Post by anon on Feb 6, 2007 13:05:01 GMT
From: B0ssies Sent: 6/1/2005
Any experience on these. which ones work best for the motorbike touring environment
From: speighty581 Sent: 6/1/2005
Well I'm just experimenting with one of these.....
I have a Dell Axim X5 from www.totalpda.co.uk 89 squids
I use it with a Garmin Emap which i already have for the gps signal. But will work with any GPS device.
Its in a Otterbox Armour1900, which makes is 100% waterproof, the only thing is although recessed at the bottom, is open, but i got round that and water rarely travels up! ! !
Both run off bike power.
I bought a copy of TomTom which gives voice guidance and speed camera warnings, and you can add just about every intersting location in the UK, from hairdressers to cinemas into it.
Its wired into an Autocom and gives clear and timely directions, echo'd in 2d or 3d on the screen.
Most buttons u need on the screen are easily accessed even using gloves, tho use of a stylus is needed for some fine detail.
All in all the whole thing cost:
Emap 60.00
Dell and 512mb Card 120.00
Otterbox 50.00
Bike Mount 50.00
Leads etc 15.00
------
295.00
Now this may be expensive, and maybe a different product would be more cost effective. Such as a the Quest or TomTom Go...
Depends what you want....I already had the emap, but i wanted camera warnings and the flexibility of being able to add lots of different waypoints. Also i use a PDA for work so it just adds everything together.
One thing.....unless your computer minded, i wouldn't go the PDA route. Its a small, but reasonably powerful, and has all the quirks of a small PC.
There are some packages available that contains everything you need to get started, PDA, GPS receiver and software etc. BUT PDA's aren;t waterproof and thats a real consideration.
The jury as far as I'm concerned is still out. Im very very impressed with TomTom software, the maps and road detail with better than Garmins, the autorouting is quick and directions are clear and very timely.... but overall im happy with it. I even took Reaper and El Bandito on a magical mystery tour in Wales looking for small small villages. In every case we found them, but you need to use your head when deciding what roads to take....some were...shall i say challenging :-)
Chris
From: B0ssies Sent: 6/8/2005
Ok so a mate of mine sold me his Ipaq H5550 for a rediculaously lower price.
Now I need GPS and a mount for the unit to fit my bike handlebars...any ideas?
I'm seriously considering getting Tom Tom Naviagtor 3. Any experiences with it? The new V5 is coming out soone so there should be V3's going cheap.
Any other GPS systems that work with HP PDA's you have experience with?
From: Tour_De_Mark Sent: 6/8/2005
You do know you can get a Michelin roadmap for £13 which does everything GPS can do, uses no power and allows route planning in a far more convinient way???
From: TJ63 Sent: 6/8/2005
Please tell us where you get these talking maps from.
With 3D moving colour display
And automatic re-routing when you go off course
And a compass
Oh, and a clock
Plus calculations of elasped time, speed, average speed, moving average speed.
And of course being able to backtrack automatically on the route you just followed to the middle of nowhere and get you home again.
I'm sure we'll all be inundating you with our £13
See - you're not the only smartar$e
Trevor
From: Tour_De_Mark Sent: 6/8/2005
Talking.
+ Nope.
With 3D moving colour display
+ U can do that with a map in 2D!
And automatic re-routing when you go off course
+ Check.
And a compass
+ GPS can't tell you which way is north if you're stationary.
Oh, and a clock
+ I wear one on my wrist!
Plus calculations of elasped time, speed, average speed, moving average speed.
+ True. No sustitute for that. Although I dunno what yuo use them for. I've never needed them!
And of course being able to backtrack automatically on the route you just followed to the middle of nowhere and get you home again.
+ Map does that too!
From: Tour_De_Mark Sent: 6/8/2005
Incidently I'm working on an in car GPS system right now.
So go out and buy as many as possible!!!
From: B0ssies Sent: 6/8/2005
It was 17:00 and it was busy thundering and showers. We had just ridden all the way up from Carcassone and the information office was closed.
We only found a place to sleep 3 hours later in the dark and cold wet and dying for a toilet.
If I had the PDA/GPS at hand I would have been able to locate a dozen hotels within 100 yards of me...which I wouldn't do let alone try and negotiated the highly confusing one way system.
Getting lost is part of the journey you say....well some time you get absolutley sick and tired of getting lost AGAIN and just want to get where you want to go.
From: B0ssies Sent: 6/8/2005
I already now have MS Mappoint which will tell me POI's...but for a few bob more I might as well get the GPS.
It's going to come in handy when I trek across Africa...whenever the geosat ever covers that part of the world.
From: Tour_De_Mark Sent: 6/8/2005
Getting lost is part of the journey
Actually I wasn't really making a serious point with my comment. Just trying to be funny.
But that said I've never found a map and a route list to be a problem at all. I can't remember once getting serously lost. In fact I can't remeber getting lost at all on the bike.
Does everyone else find maps problematic? I love them, they work and they have a charm of their own.
From: Tour_De_Mark Sent: 6/8/2005
Africa
Of course. IF there are no land marks (Sea, Desert) GPS is essential if you want to know where you are within 15 miles!
But Briancon -> Val'd'Isere???
From: B0ssies Sent: 6/8/2005
Well exactly...that's why I will continue to just use a map...but have the GPS at hand if needs be.
People die when they get lost in Africa...a couple of tourists in a hired 4x4 got lost last year in Namibia. He walk to find help; she stayed at the car. He died; she lived. Every year it happens.
From: Tour_De_Mark Sent: 6/8/2005
He walk to find help; she stayed at the car. He died; she lived. Every year it
happens.
Don't these morons watch Ray Mears? He always says stay with the car.
In fact, I've only watched three of his shows and if I was lost in the Sahara for a week I'd put on weight, find enough water to fill a swimming pool and fabricate my own light aircraft out of a spoon and a bit of twig. THen using only sand as fuel I'd fly to Cape Town... Good old Ray.
From: ianboydsnr Sent: 6/8/2005
anyone with a garmin quest/2610 and i guess many others, can download this speedcamera database, once loaded in mapsource it lists as a separate map, but when you dowload it to the hardware it overlays, you would have to reload the uk at the same time though as garmin units deletes the last maps
myweb.tiscali.co.uk/walterwright/SC-Garmin-3.054.1.exe
you might need the read me file as well
myweb.tiscali.co.uk/walterwright/README.TXT
From: adbru2 Sent: 6/9/2005
Hi Guys,
So far I have only used the gps in the car without to many problems, although if you tell it to use the shortest route some of the roads makes life interesting !!
I have an Ipaq 3970 (from work) and added a Garmin Etrex and a cable to connect the Garmin to the Ipaq. I use TomTom 3 .
I am going to Belgium at the end of the month and plan to use it in the hire car to get me from Charloi airport to Ypres and back (I added the belgium maps).
TomTom amd the map files all sit on my 256mb SD card and just work !!
I plan to fit it to the bike later this year to assist with the RBR game
I also have a product called Memory Map which lets you use OS maps on the PC/PDA and you can see where you are on whichever scale of map you use.
To start with on the bike I will probably go the easy route of 12v Power source and everything in the pocket of the tank bag ....
hth
Adbru
From: XJfrog Sent: 6/14/2005
Hey TDM, I love maps too. Looking at where you want to go on pages in a little booklet is so exciting then, I turn on my GPS V and lo and behold it tells me where north is. Or south or east and west, you cant beat a good electronic navigation system.
Keith
Glos
From: internationalweegie Sent: 6/17/2005
This is probably a daft question, but here goes. Do you need to download a route from your PC to the GPS, or is it possible to do this without a PC. An example: You plan to go from A -> B. You get to B early and fancy going for a run to C. Can you just pull up C on the GPS and say "Show me the way!" and it will map it for you?
Andy
From: TJ63 Sent: 6/17/2005
My Garmin Vista won't - you have to plot each point along the way. I'm pretty sure the more sophisticated units do. IBS, DN84, FJR_Bob (and others)- any input here?
Trevor
From: Ghotí Sent: 6/17/2005
Andy,
Depends on the unit you have.
Garmin V, Quest, StreetPilot, 2610/2620 etc all have route finding functions. Just put in where you want to get to and it will take you there by either fastest or shortest route (I think there is a third option, but can not think of it).
You only need the PC to load up more maps (apart from the V all will hold the whole of the UK) or if you want to take a specific route.
Paul
From: FJRBob1 Sent: 6/17/2005
Hi Andy
I have street pilot 3 (Gladys the garmin!) and yes if you get to point B and want to go to point C you can punch in point C -route to it- and she will take you to point C,but it's much easier on a PC.
Gladys is a very clever bit of kit ,but like a PC-garbage in garbage out-you have to be carefull plotting your routes.
Paul The 3 options are -Faster time,Shorter distance,and my favourite Off road!
JK The owner's manual for the Street Pilot 3,although beautifully written and printed is not user friendly! When I first got Gladys she very nearly finished up in the wheelie bin!! It sounds a bit like the book you have for your GPS.
Regards Bob
From: speighty581 Sent: 6/22/2005
Well i guess it's time to post on the PDA / Garmin side of the discussion...
After fitting the Garmin Emap and PDA to handle bars using ram mounts and having taken several longish trips i'm in a position to comment on the practicality of using a pda/gps system.
Because PDA's arent waterproof i bought an otterbox to hold it....totally waterproof, GPS unit is already waterproof. Its all a bit bulky when fitted, though i have wide bars and it dont bother me in the slightest...
It looks...interesting, come and check it out at derby....its the blue Fazer with all sorts of stuff attached .
Does what i want, though i had problems with PDA overheating in tank bag and locking up. Since i put it in the Otterbox, this seems to have been solved as it has a breathable strip on the back.....
It has camera warning system, which i particuarly like....
Fast voice guidance, which can be turned off/on easily even with gloves.
I dont use the 3d/2d screen, as voice guidance is way faster.
I do use the emap as a rolling map, as it's easier to see.
However, cost wise, I'd say if you dont already have at least one of the components, or you wouldnt use a PDA normally, i'd go with a all in one unit that has everything u need....the new Tomtom rider is supposed to be the mutts .....
From: dn84Silver900 Sent: 6/23/2005
I have the Streetpilot 3 and i find it OK on the bike and in the car, i normally plot a route and upload it to the unit. I find it easy to use and a very clear screen oh and the young lady who whispers into my ear is a bonus.
Safe Riding
Graham
dn84Silver900
From: Andyskinn Sent: 7/13/2005
Garmin Quest.
The dogs Nads
From: AlienCog Sent: 7/24/2005
Borrowed a mates garmin 2620 which has hard drive and doesn't like to be jogged. Used it on a trip to Germany. Brilliant bit of kit. I find with maps that I have to keep stopping to read them, dodgy eyes etc. But with the garmin I just keep riding and only stop when I want to. When fuel was running low easy to touch screen to find nearest fuel. I'm saving up to get my own now.
From: Tigger Sent: 8/6/2005
Got to admit that after nearly a week with the Quest it is V.V good. Autorouting, re-calculation for off route etc. And it is all waterproofed too. What more can you need??
Matt