Toward a touchscreen groundstation

I recently bought the following cheap GPS navigation PNA for my car: Medion GoPal P4440

I soon discovered this device runs it's apps on Windows Mobile 5 OS. After some searches, I installed the MioPocket suite on a Micro SD card and I now have a nice Win CE platform with lots of goodies (GPS apps too) added to the original navigation "only" system. Now it looks like that (similar device):

Next I thought it would be nice to use this device strapped to my forearm to fill GIS/database forms in the field (I am an archaeologist). This will indeed be possible with the nice CyberTracker software.
Further, I thought it would be a nice mobile device to reprogram ArduPilot in the field. and it could finally be used as a touchscreen groundstation. But for that, the device needs to communicate through it's mini USB connector, typically with a FTDI chip for serial I/O.
Has anybody any experience driving FTDI from such or similar windows Mobile device?

Tags: ftdi, gps, ground, mobile, screen, serial, station, touch, windows

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Permalink Reply by Morli on January 2, 2010 at 4:21pm
Reto, Interesting thought, how does look in direct sunlight or day light out side? Won't serve the purpose if you can't see them while in field. a while back similar topic was discussed with regard to laptops for field use but not much came out of it.
Permalink Reply by Reto on January 2, 2010 at 5:13pm
I did not test it in direct sunlight yet (there was not much in the last few snowy days...), but I will for sure. I suspect the shiny screen will have reflections. But on the other hand, it's used on an everyday basis under car windshields, also in daylight. And as a standalone ArduPilot reprogrammer, it's worth a try since direct sunlight is not much of a handicap for that purpose. Maybe one could even imagine an ArduPilot cable free bluetooth connection?

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