Laptop, GPS map travelling

Submitted: Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 22:35
ThreadID: 10717 Views:2105 Replies:11 FollowUps:4
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I am looking into getting a laptop with gps mapping which monitors where and while you are travelling through country and cities. I would like to know what setup would be best. Thanks from Julie..
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Reply By: Rick Blaine - Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 22:38

Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 22:38
Hey... Thats exactly what i think I want....but I already have the laptop...
AnswerID: 47645

Reply By: Wayne (NSW) - Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 22:59

Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 22:59
On the left of the forum page under Topic Search click on Navigation. If you can't find what you want re ask the question

WayneAlways Out'N About
AnswerID: 47656

Reply By: Truckster (Vic) - Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:01

Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:01
Any Laptop from a Pent 350 up...
Pretty much any GPS on the market now..
Oziexplorer software
Maps that you get on CD are all ancient, not worth the $$

Driving from a map on a laptop is slower than waitin for paint to dry...

I prefer paper maps, Work out sections, and just drive them <<---- YMMV...
AnswerID: 47658

Follow Up By: Member - jtb - Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:28

Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:28
laptops,,, i am sold on acer because ,,...if they cannot fix it in 2 hrs they will replace it helpfull 4 our trip cheersrather be fishing
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 22:57

Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 22:57
Having worked in IT for several years, and having owned a nightmare (although was only a P1) I wouldnt wee on Acer! Fixed in 2 hours or replaced? Mine went back 5 times under warranty, never was anygood, just gave up on it in the end..

Then again wouldnt wee on Dell, IBM, or HP Laptops for the $$ they want... Workin on a Stinkpad IBM today, what a nightmare of a machine.
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Reply By: Willem - Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:10

Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:10
Julie,

The best thing you can do is to do a site search of this site. Your questions have been raised 100's of times and there are lots of good answers to be had.

In short you will need a laptop new or second hand, a GPS, Garmin or Magellan, Oziexplorer Mapping Software( you can buy from the shop here on this site), and maybe a Pure Sinewave Inverter to run your laptop from the vehicle battery. From there on it is a big learning curve unless of course you have a young brain and understand these things :-) Have fun.........

Cheers,Willem
Little Dip Cons Park S.A.
AnswerID: 47659

Reply By: Member - Bob - Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:11

Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:11
Jule,
Oziexplorer software ($135) and the Auslig 1:250,000 series maps on CD ($90) are the essentials. After that, any GPS, any laptop and a cable linking the two. You can't go wrong. The other software you may consider is Magellan DiscoverAus ($245). This is more a street directory of all Roads Streets and Tracks. Needs Magellan GPS.Bob
AnswerID: 47661

Follow Up By: Member - Moggs - Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 10:57

Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 10:57
.....and as an alternative to Magellan DiscoverAus, if you have a Garmin GPS you can use Garmin Mapsource for street level mapping. I tend to use this rather than the Natmap Rastor maps unless I am well off-road - has excellent secondary road mapping.

I went down the setup path of buying an ex-lease Dell laptop from Laptops Australia for $500 as I didn't want my $3,500 Dell bouncing around the vehicle. Works well with the Mobildesk Trek mount, hardwired power supply for the GPS from GPSOZ, Emap and Jaycar 150 watt inverter (with in line surge protector for laptop) .

I would never go back to paper maps - love the laptop/GPS setupMoggs ( Normanhurst NSW)
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Reply By: Member - jtb - Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:12

Sunday, Feb 22, 2004 at 23:12
hi jule , we are doin the same set up ,, new garmin street pilot 111 cmon out in april with new maps,,, & laptop* acer* we are going to purchase ,, just before trip in septemberk to keep up with times (look up garmin web site ) cheers rather be fishing
AnswerID: 47662

Reply By: Member - Bruce (San Diego) - Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 12:48

Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 12:48
Well, as I sit in front of a computor in my work, I don't think I want to watch one for hours when I'm travelling through Australia on my couple of trips a year, to us we want a break from that.

What we do is plan out our trip with raster maps, print out all the necessary maps and bind them into a book, we also plot with GPS Cordinates all the major points we have to see, major intersections etc. We have a dash mounted GPS and basically check every now and then that we are in the right place.

We do carry our laptop with the raster maps in case of emergency and it take only a couple of minutes to pull it out and check exactly where we are rather than constabntly follow on the screen. We also use the laptop to burn CDs of our photos every couple of days.

Bruce
AnswerID: 47708

Reply By: Sandie - Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 19:25

Monday, Feb 23, 2004 at 19:25
Julie,

I have a Magellen Meridian Marine with a 256MB SD card.
The card holds all of the maps from Discover Australia ie all of OZ.
I also have a 64MB SD card which holds the Oz 4wd Tracks.

The maps are the latest stuff from Hema maps. ie the "tracks" CD was driven by the people at Hema and mapped for Magellan!!

I leave the GPS on the whole time as it's good to check speed on the GPS as 4WD speedos always over estimate speed by about 5 to 10km/hr. I've gone past speed traps at 125km/hr on the speedo and 115 on the GPS and never got caught. Plus is nice to know where you are all the time, but don't stare at it while driving.

I have whole trips saved on the GPS in the form of Routes and tracking. You can do this via the GPS or computer link.

In my opinion you don't need a laptop if you have a good GPS with upgradeable memory.

The only reason we would use the laptop is to store photos.
Hope this helps.
Marty
AnswerID: 47757

Reply By: Richard Kovac - Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004 at 01:36

Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004 at 01:36
HAVE A LOOK AT gpsoz.com BUY A POCKET PC AND A CABLE TO HOOK UP YOUR GPS TO THE POCKET PC, OziExploer PC AND CE, SOME MAPS YOU USE YOUR PC TO PLAN YOUR TRIP DOWN LOAD TO YOUR _Permanent_Painted_Coatings.aspx AND JUST DRIVE NO NEED FOR THE LAPTOP AND LESS YOUR AS MAD AS ME
REGARDS RICHARD
AnswerID: 47819

Reply By: Alex_W - Thursday, Feb 26, 2004 at 01:45

Thursday, Feb 26, 2004 at 01:45
Julie,

What you get really depends on what you want to do. I'm currently using a Meridian Platinum linked to a laptop with Ozi Explorer. It works a treat and although I carry paper maps and am comfortable using them; I'd never go back.

The reason I went for this combination is that I like to get out of the car every now and again. The Meridian lets me do that. It also give me a level of redundancy - if the laptop dies mid-trip I can work with the GPS alone.

If it wasn't for the walking, I'd have got a bluetooth GPS or one that plugs directly into a slot of the laptop - one less thing to worry about...

A lot of people use handheld computers. They have a couple of advantages - they are smaller and, importantly, have less moving parts but I reckon the little screen might be a bit of a limiting factor although I've not tried one.

One of the major advantages I've found with the laptop is that it gets Linda, my wife, more involved in the trip whilst the Meridian lets me "do it alone" if I'm one-up or if Linda's not interested in playing along. The other real plus is that we can make changes to our planned trip on the fly when we hit problems washed our roads. Sure you can do that with a paper map too but its much easier using Ozi Explorer.

GPS Oz are a great source of components and advice. Have a chat to them.

AnswerID: 48147

Reply By: Jule - Thursday, Feb 26, 2004 at 18:29

Thursday, Feb 26, 2004 at 18:29
Thanks for the help..certainly gives me a better idea of what to look into..Thanks again..Julie
AnswerID: 48234

Follow Up By: DaveMc - Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 05:15

Monday, Mar 01, 2004 at 05:15
Hi Julie!

If your laptop has a usb port, get a gps mouse. It's just a receiver, and they're around $100 on ebay and work great. Mine has a rubberised magnetic base, so it just sits on the top of the car. It doesn't have a display like the meridian above, but then that's why you have your laptop! Along with OziExplorer, you can't get a cheaper navigation package. The gps receiver is as accurate as any other, 12 satellites max, and doesn't require extra power cables as the power comes straight from the usb port.

Get one!
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