Using Tomtom Navigator 2

None · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 20, 2003 Posts: 4

I am curious.

There is a lot of talk about the effectiveness of the system and small mention of the fact that a 128mb card is recommended to carry more maps.

What does this mean? Does it mean that all the UK will not fit at street level? If so, how can you programme a route from say Bristol to Norwich?

I mean clearly the main motorways are obvious but if you need more than one map for the above, or have to just programme it from Cambridge it seems potentially aggravating.

I would welcome some advice before buying Question

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 7:42 pm Post subject:

Most of the recent releases have full GB map coverage, but if you want street level maps for the whole of GB, then the maps will come in at around 100mb, some are larger than this. You can load 16mb or 32mb segments of maps, it will still give you city level maps, but just for smaller sections of the country.

128mb storage card is what you should be looking for (not ram) but storage card. They currently cost around £35, so cost wise it won't break the bank.

None · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 20, 2003 Posts: 4

Thank you very much indeed for the reply. Sorry for the ignorance, but I wonder if you explain again?

I understand from your reply that only the main roads of the UK are covered but that Street level takes up 100mb. Is this right? Does that mean that I can have the whole of the UK to street level on a 128mb storage card and that the software will refer to the storage card for the map? Or does it mean that I can transfer bits of data from the storage card on an as needed basis? Or did you in fact mean that 100mb is for only one or two or more cities?

In other words, can I make it so that the PDA is just like an in car system in this respect?

Also, does the map (especially the 3D one) scroll well as you move, or does is stutter when it redraws.

Also, while I have you, does the Kane speed minder use the Trafcam software or something different? I have to confess that I have Trafcam on my Handpring and was and remain very disappointed with it. I hate that it is not very good on motorways, picking up extraneous cameras (even with their revision) and it is annoying that it does not tell you the relevant speed that the camera is monitoring.

Sorry for all the questions, but it is a bit of a minefield out there, and you just can't test drive these things like a car!

Dave · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2003 10:46 pm Post subject:

No, whole of GB including Street Level maps, and major roads all fit into 100mb, there's no way of splitting the two up into different sections. You can have the whole of the GB (not Ireland), but England, Scotland and Wales all on a 128mb SD card.

If you want to split major roads and city maps up, you can go for RoutePlanner (major roads) and City Maps (hence name), but navigating between cities using City Maps would require you to change map on every City you reached. TBH, Navigator 2 is much better than RoutePlanner and CityMaps, and really is an amalgamation of the two with many more new features.

The PDA will be like an in-car system, at at least half the price 8)

The 3D map does scroll as you move and rotate, it's not quite as smooth as the 2D map, but it's pretty good.

Kane doesn't use TrafCam, but another in-house written software from Kane.

PS. [whispering], TrafCam also hang out here Thumbs Up

None · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 20, 2003 Posts: 4

This is tremendous, I really appreciate the help. So just so that I am absolutely clear: I can load all the UK on a 128mb storage card and navigate from Lands End to John O'Groats without having to switch map or region with any associated re-setting of destination. If that is so, then that sounds great!

I am a little worried running programmes like GPS Assist alongside and slowing down the PDA (is this also the case with 400mhz PDAs?

Finally, I note that Desinator (as found on Kane) seems to have a lot of what GPS Assist offers such as Navigating from Outlook and Traffic cameras etc. Does this slow down the PDA? and does the outlook function work really well. Is sounds like the one in GPS Assist is a a bit of a pain

Sorry for yet more questions, but the guys in the shops can't usually answer these

Thanks Confused

Dave · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 6:48 am Post subject:

That's correct.

GPSAssist is quite a hefty program and will slow it down a little, CheckPOInt 2.0.2 works just a treat though without any slow down whatsoever.

The problem with Kane is that it uses Destinator as you quite rightly put it. With Destinator you cannot load a single map, the whole of the UK is split into about 7 sections, and if you want to route from one to another you have to change the map and plot a new journey (real PITA).

None · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 20, 2003 Posts: 4

Thank you for all your help. Just one final question. I am still considering the fully installed in-car system like Pioneer. I guess a major advantage these have (apart from all of Europe DVD) is the gyro and speed sensor. I found with my old Handspring and Magellan GPS with Tomtom City Maps that the system would get lot in tall buildings and under trees.

Cheers

Dave · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 12:18 pm Post subject:

The dedicated in-car systems will have expensive gyro's and speed/pulse sensors, but it does mean that you have to pay for a qualified installation, and you can't easily move it between cars, especially when you sell the car.

For 99% of people they'll find a Pocket PC based system very accurate, sometimes plugging a handheld in isn't all what it's cracked up to be, it really depends on the antenna that's used, and how much sky it can see in-car, that's why Bluetooth and GPS Mice come in pretty popular.

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