[agbenny]

I am just thinking of a GPS tracking, But I am not sure how useful it would be, as I know most of the roads in Tamilnadu, and I hardly travel outside the state. In the city I live too is not a big deal for me, Let me know if I will be missing something without it.
Seeking your opinion before I invest and load a feature.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by agbenny

I am just thinking of a GPS tracking, But I am not sure how useful it would be, as I know most of the roads in Tamilnadu, and I hardly travel outside the state. In the city I live too is not a big deal for me, Let me know if I will be missing something without it.
Seeking your opinion before I invest and load a feature.

We actually will never need a GPS assist as in most cases some or the other will us out on road. Its a growing culture I would say (even I own one). The situation where it helps is to bypass big cities, during long drives and finding hotels, ATM location near by etc. From that point of view its pretty useful.

Also it adds to the comfort level that you are on the right track.

[Thad E Ginathom]

If it comes for free, say, on your phone, then it is there should you want it. If you know the roads so well, though, there is no point at all in buying this particular gadget: save your money and spend on a different one!

[agbenny]

Originally Posted by ampere

We actually will never need a GPS assist as in most cases some or the other will us out on road. Its a growing culture I would say (even I own one). The situation where it helps is to bypass big cities, during long drives and finding hotels, ATM location near by etc. From that point of view its pretty useful.

Also it adds to the comfort level that you are on the right track.

Thanks for the feedback. May me I should postpone the idea of buying it till my next inter state trip.

[Sutripta]

Does anyone know the format used by the MMI RoadPilot for logging tracks. It is a 48 byte per record binary (.bin) file, which is huge and should be containing satellite information and H/ VDoP, but their conversion to .kml strips it of even time and altitude.

MMI does not reply to technical queries. Took them three months to reply to a commercial/ registration related one.

Regards
Sutripta

[bj96]

Last Sunday, used the Garmin + Satnav India map to find my way from Keshavnagar- Mundhwa to Rajiv Gandhi Zoo (Snake Park), Katraj in Pune. I was not completely familiar with the route. Satnav got me there in ~17kms w/o ever asking the direction from anyone on the road. Some of the streets and alleys that I drove through, were 1st time for me. Nicely mapped

[smsrini]

Originally Posted by agbenny

Thanks for the feedback. May me I should postpone the idea of buying it till my next inter state trip.

Am using a Garmin+SatNav maps in the car, wife has a Nokia 5230 which has nokia maps+GPS and I use a HTC legend, which runs android, so google maps..

If you've not yet purchased a GPS device, and are only an occassional user, then just buy a smart phone, which has GPS. best would be a phone that uses/shows google maps, but the nokia 5230 is a steal at its pricepoint.

The google maps on HTC show POIs as well..

Havent run a side-by-side comparo yet.. but intend to do so sometime soon.

[deky]

I have ordered Satnav maps for a price of 990/- (shipping, taxes all included). They have promised 1 upgrade free within a year. Will be shipped by this Saturday.

Now have to wait till someone is coming from USA to get me my Garmin 205W. For the total cost of rs 5220/- (gps+maps) I think its a good deal.

Regards

[MX6]

How Moronic can MX6 be?
I tried cleaning up the clutter in my netbook. Never sit on your computer after 3 am if you are finding it hard to sleep. In that delirium, I started creating folders and moving things to organize the folder structure better.
Seldom did I realise that like a moron, I went ahead and moved files of Mapsource, cgpsmapper, blah blah blah.
Next time I tried to import my gpx files from garmin to netbook, mapsource wouldn't open.
I had to un-install which was a bigger issue because I'd moved files.
With much difficulty, I cleaned the system, just kept two folders (one for Mapsource and another for gpx log files) under garmin folder. Re-installed Mapsource, imported my One India map from the sd card, broke them to map tiles, made them readable for mapsource, unlocked them and what not?
Finally my Mapsource runs and shows the India map. I don't have the energy to do the same with my EU and UK maps (will do that after a gazillion years as I don't need them now).
Good thing is that Google earth in my netbook opens and reads GPX (while my laptop doesn't and throws an error). So I can again create custom POIs, gpx, even maps and import them to mapsource and make them garmin readable yet again!
And I can also open my gpx on mapsource and make logs, convert to any format.

Coming to Satnav vs MMI, couple of things I found in Satnav maps.
It found Grishneshwar temple and navigated turn by turn without any issues on my recent trip.
Upon reaching there, I understood that place wasn't grishneshwar temple, but a view point of the valley below from behind Aurangazeb's tomb. So the poi marking grishneshwar temple is wrong! Surprisingly the route it took that point supposed to be grishneshwar was inch by inch correct. I found a remarkable view point though!
Another point was that when one navigates in dense places like Ujjain, please don't depend on Satnav maps to navigate you. It showed be the perfect route from ujjain to Indore. After proceeding 1 odd kilometer, I found that the route ended in a lane smaller than what can accomodate my car. Too late. There's a big rock in the front bang in the middle of the junction of my lane to the main road which can't be moved at all. And reversing on that slope over someone else's house entrance step wasn't an option with the distance between the open gutter and my wheels being hardly couple of inches on either side.
Soon with the help of some locals, I managed to put some stones on the open gutter, much to the chagrin of the residents of that area (they used the same stones to cover the gutter near their house and we removed them) and managed to extricate my car without a crane thru that narrow lane with a minor scrape on my front right bumper (due to the big rock bang on the middle).
Satnav has no means to say whether that lane is wide enough for your car!

And yes, one more important thing. This is where the POI loader will be of great help where we can make custom POIs. When I reached Dhule, satnav showed me the nearest restaurant to be at Ellora (I left ellora to go to Dhule) followed by Nasik!
So their claims of 20 lakh poi looks very attractive, but for the fact that when you are desperately looking for coffee in Dhule, it suggests place 80 kms away! One can't map every hotel, but I'd have appreciated had they pointed out atleast 5 restaurants in every city (the 725 cities that's mapped). Having 10000 restaurants in Mumbai of 30 in Nasik is of no use. Next to do is to experiment on the POI loader so that I can check things on google and create custom pois and load them in my garmin before every trip. So much to do and so little time, and did I hear some one saying will navigators be of any use to me, as I know the roads very well!
My weekend work is defined now. Lonavala and khandala trip. spend 2 hours each day, working on HVK's trip logs and importing to my garmin. Also work on the poi loader!

[Newpunter]

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to ask this question, but has anyone used the Route 66 software supplied with Samsung Phones? I'm planning to buy a Samsung phone soon with GPS and want to find out if this navigation software is any good at all.

[Digital Vampire]

Got this promotional offer via email from Satguide. Here is the Offer Link

[sajo]

I am contemplating buying a basic PND device, map accuracy being my priority.
I am exploring 2 options, have a Garmin Nuvi 205W (Amazon : 89$) shipped to a friend in the US who will cart it down for me, and I buy the VFM Satnav maps.
The other is buying the MMI Roadpilot here.
Problem is my preliminary check of the Satnav maps (City Names, SatGuide) , which I assume they will be using in their maps with POI and found them to be not very accurate. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Which option is better WRT accuracy ?

[cool_dube]

Originally Posted by smsrini

If you've not yet purchased a GPS device, and are only an occassional user, then just buy a smart phone, which has GPS.

Please be aware that this setup is COMPLETELY dependent on n/w (GPRS) coverage unless you can find a way (and your phone has enough memory) to locally host map tiles.

Originally Posted by deky

Now have to wait till someone is coming from USA to get me my Garmin 205W

You can try Shop in the US from India @ 20North - Millions of products, Thousands of brands - I got my Garmin 205W through them - on time delivery in impeccable condition, albeit at an extra cost.

[smsrini]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Please be aware that this setup is COMPLETELY dependent on n/w (GPRS) coverage unless you can find a way (and your phone has enough memory) to locally host map tiles.

My understanding is that the recent models like the nokia 5230, HTC legend and other higher end touch/smart phones, have inbuilt GPS antennas as well, so function in what is know as the A-GPS or assisted GPS mode. So if there is no satellite connectivity, then the device relies on the GSM/ GPRS network to provide a location fix and thereafter routing etc. ,

Experts may please comment/ correct.

regards
Srinivas

[sgiitk]

@smsrini: I have a Nokia 5230 - it takes ages to lock. 10 minutes outdoors is normal. Also, Nokia maps are rubbish. So I use Google Maps instead. My son has an htc Hero - locks fast and with Google Maps works like a dream. he was in Bangalore and moving all over the place with no hassle. The maps were in real time, and also aware of one way streets, and recomputed if you missed a turn off. To save on bills he even turned off Google maps after downloading the relevant bit.