Re: GPS Question
- From: graham@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 23:16:47 GMT
On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 16:31:29 -0600, cant@xxxxxxx wrote:
>I'm really just hijacking this thread (apologies), but I too have long
>been agonising over which GPS to buy. Mainly, because I wanted to have one
>that is useful in the car and in the plane. Finally, I have committed
>myself to buying the Palm TX + Tomtom GPS, and have just ordered it. As it
>is a proper Palm PDA, I'm planning to use CoPilot for planning and
>FlightMaster for navigation (HSI). One more solution I'm quite keen on
>finding is a flying moving map thing, using maybe a scanned in version of
>the half mil UK flying chart or something similar. I know there is a
>similar thing for PPCs, but does anyone know of one for the Palm?
I can't comment on aviation GPS. However, I have used several vehicle
based GPS systems.
Magellan GPS is fantastic. I used the system in America. It was very
accurate and very reliable. However, it is not cheap.
I was recently in Australia and the hire car I used was fitted with
Navman satellite navigation. It was a complete and utter pile of cack.
The whole system was a joke. There were many small towns missing from
the system.
It was also very dangerous. For example, you would pull up at a set of
traffic lights. The Navman colour display map would show that the road
to my left is a one way street into which you could not turn. Navman
would then promptly tell you to turn left.
Around large cities, Navman's display would become very cluttered with
pointless symbols indicating the nearest bank / petrol station etc.
As a result the Navman system would run very slowly and the maps would
not update quickly enough.
Navman would also recalculate a route for no apparent reason. For
example, it would say "in 400 metres turn left" then the system would
decide to recalculate the route and all of a sudden give a different
direction.
My favourite was on a motorway. On a number of occasions, the first
audible warning that Navman would give was to tell you to leave the
motorway at the next junction in just 500 metres. Short of causing a
motorway pileup this was a non-starter.
When you are travelling along at 70mph, you need more than 500 metres
notice of a junction.
Tomtom is wonderful. It makes the occasional mistake, although this is
not fatal. The mapping on screen is very clear.
It is also possible to download free GPS speed camera mapping from the
www.pocketgps.co.uk web site. Tomtom will then give you legal advance
warning of red light cameras, speed cameras, mobile speed cameras etc.
Tomtom also has a feature called Tomtom Plus. If you have a bluetooth
mobile that supports GPRS then Tomtom can get up to the minute traffic
reports.
When you turn Tomtom on and enter a distination, Tomtom will, via
Bluetooth, connect to your mobile phone. Tomtom will then check your
proposed route against the traffic reports. It will tell you the
length of each traffic jam / the reason. It will also tell you the
estimated delay. Tomtom will then give you the opportunity to either
accept the delay or route around the delay.
The updates are very accurate. Even if you decide to remain on your
route, it is very useful to know the length of the delay. For example,
I recently travelled to Bristol from the Midlands. Tomtom told me that
I would experience 3 traffic delays totalling 10 minutes.
At least I knew the reason for each delay and that it was only a short
delay. Tomtom told me that one of the delays had been caused by a
broken down vehicle. The other two minor delays were caused by slow
moving traffic.
Graham
.
- References:
- GPS Question
- From: graham
- Re: GPS Question
- From: Chris
- Re: GPS Question
- From: cant
- GPS Question
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