Sat Nav

[SBR]

Yep, the Met office have issued a cold weather warning for hades, I want to
buy a sat nav.

I am still against the whole idea of being dependant on a US box of
electronics 70Miles above me, but I I have finally conceeded that I need to
war glasses for driving, and a different set for reading. This makes
hareing around backroads, by myself (still no AESLs again) difficult, as I
keep having to swap glasses everytime I need to check a map.

Can anybody recommend one with the following characteristics please?
- Must accept OS grid as input
- Easily removed
- Does not need to plug into the car stereo
- Waypoints programable in advance from a PC
- USB or bluetooth link.

Thanks

[Neil Williams]

Post by SBR
Can anybody recommend one with the following characteristics please?
- Must accept OS grid as input
- Easily removed
- Does not need to plug into the car stereo
- Waypoints programable in advance from a PC
- USB or bluetooth link.

Don't know about some of these - programmable waypoints and OS grid
input is likely to push you right to the top end of the market -
certainly, the cheap TomToms don't do either (indeed you can only have
one "via" point). But what kind of phone do you have? If you have an
Android phone, Google Navigation is not bad at all for free (give it a
go), though it does require a data connection. You can also download
TomTom and Copilot onto many phones, both of which aren't bad at all.
I find that having a single device that does both is a lot less hassle
when you want to remove it, for example to pop into the motorway
services.

Neil

[baloo]

You could always get a pair of bi-focal of vari-focal glasses and then
you wouldn't have to worry about being dependant on a US box of
electronics 70Miles above you!


Peter

CSL - 2nd Bracknell - Scouting for North & East Bracknell - www.2ndbracknell.co.uk

[Chris Atkinson]

In message

Post by baloo
You could always get a pair of bi-focal of vari-focal glasses and then
you wouldn't have to worry about being dependant on a US box of
electronics 70Miles above you!

No, that doesn't work, at least for me it doesn't. I still find that the
vision transfer from road ahead to map-in-the-lap is too big a step for
safe driving. OTOH my vari-focals are fine with my Snooper GPS stuck
onto the windscreen. Main problem is when the sun's in the wrong quarter
and the GPS screen is pretty well invisible - but the nice lady tells
me where to go (in the nicest possible way ;^)
Chris A.

[SBR]

Post by baloo
You could always get a pair of bi-focal of vari-focal glasses and then
you wouldn't have to worry about being dependant on a US box of
electronics 70Miles above you!

I have just bought these, which is when I realsied I had an issue, but next
time that will be a definite possibility.

[SBR]

Post by Neil Williams
Don't know about some of these - programmable waypoints and OS grid
input is likely to push you right to the top end of the market -
certainly, the cheap TomToms don't do either (indeed you can only have
one "via" point). But what kind of phone do you have? If you have an
Android phone, Google Navigation is not bad at all for free (give it a
go), though it does require a data connection. You can also download
TomTom and Copilot onto many phones, both of which aren't bad at all.
I find that having a single device that does both is a lot less hassle
when you want to remove it, for example to pop into the motorway
services.

Thanks, but my phone is just that, a phone :-) As a matter of principle
teachers seem to have cheap pay as you go phones, so if you lose it or the
kids get hold they can't run up a huge bill!

I agree about the Satnav probably being top end of the market, but when
following teams od ES around by car, my information comes in grids and I
would want to hold a whole route, possibly for several teams, all at once.

I saw a system a few weks back where a driver had a net book on his
dashboard and all his routes in stored in what I think was memory map. He
just sent the plalce he wanted to go to next to his sat nav and it took him
there, but that was truely nerd heaven and wouldn't help as I would have to
keep swppig glasses to drive it, which defeats the whole object realy :-(

Maybe I need to get an android phone just for this.

[Neil Williams]

Post by SBR
Maybe I need to get an android phone just for this.

Not sure I would - if you don't need one for any other purpose a
dedicated sat-nav is probably best. Might be worth you trying a few
out at a dealer somewhere, particularly the high end TomToms. But I
don't know about the OS grid stuff - never tried it in Google
Navigation either, and while I do like that (and it's free) it doesn't
do complex stuff like waypoints. I *think* Copilot does do waypoints
but I'd check before paying out.

Neil

[SBR]

Post by Neil Williams
do complex stuff like waypoints. I *think* Copilot does do waypoints
but I'd check before paying out.

Thanks, the dealers I have spoken to so far didn't have a scooby about grid
refs. I might be onto a looser or maybe even get my old palm pilot tungsten
out as that had a conversion utility, but its bloody fiddly :-(

SBR

[Gooders]

Post by Neil Williams
do complex stuff like waypoints. I *think* Copilot does do waypoints
but I'd check before paying out.

Thanks, the dealers I have spoken to so far didn't have a scooby about grid
refs. I might be onto a looser or maybe even get my old palm pilot tungsten
out as that had a conversion utility, but its bloody fiddly :-(

SBR

I have a basic TomTom, which is about four years old. It doesn't do OS NGRs
but it does work on lat/long (which I use for Geocaching). You can also
manually select points on the map. It is possible to create stops on a route
but I can't remember what the feature is called. I've used that feature for
work - visiting a selection of sewage works to check for mobile phone
coverage. In fact it was that project that convinced me to buy one. SatNavs
are for wimps, right. Real men use maps. Not after a brush with the law they
don't!

I also have Co-pilot on my Iphone which can do much the same.

I'd have a look at Garmin. A quick check on their website indicates that the
Nuvi 300, 500 and 600 series will accept NGRs. Not sure about
cost/availability though.

Stephen

[SBR]

Post by Gooders
I'd have a look at Garmin. A quick check on their website indicates that
the Nuvi 300, 500 and 600 series will accept NGRs. Not sure about
cost/availability though.

Thanks I will do that.

[Robin Ford]

Post by SBR
Yep, the Met office have issued a cold weather warning for hades, I want to
buy a sat nav.
I am still against the whole idea of being dependant on a US box of
electronics 70Miles above me, but I I have finally conceeded that I need to
war glasses for driving, and a different set for reading.  This makes
hareing around backroads, by myself (still no AESLs again) difficult, as I
keep having to swap glasses everytime I need to check a map.
Can anybody recommend one with the following characteristics please?
- Must accept OS grid as input
- Easily removed
- Does not need to plug into the car stereo
- Waypoints programable in advance from a PC
- USB or bluetooth link.
Thanks
--
Stephen Rainsbury
DESC Gillingham, Kentwww.gillinghamscouts.org.uk

Stephen

Have you tried using Anquet map software.
I use the PC software to create all the routes and print out maps and
route cards for my Explorers.

You can then sync with a mobile device.(http://www.anquet.co.uk/
hardware-check.aspx) although I havent used this I know people who
have and say it is good.

Robin
ESL

[SBR]

Post by SBR
Stephen
Have you tried using Anquet map software.
I use the PC software to create all the routes and print out maps and
route cards for my Explorers.

Yes we tried it several years ago and decided to use memory map, but it was
cheap bundle and we didn't realise we only had 1:50,000 maps, not the
1:25,000 that I wanted, soperhaps its time to look again.

Post by SBR
You can then sync with a mobile device.(http://www.anquet.co.uk/
hardware-check.aspx) although I havent used this I know people who
have and say it is good.

The biggest issue will be when I am assessing a DofE team that I havn't met
before, on a route that I havn't seen. I don't have an issue spending the
first night entering in checkpoints and uploading them to a GPS/ Sat Nav as
I go.

I wil give anquet another look, thanks :-)