[quickdraw]

I am extremely sorry for including outside images in my post, I was not aware of the rule. And can assure you it will not happen again.

[suman]

The Unit was delivered to my Office on the 31st evening but I was out of town. Colected it on my way back on the 2nd evening. Navigated my way around Gurgaon the next couple of days & must say it was pretty accurate. Ditto for the 25 kms route to my kids school in Chanakyapuri. Will be joining back work tomorrow so will test out a little more extensively on the Delhi side.

I'm quite impressed by the unbelievable number of POIs in all the categories - most residential buildings that I know of in Gurgaon are covered. The Route recalculation has also worked well so far - we've had a ball going off the regular route just to see how it works & its worked as per expectations, except maybe a couple of occasions.

There are some instances where it appears to be relying on old directions, I guess informing them will lead to it being corrected. Initial start up time varies according to where you are - much shorter out in the open as opposed to starting in the garage & then coming out. So far it hasn't gone off under flyovers but again, I guess it depends on your transit time through the section - not sure if it would go off if one's stuck in traffic under a flyover.

All in all, I think its been a great purchase - at this price, its great VFM & a damn good deal I'd say........cheers:.

[bhp]

i got my voxtel device a scratch guard for 325/-

[unni.ak]

Took a week’s leave from office and went to my hometown (Alleppey, Kerala). This was the first time that I was using the GPS Unit (PND) outside of Bangalore city limits. I took Hosur – Thoppur – Mettur – Coimbatore – Cochin route for the onward journey and Cochin – Coimbatore – Salem – Hosur on my way back.

For the onward journey, I decided on taking the Mettur route (which I’ve never tried before), placing my confidence on PND. Bangalore to Thoppur was mapped perfect except for the new stretches of 4lane roads that have come up, and so was the right turn from Thoppur for Mettur. Once I was on the Mettur road, the maps started disappearing in intervals. There were lots of stretches when the car position was shown off the road, infact I kept getting a message that my current position was not near any road, and all the while I was driving towards Mettur. I had to rely on locals and sign boards for most of the way till Bhavani. Once back on NH47, the GPS again plotted me on road and was accurate, except for some new stretches of 4lane.

Things went on smooth till Edapally; the route suggested was one which took me through Cochin City. Instead, I took the Vytilla bye-pass road and found that the stretch from just after Vytilla to Arror was missing in the maps. This is a big miss on the part of Sat Guide, since the mentioned road has been around for more than 10years and is a major route, which bye-passes the city. From Aroor onwards, it was mapped again.

Two days later, I had to make a trip to Trivandrum and the route suggested by the unit, took me to Karunagapally and then onto Pathanapuram. Weird, I know. Instead of sticking on to NH47, it directed me to state highways and such. Again, I found that the maps are not plotted correct. Many a times, I found the car position on the unit to be no where near a road. A trip to Chengannur from Alleppey also had the same issue, roads are not plotted correct. I seriously feel that Sat Guide needs to calibrate the road coordinates again for these areas.

On the way back to Bangalore, since I took the Salem route, maps were accurate, barring some of the new 4lanes and a few stretches.

Reflection of sun light on the screen was a pain, and so was spelling mistakes of some areas en-route. Altitude is displayed only if you have a route plotted, in free map browsing it is not displayed. For anyone using the device, I’d suggest that it’d be better if you feed in the way points, rather than the final destination in one go. For example, if your route is Bangalore - Hosur – Thoppur – Mettur – Coimbatore – Cochin – Alleppey, it’d be better to plot a route to Thoppur, and from there to Coimbatore and so on.

If there is some detail that you’d like to know, please feel free.

[emkay456]

Unni, Thanks for the update regarding Kerala mapping. So what is your view after this long trip ?? Is it worth it to go in for the device ?
From a purely POI angle, GPS may be more of use isnt it, how did Kerala fare from this angle ?

[unni.ak]

Originally Posted by emkay456

Unni, Thanks for the update regarding Kerala mapping. So what is your view after this long trip ?? Is it worth it to go in for the device ?
From a purely POI angle, GPS may be more of use isnt it, how did Kerala fare from this angle ?

I think it's worth. If your travel involves unknown roads, then this is a good buy. In my case if my first priority use for GPS was to travel to my home town, it doesn't make sense, since I know the roads well. Even though roads in south Kerala are not well plotted, road maps inside the city for Cochin, Trivandrum and some towns are accurate. The device is more of a guide, and should not be seen as something which will always give you the right road plots or directions.

POIs are exhaustive for major cities. Infact, one thing which I didn't check was the POI listing when I was in Kerala. Missed on that, so'll not be able to help you on that.

[hrman]

Guys, I got my Voxtel delivered to me when I was in Mumbai on 4th Jan 09. The Bluedart guy came twice it seems an returned back. Finally got them to call me and confirm before coming. I paid Rs.541/- towards Octroi.

It is a compact unit, with easy to use navigation keys.
I tested it once while driving in Bangalore from RT Nagar to Nagawara. Seemed pretty accurate, except at the start of the Hebbal flyover (near police station) where it asked me to go from the left detour instead of up the flyover, and when I took the flyover, asked me to take a right in the middle of the flyover.

My second trip was from RTN to Indira nagar.Although I knew the direction,I decided to follow the map blindly and it took me from some nooks and corner gullies. Turn directions were pretty accurate even in the small roads. There was a point where it asked me to take a No-Entry road, near Fraser town policy chowky. When I took the right, it recalculated correctly and showed the correct route. There was also a point when it asked me to take an under-construction flyover. But it was pretty quick in recalculating routes and keeping me on track. I did reach my destination with its guidance. On the way back decided to come via ORR and the device kept recalculating routes.
I am keen to try this out when driving down to Chennai.
On the whole, its pretty worth it and my first impression has been good. Wanted to find out how accurate MMI maps are.

[bigman]

Originally Posted by unni.ak

I think it's worth. If your travel involves unknown roads, then this is a good buy. In my case if my first priority use for GPS was to travel to my home town, it doesn't make sense, since I know the roads well. Even though roads in south Kerala are not well plotted, road maps inside the city for Cochin, Trivandrum and some towns are accurate. The device is more of a guide, and should not be seen as something which will always give you the right road plots or directions.

Excellent point. Do not rely on these units blindly. Since satnav became popular there have been numerous incidents/accidents in the UK due to people following them without using their common sense. These include cars getting stuck on railway lines, driving into canal, heavy goods vehicles going into one lane coutry/rural lanes etc etc.

[quickdraw]

I recently got a chance to see one of these, and was a bit taken aback by the build. As you guys having any kind of hardware issues with these? Do you leave them in the car or take them with you when you park it?

[bigman]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

I recently got a chance to see one of these, and was a bit taken aback by the build. As you guys having any kind of hardware issues with these? Do you leave them in the car or take them with you when you park it?

You should take them with you. Why leave presents for a thief ? its easier to break a window and steal one of these units than stealing a car. Thieves will watch people parking from a distance and see if they put things in the glovebox/boot.

Also guys the latest mapmyindia (miomap) offering works fine on the Voxtel units. Whether they are accurate is another matter. 2 minute job to get miomaps working on these generic units if you have a spare SD card.

[bhp]

My Voxtel X430 device is not working since a couple of days...

It is not detecting satellite signals at all...i am in touch with the technical guys at satguide on the phone since 3 days but couldnt yet solve the problem...they asked me to delete and re-install the software which i did thrice but no luck...they also send me a upgraded map by e-mail which i installed but yet device not working...

So finally now i have send the device back to satguide at hyderabad so they can check and get it repaired or replaced at the earliest...

I am very dissapointed with the product as it went kaput with use of just 30-35 days...

I am leaving for vacation by road to punjab and himachal and this is the time i needed the device the most but sadly i have to do without it..

[Astleviz]

I came across this Holux GPS unit on ebay.in which comes with mapmyindia maps for 202 cities and all india map for 9990 bucks. Has anyone used or tested this? How come Holux is able to give this with mapmyindia maps for about half the price of the GPS units that are being sold by mapmyindia with their maps?-

ebay link-
http://cgi.ebay.in/HOLUX-GPSmile-53-CL-3-5-GPS-CAR-NAVIGATOR-BRAND-NEW_W0QQitemZ380096374702QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Def aultDomain_203?hash=item380096374702&_trksid=p3286 .c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A1|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318

[bigman]

Originally Posted by Astleviz

I came across this Holux GPS unit on ebay.in which comes with mapmyindia maps for 202 cities and all india map for 9990 bucks. Has anyone used or tested this? How come Holux is able to give this with mapmyindia maps for about half the price of the GPS units that are being sold by mapmyindia with their maps?-

Easy answer, someone has bought a few generic units (cost less than rs3,500 if you buy in quantity) and they are installing mapmyindia software on them. There are a few sites on the internet from where you can d/l the mapmyindia s/w, so maybe they are just installing this on the units or buying the smart phone version @ 3490 and putting these on the units (I doubt this very much). So they can get a functional box for 3,500 or 6,990. So they are still making a decent markup.

For all those with problems with these voxtel then sorry to tell you but the satnav boxes they are using are the cheapest generic boxes you can find. In the UK only Binatone use these boxes and their products do not have a good reputation for being durable.

[Astleviz]

Originally Posted by bigman

Easy answer, someone has bought a few generic units (cost less than rs3,500 if you buy in quantity) and they are installing mapmyindia software on them. There are a few sites on the internet from where you can d/l the mapmyindia s/w, so maybe they are just installing this on the units or buying the smart phone version @ 3490 and putting these on the units (I doubt this very much). So they can get a functional box for 3,500 or 6,990. So they are still making a decent markup.

But the product on offer is a Holux unit. Is Holux a cheap generic brand?

[bigman]

Originally Posted by Astleviz

But the product on offer is a Holux unit. Is Holux a cheap generic brand?

They are just bog standard boxes running CE. You get them branded as Road Angel as well. These Holux units might be better than the Voxtel ones. Search for a few reviews and see what you can find out, you may even find out how much they sell for.