Hema HN7

Below is a quote from a posting on the Forum.
I have recently purchased a Hema HN7 and on that system I cannot find a map that provides the sort of detail needed to properly plan my trip. I'm talking here of the tracks in and around Dig Tree - it shows only significant tracks but no secondary tracks that could be useful to know about."
I am considering purchasing the Hema HN7 plus the EOTopo 200K but will this give me the details for minor tracks?
My Geoscience NATMAP has been fantastic and at this stage I can not see the value in spending over $700 for a backwards step in navigation.
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Reply By: Member - Greg H (NT) - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 11:49

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 11:49
?? Lost me
Tomorrow is here!

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Follow Up By: Krooznalong - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 13:10

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 13:10
I think Trev is looking at the HN7 but was concerned with something he found in another post and wants to know if the HN7 plus the other bit will be better than his existing maps.
If that isn't what he meant then I have NFI what he wants.
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Follow Up By: pop2jocem - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 17:26

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 17:26
We just bought a Hema HN7 a couple of months ago and maybe it's me but so far NFI pretty well covers where we are with it.
Admittedly it is the first of these devices we have owned so we are persevering with it but so far a good paper map and a compass seem to work better.

(:-((
Pop
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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 22:50

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 22:50
Hi Pop

Have faith in your product, they are fantastic. Reading the instruction book makes it look hard, but they are a very easy to use and quite user friendy.

It is just like running a laptop, but taking up no space.




Cheers




Stephen
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Reply By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 14:35

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 14:35
Hi Trevor

The Hema products are fantastic and have all the retailed maps on them.

Hema do have their own version of the 1: 250k maps as standard, but like you, love the Natmap topo maps.

Simple and very easy fix was to install the standard Natmap maps that came as standard on the HN5.

Even if. You did not add these maps, you are still more than covered, as have every map that Hema of produced, to cover every most popular area in great detail.

You will find that those that knock the Hema, are the ones that do not actually own one.

They are just as detailed as using a laptop, with all the same features, like saving and recording your track files, creating and saving waypoints and every other feature that you would use when running Ozi on a. Laptop.



Cheers



Stephen
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AnswerID: 535092

Reply By: ExplorOz Team - Michelle - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 15:06

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 15:06
Trevor, the HN7 standard comes with much the same map data as you like - the GeoScience NATMAP has been the industry topographic map standard used by most publishers (as base data) so Hema have made their own adaptation/styling of that data to suit their users and achieve their own branding style. They have not updated or changed the actual roads or topography but have overlayed their styling and added POI features etc. So the unit comes inbuilt with an Australian map at a scale of 250K which is essentially the same as the NATMAP you like. The HN7 unit has many other maps loaded too and is very user-friendly and a great navigator.

The HN7: EOTopo edition has an additional map being the EOTopo200K map which has been updated and restyled to include all the new major roads Australia wide plus some realignments of minor tracks in popular regions such as Cape York, and we've added some major hiking trails and other bits and pieces. We don't profess to have done an extensive minor track update Australia wide at this stage, as most of the legacy errors we focused on were around capital cities were significant infrastructure developments that have vastly changed main exits in/out of regional areas and towns. No other whole of Australia topographic map is yet showing these updates other than EOTopo - to our knowledge, anyway. The majority of minor tracks on EOTopo do not need urgent attention/updating but we have overlayed all the EOTrek Notes as purple lines so this a valuable addition. Minor roads don't change significantly that frequently, so the base data is pretty good already but we are committed to revising the minor tracks as an ongoing process which has not been a commitment offered by any other topographic mapping supplier since GeoScience ceased their interest in the product releases.

If you are interested to compare data yourself - you can view the data in EOTopo by viewing the online version (but keep in mind that the 200K version available for purchase is about 1-2 zoom steps back from the max zoom in).

Not sure what device you use for your navigation using the NATMAP, but if you want the advantages of an all-in one unit, the HN7 is a great solution and very popular and if you buy the EOTopo edition, you'll also get the most up to date topographic whole of Australia 200K map available.

Hope this helps clarify.
Michelle Martin
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Reply By: Robin Miller - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 15:58

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 15:58
I would not purchase EOToppo just to get more info around Dig Tree.

EOToppo doesn't even have the dig tree on it , but it does have more track detail in that area than Hema GDT maps.

A point near dig tree is called Bullah waterhole and it is shown and if you know this you can get by but its easy for most things to just use Hema.

The other point is that Hema maps are driven tracks , whereas many on EOtoppo are shown but no longer are accessible or no longer exist.

Why would you need to pay $700 , can you not use $200 EOtoppo on your existing device.

While HN7 is a good product , you can also get the very good OzToppo map set which can run on Garmin gpses and you can also navigate this map set just like city roads.



Robin Miller

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Follow Up By: Member - Trevor - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 16:11

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 16:11
As much as I like my Geoscience it is becoming pretty dated now.
As an example in the area in question if you look at the road south from Arrabury it disappears into some tracks. The same is seen when the road north from to Nappa Merrie also wanders off into infinity when in fact there is almost a highway between Nappa Merrie and Arrabury.
It is strange, as you claim, EOToppo does not show the Dig Tree
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Follow Up By: Sir Kev & Darkie - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 17:13

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 17:13
Robin,

Are you sure that all the Hema maps tracks are driven?
I know for a fact that some of the tracks have not been driven in 20+ years going by the density and size of the trees that are where so called tracks are up this way.

Cheers Kev
Russell Coight:
He was presented with a difficult decision: push on into the stretching deserts, or return home to his wife.

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Follow Up By: cookie1 - Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 17:39

Friday, Jun 27, 2014 at 17:39
Yep with Kev on this
Travelled a track up the Cape in 2009 and there was no track but had to persevere given the distance travelled vs our fuel load and we did get through but it really wasn't a track anymore.

I bumped into a Hema crew on the Canning a couple of years ago and we got talking and I mentioned about a track and they claimed it was so overgrown you can't drive it, well we did and it wasn't that bad.

A few weeks ago we navigated a shown track near Rudall coming off the Talawana and it most definitely overgrown, washed out & then some but is still shown on the Hema.

cheers
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Follow Up By: Echucan Bob - Saturday, Jun 28, 2014 at 10:46

Saturday, Jun 28, 2014 at 10:46
Cookie

We were there at Easter and tried to drive East from Island Hill along the south bank of Rudall River. The track was a bit overgrown, and there were some washed out creek crossings, but our progress was stopped by Larry Creek: deep enough for a swim and too deep to attempt a crossing.

Which track did you find overgrown?

Bob
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Follow Up By: cookie1 - Saturday, Jun 28, 2014 at 10:54

Saturday, Jun 28, 2014 at 10:54
The track on the Western side coming off of Talawana about 20k or so from the main entry track - we saw that someone else had tried but stopped

couldn't even see where the track entered the main track

cheers
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Follow Up By: Robin Miller - Sunday, Jun 29, 2014 at 08:51

Sunday, Jun 29, 2014 at 08:51
Hi Kev

Hema GDT only claim to have driven all the trafficable tracks in our desserts and surrounding areas which is what no one else has done and this is what makes them the best for that use.

They don't even cover most of the eastern seaboard.

This though made it the largest single mapping project in Aussie land in recent times, coverage is over 90,000km of tracks and was done with an emphasis on 4wd touring and so includes references which are to that market , hence Dig Tree and similar.



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Reply By: The Explorer - Saturday, Jun 28, 2014 at 14:35

Saturday, Jun 28, 2014 at 14:35
Hello

What mapping program are you using to plan your trips? You don’t say.
If you are using OziExplorer (PC version) don’t forget you can use the “Internet Maps” from within Ozi and view satellite images such as Google Earth/Microsoft Virtual Earth. These can be very handy for planning trips as many “unmapped” tracks will be visible. Some tracks are a bit hard to see for various reasons (i.e. overgrown, dense overhanging shrubs/trees) and some of the images may not show the more recently created road/tracks but still handy.



As an example you could create your own tracks files by tracing tracks visible in the Google Earth image, save them on you HN7 and then load them over the top Natmap/EOTopo image – i.e. make you own map.

It is also possible with some other programs (e.g. Mobile Atlas Creator) to create calibrated images of areas from Google Earth (and similar) for use with OziExplorer (and other mapping programs) when out and about.

I suppose my point is try not to limit yourself to one map set/source of info. Obviously everyone has some budgetary constraints – can be hard to justify spending $ on maps that may not help much but you will have trouble finding a single map set that contains all the information you may need...you can never have enough maps :)

Cheers
Greg
I sent one final shout after him to stick to the track, to which he replied “All right,” That was the last ever seen of Gibson - E Giles 23 April 1874

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Reply By: John Paine - Friday, Jul 04, 2014 at 23:18

Friday, Jul 04, 2014 at 23:18
Just traveled to the dig tree. Used iPad mini with hema. Was velco to the dash of a 200 Landcruiser hanging over the radio.
It was great alway accurate.
But forgot to insal mudmaps which has much better maps of that area. (Westprint)
Would recommend ipad over hn7. More versatile.
AnswerID: 535474

Follow Up By: The Explorer - Friday, Jul 04, 2014 at 23:53

Friday, Jul 04, 2014 at 23:53
Westprint maps are available in ecw/ozf format so can also be used on HN7 (or any device running Oziexplorer..plus several other programs).

Cheers
Greg
I sent one final shout after him to stick to the track, to which he replied “All right,” That was the last ever seen of Gibson - E Giles 23 April 1874

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Reply By: Member - Trevor - Saturday, Jul 05, 2014 at 07:53

Saturday, Jul 05, 2014 at 07:53
Thanks for the comments and advice. It looks like some of the map additions etc. may be past my abilities
So I guess I will order the HN7 plus the EOTopo and see how we go. It has to be better than our useless Tom Tom!
AnswerID: 535477

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