+Team Rand Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 I cannot get the SportTrack Pro and the Map Send Map to be accurate with each other. As I am driving, the track on the map screen is showing me at least 500 ft off the road I am on. Also, when I get home, the map shows I am a block away from where I actually am. Is the Magellan MapSend that inaccurate or do I have something set wrong on my SportTarck Pro? Both my brother-in law and I bought the Costco bundle over the last couple of weeks and both are seeing a problem. We have both upgraded to version 4.03. Thanks for any help. TeamRand Quote Link to comment
+Groundhound Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Some roads, especially small side streets or residential streets, are drawn inaccurately. Notice that such roads are made up of a collection of straight line segments rather than smooth curves. An error of 500 feet is extreme; most errors are much less. Also the roads, even interstates, are represented by lines that do not indicate the width of the right of way. So if you are travelling down an interstate hwy with a large median and you are in the right lane, a couple of hundred feet from the center may be accurate. Quote Link to comment
+Jamie Z Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Do you have this trouble everywhere all the time, or just in that area? I ask because I use MapSend in my Meridian.. and occasionally I'll get on a road that's way off. Most roads, however, are right on. I have a friend whose neighborhood is displayed correctly on the map, but it's displaced a couple blocks, so when I'm at his house, my position is incorrect, even though the map has all the right streets. Maybe you live and drive on the few roads that are wrong. If this happens to you everywhere... I don't have an answer. Jamie Quote Link to comment
+geospotter Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 I keep hearing about how inaccurate MapSend maps seem to be. I must say that, at least in my area, they are dead-on. While searching a multi the other day that took me all over town I pulled a U-turn on a small dirt road. Not only did the GPS perfectly track my position on the road, I could also watch the arrow on the map screen do the U-turn as I turned. I have a Meridian so this might not help, but when I upgraded my firmware I cleared memory with the card in place. Got my GPS working again and re-loaded the map to the card (serially). I know, I know, this shouldn't make any difference it's just an image file, but my maps match my track. It could just be my area, but you might give it a try, you've got nothing to lose. If you try it, please let us know how it works. geospotter Quote Link to comment
+Cachetrotters Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 of the blocks around where I live. All distance and position information from my computer room to the front yard where I set my tripod and to the street are correct to ten's of feet. On a small scale both Merigreen and ST Pro look ok after the upgrade with maps. I re-re-reloaded V 4.03 and 4.02 with maps deleted and card removed because of all the horror stories. Haven't had any horror stories of my own so far. don Quote Link to comment
+Girls Rule! Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 Yeah, ive seen the errors but not 500' When I drive down I805 in San Diego it shows me off to the right a bit, but most times it is right on. Just wish they would get a new map update. My house has been here for 4 years and the map is blank in my neighborhood Quote Link to comment
+Caching In Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 My Sportrack slides around, but I would say the majority of the time, it is closer to being right on, than not. I am sometimes amazed at the accuracy on some of more rural (see: beautiful) country roads that I travel when I can. Quote Link to comment
Android Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 I got my GPS over Christmas. So, I decided I should take it with me to visit the parents. When I got there, I loaded up the maps (they live in a small town) and while the maps were accurate, they were off. On boxing day we drove out to one of the neighboring towns and of course I brought the GPS. (It was interesting to see how often my Dad speeds BTW... ) Anyhoo, the whole time the GPS was off roads by about 30-50 meters, corners were no where accurate, and turns were always off. In their town, everything was about 30 meters west of the correct location. When we got into the major cities (Edmonton in my case) most roads are quite accurate (10 meters or so) but quite out of date (I live in a farmers field according to my Meridian Platnum) I think there's two ways to figure this out. 1) Think of how these maps have been made and collected. Rural areas are probably 50 years old (if not older) and have never been checked for accuracy. Highways have been taken from planners and surveyors maps, but we all know sometimes when the road is actually made/repaired things change. Maybe someone read the coordinates wrong when entering the map data into mapsend. 2) The GPS is only an estimate. When they got the coordinates of your area, they were estimating, and your GPS is estimating, and thus your in the creek... Should the mapsend maps be updated? Most likely. Do I expect them to be updated? I haven't been in this game long enough to tell. (BTW, I'm in Canada - you think you have it bad - most towns and cities up here aren't even on the basemaps and the mapsend maps are at least 10 years old) I work in the computing industry, and thus I'm also quite comfortable with the "not quite as advertised" nature of electronics.... Oh, and I'm using version 4.02 and so far I've been very pleased with the results. (All my cache finds so far have been within 5 meters of listed locations) Quote Link to comment
+Night Stalker Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 What magnification are you using. I find that if I magnify to much it will be off. I normally use .4 of a mile while driving. This gives me the best accuracy on the map and shows the upcoming intersections the best. I am using Mapsend Topo, but it has the streets built in so it should work the same. Lost? Keep Going. You're making good time anyway!! Quote Link to comment
MojoCacher Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 I have a great deal of experience reading and finding my way on Topo maps, 16+ years. I learned to navigate by map coordinates and terrain features. In my experience I have found Topo maps to be VERY inaccurate as much as 100 meters off. I am refering to position of roads and intersections in relation to terrain features on the maps. This error comes from several sources, primaruly printing followed by surrvaying errors. Mapsend is map software based on current, read 5-10 year old, maps that may or may not be accurate. If you are with in 10-20 meters you are doing very well. I understand mapsend to be used to get you in the general vicinity of where you want to be. Electronic gismos are no replacemant for common sense and situational arwareness. Knowing that maps and software are prone to have errors I do not relie exclusively on one or the other to find my way. I too know that the placement of my house in Mapsend is about 30 meters off but I know why. The streetnumbers for my street start at 100 and are listed to go to 199 but in reality they only go to 130 this makes the placement of my house on my street off by the 30 meters componding this for a large neighborhood may make the problem worse. My 2 cents Mojocacher Quote Link to comment
+Team Rand Posted January 2, 2003 Author Share Posted January 2, 2003 Thanks to all that have replied to my question. Main thing was I wanted to make sure I was not missing something I should have been doing that was giving me the error. From all that I have read, it appears I am not doing anything wrong and the error is normal/expected. I realize that if I move into a closer magnification, the error will appear to be greater, however, it is still the same error (IE, a 500 ft error on a .4 mile chart will not be as noticable as on a 500 ft screen). Anyway, thanks again to all.... I have also asked the same question of Magellan and will forward onto this forum any interesting reply I might receive from them. TeamRand Quote Link to comment
+Team Rand Posted January 6, 2003 Author Share Posted January 6, 2003 When I posted the original question, I said I had also asked Magellan and would post any reply from them. It is copied below: We are currently evaluating different mapping data sources for near future updates. Unfortunately the problem you have described is not a simple update that can be downloaded from the Internet. The type of update you will need would be to the mapping database and not to the software application. This type of an update will need to be distributed on a CD-ROM. Our current plan is to provide map database updates over the course of next year. Magellan Technical Support Thales Navigation 960 Overland Court San Dimas, California 91773 USA 800-707-9971 909-394-5000 www.thalesnavigation.com www.magellangps.com Quote Link to comment
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