Sat Nav

[Mitch]

Hi All

 

Nothing to do with the Phuckarwe tribe,

 

A friends looking into buying a sat nav system for his camper van, anyone have any preferance to any system (must cover european driving)

 

Or anyones he should steer clear of.

cheers

Mitch

[Guest Stuart Ainslie]

Easiest is run MS Autoroute 2005 on a laptop with a Bluetooth or USB GPS - That is what I use. Used it to get to Le Mans this year without a single wrong turn. Most of the world is covered, with Europe in very high detail - down to street and even house number level.

 

Some of the PDA systems are OK but I dismissed them due to the small screen and the need to keep reloading maps due to the smallish memory.

 

Also, recently noticed Wayfinder for Symbian based mobile phones. Loads the maps automatically by GPRS as you drive but again, small screen size.

 

Just my opinion though.....

[Guest Daren.F]

I have a pda with sat nav, I use it every day, all day

it has Falk navigator on at the moment it works quite well and does not tell me off if I deviate from the route it just recalcutates and tells me to 'Turn Right in 100 Yards'

If you have a pda this is the cheepest route ( ) Just buy a reciever, aquire the software and off you go.

I got my Pda and gps bundled together from Lidl for £345

I have seen the PDA for £145 ish the reciever for £60 ish then all you need is the software you obviously have to buy this, its not legal to download a pirate copy

[Qthe need to keep reloading maps due to the smallish memoryUOTE]

The system I have has the whole of the uk on and most of europe and only uses half of the CF card

I am going to try Auto route and Tom Tom to see which is the best

 

Falk is limited in that you can not barr a road or chose a route unless you add lots of way points. on the Lion run it wanted me to turn on to the motorway all the time.

 

I tryed a laptop but they are just too big, you have to carry it every time you leave the car and its hard to read the screen when its on the seat next to you, they also take too long to boot, A Pda is instant

[Guest cwing79]

I use a Dell axim X5 pda with gps and Tom Tom 3 navigator software if you have a look on Dells website i'm sure they are doing a good deal on some of their GPS setups at the moment.

 

I swear by it! TheTom Tom 3 software is brilliant and the screens are plenty big enough, they sell as a package with windscreen mount and power lead

 

well worth a look

[Guest Charles B]

The Tom Tom software is probably the best for the U.K. You can fit the whole map onto a 256meg card.

You can also do some much more interesting things with a GPS and a Palm.

Look at these two web sites for some free software.

Cetus

Oakgps

 

With this software, you can record complete data on a run, speed, acceleration, 0 to 60 figures etc.

If you feed in the vehicle weight, it will even calculate horespower figures.

 

Ideal for all you computer/gadget nerds out there.

[Guest trickytiker]

i baught a tom tom go a couple of weeks ago it is briliant i would recomend it to you the best £420 ive spent in a long time

[Guest trickytiker]

if you live neer me in liverpool ile give you a demo of the tom tom go

best regards

kevin

[Guest captn Pugwash]

if you live neer me in liverpool ile give you a demo of the tom tom go

best regards

kevin

Kevin, where abouts are you as I am very interested in buying a gps for the car and have not heard of this one, I am in southport. Wouldnt mind a lok athe system

 

Regards

 

Captn

[Guest Battery Bill]

Or anyones he should steer clear of.

cheers

Mitch

Yes steer clear of ones bought off Ebray by a bloke called Mitch

[ibrooks]

I've just bought a Palm which was bundled with the GPS kit and the software. It's a collaboration between Kirrio and Viamichelin. Going to play as soon as I get home tomorrow so I'll let you know and you could come and have a demo.

 

The entire UK maps are supposed to fit onto a 256MB card. A 512MB card was around £40 last I looked so that should fit most of what you want for a given trip.

 

Iain

[Guest Stuart Ainslie]

I have actually tried several of the systems myself.

 

I have tried Navman and TomTom on both my old Palm m515 and Palm T3 but, as already mentioned, dismissed due to the screen size and map quality, then sold on.

 

Regarding a laptop being too big, I use a Dell LS400 which is small enough to sit on the dash of my Peugeot 406 commuter-hack but still has a very good sized screen.

Considering that the kit is intended to go into a camper, a laptop should fit on the dash very well. We are looking at buying a big camper for next year and that is certainly what I will fitting.

 

I also like the speed camera overlay that I can download for Autoroute to show the camera locations and also a lot of oter POI's.

[Mitch]

Thanks for the replys, i will pass the info on,

I know he's has a laptop so it may suit him to go that way, just needs to learn how to use it.

 

 

Cheers

Mitch

[Guest Roger 2B]

A friend of mine has Smartnav, and I'm impressed.

[Guest brummy-ade]

i had smart nav/traffic master fitted today in my van so will report back its all to with smartnavtry this it gives you a demo

[stevedohc2b]

Hi i have A medion PDA from Aldi also at Halfords with GPS software and car kit with a 256 mb SD card For £270 at aldi and £300 ish at Halfords. It comes complete with all Uk And Major Roads In Europe. It got me to Le mans no problem and will recalculate if you do not go its way. The best boys toy apart from the Hood.

I use head phones in the Hood and can hear it OK in the tin tops. I now play MP3's with a cassette adapter in the tin top with the sat Nav running in the forground. so a lot more use than an i pod.

 

Stephen Altwasser