Smart St Version 3 for Pocket PC

[coconut]

Just ordered the above direct from the Navman store http://www.navman-store.com/ at £79 + VAT to "upgrade" from my Version 1, having found that Version 2, although reportedy being better software, didn't have up to date mapping ( like the M6 Toll near where I live ) but now Version 3 has this and a lot more....

( It's not actually an upgrade it seems - I'm told that it is a stand alone program and there isn't an available upgrade discounted for existing owners of earlier versions - surprise surprise ) :o

I shall be using this on my HP Ipaq 5550 with Navman GPS3450 Sleeve.

Is anyone else using Smart St Version 3 on a pocket PC rather than one of the iCN versions ?

If so is there any advice, or "peculiarities" to be aware of ??

If not I'll report again on how I get on when it arrives, with comparison from Version 1.

[Tim Buxton]

I'm using the same setup as you. Make sure you update to SP1 if it isn't automatically done when you register. The only peculiarity of any note is that without SP1, your custom POI icons sometimes didn't show on the maps (although you still got alerts if you had set them up) and with SP1 your custom POIs are visible even when you set them to 'not active'. Navman are aware of the problem and are hopefully working on a fix.
_________________
Tim

[Stefan]

I ordered the Pocket PC Navman V3 software a few weeks ago. As far as I am aware it has not yet been dispatched from Navman. It was originally intended to be out by mid Jan. Thanks for the info about service pack one.

Regards,

Stefan

[BBB]

Hi - first I should say that at street wise GPS I am a bit of a novice.

That being said I think I must be one of the few who have managed to get the 4420, SmartST v3 and iPAQ 2210 running well together.

My reaction?

Fantastic kit!
There are a few peculiarities I have to get used to such as loosing the BT connection from time-to-time (to be fair, that may be me not doing things as I should)

I have just spent a couple of hour on road and on foot with V3 software. The re-routing is quite pleasant - deliberately take a wrong turn and the software seems to respond favourably in quite a short time.

As I was in the motor on my own I found it very reliable to leave the iPAQ screen down and depend purely upon voice prompts. It enabled cleared sound from the 2210 and helped to prevent a wondering and wandering gaze to see what it was up to (hence going on foot too. That way I could observe the screen without too many concerns about road use protocols and so forth.

In fact, I think that is the way I will use it when driving alone - the risk of distraction is too much to consider as the roads I use tend to be rather busy.

I guess I can always pullover if I want to scrutinise onscreen displays.

Beaing in mind I am a newbie to streetwise gps I lurve this darned thingy!

Shoertcomings: reglar readers will know I rave over Anquet maps so I have a modus operandi of sorting things on the laptop, exporting to PPC and juggling with the data between and betwixt all 3. And love it!

I'd like to see a similar arrangement with SmartST - part accessed and managed by laptop, part by PPC and cannot fully understand why I cannot view maps on the laptop (maybe I have something to learn on this yet).

I cannot comment about V1, V2 but I do know that recent builds started a couple of years ago and ongoing in the region do not fully appear onscreen. Given rapidity of builds in the region it must take a good bit of effort keeping up with things.

All-in-all I don't think you will be disappointed - leastways I hope not

BBB

[coconut]

So far - very impressed !

There had been a problem with the Navman shop web site, where the pricing all went a bit haywire, but reading the Terms & Conditions revealed a phone number where I was able to talk to a REAL person !

The web site issue was sorted and for alerting them to the fault, I got free post & packing ! - Not only that but I got delivery the very next day !

The icing on the cake was when I tried installing it, having only ordered one unlock key ( for the UK Maps ) it seemed to be trying to install all of Europe ?? - I rang Navman back who explained that was correct - they had run out of UK licence keys so had sent me the full European map pack at no extra charge

I've downloaded the Speed Camera database and tested that - it all works fine and have sent off a couple of new sites in my local area for the next update - If you do this remember to put the Lat & Long in the correct format - i.e. everything West of the Meridian has a "-" in front of it, otherwise - just like I did - you'll be reporting speed cameras in the middle of the North Sea !!

I must say I am very impressed wth the improvements over Version 1 - 3d maps, Up to date maps ( no longer thinks I'm drivng through fields when I'm actually on the M6 Toll etc ! ) Better voices, Integration for Navigation by Contacts etc.

Tim - I haven't downloaded or installed SP1 - only the version that was sent to me which is Version 3.00.0042 - and the POI Speed Camera Icons show up fine - I'm off now to check the latest upgrades to make sure I've got the latest.

Enjoy
_________________
iPhone SE, TomTom Go 5000, Garmin Zumo XT.

[icsys]

Hi,

You did well getting the full EU - Well done Navman.
The latest version is 3.00.0050 and the desktop is v3.2.1.286

You are advised to install SP1 as they are periodic updates to correct bugs etc...
_________________
Ian.
iPAQ 2210 | Navman 4100 BT Receiver
Navman iCN 635
TomTom GO
Anquet OS mapping

[BBB]

Did you find the time lag at "deliberatley" taking a wrong turn reasonable?

I found it quite quick.

Went out yesterday witha carful - all very impressed even when the assertively voiced operator took me up side streets to perform a U-turn I was deliberatly not taking.

There does seem to be a magnetic attraction to main roads though.

I suppose for trucks that may be a plus but for smaller vehicles it may not be quite as plus - but - I can endure that nos problemos.

If Navman are feeling generous tell them to send me one of those nice 640 by 480 new iPAQs (I have a feeling they owe me 8O )

BBB

[uffe73]

Hi all,

I've been running SmartST V3 for PPC for a couple of weeks and am happy with the features. What I am very concerned about is the fact that my BT driver, all of a sudden, runs out of memory which causes the GPS connection to go down. This never happened when I was using SmartST V2 - at least not after I had GPS fix. I have tried fiddling with the memory settings on my iPAQ and have managed to reduce the problem somewhat, but it tends to come back. VERY frustrating!!!!! Has anyone else experienced this???

My solution will probably be to get a wired GPS instead. I found a good deal for an Onyx GPS Mouse on the internet.

By the way, does anyone know for sure if SmartST V3 supports NMEA version 3.0? The Navman 4410 GPS receiver is only supporting version 2.20 while the one from Onyx is using version 3.0.

/Ulf
_________________
TomTom GO720T: App ver 8.351(9982/090518), OS:315187, GPS v1.20, Boot 5.5120
TT RDS-TMC: 4V00.013
Maps: Scandinavia v840.2562, Western_Europe v715.1703
Garmin GPSMap 60CSx (SW ver. 3.70)

[uffe73]

[icsys]

I use the same receiver (4100) and have never had problems with it losing the BT connection.
There has been the very odd occasion when the BT Radio failed to turn on due to insufficient driver memory available. I put this down to an issue with the iPAQ 2210 and not the GPS receiver. Is this what you are referring to?

The above has never happened, or loss of BT connection, when navigating though.
_________________
Ian.
iPAQ 2210 | Navman 4100 BT Receiver
Navman iCN 635
TomTom GO
Anquet OS mapping

[uffe73]

[BBB]

Hi uffe and icsys

I have a similar setup to Uffe but running with the 4420 unit.

To be absolutely honest the only similarities I see in dodgy BT connection may be associated with the following:
- starting the unit in a rush

- previously used another bit of software with a GPS input (and maybe forgetting to soft reset before starting V3)

I had one loss of signal enroute and that was when the PPC slid into an obscure position (no mount secured yet). I put that down to interupted GPS signal.

I'll keep an eye on this and see how it goes - at the moment all I can say is that when it is stable it seems very stable. Bearing in mind of course that I ave had the unit for less than a week and 2 days of that was taken up with perfecting an install

BBB

[BBB]

Hi - I think I have an insight to share on this one and it is: processing time lag.

I whacked a 400 miles route into the PPC
- first time lag waiting for the GPS (ooops! user error it was switched off)

- I think because it was a very long route the routing algorithms had a fair bit to do. I gave it a moment or 3 and yes! the bluetooth browser insisted one firing up. Solution: a prod up the jacksie (soft reset for our cousins)

attempt 2
- fire up gps

- bluetooth connect to gps

- fire up v3

- secure gps signal and location (this is more critical than it sounds when route planning. I think it frees resources once location is fixed leaving extra cpu & processing power to handle the routing algorithms)

- location secured? If yes = ask for the route

- wait

My initial conclusions are:
- don't overload the processing power of the PPC - keep it simple
- first of all before doing anything SECURE LOCATION on an active bluetooth link on live gps data
- once location is fixed then (and only then) ask for routes (leave as much resources available to the routing processes as can be left. For example, close the 18 page PDF, stop the Spreadsheet and close the 22 page word processing document. OK exagerration = buy you know what I mean)

To aid the above it may be helpful to load merely the maps you require (why load all UK, Euro basemap, whatever... when you need one or 2 locations. The PPC has to manage all that somehow and altho an excellent devise its processing power needs to be respected)

Take it one stage at a time and wait (I'll repeat that WAIT - be patient.) The ipaq will give a notice when one process has terminated or failed. Then start the next one)

It seems wise leaving as much processing power as possible to the mapping & GPS software. It needs that respect and as a driver most likely we need to depend upon that too

Sorry for the sermon

[icsys]

bearing in mind that I have the same hardware and software, I have the full GB maps plus Northern and Southern Ireland active.

It is worth noting that the active maps require free program memory that is approximately 10% of their size to run. (Therefore maps that are 150MB in size will require 15MB of free program memory) therefore you should ideally only have the maps that you need active.

Having said this, I dont experience BT dropouts or lockups on a regular basis even with all those maps active.

I should also point out that I dont have any other software running so SmartST has full use of the processing power. But I have had SmartST and Anquet running at the same time (but not both connected to the GPS) without suffering any problems.

The point here is that SmartSTv3 will hapily run on an iPAQ 2210.

BBB's point of firing up the GPS receiver first then connect via BT and then fire up v3 after BT has connected is a fair one (and something that I generally do every time) It is also wise to get a sat fix before setting a route but then again I have set routes before a fix without problems.

I wish I had an answer to the 'Bluetooth Radio failed to turn ON' problem but it may well be simply down to processor/memory overload but it certainly should not be happening to you on a regular basis.
_________________
Ian.
iPAQ 2210 | Navman 4100 BT Receiver
Navman iCN 635
TomTom GO
Anquet OS mapping

[BBB]

And, of course just to state the obvious, never ever (OK I'll repeat that for emphasis NEVER EVER ) manipulate a GPS directly while driving.

A GPS device or devices may indeed need to be checked - if driving on your own make sure you pull up, park safely before manipulating the GPS device(s)

Learned or experienced colleagues may appreciate the above as blatantly obvious however there may be new users to whom it is of some benefit

BBB

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