1) On/Off switch
2) Connector for external antenna (external antenna must be purchased separately).
3) Solar Panel
4) Tilt/Swivel Mechanism
5) GPS Antenna
6) BT Connection LED
7) GPS Lock LED
8) Battery Status LED
9) Charging port (not shown; however it is located on the front of the receiver).
The layout is fairly intuitive. Rotate the GPS antenna clockwise to expose the solar cells (note that you should not rotate the antenna more than 270 degrees clockwise from its closed position). Rotate the opposite direction to “close” the unit. The LEDs are also fairly self-explanatory. When the unit is first powered on, the BT Connection LED (color: Blue) will turn on (solid). After a few minutes, if no BT Connection is established, the unit will enter its “low power mode” and the BT Connection LED will slowly flash. Once a BT Connection has been established with the GPS receiver, the LED will flash quickly to indicate a BT connection has been established. When the unit is first turned on (or when the unit has been “awoken” by a BT Connection), the GPS Lock Connection LED will be solid (indicating that the GPS receiver is trying to establish a lock of your position). Once your fix has been determined, the GPS Lock Connection LED will begin to flash. The Battery Status LED has already been discussed.
To turn on the device, simply slide the power switch found on the left-hand side of the unit to “On”. You don’t have to worry about fully charging your battery before using the i-Blue 757. You can use your GPS receiver while the batteries are charging.
The manual gives fairly good directions on how to “pair” your i-Blue 757 with your PDA. Even though the manual shows screen shots from a device using the Widcomm BT stack (most WM 5.0 devices use the Microsoft stack which has a slightly different layout than the Widcomm BT Stack), the process is generally the same.
- First turn on your i-Blue 757 GPS receiver.
- Second, turn on the BT radio on your PDA.
- Next, connect to and “pair” the devices (This is accomplished on your PDA by “searching” for a BT device. Once you’ve discovered the i-Blue 757 (which, on my device, showed up as “iBT-GPS”), select the “iBT-GPS” icon as the device you want to connect to).
- You should be prompted to enter a passkey. Enter 0000.
- If necessary, select the profile you want to use (i.e. Serial Port). Otherwise, select finish.
Most of today’s GPS application will automatically connect to your BT GPS receiver as long as you leave your BT GPS receiver “on” and you have the BT radio on your PDA turned “on”. Additionally, most GPS applications have an “auto-detect” feature that will usually (but not always): 1) Turn on your PDA’s BT radio (if it’s not on already) and 2) search for a “paired” BT GPS receiver (which we did above). I had no problems getting TomTom 6, iGuidance 3.0, and Odyssey Mobile 4.0 to recognize the receiver.
The battery life lived up to the 30+ hour Transystem claimed the unit will do. Leaving the solar panel covered, I was getting slightly less than 30 hours of GPS use on a single charge. To be fair to Transystem’s claim though, I was using the unit while I was driving to and from work over the course of two weeks. During this time, the battery would be depleted by normal GPS use as well as when the device entered “standby mode” (where the device goes into a “sleep mode” until I reactivate it). I was able to get the 30+ hours Transystem claimed by opening the device and using its solar cells. The solar cells were placed on the device to extend usage rather than to fully recharge the battery. I found that I could get about two and half weeks off of a single charge. The solar pack is definitely a nice addition to their BT GPS line. Unfortunately, the design of the solar cell/GPS antenna seems a little inefficient.
The solar cells are located directly above the battery compartment. To expose the solar cells, one needs to twist/rotate the GPS antenna clock-wise to expose the solar cells. In addition to the swivel mechanism, the GPS antenna also has a “tilt” mechanism that allows the user to “tilt” the antenna in the vertical. I guess the engineers at Transystem were thinking that users may want to “aim” the GPS antenna in another direction except for straight-up. Personally, I think they should have switched the location of the GPS antenna and the solar cells. This way, your GPS antenna is always pointing up (giving you the full horizon to search for GPS satellites) and you can “aim” your solar cells in the direction of the most intense sunlight.
Although I have no way of quantitatively measuring the sensitivity of this antenna, it appears that the i-Blue 757 has surpassed the sensitivity of my previous generation antenna (the i-Blue PS-3200). While using the i-Blue 757, I typically was tracking between 8-10 satellites. Periodically, I would track up to 12 satellites, but this usually didn’t last very long. My previous GPS antenna (i-Blue PS-3200) would usually track between 5-7 satellites.
Was I impressed with the i-Blue 757? Absolutely. Even without the solar-recharge capability, I would think that this is a very good BT GPS receiver. The solar panel is just icing on the cake. If you’re looking for your first BT GPS receiver, I think you would be very happy with this product.
Pros:
1) Impressive power management! User is not required to turn on/turn off the device each time they use it.
2) 30+ hours of GPS usage one a single charge.
3) Excellent sensitivity.
4) Addition of solar cells allows for the battery life to be extended before requiring a recharge.
5) Charge via mini-USB (charging cable is not proprietary!)
Cons:
1) Status LED lights are too small to be seen during daylight use.
2) The solar panel should be on the swivel; not the GPS antenna.
3) No “Home/Mains” charger. You can only recharge in your auto.
My next review will be coming shortly. I’ll be looking at the latest GPS navigation solution from Garmin: the Garmin Mobile 10. How does it stack up against the competition and is it good enough to de-thrown my all-time favorite TomTom 6? Tune in next week GPS-Fans!