[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by kartikk

A pic would help, and I think not all of us have a quarter glass in the front.

I am afraid I am back so no pic possible. I said he has the City (Mk.III) which has a fixed quarter glass. I will check out in my Civic one of these days. If it works out then a pic is promised!

[architect]

Originally Posted by Damu

Till this time, I was not too satisfied with the Garmin/SatGuide, but when this incident took place I realised it's really useful when travelling in an unfamiliar place. And, the voice instructions are most useful in heavy traffic.

Once I drove nearly 60 km extra in the middle of the night (alone as usual) because I missed the turn-off towards Manali after Ropar. Indian highways have a habit of having the most insignificant intersections for major highways.

That night, I decided that the GPS unit was worth the Rs 7,990/- (the MMI Blaupunkt Lucca).

As far as intra-city is concerned, my knowledge of Delhi-NCR is fairly good and I almost never even carry the GPS unit with me.

Once in a while, it has been fun to carry the GPS unit even within the city. Also, the GPS is an excellent compass with which I often verify the North Points when I go to a new site. Similarly, I also use GPS to prove wrong the claims made by Developers about distances of their sites (just 10 km from Delhi-Noida border actually works out to be 13 km!).

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Damu

Now I'm very glad I bought this combo. The only drawback is that I can't load routes into the device from my PC.

BTW, I copied the tracks for the two flyovers not updated in the SatGuide August 2010 version and sent it to SatGuide. They have forwarded to their concerned department.

On that thing, I was just thinking,can we fool the hardware to make a route look like track log? If so, we can see the marking (because we can load a tracklog and the device would recognize).

[vnabhi]

We drove down to Atlantic City yesterday and stopped at Costo, Delaware for some shopping.

I saw that they'd slashed the price of the Garmin 265WT to $115 including the carry pouch. A week back it was 140 USD for the same combo.

It was too diffucult to resist, and added to that was the fact that Delaware is a tax-free state. So I took the plunge and bought it. I'll need to order a friction mount separately on Amazon.

I'm eager to try it out this weekend on my pal's car.

Thanks to all of you who've poured in your suggestions.

Cheers!

[Damu]

Originally Posted by architect

...Indian highways have a habit of having the most insignificant intersections for major highways.

Very true!

Originally Posted by ampere

On that thing, I was just thinking,can we fool the hardware to make a route look like track log? If so, we can see the marking (because we can load a tracklog and the device would recognize).

Seems logical Amp because I save my tracks and reload a particular track if needed so it shows up as a blue line and I follow that. You're the expert, let me know! I will also try this.

Meanwhile, could you throw some light on the speeds recorded (268kmph, etc.)? I'm stumped by that.
.

[vnabhi]

Here are a few pics of my new Garmin. Waiting with bated breath to test it.





The accessories include the below (except the white circular temperature guage)

[tsk1979]

Good choice. Its actually one of the best under 100$ GPS units money can buy.
I was also thinking of upgrading my mio, but then I realized that the freedom I have with a fully unlocked Mio C320 is not going to come from a non Windows CE device!

[sgiitk]

Great vnabhi. Make sure you register on Garmin and then upgrade the firmware if required asap. Should take about 10 minutes. Remember for a few minutes the display seems to be stuck - wait for it to respond.

[amitoj]

Finally got hold of an adapter at daylight robbery price, took out MMI and plugged in SatNav.
So far i dont see much differences, except that Hosur Road is NH-7 and Garmin calls it New Hampshire 7.

[ampere]

Folks, Google maps are so pervasive, when someone mentioned, Microsoft maps, I was thinking, do they have one?

Then I realized they are also very good (initial impression). Called Bing Maps.
Then I realized, out side city, they did not have anything to display
Any experiences so far?

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Good choice. Its actually one of the best under 100$ GPS units money can buy.
I was also thinking of upgrading my mio, but then I realized that the freedom I have with a fully unlocked Mio C320 is not going to come from a non Windows CE device!

Thanks Tanveer. I guess you are also in the US now, am i right?

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Great vnabhi. Make sure you register on Garmin and then upgrade the firmware if required asap. Should take about 10 minutes. Remember for a few minutes the display seems to be stuck - wait for it to respond.

Yes, I did register the same day, but will still need to get the free map update.

Regarding the initial display when it acquires satellite positions, I could not do it from inside my apartment, though I could charge it using the USB. So i had to walk out at 0 deg C temperature to a park opposite my apartment (with only sandals on my feet--ouch!!).

But despite spending 10 freezing minutes, it did not hook on, perhaps owing to 10-storeyed buildings all around. So I walked the following day to the vast open space between the White House and the Washington Monument and it hooked on pretty fast!

For the moment, my co-ordinates match those of Obama

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Yes, I did register the same day, but will still need to get the free map update.

Regarding the initial display when it acquires satellite positions, I could not do it from inside my apartment, though I could charge it using the USB. ....So I walked the following day to the vast open space between the White House and the Washington Monument and it hooked on pretty fast!

All GPS units take some time to acquire the initial lock - need more satellites. Once locked on they are pretty good. The only GPS I even had trouble was the one in my wife's Nokia 5230. In Ladakh, standing on a wide open space did not lock on for 10 minutes. I wanted to find the Altitude of where we were. Happened two or three times.

I wish to record here that my MapMyIndia [MMI] Lx130 navigator guided me properly during 95% of my 18-day, 6148-km long mega trip spanning across 7 states of India. However, it misguided me at Udaipur while going on NH 76 both during the up and down journeys.

While going from Ahmedabad to Jaipur, I wanted to change from NH 8 to NH 76 at Udaipur to go via Chittaurgarh, Bhilwara and Kishangarh [NH 76/79] to rejoin at NH 8 again to Jaipur. My MMI Lx130 recommended the same route. But, while entering NH 76 at Udaipur, it got confused and advised me to take a U turn! Added to this, there were no signages indicating Chittaurgarh after exiting Udaipur on NH 76. So, I too got confused and obeyed my MMI navigator's commands! After some distance, we asked some truck drivers, who suggested to take NH 8 so that both distance and toll could be saved! But, when we asked for the route for Chittaurgarh, they pointed the same NH 76 from which I took U turn earlier. Then, again I took one more U turn and continued on the same NH 76. When we crossed a few km after the Udaipur airport road junction, I found a signage indicating Chittaurgarh. I heaved a sigh of relief and continued.

In the return journey, while coming from Jodhpur to Udiapur, again my MMI navigator confused me on the same NH 76. It remained silent while we crossed the exit ramp for Udaipur! But, we had our own doubts and enquired an old man and he guided to me to take double U turns to get to that particular exit ramp. Here also, there was no signage indicating Udaipur near the exit ramp!

I had some pleasant surprises too. In October this year, I upgraded to the new MMI map version 5.0. So, while in Mumbai, when we wanted to go from our Oritel Service Apartment, Andheri [E] to Marine Drive, it recommended Jogeshwari - Vikhroli Link Road to reach the Western Expressway. In March this year, during our previous trip to Mumbai, it recommended the congested Andheri - Kurla Road to reach the Western Expressway from the same Oritel. During this visit, I didn't have an opportunity to drive on that congested Andheri - Kurla Road, thanks to the upgradation to the new map version 5.0!

On the whole, my MMI Lx130 once again proved it was my friend, philosopher and guide [well, for most of the times!].

[sgiitk]

In my experience in local driving the GPS can be a bit iffy. For example the algorithm says NH <choice A> SH <choice B> and then Local Roads . Now there are places where the NH or SH has become the market, so you must choose the local roads. No GPS can do this for you.

[deky]

Guys, I got the following mail from satguide. Maybe it will help someone here on this forum

Regards

Hi,
Watch our Buddy video on YouTube! Send us an email on satguide@satnavtech.com with a one liner on what you liked about it. Get Rs. 1000 voucher, no contest, no draws etc!
Do pass this email to family and friends too. For every additional member who enrolls and refers your name, you can get an additional voucher of Rs. 500 to redeem on SatGuide: The best GPS Navigation Software and System providers in India !

This is the buddy video on you tube

YouTube - satguide's Channel