"Dennis Pogson" wrote in message
...
Gordon wrote:
Can I use a pda at the helm to controll, use, interface with,
whatever, a notebook running a nav program in the cabin? For instance
with bluetooth, can the pda become the i/o device for the laptop so I
have a full blown nav program at my disposal at the helm that I can
actually see and is small enough to handle easily without being
hardwired? Thanx
Gordon

I could be wrong, but I don't know of any PDA that will run a program
which
is loaded on the hard disk of another computer. Most PDA nav. systems are
loaded on the solid-state drive of the PDA and are cut-down versions of
full
programs.

The I/O device for the laptop which you mention would surely be a
Bluetooth
GPS.

Using a wireless multiplexer, it may be possible to install such a set-up,
but I have doubts about a PDA being able to run a program that was not
designed for Windows CE.

You could have Bluetooth on all 3 items of course.

Such a set-up would send the necessary data from the GPS to both the
laptop
and the PDA. Is this what you want? You would have to check whether NMEA
protocol can split the sentences and send them to 2 devices.

Dennis.



How big is the solid state drive? In other words, where do you store the
maps? That's a lot of data. Could they access something like a usb hard
drive?
Gordon