Review: Garmin Mobile PC

Click the Disable button. This will give you the opportunity to change it to Bluetooth, USB, or serial.
Are you sure your GPS18 is connected properly? Will it work with other Garmin products such as nRoute? Is it a USB or sreial model?
Terry

Clicking the Disable button brings me to a page that says "Connection allowed to Garmin GPS devices only." Three buttons at the bottom of the screen are, Done, Activate, Enable" Clicking any of those buttons just leads me in circles until I finally get to the screen where it scans for a receiver.

My receiver is a serial receiver - Garmin GPS 18. There is a cheesy little utility that Garmin provides to configure it, and that utility is communicating with the receiver no problem.

My hunch is that Mobile PC isn't set up to communicate with Garmin's own serial receivers and I'm going to have to treat it like a 3rd party receiver to get it to work.

Has anyone tried to activate this program on more than one PC? I'm hesitant to activate because I may not use this laptop for my ultimate installation.

I have activated Mobile PC on a laptop, my main PC and a UMPC with no issues.
Terry

The serial model requires power (12v). I assume you are supplying power if you can use it with the config program. There were updates for the GPS 18 quite a while ago.
If I recall correctly, The serial GPS 18 comes up in NMEA mode and switches to Garmin mode automatically under control of nRoute or, I assume, Mobile PC. The GPS 10 and GPS 10x work the same way and they usually work with Mobile PC. Try removing and repowering the 18 and then restart Mobile PC.
Terry

Based on this statement, I went ahead and activated it. It found the receiver right off. It hasn't found any satellites yet (I'm indoors and this isn't a very sensitive receiver) but I suspect it'll function fine now.

Thanks for your help!

I should have thought about this a little longer. I went back into the cheesy Garmin utility and found a drop-down menu where I can switch the receiver manually between NMEA mode and Garmin mode - it was in NMEA mode. But now that I've activated Mobile PC, I won't know if that would have unlocked the program without activation.

Tomorrow I'll install it on another laptop at work and see if it finds the receiver without activating it.

Drove to work this morning...it searched for satellites the whole way there.

It looks like I still have some configuring to do.

Searching for Satellites means that it is definitely seeing the GPS 18. I did see this though when it couldn't ID the GPS. If you go back one screen, it would put up a warning about that.
Terry

Just a note- as of today (4/26/2008) I tried Semsons with the discount code for Garmin MobilePC (software only) and the message in my cart was "The coupon xxxxxxxx only applies to certain items. None of them are in your shopping cart."
(I put xxxxxxxx in this note but it posted the proper code).

Guess the code is not activated yet? The software appears to be in stock.

Jim

Wondering if anyone has come to any overall conclusions - Garmin Mobile PC vs MS Streets & Trips. I use S&T but would be interested in switching if the Garmin product is significantly better for my type of driving (I volunteer for a wildlife rescue/rehab organization and the work involves a lot of driving in and around the city and southern Alberta to an assortment of destinations).

Has anyone progressed far enough to prepare a list of pros and cons??

Hi jaamsk,

Welcome to Laptop GPS World.

Could you please wait a little bit. I just sent Semsons a quick e-mail regarding your question. My guess is that since Garmin Mobile PC is a brand new product, and Semsons just added it to their line of products they sell, they might have overlooked adding it to the discount coupon. But that's just my wild guess based on no knowledge of the facts. As soon as I receive the reply I will post here. Or better yet, Carlon, or someone else from Semsons, may post here directly, if they wish.

lforbes, I'm looking forward to hearing from users how they compare the two products, too. There is no clear winner, both products are very good in what they do.

What kind of computer are you using? Laptop, UMPC, or TabletPC? Keyboard, or touch-screen? What is your screen size? Do you need to print maps?

I also wrote Semsons to see if they had just not updated that product. Thanks for the quick response.

The problem with using S&T (newer than 2002) in Alberta is the Canadian maps are atrocious. Mobile PC with CNNA NT 2009 is a lot better but Garmin Metroguide Can v4 can't be beat.

On a laptop, Mobile PC has a better display. I think entering addresses in S&T is more user friendly though. Again, the Garmin maps are better but this might be fixed with a newer version of S&T (ie 2009).

On a UMPC, Garmin and iNav are neck and neck but the newer maps for Garmin wins. Still needs an on-screen keyboard though.

On a PDA, Garmin Que is good but Garmin Mobile XT is better. iNav is ok except for the maps.

On all the devices I have tried, Garmin Mobile PC or Mobile XT has the advantage of automatically finding my GPS. But then I am using a Garmin GPS.

Terry

Marvin:

I'm currently using a PC with a 15" screen and mini-keyboard. No need to print maps. I find S&T pretty good with the possible exception of quirky address/place finding and the distinctly non-intuitive UI (although S&T Keys is a definite help). One thing that does bug me is the loss of satellite signal when the PC is brought up from hibernation (sometimes have to do a Windows restart to get it to work). If the Garmin product is better, I'd try it but I don't wish to buy it on spec just to see.

Terry, how do you mean the maps are better (than S&T) - more up to date or some other reason(s)? I don't find S&T (2008 maps) all that bad for Calgary and vacinity - there are certainly missing areas but the city is growing so rapidly I don't find that too surprising.

Laurie Forbes