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MacFixer, the iPhone, iPod, and iPad specialists

Navman 3450 GPS Sleeve

31st July 2003

 Review by Dave Burrows

    

Introduction

Navman are no newcomer to the GPS Market, and nor is the Navman sleeve, but something's happened recently which many GPS users especially Navman customers will welcome.  Navman back in 2001 released the Navman GPS 3000 which contained a Navman designed sleeve for the Compaq iPAQ and also came with bundled GPS software for the Pocket PC.  Since then many Navman users have not been happy with the GPS sleeve due to performance issues, especially when acquiring a cold fix which could leave you waiting for anything from 5 mins up to 45 minutes if you commenced your journey. 

 

Pocket GPS and Navman users have been trying to get Navman to look at these TTFF problems over the past couple of years since release, and Navman had admitted that most of the problems were down to processor interference where the GPS circuit board was too close to the processor on the iPAQ and was receiving RF (Radio Frequency) interference.  Pocket GPS have been working with Navman to alleviate these problems with newer service packs, one solution was for Navman to increase the baud rate of their GPS receiver sleeve so that it could transmit data quicker and put the processor into a wait state which reduced RF interference, the other options was optimising the software through Service Pack 1 on SmartST Pro. 

 

Well, we have to take our hat off to Navman because they've now done something hardware wise to combat this problem many users faced and this appears to be resolved now in the new revised sleeve called the 3450.  

 

The 3450 has a new updated ROM which helps in TTFF timings, Navman say they have also installed a military grade crystal to aid in quicker warm and hot fixes, and if you still are receiving fix problems, whether it's down to the sleeve or outside interference like a heat reflective windscreen, Navman have now built in an external antenna socket onto the sleeve! 

 

The new sleeve is called the Navman SE and you'll see this logo on the right hand side of the new sleeves.  The new Navman GPS 3450 comes bundled with the Navman SmartST Pro software and now replaces both the Navman GPS 3400 (UK) and Navman GPS 3420 (US) products.

 

 

External Antenna

As you'll see from the photo above, the new Navman 3450 sleeve is on the left with the old 3400 sleeve on the right.  There really isn't much of a difference cosmetically between the two sleeves, the antenna and the label are really the only differences to the sleeve that you'll notice.

 

The antenna socket that Navman have added to the new Navman 3450 sleeve is an MCX socket.  This is a universal socket that you'll find with most patch antennas. 

 

The antenna is sold separately and is available from all good retailers.  It does give you an option to either use a Navman antenna or third party antenna without the real need for a true powered re-radiating antenna.

 

 

Box Contents

When you open the box you'll find

  • Navman 3450 iPAQ Sleeve Receiver

  • two CD's covering European Maps of SmartST Pro

  • Vehicle windscreen mount for GPS Receiver

  • Vehicle Power Cable for GPS Receiver

  • Quickstart Guide

NAVMAN APPROVED - Professional In-Car Mount

A safer and more convenient driving environment for your NAVMAN GPS equipment.  The ProClip system offers a safe, secure and flexible method of mounting NAVMAN GPS equipment inside your vehicle. A combination of the unique clip and dedicated GPS mount allows your GPS receiver and/or PDA to be positioned in almost any location in your vehicle giving unparalleled safety, comfort and usability.

 

 

High Quality

The ProClip Mounting Platform has been produced and developed by Brodit AB since 1983. We meet the market's demand on quality products with functional solutions that are easy and convenient to use.

 

Does not Damage the Interior

The ProClip has a firm fit. The interior of the vehicle will not be damaged as no drilling holes are required and you do not need to dismantle the dashboard.

 

Saves Time The ProClip saves you time. Installation is easy, with no special tools required. Detailed instructions with pictures are included.

 
Many Alternatives There are ProClips to suit various positions on the dashboard or console, giving you options for positioning and making several different installations in the vehicle.

 

The tailor-made Professional NAVMAN Holder has a perfect fit. It holds your GPS safe and steady.

The holder is mounted onto a tilt swivel, which allows you to tilt and swivel the holder in order to avoid reflections in the display.

The holder is manufactured in black ABS plastic which can withstand temperatures of up to 100°C (212°F).

 

Installing the Maps

You have several options when installing the maps.  You can either install by sector, or install the complete maps. 

 

This is now becoming a standard in GPS mapping software for the Pocket PC, and is welcomed that you can choose the complete maps and not have to worry about routing between map segments, or you can install a segment at the time if disk space is a major limitation on your Pocket PC. 

 

The complete UK maps come in at just under 100mb in size

 

Most of the segments average around 20mb in size, some smaller, some larger, if space is restricted, or you don't run any SD or Compact Flash Card storage, then you may find installing individual map segments better than installing the complete maps.

 

Tutorial

Navman have chosen to do something special, although the manuals are on the CD, they've introduced a quick start guide / Tutorial when you start SmartST Pro.  This can be toggled on and off in the setup screen and gives you a head up of which hardware keys are mapped to which software features, and tells you how to tap and hold to bring up the context menu and also showing you the back and forward buttons.  This is a very good feature and helps you get up and running with SmartST Pro in the shortest time possible.  Come on, lets face it, everyone put up their hands who reads paper manuals ?  You only seem to read these when there's problems, so putting this on screen, does actually help and made us read it!

 

 

Time To First Fix Findings

TTFF's we recorded from the 3450 ranged from 48 seconds on a cold fix to 1 minute 09 seconds. 

 

All timings were very respectable and I don't think you'll experience any problems here.  Re-acquisition times were also very quick, signal strength compared to other BT GPS's seem to be slightly less at around 1-2 sats, but we never lost a fix under our tests until we ran our heavy foliage test.

 

GPS Status Screen

The GPS Status screen is nicely designed, and gives you 2D and 3D fix information. 

 

Existing Navman SmartST Pro users will remember this screen, and nothing has really changed in the software or the GPS Status screen since previous versions apart from opening up the driver database to all COM ports and baud rates. 

 

SmartST Pro Menu's

When you press your left cursor pad key you'll be taken into the Main Menu.  This gives you all the usual features you would expect to see when allowing for features like POI, Re-Routing and Voice Navigation.

 

In the Main Menu you'll see other sub menu's available.  The Quick Nav menu will give you quick navigation options like Return Trip and recent Navigations that you can select.

 

 

The Destination menu will give you options where you can create a route to a specific address (including door to door routing) allowing you to end a house number which is something that TomTom Navigator lacks at present.  You can also specify to create a journey by selecting an area by intersection. 

 

There is also a Points of Interest Screen where you can specify a Point of Interest you want to navigate to which is a very handy feature.  

 

I've always wanted to drive to a hotel and have had to enter either the road, or address and plot to this, with SmartST Pro you can now use the extensive POI database to create your journey.

 

All of the Destination Menu's will ask you to put in the area, then road, then house.  In Area you can specify both Country or City/Town which is invaluable. 

 

Sometimes if the area is foreign to you, you may not know if it's a Town or City, or Country you are visiting, and SmartST Pro is smart enough to recognise either, which cuts down on your route plotting time!

 

SmartST Pro also have a Favourite screen which allows you to select your Quick Nav saves, and also any locations you've added as favourites.

 

Finally you will also find a volume screen where you can set the volume of your Pocket PC speaker.

 

SmartST Pro Setup Screen

When you enter into the Setup screen you will see a plethora of options that you can select. 

In the first screenshot you can change the display from a day to night display that makes reading it easier at night, you can change the colour scheme of the maps, and toggle the Tutorial on and off. In the second screenshot you can turn Voice Navigation on and off, and select whether you want a UK male voice or UK female voice guiding you to your destination.  You can also change the distance units from Miles to Kilometers.

 

In the third screen, you can change your Routing Type by selecting the Quickest Time, and the Shortest Distance, and you can also tell it to Avoid Toll Roads (which will come in handy when the government start to introduce this in the UK), and Avoid urban Areas, which is good if you want to not take a motorway route, but likewise you don't want to be taken through town centres.  There is also an option for Automatic Re-Routing, and a Record Route option.  In the Fourth screen you'll see the POI (Points Of Interest) screen where you can toggle these on the maps, and manually select which POI data to see.

 

 

Maps

We've checked a couple of roads that have only been available in the last 8-12 months and these roads do show up under UK maps, so the maps do seem to be fairly up to date, however there have been comments already in our forums about some new roads not being on the maps.  Navman say they chose NavTech for their mapping company because they are currently considered the market leader in electronic mapping.  As with all maps, there will always be roads that aren't on the maps, however we weren't able to find any in the short period for the review.

 

The maps are very clear and precise, and all screens have a professional 3D style look and feel which adds to the prestige of the application.  Getting used to road names is a little difficult if you've used GPS Street routing software as with most software the road names are written within the road which mean you have to be zoomed in to around 80% before you see a road name, however Navman have overcome this by putting a red dot on the road and coupled with the road name displayed in horizontal form.  Although it takes a while to get used to this, you can see why Navman/Navtech have chosen this path, if you compare maps from other GPS software you will see that most are lacking road names at wider coverage levels, where as SmartST Pro still shows most of the street names.  This is great if you are travelling along a dual carriageway or an A road and are looking for a side road.  Directional turns, speed, distance to next turn and road name and designation are pretty much standard across all GPS street mapping software now, and Navman have made sure that all of these have been included.

 

No matter what type of road junction you chuck at SmartST Pro, it handles it very well.  Take the bottom right screenshot.  Not exactly an easy junction to follow, but SmartST Pro got it right first time!

 

 

Voice Navigation

Navman have added Voice Navigation to SmartST Pro, and this is a welcome feature.  However comparing this to other products, we did find that the way the words had been crafted, there were gaps at the beginning and end of each word, which when strung together made both the male and female voice sound as though it wasn't being read as a proper sentence.  Although the gaps on most of the spoken words seem to be only perhaps a couple of milliseconds, it was enough to notice the voice navigation was glueing words together.  One other problem we notice with the voice navigation is although it's more than adequate from a decibel level when driving normal roads, when driving motorways, and having background noise from the tyres on the car, and also having other distractive noises like a radio on, and air conditioning, or even a window open slightly, this seemed to drown out the voice navigation.  It would be good to see the sound files increased by about 10-15% in volume, which you could usually do yourself if they were WAV files, but Navman have integrated them into a data file, so attempting this yourself would be difficult.  We found the Voice Navigation to be a little quieter when compared to TomTom Navigator.

 

Navigation Safety Screen

The Navigation Safety screen, really does look sexy!  It's been well designed with a 3D look and feel, and gives you all the information you would need on following a route.  It gives you the next turn you need to take, and tells you in how many miles this will be, and also shows below this which road you are currently on.

 

Coupled with your current speed, and time, it will also show you an ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival), which is very much welcomed. 

 

The amount of times I have thought I would be late for a meeting, but I've been trying to work out the distance and time according to my watch. 

 

SmartST Pro does all the calculation for you on screen, so if it looks like you are going to be running late for that important client meeting, you can phone ahead and let them know!

 

 

Technical Specifications

 

Antenna Type

Quadrifiler helix (multi-directional)

Satellite Measure Used 12-channel parallel, automatic selection
Memory Card Type I & II Compact Flash cards
  Time to First Fix (TTFF)
Hot Start 18 Seconds (typical)
Warm Start 48 Seconds (typical)
Cold Start 120 Seconds (typical)
Re-acquisition Time 25 Seconds (typical)
Accuracy of Position Fix Horizontal: 5.0 metres, typical (95% probable)
Interface iPAQ Option Pack Interface
Update Rate Initial, every second. Typically every 2 seconds once fix established
Output Message NMEA 0183 Ver: 2.20, GPGGA, GPGSA, GPRMC, and GPGSV.
Power 3.3V DC from the iPAQ’s internal Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery
External Power 12.0V DC in-car adaptor
iPAQ Battery Life 1.5 - 2.2 hours when typically running with full backlight and GPS enabled

 

PC Requirements

iPAQ Requirements

IBM Compatible 486 or higher

H3800 / H3900 series

Dual Speed CD Rom or higher

800Kb for application software

MS Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or XP

Typically 12Mb free for map data
For H3800 & H3900 series units: Pocket PC 2002, all ROM builds

 

GPS Hardware TTFF (Time To First Fix)

 

Cold

Test 1

Cold

Test 2

Cold

Test 3

Cold

Test 4

Cold

Test 5

Cold

Test

Average

Warm

Test

Hot

Test

CoPilot CF 1m 22s 1m 8s 56s 1m 17s 54s 1m 07s 52s 16s
Emtac Sleeve/CoPilot 40s 37s 42s 37s 46s 40.4s 10s 9s
Emtac/Socket BT GPS 47s 53s 42s 36s 38s 43.2s 10s 17s
Garmin eTrex 39s 44s 40s 41s 43s 41.4s 8s N/A
Garmin eTrex Summit 38s 41s 45s 39s 42s 41.0s 8s N/A
Garmin eTrex Vista 37s 57s 32s 35s 38s 39.8s 17s N/A
Garmin GPSMap76 42s 34s 23s 56s 32s 37.4s 12s N/A
Garmin GPSMap76S 32s 53s 32s 39s 36s 38.4s 11s N/A
Garmin Geko 101 1m 37s 45s 38s 44s 41s 53s 15s 13
Garmin Geko 201 34s 45s 38s 43s 40s 40s 19s 10
HaiCom 302 CF 50s 33s 1m 25s 36s 1m 25s 57.8s 23s 10s
HaiCom 303 MMF 42s 1m 05 s 41s 1m 02 s 1m 18s 57.6s 36s 3s
Holux GM-210 42s 38s 35s 37s 42s 38.8s 30s 4s
Holux GM-270 54s 1m 07 s 1m 03s 50s 1m 12s 61.2s 39s 4s
Holux GM-270U 46s 49s 42s 1m 01 s 49s 49.4s 35s 3s
Holux GR-230 1m 02s 55s 50s 49s 52s 53.6s 39s 5s
LeadTek 9531 / 9532 29s 37s 39s 41s 43s 37.8s 9s 5s
Magellan Meridian Range of GPS 38s 53s 43s 33s 35s 40.4s 18s 15s
Magellan SporTrak Range of GPS 37s 47s 46s 41s 41s 42.4s 19s 16s
Navman 3000 (ROM 2.0.0) 49s 52s 1m 33s 3m 23s 8m 5s 2m 56s 20s 11s
Navman 3400/3420 (ROM 2.1.2) 1m 33s 2m 30s 1m 32s 52s 1m 17s 1m 32.8s 20s 12s
Navman 3450 (ROM 2.1.2) 57s 50s 1m 09s 48s 1m 0s 56.8s 20s 11s
Navman 4400 53s 1m 03s 1m 19s 54s 53s 1m 00.4s 0s 0s
Pretec Compact CF 1m 28s 2m 47s 57s 45s 1m 2s 1m 23s 1m 16s 12s
Pretec Compact LP CF 3m 48s 5m 32s 4m 59s 1m 53s 4m 02s 4m 04s 52s 33s
Rikaline X5 41s 41s 34s 41s 42s 39.5s 39s 0s
Rikaline X6 34s 60s 44s 48s 57s 48.6s 38s 0s
RoyalTek Onyx 1m 28s 1m 39s 2m 23s 1m 38s 1m 35s 1m 46s 1m 24s 17s
RoyalTek Sapphire RGM 1m 02s 1m 0s 56s 41s 55s 54.8s 37s 10s
RoyalTek RBT-3000 57s 46s 43s 41s 55s 48.4s 30s 9s
RoyalTek RGM-2000 48s 52s 40s 45s 39s 44.8s 33s 7s
SysOnChip BT GPS 48s 77s 66s 67s 51s 61.8s 37s 4s
SysOnChip CF Plus (SIRFXTrac) 40s 30s 33s 38s 39s 36s 30s 0s
TFAC MG30 Mouse 1m17s 1m 26s 1m 38s 1m 36s 2m 11s 1m 37s 34s 4s
TomTom Bluetooth GPS 48s 52s 46s 59s 51s 51.2s 37s 3s

 

Fastest

TTFF

Cold

Tests

Slowest

TTFF

Cold

Tests

Manufacturer

Stated

Times

Warm

TTFF

Tests

Manufacturer

Stated

Times

Hot

TTFF

Tests

Manufacturer

Stated

Times

CoPilot CF 54s 1m 22s Not Stated 52s N/A 16s N/A
Emtac Sleeve/CoPilot 37s 46s Not Stated 10s N/A 9s N/A
Emtac/Socket BlueTooth GPS 36s 53s 1m 20s 10s 45s 6s 10s
Garmin eTrex 39s 44s 45s 8s 15s N/A N/A
Garmin eTrex Summit 38s 45s 45s 8s 15s N/A N/A
Garmin eTrex Vista 32s 57s 45s 12s 15s N/A N/A
Garmin GPSMap76 32s 56s 45s 12s 15s N/A N/A
Garmin GPSMap76S 32s 53s 45s 12s 15s N/A N/A
Garmin Geko 101 38s 1m 37s 45s 15s 15s 13s N/A
Garmin Geko 201 34s 45s 45s 19s 15s 10s N/A
HaiCom 302 CF 33s 1m 25s 48s 23s 38s 10s 8s
HaiCom 303 MMF 41s 1m 18s 48s 36s 38s 3s 8s
Holux GM-210 35s 42s 45s 30s 38s 4s 8s
Holux GM-270 50\s 1m 12s 45s 39s 38s 4s 8s
Holux GM-270U 42s 1m 01s 45s 35s 38s 3s 8s
Holux GR-230 39s 1m 02s 45s 39s 38s 5s 8s
LeadTek 9531 / 9532 29s 43s 48s 9s 38s 5s 8s
Magellan Meridian Range of GPS 33s 53s <2m 18s <1m 15s <15s
Magellan SporTrak Range of GPS 37s 47s <5m 19s <1m 16s <15s
Navman 3000 49s 8m 05s 2m 0s 20s 48s 11s 18s
Navman 3400/3420 (ROM 2.1.2) 52s 2m 30s 2m 0s 20s 48s 12s 18s
Navman 3450 (ROM 2.1.2) 48s 1m 09s 2m 0s 20s 48s 11s 18s
Navman 4400 53s 1m 19s n/a 0s n/a 0s n/a
Pretec Compact CF 45s 2m 47s 1m 0s 1m 16s 45s 12s 8s
Pretec Compact LP CF 1m 53s 5m 32s 2m 10s 52s 45s 33s 20s
Rikaline X5 34s 42s 45s 39s 38s 0s 8s
Rikaline X6 34s 1m 00 s 45s 38s 38s 0s 8s
RoyalTek Onyx 1m 28s 2m 23s 45s 3m 0s 45s 17s 20s
RoyalTek Sapphire 41s 1m 02s 45s 37s 38s 10s 45s
RoyalTek RBT-3000 41s 57s 45s 30s 38s 9s 8
RoyalTek RGM-2000 39s 52s 45s 33s 38s 17s 45s
SysOnChip BT GPS 37s 77s 45s 37s  38s 4s 8s
SysOnChip CF Plus (SIRFXTrac) 30s 40s 45s 30s  38s 0s 8s
TFAC MG30 1m 17s 2m 11s 45s 34s  8s 4s 0.1s
TomTom Bluetooth GPS 48s 59s 45s 37s 38s 3s 8s
 

Summary

The complete Navman 3450 and SmartST Pro bundle certainly improves upon the existing Navman 3400/3420 bundle.  Navman have listened to their customers, many have complained bitterly over time about extended TTFF times, and it's good to see Navman have listened and responded well!   Another complaint that existing Navman users had was a weak windscreen mount, but the windscreen mount supplied is now of good quality and you shouldn't experience any problems with this new suction cup.

 

The complete package comes in at around £379.99 or €539.99. 

 

 
Conclusion  
Manufacturers Website http://www.navman-mobile.com
Pocket GPS Reviewer Dave Burrows
Pocket GPS Reviewer Website http://www.daveburrows.com
   
Rating  

Durability

Windscreen Suction Mount Strength

Air Vent Mount Strength

not supplied

Car Power Cable Quality

Ability to plot route and follow

Voice Navigation Quality

Re-routing Quality

Map Detail

   
Overall Rating 85.7%
How did we achieve these ratings ? Review Ratings
 

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