I follow your line of thought because i've gone down roughly the same line. One development interesting to me is the ability for the iPad to operate as a USB or RS232 host. The USB is already on the market as a digital camera interface. The same company is making an official DB9 and RJ11 serial output dongle. I would like my APRS to be something the size of a tablet, or smaller, and offer the ability to do anything that an old dekstop computer with TNC and radio could do. The iPad has a GPS chipset inside already, so there is really nothing stopping someone with enough know-how from making a two piece solution.<div>
<br></div><div><a href="http://www.byonics.com">www.byonics.com</a> makes the Tiny Trak series of TNCs. They have several dumb tracker solutions on various PCBs. The radio from the 10w AIO, a TT3 or 4 TNC, and someone to write an apple store app would make the smallest solution i've been able to think of.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 1:10 PM, John Davis <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:john.r.davis.jr@gmail.com">john.r.davis.jr@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse">Question.<div><br></div><div>I am a new to the HAM community, so please excuse my ignorance in advance. I have been involved in technology for a long time until a friend of mine, Mike (KN8J) peaked my interest in APRS. I purchased an RC-D710 with the intentions of creating an HT setup similar to what Bob did. With that said, I am realizing there is a problem with input, it is a slow and tedious process and a limitation to APRS.<div>
<br></div><div>What I mean is that using the keypad is fine, but long and kind of unnecessary. I am starting to feel the need for a keyboard on an HT or something more than a keypad. Pardon my reference, but similar to the need for them on smartphones and cellphones. If we are to get a mass adaptation there needs to be an easy way to utilize all of its features.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I am contemplating hacking away at my RC-D710 to use the keyboard over serial(if possible), but I think that if we can incorporate Bluetooth with a VX-8DR/R we should be able to make or allow a keyboard to be connected to an HT/mobile unit to allow better data input. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Another idea I have is to create a device with a dedicated transceiver(<span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, san-serif">Micro-Trak TinyTrak4) in the same case as a picoITX motherboard</span><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, san-serif">(</span><font face="'Trebuchet MS', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">EPIA-P820) using either an SSD or CF card as a hdd in a fanless case, and mount some form of 7in monitor(touchscreen or not) and keyboard on this device. This device should be light and self contained, with a battery life of 5 hours on transmit/receive. I think I could make it work.</font></div>
<div><span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br></span></div><div>My question is this: Why are we still so limited to computers for data input and monitoring with APRS when we have so many great technologies at our fingertips for pretty cheap.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If anyone is interested in my ideas please let me know and I can discuss them with you, on or off the thread. Thank you everyone!</div></div></span><br><font color="#888888">-- <br><p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/JohnRDavisJr.gif?w=1&c=1&bb=C0bg" alt="John R Davis Jr" style="border:0pt none">
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