Introduction

Following in the footsteps of i-Blue PS-737 GPS receiver is the PS-757 Pro 32 unit. This functions both as a normal Bluetooth GPS receiver and a Data logger – for those of you who don’t know what this is, it means the unit has the capability to record points along a journey.

The good thing about the i-Blue 757 is that you don’t need a PDA or a Navigation program to do this. Therefore it is possible to place the unit into a car or in your pocket and record where you have been for display and analysis at a later date. Conveniently this can be easily done via Google Earth, so you don’t even need a mapping program like Ozi-explorer for example.

Naturally the unit can also be placed into vehicles such as company cars, fleet operations and private cars loaned to teenage offspring to keep track of where they have been, the length of time traveled and of course the speeds reached along the way. With regard to the speed, this is calculated between each recorded point so it does not just average the total distance over the total time but can easily show at what sections along the trip the speed actually was.

What’s in the box

• A Retractable USB/Mini USB Cable which also serves as an out of car charger

• A Cigarette lighter Adaptor

• The GPS unit itself

• A 1000 maH Lithium Battery

• A user manual and warranty card

• CD-Rom (3”) containing the Drivers and GPS data log software.

Specifications

As a GPS receiver 

As a stand alone GPS receiver the i-Blue offers excellent time to first fix and exceptional ability to hold onto and receive low GPS signals. In every way the unit has significantly better performance than the PS-737, and that’s saying something because the PS-737 was and still is an excellent unit. This increase is not easy to determine by just looking at the specifications, so it seems that the manufactures have further tuned the device.

Like the PS-737 when used with a Bluetooth PDA the device will go into a sleep mode when not connected and dramatically increases the time between charges. Additionally because the device has a solar panel the time between charges can be increased much much more. The manufactures claim 100 hours plus and although I wasn’t able to verify this it is very believable based on the results I was achieving. I charged the unit once overnight and didn’t charge it again during the time I used it.

The i-Blue 757 is the first unit I have used that actually picks up a signal in my house under a Colourbond roof. (see screenshot below).

The solar panel charging is adequate but should only be considered as a means of extending the time between charges not as a way to charge the unit itself.
According to the manufacturer :-

“No matter the power of i-Blue PS-757 Pro is ON or OFF or even indoor. Office light can charge it 1mA~2mA per hour. A 100W incandescent lamp can charge about 15mA per hour. The best case is in direct sun, i-Blue  PS-757 Pro can charge 30mA per hour.”

Nevertheless it is still quite useful for things such as field trips for extending the battery life. In a car it can be directly connected to the cigarette lighter so power is not really a problem, and in direct sunlight the  amount charged is equal to the amount consumed so it will run indefinately.

If you are interested (and because the features are almost identical) it is probably worth reading the review of the i-Blue 737 here

As a Data Logger

Let me say upfront that I have never used a data logger before. I have used Ozi-Explorer and to some extent that is similar, but this unit does not require any additional maps, or software to perform its functions. Other than a Computer and an internet connection nothing else is required. Of course, if you like, the data downloaded from the device is useable in other mapping programs but for most users I think the Google earth solution will be fine.

The software that ships with the package works fine but I noticed that it took a long time to download the data, thankfully an update is available from the website and this makes a huge difference in download times from the unit to the PC.

Installation of the software is fairly straight forward but I wouldn’t call it “mum friendly”. I.e. don’t expect to give it to your Mother and expect her to get it to work. However if you are reasonably PC literate it will proceed without any drama.

The initial set and configuration detected the device fine as Com3 and from there on it was very simple to get the data into a useable form (ie on a Google Earth map) all it took was two clicks, Read then Draw. The data download for  about 6000 points took only a minute or two (with the updated software)

The way it interacts with Google Earth is nice, upon clicking Draw, Google Earth loads and spins to location of the data points and zooms in so that the entire trip is shown. From here you can of course further zoom in and move around.

The configuration screen even has a dedicated button to set it up easily for Google Earth.

Above 1 shows what you see when Draw is clicked - the map is drawn centred and zoomed to fit the entire trip.  Further zooming is possible and 2 shows the actual path of a section of the trip. Note this was a return trip so that accounts for the different path. I was quite impressed with the GPS ability to accurately show the true position.

Neverthless it did show up some errors - here the path is shown about 30 meters out of position. This is fairly normal though and I felt that the i-Blue 757 Pro 32 performed better than my  BT338 when using Ozi-explorer, although that may be a map error.

What I didn’t like

• The unit is not rain proof so it cannot be used where there is a chance it will get wet. For hiking this means it remains in a waterproof pocket and for car use it must remain inside. Most other units are the same so it is no big deal I guess.
• The battery cover feels very flimsy and I was quite concerned about breaking it when fitting the battery initially. It didn’t break  but it was a bit worrying.
• The unit itself feels rather plasticy  and is a little larger that the PS-737
• The feature list states that it can record a point of interest by the push of a button – there is no button that can do this.

What I did like

• It may be subjective but the time to first fix and the ability to get signals in difficult conditions seems even better than the PS-737 and my BT338 reciever.
• The ease of use (once installed on your PC) with Google Earth
• The “fuzzy” logic that meant I did not have to switch on the receiver once it detected that my PDA was sending data.
• The long life between battery charges.
• The fact that the unit can also be used with PC or Laptop because of the USB port and supplied drivers.