Mitchell and I will soon be doing reviews on the Spectec SDIO WLAN 802.11b and the miniSDIO WLAN 802.11b cards, which just arrived today. Although this was exciting enough in and of itself, since we are each using a non-WiFi enabled Palm Treo these days (750v for Mitchell, and 700wx for me), there was something else on the Spectec site that caught my eye…something that prompted me to post this entry late on a Saturday night when I was essentially done posting for this holiday weekend…

Feast your eyes on this – the Spectec SD/SDIO GPS Receiver. Even the most jaded gadget hound must acknowledge the amazing bit of technology presented here: a 20 channel GPS tracking device in an SD card, with a slot to hold up to a 2GB microSD! :shock:

This card supports Palm, Pocket PC, & Smartphone. It is WAAS enabled and uses SiRF Star III.

spectec_sdio_gps_module

Tell me that this isn’t the coolest gadget you have seen all day? ;-)

Click this thumbnail to see the full product flyer…

spectec_sd_gps_module_02

And here are the specifications:

Electrical Characteristics (Receiver)

Chipset  

 SiRF Start III

Frequency  

 L1, 1575.42 MHz

C/A Code  

 1.023 MHz chip rate

Channels  

 20 channel all-in-view tracking
 Accuracy

Position Horizontal  

10 meters, 2D RMS

1~5 meters, 3D RMS with WAAS, EGNOS corrected

Velocity  

 0.1m/sec

Time  

 1 micro-second synchronized to GPS time
 Datum

Datum  

 WGS-84 (default)
 Protocol (customized protocol can be made if the offer is for more than 1000 pcs)

GPS Protocol  

 NMEA 0183 (default)

GPS Output format  

 GGA(1 sec), GSA(1 sec), GSV(5 sec), RMC, 9600bps
 Dynamic Condition

Acceleration Limit  

 Less than 4g

 Altitude Limit  

 18,000 meters (60,000 feet) max.

Velocity Limit  

 515 meters/sec (1,000 knots) max.

Jerk Limit  

 20m/sec**3
 Temperature

     Operating  

 -40?~+85?

Humidity  

 5~95% non-condensing
 Power

Voltage  

 3.3V

Power Consumption  

 <95 mA
 Physical Characteristics

Dimension  

 62 mm * 24 mm * 2.1 mm

Weight  

 Approximately 30 grams

Memory: Expansion Slot Micro SD card (TransFlash Card) memory

      Size :  512MB, up to 2GB

 Other Characteristics
     Hot start < 1 sec., average; Warm start < 38 sec., average; Cold start < 42 sec., average
     Reacquisition 0.1 sec. average
 Certification
     FCC, CE, RoHs
 SDIO Specification
?Compliant with SDIO Card Specification Ver. 1.00
?Base On Bsquare SDIO Now !

Spectec has said they will be sending one to me, and I can’t wait to put it through its paces! If you are also interested in buying one, contact Spectec and they will point you to a supplier in your country that can then give you the correct price.

And just to really blow your hair back - Spectec even offers a DVB-H Mobile Device SD Card…in other words you can turn your Palm or Pocket PC into a Mobile Digital TV. Coolness.

I can’t wait to see what they cram into an SD card next… :-D

Update 12/31/06 – My contact at Spectec sent the following information:

For this version, the driver is support for handheld devices on WM 5.0 OS.
Sooner or later, we are going to support for other versions.
If there is any situation improved, I will inform you the information.
Besides, if there are any customer asking the price for SDG-810 products, please contact “Setec USA“. They could provide them relative information.

I have written to Setec for pricing, and hopefully I will hear something soon after New Years. I’ve also noticed that Mobile Planet has these up for pre-order, but with no price listed as of yet.

Related posts:

  1. The Spectec SDG-810 GPS Receiver Unboxed
  2. The Spectec SDW-820 SDIO WiFi Card Review
  3. Spectec miniSD GPS on the horizon
  4. The Proporta Treo 700 Lateral Case Review
  5. The Otterbox 1920 Treo Case Review