GPS again

Well your Road Angel can supply the GPS Signal using it's RS232 port to pipe the data out.

For data you need approx 128MB for UK maps, as for software pay us a visit for reviews, TomTom is a good start.

So you need something that takes live traffic info from say TrafficMaster and reroutes you automagically? Fully integrated sat nav systems exist but they don't come cheap but as this is for business use reclaiming VAT and Tax comes into play. B-)

17 mins/farm *including* travel, assuming a 7 hour actual working day, I can't see what you do being excempt from the Working Time Regulations. Can't be much more than a simple drop off with no requirement to talk with the farmers.

I wouldn't have throught just a post code would be good enough to find a farm. Get you to the general vicinity but not much more. Our post code only has 5 delivery points but none are closer than 1/2 mile of each other, two of which you can't see from the road you need to know which track to go down.

Traffic master themselves do products that do live traffic-based routing, I can't remember how portable they are and they aren't PDA based.

You can also get a version of TomTom that does it, but IIRC it only works on specific mobile phones, as in the fat ones that run TomTom on the phone itself rather than the PDA.

Some PDA software allows you to enter destinations and/or points of interest based on co-ordinates, but I don't know of any that does it using OS GB coordinates so it would be lat/long. This makes conversion from paper maps (e.g Landranger, Explorer) difficult without special conversion software or access to the OS website.

But if he can get the co-ordinates of the farm from a map or via streetmap/multimap websites then setting up waypoints for each farm the night before would work, then he can either use simple A-B navigation if that's all the software supports (e.g. Mapsonic) or he can use A-B via CDEF etc if the software is good enough.

Incorrect, TomTom Navigator 3 has Traffic support which works via any GPRS capable cellphone that can connect to the PDA. It also works fine on a PocketPC Phone Edition device such as the XDAII. TomTom Mobile is a Smartphone product that works in the same way using the GPRS Service on the Smartphone.

"Graham G" wrote

Tom Tom would be my choice but be aware that farm names will not be on the map. How the heck you manage 30 farms a day I don't know unless it is just to throw a newsletter towards the front door. :-)

Huw

I think you mean "negatory". Or is it "Abort on instruction fetch".

Yeah some part of me was saying something like that, but another part was saying "I checked a few weeks ago", chances are the best part lost.

All I want now is a version that works on Palm OS that isn't sold in a hardware bundle and can also do traffic routing. I've not checked the TomTom site for a while and they don't respond to my question on the matter so I'm not expecting miracles in short order..

Does not compute!

Sadly as you have found out, the PalmOS version is only available in a bundle. Traffic support for the common navigation engine version (that used on the Palm) is under development but I wouldn't expect to see it until the common nav engine is released on PPC this year.

I appreciate that most won't have a name or exact location, but accuracy is needed, currently I use autoroute then print the maps out. The accuracy of that can leave a lot to be desired. Essentially what I'm after is something that will land me in an area that gives me a fighting chance of finding the place. It would save me no end of time if it would direct me to within say

1/4 mile cos I'd just drop on the place then. I usually spend a fair bit of time sat in laybys with an os map and scratching my head, not terribly efficient. 30 farms isn't as difficult as it sounds, if I get myself sufficiently organised and manage to target a specific area with appropriate maps its ok. I spend half my time going back and forth up the same roads either because I can't find a farm, missed it or have planned my route badly. If I could reduce this it would give me either more time on farm or allow me a more consistant work rate. Some days I only see 15 farms if i have above difficulties. I usually recon to average 20+, 25 most days, 30 on the best days, 15 on the worst.

Graham

It sounds to me that you'd be better off with a basic route mapping gps (Garmin 60c??) and then as you get close use it with a laptop and one of the packages that uses high resolution maps. Anquet is the one favoured by walkers and they have 1:25000 maps for much of the country, at a cost. I use a more d-i-y method.

30 years ago I used to get thrown off farms and told never to come back doing this sort of job (selling IH tractors).

AJH

That's what comes of selling crap. ROTFLMAO.

Huw

Glad it made you smile, now at least I know the phrase to respond with ;-).

AJH ps I only sold a 384 and then they decided to do without my services.

You were only there for one day then, not even 30 calls worth hehehehe. These youngsters just don't stick LOL.

Huw

"Ian Rawlings" wrote

business

Visiting that many farms in one day would suggest most driving is on minor roads, which don't have the TrafficMaster cameras.

About 12 to 24 months ago I often had a TrafficMaster in the cars I had to drive.

Generally TrafficMaster just confirmed that I was in a traffic jam, stopped on the M25. Or that there was a jam ahead and there was nothing that I could do about it.

However a few times the warning given by TrafficMaster enabled me to take an alternative route.

Reg

Thats certainly an idea. Most places I can find once I'm in the right area, it would then be a case of locating the ones i couldn't on the laptop.... hmmm one to think about, thanks.

Only had that response from maybe 2 farmers out of 550 odd. I think these days with few farm workers and big kit many are glad to see someone to have a chat with.

Graham

Not sure I'll say what I'm selling after that response ;o)

Graham

That means it just must be New Holland. Oh dear!

Hehehehehehehhehh :-) Heeeeeeehehhehheheheheh.

I really do feel for you ;-)

Huw GDARFC

A fair amount of my time is spent on minor roads. Traffic master or similar wouldn't help on this. However I do spend an equal amount of time driving in, around and through major cities like coventry, in order to get to the minor roads and farms. In this instance it potentially could save me a bit of time since its not unknown for me to spend 1.5 hrs getting to a farm thats only 30 miles away.

Graham

It *IS*, isn't it? Woops. Sorry!

Huw

I think you must have had one of the flashing light/talking jobbies. I tend to forget that these exist as I have a YQ that shows the entire country... Extremely useful.

When I lived in St Albans but still had a flat in Bristol I could stay at home until the M25 had cleared, or now that I'm up north and go south. I could see when still north of the M62 that the M1 was seriously stuffed just north of Nottingham so kept to the A1 then cut around underneath.

Pity I've stopped doing the long distance traveling now, apart from Leeds and back and can't really justify the price of a data key for it.