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hamsterlord Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 1:23 am Post subject: Garmin Nuvi about to be reprogrammed with a 7lb sledgehammer |
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I've got an old garmin nuvi 610 which i bought in 2008. It works fine in central London, but out in the sticks (Wales or Cornwall) i find it utterly useless.
It will try to take me miles out of my way up muddy tracks only a 4WD could tackle in preference to shorter routes along main roads. Take me in endless circles around housing estates - again totally ignoring really obvious and shorter routes along main roads (and this is housing estates and roads that have been there since the 60s).
It often doesn't know the difference between a left/right turning and straight on, telling me to turn right when there isn't a right turn, or coming out with the dreaded "recalculating" because it thought a left turn was actually straight on.
Updated it with the latest map in May which has made absolutely no difference.
So, are the latest satnavs a big improvement? Would a TomTom be more reliable or are Garmin a lot better now? I just need basic features to get from A to B (plus POI for the camera database). Don't have a smartphone at the moment...
Any recommendations from people who use satnavs out of town? |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:04 am Post subject: |
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Most satnavs will have some tendency to use minor roads *if* they think they will get you there quicker (if you've asked it for the "fastest" route) or by the shortest straight-line route, if you've asked for the "shortest" route.
But I don't see why or how any of them would "take you miles out of your way": they are simply not clever enough to do anything other than look for "fastest" or "shortest...
So you have to look at the routes it offers very carefully to see why it's doing it.
I presume that model doesn't have any live traffic function where it avoids jams? Or does it?
As for the left/right/straight on issue... No satnav has every junction and its priorities programmed in, all they do is offer a small selection of words and phrases depending on the layout of the roads and the angles between them.... They'll say "bend left" "turn left" "sharp left" etc. but they can only choose which one depending on the LOOK of the road on their map.
So they may say "turn left" when the road on the map looks like that, but the white lines define it as just a bend with a turning off to the right.
Without massively increasing the on-board storage to handle all the extra data of every single junction, you just have to accept that's the way they work, use your common sense and look at the road itself. _________________ "Settling in nicely" ;-) |
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sussamb Pocket GPS Verifier
Joined: Mar 18, 2011 Posts: 4462 Location: West Sussex
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 8:06 am Post subject: |
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While Andy_P is spot on, you have a very old model there. As well as updating the maps have you updated the software? See here for the latest version:
https://www8.garmin.com/support/agree.jsp?id=1923
Whether you upgrade the software or not, your 610 may benefit from a hard reset. Note the part in the thread about backing up your favourites.
Too late now of course, but IMO you'd have been better buying a new satnav rather than paying for a map update. However a software update followed by a hard reset may improve the performance you're getting.
Also if you can give an example of the wierd routing (start, finish etc) I'll run it on my nuvi and see what I get. |
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hamsterlord Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the helpful replies, much appreciated.
Yes, updated the firmware when i bought the navigator map - there's a later version now though.
The satnav is now starting to stutter when reading out directions and the battery lasts only a couple of minutes after a full charge, so definitely time for new one...
Think what i really need is the ability to manually create routes on a PC and store
them in the satnav.
Andy, seriously - down in Cornwall i've come across side roads that are 90 degrees to a dead straight stretch of road which the satnav thinks is straight on. This has got to be a bug in the map data.
Can't see why correcting junction/map data would massively increase the storage - it knows there's a junction, its just connected the wrong way... |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:04 am Post subject: |
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hamsterlord wrote: |
Andy, seriously - down in Cornwall i've come across side roads that are 90 degrees to a dead straight stretch of road which the satnav thinks is straight on. This has got to be a bug in the map data. |
Fair enough, that sounds like an actual mapping error.
hamsterlord wrote: | Can't see why correcting junction/map data would massively increase the storage - it knows there's a junction, its just connected the wrong way... |
It wouldn't increase the storage needed to just correct things like that. What I was talking about was if there was extra data added to actually describe the priorities at every junction, rather than having the systems just guessing it from the shape of the roads as they do now.
You can see how it does it when you come across the opposite of your example... e.g.. when there is a sharp bend to the left in a road and a minor road off to the right it will often say "turn left" when the white lines define it as a "straight on". _________________ "Settling in nicely" ;-) |
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Oldboy Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 10643 Location: Suffolk, UK
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 7:28 am Post subject: |
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Andy_P wrote: | ... when the white lines define it as a "straight on". | Or should say correctly - "Bear left". (No animal jokes, please). _________________ Richard
TT 910 V7.903: Europe Map v1045
TT Via 135 App 12.075: Europe Map v1135 |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Exactly
There are presumably a set of very simple rules that govern what one of the audio phases are used in a given situation.
There's no way for us to know exactly what they are, but it must be down to the angles the roads meet at and how the individual road segments are mapped.
I know it's not done by road name, as the nearest main road to me changes name half way along and a small side road continues off to the left with the original name.
But the TomTom "knows" the main road is the "straight on" one even though it still says "bear right". _________________ "Settling in nicely" ;-)
Last edited by Andy_P on Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Oldboy Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 10643 Location: Suffolk, UK
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:26 pm Post subject: |
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Andy_P wrote: | But the TomTom "knows" the main road is the "straight on" one even though it still says "bear right". | "Keep right" might be better in that situation.
The choice of phrase is down to one of the many data 'bits' that are associated with each segment of road, and can be/was/is manually set. I have, in the past, submitted map changes of this nature - and had them accepted. _________________ Richard
TT 910 V7.903: Europe Map v1045
TT Via 135 App 12.075: Europe Map v1135 |
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Andy_P Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jun 04, 2005 Posts: 19991 Location: West and Southwest London
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:09 pm Post subject: |
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OK... ignore everything I've said so far. I'm obviously talking out of my a**e. _________________ "Settling in nicely" ;-) |
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hamsterlord Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 2:57 am Post subject: |
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aggghh! fed up reading reviews, even the latest satnav autorouting in country areas seem to take people up dirt tracks, round housing estates ignore main roads etc..
Sod satnavs, what we need is one of these - no need to worry about roads, just take a compass bearing, floor the accelerator, close your eyes and pray...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yHl24QynOM |
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Kremmen Pocket GPS Verifier
Joined: Mar 03, 2006 Posts: 7123 Location: Reading
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Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:31 am Post subject: |
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I'm sure the latest units have improved considerably.
I would suggest a new Garmin 30/40/50 which will have the latest software and maps.
These entry level units don't cost the earth and will be better than nothing (hopefully) _________________ DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3 |
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hamsterlord Occasional Visitor
Joined: May 09, 2008 Posts: 5
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Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 2:53 am Post subject: |
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OK, after a bit more research and a phone call to Garmin i'm going for a nuvi 2445LMT with lifetime map updates and 100 route capacity. Thanks for the suggestion Kremmen, but Garmin told me the Nuvi 30/40/50 models don't support routes.
I've downloaded and played around with Basecamp this evening which allows me to plot and edit my own routes and export them to the 2445.
Bit crap that Basecamp doesn't support postcodes, so i'll have to convert them to grid references: http://gridreferencefinder.com/ |
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timlofts Occasional Visitor
Joined: Aug 07, 2006 Posts: 16
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Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:06 am Post subject: |
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hamsterlord wrote: |
Andy, seriously - down in Cornwall i've come across side roads that are 90 degrees to a dead straight stretch of road which the satnav thinks is straight on. |
This did make me laugh. I went to Cornwall for the first time only 2 years ago and had a wonderful time camping down there. I decided to leave a review of the campsite on a camping website, but began the review with "Before travelling to anywhere in Cornwall, take your satnav off its mount, open your window, throw the sat nav as far as you possibly can, and buy a map". I've had a sat nav for 10 years now, and I've never experienced anything like using it in Cornwall, it was an absolute nightmare. A proper road map and following road signs was the only answer, unless you want to end up being sent down disused mining tracks, or roads so narrow you'd barely squeeze down them on a motorbike. |
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