craig
Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
The new TNC available from Elcom looks *really* interesting to me. The combination of it and an EO Tuftab in particular. It can be wired directly into the vehicles power via the mini-USB connector (accepts 5-25v). To me this would be an ideal platform for APRS (for those that don't want to run a Kenwood radio w/ APRS already built in).
What I like about this setup is that If you want to pull the tablet from the truck and sit at the picnic table to plan your next route, look at photos, or surf/check e-mail at a rest stop (they have wireless now), you just grab the tablet and go. No USB GPS to unplug.
I am not sure how good the GPS chipset is. It uses the ATMEL ANTARIS 4 SuperSense (16 channels) chipset which I don't have any experience with.
It uses a patch antenna and there is no option for an external GPS. This is the one part that concerns me as this is the kind of device that typically gets shoved back behind the dash somewhere where GPS signals don't typically reach. An external antenna option would have been very helpful.
Still... it's an interesting evolution of this product as the Elcom TNC no longer requires *any* cabling to wire up the GPS or to connect to a computer; only the radio side cable needs to be made. IMHO that *hugely* simplifies the deployment of APRS.
Craig
What I like about this setup is that If you want to pull the tablet from the truck and sit at the picnic table to plan your next route, look at photos, or surf/check e-mail at a rest stop (they have wireless now), you just grab the tablet and go. No USB GPS to unplug.
I am not sure how good the GPS chipset is. It uses the ATMEL ANTARIS 4 SuperSense (16 channels) chipset which I don't have any experience with.
It uses a patch antenna and there is no option for an external GPS. This is the one part that concerns me as this is the kind of device that typically gets shoved back behind the dash somewhere where GPS signals don't typically reach. An external antenna option would have been very helpful.
Still... it's an interesting evolution of this product as the Elcom TNC no longer requires *any* cabling to wire up the GPS or to connect to a computer; only the radio side cable needs to be made. IMHO that *hugely* simplifies the deployment of APRS.
Craig