Best map coverage of West, Cental and East Europe?

alan_sh · Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject:

thanks

Alan

dotty07 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 04, 2008 Posts: 1

zundapp · Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:12 pm Post subject: 4gb card

DeLorean, this might interest you particularly in view of your long trip.

I tried putting all the European speed cams (not just the UK ones) onto the supplied 2 gb sd card, but it wasn't big enough to accomodate them, so I got a 4gig card to try that.

Everything worked fine until I switched off the Trumpion and later turned it on again - it hadn't remembered any of the settings for some reason, and I had to go through all the rigmarole of choosing the language, setting the time, etc. Experimentation showed that this was needed every time the device was switched off then on again.

So, it seems that it can't work properly with a bigger memory card, unless someone else comes up with a solution....

mikealder · Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:31 pm Post subject:

Is the read/ write access lock switch on the SD card in the lock position? - Mike

zundapp · Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject:

No, it isn't - but the original 2gb card wasn't either. Although it's a 4gb card, it's the ordinary type, not High Capacity or Dual Voltage - just as the original 2gb one.

Any thoughts?

DeLorean · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:00 pm Post subject:

We'll I got back from Slovakia last night, so here’s an update Very Happy

Just for fun I switched to Trumpion on during the flight over to Slovakia.

As with my asthermic windscreen, the fuselage of the plane seemed to be no problem for receiving reception from satellites.

It displayed our maximum altitude as 40,150 feet Shocked

which was nearly spot on to the details given by the pilot over the tannoy.

The maximum speed unit was only able to register was 220mph, so if you’re planning to break the sound barrier this unit may not be for you Wink

The map of Bratislava was very incredibly accurate.
As we were coming in to land, the Trumpion showed us moving over the surrounding roads and runway.
The detail was great and showed all the airport roads and the complete runways and their layout!
The coverage of Bratislava was 100% and spot on.
As I left Bratislava and caught my train to Zilina (in the north), only the main roads were shown on the unit.
However they are good enough should you get completely lost.

I saved lots of POI’s on route for future reference, which interestingly are saved to 6 decimal places, rather then TomTom’s 5.
I would assume from this that the GPS locations stored by the Trumpion may be little more precise.

The unit can also be charged from your laptop using the USB lead, but the Trumpion must be in sleep mode for it to charge.
Charging is noticeably slower than using the in car or mains charger, but is a good alternative to carrying the chargers with you.

Whilst out in Slovakia I was given a complete boxed TomTom 910 from a friend who didn’t want it (lucky me Laughing

).
I think I will use the TomTom in the car (if it will work through my asthermic windscreen and the mount doesn’t wilt), but will keep the Trumpion in my backpack as it is small and perfect when on foot (the TT910 is too heavy and bulky).

Just as a possible future options:

It would be nice if the Route 66 software had a way of quitting the application.
I needed to pop the SD card from my camera in to show some pictures, and when I switched the Trumpion back on the Route 66 software threw a right paddy as it finds the SD card has been swapped.
I would assume it also is unable to save any stored settings and dumps them.
I found the only was to shut down the Route 66 software gracefully is to plug in the USB lead and press the connect icon.

An icon (like TomTom’s have) that can be clicked to abort the current route navigation.

Hi zundapp,
My user manual states that the maximum capacity SD card unit can take is 2GB.
The unit probably can’t read SDHC cards, so check what type of 4GB SD card you have bought.

I deleted all the POI's preinstalled by trumpion and ensured the SD card was formatted to FAT.
This gave me stacks of space for all my own POI's, icons, sounds & pictures etc.
I also copied all the UK & European speed traps cameras databases onto it.
I also put a database of all the petrol stations in Slovakia (just in case).
I still have 12 MB free on the existing 2GB card.

*** handy tip ***
I’ve put a JPG picture called SOS in the root of the SD card.
This contained my name and mobile number just in case it got lost (although I don’t think I would ever see it again).
Hopefully if anyone picked it up and ran the photo viewer, it will show my details.

DeLorean · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject:

This morning I entered a postcode and it navigated me 3 miles in the wrong direction Embarassed

The little git!

I managed to find a WiFi connection and using my laptop entered the postcode into google maps and it directed me to the right location Razz

DeLorean · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:18 pm Post subject:

Hi zundapp,

The 2GB Sandisk card supplied with my Trumpion was very quirky at first.

After erasing (SD Memory Card Formatting Software Ver.2.0) and formating (FAT) the SD card has worked fine ever since.

zundapp · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:43 pm Post subject:

Hi DeLorean,
I take it you enjoyed your flying visit then! Again, thanks for your update, it gives me an idea of the Trumpion's limitations - or is it just gps limitations in general.....

I'll try your trick of deleting Route 66's poi's and then install the Euro speed cams - I'm likely to need them more than the other poi's!

As for the sd cards, I think they're likely to be cheap oriental cards (my 4gb one also came from Hong Kong via ebay) and maybe if I wasn't a cheapskate I'd buy one with Sandisk written on it. But I'm not going to spend the money when there's beers to be bought...

Incidentally, re the Chinese version of the Trumpion delivered by DHL in two days from Hong Kong, I've since received a presentation fee and tax payment request from DHL for just short of £18. So, while it's still cheap it's dearer than it was!

DeLorean · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:04 am Post subject:

Hi Zundapp,

Thanks, I had a great time Very Happy

Taking a closer look at the 2GB SanDisk SD card that came with my Trumpion, I can't be sure it's an original Question

It doesn't look like any of my other SanDisk SD cards.

You would have thought that if Google Maps (Tele Atlas) has such comprehensive maps of Europe, they must be available from someone Crying or Very sad

Perhaps initially the most comprehensive and up-to-date maps are expensive, so navigation device manufacturers wait until the map developers drop their prices.

My TomTom 300 was very accurate, but had no European maps.
I upgraded to the TomTom 500, which again was accurate, but the maps of Europe only consisted of main roads and only went as far as Germany.
I then made the fatal mistake of buying a Medion Sat Nav.
It was awful and took me numerous times to completely the wrong place.
It had very few features and the menus were not at all intuitive.
The only good point was the nice day and night sky it showed on the screen, which was the best I have seen on any Sat Nav.
After a few months it packed up and when back to Currys.

Will we ever see any software/maps updates for Trumpion devices, I doubt it.

I think in the longer term, I’ll be better off with the TomTom 910 (I have inherited) to get me through Europe as the maps and software can be updated/upgraded.
However, I think for the money the Trumpion is still worth every penny Very Happy

P.S. I've managed to get some additional languages and voices which work on the Trumpion e.g. Czech, American, Mandarin, Russian etc.

rockpebblar · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 31, 2006 Posts: 28

after using my trumpion a couple of times and lossing my settings I sussed that you do not use the power off button on the right but instead use the sleep button on the top, this effectively closes the machine down and can be restarted by using the same button, still waiting to find out how to install tomtomt on unitm even tweaking the exe file with tt5 loaded on sd card will not get a result but an error message...will persevere though as I find that r66 is not precise enough for me and being very old, once I get used to a program I like to stick with it!
regards to all

DeLorean · Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:10 am Post subject:

Hi Rockpebblar,

The Trumpion devices are essentially a WinCE OS based touch screen PDA (with a GPS receiver bolted on).

The WinCE OS is a pre-configured installation (customised by the manufacturer) and is held in the ROM.
This preconfigured “image” is written from the ROM to the RAM on boot-up (hence the boot-up delay).

Once loaded and running from the RAM you can make changes to this RAM based WinCE installation (using ActiveSync).
This should allow you to install TomTom Navigator for WinCE machines using ActiveSync.

However, part of the TomTom installation is always stored in the WinCE installation running from the RAM.
Switching to Trumpion off using the power on/off switch disconnects the battery and the RAM image of the OS is lost (plus any other battery backed functions like the clock etc.).

The TomTom maps are usually stored on the SD card, so these are not affected.

Generally the sleep button should be used to put the Trumpion into sleep mode.
This ensures the RAM is kept alive and all the other battery backed functions.

I’m not sure how long the battery will last in sleep mode, but if you leave your Trumpion in sleep mode for to long the battery will eventually discharge and the RAM will be lost.

The reset button should be used to re-boot the device using the current WinCE image held in the RAM (in the event of a crash etc.).
All your settings and changes to the WinCE in RAM should be kept, unless the RAM image has become corrupted.

The good thing about having the on/off switch is that if you are going to leave the device un-used for some time, you can disconnect the battery.
However due to the nature of rechargeable batteries, eventually the battery will trickle flat.
Also, if you have been tinkering with the WinCE OS switching the power off and back on again will restore your devices WinCE installation back to the original factory installation.

So don’t worry about completely screwing up the WinCE installation on your Trumpion by messing with it.
Power off and back on again, and voila you’re back to square one and no harm done!

I hope this helps Very Happy

DeLorean · Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:07 am Post subject:

Just out of interest Very Happy

My Trumpion runs Navigator v7.0.3459 (tweaked Route66) using map:

NAVTEQ Q4/2006 2006/11/22/ TMC
DCI: GRC + RUS + BGR + MKD + ALB + BEL + BIH + CZE + GBR + DNK + DEU + EST + ESP + FIN + FRA + HRV + IRL + ITA + LVA + LTU + LUX + HUN + NDL + NOR + POL + PRT + ROU + CHE + SCG + SVN + SVK + SWE + AUT

The map's filename is called Europe.prm.

It's a pretty comprehensive map covering most of Europe.
However it's coverage of some countries (e.g. Slovakia) is a bit weak.

I'd like to update the map to a newer more comprehensive version.

I've tried contacting Trumpion without any success.

Anyone found where you could purchase/obtain a better version of this particular map?

After playing with maps from other Route66 based PNA's (which does work), I would imagine an alternative (more up to date) Europe.prm file from another Route66 based PNA could be purchased.

Using maps/installations from other Route66 based PNA's would explain why Trumpion were quick to remove their complete TR-G1 1.3GB download (Route66g1g2.zip) from their website.

I have also seen documented in a few places that an update patch for the Europe.prm map file was made available.
This would have upgraded the European map to a late 2007 version; however this supposedly official update seems to have disappeared.

Any thoughts anyone Question

_________________
🔸🔸 Currently using TomTom GO 940 & Locus Map 🔸🔸

DeLorean · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:00 am Post subject:

The Trumpion Starway, looks a bit fimiliar Very Happy

http://www.k-boom.ro/gps-trump.html

http://www.mayergsm.ro/gps-trump.html
_________________
🔸🔸 Currently using TomTom GO 940 & Locus Map 🔸🔸

rockpebblar · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 31, 2006 Posts: 28

Hi DeLoreon
can you be more specific re ram location using explore on activesynch? (Once loaded and running from the RAM you can make changes to this RAM based WinCE installation (using ActiveSync).
This should allow you to install TomTom Navigator for WinCE machines using ActiveSync)
I cannot seem to locate required files and wince appears to be just a slimmed down version with no access!
regards
Rockpeblar

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