Best PDA or tablet soln for GPS & XM WX and gyro AI

"Mitty" wrote in message ...
Interesting thread he

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/to...TOPIC_ID=22517

includes several photos of the Motion machine in a cockpit.

If the link doesn't work, search on "cockpit" will get you the thread.

On 6/12/2005 10:13 AM, Matt Barrow wrote the following:
Motion Computing LE1600.

Great display, 1GB Celeron, 30GB HD.

http://www.motioncomputing.com/produ...blet_pc_le.asp


That is a lot of screen to be looking at - I hope those folks are looking outside more than they are looking inside.

"Will" wrote in message
...
The quality of the visual display on the PC Avaionics
MountainScope product is almost surreal it is so good:

http://www.pcavionics.com

They don't have WX weather yet.

--
Will
Internet: westes at earthbroadcast.com


"Paul Folbrecht" wrote in message
...
I decided awhile ago I'd like to get a PDA (preferred) or
perhaps a small
tablet for in-cockpit GPS moving map and satellite weather and
a backup,
emergency-only AI as well (not a simple GPS AI but a real
solid-state gyro).

After days of research I can't seem to find a single system
that does
everything I would like with no major negatives.

I started looking seriously at Anywhere Map/WX/AI which looks
pretty good
except for their gyro - seems many users have problems with it.
The other
thing is that there seems to be issues with their customer
service.

I like NavGPS a lot too coupled with the PC-EFIS they bundle
and that all
looks good, but I don't know if there is a satellite WX system
that will
work with their software at all.

I prefer a PDA for size reasons (plane's a 152) but a small
tablet that
could be yoke-mounted would also be Ok. If anybody can
recommend a system
that meets all three of these needs and can be add for less
than $3K all-up
I'd like to hear of it. TIA.


I have AWM (from Control Vision) with Pocket Plates. Works well, however I
hope they can improve the user interface and clean up their menus and
improve their display. Their next revision is expected to be major upgrade.
I don't have the weather package. I downloaded Mountainscope demo from
PCAvionics, it is by far the best terrain display and user interface I have
seen. The only negative is that currently they don't show roads and other
man-made features and the display only shows "track up" and no option to
switch to "North up". This is a major limitation as far as I am concerned.
CV can learn a few things from PCAvionics, otherwise I see this company
quickly taking away some of their customers.

In article 1118765521.389bb151ae2b6e24f435b75ffe6de51a@teran ews,
"S Narayan" wrote:
I have AWM (from Control Vision) with Pocket Plates. Works well, however I
hope they can improve the user interface and clean up their menus and
improve their display. Their next revision is expected to be major upgrade.
I don't have the weather package. I downloaded Mountainscope demo from
PCAvionics, it is by far the best terrain display and user interface I have
seen. The only negative is that currently they don't show roads and other
man-made features and the display only shows "track up" and no option to
switch to "North up". This is a major limitation as far as I am concerned.
CV can learn a few things from PCAvionics, otherwise I see this company
quickly taking away some of their customers.


I really don't know what major problems there are with CV's user
interface. Sure, it could be more intuitive in places, but coming from
a group of programmers, the layout and ease of use is pretty impressive.
It is certainly no worse than anything else related to Microsoft
Windows, and Microsoft supposedly employs human interface gurus.

MountainScope has the flashy terrain, but as you noted, they are missing
many things that AWM incorporates. I suspect that available processing
power on present-day PDAs forces a choice: nice, high res graphics, or
more features displayed. Personally, I'd rather have more features and
less flashy graphics. While MountainScope's display is, perhaps, ideal,
it isn't ideal at the expense of other features which are more useful in
flight, at least in my opinion.



JKG

"Jonathan Goodish" wrote in message
...
In article 1118765521.389bb151ae2b6e24f435b75ffe6de51a@teran ews,
"S Narayan" wrote:
I have AWM (from Control Vision) with Pocket Plates. Works well, however
I
hope they can improve the user interface and clean up their menus and
improve their display. Their next revision is expected to be major
upgrade.
I don't have the weather package. I downloaded Mountainscope demo from
PCAvionics, it is by far the best terrain display and user interface I
have
seen. The only negative is that currently they don't show roads and other
man-made features and the display only shows "track up" and no option to
switch to "North up". This is a major limitation as far as I am
concerned.
CV can learn a few things from PCAvionics, otherwise I see this company
quickly taking away some of their customers.


I really don't know what major problems there are with CV's user
interface. Sure, it could be more intuitive in places, but coming from
a group of programmers, the layout and ease of use is pretty impressive.
It is certainly no worse than anything else related to Microsoft
Windows, and Microsoft supposedly employs human interface gurus.

MountainScope has the flashy terrain, but as you noted, they are missing
many things that AWM incorporates. I suspect that available processing
power on present-day PDAs forces a choice: nice, high res graphics, or
more features displayed. Personally, I'd rather have more features and
less flashy graphics. While MountainScope's display is, perhaps, ideal,
it isn't ideal at the expense of other features which are more useful in
flight, at least in my opinion.

AWM (now version 1.7) One of the other issues I had was being able to
pan to other parts of the map without going through the rough air buttons
mode. That has been addressed now with 1.7. Also the airport facilities
looks page is nicely done and if that's kept up to date, that is a lot of
useful information. They have also added "virtual" IFR approaches which is
nice to have - though pocket plates does a fairly good job (except for the
lack of a variable zoom feature or declutter of the fixes). I haven't run it
with the GPS yet, but the last version did not have a detailed GPS page
(with all satellites shown, DOP etc..). I am not sure if they have included
it this time.

They have not. Take a look at "VisualGPSce" @
http://www.visualgps.net/VisualGPSce/default.htm .

"S Narayan" wrote in message
news:1119041820.c656f7f19bbdd75e1c6942a3563e3170@t eranews...
I haven't run it
with the GPS yet, but the last version did not have a detailed GPS page
(with all satellites shown, DOP etc..). I am not sure if they have
included
it this time.

That's a cool application. Thanks.

I am surprised AWM has not done this. Most GPS applications display this
page (even Garmin Que street software does this and really it isn't needed
for auto navigation).

"Stephen McNaught" wrote in message
...
They have not. Take a look at "VisualGPSce" @
http://www.visualgps.net/VisualGPSce/default.htm .

"S Narayan" wrote in message
news:1119041820.c656f7f19bbdd75e1c6942a3563e3170@t eranews...
I haven't run it
with the GPS yet, but the last version did not have a detailed GPS page
(with all satellites shown, DOP etc..). I am not sure if they have
included
it this time.

Yea, I'm surprised too. Especially since I have been mentioning it to them
for a few years now.

"S Narayan" wrote in message
news:1119051616.277417071f2c73fe78bad41589747f0e@t eranews...
I am surprised AWM has not done this. Most GPS applications display this
page (even Garmin Que street software does this and really it isn't needed
for auto navigation).

BTW, with VisualGPSce, if you click and hold down the stylus on any of the
pages, you get a menu for options for that page. For example, on the "Panel"
page, you can show a large version of just one of the gauges, cycle through
a large version of the gauges, or set the speeds on the speed gauge.

In article 1119041820.c656f7f19bbdd75e1c6942a3563e3170@teran ews,
"S Narayan" wrote:
AWM (now version 1.7) One of the other issues I had was being able to
pan to other parts of the map without going through the rough air buttons
mode. That has been addressed now with 1.7. Also the airport facilities
looks page is nicely done and if that's kept up to date, that is a lot of
useful information. They have also added "virtual" IFR approaches which is
nice to have - though pocket plates does a fairly good job (except for the
lack of a variable zoom feature or declutter of the fixes). I haven't run it
with the GPS yet, but the last version did not have a detailed GPS page
(with all satellites shown, DOP etc..). I am not sure if they have included
it this time.


I agree, the additional information that they've provided in the airport
data page is excellent, and will remain so only if they keep it up to
date. It seems that they are missing fuel data on quite a few places
yet, and I don't see anywhere on their 100ll.com site for a user to
submit fuel prices; not sure how they get their fuel price updates.

Since upgrading to 1.7 (via a clean install), I've noticed that many
parts of the program seem to be a bit faster, and some slower (loading
full airport diagrams by double-tapping on the runway plan view seems
slower than in 1.6.7.)


JKG

I believe that the "airport" information comes from the FAA. So, as long as
the FAA keeps their data up to date, so will CV. The fuel prices come from
the FBO's. They (CV) are in the process of contacting all the FBO's. It
should be pointed out that the "fuel price's on the airport information
page", is a subscription option (I think $30 yr), and that users are getting
it free for the month of June because it's a new feature. Also, the fuel
price file that gets downloaded is deleted after two weeks. So, two weeks in
to July, unless you subscribe, you won't have any "fuel prices".

"Jonathan Goodish" wrote in message
...
I agree, the additional information that they've provided in the airport
data page is excellent, and will remain so only if they keep it up to
date. It seems that they are missing fuel data on quite a few places
yet, and I don't see anywhere on their 100ll.com site for a user to
submit fuel prices; not sure how they get their fuel price updates.