which gps receiver is working on iPad mini

Maybe I am missing something here.

I just purchased an ipad mini with no sim (AT&T) no wifi connection no cellular no sim, and MAPS (apple) worked just fine. It would not go hybrid, but i did not wait long before i switched back. But i just used it on the one hour drive home and it maintained my position very accuratly.

I really wanted anothor one that they had 32gb but it was verizin and would not find itself in the store.

I will be going back tommorrow as i noticed that in the hotel i lost maps for a while, but when i went outside it came back up. I am hoping that the verizon ipad mini will connect when outside as well.

I am a helicopter crewchief, and many guys told me they use ipad minis and the apple MAPS app while flying. Many have no cellualr plan any onger. They advised me that as long as you get a cellular device it will work as GPS. You need wifi to search for address and businesses.

I just tried this many times. When i am out side maps works.

I'm not expert, but I've been following this thread for a long time, and I've played with the same gadgets. I have a "wi-fi only" iPad.

Like you, I've noticed that my iPad "knows where it is" pretty well. But it's NOT accurate enough that I would navigate with it. Probably not a car and certainly not an aircraft!

But there's no question that, if you turn wi-fi off, or put it on "airplane mode" (turns off all R.F. sources except, I suppose those eminating from the chip), you can't get a map to display on Apple Maps or Google Maps or any other app that downloads its map from the net.

The uncanny thing I have noticed about it is that, even in airplane mode (no wi-fi, no bluetooth, no phone signal...dosen't even have a sim card, and no gps signal from my Bad Elf), in apps that use a downloaded (onboard) map, like a hiking map that I use that downloads USGS Topo Maps, IT CAN STILL FIND ITSELF PRETTY WELL! Not precisely for sure, but it still has a rough idea of where it is (within a few hundred yards)!!! I REALLY don't know how it does that!! I have also observed the same thing with Google Earth with the iPad in Airplane Mode.....turn it on and it asks you if you want to "continue without the network?". If you hit yes, it will take you to pretty close to where you are!! Uncanny!

Makes me wonder if it doesn't have SOME kind of inertial nav ability to reckon where it is from it's last wi-fi location fix (and it CAN locate itself with wi-fi signals when wi-fi is on, in the area EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT connected to that perticular wi-fi network! I have verifed that. I have also read that it uses Bluetooth signals in some way to calculate its position, but that seems pretty unlikely to me as they only have a range to 30' or a bit more under most conditions!.

mine is celuuar model and in airplane mode nothing works. I just tried.

apple maps works fine with no cellaular data or wireless connection. ATT model . I will call the shop i bought his from. If they will take teh verizon model outside and it connects i will exchange

YES IPAD GPS will work with no celluar data, sim card or wireless service

If your iPad is an AT&T cellular model, even if it doesn't have a SIM card onboard, it HAS a GPS receiver. If you

read far enough back in this thread, you'll find someone who said (and I have no independent evidence for this either way) that the GPS function and the Cellular radio function are on the same chip. The wi-fi model doesn't have that chip and so doesn't have GPS. Most of the people who've been on this thread have been concerned about getting a GPS signal into their wi-fi only iPads (like with a Bad Elf). But if you've got a cellular model, you've got a GPS signal available to you. Even if you have no celluar service, no SIM card, no wi-fi, nothing else.

Apple Maps DOES have an onboard map, and I can get it to come up with wi-fi off, but it looses the map data at about 1" to 0.5mi scale, indicating that it's NOT a full set of map data, just a base map with main roads. But, again, it can find my location with wi-fi off.

Google Maps has a similar base map. I don't use Google Maps as often and the last time I used it was about 100 mi away. So, when I turned Google Maps on, that is where it thought it was, with wi-fi off. When I turned on wi-fi (and this in an iPad w. wi-fi only and no cellular functions or GPS), Google Maps took me right to my present location. Wi-fi position finding just like Apple says!

Question on traffic updates. Thinking of getting the bad elf unit. I currently use copilot on iPhone but want to try on iPad mini.

I believe you need the internet for live traffic. Or would the bad elf unit provide this? My mini is wifi only and usually get internet through hotspot on my iPhone when wifi isn't available. Would I need to run the hotspot for traffic?

That was a great review (at your link) and Brett's info is great too! The battery problem with the Garmin I knew about , and is a big deal for me, though I have a handheld gps for hiking , it would be a real problem to be hiking for more than one day and find the battery is dead. It would be nice if these could use AAA batteries, maybe plug into a battery pack for a recharage?

I wonder if the problem with the accuracy with these showing you on a roof while the internal gps showed you on a street reflects the software and not the gps? (I read somewhere that gps for cars adjusts whatever location it gives to show that you are on the road, even if the actual reading says otherwise )

I will probably get the Pro, but have to look at Dual's somemore.

Re your comment about one gps saying you're "On the roof" vs another "on the street."

Not sure if you mean elevation or lateral position, but GPS is NOTORIOUSLY BAD at measuring elevation. My Bad Elf, once it gets stabilized and tracking 7-8 satellites, will give me a steady consistent horizontal position within a 12-15 ft circle. But, at the same time, the elevation reading will fluctuate up and down by 50 to 100+ feet over a few minutes time. I have read that it's typical and inherent in the system. I'm not sure why. I have a Buddy who flies a Biz Jet for a living and he said his plane has a super accurate gps that's accurate enough to do an instrument landing with as far as lateral location but they never trust the gps for altitude, use a radar altimeter instead.

I was assuming he mean't lateral position, but now that you point it out I am not sure, since he used the word roof vs. building. That would imply he looked at both the location and elevation? Still I suppose the software could explain even that , as navigation software for cars would assume you are not only over the road, but on it?

I think users of car navigation gps aren't aware of this, except maybe when pulling into a driveway, but hikers notice this, as I did just walking around downtown. Some hiker type GPSs have an option to do street navigation. I searched for something on this, that might be more convincing, read here, Garmin calls it lock on.

I have read that GPS is bad at elevation, from what I have read it has to do with the model of the earth it uses, but more because the triangluation isn't very good since all the satellites are very high, at least for hikers, not sure about pilots who could get more of them on the horizon, or maybe WAAS etc. A scene in the movie Enemy of the state explained this pretty well, when one guy complained about the satellite not being able to take a picture of a guys face, if he wasn't looking up. The other guy said maybe you could invent a new one!

Here is his link that he posted above:

Quote:

Hi Wayne243,

We have some customers that use our GPS accessories with track video/lap recorders, which are pretty similar. I haven't heard of iSymDVR 2 specifically but after a quick review of the app listing I think it should work just fine. They list the iPod touch which is always a good sign for the app to be able to run on non-cellular iOS devices.

I hope that helps!

-Brett

for what its worth: i bought a bad elf gps for lightning connector, for use with my wifi-only ipad air. of all the silly gizmos ive bought for my ipad, this was NOT one of them.

i havent the foggiest how it operates or what all the technical commentary means, but it works exactly as advertized. load an app from the apple site ... plug the bad elf in the lightning connector, run the app ... and you're away to the races, with the usual gps provisos about not working in downtown areas where youre surrounded by tall buildings, or in heavily treed zones..

i got it not through the company website, but from a distributor in toronto.

if you want gps capability without the cost of a data plan, this is the ticket.

a slight word of caution: the bad elf sticks out a little bit, so you have to be careful you dont break it off. not a big deal but something to watch out for.

I have had a bad elf for a while, with a subscription to off maps. Works like a charm every where I have gone.

Alas, mine is the 30 pin connector, and won't work with my air. ( anybody want it?).

But to Samos point, the thong works good.

Hi pjl123,

Glad to hear you've enjoyed your 30-pin Bad Elf. Just FYI you can get Apple's Lightning-to-30pin adapter that will let you use it with your iPad Air. There are 2 versions -- one is a dongle, and the other is on a 6" cable -- I'd recommend the latter.

Take care,

Brett

I got the bad elf pro , it has worked well with my fitness apps, and gala maps. It displays are easy to understand and show important info better than my Garmin hand held. The accuracy of the two seems about the same after just using it for biking around town. I am glaid it displays your location, I could not tell for sure at Shorty's , I see it does say this on bad elf's website. I wish it would also so UTM position, but I don't think Gala maps uses UTM, just Lat / Lon so not that important.

I wonder how battery consumption compares for an iPad mini wifi only with this GPS and an iPad mini with GPS (internal). ie does the blue tooth connection and the other position fixing (looking at Wifi spots etc.) use more of the iPad battery than an internal GPS.

Glad to hear the GPS Pro is working well for you!

We've been meaning to re-run the internal vs. bluetooth battery comparison tests again for the iPad Air and iPad mini (with and without Retina). I know that for our device, the GPS consumes WAY more power than Bluetooth. For example, on the bench the GPS Pro lasts ~28hrs when streaming GPS data to 2 iPads. In datalogger mode with Bluetooth OFF we get ~32hrs.

But of course iPad screen brightness seems to have the biggest effect on battery life so there are a lot of variables when using it in real world conditions.

When we get around to re-running some benchmarks I'll post the results here.

Best regards,

-Brett

Hi Brett, or anyone else who may know!

Does the iPad/iPhone (A7/8 processors, iOS8 on) support connection to two bluetooth devices simultaneously?

For example, I'd like to use my iPad mini Retina with wi-fi only for navigation in the car, but I'd also like to have it connected to the stereo to allow music playback or direction instructions through the car speakers.

Thanks for any help.

Mike