Bad Elf... any intel?

[java]

I have a wifi only iPad. Did some recon at Osh. Like the Bad Elf GPS unit that plugs into the iPad. Recently signed up for Foreflight now that they have Canadian charts (yay! finally!).

Frustrating part is that I'm running an iPad mini, with the new Lightening connector, and Bad Elf is only selling their old unit with the 30 pin connector. At Osh, the vendor had the new model (saw it... know it exists), and said it was ready to go... just awaiting Apple approval so they could market it. But alas, still not available to buy.

I don't want to buy the old connector and run it through Apple's adapter (though I know that works).

I don't want to buy the bluetooth model. Don't want another thing to manage batteries for and have no need for the LCD display.

So two questions for the VAF brain trust... any insight on the release of the new Bad Elf, and/or is there another option that hooks up with the new Apple connection?

[Kevin Horton]

Why not use one of the Bluetooth GPS units? They work great. I have an original Bad Elf (i.e non-Bluetooth), but I found that its GPS was very slow to acquire a position, and it sucked battery life from the iPad or iPod Touch. You could plug in the supplied USB cable into the Bad Elf, but that didn't look very robust to me, as it would be easy to catch the cable and put a lot of force on the various connectors.

I'm now using a Bluetooth Bad Elf GPS Pro, and it works perfectly. It is very fast to acquire a GPS position, it has never lost GPS position, it sends position to up to five devices at once (so my wife can follow along on her iPad from the back seat), and it logs GPS position so I can geotag my photos later. I'm not sure what the battery life is yet. I think they claim 16 hours, and mine looks like it might go longer than that.

[Sam Staton]

I believe the stand alone, Bluetooth version already works. Been wrong before, but I thought I saw something to that effect. They've been selling it for some time ....

[Bruce]

Originally Posted by Kevin Horton

Why not use one of the Bluetooth GPS units? They work great. I have an original Bad Elf (i.e non-Bluetooth), but I found that its GPS was very slow to acquire a position, and it sucked battery life from the iPad or iPod Touch. You could plug in the supplied USB cable into the Bad Elf, but that didn't look very robust to me, as it would be easy to catch the cable and put a lot of force on the various connectors.

I'm now using a Bluetooth Bad Elf GPS Pro, and it works perfectly. It is very fast to acquire a GPS position, it has never lost GPS position, it sends position to up to five devices at once (so my wife can follow along on her iPad from the back seat), and it logs GPS position so I can geotag my photos later. I'm not sure what the battery life is yet. I think they claim 16 hours, and mine looks like it might go longer than that.

What Kevin said about pro.
It battery life will outlast the minis .
Pushed it to 14 hours and had to charge mini running foreflight.
Bluetooth is way to go.
Foreflight also put in satellite view and works great.

[JPalese]

Have you considered the older 30 pin bad elf but connecting it via a 30 pin to lightning extension cable?

I use a direct connect 30 pin bad elf and think having the gps off the ipad would be a good option.

Why haven't I bought a cable? I am migrating to a WiFi GPS/ADSB box in the yet to be completed RV-7, so put the cost of the cable towards the new unit.

No complaints about bad elf performance, except it will drain the ipads battery fairly quickly IF you don't supply external power (ships power or external battery pack) to the bad elf. I generally fly with the bad elf plugged into ships power via a cigar lighter to USB plug.

[N804RV]

My personal experience with Bad Elf was not good.

The first one never did work. Sent it back and they sent me a new one. It worked twice. Then, it developed the same problem as the first.

The 30 pin connector was hinky (IMHO). The connection just wasn't very positive; not like an OEM connector.

I bought a Dual universal GPS with Bluetooth. It works great. And the cost is comparable to the Bad Elf.

[byoung]

I use the bad elf pro with an iPad mini and fore flight. It works great. The GPS reception is amazing. I turn it on, check the connection on the mini, then throw it back in my flight bag and forget it about it. Much better then my old garmin handheld 96C. It is also fun to take biking or running. There are apps for pulling in the GPS track and plotting your ride/run.

[kwjayhawk]

I was going back and forth between the Bad Elf and Dual and I went with the Dual XGPS160. I use it with my ipad 1 and have found it useful for CloudAhoy and FlightAware. I believe they are of similar price.

[esco]

My Dual -a good piece of kit, just doesn't assist with ADS weather -will be excess in a week or so; shoot me a PM

[Christeneagle]

Just sell the wifi ipad and buy the 3G with the GPS chip. Problem solved...