iPAQ/Navman/MGTF

[Art J]

I am very nearly in the position to purchase my first navigation system, my provisional choice is an iPAQ 3970 and the Navman 3450 ( new product I assume ? does anyone know if it fixes the problems and bugs that have been noted with the 3400 ? ) I drive a MGTF with the roof down at every opportunity, can someone advise me about the voice instructions ? i.e. is there enough volume from the iPAQ to be heard whilst driving with the roof down ? or is it possible to use the earphone output of the iPAQ to power a small speaker that could be situated nearer the driver to help with the voice instruction ? This is a personal purchase to be used for my holidays mainly in Europe so I want to make the correct decision the first time if possible ( my wife has stated there will not be a second chance if I buy the wrong product now )

[Dave]

Not a lot is known about the 3450 at present, apart from it having an external antenna and improved design. TTFF's are better on the newer sleeves compared with the older original sleeves. Any of the bugs in the software I would presume would still be there.



I don't think the iPAQ speaker will be loud enough, at least not to hear, especially if you drive motorways, or have your radio on. I personally would suggest for open top use broadcasting it over FM with an FM Modulator and turning up the car radio. I doubt you'll get many speakers that will match the loudness of the car radio. There are other mounts like the Seidio Multimedia Mount which have a powered speaker in the cradle and this is very loud, so this might be another option, or a powered speaker run from the accessory socket. A non-powered speaker won't give you much volume output.

[Art J]

Dave, thanks for the advice and please excuse my lack of knowledge in these matters, could you please explain to me what a FM modulator is , how it works ( I assume it in some way transfers the voice instructions through the radio )and a suggestion of where to look to get one, also the other product you mention, the Seidio mount, is this available from one of the the dealers on your supporters page ?

I rarely use the radio when the roof is down because of the need to have it turned up to hear it, as you say on Motorways the outside noise is quite high and believe it or not I do ( after 30 years of marriage )still like to talk to my wife as we travel along.

A powered speaker situated somewhere by the bulkhead between the seats at ear level was my preferred options, this would allow me to view the screen normally but hear the instructions at the same time, alternatively I did consider just a earpiece and a long lead from the iPAQ.

Could I just ask you to let me know a couple of suppliers ( by e-mail to art@ajacks.com ) who could supply me with the required parts ?

[Dave]

Sure, an FM Modulator basically is powered by batteries or the accessory socket in-car. It plugs into the ear socket on devices like the Pocket PC and takes the signal, you dial in a frequency on the tuner on the FM Modulator, say 89.3 is what I use the most, tune your car stereo into 89.3 and it will transmit the audio from your Pocket PC over to the car stereo and out through the car speakers. The only problem you get with FM Modulator's, is if you do long travelling (30+ miles), you can find that close by radio stations start to drift into the frequency you have set which causes a static noise in the background, this can be eliminated by re-tuning both again, or by purchasing a better FM Modulator.



The main supplier I know of is Arkon which is what I use.

[Art J]

Dave, thanks again, I have now put my money where my mouth is and an order has been placed for the iPAQ and Navman 3450.

Regarding the map software, looking at a review of a European trip on this BBS by Graham Powell, I have calculated the size of the maps I am most likely to use to come in at approx 240 Mb, if I load these to a 256 card will I be able to plan a route say from Calais to Luzern i.e.cross borders or will I have to plan the route to the Swiss border i.e. Basel and then on to Luzern

[Dave]

I haven't planned international routes across other countries, but I believe you can with Navman, but what you can't do is plan to go across the channel tunnel or ferry to France (from what I've heard from others).

[kartracer]

I have used STPro for routing from Geneva Airport(Switzerland) across the border to Morzine (France) and back without any trouble.
_________________
Kam

[sfi1]

There's no problem routing across countries. I use it regulalrly for trips to Italy. It's ferries and the channel tunnel which you can't route through. I would suggest if your doing a long route to examine the route it comes up with carefully because when you actually do the route it always seems to try to take you off motorways (happens a lot to me in germany A7/A8) so you end up ignoring a lot of the instructions if you've done the route before. I have no idea why the instructions should vary in this way from the original route calcualted.

[Art J]

Thanks again everone, it would seem a good idea then to put the UK maps on one card and then have another card containing the European maps and plan your route from the port of entry ( a little something to do on the boat ).

Thanks for the advice regarding diversions off the motorways and back on, reading through the various threads this seems to be a fairly common problem and one I will take great care over.

The Navman equipment has arrived and hopefully over the weekend it will be mated with the iPAQ. I will get back to this thread with my first impressions. My main concern is the volume of the instructions with the roof down, will I be able to hear them ? the alternatives in order of cost under consideration are : 1. a simple earpiece and long cable 2. a powered speaker to be situated between the seats near the drivers head 3. the device which used a spare frequency on the radio to amplify the volume of the instructions. Thats the plan for the weekend.

[gracar]

I have a theory about the diversion off motorways from experiences in Continental Europe earlier this year. I found a tendancy for the position I was actually in and the mapping to be slightly different to the degree that I was travelling alongside rather than on the motorway and I was seeing "go to nearest road" instructions. When the motorway passed over or under another road or there was another road very close to the motorway the system loked onto it and recalculated the route.



I would also agree that it's better to plan long journeys in stages than attempt a 1000km haul on a single routing. It just works a lot better.
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Graham

[sfi1]

Yes i've also occasionally had the "go to nearest road" but is it a result of the maps, receiver or the gps signal. I think you may have something here although the turn left (or right) instruction that you get can happen at least 100 yards from the junction and the road that you are currently on is displayed correctly.

I've even had a turn right instruction on a UK motorway which would have taken me into the central barrier.

From my own experiences i agree that it seems to be the result of a recalculation which happens even if you follow the original route exactly.

Any ideas ?

[Art J]

Now I have decided on the system I am purchasing, does anyone have any views on the merits of the two types on memory cards that can be used with the iPAQ/Navman system ? the iPAQ has a secure digital card slot, the Navman jacket has a compact flash card slot, is it possible say to load the European maps to one card / slot and the UK maps to another card / slot and keep both in the machine to save having to swop cards when moving from country to country ? I have a spare compact flash card 128 MB and will need to purchase a 256 Mb card for the European maps, I wanted to ask your advice as to which card format to go for.

[kartracer]

I have the GB maps on SD card permanently in the Ipaq, and load European maps onto compact flash in the sleeve.



Be aware that STPro is not happy if it can see more than about 250mb of maps at one time. I overcome this limitation by renaming the folders so that the software can only find one at a time.
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Kam

[sfi1]

Lets hope they bring the active map selection option in the 3450 software to the next service pack

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