Brodie
Darksider #16 - and Proud of it !
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2006
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With many thanks to the people buying my Grounding Harness, I went out and bought my iPad (Wi-fi+3G) last saturday morning. I spent the weekend getting to know it.
Right up front i'm going to say "This isn't a laptop!" Don't expect it to take the place of one - yet.
My goal is to use it for trips. It has a browser, photo storage/display, music, word processor, stand alone turn by turn GPS (does not require a network connection), e-mail, and many other things that make it appealing for traveling. I want 1 device that takes care of everything. As it stands this may come close.
I started this thread in hopes that a few other brave souls are out here bleeding with me. Perhaps we can share notes and avoid duplicating each other's mistakes/dead ends.
Here it is mounted on my bike in a tank bag map window...
Granted, it looks a bit sloppy, but it worked. The problem with this set up is it is a hostile environment for this rather fragile piece of electronics. In direct sun it got hot inside that map pouch fast. Above 95 degrees the iPad will shut off. Any attempt to get it working while hot will give you a temperature warning. There is a reason Apple has an aluminum back to this - heat dissipation. Sitting in my lap it stays cool because of that feature, but put it inside of an oven bag on top of the tank in the sun and it will go dark.
The other problem is rain. It must be kept dry. Ask anyone with an iPhone that got wet, they will tell you that Apple will not cover it under warranty.
When I make my handlebar mount case, I will have to take those requirements into consideration.
I rode around Santa Clara for a few hours with it plugged into the aux. input port on my Jensen AM/FM radio. My tank bag is wired up to my bike and the iPad powered up through a Griffin automotive power adapter. The bike had no problem satisfying it's electrical requirements. My Jensen radio feeds into my Starcom Digital audio port. I only had stereo sound for the ride. That was enough to prove out the GPS App. I installed from the App Store. I chose Navigon My region - US West for the GPS App. It worked pretty well. It was accurate, able to re direct me when I got off track (on purpose), and was able to play my music in the back ground. I will be playing with it some more in the next few days to see how much it meets my ideas.
My next thing to find out is will it hook up to my Starcom the same way a Garmin 660, 1 stereo input, and the other Aux. output. I know the iPad has a 4/3 contact head set/mic. input port. I bought a Skull Candy ear bud set with microphone and tried it out using the dictation App I downloaded. What I need to do now is find a 4 conductor 1/8 inch plug that I can wire up to 2 separate cables.
Following that, I plan to pair my Bluetooth enabled phone and try to make calls with it. If nothing else it would be nice to have it look up my address book listings and dial from there.
If you want to use the iPad in a car it will work fine. Temperature wise it wants to be comfortable just like you. It won't get wet inside a car either. If you get an iPad you can go without a Garmin in a car. On a motorcycle it just isn't ready yet.
My ultimate goal is to have the iPad take care of everything electronic on the bike, without a Starcom. Music, navigation, intercom, telephone dialer, AM/FM/XM/Weather band. Bike to bike via GMRS or CB, on top of meeting my computing needs. I want to dictate my trip diary and have it convert it to text. I want to take pictures and Wyfi transfer to the photo album - Geotagged. And I want all this to be portable, perhaps mounted in a tank bag. IT should be able to transfer from bike to bike.
:blink:
This may take a while.
Brodie
Right up front i'm going to say "This isn't a laptop!" Don't expect it to take the place of one - yet.
My goal is to use it for trips. It has a browser, photo storage/display, music, word processor, stand alone turn by turn GPS (does not require a network connection), e-mail, and many other things that make it appealing for traveling. I want 1 device that takes care of everything. As it stands this may come close.
I started this thread in hopes that a few other brave souls are out here bleeding with me. Perhaps we can share notes and avoid duplicating each other's mistakes/dead ends.
Here it is mounted on my bike in a tank bag map window...
Granted, it looks a bit sloppy, but it worked. The problem with this set up is it is a hostile environment for this rather fragile piece of electronics. In direct sun it got hot inside that map pouch fast. Above 95 degrees the iPad will shut off. Any attempt to get it working while hot will give you a temperature warning. There is a reason Apple has an aluminum back to this - heat dissipation. Sitting in my lap it stays cool because of that feature, but put it inside of an oven bag on top of the tank in the sun and it will go dark.
The other problem is rain. It must be kept dry. Ask anyone with an iPhone that got wet, they will tell you that Apple will not cover it under warranty.
When I make my handlebar mount case, I will have to take those requirements into consideration.
I rode around Santa Clara for a few hours with it plugged into the aux. input port on my Jensen AM/FM radio. My tank bag is wired up to my bike and the iPad powered up through a Griffin automotive power adapter. The bike had no problem satisfying it's electrical requirements. My Jensen radio feeds into my Starcom Digital audio port. I only had stereo sound for the ride. That was enough to prove out the GPS App. I installed from the App Store. I chose Navigon My region - US West for the GPS App. It worked pretty well. It was accurate, able to re direct me when I got off track (on purpose), and was able to play my music in the back ground. I will be playing with it some more in the next few days to see how much it meets my ideas.
My next thing to find out is will it hook up to my Starcom the same way a Garmin 660, 1 stereo input, and the other Aux. output. I know the iPad has a 4/3 contact head set/mic. input port. I bought a Skull Candy ear bud set with microphone and tried it out using the dictation App I downloaded. What I need to do now is find a 4 conductor 1/8 inch plug that I can wire up to 2 separate cables.
Following that, I plan to pair my Bluetooth enabled phone and try to make calls with it. If nothing else it would be nice to have it look up my address book listings and dial from there.
If you want to use the iPad in a car it will work fine. Temperature wise it wants to be comfortable just like you. It won't get wet inside a car either. If you get an iPad you can go without a Garmin in a car. On a motorcycle it just isn't ready yet.
My ultimate goal is to have the iPad take care of everything electronic on the bike, without a Starcom. Music, navigation, intercom, telephone dialer, AM/FM/XM/Weather band. Bike to bike via GMRS or CB, on top of meeting my computing needs. I want to dictate my trip diary and have it convert it to text. I want to take pictures and Wyfi transfer to the photo album - Geotagged. And I want all this to be portable, perhaps mounted in a tank bag. IT should be able to transfer from bike to bike.
:blink:
This may take a while.
Brodie
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