GPS & bluetooth kit for Panasonic Toughbook CF-29

High performance aftermarket GPS kit for the Panasonic Toughbook CF-29.
No dongles or cable mess to plug in externally, everything integrates inside your Toughbook.

This kit utilizes Panasonics original GPS interface built into the CF-29 mainboard.
This means no exterior ports are used. It also means you will get the GPS option showing in the BIOS, allowing you to enable/disable the GPS in the BIOS.

The original 12 channel GPS offered by Panasonic for the CF-29 is obsolete.
Our kit is based on a modern 20 channel SiRFIII GPS engine.
You will see much better performance & TTFF than the original GPS.

The bluetooth part is just a bonus. It utilizes one of the internal USB ports present in the CF-29.
Using a tiny bluetooth module, it is a simple and inexpensive way to get internal bluetooth in your Toughbook.
Since there is no external antenna the bluetooth range will be limited.

No soldering involved. Plug & Play.

The original GPS kit for the CF-29 costs $376,-

No reserve. Bidding starts at $0.99

Kit includes:
-Interface board
-Groundplane
-20 channel SiRFIII GPS module
-Active patch GPS antenna
-Bluetooth module
-240mm FFC cable
-GPS header cable
-140mm copper tape with conductive adhesive

For installation instructions, look under "Documents" at www.custom-toughbooks.com

Shipping:

Airmail, no insurance, no tracking                                              $ 7.00

Registered airmail, insured, tracking #, signature required           $ 22.00

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://seilmagasinet.no/id/33192.0

"Sailing through the North East Passage gave numerous unnerving challenges.  Here is the crew`s own account:

Hooray!  We made it!!

An incredible relief to exit the ice! After a long and hard battle against the elements.

We have been quite unfortunate with the ice conditions, so the last few days have been tough.  There has been more ice than expected, gale and dense fog and snow.  And all the time curious polar bears wandering about.  But they have been the least of our problems.  They were seldom closer than a few hundred meters, and when they came too close it was ususally sufficient to yell at them and they would withdraw.  The ice was our real problem.

In order to avoid beng screwed down by the ice, you need to be constantly moving.  When you see a large floe drifting your way, you must have an open patch of water to move to.  If not, the boat will be swiftly crushed.  The forces are unbelievable!

When fog and drifting snow reduces the sight to a mere 200 meters, you may quickly loose overview and find yourself locked in.  And that was what happened with us a few times.  All the nearby leads close up and you are caught in a "lagoon", surrounded by dense, moving packs of ice.  When the lagoon then starts to shrink, and one ice floe after another comes drifting with the wind and packs up inside, it is critical.  But by a combination of hard work, some luck and good cooperation we got out of there in one piece.

The ice was laying approximately up to the Bolsjevik Island, so we sailed as far north as 78 deg, 14 min N in order to pass it with a margin.

In addition to the large compass deviation, there are numerous strong, magnetic fields around this entire area, so both the magnetic compass and the gyro compass are constantly going crazy.  They may change by as much as 30 degrees in an instant!  Luckily, www.custom-toughbooks.com have lent us two water- and shockproof laptops with built in, powerful GPS receivers.  We can keep them in the cockpit no matter what the weather, so we have always been able to find the right direction.  Electronic maps with tracking gave us an indication of where we had previously tried to find openings, so that we avoided sailing into the same dead ends again.

We have heard that Ole Skinnarmo is waiting out the weather and ice conditions, and that is probably sensible.  We would not wish for him the same conditions we have had!

Thus, we say farewell to the Kara Sea as the Laptev Sea welcomes us with a nice little gale in the right direction.  We are happy to be saling again!

Finn Andreassen"