Re: Love that GPS!

On Mar 23, 11:07 pm, Neon John <n...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 23 Mar 2007 18:44:46 -0700, "Yukon" <l...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Google maps in the street/overhead photo overlay mode almost always
works. Even if the address is off a little, things like RV parks are
usually recognizable from the overhead photo. Except for the occasion
where the 1 or 8 meter photo ends about a block away and 100 meter
fuzz covers the target :-)

Good idea. I forgot about that. I used to play with aerial maps all
the time ( I love maps) but did not think to use it to locate an rv
park. I like that idea. Look it up the night before, print it and
than use for the final identification. Geez, with all this
technology, I'll be like a cruise missile over Baghdad :-) y

Heh. I couldn't imagine doing the truck driving gig without both the
GPS and google maps over wireless internet. The company's directions
to the customer were usually soooo bad....

Can your GPS gadget take points of interest from the outside, say,
over a serial or USB link? And can it spit out NMEA records over a
serial port?

If it can do the latter then I highly suggest Google Earth's
individual paid subscription version. $20 a year. Google Earth the
program lets you do the same thing as Google Earth the Web site does
on their web site. The paid version accepts NMEA records from a GPS
receiver and positions the view over where you are.

Normally Google Earth the program downloads views as you need them.
that works fairly well over wireless internet but there is some other
software that enables you to download huge chunks of maps and
overheads ahead of time so you don't always need the link. I haven't
tried it yet but those who have rave about it.

If you can input points of interest then you need to visit the
Discovery Owners' Group and get their various POI files. Walmart
locations, etc. You'll probably want the plain text comma-delimited
lat/lon file, as most GPSs can deal with that.

http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfolinks.htm

I have an additional file that doesn't fit very well with their format
that I'm going to host on my site. I call it "Truckin places". Pretty
much any place of interest to a trucker - Truck stops, rest areas,
scales, wide places in the road suitable for overnighting, etc. Things
that are of interest to truckers also tend to be interesting to RV
travelers. It's very complete along the routes I've driven. Elsewhere
it only contains spots that I've gotten from places like CAT Scales
and chain truck stop guides.

Especially unless you can load external POIs, you'll quickly learn the
limitations of that self-contained unit. Small screen, limited
detail, etc. And for the price of those things one can buy a decent
laptop, a GPS receiver and laptop software.

The next step will be to try Street Atlas on a laptop. It has its
warts, enough warts to make me scream and gnash my teeth at times, but
it's the best available at consumer prices. If that self-contained
unit can spit out NMEA records then it can drive SA.

I came to rely on my laptop/SA combo so much that I kept a hot spare
laptop in my sleeper, loaded with the latest software and data and
ready to go simply by turning it on and plugging in the GPS. Soooo
nice to spend 30 mins at the beginning of a trip plotting it out and
then letting the computer do the thinking from there on out.

John
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email addresshttp://www.neon-john.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words:
Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, Hope. -Churchill

That's a lot of good information John. I am saving it so I can digest
it all when I have more time. It's 1:00am and my eyes are getting
heeaaaavyyyy. I like to mess with the stuff like that. How did they
do it with a sextant and stars alone, huh? I did look up a few
campgrounds with Google overhead photos and I think that is going to
be a very good tool. So many times I think that finding a camground
will be easy and then it turns out to be a major hassle.

I used to use a different website other than Google to obtain
satellite photos. Then I changed computers and the application did
not get transferred on to my lap top. The name "National Geographic"
keeps coming back to me, but I am not sure. Will have to google
that.

Always wondered how you truck drivers find your way around. Just the
other day I watched a program where a bunch of young hoods was
breaking into parked semis and stealing stuff when the drivers walked
off to get lunch or something. Very efficient operation. So be
careful out there. :-) y

.

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