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Emtac Wireless GPS and Mapopolis
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By Larry Garfield, Monday 27 January 2003  
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Handhelds let users get out of the office and out on the road, but it would help if they knew where on the road they were. Larry Garfield goes driving with a new fully wireless GPS kit for the Palm OS.
Global Positioning System (GPS) devices are becoming more and more common due to the advantages of having accurate, on-demand position information and navigation support. Bluetooth devices are becoming more and more common due to the advantages of no tangled wires and no worry about connectors for different devices. Emtac put two and two together and came up with the Emtac Wireless GPS, a GPS radio that connects to a handheld via Bluetooth. Now rebranded through several other providers, we found the Palm OS package it to be a very well built and convenient solution, provided it's paired with good software on the handheld.
Design
 | The Emtac unit is small, light, and unobtrusive
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The receiver itself is quite small, measuring only 5 x 9 x 1.5 cm and is feather-light. It fits easily in a hand, or between most driver and passenger seats. The smooth plastic casing is tapered at the bottom, and there are two rubber strips on the bottom side to reduce slippage. The GPS antenna is a large, darker-colored patch that takes up most of the top of the flat device, while the Bluetooth radio is fully internal. On the right side of the device there is a plug for an external antenna, sold separately, which we did not test.
On the top of the device are three LEDs that wrap around to the front, each marked with an icon. The right-most is a blue Bluetooth indicator that flashes every second to indicate that the device is searching for a handheld and every two seconds after it has associated with a handheld. The center LED is green and glows steady when the GPS radio is trying to get a lock on the GPS satellite network and flashes once a second to indicate that it has a signal. The left LED glows orange when the device is charging, and shuts off when the battery is at full power. There is also a cutout for a lanyard loop.
The top of the device also includes the simple on-off switch and AC port. The Emtac includes a wall adapter for charging, although it is unfortunately is the long-and-thin design that will either take up no extra ports or several, depending on how the power strip is oriented. A car power adapter is available separately, which is odd, as we would expect the car adapter to be more useful than a normal AC adapter. The Lithium-Ion battery is rated for a minimum of six hours of usage.
The Emtac unit also includes a small hard leather belt clip case with a Velcro closure. It is small enough that it does not get in the way while sitting down. Unfortunately, of course, the unit also cannot maintain a connection to the GPS satellites while in its case.
Connectivity
We were able to associate the Emtac with our Palm Tungsten T without much difficulty. We merely turned both devices on and told the Tungsten T to find new Bluetooth devices and the Emtac appeared. The only catch is that to associate the two requires entering a pass code that is not easily provided. We found it in the Troubleshooting section of the electronic manual, of all places. (Hint: It was 0183, presumably for the NMEA 0183 specification.) Once associated, the Bluetooth connection worked flawlessly.
The device automatically searches for GPS satellites whenever it is turned on. Given clear line of sight to the sky we were able to get a fix in about one minute, usually. Interestingly, it seems to be able to hold a fix better than acquire one. We usually had to hold the receiver up to a window in the car to obtain a satellite fix, but after the fix was acquired we simply placed the unit between the front seats and forgot about it. We lost the signal only once in several hours of city driving, although we did not pass through any long tunnels. We did not have the opportunity to test the optional external antenna.
The device outputs standard NMEA 0183 GPS data, which is compatible with any standards-compliant mapping software that knows to check for incoming data on the Bluetooth port.
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