Sat Nav/GPS Eastern Europe

[Paul64]

Guys this is all great stuff, thanks. I just need to make some sense of it all. Lucky break on the horizon. Somebody I know from JHQ is visiting Muenster tomorrow. He is coming to look at my LR after work. He has done off road rally driving with the army. Knows loads about navigation. I am going to print of all your suggestions, and go through it with him.

Again many thanks. I will feed back later.

Paul.

[Paul64]

Found it! (I think?)

Take a look at this which covers Romania.

http://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/catalog/4...0002BC29B86.pdf

http://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/SonyStyle...=LEC-ODWNVU7106

[Paul64]

Guys this is all great stuff, thanks. I just need to make some sense of it all. Lucky break on the horizon. Somebody I know from JHQ is visiting Muenster tomorrow. He is coming to look at my LR after work. He has done off road rally driving with the army. Knows loads about navigation. I am going to print of all your suggestions, and go through it with him.

Again many thanks. I will feed back later.

Paul.

Well he has been and gone. And he also has the laptop to GPS and downloaded maps. The only thing is my wife wants something she can use in her car on occasion, so I'm back to sq 1! I think I will go for the new Sony when they have it in stock.

Cheers, Paul.

[GBMUD]

The only thing is my wife wants something she can use in her car on occasion, so I'm back to sq 1! I think I will go for the new Sony when they have it in stock.

PDA running Tomtom

Chris

Edited: -having just checked, they do not cover Romania though.

[Paul64]

PDA running Tomtom

Chris

Edited: -having just checked, they do not cover Romania though.

Chris,

I have to have Romania on it. This has been the main cause of my problems. However, this new device by Sony NV-U71T has 10 more countries covered by it compared to its predecessor. In fact most of these countries are within the East of Europe. Maybe Sony recognise the importance of such mapping with new countries joining the EU next year.

Cheers, Paul

[GBMUD]

Chris,

I have to have Romania on it. This has been the main cause of my problems. However, this new device by Sony NV-U71T has 10 more countries covered by it compared to its predecessor. In fact most of these countries are within the East of Europe. Maybe Sony recognise the importance of such mapping with new countries joining the EU next year.

Cheers, Paul

Sounds like the best solution, though not likely to be much use when exploreing off-road.

Chris

[Paul64]

Sounds like the best solution, though not likely to be much use when exploreing off-road.

Chris

Nothing stopping me adding to it when I'm away

[rejo]

Hi Paul

Totally off topic.

But I'll be passing Munster over christmas, so if your around and up for a brew let me know.

Back on topic just got a tom tom 710 with a new phone contract two weeks ago, I gave the my old tomtom to my wife which I actually think is better than the new one. What is the cost of the sony units that you are looking at (too lazy to search). Don't forget media markt there normally a lot cheaper than anywhere else its just that the people who work there know jack **** about anything they sell.

JHQ, lived there many years ago.

[Paul64]

Hi Paul

Totally off topic.

But I'll be passing Munster over christmas, so if your around and up for a brew let me know.

Back on topic just got a tom tom 710 with a new phone contract two weeks ago, I gave the my old tomtom to my wife which I actually think is better than the new one. What is the cost of the sony units that you are looking at (too lazy to search). Don't forget media markt there normally a lot cheaper than anywhere else its just that the people who work there know jack **** about anything they sell.

JHQ, lived there many years ago.

Thanks for that. I did have a look in Media Markt. They have the older version, but I must hang on for the Romania coverage with new system. If they stock it before Amazon then I will get it form there. Either way I can ask for VAT free.

You are more than welcome. We are here X-mas and new year. I will PM details.

Cheers, Paul.

[leeds]

Hi Paul, just be careful about roads in Romania. People are getting into trouble in the UK ollowing sat navs. In West Yorkshire they are being directed up green lanes (OK technically roads but!!) which are totally unsuitable for the average car, let alone goods vehicle.

My photos on the other threads are of roads marked on the 1:300,000 road map of Romania.

An example for you.

Romania roads must knock hell out of a low slung modern car!!

Regards

Leeds

PS Let us know the final results of your research

[Paul64]

Hi Paul, just be careful about roads in Romania. People are getting into trouble in the UK ollowing sat navs. In West Yorkshire they are being directed up green lanes (OK technically roads but!!) which are totally unsuitable for the average car, let alone goods vehicle.

My photos on the other threads are of roads marked on the 1:300,000 road map of Romania.

Romania roads must knock hell out of a low slung modern car!!

Regards

Leeds

PS Let us know the final results of your research

I like the look of that road, especially in a LR. You are right though. Some of my local friends bought western cars, and were then importing expensive parts to keep them going on appalling roads. I kept telling them to stick with the Dacia that could take more punishment and was cheap to repair.

I will keep you up to speed regarding GPS etc.

Cheers, Paul.

[AJL]

I like the look of that road, especially in a LR. You are right though. Some of my local friends bought western cars, and were then importing expensive parts to keep them going on appalling roads. I kept telling them to stick with the Dacia that could take more punishment and was cheap to repair.

I will keep you up to speed regarding GPS etc.

Cheers, Paul.

Paul heres the only gps solution for Romania and its excellent here

are you anywhere near Bucharest? as i'm out here for at least the next 3 years (currently landrover less as mines still in the uk)

[Paul64]

Paul heres the only gps solution for Romania and its excellent here

are you anywhere near Bucharest? as i'm out here for at least the next 3 years (currently landrover less as mines still in the uk)

Thanks for that, very helpful. Updates as well!

I live in Germany, but my land and future business is in the county Jud Covasna, in a small village near Targu Secuiesc. This is about 3.5-4 hours from Bucharest depending on traffic. One hour further than Brasov if that helps.

What are you doing in Bucharest?

Cheers, Paul.

[AJL]

Thanks for that, very helpful. Updates as well!

I live in Germany, but my land and future business is in the county Jud Covasna, in a small village near Targu Secuiesc. This is about 3.5-4 hours from Bucharest depending on traffic. One hour further than Brasov if that helps.

What are you doing in Bucharest?

Cheers, Paul.

Hi Paul Been to Brasov but no further North I'm based in Bucharest (not far from the airport) project managing a 4ha Environmental Ground Cleanup Exercise 70 year old oil filled sludge lagoon for one of the Oil Majors at their refinary in Ploiesti we've got to have it complete in 3 years but things are going crazy out here workwise so it'll probably go on much longer

[DarrenG]

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.

OziExplorer is not excatly a road navigation solution. Once you've scanned and calibrated a map and imported it into Ozi it will show your position on screen but it cannot 'route' you as it lacks the data that comes in digital mapping. All it can do is show the 'as the crow flies' arrow to your chosen destination or waypoint.

If you run it on a laptop you look at the laptop, you can run it on a GPS equipped PocketPC as well but as I say, it's not a road navigation solution if you are comparing to the likes of Garmin StreetMaps, TomTom, Navman etc.

[Paul64]

Hi Paul Been to Brasov but no further North I'm based in Bucharest (not far from the airport) project managing a 4ha Environmental Ground Cleanup Exercise 70 year old oil filled sludge lagoon for one of the Oil Majors at their refinary in Ploiesti we've got to have it complete in 3 years but things are going crazy out here workwise so it'll probably go on much longer

If you are going to there a while longer you may as well get the LR over. Come up to Transylvania, you will like it.

Is there much oil left in Ploiesti? I thought the Germans plundered most of it for their war machine during WW2.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Paul64]

OziExplorer is not excatly a road navigation solution. Once you've scanned and calibrated a map and imported it into Ozi it will show your position on screen but it cannot 'route' you as it lacks the data that comes in digital mapping. All it can do is show the 'as the crow flies' arrow to your chosen destination or waypoint.

If you run it on a laptop you look at the laptop, you can run it on a GPS equipped PocketPC as well but as I say, it's not a road navigation solution if you are comparing to the likes of Garmin StreetMaps, TomTom, Navman etc.

Darren Griffin

Editor

PocketGPSWorld.com

There are some people on this site! Thanks for your reply. What would you recommend?

1. I need something that is not too bulky and can easily be removed from LR.

2. Reasonable price, not top end.

3. Something useful on and off road in Romania.

Please don't give me choices. This has been the root of many of my problems. Some do this and some do that, and it then it all becomes a bit confusing. A good all round package that is user friendly.

Cheers, Paul.

[DarrenG]

There are some people on this site! Thanks for your reply. What would you recommend?

1. I need something that is not too bulky and can easily be removed from LR.

2. Reasonable price, not top end.

3. Something useful on and off road in Romania.

Please don't give me choices. This has been the root of many of my problems. Some do this and some do that, and it then it all becomes a bit confusing. A good all round package that is user friendly.

Cheers, Paul.

Sadly I don't know of any routable digital mapping for Romania, TeleAtlas and Navteq are busily extending their Eastern European map coverage, buying in data where it is available and of decent quality but Romania is not one of those available as yet.

[GBMUD]

I stand by my suggestion of a PDA running Ozi or similar with scanned in maps and, now Tomtom is out of the frame, iGo.

Chris

[Mark90]

Like Chris says.

I don't know of one good single solution for on and off road use in the UK let alone Romania.

I use one package for on road (TomTom) and others (Memory Map for UK and Ozi for elsewhere) for off road as each does it's own thing best. Anything else is just a compromise one way or another.

[Paul64]

Thanks guys, still chewing this one over. If it wasn't for work I could devote more time on these projects. Just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day.

This PDA I take it connects to a GPS in the same way as a laptop would. Cables of some sort connect PDA to GPS, and both are powered via cigarette lighter?

Scanned mapping, I presume is literally scanned and loaded on PDA. How does this work with GPS? I understand there is no routing, so is it a positioning system using scanned maps?

Cheers, Paul.

[Mark90]

You can use a cable to link GPS unikt to PDA or use a cabled GPS 'mouse'. Alternatively without cables you can use a CF (Compact Flash) GPS in the PDA or a BT (Bluetooth) GPS. Any of these will do as a means to getting a GPS signal to the PDA.

Yep using Ozi with scanned maps is a simple positioning system with no turn-by-turn routing such as you get with on road navigation systems like TomTom. However you can create a route from a series of waypoints and have Ozi navigate you along these waypoints in a series of straight line go-to's. But to be honest I don't find a need for automatic routing off road, although it is what you want on road.

[dollythelw]

the joy with Ozi is that is so well used there is a lot of free or blaggable maps available on the net or from contacts in country - saves a lot of scanning

[AJL]

My intention is to bring my 110 out here but probably not before Easter as i really won't have time. Given Romanian driving skills i think its the ideal vehicle!! There is however a policy in the company I work for that no ex-pats are to drive. Near misses here are measured in layers of paint. From previous experience if your driving as an ex-pat here and you're involved in an RTA of any sort you're highly likely to be arrested regardless of blame at least untill the matter is sorted out. Romainian drivers are really something to behold. As are the roads.

For the time being i've been asigned a driver and an L200 double cab, Shock horror!! at least its new and comfortable though

[Paul64]

My intention is to bring my 110 out here but probably not before Easter as i really won't have time. Given Romanian driving skills i think its the ideal vehicle!! There is however a policy in the company I work for that no ex-pats are to drive. Near misses here are measured in layers of paint. From previous experience if your driving as an ex-pat here and you're involved in an RTA of any sort you're highly likely to be arrested regardless of blame at least untill the matter is sorted out. Romainian drivers are really something to behold. As are the roads.

For the time being i've been asigned a driver and an L200 double cab, Shock horror!! at least its new and comfortable though

You are absolutely right about the driving. 18 wheelers overtaking on blind bends is quite a common sight.