Sat Nav/GPS Eastern Europe

[Paul64]

I have been looking at some of the sat navs available. Several specify european cover, but not which countries exactly. I am sure most of them only cover western europe rather than countries like Romania?

I have been looking at the Garmin 276c. Why the hell is it so expensive, or am I looking at the wrong sites? £489 inc VAT is the cheapest I have found. Are they that good?

Paul

[Ex Member]

They ALL work anywhere in the world. It is whether or not there are maps. AFAIK, nobody has maps for eastern europe. Western european maps are stupid expensive as well.....

Price sounds normal.

Check this site to compare agianst Canadian Prices

[Guest diesel_jim]

Like ~red90 said, they work anywhere you can see sky. my GPS 3+ has a "basic" european road atlas in-built, and you can download various areas if you can get hold of the software,.

better off IMO to carry paper maps, and double check your position with the GPS. at least paper maps don't get flat batteries! and you can look further afield in all directions to see whats about, much easier than fiddling with a little LCD screen.

[freeagent]

My Garmin GPS V has uploadable maps of western europe, but has a built in base map of the whole world, it had most of the main roads and towns in Morocco on it... so it would tell you roughly where you are, but i'd go with what the others said, buy good paper maps and just use the GPS as a positioning device....

you'll be hard pushed to find GPS software for eastern europe, if theres not a big enough market, the GPS companies won't spend the money developing the software....

the garmin 276C is an awesome GPS, but for what you are doing, you'd probably do just aswell with a £75 secondhand GPS III or V for ebay.....

[Ex Member]

For the base map... The Garmin world basemap is available on the internet, if you look around and can be loaded to any mapping Garmin GPS with at least 32 MB of map storage. It is certainly better than nothing.

The best place to find free maps is http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/

Nothing better than the Garmin basemap there for Romania, though.

Another tip is that Metroguide Europe which is half the price of City Navigator Europe can be made to auto-route on the GPS with a few tricks.

[Paul64]

They ALL work anywhere in the world. It is whether or not there are maps. AFAIK, nobody has maps for eastern europe. Western european maps are stupid expensive as well.....

Price sounds normal.

Check this site to compare agianst Canadian Prices

Thanks. The link gave a lot more detail on the 276c which was useful

[Paul64]

Like ~red90 said, they work anywhere you can see sky. my GPS 3+ has a "basic" european road atlas in-built, and you can download various areas if you can get hold of the software,.

better off IMO to carry paper maps, and double check your position with the GPS. at least paper maps don't get flat batteries! and you can look further afield in all directions to see whats about, much easier than fiddling with a little LCD screen.

The GPS would be useful. You can drive all day through forest with few visual points of reference. The forest tracks are poorly mapped which doesn't help.

[Paul64]

My Garmin GPS V has uploadable maps of western europe, but has a built in base map of the whole world, it had most of the main roads and towns in Morocco on it... so it would tell you roughly where you are, but i'd go with what the others said, buy good paper maps and just use the GPS as a positioning device....

you'll be hard pushed to find GPS software for eastern europe, if theres not a big enough market, the GPS companies won't spend the money developing the software....

the garmin 276C is an awesome GPS, but for what you are doing, you'd probably do just aswell with a £75 secondhand GPS III or V for ebay.....

Good advice, and as always you guys save me money. It is very easy to get carried away with gadgets that can do this and that.

[Paul64]

For the base map... The Garmin world basemap is available on the internet, if you look around and can be loaded to any mapping Garmin GPS with at least 32 MB of map storage. It is certainly better than nothing.

The best place to find free maps is http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/

Nothing better than the Garmin basemap there for Romania, though.

Another tip is that Metroguide Europe which is half the price of City Navigator Europe can be made to auto-route on the GPS with a few tricks.

Great thanks. It has erdely mapping on this link, which is the Hungarian word for Transylvania. I take it these downloads are only of use to the GPS that you are downloading to. Tried to open one on the computer and just got a load of gobildy gook.

[Paul64]

I'm getting there slowly. I found this device below by Garmin. Good reviews all round. However, it comes with UK mapping. Do I then request a card with Eurpean mapping on, or do I simply buy a card and download from one of the links you guys have provided?

Cheers, Paul.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-I2-Car-Sate...6839013-2838241

[Ex Member]

IMO, you are best to purchase Garmin maps on DVD instead of the pre-programmed cards. Have a look on Garmin's website for available mapping products. They have online viewers that let you look at the data.

If you want to view those maps install GPSMapEdit (it is free), http://www.geopainting.com/en/ They will look different on the GPS, but this is easier than trying to explain how to get them to woirk with the Garmin PC mapping software.

[leeds]

Hi Paul, have posted on your other post.

I have recently used both the garmin 276C and the Tom Tom 910 in Eastern Europe.

The Garmin street maps are poor in comparison to the Tom Tom 910 The Tom Tom 910 certainly has good street mapping as far as Hungary. I believe the street mapping also extends to Romania.

The back tracking and compass on the Garmin is very good.

OK people say carry paper maps, which I do, but the problem is scale and number of maps you need. OK you want maps of 1:25,000 scale to be of any real use. The standard OS 1:25,000 map covers (if memory serves me right) 40km x 40km. On my recent trip to Scandinavia and Estern Europe I landed up using 1:300,000 maps. Would have needed a library full of 1:25,000 maps with me!

The Garmin compass and back tracking capability was useful in Romania where maps are poor. Followed some 'roads' and got told roads marked on maps were poor. Basically they just disappearred, overgrown, washed out or blocked or a combination of all 3.

So used the garmin and headed in general direction of a lake or major road following minor roads.

I have not as yet found one GPS to cover all my needs adequately.

regards

Leeds

[Paul64]

IMO, you are best to purchase Garmin maps on DVD instead of the pre-programmed cards. Have a look on Garmin's website for available mapping products. They have online viewers that let you look at the data.

If you want to view those maps install GPSMapEdit (it is free), http://www.geopainting.com/en/ They will look different on the GPS, but this is easier than trying to explain how to get them to woirk with the Garmin PC mapping software.

Sorry for being stupid, but that link is lost on me. Tried it and got a load of abode files, but can't do anything with it.

This is where I need mapping to

Cheers, Paul

http://www.garmin.com/cgi-bin/mapgen/webma...mp;k=1&sc=1

[Ex Member]

Click on "download the latest version". http://www.geopainting.com/en/#last

I'll tell you know that if you are not computer literate, forget the free maps as there are things to do that require computer knowledge.

That Eastern Europe map set does not cover Romania.

[Paul64]

Click on "download the latest version". http://www.geopainting.com/en/#last

I'll tell you know that if you are not computer literate, forget the free maps as there are things to do that require computer knowledge.

That Eastern Europe map set does not cover Romania.

Thanks for that. I am going to pop into my local German GPS store and see what they can come up with preloaded. My brain is aching already with the effort of trying to understand this.

We have a new computer system at work, and I have to do the ECDL course, so will be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century!

Cheers, Paul.

[dollythelw]

you can get Garmin maps for Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland etc but I gave up with them as it proved more of a pain to fiddle about loading and reloading, the route planning is almost always "off" Im sure the roads have been programmed "offside" as it permenantly thinks you are driving alongside the road by at least 100m. We stick with Ozi Explorer, a laptop and a mouse, much cheaper, and IME much more reliable, with maps available for just about everywhere on the planet.

Even an old CF27 Mk1 will outperform a 276 in terms of speed, size of display and flexibility, (not to mention price), HTH?

[cols110]

The reason the 276c is so expensive is because you are getting ripped off in Europe, I gave myself on for my birthday in October, it has a European base map and cost me about 296 quid(2100 Dirhams local) at the current exchange rate here in Dubai, if you know of someone passing thru here in the near future I can help them get you one here for that price.

I am happy as a pig in sh1te with mine, but you still need to get memory etc on top of that price, the same as you would in the UK.

[leeds]

you can get Garmin maps for Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland etc but I gave up with them as it proved more of a pain to fiddle about loading and reloading, the route planning is almost always "off" Im sure the roads have been programmed "offside" as it permenantly thinks you are driving alongside the road by at least 100m. We stick with Ozi Explorer, a laptop and a mouse, much cheaper, and IME much more reliable, with maps available for just about everywhere on the planet.

Even an old CF27 Mk1 will outperform a 276 in terms of speed, size of display and flexibility, (not to mention price), HTH?

ONLY 100 metres? Try Scandinavia and you will be 5-8 km off the road.

Garmin mapping in Scandinavia and easternEurope leaves a lot to be desired

Regards

Leeds

[dollythelw]

hence the "at least"

Ive been 3km's away from a road Ive been driving along

[Paul64]

you can get Garmin maps for Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland etc but I gave up with them as it proved more of a pain to fiddle about loading and reloading, the route planning is almost always "off" Im sure the roads have been programmed "offside" as it permenantly thinks you are driving alongside the road by at least 100m. We stick with Ozi Explorer, a laptop and a mouse, much cheaper, and IME much more reliable, with maps available for just about everywhere on the planet.

Even an old CF27 Mk1 will outperform a 276 in terms of speed, size of display and flexibility, (not to mention price), HTH?

Now this looks promising! The OZI Explorer seems quite detailed. Do you look at the laptop screen as you are driving, or a GPS connected to the laptop? If it is the laptop where do you put it? Laptop screens are not particularly easy to view in a car.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Paul64]

The reason the 276c is so expensive is because you are getting ripped off in Europe, I gave myself on for my birthday in October, it has a European base map and cost me about 296 quid(2100 Dirhams local) at the current exchange rate here in Dubai, if you know of someone passing thru here in the near future I can help them get you one here for that price.

I am happy as a pig in sh1te with mine, but you still need to get memory etc on top of that price, the same as you would in the UK.

Thanks for the offer of help. I am still considering the options at the moment.

Cheers, Paul

[MogLite]

Now this looks promising! The OZI Explorer seems quite detailed. Do you look at the laptop screen as you are driving, or a GPS connected to the laptop? If it is the laptop where do you put it? Laptop screens are not particularly easy to view in a car.

Cheers,

Paul.

Ozi Explorer also has a version that will run on Pocket PC's. Ipaq's and the like. They are a bit easier to find space for in the cab.

Ozi is great, but doesn't do route finding. You have to plot your own routes. There is also no voice prompting - at least in the version I've got.

[freeagent]

you can buy or make up a mount for your laptop, i'm sure someone will post a picture as i know quite a few people are running them in their trucks.

the only problem with using oziexplorer, is its a positioning system, not a guided navigation system, ie, you can't press a button to 'take me there' like you can on most stand alone GPS units.

but you can use it to determine a position, that you would like to go to, then transfer it as a waypoint (even if you have to punch in the co-ordinates manually) to your stand-alone GPS unit, which could then be used to guide you....

having said that, you can scan your own maps and add them to oziexplorer, so anywhere you can buy a paper map for, you can use oziexplorer.

i reckon the best, and if you are smart, cheapest compromise is using oziexplorer (on a £100 toughbook from ebay) and a good stand-alone GPS with a world basemap (£70 GPS V from ebay)

do a google search for Ram mounts, they supply the mounting kits for fitting a laptop to your landy...

[GBMUD]

Paul, is it on or off road nav that you want... or both? I only travel in the UK and use a PDA with Tomtom for on road navigation - I do not know if there are Romania maps available for Tomtom though. There are other "turn-by-turn" solutions that may have it although Tomtom is probably the best known.

Off road I use Memory-map. This has 1:600k, OS 1:50k and OS 1:25k, A-Z city maps and aeriel photos available for the UK. I understand that there are other maps available but rather limited to basic european and French maps. It is fantastic for greenlanes and off-road use. This also works on a laptop PC.

The thing that Memory-map and some of the others do (Ozi-Explorer, Fugawi?) do is that they allow you to scan a paper map and then use the scanned map to navigate - you just tell the software what grid to use and give it some reference points. That way you can use the best paper map available and use it with the GPS - best if you can find someone who can scan the whole map although you could scan it in A4 tiles if needed. I have never done this but I doubt that it is rocket science.

IMHO, the joy of having a PDA instead of a stand-alone GPS is that you can do other stuff with it, including internet, email etc. I would NEVER rely wholly on any electronic solution though and ALWAYS take paper maps too.

If you want a cheap deal, remember that we have a trip planned to the area surrounding Andorra where duty free shopping may make a difference to your costs...

Chris

Edited: Freeagent beat me to some of it.

[dollythelw]

you might want to try one of these

Cheapo Tablet

and then you can mount the display anywhere you like or..........

a Toughbook

on a swivel mount so driver and co-driver can use it