Mixed Experiences of an iCN510 in Europe

[Daytona]

I’ve just recently returned from a trip down to the South of France and Eastern Spain using the iCN510 with all the required maps loaded on to a 1Gb card for all the navigation. I’d bought some screen protectors from Maplins and these seem to work well with little reduction in contrast and careful angling kept the glare down but this meant my passenger couldn’t see it, which could have been useful at times in busy traffic at the more complex junctions.

Overall, it worked very well. Occasionally, the delay in screen refreshing did require more care at some of the more complex junctions but the big advantage was being able to free the wife from the chore of map reading. This was a big bonus as although her map reading skills are good and accurate, she does suffer from motion sickness and it often sets in at the most critical times! The maps did appear to include the new Millau Bridge, I say “appear” as I didn’t notice any problems (like the M6 to M40 junction seems to cause) as I was too busy at the time admiring the outside view!

However, a few times it would suddenly move me from the main road and locate me to the right of the road, a few hundred feet into the fields despite having an unrestricted signal to the satellites. Very disconcerting, especially when there’s a minor road nearby and it places you on that…..

Also, the screen froze a couple of times although the voice instructions continued. The only way to get round that was to have my passenger power it down via the switch on the back and power it back up, bit annoying when you can’t stop.

There was also an inconsistency regarding the number of exit roads on roundabouts. Sometimes it would include dirt tracks (on one it included a dip in the kerb in front of the short driveway for a private house), sometimes it didn’t.

But these are all minor issues, easily avoided by forward thinking. What was a bigger problem was the unit’s choice of route on some occasions. I had the routing preferences as “quickest” (max left), motorways and freeways “more often” (max right) and urban part set to “more” (max right) and found it was taking me down every tiny narrow high-kerbed cobbled street, which was very stressing when trying to get past badly parked cars and delivery vans without wrecking my alloys….. So I moved the “urban” slider to one notch off fully right, hoping it would use just the bigger urban roads. Nope, it directed me off a roundabout onto a single track road (ignoring the nice, wide and direct urban road) which narrowed to the point the car barely fitted on (the edges of the road were breaking away and the edges of the tyres were literally hanging over – not funny when there’s a 2ft ditch either side and I’ve got it set to avoid unmade roads) and I ended up having to very carefully reverse, turn round in a field entrance and go the way I would have originally chosen.

So, overall I still like it and find it easy to use but I don’t think the routing through towns is as good as it could be. When planning a trip in advance, it’s easy to review the instructions and make adjustments. Unfortunately, sometimes you may need to create a route which you cannot check (to avoid traffic for example) and I’m now not confident on how it will route me through towns…

[oyster]

That was exactly my experience of taking the iCN510 around Europe (Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France). Generally good, but sometimes the routing just didn't make sense. I learned to check the screen when it told me to take a silly direction - often because it has located me on a minor road adjacent to the road I was actually on.

Overall it was a positive experience. I'd never have found the "Last Supper" in Milan without it.

[chewa]

My wife is just back from 4 days travelling in central France and is a complete convert. iCN 520 got her from the airport to her B&B and various other locations with no problems. back on track if she took a wrong route etc.

912km in 4 days never having driven in France before. She says if she had not had sat nav she'd have given up and got the next flight home.

[Gee-Pee]

See also my topic started "Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 10:34 am Post subject: Travelling in Europe"

Some interesting stuff from other forum members.

Noted also the post on the subject of the withdrawal of the Navman Forum. OK, reasons noted but when you have a forum such as this one, and some real clued-up members, then I can bear to be without it.

_________________
Gee-Pee
Lifetime member PGPSW - time rapidly decreasing

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