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Anyone got a sat nav?


Badger_1

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Not really freelander related though it will be going in one. Anyone got a sat nav? Thinking of purchasing my first sat nav and I know absolutely nothing about them.

I just want it for mainland Britain. Do they all warn about speed cameras and do they update themselves automatically when new roads are constructed or do you have to throw them out and purchase a new one.

Been told Tom Toms are good. What do I need? Any advice greatfully appreciated.

Thanks

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Not really freelander related though it will be going in one. Anyone got a sat nav? Thinking of purchasing my first sat nav and I know absolutely nothing about them.

I just want it for mainland Britain. Do they all warn about speed cameras and do they update themselves automatically when new roads are constructed or do you have to throw them out and purchase a new one.

Been told Tom Toms are good. What do I need? Any advice greatfully appreciated.

Thanks

Tom Tom 1 GB , got one works well and does the speed camaras , you have to buy updated maps, they come on a micro/sd .

Paul

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Have a look at www.ebuyer.com. I have just bought a Nav Go for £59.99 inc postage and it works a treat. However don't rely on these things except for guidance, in rural areas the postcode areas are very large and don't get updated too often, where I work in Dorset we get lots of visitors getting lost with them. Also mine told me the other day that I was 150 feet above sea level when I was sitting on the beach. Don't throw your road map away just yet.

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everytime i use one it tells me strange things, last one told me to turn left - fair enough, except i was 40ft up in the air on a motorway flyover :)

before that it couldn't find a house that had been there for 40 years, many people can't do without them, i prefer these days to get the postal address of where i am going, google map it for the close ups, and plan the rest on a good old road atlas, as for cameras, take note of the warning signs, local speed limits etc and be careful, if in doubt stick to 55 on open roads, 30 in towns...

just my 2p worth, but if it helps.....

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Not really freelander related though it will be going in one. Anyone got a sat nav? Thinking of purchasing my first sat nav and I know absolutely nothing about them.

I just want it for mainland Britain. Do they all warn about speed cameras and do they update themselves automatically when new roads are constructed or do you have to throw them out and purchase a new one.

Been told Tom Toms are good. What do I need? Any advice greatfully appreciated.

Thanks

I've also got a TomTom one which is great, It does everything I need in a SatNav.

maps were on special offer at half price on the TomTom website

regards

FreelanderGeordie :P

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Hmmmm

I have a TomTom, it is getting worse in that it "locks" and then just doesn't wnat to play

I have a TomTom One for SWMBO, thats been back for repair twice and the after sales service for tom tom is dreadfull :(

Go to www.amazon.co.uk shove in Tom Tom and see the user reports.

I am told that garmin is more stable and cheaper, as is navMan but navman maps leave a bit to be desired, however tomtom is very expensive comapred with the other 2.

I am currenlty looking for a new sat nav, I would be very suprised after the 2x tomtoms I have plus work colleagues who say the same if I go for tomtom again, at the mo garmin is at the top of the lsit

It going wrong is one thing, ................

but I can personally advise that the 'after sales service' form tomtom is worse than 'nursing care' from Herr Hitler

nige

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If ya don't know wher ya going then you aint already been. ....

As one suffering from the first signs of senility, I often don't know whether I have been there or not.. Honest - this really happens to me... (unless it was 30 years ago and then I remember it perfectly) so I really quite fancy a GPS nav system.

I borrowed a TomTom One XL for a couple of days to try it out and particularly to go to a pub in a village in the middle of nowhere for an AGM, and I have the following observations on the experience:

Positional accuracy: Simply phenomenal, you could almost use it to time when to start moving the wheel when leaving the motorway.

Navigational accuracy: Simply phenomenal, Never missed a beat. I did several journeys that I know as a test, and it always found what I think is the best route except on one occasion when it found a better way :o

Safety: On unlit country roads I could see from the TomTom whether bends coming up were sharp or gentle etc.

Serenity: I am one of the worlds worriers about arriving on time and this thing took all of the worry out of the journey.

I am saving up now...

TwoSheds

p.s. Right now I couldn't tell you the name of the pub or the village. I tell you - it's great getting old :(

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I work in central Leeds and I have recently changed my working hours JUST to avoid rush-hour traffic.

It's a seven mile trip to work and sometimes it takes an hour and a quarter if I leave at 5pm. I used to be able to run faster...

My sister lives up in Cumbria - in the the Duddon valley. Lovely area - one day I hope to retire there.

(sorry for the slight thread hijack)

TwoSheds

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No offense .. but retiring is for people who get old.

So why wait ?

I worked for a large company that was on Kirkstall road .. It has now relocated to Stourton. I never got relocated, as i just woke up one morning, jumped in the car un moved on. Only turned back to sell the house.

Then bought a Land rover :lol:

Theres always sat nav to find ya a new place ta stick ya home :rolleyes:

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Was on the verge of buying a tom tom one v3 when I found hidden away in a web page on tom toms website the following info:

The tom tom one is not guaranteed a free map update. In other words from the time it was packed and has stood in the shop there has been at least one new map update but you do not automatically qualify for it. So you buy a new sat nav and immediately have to fork out £40 if you want the latest up to date map on it.

Some of the more expensive tom toms qualify but only if you are given a guarantee voucher when you purchase.

May as well go for a RAC 200. its £40 cheaper and you get free camera updates for life. The others charge

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If you are in an area you do not know well satnavs can be brilliant. Getting around in London being one example.

I have a PDA running Tomtom (6?) but I am often dismayed at the routes it chooses. The other day I needed to get from home in west Wiltshire to a destination in east Wiltshire. Tomtom wanted to send me right round the houses on main roads even though I knew most of the way there on B-roads. Setting TT to the shortest route got me there in less time than it estimated for the "fastest route" - I guess it is all about the way TT plans routes based on the speed of different roads. It does seem to err on the side of using main roads though, even when I know damned well they are stupid routes.

So, IMHO, satnav is a great compliment to local knowledge and/or a good peer at a paper map beforehand. :)

Chris

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Being an ex-HGV1 pilot I am quite lucky in having a fair knowledge of through routes and cities. I only recently bought a Dell Axim pocket pc which has TomTom installed as well as Fugawi.

I have great fun ignoring the directions it provides until it realises which way I'm going. However I do like the directions it provides 'to the door' especially in an area I am unfamiliar with.

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Being an ex-HGV1 pilot I am quite lucky in having a fair knowledge of through routes and cities. I only recently bought a Dell Axim pocket pc which has TomTom installed as well as Fugawi.

I have great fun ignoring the directions it provides until it realises which way I'm going. However I do like the directions it provides 'to the door' especially in an area I am unfamiliar with.

Have had Tom Tom Naigator 5 on my mobile and currently have co-pilot. Hae tried the landrover version in the old model freelander (voice only) and the one in the latest Freelander 2. Tom Tom and Freelander two are hard to compair of all tried. Preference probably would be Tom Tom installed on my phone.

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After doing some research I am now tending towards a PDA with TomTom software and perhaps MemoryMap when I can afford it, using a Bluetooth GPS mouse... And that, in it'self causes head scratching:

Which is best: a 20 channel SiRF III with EGNOS or a 51 (or even 54) channel 'other' GPS with EGNOS? I am currently tending towards the SiRF ones... Can't see why you'd want 51 channels anyway - I don't think that there are that many satellites are there? I think that I definitely want EGNOS for improved accuracy, but that's available in both...

TwoSheds

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TwoSheds, going the pda way is a good thing. But why would you worry about EGNOS, are you planning to use this gps receiver when flying? It's not much use when on land.

Of all 3 geostationary sats available in UK only 2 are usable, one is between 15-20 degrees elevation and the other between 25-30 deg. If you have obstructions on the direct path (buildings, trees, hills) then you won't receive them. Most gps receivers have "patch" antennas and they need to be directly oriented towards those sats in order to get a strong signal.

Even if would have a permanent strong signal you should ask yourself if the maps, whether vector or raster, have the required accuracy for a SBAS corrected gps position to be useful.

On the other hand, since your going the pda way, have you considered a pda with integrated gps? So wouldn't worry about 2 things instead of 1, no extra battery to keep charged, it will better fit your pockets, the pda battery lasts longer when not connected to a power source (bluetooth "eats" more than what's needed for the integrated gps receiver)?

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here comes my tuppince worth....

a friend of mine has a HP IPAQ rx5900 (these are going an E-blag for about £170ish at the minute)he is running the TT5 (i think?maybe 6) software and has also succesfully loaded the Memory Map for use off road,

Now although you need to physically switch between the two softwares when you are driving have pulled over and come to a halt with the engine off, i see no other problems with it,extra's also include the SD memory card slot which you use for the memory map thus enabling you to plot your off road route the night befor on the big PC screen!

it also has excel,word,MP3 player and a whole load of other usual Windows stuff on there.

However me being me decided to go one better and get the newer larger screen HP Travel Companion 314 thinking that its about the 4th generation travel companion that HP have done and has the spec i,m after (ie) the MP3 the bluetooth handsfree option the games and of course the Windows that i need to run the MM.

Excellant choice Dougie i thought ;) until i got it up and running and the Windows drop down menu is not available :angry: no way no how is this possible

after trawling through the very un-helpfull HP website i found a sat nav forum that basically said you can frig and bodge it to accept the MM but it will invalidate the warrenty :o

So i have decided to keep it for the time being because every single other option on it is OUTSTANDING in every way shape and form the bluetooth great and legal,the accuracy is totally mind boggling within about 3Ft i reckon!

like i said at the top of my rant, just my tuppince but thought i would inform you that although the HP 300 series runs the Windows it is not accesable and will not allow you install further software!

Regards

Dougie

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No experienced pda user would buy an integrated PDA+SAT NAV (software & maps) product. Better buy a regular pocket pc and get the nav sat software separately.

By the way, on a regular PPC you can have TT and MM running at the same time (given a fare amount of internal memory) and switch between them at a push of a button like Alt+TAB does on a PC ;)

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TwoSheds, going the pda way is a good thing. But why would you worry about EGNOS, are you planning to use this gps receiver when flying? It's not much use when on land.

Of all 3 geostationary sats available in UK only 2 are usable, one is between 15-20 degrees elevation and the other between 25-30 deg. If you have obstructions on the direct path (buildings, trees, hills) then you won't receive them. Most gps receivers have "patch" antennas and they need to be directly oriented towards those sats in order to get a strong signal.

Even if would have a permanent strong signal you should ask yourself if the maps, whether vector or raster, have the required accuracy for a SBAS corrected gps position to be useful.

On the other hand, since your going the pda way, have you considered a pda with integrated gps? So wouldn't worry about 2 things instead of 1, no extra battery to keep charged, it will better fit your pockets, the pda battery lasts longer when not connected to a power source (bluetooth "eats" more than what's needed for the integrated gps receiver)?

Good points... I had considered that the EGNOS sats would be low and hence difficult to 'see' reliably, but had assumed that the data they send would change only slowly and that an intermittent signal would still be enough to supply the required correction information. I guess overall I thought that with EGNOS available on some units and not on others, and with the prices so close, I may as well have it as not. I agree that I don't need and probably will not ever be able to use 2m accuracy, but it's still nice to have eh?

As for the separate GPS and PDA - I have decided that this setup suits my lifestyle best (driving, walking and cycling will be the main uses) and it also gives me the chance to get a state of the art GPS receiver rather than just whatever the SatNav manufacturer happens to fit...

On patch aerials I have had some difficulty cutting through the cr@p.. Some people claim that these things can 'see' well enough when in the glove-box, others that they need to be the right way up with a 60% view of the sky. I am thinking that the truth lies somewhere in between... I do know that a patch aerial combined with a SiRFIII chipset does give an amazing satellite pickup: My old basic GPS had to be outside with a damn good view of the sky to get a fix in five minutes - my mates TomTom gets a fix on my coffee table in seconds!

TwoSheds

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What I keep recommending people in the matter of PPC with integrated GPS is Asus MyPal line starting with 636 (it has WAAS/EGNOS). It's just a pda that has a gps receiver, it's not an integrated sav nat solution (it doesn't have nav software and maps).

By the way, the SIRF III chip has EGNOS capability so all gps receivers based on this chip could have WAAS/EGNOS if the gps receiver manufacturer bothered to write the firmware accordingly.

As for the antennas, there's a long and endless debate upon which is best, patch or helical (helix)? They both have advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I favor the helicals a bit (this is what I have now) but this won't stop me from buying a gps receiver with a patch aerial.

Of course, it won't hurt having EGNOS as an extra. If no important difference in price I'd go for it also.

As for the sat nav software on a PPC, I see most people go TomTom way. I was a TT fan myself since TT3 up to TT5 (tested V6 as well). But at some point (2 years ago) I switched for i-Go. I don't really want to say here what's the difference and why do I prefer it, there are plenty of PPC/GPS sites/forums where one could find plenty of info, comparison etc. I just used the opportunity for a heads up.

There are more sat nav software solutions on the market (I've tested most of them). I think i-Go and TT are the most preferable (in that order IMHO).

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  • 11 years later...
On 2/11/2008 at 11:29 AM, Badger_1 said:

Not really freelander related though it will be going in one. Anyone got a sat nav? Thinking of purchasing my first sat nav and I know absolutely nothing about them.

I just want it for mainland Britain. Do they all warn about speed cameras and do they update themselves automatically when new roads are constructed or do you have to throw them out and purchase a new one.

Been told Tom Toms are good. What do I need? Any advice greatfully appreciated.

Thanks

You can't really go wrong with TomTom, my freelander satnav or sat naff as i call it, for some odd reason insists i leave the motorway at every opportunity. I was driving from Edinburgh to London and the satnav tried to make me leave the M6 at every single junction from Carlisle to just north of London. I had NOT configured tis to avoid motorways in any way.

Tom Tom will also warn you of speed cameras. 

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To counter the above, the to Tom my dad had was utterly hopeless. Everytime he wanted to use it it needed updating, was slow, put of date maps, somehow, and after the second replacement unit, he managed to get a refund from the manufacturer. 

If you want sat nav, get a smart phone or tablet with Google maps. 

If you want to avoid getting caught by cameras, slow down and pay attention. 

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