Mapsend Directroute

[+Stunod]

Mr. UPS just delivered my copy of MapSend DirectRoute...it's loading on the MeriPlat as I type. I'll get a chance to try out the autor-routing on the way to Thanksgiving dinner!

[+DustyJacket]

Please post details on what you like and do not like.

I am contemplating getting it. If I do, that will be my only reason to upgrade the firmware.

[+garri]

I don't like that europeans we have to get less detailed maps in our GPSr, have to wait some more months to order Mapsend DirectRoute, and pay much more for the same GPSr

[+Stunod]

So far, so good. The maps are much more accurite (at least in my area) than the TOPO/Streets maps. The GPS doesn't show me off-roading along the expressway any more!

 

Routing was quicker than I expected. It took about 10-15 secs to compute a 25 mile route (I have a Palm with Street Atlas on it and it takes minutes to do the same calculation).

 

While it works fine on my Plat, it would be much easier to read on a Color. The highlighted road doesn't show up well in greyscale.

[+forman]

Just got mine to. Now time to play.

 

Don

[+Rusty O Junk]

Hey, where did you guys get them? I've had a pre-order with Tiger GPS forever and they haven't charged my card yet so they still haven't shipped. I want to play too.

[+GOT GPS?]

I think that the SporTrak Color would be a better GPS for the mapping, because it is 160x240 resolution, since I didn't like the MeriColor so I returned that GPS. Now all Magellan needs to do is to start making the SporTrak Color GPS unit with a USB interface, for quick map loading.

[+forman]

I got mine off the magellan web site. Went out this morning, plugged in the coords for a new cache. FTF. The thing beeps when you are about ready to turn, blah, blah, blah. Very cool. I have seen another gps with that type of set up and wanted it then. Then has come . There is tons of stuff to find, for restuerants, there is French, fast food, Grill, and about 20 others to go after. Could not find Starbucks.

 

again, Very cool item.

 

Don

 

Now all I need is a serial/USB thing for my lap top.

[+DustyJacket]

I just ordered it from Magellan.

They discounted it automatically by $50 since I had owned MapSend Streets.

(There was no way to tell them that I sold it as soon as I discovered MapSend Topo had the same information, and more.)

 

All-in-all a satisfactory shopping experience.

 

Now to upgrade my Meridian Color firmware.............

 

(Since Topo and Streets were both way off, I'll post how this new stuff works, here in Missouri.)

[+skramblr]

The directroute software is very cool. Below is my post from the Magellan Meridian users group on Yahoo. Images I refer to are over at that sight.

 

==========================================

 

From: skramblr [skramblr@hotmail.com]

Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 10:25 PM

To: Magellan_Meridian@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Magellan Meridian Re: Direct Route Notes

Two more notes:

 

1) I forgot to mention the 44MB map file took 4 minutes to generate and save to my HD. (It took longer for me to copy it over the the SD card via the card reader).

 

2) I just noticed a Canada Maps Update CD was included. I installed the update, but didn't notice what it updated.

 

-Skramblr

--- In Magellan_Meridian@yahoogroups.com, "Skramblr" <skramblr@c...>

wrote:

Surprise! My DirectRoute software showed up on my doorstep today. Immediately put it into service, as I had to take my son to get a haircut.

 

Here are some observations.

 

First I created a detailed map. All of Oregon, Washington and

Vancouver area of Canada. This was my basic detailed map in Mapsend (~31MB). In DirectRoute the file size increased to 43MB, not too much more.

 

I've posted some images of the maps here (Photos section>Map > Comparisons>Mapsend S&D vs DirectRoute):

http://tinyurl.com/wqvf

 

2 photos - Where I ride ATVs in the Tillamook State Forest - Not at detailed. Many forest service roads are gone. I'll need to keep the S&D map on my GPS for off-roading.

 

Other 2 photos - Downtown Portland, OR. You'll notice mostly no

changes to the downtown grid, but there is much better highway on/off ramp

detail.

 

Divided highways (ones with large medians in the middle) are actually shown

as two separate roads! This means you are more likely to actually be shown on the highway on the GPS (Highways can be 150 feet wide and S&D shows them> as a single line).

 

Other Map observations - The maps are indeed very up to date. About two blocks away they put in a new road this year. Surprisingly that new road is on DirectRoute and is accurate in it's routing and location.

 

POIs - In addition to actually having things like gas stations, there is a new POI Icon. It's shown as an 'x' (you can see it in the downtown map I posted). I guess they didn't have the appropriate Icons created in the firmware, so they use this to mark shopping centers, parking garages, border crossings and 'Named places'.

 

Named Places - This actually looks like a listing of every town & city. This is good news for folks with the Green's limited basemap, as you can now find all those missing cities!!! It also has names areas that aren't necessarily a city.

 

Route waypoints - This all new Mapsend product still only allows you to generate 30 point routes.

 

Street Route to Manual Route conversion - You can convert your street route to a manual route - then modify like the old routes. This is useful for folks who like to make routes manually or if you want to make routes for a non-supported GPS (like the MeriGreen).

 

Alaska - Has some road detail, but they are not routable.

 

Canada - Has road details, but some areas do not. Some areas are routable, but they don't necessarily follow the roads on the map. See my photo in the photos section (link above).

 

Mexico - Some road detail, but not routable.

 

Maybe they should have called this Mapsend North America with DirectRoutable USA.

 

New Screen - Nav Screen, when a street route is active it display all the turn directions (including distances between turns)

 

Beeping, Beeping, Beeping, Beeping, Beeping,.... Stop already! Audio prompts are good, but can get annoying. While traveling thru the city with lots of turns, the GPS is constantly beeping slow, then beeping fast. Gotta kill those alarms. Also, you can't kill the alarms easily. IE, with the backlight - when the light goes off you simply hit a key and the GPS ignores the command usually executed by the key press and instead turns on the light. With the alarms, you hit a key and the alarm goes off - but the GPS actually executes the button pressed - so you have to hit a button to kill the alarm, then escape or back or whatever to get back to the navigation route. (I think I found a wish list item).

 

A good example of when the beeping will get to you. You travel to your next turn, the GPS starts beeping slow, then fast, and you have to stop for the red light. The GPS is beeping. If you sit there for 2 minutes (long traffic light), the GPS will continue to beep until it registers you've gone through the waypoint. A little annoying.

[+Solar Max]

I ordered mine a week ago, and am waiting patiently. Looking forward to seeing the updated Canada maps. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer than the US Magellan users, because of longer shipping times.

[+robert]

Anyone with DirectRoute care to write up a review for cachegear.com?

[+Stunod]

After a couple of days using the software, there are a couple of annoying things about it. Maybe someone else using it can give me some suggestions...

 

First, entering an address to route to is difficult. First you must select the street name, then enter the address number. I was driving to 64th street, and there were dozens of 64th street (in different towns) to choose from. Actually, there were a few listings for 64th street in Chicago alone. You have to select one, and then it will display the number range for the address that is valid. If your address isn't in that range, you have to go back and choose another selection from the list.

 

Second, the beeping as you approach the next turn gives a nice warning, and then it beeps faster as you actually reach the turn. The down side is if you are stopped at a light...the thing just keeps beeping. If you press a key you can silence it, but you will either end up at a menu or on a different nav screen.

 

Third (and last for now), the routing directions can be displayed as a list, but they do not show the street names. It just shows the maneuver (turn left, right, merge, etc.) and the distance to the next turn. Sure would be nice to see a list of turns and street names. EDIT: According to the documentation, the street names are supposed to be displayed. I'll try to reload the map and see if it works right.

 

Anyone out there had these problems and found anyway to avoid them? Honestly, the improved mapping makes this tolerable. I have yet to find a road that is incorrectly mapped in my area. Even the exit ramps and merge lanes track perfectly.

Edited November 29, 2003 by Stunod

[+skramblr]

Someone else just pointed out this issue to me the other day. Before you would sometimes have several roads with the same name, but not have a city listed. You'd also have roads listed with address ranges - and there would be a lot of these address ranged street names. With the new software they combined most of these addressed ranged roads into single road names that contain all the ranges. But, it appears they still have very long roads broken up. I can't find a reason why they would have done it. Same city, zip, sometimes just a large range, then a small one, then a medium one. Hmm...

 

I don't see a work around for that one.

 

Beeping - yup. Saw the same thing. If you set your proximity alarm to zero, then the alarms wil not longer come up. I think if you set the Beeper to no alarms, then there will also be no alarm. But that only helps if you want to turn alarms off.

 

If you are running with alarms on, when the big 1/2 screen sized pop-up screen comes up, indicating the manuever - you can press any key and the alarm will stop and the pop-up box will go away. If you are not quick enough, then you'r stuck with having to hit a key and back out of it. Everyone should should put in a feature request to Magellan to fix it (make it like the backlight where any button just turns on the backlight & not execute the key command).

 

On the third issue, on my GPS the list includes the the road name, an Icon indicating the left/right turn (no words), and the heading and distance.

[+Stunod]

I got the street names to appear on the direction list by re-installing the firmware using the v5.12 CD supplied with the software. I was running v5.12 taken from Magellan's website, but the install must of been corrupted somehow.

[+Solar Max]

DirectRoute got a proper workout tonight here in Victoria, and it performed brilliantly. I never would have known that the route it chose was that close to the cache, and a place to park. This gives me much more confidence in MapSend's Canadian maps. I will now trust it much more than I did when I first got it a couple of weeks ago.

[+skramblr]

FYI - on the street name issue. It turns out that directroute creates waypoint along the routes path that contains the manuever and street names. Remember that the GPS has a 200 waypoint limit on waypoints with descriptions? It appears that if you have 200 waypoints loaded, the route created will be missing the street names (which would have been stored in the description field for the waypoints).

 

-Skramblr

[robertlipe]

I think I missed this thread the first time around because I was travelling.

 

The 200 description limit that skramblr mentions is analyzed at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Magellan_Mer...n/message/19913 and yes, I did write up a review at http://www.mtgc.org/robertlipe