GPS for laptops

chiefnoodle

So I know you can get your smartphone to turn into a GPS unit. But I don't have a smartphone... so can I get my laptop to function as a GPS?

On ebay you can pick up USB GPS dongles for around £20, so that together with route planning software and pre-downloaded maps should do the trick. I'd be doing it offline, so google earth wouldn't be an option.

But I can't find anywhere with a clear guide on what you have to do, the different options available both for the hardware and the software.

Any tips would be appreciated on what combinations are tried and tested

Thanks

NiftyDigits

CoPilot is but one option.

You could try HERE maps, though I haven't tried them on a laptop.

chiefnoodle

copilot looks good but is quite expensive, looking like $100 +.

MSE recently had in their weekly email about free GPS apps for smartphones, wondering if there's something similar for PC.
Maybe I could find an emulator to run an app on my laptop - something like this - http://www.extremetech.com/computing/83812-run-android-apps-on-your-windows-pc-2 - but I suspect that getting the app in the emulator to talk to the GPS dongle wouldn't be that easy...

Any thoughts?

JJ_Egan

I have pre smartphones run a laptop with maps and GPS via a USB dongle . Worked well apart from slight lag if used in a car ( not by driver ) .

chiefnoodle

JJ_Egan wrote: »

I have pre smartphones run a laptop with maps and GPS via a USB dongle . Worked well apart from slight lag if used in a car ( not by driver ) .

what hardware/software combination did you use?
thanks

chiefnoodle

copilot looks good but is quite expensive, looking like $100 +.

MSE recently had in their weekly email about free GPS apps for smartphones, wondering if there's something similar for PC.
Maybe I could find an emulator to run an app on my laptop - something like this - http://www.extremetech.com/computing/83812-run-android-apps-on-your-windows-pc-2 - but I suspect that getting the app in the emulator to talk to the GPS dongle wouldn't be that easy...

Any thoughts?

JJ_Egan

chiefnoodle wrote: »

what hardware/software combination did you use?
thanks

Cheap hardware but i don't remember what .
Software was Microsoft Auto-route as not much else available at the time .

droopsnoot

Can't you use Google Earth to do this? I don't mean the web site, there's an installable application for Windows that has some additional features. I know MS Mappoint used to do it, but that's not cheap.

NiftyDigits

Navigator FREE ?

chiefnoodle

droopsnoot wrote: »

Can't you use Google Earth to do this? I don't mean the web site, there's an installable application for Windows that has some additional features. I know MS Mappoint used to do it, but that's not cheap.

thanks but even the application as far as I know doesn't download all the map data - you need a connection for that. there are workarounds but this isn't a simple solution.

chiefnoodle

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Navigator FREE ?

looks good
can you download the map for the whole uk etc for this program? the website doesn't clearly say

thanks