Pocket PC for aviation

External Since: Dec 31, 2003 Posts: 9

Hi all,
I recently became interested in the Pocket PCs for use associated with
my airplane.
My problem is I have no clue how they work, internally and attaching
accessory Items.
Most models seems to have to slots. One for syncing and one for a
compact flash card or similar item.
Some have Wi-fi some have Bluetooh and some have both. Bluetooh looks
like the way to go sine I do not have to actually wires it to the unit.
I want to connect a GPS and a micro EFIS to the Pocket PC and use it for
flight planning as well.

I have been to the manufacturers website and made a visit or two to the
electronics stores but they were of little help.
Do pocket PC run entirely out of RAM or do they have a hard drive? do
most of them have only one expansion slot?
How do you load and run programs?

Thanks for all your help,

Michelle

--

Michelle P ATP-ASEL, CP-AMEL, and AMT-A&P

"Elisabeth" a Maule M-7-235B (no two are alike)

Volunteer Pilot, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic

Volunteer Builder, Habitat for Humanity

External Since: Dec 29, 2003 Posts: 43

Michelle,
Pocket PC's do not have a "hard drive" as such, the programs are stored in
ROM instead of a hard drive. The only hard drives are like the Compact Flash
sized IBM Microdrives.
Blue tooth will give you a fair amount of access to flight equipment, the
other is via USB, some of the units have both Compact Flash slots and SDIO
slots. Its easy to get a CF to USB adapter if you need it. What actually do
you want to connect other then the GPS ? A fair amount of equipment (Loran's
if still used in your plane or VOR's) will have a NEMA type interface which
is basically a serial link. A few of the new ones will have the IEEE 1394
"Firewire" connection which is a little harder to get on a Pocket PC, but
there are a few cards out there that will do that.
Have you tried Jepperson (spelling ?) to see what they have ? They are not
the worlds most advanced aviation supplier (or at least when I used to deal
with them, but its been a few years) but they did always seem to be very
helpful even if they had to suggest other vendors. If you have a fairly
modern radio (especially ICOM) most of those will have a interface for the
Pocket PC. The most use I see around here (Seattle) is people connecting to
the GPS and loading waypoints. I have a few friends that are private pilots
and also Pocket PC people and could check with them if you give me an idea
what you want to hook up. Several of them have come up with a
GPS-->Autopilot application, but they do not talk about it much as I would
guess this is a FAA "no-no"
Tedd

--
Tedd Riggs

"Michelle P" <thecatsandiSPAMMeIfYouDare.DeleteThis@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:JjCIb.17004$IM3.15481@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> Hi all,
> I recently became interested in the Pocket PCs for use associated with
> my airplane.
> My problem is I have no clue how they work, internally and attaching
> accessory Items.
> Most models seems to have to slots. One for syncing and one for a
> compact flash card or similar item.
> Some have Wi-fi some have Bluetooh and some have both. Bluetooh looks
> like the way to go sine I do not have to actually wires it to the unit.
> I want to connect a GPS and a micro EFIS to the Pocket PC and use it for
> flight planning as well.
>
> I have been to the manufacturers website and made a visit or two to the
> electronics stores but they were of little help.
> Do pocket PC run entirely out of RAM or do they have a hard drive? do
> most of them have only one expansion slot?
> How do you load and run programs?
>
> Thanks for all your help,
>
> Michelle
>
> --
>
> Michelle P ATP-ASEL, CP-AMEL, and AMT-A&P
>
> "Elisabeth" a Maule M-7-235B (no two are alike)
>
> Volunteer Pilot, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic
>
> Volunteer Builder, Habitat for Humanity
>