Might want to consider RoadCOM in £200 bracket

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

Hi all,

first off thanks to all on these forums and the site editors for a very useful resource Smile

fortunately I did find you before running off to spend my money!

My requiremetns were for a satnav that could also play MP3 _whilst navigating_ so I could listen via the AUX input on the car stereo, getting high quality music and still hear the navigation instructions.. also wanted to be able to use it handheld, and have a decent screen size. TMC upgrade would be nice, but not essential.

started off down the PDA route, but could not find one with the newest SiRF 3 chipset and was nevous about buying an older device given the variable reports on performance in built-up areas, etc.

First choice was the GArmin Nuvi, but at a street price of £315 and SSSP £370 or so it looked expensive. plus I am unsure I can upgrade it..

Next choice was the unit in the subject; 'RoadCOM RC300'. Found this puerly by chance on the front cover of the Makro mail-out and the GPS spec seems identical to the Nuvi but for £200! Makro however had no stock (it's apparently out tomorrow, and only at this price for 3 days!!)

Much digging on the net revealed it is a WinCE PDA device bundled with smart2go software.
..and it's on sale through Woolworths at a better price than Makro Laughing

Having read about changing the built-in software bundle on the medion and begin able to get back to the standard WinCE interface, convinced me I might as well go for it. I could always get better software or add my own..

Read my review in the comparison forum for the nitty gritty..
Here

Suffice to say the hardware appears very good, actaully it's made by HOLUX as the GPSmile51 - the same folks that bring you Road Angel.

smart2go is also very good so far (I gave it a short test drive yesterday!) with ony a couple of minor map errors around the more recently changed bits of Surrey where I live:)

BUT it does not play music and navigate at the same time! Nowhere is this made clear onthe packaging or advertising (I guess I should be more pessimistic!).

A little hacking with ActiveSync and a copy of RegEdit soon fixed this problem - the built-in MP3 player software was pretty rubbish anyway. It now runsthe regular WinCE explorer and Xaudio.exe which I can kick off before starting the smart2go package and they both work just fine, however I still have to exit the GPS package to change the audio tracks, etc. but hey that's what random playlists are for 8)

I'll post details of how to do this if anyone is interested.

So, a decent WinCE PDA with SiRF 3 and 3.5" touchscreen for £200. And a copy of smart2go with full UK mapping too. Upgrading is very simple - the sat nav executable is on the SD card along with the map data 8O rather than being burnt into FLASH in the unit.

WOudl be interested in a more savvy users analysis of this unit in comparison to the other PDA systems, as this is my first sat nav so I am unsure quite what to expect or how good the competition is.

cheers
Stuart

headbanger · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9

Hi Stuart

Nice review on the RC300 . Looks like you spent quite a bit of time researching .

I just got the RoadCom yesterday from Makro after taking back a NavCam 7000 Xmas pressy that was trouble from the time I switched it on (It only managed to get a GPS signal standing in clear view of the sky 3 times out of the 10 times I tried to use it). When it started giving "Fatal Exception error in MobileNAvigator.exe" I gave up and took it back to Makro yesterday and managed to exchange it for the RC300.

I'm more of a newbie than you and was wondering if you could tell me how you did the regfix to change the MP3 player etc.

I was also wondering if there was anyway that the software/map etc could be updated to show speed cameras and gave the helpline a try. They told me that there will be updates in November 2006 ! (bit of a wait!) at www.gate5-guides.com but didn't say what sort of update and if you'd have to pay (probably just the standard map update). Although the helpline wasn't really helpful on the above they did say that the the unit is TomTom compatible (they weren't clear on whether that's the map database on the SD card or the navigator software). But after hunting around on the net for an hour or so I couldn't find any clues. I'd be grateful if you find out anything you could post it.

Sorry this isn't from a more savvy user.

Cheers

Mark
Cheers

headbanger · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9

Oh . forgot to mention that I've only used the RC300 a couple of times, but with absolutely no problem compared to the NavCam 7000 (returned earlier) it was was recieving GPS signals from well within the house.

One cosmetic thing was the casing on the RC300 was tackier than the 7000 but who cares! as long as it does the job.

This may not be possible but the guy on the electonics stand at Makro said the NavCam and RoadCom use the same software. As The NAvCam had speed camera warnings I'm wondering if the software/map from that unit might work on the RC300. I know a neighbour of mine has that unit and just happened to take it back the same day I did but still has a copy of the SDCard. What do you think?

Cheers again

Mark

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

test reply - havng trouble:(

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

mark - I have written a reply but I can't post it (!) dunno why. Stupid forum software? Will try again tmrw..

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

Hi Mark.. good to hear your RC300 is working well.

OK to get a real interface it's really very easy: this work was based on that described by xnaught elsewhere in the forum:
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=31280&highlight=

WARNING! i take no responsibility for your unit if you do this :? Also the default MP3 and picture software don't work from the Explorer view (haven't figured out why yet.. I think they're hidden somehow), and I have not found a replacement for the picture software that runs yet.

Here goes..

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

step 1: please backup the SD card entirely! This gives you a saftey backup if you screw up. just copy all the files and directories to your PC - either use a separate card reader (I used my camera!) or plug up the unit to a PC with the USB cable and Explore from a copy of Microsoft Active Sync on a handy PC. and look in the /sdmmc directory.
[Active Sync 3.8 seems to work fine for me. Just use a guest connection.]
just google for the download from microsoft.

step 2: Get my modified .reg files and a copy of RegEdit.exe from here:
http://ashbysoft.no-ip.org/~slash909/rc300hack.tar

Step 3: Now you need to copy these files to the SD card, and do a little creative renaming Laughing

Rename the existing 'RoadcomNavi.exe' file to something else, and make a copy of the 'RegEdit.exe' file called 'RoadcomNavi.exe'. You see where this is going..

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

Step 4: load the registry hack.
Put the card back in the unit and reset if necesary then press GPS, or if you were using Active Sync just press the GPS button on the start screen - voila! RegEdit should now be running.

Take out the stylus (unless you have VERY small fingers!) and press File / Import - browse to the /sdmmc directory and load the 'myHack.reg' file. Double tap to load the file (you can't see the OK button!!)

Reset again - hey presto, you should get Explorer fired up and it suddenly looks like WIndows 8).

Step 5: cover your tracks Smile

Now you just need to tidy up and make a shortcut to the GPS software; use Copy and Paste Shortcut from the My Computer browser to do this -you might find this easier via Active Sync, or by putting the card back into a reader.

Delete the RoadcommNavi.exe file and rename the original back to this name.

Put the card back in the unit if required. Reset again. go to My Computer or use Active Sync to acces the /sdmmc directory again. Edit / Copy RoadcomNavi.exe then browse to /Windows/Desktop and Edit / Paste Shortcut. Done :-) you can put a shortcut into /Windows/Programs to make it appear on the start menu too.

you can rename these shortcuts as you wish.

If you are using the UI on the unit, you will find a little pop-up keyboard on the task bar. This might be handy to type things! remember to place the cursor where you need it first.

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

Step 6: add some proper audio software..
OK - go find a copy of XAudio from here:
http://www.tucows.com/start_dl/32632_45411_756

if you have Active Sync installation is really easy. just run the exe and click yes to everything! I advise installing the software on the sdmmc card, since if you lose power you will lose anything not on the card.

if you don't have active sync, just find the Xaudio.exe file in the PC distribution and copy to the SD card.

Make a shortcut as before.

job done.. good luck!

Stuart

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

.. now can someone tell me why i couldn't post that in one msg??? Evil or Very Mad

Stu

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

..regards the NavCam - can't find anything on the 'net regards this unit. Has it got an FCC ID number on the back ?

Also is the software identifiable as a known product? e.g. the RoadCOM announces itsefl as 'powered by smart2go' when ti starts. plus the map update site in the manual is from gate5 who write smart2go Smile

don't think that smart2go can do POI alerts whic you need for cameras. Any German readers want to go digging in the german language forums incase they do support this but just havent' discussed it English (it is a german company afer all).

it does have a really good set of POIs which must be upgradeable (you can buy more data for it!)

If the POI format is a standard Teleatlas one then maybe the NavCam data is usable.. any chance you could mail me a .ZIP ? I'll give it a go(!)

Stu

headbanger · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9

Thanks Stu, I'll give that a go.

Also, the software/map from the NavCam 7000 works perfectly renaming the exe from the NavCam 7000 card to RoadComNavi.exe and moving it up a dir gets the speed cam alerts working fine.

Cheers

headbanger · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9

Sorry Stu . I didn't really answer your other questions

A link to the NavCam is at http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/DisplayInfoMain.asp?e=136C7845-93D2-48A2-A208-BB51221379F2

The NavCam also announces itself as powered by Smart2Go - I have a sneaky feeling it's TomTom Navigator renamed but I could be totally wrong.

I had to copy over the exe + the RDAT file + seperate speed cam database (a CDT file + CDX file) from the NavCam card and rename the exe to RoadComNavi.exe. This brought up the Speed Cam detection option in Guidance options which worked fine when I tested it on a simulation. Also worked on the road at a known camera near my home.

The one thing I noticed was that some of the POIs were corrupt (i.e. funny characters in the listing). When I copied over the map on the NavCam card the POI corruption went away. So, basically I had the NavCam card contents in the RoadCom with a renamed exe.

As I said, I'm pretty new to GPS and I'd be interested to find out how the map files and EXE work together.

Cheers

slash909 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 17

Hmm, interesting.
Good to know the nav-cam software version works well on the RC300.

You seem to have a good package there now Smile

I have found very few other PocketPC programs that run OK so far - seems like either the RC300 is a funny version of CE or ther are a bunch of .DLLs missing. annoying!

Stu

headbanger · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9

Hi Stu

Could you check your private messages please.

Cheers

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