[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

... On return, when I tried the reverse track - it literally reversed it! It started guiding me to drive on the right side of the road! ...

Are you sure? What instructions was it issuing for you to take the right side of the road?

[Waxeloquent]

I had subscribed for a 2 year update plan for my Blaupunkt Travelpilot Lucca 3.5B from
MMI. This was in Sep 2013, got one update to version8.0. Now version 8.1 is out but not for my Device. They said the file sizes are large. I told them that it was unfair and they should refund.
After some haggling they have assured will refund approx Rs1300. I had paid Rs1750.

Now the question is how to enhance the life or future proof these GPS devices that they last
at least say 5 years with necessary map updates? My present GPS just lasted 4 years. Or
smart phones the only way to go (not that their longevity is any better) with Google maps?

All ideas welcome. Still looking at Garmin with life time map update assurance. Then, when the device is outdated, the map updates go out of window, rt?

Thanks n cheers

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Are you sure? What instructions was it issuing for you to take the right side of the road?

Here you go. Notice the direction of black arrows.

Onward journey -


Return journey -

[sgiitk]

Just got a message from Garmin that map update 2014.10 is available.

[tsk1979]

Unfortunately, its a bug. That is the issue.
If the map is loaded onto osmand, I suggest you just give it start and end points, and let it calculate the route, rather than the GPX.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by Waxeloquent

... Blaupunkt Travelpilot Lucca 3.5B from
MMI. This was in Sep 2013, got one update to version8.0. Now version 8.1 is out but not for my Device. They said the file sizes are large. ...

Funny reason IMHO. Europe map is about 3GB, so 'too large' is a very strange expression. MMI India map is <1GB. The most likely reason would be that their relationship with Blaupunkt for map updates must be off (nothing comes for free in this world, na).

You can still force MMI to supply an update for you, since you have paid for the maps *with* updates.

Originally Posted by Waxeloquent

... Still looking at Garmin with life time map update assurance. Then, when the device is outdated, the map updates go out of window, rt? ...

I have a Garmin 260W since 2007, and have not had problems of map updates so far.

Why worry about map updates? The old map doesn't become dysfunctional or irrelevant, does it? The places in the old map will still be there where they were. What you may not get is new areas which
a. were not mapped by MMI in their previous version, and have now been mapped (99% of the updates are this type) or
b. could be new areas that have come up. New roads take much much longer to show up on maps, and they don't come up more often than 5-10 years (the roads are made by the Govt., not MMI)

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Here you go. Notice the direction of black arrows. ...

That is that problem of OSMand, not anything else. And the fact that you have presented it a GPS track, and not asked it to find a route for you between 2 points.

Notice that you have driven by a road that had a clear median with very few gaps in the median. Technically these are treated as 2 1-way roads parallel to each other. OSMand conveniently assumed that if the road you came by was a valid road, and you can go back the same way. So what? Most of India thinks the same for their convenience whenever they encounter 1-way roads. Just j/k!

GPX tracks are just a series of geo-coordinates defining a route, and nothing more. When presented with a GPX track to show route, OSMand is *not figuring out a route for you* - it is just showing the sequence of the points (whose geo-coordinates appear in the GPX track) on the map, with the sequence superimposed as those black (split) arrows. When you told it to reverse the route, it did exactly the same - reverse the sequence. You are wrongly crediting intelligence to it.

That shows up another lacunae: OSMand doesn't bother about 1-way data stored in its map data (the grey small arrows shown on the road) *unless* the map data is used for navigation queries. That is, if given GPS tracks, it ignores map data niceties such as 1-ways. You just have to ignore the idiosyncrasies of OSMand if you are not using native navigation capabilities of OSMand.

[Waxeloquent]

DerAlte thanks. Yes I still manage with his version of MMI map given that most locations are only approximates and the last mile is covered by conversing with the man on street there
The only reason for looking at a Garmin device is essentially to replace the lemon I bought
in the Blaupunkt Travelpilot in 2008/9 without adequate research. Thanks again, Cheers

[ampere]

Originally Posted by Waxeloquent

DerAlte thanks. Yes I still manage with his version of MMI map given that most locations are only approximates and the last mile is covered by conversing with the man on street there
The only reason for looking at a Garmin device is essentially to replace the lemon I bought
in the Blaupunkt Travelpilot in 2008/9 without adequate research. Thanks again, Cheers

My take : If you are looking for a new device, check out the Garmin 24XX series. Basic model with some amount of trip planning which you can do.

I bought one last year end. And thanks to holiday season, I got good discounts too. As DerAlte said even I have a Nuvi 205W. Its been working well for about 4 years.
No issues with Map Updates. The device is simple effective and extremely functional. It just needs to be put to good use.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Unfortunately, its a bug. That is the issue.
If the map is loaded onto osmand, I suggest you just give it start and end points, and let it calculate the route, rather than the GPX.

Originally Posted by DerAlte

That is that problem of OSMand, not anything else. And the fact that you have presented it a GPS track, and not asked it to find a route for you between 2 points.

Thanks. Now that I think about it, yes, feeding the gpx routes might be the issue. It simply reversed the route through the same points. It was not much of a problem as I was familier with the area and was primarily just testing this functionality.

As a workaround, I guess, I will have to reverse the direction on gmaps itself and then export it as a separate gpx. That should do.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Just got a message from Garmin that map update 2014.10 is available.

Had a bad time updating. Seems the new avatar of FF blocks Garmin Communicator without telling you. My son had managed nicely on his Win 8.1 lappy with Chrome. I had trouble on both my 8.1 lappy and my 7 desktop. Finally installed Chrome and it went through smoothly. You must click on the Map Update graphic, and then follow through. There are reports on IE 11 not working at all (at least in Win 8.1). Chrome did indicate the attempt of the system to block Garmin Communicator and I had to allow it through.

Garmin Express is a waste of time and effort since it looks at the US site which does not have the map. Only other thing, as usual remove the (u)SD card.

[anujmishra]

Friends, in couple of months I will be going for very long drive and I am in need of GPS for my car. Till now, I have been using Satguide map on Chinese WIN CE based device, but I am quite unsatisfied with Satguide map and I would like to upgrade.

I am in dilemma between these two options that I have:

Option 1: Get a decent dedicated MapMyIndia navigator under Rs. 12000 - Rs. 13000 budget. There are couple of models coming with Bluetooth hands-free & AV-in features.

Option 2: Get the Samsung Tab 3 with 3G and use Sygic, Google even other paid apps for navigation. This will double as trip PC cum browsing device along with navigator. But, I am little apprehensive about it size of 7 inch screen.


Which among these two options is good? Even, I am open to other navigators (Garmin, TomTom etc.) provided they provide reliable & comprehensive maps. I would not prefer Satguide map / device anymore. Please suggest.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Which among these two options is good? Even, I am open to other navigators (Garmin, TomTom etc.) provided they provide reliable & comprehensive maps. I would not prefer Satguide map / device anymore. Please suggest.

The Best is Garmin GPS Device with a Map My India maps. As an alternative Samsung tab running Sygic is also find because Sygic will again used MMI maps.

But please make a high level route plan of how your route plan would be. Things like:

- Marking exits from Highwways
- Marking break points
- Marking bypasses etc.

These are the things which are not used as constraints to the GPS device and hence you get a different route, which may/may not be a good one.

Hence a high level plan is a must and the GPS should work towards implementing it rather than suggesting its own most of the time.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Friends, in couple of months I will be going for very long drive and I am in need of GPS for my car. Till now, I have been using Satguide map on Chinese WIN CE based device, but I am quite unsatisfied with Satguide map and I would like to upgrade.

I am in dilemma between these two options that I have:

Option 1: Get a decent dedicated MapMyIndia navigator under Rs. 12000 - Rs. 13000 budget. There are couple of models coming with Bluetooth hands-free & AV-in features.

Option 2: Get the Samsung Tab 3 with 3G and use Sygic, Google even other paid apps for navigation. This will double as trip PC cum browsing device along with navigator. But, I am little apprehensive about it size of 7 inch screen.


Which among these two options is good? Even, I am open to other navigators (Garmin, TomTom etc.) provided they provide reliable & comprehensive maps. I would not prefer Satguide map / device anymore. Please suggest.

I would suggest an android tablet with 3G. I have given up on google maps - it is quite crappy. Inside chennai city it often misses telling me whether to get on the flyover or not, whereas Sygic drives you half mad, telling you to stay right even when you're on an urban expressway - it always shows the correct thing to do.

Garmin etc are much nicer- in the US, it even shows you the kind of signboards coming up, and an arrow indicates which lane you need to be in. That kind of navigation guidance is awesome. Google maps is just not even close.

BUT - you should use a tablet because practically google has all the addresses today. So searching for an address is brilliant in google maps. Hence I use google maps for last-mile searches and Sygic for everything else. The heads up display (?) in sygic/garmin is much better than google for some reason.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Option 1: Get a decent dedicated MapMyIndia navigator under Rs. 12000 - Rs. 13000 budget. There are couple of models coming with Bluetooth hands-free & AV-in features.

Option 2: Get the Samsung Tab 3 with 3G and use Sygic, Google even other paid apps for navigation. This will double as trip PC cum browsing device along with navigator. But, I am little apprehensive about it size of 7 inch screen.


Which among these two options is good? Even, I am open to other navigators (Garmin, TomTom etc.) provided they provide reliable & comprehensive maps. I would not prefer Satguide map / device anymore. Please suggest.

I do not think there is any point of a dedicate device
A tablet with 7" screen can be mounted in the car easily. You can use sygic which is actually mapmyindia maps. In cities where you have 3G connection you have the power of google with traffic data allowing you to avoid congested routes.
On highways where network coverage is spotty, just go with sygic or even openstreetmap based products.

Just like mobile phones made the alarm clock obsolete, tablets at 10K price range are making dedicated PNDs obsolete.

[anujmishra]

Originally Posted by ampere

But please make a high level route plan of how your route plan would be. Things like:
...

I agree with you 100%. Without making high level plan it is very difficult to trust entirely on GPS device. I always carry Eicher India Map book along with me. I had many bad experience with Satguide map when I was directed to wrong road at intersection in middle of traffic chaos.

The place where I need GPS device most is some unknown intersection in unknown city. Even with many plans, prior offline study of route maps all of those roads look same and could not able to figure out which road I should take. At that point of time GPS should help.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

I would suggest an android tablet with 3G.
...

Even, I am little inclined towards Tab option as it can provide many use during trips. Number of devices piling up in home and it is good to have multi-feature devices than dedicated device.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

I do not think there is any point of a dedicate device

Absolutely, agree with you. There are number of devices piling up and after some time it become headache to manage or even use individually. I am inclining towards Samsung Tab-3 with 3G (7-inch model). The best part of Tablet as you also mentioned is having multi option at any given point of time.