Mapfactor (Directions) Navigator Free PC and PDA

Crumbley · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 15, 2011 Posts: 5

Found a good free satnav software package. And I do mean free.

Mapfactor are offering "Navigator 10 Free"

I am trying to evaluate it at the moment.

You can download virtually all the road maps of the world, but it will take you about 7 hours on a normal broadband link.

It works fine on a Windows 7 laptop but I have yet to plug my GPS arial in and go for a ride.

You have the usual voice instruction, but if you take the option of a synthesized voice you will smile. Sounds like a dalek.

I have one of Direction's Actis 3 GPS satnavs but I am having problems installing the pocket PC version on it.

Has anybody out there managed to install it on the Actis 3 Windows CE device?

If so, how?

The Actis 3 is just not firing the program on the SD card.

It's not a faulty SD card and it runs a paid for version of Navigator 10 fine.

Regards,

Crumbley

mikealder · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 4:48 pm Post subject:

You will need to find the address of the exe file and edit it to match the mapfactor10 exe file, I will be trying this in my car deck later tonight once its completed the download for Europe/ Middle East.

At the speed its going at here its only going to take a couple of hours to download the whole world mapping if I really wanted it - Mike

Crumbley · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 15, 2011 Posts: 5

Thank you Mike Alder,

I thought that the Actis 3 looks for a mobilenavigator.exe program and as far as I can tell the Navigator free only has navigator.exe.

Tried copying the mobilenavigator.exe over, no joy.

Tried renaming navigator.exe to mobilenavigator.exe, again no joy.

Found the answer !!!!!!!

Put your SD card in a USB card reader. (the installer can have problems doing it through a Windows Mobile connection)

Install the CE version to your SD card. I put all Europe on the SD card 2.3 gig approx.

Rename Navigator.exe on your SD card to mobilenavigator.exe

Create a folder called mobilenavigator in the root directory on your SD card.

Copy paste everything else on your SD card to within the mobilenavigator folder.

Put you SD card in your Actis 3.

Press the world icon and it goes into Navigator Free.

I still need to play with it to see if all the functionality works. But hey, it;s progress.

Regards,

Crumbley.

Crumbley · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 15, 2011 Posts: 5

Limited testing I know but it seems to work reasonably OK.

I am not yet convinced that the lane assistant works and I am not certain that the speeding indicator works consistently or that the speeding warning works.

The camera scout data does not appear to be downloaded from Mapfactor.

Regards,

Crumbley.

Crumbley · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 15, 2011 Posts: 5

Bit more testing on the Actis 3.

Speed limits are not displayed in the UK and now and again in Belgium.

Although you can set the percentage over the speed limit warning the warning sound does not work.

The speed camera data does not get downloaded. I always turn this feature off anyway, as long as I know the speed limit I stick slightly under it, or less if conditions dictate.

The back-light goes off in 5 minutes even though it is set to always on.

The points of interest are limited.

In conclusion, I will stick with my paid for Navigator 10 on the Actis 3 and use the free version as a plan B if I am outside Europe.

The free version has most of roads in the world on it and the navigation is as good as the paid version.

My comparisons are with the paid for version. The features which are most useful to me are the speed limit indicator, the audible over the speed limit warning and the lane assistant, and these don't appear to work in the free version.

I suppose that you could donate towards the the free version and pray they get it working better.

Regards,

Crumbley.

Pocketgps · Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 5:11 pm Post subject:

What type of files are required for the camera database. PGPSW says it supports it on the Download page but there is no MapFactor listed on the dropdown menu.

Does this mean your not able to add your own cameras or poi's to the free version.

Is there any way to do it.

Crumbley · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 15, 2011 Posts: 5

In the paid for version of Navigator 10 the files cameralight and cameraspeed files exist with an extension of MCA. These files do not exist in the free version.

I suspect that this type of file is a proprietary one peculiar to Mapfactor.

Paid for Navigator 10 has a strange way of handling the speed cameras.

They are set up as regions. They are not regions as you would think of a region, they are just a way of allowing you to select or turn off the camera warnings.

I can't find them in the free version.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't bother to try getting speed cameras in the free version. It would be a bitch to try and work it out without the source code.

In the paid for version, the maps and camera data are up to date and trustworthy. I wouldn't risk my license on suspect data.

Use the free version to explore more roads than you would ever use and it will navigate you if your destination is on it's map. Some roads are not in it.

If you don't speed you don't need the camera data anyway.

The paid for version is excellent and I would suggest that it is very affordable. They update the maps each year and you get 3 years upgrades free.

Having looked at both the free and paid for Navigator 10 I am sticking to the paid for version.

The free version is only for you to see the possibilities of their software.

They are never going to make free version as good as the paid for version, they would never sell any more if they did.

Ever heard the expression, "If it's too good to be true then it probably is."?

And another one, "There is no such thing as a free lunch.".

Go buy the paid for version and stay safe.

Regards,

Crumbley.

Pocketgps · Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:01 pm Post subject:

Thanks.

After a bit of research I have got the speed cameras from PGPSW to work.

You can convert the .csv files into the .mca files using a utility that I found on wiki.openstreetmap.org

It will convert files for general poi's or the speed camera files.

The program is called digger.exe
http://forum.mapfactor.com/discussion/7/how-to-import-my-poi-points-of-interest-to-navigator-free/#Item_1

You do need to convert the .bmp camera icons to .png files, as these are needed by the digger.exe utility.

You then place the file it creates into the path:

C:/Program Files/Navigator Free/Setup Utility/Data/Data/images

Having said that, I could not get it(the nav program) to install at all the first time I tried. So the path to the correct folder may be different on another computer, as I typed in my own path and names when it asked for the different locations on install the second time which worked okay.

takara · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 01, 2011 Posts: 8

OK so far as it goes I suppose. But being based on "OpenStreetMap"it's not as up to date in number of areas. The road I live on has existed for 60 years but it doesn't appear on the map, in fact none of the estate does.

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