OK, unfortunately that's not enough, and this is where it got quite tricky. As well as 'unlocking' it you need to install .NET. This consists of some files plus some registry entries, and a restart is required before .NET applications will launch using the new installation. This is awkward because a proper restart would reset things like the registry back to their factory settings, and the 8410 doesn't seem to provide any support for a softer restart like other devices. Anyway, I found a way to force a soft restart essentially by causing the device to crash, which triggers one.



Another problem I had was that the 8410 is designed as a car navigation device and the GPS messages do not by default include certain altitude-related data and other data that SkyDemon consumes. I had to write a small application which would run on startup to enable these additional GPS messages, which is something that PFMS does automatically.



My starting point for this was a particular version of MioPocket which I found to work with the device. I have scripted the whole process so that the installation happens automatically, followed by a restart into SkyDemon - MioPocket has to be installed every time the device is switched on, so the process needed to be as easy as possible. I would attach the entire package for you to install, but it's 60 MB and I can only attach 0.5 MB. If you send me an e-mail through the forum I'll stick it online and send you a link to it.







That's all fine. Once you've installed .NET this approach will work.







The latest version of SkyDemon contains all the keyboard fixes. I don't find it necessary to use a keyboard at all, but utilities do exist to provide an alternative on-screen keyboard as mentioned in an earlier post.







Yes, completely.







It looks so much better than PFMS, and it's evolving all the time with lots of interesting new features appearing between versions. Tim has taken on board quite a lot of feedback over the past few months, and the latest version works for me really well.







It's generally good from a usability perspective. The main window works well with the large display, although there are still some fiddly menus behind this which are not so finger-friendly yet.



One of the best features for me is the way that NOTAMs are displayed on the map, which just involves syncing notams.xml to the SkyDemon directory before you take it flying. I've never used it for TAFs (no internet connectivity from the device) but airfield information is easy enough to bring up.



Cheers

I would be most interested to hear how you got the Navigon 8410 to work.

I have one and have got this far:

1. Downloaded the menu file from gpsunlock.net. Worked fine and so now i can navigate around wince flash disk, sd card etc.

2. Installed Mobile SkyDemon to SD card via card reader (not active sync which does not "see" my 8410).

3. Navigated to the SkyDemon file on the card and tapped the file.

4. No response.!!

Seems I need the .net CF  .. where from?

Also seems I need the keyboard fix which Tim may have sent by now.

Some Qs.

Have you now got it fully working?

If yes how does it look?

I am a regular PFMS user but like the clean lines of SkyDemon etc

How usable is it in this form?  I am running it on a Pocket Loox 560 but in truth this is just too small a screen to be usable in flight. But it does let me see the functionality pretty well.

Are all the extras like TAFS, Frequencies easy to bring up and use?

Your help and usability comments would be most useful.

Cheers

David

Thanks Tim - I have contacted you.

Aha, that's interesting. We'll definitely add some code to detect lack of soft keyboard functionality. I wasn't aware that some devices lacked this basic bit of functionality. If you contact us privately through the link at the bottom of the homepage I'll send you a hotfix build that should sort out the issue for you.

After a bit more investigation it seems that the Navigon 8410 lacks \Windows\softkb.dll which is required for the standard on-screen keyboard (it also lacks things like explorer.exe, so it's definitely running a trimmed-down installation of Windows CE).



Apparently it's quite common for these devices to be trimmed down to this extent, so there are alternative keyboard applications out there to be run in the background and pulled up manually when necessary. If InFlight caught the exceptions I'm seeing so that it didn't crash, I'd be able to use a third-party keyboard application alongside it. (For comparison, when PocketFMS needs a keyboard it pulls up a software keyboard which is clearly hard-coded into the application.)

Hi



I've finally managed to get SkyDemon InFlight running on my Navigon 8410. This is a recent WinCE 6.0 device with a bright 5" touch screen - ideal for running in-flight GPS software on. I've looked at all the aviation GPS software for WinCE and the SkyDemon package seems to be by far the clearest, most intuitive software to use - PocketFMS feels dated and sluggish in comparison and has a lot of catching up to do.



I can get the SkyDemon InFlight software to start up, load the map, and very quickly acquire a GPS position. I can pan around the map and zoom in and out. However, certain actions cause an exception in the constructor of InputPanel:



NotSupportedException

at Microsoft.AGL.Common.MISC.HandleAr(PAL_ERROR ar)

at Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.InputPanel...ctor()

at ...



For example, the exception occurs:



* On the Edit Route dialog when I click the "Start Route" button.

* When I choose "Chart --> Find Waypoint...".

* When I choose "Tools --> Toggle Keyboard".



I'm not familiar with .NET CF development, but a bit of Googling suggests that it's quite a common problem to do with trying to display the on-screen keyboard.



Any help would be appreciated - I'd really like to use SkyDemon.



Cheers