Ahrr! Just tell me what to buy! (click on image)

One of the first Pocket-PC PDAs, the Ipaq 3000 series are still very good PDAs . If you have one or find one used somewhere then you have more than you need to run GPS2PDA. They haven’t been made for several years, but they made so many of them (back in the Compaq days) and they were made so well there are still lots of them floating around.

The screens are very nice on Ipaqs, even fairly old ones. You won’t have any trouble reading the screen in your car while collecting travel time data.

The other standard features of the Ipaq are fine for our use. Click here to learn more about the current family of Ipaqs from HP.

The simplest way to connect to a GPS receiver is to use a serial cable that connects to the bottom of the PDA. Here is a picture of the serial cable you need. It also has a cigarette adapter that you can use to power the PDA, which saves the batteries. You can get this cable from our favorite cable supply source, The Supply Net. Click here for a link right to the page where you can order this cable. Make sure that you check that your PDA model is listed before you order a cable.

The other option is to use a GPS receiver that plugs into a Compact Flash connector on the Ipaq. At least two models (Holux 270 CF, and Pharos iGPS-CF, shown here) have connectors for an external antenna which is necessary to collect the best possible travel time data. This option uses the CF slot, but frees up the serial port for other uses. Note: If you use Jamar Trax counters then you can use your PDA with or without GPS to retrieve and validate your traffic data. (Click here for more details)

Ipaqs don’t come standard with CF slots. You have to add a sleeve (shown here). You can get these sleeves direct from HP for around $40 (click here). These sleeves are ok, but they add to the size of the PDA. Since other PDAs (like the Dell Axim or NEC P300) have the CF slots built in, and they generally cost less, Ipaqs would not be our first choice. If you already have one, then great, definitely use it.

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