Hema HN7

?? Lost me

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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!