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Joined: Feb 08, 2006 Posts: 264 Location: Herefordshire
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:16 am Post subject: My first week with the i3
I must say, for the price, I'm very impressed with this unit so far. As a first-time user I'm amazed with the capabilities of something so small and easy to use.
There have been a few problems but I don't consider them too drastic considering that GPS was previously out of my budget.
1/ I've noticed that where a main road turns through an angle and a subsidiary road goes straight on from your direction of travel you do not get any voice instructions to take the turning if that is part of your route. Similarly will you to follow the main road it would instruct you to turn left or right accordingly and when joining from a similar minor road you are still treated the silence. It is common with most GPS units? I would have expected the change in road number to recognise it as a junction and give suitable voice instructions. I have very quickly learnt that when presented with such a junction a quick glance at the display is a good idea.
2/ Finding destinations by entry of postcode and then house number doesn't necessarily locate the property accurately, frequently it centres just on the postcode/street. This is obviously down to lack of data and no great hardship to find the numbered house once you're there. Microsoft AutoRoute is similarly afflicted. It wouldn't be so annoying if all addresses were treated this way, some it finds with great accuracy.
3/ The LED on the in car power supply is extremely bright. I resorted to putting a small piece of insulating tape over it which dims it down nicely.
4/ The routing is sometimes too direct, last weekend it cut a corner (by must of been less than a quarter of a mile) taking us over extremely steep, read first gear, single track road which saved no time at all.
Last night the wife left with the kids to visit granny in London. She paid too much attention to Gertrude (Ponsonby Smythe, as we've called her) and failed to go around the M25 when she should have, winding up going through the centre of London which it turned out wasn't too bad. It could have been far worse though. I think it's best to take the attitude of using local knowledge where you have it and using the i3 to either get you out of trouble or guide you when you don't know the way yourself.
5/ The wife rang up today to sheepishly report the Gertrude had stopped working, however, I'm pretty confident that the batteries have just gone flat (it appears, quite naturally, that she was expecting the power lead to recharge them). I got her to plug it back in and it seemed to be working okay at the time. _________________ Chas
Garmin i3, Quest & StreetPilot 2720 with GTM10
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:52 am Post subject: Re: My first week with the i3
bumpkin wrote:
1/ I've noticed that where a main road turns through an angle and a subsidiary road goes straight on from your direction of travel you do not get any voice instructions to take the turning if that is part of your route. Similarly will you to follow the main road it would instruct you to turn left or right accordingly and when joining from a similar minor road you are still treated the silence. It is common with most GPS units? I would have expected the change in road number to recognise it as a junction and give suitable voice instructions. I have very quickly learnt that when presented with such a junction a quick glance at the display is a good idea.
Sometimes I find that the way it tries to make you go straight on, can be a little misleading. But as you say, that's when a quick glance at the screen puts you straight.
bumpkin wrote:
2/ Finding destinations by entry of postcode and then house number doesn't necessarily locate the property accurately, frequently it centres just on the postcode/street. This is obviously down to lack of data and no great hardship to find the numbered house once you're there. Microsoft AutoRoute is similarly afflicted. It wouldn't be so annoying if all addresses were treated this way, some it finds with great accuracy.
I've found this odd, too. Yet with these postcodes and house numbers, they are not new, and it's quite happy to find them with the street name and house number.
bumpkin wrote:
3/ The LED on the in car power supply is extremely bright. I resorted to putting a small piece of insulating tape over it which dims it down nicely.
I mainly find it distracting because at night I can see the reflection in my drivers door window, out of the corner of my eye!
bumpkin wrote:
4/ The routing is sometimes too direct, last weekend it cut a corner (by must of been less than a quarter of a mile) taking us over extremely steep, read first gear, single track road which saved no time at all.
In the navigation options, do you have the option for avoiding unpaved roads turned on?
bumpkin wrote:
Last night the wife left with the kids to visit granny in London. She paid too much attention to Gertrude (Ponsonby Smythe, as we've called her) and failed to go around the M25 when she should have, winding up going through the centre of London which it turned out wasn't too bad. It could have been far worse though. I think it's best to take the attitude of using local knowledge where you have it and using the i3 to either get you out of trouble or guide you when you don't know the way yourself.
I've had some decidedly odd routes, from time to time. Quite often, my route home from work can vary in the way it decides to take me - and I'm struggling to understand why.
Joined: Feb 08, 2006 Posts: 264 Location: Herefordshire
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: My first week with the i3
Lester_Burnham wrote:
In the navigation options, do you have the option for avoiding unpaved roads turned on?
Yes I do, the road was paved (just) unlike another poster today who seems to have been guided down a bridleway.
Obviously there's a limit to the amount of intelligence that the i3 applies, presumably each road with a mapping data has some form of grading that is taken into account against distance when calculating a route. This can't be absolutely comprehensive. _________________ Chas
Garmin i3, Quest & StreetPilot 2720 with GTM10
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