it to exactly what you need. Of course, the disadvantage to all of this flexibility is less stability. Are they unstable? Most of the time no and manufacturers take great pains to test their configurations thoroughly before they offer it for sale. But in some configurations, with different PC’s, GPS units or some odd ball software package – they certainly can be.
Which one do I use? I use a PDA with the AnywhereMAP WX software package from Control Vision. I purchased the PDA and software from different sources and put the system together myself. I was able to save money on the purchase and then add weather later small incremental cost. If I had used a purpose built unit I would've spent more money upfront and then had to buy a whole new unit when I added weather. As for reliability, I did have a problem with a GPS module that I had to replace and one version of software that had problems with weather (Control Vision fixed the problem within a couple of days). Overall I have been very pleased with the performance and reliability of the unit.
Next week will be a list available models.
Clear skies and tailwinds!
Mike
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