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- - Why take a GPS? (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/navigation-maps-compass-gps/why-take-a-gps-51917)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bertrand (Post 301751)

in a word... yes!:smiliex:

(but if you mean you have the Garmin GPSMAP 640 ? - have you switched to automotive mode from marine?)

Nope I mean what I say 1640WT satnav.

Quote:

Originally Posted by backofbeyond (Post 301756)

Every £50 entry level sat nav that you can buy from Halfords will do exactly that. It's exactly what they are built to do.

I'm running TomTom software on a PDA (Mio P550) and it has taken me all over Europe doing exactly that. You start it up and in a minute or so it knows where it is. Tell it where you want to go - you can enter a postcode (I only have the UK postcode database), an address or you can click on a point on the map. It will then calculate a route - either the shortest or the quickest (you choose) and if there are toll roads it will ask you whether you want to use them or not.

If you stray off the route it will recalculate automatically without getting in a strop and with a few free add-ons it'll tell you where just about anything you want is and take you there - stuff like hotels, supermarkets, landmarks etc - including speed cameras. It will do this all over Western Europe, or other places if you have the maps. It cost me £70 for the software (I already had the PDA).

If you decide that the routing function makes things too easy you can switch that bit off and just have the "you are here" moving map bit on the screen. At night or in poor vis you can use that part as a poor mans night vision system. You can see when the sharp bends are coming up on the screen long before you can see things in the headlight.

It may well do that in the UK where postcodes nearly equate to houses. My postcode in France is a 10 mile radius circle.

Tom Tom (and most others) seem to work much better than Garmin.
With the Garmin I mostly had to have the lat/long in order to navigate to somewhere.
for instance my home.. Le Frene 79200 Viennay. you can't find it on a garmin. Neither could I find my friends village 'le gros chataignier' or the small town of 'pussy' in eastern France.
Maybe you can do better ?
How do you obtain update and at what cost ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldbmw (Post 301833)

My French postcode, 38750, covers the whole town as well! Just to check if I was talking cr*p in my last post I timed how long it took to locate our French address before I started this reply. Navigating to it with the TomTom software took just over 20 secs. It also found both Le Frene and Le Gros Chataignier in a similar time - around 30 secs each.

I've always has a feeling that TomTom was better in Europe and Garmin in the States but thought that while it may have been like that years ago, they must be much of a muchness now. Maybe not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldbmw (Post 301831)

Nope I mean what I say 1640WT satnav.

hmmmm - I am trying to help you but I cannot seem to identify your unit :confused1:....and I just called Garmin UK and they can't either doh. The mystery thickens!

Can you pm me its serial number? then we'll be able to figure out the best/cheapest way for you to get what you need-
Continue in private msg - cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldbmw (Post 301748)

So in Two weeks time I am off across France, Italy and Austria to eastern Europe with a £12 map.

What I want is a device that will navigate me to a destination, avoid Peages and recalculate the route if I stray from its preferred route. Without the need for days of online downloads.

While I would certainly keep the map, I think that that doing that kind of trip with only such a map is a real shame, as such maps do not show the smallest roads, which are most interesting to me. On the other hand, the GPS is perfect for directing you to your destination over even the smallest roads, even dirt roads.

I have the Garmin maps and have used them extensively in Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, and Spain. They are certainly not perfect (some towns missing, directing me down a 15km dead-end gravel road, etc.) but I really enjoy riding with them. The only exception was the Garmin map of Morocco, which was a complete waste.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bertrand (Post 301920)

I returned it Bertrand, after spending two weeks online over a period of 6-7 weeks trying to get it to install the maps.

The company 'Satnav easy' were very good about it and i can recommend them. It took five weeks to get any response from Garmin themselves. and they werent any help even then. Satnaveasy took it back without a murmur.
I know I can find my home and the other addresses with a tom tom, but I could not with the Garmin. Of the first 5 places I tried to find, 4 failed. Someone on this forum managed to find a way to find one of those places, but not the other three. I was not trying to trick the machine into failing, was genuinely trying to plan a route. The place it could find was Ouistreham. (ferry port). The place that was tricky (ten minutes to find) was St jean pied de port.

I have deleted the 20GB or so of crap from Garmin and all the correspondence as I dont want to be reminded of it. Butthe model was a 16 or 1340WT 4,3" screen , supposedly with 2010 maps etc pre installed. I have non broadband connection so the downloads if they could actually complete (their server cuts you off after about 10-14 hours) still did not work as the files arrived locked and Garmin just kept telling me to spend another day or three downloading it again.
I would ONLY now buy a device that came with downloads on media, be it memory stick, dvd or whatever.

Update, I just found the invoice. Sorry wrong model.
It was a Nuivi 765WT FM Uk & Europe serial number 1AH072423

I used to find my way all over Europe with an A5 atlas and just hoped that when I got to a city, someone would know where the address that I wanted was and that I'd understand their directions.
I now have a Zumo 550 and a little Geko201 but still like to look at a paper map and do a little route card just in case the Sat Nav has a hissy-fit. Also, they sometimes take you on some pretty daft routes.

A paper map gives a better overview of the area you are travelling and you might see something near your route that is worth a detour. I find GPS gives me "tunnel vision".

Quote:

Originally Posted by HillbillyWV (Post 300139)

...
Why take a GPS?
...

Huh...! Never given it much thought :confused1:. I've been using GPS since the mid '90 in general aviation. Just like flying, you don't depend on it solely. But, it's convenient to have. No more and no less...

The world will keep turning without it too...:biggrin3: