Author Topic: Car satnav  (Read 2187 times)

Car satnav
« on: 19 June, 2015, 10:44:45 am »
Anyone got a recommendation for what car satnav to get? So much choice out there from TomTom, Garmin, Navman, etc. Want it for UK mostly but to future proof it Ireland and western Europe is also wanted.

Other than that I guess being a cheap i don't want a subscription to get updates on the maps. Even though I am not likely to update them much over the years I intend to use it. Still using a 2004 paper atlas! Well with the smart phone google maps which drains batteries. We reckon the dedicated satnav will mean we won't need to keep the phones charging when travelling.

TBH we don't need one just we can double our points at Tesco which makes for a cheap satnav from them. Worth modernising for that.

So any recommendations?

Re: Car satnav
« Reply #1 on: 19 June, 2015, 10:51:51 am »
People with Garmin and Nav thingy are told we are on the other side of the road... TomTom has us where we are but then the crew stayed with us so it should be right.

We use TT ourselves and apart from the odd wobbler is pretty good. You soon learn to ignore turn left, left, left and left...LOL

PH
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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #2 on: 19 June, 2015, 10:52:25 am »
I have a Garmin which has European mapping and lifetime free updates, very happy with it. Don't ever doubt the value of updates......

(especially travelling through Europe!)

Re: Car satnav
« Reply #3 on: 19 June, 2015, 11:11:10 am »
Which model is yours?

Re: Car satnav
« Reply #4 on: 19 June, 2015, 12:35:01 pm »
Nuvi 2595LM

Kim

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #5 on: 19 June, 2015, 12:51:53 pm »
Well with the smart phone google maps which drains batteries. We reckon the dedicated satnav will mean we won't need to keep the phones charging when travelling.

Not sure I follow the logic here:  Anything (other than an eTrex, which is far from ideal for motor vehicle navigation) keeping its screen on and doing navigation stuff is going to drain its battery in a couple of hours, so realistically, it's going to need to be plugged in.  Does it then matter if it's a dedicated unit or a smartphone?

Indeed, since as a responsible motorist you won't be using your smartphone for anything else for the duration of the journey, using it in this fashion simply means that you arrive at your destination with the battery fully charged, and with no temptation to leave a navigation device in the vehicle.

Which isn't to say that dedicated GPS units might not be cheaper or have a better form-factor or mounting arrangement.  But after that it mostly comes down to maps and software, and I'd be surprised if you couldn't now get all the functionality of a Garmin or TomTom in app form.

tiermat

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #6 on: 19 June, 2015, 01:04:19 pm »
<snip> and I'd be surprised if you couldn't now get all the functionality of a Garmin or TomTom in app form.

Indeed, TomTom for Android has been around for a while, GArmin StreetPilot for iOS a similar amount of time.

You don't need to spend any money, though, just use Google Navigate (now integrated into Maps), or find one of the other, free GPS apps for you phone.  Try to find one like Sygic, which allows you to download the maps whilst on WiFi, thus not murdering your data allowance.
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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #7 on: 19 June, 2015, 03:07:40 pm »
I don't think the charging argument makes much sense either.  You'll have to plug whatever it is into your car.  Might as well get an in-car charger for the phone if that's the main problem.

Re: Car satnav
« Reply #8 on: 19 June, 2015, 04:26:22 pm »
Nuvi 2595LM

Recently bought a 2599 LMT-D, which has free lifetime maps and digital traffic. Very pleased with it (given the pile of sh1te the 810 was)  but I use it as a check rather than following blindly. Fast and logical to navigate and GPS speed is always useful on active traffic sections of motorways. As a benefit, the mapping often shows things you can't see from the road, particularly on motorways e.g. driving over a canal or river - not essential, but informative nonetheless!

Re: Car satnav
« Reply #9 on: 19 June, 2015, 09:34:36 pm »
You're right over the charging, looked again they only seem to give 2 hours which makes my LG g2 phone running Google navigation seem good. However my phone GPS chip is not as good as.the high sensitivity sat nav ones. I've had poor results from.Google maps before plus it takes ages to fix. IMHO you can get by with a phone but the whole package isn't as good. I've used sat nav borrowed from others. Audi has excellent b built in units. The way it changes route suddenly when traffic is indicated. One time we heard local traffic update say traffic starting to build up at a point we were approaching then suddenly the sat nav suddenly changed the route to miss it. Guessing most now do that but older ones didn't and my phone doesn't neither. Perhaps the Garmin or TomTom apps might be better.

Anyone know if the 4 digit reference units b are better or worse than the nuvi 55 or 67 units? Some of these are close in price so can't see them being much different. For example nuvi 55 compared to I think the 25xx models.

woollypigs

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #10 on: 19 June, 2015, 11:02:42 pm »
I have tested out OSMand on my phone a few times now. It is pretty darn good. Like any navigation have a backup plan and a good idea of where you are going before taking off.

We had "you are exeeding the speed limit" while stopped at the red light. And "take the seventh exit at the roundabout" on a normal four exit roundabout.

It did a few times lock onto a point on the route between point a and b. That no matter what route we took it always routed us via. Until we had gone a few miles past the point.

As I said it is good but as I also said, know where you are going before departure. Which is great and easy for me, as I do like a good map reading session.
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Gattopardo

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #11 on: 20 June, 2015, 01:34:43 am »
I bought a cheap (lumia 435 for £25) windows phone for the drive now maps, these were the Nokia maps.  So far have used them in the car in France and the UK and they seem great.  Download the maps for free and load them on the phone.


Re: Car satnav
« Reply #12 on: 23 June, 2015, 08:25:29 am »
Any Garmin with LM in its name has lifetime map updates.

I've had two - first one got tangled around Dd's foot and dragged into a puddle - and they're ok. You need Windows or a recent version of OSX to update them. OHs perfectly functional macbook was barred from running the software. They used to update over the Web so you could use any computer with a Web browser, I assume there was a good reason to change...

I would also add that it *seems* that once you've had them for a while you will get an update that makes them take longer to find a fix. Ours now quite often says we are on a parallel street for a few miles for example, and it didn't when it was new. This more cynical than me might think that they could make it seem like the performance was going off after a couple of years. Not me though. No, no,no.

Kim

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #13 on: 23 June, 2015, 01:01:21 pm »
I would also add that it *seems* that once you've had them for a while you will get an update that makes them take longer to find a fix. Ours now quite often says we are on a parallel street for a few miles for example, and it didn't when it was new. This more cynical than me might think that they could make it seem like the performance was going off after a couple of years. Not me though. No, no,no.

Time to obtain a fix is a function of the GPS chipset, the application software shouldn't be able to affect this (except in cellular devices with AGPS, I suppose).  Hardware could develop a fault or be subject to interference that degrades GPS performance, of course.  Perhaps there's a battery backed memory for ephemeris data that isn't working and it's having to do a cold start each time (or you're just not using it frequently enough, to the same effect).

The parallel road thing sounds like dodgy datum conversion when creating the map (unless it's just a symptom of a poor fix).  As a cynic, I reckon map datums are an excellent example of the "the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from" principle.

Anyway, in crappy software, as with so many things in life, Hanlon's Razor applies.

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #14 on: 23 June, 2015, 06:26:09 pm »
Any Garmin with LM in its name has lifetime map updates.

I wish I'd known that four years ago :(  Garmin want serious sums to update the maps on Emily and charge separately for GB and N America (and probably Europe too, though I've never used her there) and she seems to take a joke comedy length of time to work out where she is when switched back on at FOREIGN airports.  My grate frend Mr Woolrich says she's less hectoring than his TomTom though.
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tonycollinet

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #15 on: 23 June, 2015, 09:14:46 pm »
My experience with Garmin is out of date - but didn't like them compared to Tom Tom at the time.

Love my new Tom Tom - lifetime maps and lifetime traffic (via phone blutooth)

The traffic is very good - saved us hours (and probably the cost of the satnav in fuel) over 12 months.

Re: Car satnav
« Reply #16 on: 24 June, 2015, 12:50:44 pm »
I would also add that it *seems* that once you've had them for a while you will get an update that makes them take longer to find a fix. Ours now quite often says we are on a parallel street for a few miles for example, and it didn't when it was new. This more cynical than me might think that they could make it seem like the performance was going off after a couple of years. Not me though. No, no,no.

Time to obtain a fix is a function of the GPS chipset, the application software shouldn't be able to affect this (except in cellular devices with AGPS, I suppose).  Hardware could develop a fault or be subject to interference that degrades GPS performance, of course.  Perhaps there's a battery backed memory for ephemeris data that isn't working and it's having to do a cold start each time (or you're just not using it frequently enough, to the same effect).

The parallel road thing sounds like dodgy datum conversion when creating the map (unless it's just a symptom of a poor fix).  As a cynic, I reckon map datums are an excellent example of the "the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from" principle.

Anyway, in crappy software, as with so many things in life, Hanlon's Razor applies.

On TomTom, this is cured with a reset.

Hold the 'On' button down for 20 seconds until the data screen appears. Wait 5 seconds, switch off and switch on as normal.

The unit will initialize and take longer first switchon, but will be a lot quicker getting an accurate location after.

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Re: Car satnav
« Reply #17 on: 24 June, 2015, 01:44:31 pm »
I've got a 4 year old Tomtom, and a 1 year old car with a Garmin jobbie semi-built in. The Tomtom is much, much handier to use, more intuitive and generally more practical-use friendly.  In my experience with a variety of Garmin non-car GPS devices over the years, they make nice devices, but use utterly crap software to manage them.  The one built into my car runs Windows CE  :sick:

As for having any satnav without map updates, I reckon thats just plain silly.  Either get one with lifetime updates, or subscribe, and connect the thing to your PC or whatwever, regularly for all the updates, including the little GPS updates that Tomtom gives you that they sauy improve accuracy (dunno how).

Yes, you can navigate with a smartphone, but a car satnav is optimised for use in a moving car, they just seem so much more usable.  That said, I've just got a bracket to hang my expensive smartphone on the bike handlebars to use for nav, so I'll see how I get on with that.  I've removed the Etrex bracket, as compared to modern devices, that thing is so user-unfriendly unless you are walking.
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