@ Professor Pipebender...
If you want to navigate on tarmac with a smartphone try the app called "waze", it's free and works flawlessly. On the downside, it requires a data plan with your cellphone subscription and uses about 2mb/hr. If you want to navigate offline try "mapswithme" (paid, about EUR 5, no idea how much that is in imperial gallons...) which allows you to download all maps while connected to wifi (so for instance, you can download all of europe at home) then navigate on bike or in car completely offline (so you don't have to have a data plan with your cellphone subscription).
The Samsung Galaxy (imho) is about as good as any other smartphone with gps.

Professor Pipebender,

I'm not aware of any phone nav apps that will allow you to load the OLAF Topo maps for Morocco. Pretty sure OLAF can be loaded onto most Garmin units but the pistes are not routeable like road navigation is and you won't get turn by turn guidance..The Montana is fantastic but pricey. I've been using a Montana with OLAF in Moroco fine but to get pistes routes onto the unit I need to prepare these on Garmins PC software then load then on.

If you are just looking for road navigation than there are a lot of Apps reccomended on teh HUBB that use OSM (Open Street Maps) for free mapping. OSM's coverage of Morocco is pretty good for roads and does include some pistes as well. I've been using Pocket Earth on the iPhone with OSM for road navigation in Morocco and it works well.

Believe it, and read it in context. The fact that it requires a data connection has no relevance to its quality, it is just a fact. It will avoid traffic jams and police radar, offer correct routing, and uses maps that are even more up to date than OSM.
I understand it will be useless when you're out of cellphonerange, that's why I also suggested the option to use mapswithme, for which you can download any area you want (or just download the whole world for 8Gb). Apparently Le Fantastique Oruxmaps does the same.

And yes, smartassphones are not as good as any other navigation device, but the professor wanted to know if he could use his smartphone...

So we're both saying the thing, really...doh

We are, aren't we? really? :innocent:

For finecitygirl's orginal query, in among the Professor's later queries:-
This is a good summary of what I was saying about my experiences with using both a Tom tom and a garmin system in road-going circumstances.

Thanks for the welcome!

Nope...I'll hang on to the Zumo for when I get fed up of not being able to see the TomTom screen in bright light. The way the weather is, probably not very often!

For Europe, I would go for TomTom. If you have a smartphone like iPhone, then it is just a couple of clicks away. Combine your iPhone with a lifeproof case
http://7c3ca13c7a9797df0ae5-83a5b57c..._design_v2.png

Add a mount to the bike, and a scala rider bluetooth headset in your helmet
http://images.gizmag.com/hero/scala-rider-g4.jpg

Sew some conductive thread into the finger of your glove so you can operate the phone
https://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net...08544-01-L.jpg

With this, you've got mp3 music (spotify if you so desire), phone, turn by turn navigation with sound, radio, bike to bike communication, action camera with timelapse or video (of either the rider or the road as there are two lenses) and much, much more. It doesn't get any more user friendly than this - and it is quite inexpensive... and you save luggage space, weight, clutter, items to charge and care for - peace of mind.

One thing to keep in mind though, smart phones do not enjoy direct scorching sun (shuts down when over heating). I talk from experience when riding in southern europe with the phone flat in the map case of the tankbag and the sun high... it shut down over and over - utterly useless. I found that a mount behind the windscreen was all it took (angle and some shade) - providing shade should be easy on most bikes.

For Africa, then Garmin is the way to go in my opinion, but the question was Europe, so I won't go there.

Garmin
 

For Europe a Garmin 660 will coverall all countries, it's waterproof and very robust. Once I didn't put it in the cradle properly and it fell off at 70mph, bounced a number of times. I went back to retrieve it and only damage was a crack in the case. A few days ago my friend also dropped her Zumo 660 in Yellowstone, once again, small mark on the case but otherwise working fine.

Yes they are expensive but they are also rugged and waterproof, which the car range is not.

I have used smartphones but find the GPS drains the battery so a Bike powered one is essential.

My tuppence
 

Hi all,

First post, so I thought I'd better make it techy :-)

I use my Samsung Galaxy S3 as a SatNav. I have a usb power cable from Mr BuyBits, a waterproof case (similar to the one available from BuyBits, but with a neoprene cover), mounted on a RAM mount, and I use OSMAnd as my navigation software, all piped through an Autocom, into my lid.

OSMAnd is the official app for the OSM maps, and allows you to download the entire world to your SD card, for use offline.

I've also nicknamed it the "AdventureNav", due to the fact it sometimes takes me a on random course I would not otherwise have taken. :-)

It's available free from the Android market, with a restriction on the number of files you can download, or there is a paid version (which I bought for £4,99) which has no restrictions. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for day to day use IMHO.

Hope this helps someone.

zumo
 

for what its worth I bought a Zumo 550 in 2006 and its still going despite new display, new digitizer thingy and sticky tape over the buttons which have become undone. So any one with a dead zumo 550 with intact buttons please let me know and I'll send you some petrol coupons for the carcass.

I reckon any gps is good. They all have weaknesses and good points. Dont waste money on touratwat laser cut gps brackets though - you simply dont need them unless you have too much money and like buying stuff.

One thing though, don't believe the people who romance about just using maps. I cant remember the number of times the gps has saved me from going mad whilst arriving at an unknown town looking for somewhere to stay. The alternative is driving around in the dark via streets and places you don't know trying to find a bed for the night. Not to mention trying to use a map in a strange country. Funnily enough, even the locals in some places cant relate to a printed map, they've never needed one.

I've just been playing around with various Android mapping apps, and OsmAnd seems to work the best for me.
OruxMaps was too much of a pain to set up as I need laptop access to prepare the maps, and mapswithme is just much too slow and takes forever to download. Plus the maps were not very complete for my area.

Still, I'd check the OSM maps against Google maps and Garmin or others if available, as none of them are 100% accurate or complete for 3rd world traveling.

Sent from my Android chinaphone, please excuse the spelling

Eh, I also use Orux and you can directly cache maps from within it.

So, I've been playing around a bit more with the Android chinaphone and GPS.

What is a good forum to join for issues related to this subject?

For example, I've got my external GPS tracker connected to the phone via bluetooth, and I'm getting way better GPS performance, even under the trees around the house.
Supposedly this also gives much better battery life, my other big issue.

I've done some more reading on the subject, and it appears that away from cell network / data services, the A-GPS based chippers used in many phones can have issues similar to mine.

However, the only app that seems to utilize the external GPS is Oruxmaps. Google maps doesn't, nor does OsmAnd.


Oruxmaps would work for me, except that the map download / management capabilities seem to be way behind OsmAnd.
However I really like all the different maps available on Oruxmaps.

And working out a complex route on all of these socks compared to the newer Garmins I have.


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