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Best in Car Sat Nav?

Bambography

By Bambography
in United Kingdom and Ireland

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Bambography

+Bambography

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

With the festive season fast approaching, i'd like the opinion of those in the know.

 

What is the best in-car Sat Nav? Main thoughts are that it needs to be user friendly, would like the ability to upload caches to get notified when driving near them. UK & Europe mapping too and possibly bluetooth.

 

Thanks in advance...

Chris

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drdick&vick

+drdick&vick

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

With the festive season fast approaching, i'd like the opinion of those in the know.

 

What is the best in-car Sat Nav? Main thoughts are that it needs to be user friendly, would like the ability to upload caches to get notified when driving near them. UK & Europe mapping too and possibly bluetooth.

 

Thanks in advance...

Chris

The TomTom range is always a good bet if you want a portable device, and it is possible to upload .csv files to show cache loactions. I have a built in GArmin system and I generate CSV files from my Geocache Log and upload them to the Garmin and so can always see when I am near.

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careygang

+careygang

Posted
Posted

I'll be looking out for one of these in the sales - I'll need one to take to America in 2009. Want to avoid any deliverance type incidents.

The Garmin Nuvi 270 has UK, Europe and USA maps as standard.

When I reached the anniversary of getting my 270, it came up with a message that my maps were now a year old and would I like to buy a new set... I declined and the message hasn't reappeared.

 

I brought mine here in the US last year and when I came home to UK in the summer it worked just fine.

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seattlegeekgrrrlz

+seattlegeekgrrrlz

Posted
Posted

We have a Garmin Nuvi 360 that we use here (Seattle) and brought to Spain and UK with us this past summer. It worked really well. We did not choose to upload caches onto it, since we also have a handheld GPS that we tend to use for caching (sort of a separation of duties). It is very easy to hand- enter waypoints if needed. We found the interface easy to use and the directions easy to follow. It has a pedestrian mode, so if you are walking (and need directions) it can select paths that are pedestrian-only.

 

As a side note: Given that it was already a challenge for us to drive on the ...umm, "alternate" side of the road than we are used to, it was nice to not have to look at the unit (just listen for directions and concentrate on the road) while out driving.

 

There is at least one shareware type program out there that works really well for uploading loads of caches (e.g. pocket query) to the Nuvi. Some friends of ours use it extensively with their Nuvi. One downside is that it seems to require deleting the other points of interest.

 

As I recall, the Nuvi 360 comes pre-loaded with either North America or Europe/UK road map set. The North American mapset has been very accurate. When we went to Europe this past summer we ordered the Western Europe/UK map set (on micro SD with adapter - fit in both the Nuvi and the 60Csx ) which was also quite accurate, but does incur extra cost. Had we also wanted eastern Europe it would have entailed purchasing another map set as well.

 

Good luck in your search!

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drdick&vick

+drdick&vick

Posted
Posted (edited)

Ref The Slaughter Family

 

Just create a .csv file from something like Geocache Log. It's as easy as that.PM me a post code that you want to seartch from or even a set of co-ords and I will create one for you and send it via an email. I can't be far from you (I am near Horsham)

Just realised you need an OV2 file whoops sorry.

Edited by DrDick&Vick
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ivanidea

+ivanidea

Posted
Posted (edited)

I too have been using TT v6 on a pda. Since my maps are at least 3 years old, I have started to look at a stand alone unit.

 

As a long time fan of Garmin, I thought they would be ideal, so I borrowed a friends Nuvi 310T.

 

I was dissapointed to find that the interface and options were similar to TT 6 years. I was unable to ask for a route avoiding motorways, without avoiding the main A roads as well. Even with avoid toll roads, it still wanted me to take the M6 toll road!

 

I hope the TT units still have the features and options of the pda software from 3 years ago, and have seen some good prices for a refurbished Go 720 (£115 from totalpda).

 

I believe the TT has free traffic reports via a suitable rds adapter, unlike the Garmin which requires you to pay for a subscription beyond the free trial.

 

Ivan

Edited by ivanidea
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yehawdude

+yehawdude

Posted
Posted

I've been a big fan of various Garmin units over the years, mostly because of an aviation influence, but my Garmin of choice is quickly becoming the Nuvi 500. I have had very bad experiences with previous TT units, grossly outdated maps and horrible customer service.

 

That being said, I think that Garmin does better in the US, and TT does better in Europe, or so my European friends say. TT is based in Europe, correct? I believe their emphasis is on accurate European maps and better service... Garmin does the same for the US.

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FunLovingGeocacher

+FunLovingGeocacher

Posted
Posted

Note that the Garmin Nuvi is capable of displaying full cache descriptions in colour, for thousands of caches; including hints and logs. There's a GSAK macro to load them. Also, last time I checked, the Nuvi coverage of Europe was better.

 

;) Does that apply to all models of the Nuvi? I'm also closely following this discussion, and this sounds like an interesting feature, especially as I'm not a paperless cacher.

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Happy Humphrey

+Happy Humphrey

Posted
Posted

I should have mentioned that the Nuvi display will also be able to show photos from the cache gallery too, so you needn't be without all the spoiler pics you might require!

If you're organised enough, you could have full details of (say) the nearest 2000 caches at your fingertips, along with parking waypoints, ready to navigate to at the drop of a geocoin. All you do is use the Sat Nav to get to the waypoint, then read the cache description using the same unit.

 

It might be that Tom Tom units can perform the same feat, but AFAIK there is no GSAK macro to extract and format the details except to the Garmins.

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Sue and Bernie

+Sue and Bernie

Posted
Posted

I've been a long time Garmin user (currently with 2x Streetpilots 510T, 1x Vista Cx). Over the years I've spent a fortune on Garmin stuff, remember the Streetpilot 3 at £600 with the £125 cost of each 128K memory modules? Yeah! that was me!

 

I now use CN Europe NT to keep the SP's up to date and Topo UK for the Vista for caching (does autorouting on roads then off-road to the cache).

 

This used to be viable because Garmin used to provide 2 "unlocks" for CN so I could keep both SP's up to date from each of the two-yearly software upgrades. Indeed, this was why I bought a second SP for Sue's car. However, Garmin got the greedy bug and dropped the second unlock while maintaining the price for updates. This has effectively doubled the price of software updates.

 

Garmin do not appear to have noticed how much the hardware prices have dropped. I think they have adopted the business plan used by the manufacturers of printers - flog the kit cheap, screw the customer on the consumables (for ink carts, read map updates).

 

I suspect that we will soldier on with one SP and the Vista but when the time comes, I can see the SP being replaced with a more modern unit rather than forking out for a map update.

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careygang

+careygang

Posted
Posted

I need a mains charger as I mine keeps running out of juice when powered by cigarette lighter or plugged into the USB. I've had to switch to the vista to find the cache it's self. Anyone know if I have to get a specific charger?

 

Seems you have a problem. Your battery life should be about 5 hours.

 

Have you given it enough of a run about to fully charge? We have a Nuvi 270 which we admittedly don't try caching with, but it does last a long time on the internal battery and does fully recharge in a reasonable time.

 

Garmin do produce a mains adaptor for most of their USB socketed range, but I doubt they sell many...

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mabboz

+mabboz

Posted
Posted

Hi

Too late now I guess but only read your post today.

I have the Road Angel SAT NAV Adventurer (Navigater)7000 comes with all safty camera locations and you can download Memory Map to it (Need a 2gbSD card) - gives you all the MM features and you can drive/walk with a live OS map

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