Sat Nav

So, in the Omega we have a nice English lady who tells me firmly where to go plus a very severe German lady who tells me where the cameras were before they started charging for updates. It sounds as though she might dole out severe discipline if we ignore her. We men really like both ladies. It's the old Aldi PDA + aerial device.

In the Defender we had a £19.99 thing from Staples which tells either the speed and direction (useful with the speedo in the Defender) or the position (useful in the boat). In the Disco, this is OK, but I feel the need for a real device that has voice and pics.

SWMBO likes the Disco and has said that we need a proper SatNav for it, so while the iron hand is hot, I need to strike.

Has anyone bought and loves any of the recent cheapo devices? The voice directions are the crucial bit, and it would be nice if it could run on internal batteries from time to time. Even better if it could be set to read Lat and Long for in the boat, but the Staples one will do that, so not essential. I've looked round Halfords and a big Tesco, but it's all a bit of a blur. I'm not even sure how you poke in the directions on these things with a small screen and no visible stylus to enter stuff into a virtual keyboard. I only intend to drive around the UK, so only need a little map, although it would be useful to be able to update 'stuff'.

Any info or pointers to good units to research gratefully received.

Reply to
Bill
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I quite like tomtom on a mobile phone, on some phones it'll use the internal GPS so you've always got your satnav with you. If you get a windows mobile then you can run memory map on it too. Make sure your phone is supported though, I use symbian phones and memory map won't run on those, and tomtom won't recognise the internal GPS in some of them yet. For simply finding out where you are, you might find that google maps will run on your phone and find your location with varying accuracy without a GPS by triangulating your position from the mobile phone masts it can find. You can't use it to do turn-by-turn navigation though and it won't work without a data connection but it can be useful just to show you where you are. Works best on 3G phones though, and with 3 being pretty widespread and having good deals now, I'm not convinced of a need to stick with 2G any more.

The handy thing about phones is that you're probably going to get a new one anyway sometime, so if you are, try and get one that can do satnav, if so then you'll almost get it for free as you were going to end up shelling out as part of your phone contract for another phone anyway. Nokia has nokia maps preinstalled or downloadable for free which works, but voice navigation is extra, £45 for a year, or £6 for a month. It's basic software but functional.

As for GPS units themselves, if there's none built into the phone then you can get sirfstar III chipset based ones on fleabay brand new for £25 including postage, and maplins are doing a nifty looking thing that I'd quite like if it wasn't £60, a bluetooth GPS that projects direction and speed onto your windscreen, giving you a heads-up display ;-)

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

I got a cheap one from Evesham a BlueMedia 6300 mk2 dead cheap now on Amazon ( checks website) jeez from 44.99 normal satnav mode pointers piccies and both speed and direction distance tg, time tg, etc etc and if you just run the sat status mode it gives long and lat runs about 3 hours on batts with everything on high. It replaces a Navman Pin 570 pda sat nav which was a total POS locking up faster than Arkwright sent off and replaced still didn't work. Customer Disservice dept that belong in 'the Office' and denied any issues yeh right check the feedback on Amazon -wankers I will not touch their crap again. Oh aye before I forget that BM6300 is rebadged and sold elsewhere usually very competitively priced.

Derek

Reply to
Derek

My Tom-Tom does all that, and it's ageing a bit now.

Martin

Reply to
Oily

Just upgraded from a TomTom One version 1, the black one, to the new one version 3.

Wicked little thing - £120.

Would not be without it.

Reply to
Mark Solesbury

The orginal post doesn't appear to have found it's way to me via NIN for some reason, hence the odd attribution...

Aye there are hundreds of the things about now aren't there? I think the only sensible approach is to ask yourself what do you want it for and what features would be useful?

I guess the really cheapo ones will be limited in feature set, I wouldn't get one that didn't do full (7 digit) postcode entry for example. You might get away with only sector level (AA1 1..) in towns but in the sticks that could be an area 10 miles in radius...

The screens are touch sensitive you prod 'em with yer finger...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Morgan Computer have some factory rework SatNavs including TomToms

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The TomTom that I got was indistinguishable from new.

They currently have both the TT One v2 and v3. Functionwise I don't think there's much in it but featurewise you may prefer the v2 rather the v3. Check carefully if you decide to jump.

Reply to
Dougal

Absolutely lurve my Garmin Zumo 550. But take a very deep breath and shut your eyes before writing the cheque. Bought it mainly for bike use. But it's still good in the car.

I like the TomTom presentation but prefer the flexibility of the Garmin. Remember Garmin pretty much invented these toys, er essential pieces of kit, for boats and planes long before car drivers forgot how to use maps!

Richard

Reply to
Richard

In message , Richard writes

Hmm, I'm still trying to research, but my ancient boaty one is Magellan rather than Garmin. It eats batteries and only talks waypoints. It also came from a boat chandlers who assume their clients are rich.

I'm confused by the Garmin ones. There seem to be 3 separate ranges, which seem to have much the same facilities. One son has a Nuvo 361 (?) which he likes, but it seemed to me that every few miles it said something like 'recalculating the route'. I prefer fewer words and more action from my virtual ladies as they lead me on. To be fair, he has it hidden in the depths of his Elise out of sight, so it's a wonder it sees any satellites at all.

I'm still a bit concerned about the poking at a touch sensitive screen bit. Does this really work OK for entering addresses? My fingers swell a bit after exposure to salt water, and I have nails on one hand from my ongoing failed attempts at fingerstyle guitar playing.

So many doubts, so little time. Perhaps a trip to Comet to try not buy tomorrow will help.

Reply to
Bill

In the case of my Garmin Zumo 550, the buttons are large and the address entry buttons become even larger when it is attached to a motorbike. The screen requires a firm tap to selct each 'button', possibly because of it's intended use. Garmin explicitly warn against using any type of stylus except when stationary. My friend uses a stylus with his TomTom, odd really as it was supplied with a remote control.

You can buy additional aerials for many of the units.

HTH

Richard

Reply to
Richard

It worked fine on my 910, I just used to use the top of my fingernail which works no matter how long or short your fingers are and avoids getting muck on the screen. The only time I ever needed to worry about scratching the screen was when dragging things on the screen and that didn't happen often. My 910 was sold with an unmarked screen despite seeing quite a lot of use.

Go into a store and try entering in a few postcodes, go to browse map and use the find option rather than using "navigate to" as the unit in the shop probably won't have a GPS fix so might just sit there waiting for the GPS before showing you anything useful.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

Many thanks to everyone. Just went out to look, but I've now done the deed. I looked in Curry's, but that was hopeless, then walked along to Comet, where there was a Garmin Nuvi 360T for £118, which was at least as cheap as anywhere I'd been looking at on the net. Bought and took it home to find that the battery seemed to have lost any desire to live, there was a missing mains psu, and the unit was totally blind to satellites, even when put on the Disco roof away from the trees. Took it back and stood at the three tills alongside two others returning a faulty vacuum cleaner and something Philips that had totally the wrong thing inside when they opened the box. My young lady assistant poked at the till and called another across, saying I'd paid £100 too little. A small meeting was called, and they rejected my suggestion that they refund what I should have paid. Then it was discovered that several of the price labels were wrong in the display cabinet. Finally, I walked out with a Nuvi 300T at the same price, which, not quite as big a bargain, but again seems within striking distance of good value.

I've spent the afternoon and evening testing, updating and driving. First impressions were that the display and finger access were good, but the voice was absolutely awful. A female dalek would be mellifluous by comparison. Some words like "In" sounded like a croaking click. An update seems to have cured this, and I'm now pretty happy. Not tried the traffic updates yet, though. It's very sensitive, and worked when stuffed down in the Disco ashtray, which has to be excellent. It's also of a size that will be easy to put next to the old bolts and spanners in my coat pocket when leaving the vehicle.

I'm really grateful for all the suggestions here, and have followed them all up and thought long and hard. I very nearly went for the £44.99 suggestion, but wasn't quite brave enough.

Reply to
Bill

Hi Bill !

You would proberbly love the Magellan Crossover GPS.

Kind Regards

Reply to
René Løweneck

I'd suggest you narrow down your options to TomTom or Garmin. You won't go wrong with either but the interfaces are vastly different and many swear by one or the other. Best advice is to try both. I prefer TomTom's interface but that is just a personal preference.

Reply to
Darren Griffin - PocketGPSWorld.Com

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