Consistant bug with C710

[budwin]

I'm now on my 4th C710 now (last 2 from different shop) yet still I have the same bug every time The unit is always 100 to 200 ft behind actual position on road. It isn't poor reception as is always behind! (On No.2 unit I tried an external antenna just to rule out reception issues but to no avail). It can't be the car having an effect as I have tried now in 4 different makes of car ranging from an old 1989 Golf to a brand-new Peugeot 307.

On the last 2 units I have installed Miomap V3.2 as Miotech told me that this would sort out the problem - but surprise surprise it didn't :x

Why oh why do I always seem to get the duff units .... or have other owners now experienced the same problem that I first reported back in August?

Don't want a Tom Tom as they're too bulky, possibly thinking about sending back to exchange for a Garmin Nuvi 360T or a Navman iCN 750. Hopefully one of these may be a better quality unit.

Comments please before I commit to another brand.

[CeeJay]

Hi budwin.

Something weird going on with your units as my location is always shown spot on and the screen refresh rate keeps it that way. Worst case I've seen is about a 1 second delay.

[rondun]

I doubt 4 units would have the same fault.

What exactly do you mean "always 100-200 ft behind"

Do you mean that the arrow on screen is wrongly positioned or that you only get an announcement once you've passed a junction by 100-200ft that you were meant to turn into?

Is it on motorways, approaching roundabouts, at junctions etc (although I don't see what difference a hundred feet would have on a motorway.)
Can you give a route to follow and where the problems occur.

Remember that the your location on the map comes from the GPS chip, so if this is your problem then I'd suggest you've been very unlucky to have 4 faulty units.

If its just to do with the voice commands - they come from the software, and are "triggered" at different distances for different events. (see the threads on changing the warnings for roundabouts for more info)
eg. approaching a roundabout you may get an announcement at say 800 ft and 300 ft, but if you're in between it may not be exactly correct.

Plus you could easily drive 100-200ft during the course of an announcement, and the arrow may well be at least 100ft long at certain zoom levels.

Personally I always use the miles/yards setting for driving - I think the feet one is more for pedestrian mode - its probably that you're moving too quick for it.

Have you tried using a different voice? Each may have slightly different announcements depending on the software version / or which one you downloaded.

[Sallyann]

[MioC210user]

A simple question - is this your first sat nav system?

Could this be a simple case of user perception rather than unit fault?

I have experience of a variety of sat nav systems since they first came into the public domain all those years ago.

In my experience, particularly with my Mio (which uses 4 satellites rather than the old 'standard' of 3 satellites), distances given are fairly accurate. However, your position on the map may appear to be slightly 'behind' in order that you can see where you are going. For example, if you are at a junction and have to make a left or right turn by being 'behind' you can still see the junction on the map whereas it may have disappeared off the bottom of the screen if it showed your 'true' position - this is particularly useful if junctions are close together.

That said, there is one particular location on a tree-lined road with a forked junction where (especially in cloudy weather with reduced satellite reception) my C210 occasionally thinks I've forked off (yes, I did say forked) onto a parallel road, but it quickly realises the error of its ways and re-routes.

Also, the speed at which the Mio recalculates a route means that you've usually been re-routed before you know you've made a mistake, so I can't say I've had a problem as such.

Having used my C210 alongside other people's TomToms and other systems, each system has their peculiarities but the Mio tends to be the favoured unit for what you get for your money, re-routing etc.

[Peasemold]

The 10m resolution of the GPS system when in "cruise" mode can cause the arrow to remain on the motorway when you are in fact on the slip road, but only briefly, and you can pick up cameras off closely parallel roads, such as the cameras on Collector Road in Bimingham which runs parallel to the M6 for about 5 miles.

As regards your position on the road in the direction you are travelling, the GPS generates vectors from successive positional fixes - that's how it gets your direction of travel - and presumably uses a bit of dead reckoning to correctly position you on the road during temporary loss, especially under bridges and in tunnels, though there are limits.

Although there is potential for your position to be shown about 10m or so out (about 30 ft), I doubt it would be as much as 100-200ft.

More annoying to me is the fact that some POIs are about 30 m shifted.

Peasemold

[MioC210user]

Yes, the POI thing is a nuisance - but all systems have their faults.

I have experience of a system driving me down a canal running parallel to the road - now I might be able to walk on water, but the car's a bit heavier than me.

A lot of the sat nav ethos is:
1) what we expect
2) what we're used to

A slight inaccuracy isn't a matter of life and death at the day and, in most cases, a discrepancy of a few feet/metres isn't a big deal. How many of us drive blindfolded and rely entirely upon instructions from the little box of tricks? It's a useful tool and should be used for guidance only - other rules of the road must also be obeyed, even if your sat nav doesn't tell you to give way at a junction.

The majority (if not all) of these sat nav systems are reliant upon US military satellites and they can desensitise the satellites whenever they wish

Also, bear in mind that road system change before maps are updated.

Let's face it, how many of you accept the fact that your PC crashes but moan when your sat nav crashes?? At the end of the day, they're both effectively Windows systems.

And then, the funny thing is all those jokes about women and map reading - but how many of you want a female voice??

[ernest_mio]

Interesting debate. Straight away I noticed that my C710 always wanted to give me leave highway instruction after I had passed the exit. I put this down to software and amended the voice scripts to leave at 300yards. having now read this thread - could i have a faulty unit also.

Would be interested to know what others accept as "within tolerence"

eg is a voice command to leave motorway after the exit acceptable or not?

[budwin]

To clarify on my original post.
All of the C710s I have tried have had the same error when reporting the distance to next turn or when announcing the distance to next turn. This is only when reporting in feet, yards or metres. When in miles or km the distance is correct My map position is very accurate (although I have noticed that the screen update has been slower on the last 2 units I have had, when changing direction there is sometimes a very visible lag on the screen).

The distance error is always in the region of 100 to 200 feet at the time of the announcement and when I have arrived at the junction the display still reads approx 100 feet although the map shows I'm there. If I wait at the junction for approx 3-4 secs the distance counts down to zero.

The only way I have managed to force the distance reading / announcement to be accurate is by driving at 20 mph from when I get the 300 feet announcement - this could be a little frustrating for road users who are behind me when I am navigating by my satnav

Most of my driving in the last few months has been on A & B roads and around unfamiliar towns, so an error of 100 to 200 feet is not acceptable.

Settings used are: English (UK) and (UK) Thomas, miles/feet, "keep position on road", safety camera warning on (by the way audible warnings for cameras has generally been quite accurate for me)

Reluctant to change the code on the unit as don't want to void the warranty.

[MioC210user]

[MioC210user]

[budwin]

[MioC210user]

I obviously can't comment on Mio's algorithms or quality control.

However, I paid particular attention to distances on my 60 mile drive into work this morning and at each roundabout, junction etc the most the distance was 'incorrect' by was 2yds at a T junction where I had to give way.

I put this 'error' down to the point at which the junction is measured - at a T junction, I suspected it to be somewhere in the middle of the road being joined.

With this exception, I noted that the distance was reading 0yds at the point at which I was turning.

It would have been nice to have been able to pay closer attention to this and maybe change the setting to miles/feet at mid-point in the journey, but there's other traffic, trees pedestrians etc to avoid so it's difficult to take your eyes off the road for too long.

One other thought I had was that if you're driving down country lanes and in towns - is it possible that the trees and/or buildings lining the road reduced satellite sensitivity sufficiently to cause this inaccuracy??

Do you also notice your C710 being 'behind' when you're on an open road?

One of the first real tests for my C210 was a day trip to that Swedish furniture store (aka IKEA) in Croydon. Travelling along motorway and through London suburbs, the C210 was running alongside a TomTom Rider and the built-in system of my friend's Toyota. If anything, the C210 outshone the other 2 units on all counts - not to mention the extra features of speed limits and 'safety' cameras. The only feature which the Mio is missing, which the built-in system with its larger screen had, is a split-screen 'pop-up' which has a close-up of the junction or roundabout within a few hundred yards. With the screen size of the Mio, sadly there's not enough space to do this.

However, in order to maximise the viewing area on my C210, I have removed the tilt and zoom icons from the left hand side.

It's disappointing to hear that updating to V3.2 made no difference because this included map updates in addition to the anticipated software update.

[rondun]

[CeeJay]

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