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Home made dashboard netbook mount
raxy
Hi,
I am Raxy, a french netbook owner.
I've not found anything which could fully answer my needs,
so I decided to build it from scratch.

I've begun with this proof of concept;
http://www.vimeo.com/1985859

It worked ok but I wanted more,
so I came to this current setting which really satisfies me so far.
http://www.vimeo.com/2209230

Enjoy ! and please comment.
Marvin Hlavac
Hi Raxi,

Welcome to Laptop GPS World.

I watched the first video clip a few days ago. I don't remember now where I came across it. I like your second version much better.

Now perhaps it's good time to add some GPS software to your Asus Eee PC.
Ken in Regina
Hi Raxi,

After watching the video I am still curious how you keep the netbook from bouncing out of the tray.

It is almost spring here and that means pothole season on the Regina streets.

...ken...
raxy
Hi Ken,
nothing special holds the netbook in place,
just its weight, some thin back "high friction" foam under the netbook and mainly the architecture of the frame that kinda "lock" the netbook in its place.

In potholes (french roads, I live in urban area), nothing moves at all at speeds making my car and its shock absorbers cry .
raxy
I've travelled with my asus901 netbook, my GR230 bluetooth GPS mouse and used microsoft autoroute 2006 during my 3 days trip to Belgium.

Last year, I've use the same soft+hardware but on my previous netbook which was a eee-pc901 (XP).
This time, the onboard BT is much more practical, compared to my previously needed BT dongle which gets messed very often regarding com ports assignment by XP.

What I like is :
- smooth map scrolling
- large map
- multitasking (background music or any other windows app)

what I dislike :
- gps pane too wide
- lacks fullscreen map (unlike most web browsers, much too much space is blocked by unremovable window title and 2 to 3 useless bars)
- rolling map is centered on current position which leaves a too large useless area (bottom of screen)
- driving directions not as good as on a PND
- no speed camera alerts
- screen sometimes not bright enough
- controls too small for mouse usage under most driving conditions
taoyue
That's because you're using Autoroute 2006. Later versions of Mappoint/S&T have a fullscreen navigation mode with a partial touchscreen interface, and with many issues solved (see Streets & Trips forum for more information). Granted, Autoroute's last version was 2007, and it has since been discontinued.

You probably don't want to pay $300 for Mappoint Europe 2009. There are other PC navigation packages with European maps. This forum has a search function -- you can find a lot of information this way.

This year, several convertible touchscreen netbooks are coming out (finally!). In tablet mode, they would make excellent, inexpensive, dash-mountable GPS units.
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