Wesley J. Landaker wrote: > John Ioannidis wrote: > >>Out of curiosity: what is wrong with the Garmin GPS 18LVC that someone >>would like to look at an alternative? At < $70, it's practically free. > > > Well, one downside is that it's "free" plus the time, materials, and > knowledge to make yourself a custom cable, do RS-232 level-shifting, > and provide a voltage source. > > It's not hard if you're already a electrical engineer, radio HAM, > hardware hobbyist, etc, but it's still extra hassle. For example, if > there was something similar that was ready to plug into a RS-232 port > with the right levels and PPS already on DCD and a standard DC power > input plug tee'd off, it would be pretty convenient. > > Also, in general it's natural to want to know about alternatives (or the > lack of them) so as to be able to make quality decisions. >
There are damned few alternatives. The Garmin is the only one I've ever heard of in the under $100 price class. At $300-$400 there are a few alternatives. At $1000 and up there are even more alternatives. If there were a market for several hundred Plug-N-Play systems, I'm sure someone would be delighted to serve that market for $100-$125 each. $70 for the Garmin $5 for a DB-25 or DB-9 connector $1 for 5 feet of cable $5-10 for a 5 Volt "wall wart" $1 for a mating connector for the "wall wart" A soldering iron, some solder, and you're in business. Pricing is "S.W.A.G." D.I.Y. is a bit cheaper. _______________________________________________ questions mailing list questions@lists.ntp.org https://lists.ntp.org/mailman/listinfo/questions
