HN7 Am I dumb or have I been conned?

I'm not familiar with the Hema product but if it is simialr to OZI explorer it is not
a street by street software, ie it does not give voice instructions like turn right at
x street etc, and you can't put in a destination address for example, it is just a moving map.

Someone more familiar with the software will no doubt provide more info.

The street navigation if good one will have a lot of country tracks etc though may no have some very minor ones in remote locations, they usually have enough though to get people into trouble thinking they are roads but then turn into goat tracks:)

Leigh

Hi Trevor

The Hema Navigator is pretty "average" when it comes to street navigation. Mine tells me to turn into streets, where the is a "no left turn" for example. The 4WD part is pretty good though - it's pre-loaded with some pretty detailed maps - but in your example above - it won't tell you directions from Goulburn to Captain Billys Landing. It will (should) give you pretty accurate directions from where ever you are to another street (in the street navigation bit) in say Cooktown. But from there - you'll need to use the 4WD Hema Maps part for the rest of the journey.

I'd suggest that most people wouldn't buy one for their street navigation attributes!

Chris

Gee Trev, I wish I knew you were in the market for a HN7. You could have saved yourself a few bucks and still achieved the same degree of disappointment. You could have bought mine at a good discount.
If it makes you feel any better either you and I had our hopes too high or we have both been conned.

(:=((

Cheers
Pop

I don't think either of you, Trevor and Pop, were conned.

Maybe you didn't look into the product enough to see if it delivered what you expected before you bought.

I have the HN6 and use mostly the Oziexplorer part. It does exactly as expected before I bought it. The IGO street nav software is OK, not as good as Garmin, imo, but still OK. I use that when I want to find Camps 7 POIs.

It's all as advertised.

Hi Trevor,

No you're not dumb and you haven't been conned.

Perhaps the one thing you should consider is "why did I buy it"
If it was for the offroad tracking capability and the moving map display of where you are at any given time (OziExplorer) then rest assured in the fact that you have one of the best offroad moving map displays around, with the ability to place waypoints along your route, as you go.

I owned the original HN5 and I did a fairly comprehensive review of the product.
The street guidance application was very ordinary and I never used it.
I have more recently upgraded to the HN6 and this has a better street navigation application in iGo, but apart from testing it out, I still don't use it.
I bought both of the Hema products for the ability to run OziExplorer as I travel this great land of ours and absolutely love it for that purpose.
With the range of digital maps available, you can run say a Hema map display on Ozi and have the same printed map if you or your "navigator" need to refer to a hard copy map. Also, as David improves the EOTopo product (I have a copy of that as well) you will have another digital map to use. At the moment the EOTopo maps do not contain distance references and that is a big downside to me at present. As David further develops EOTopo we will end up with a product that will replace the NATMAP one I have been largely using for several years.
The range of Hema maps that come with the HN7 are more than adequate to give an accurate display of the region you are travelling through and you can call up a more detailed regional maps , such as the Kimberley region I have recently traversed.

When I need a street navigation app, I use a separate device (TomTom) because you cannot run two apps at the same time on the HN7 and I would interrupt the tracking capabilities of Ozi, if I shut it down to run something else.

You need to be aware that the HN7 and OziExplorer do not provide voice guided navigation ability. You would need to run iGo (Street Navigation) app to do that and I am not sure how good iGo is for the more remote areas of our country.

I discovered on our recent trip to the Kimberley, that even my trusty TomTom did not recognise some of the destinations (place Names) along the Gibb River Road and yet my mate's Garmin did. When it comes time to upgrade the TomTom, I will take a closer look at the Garmin product before making a decision, which to buy for "street navigation" capabilities, especially for remote areas.
It is handy to know what the distance is and how long it will take to get from point A to point B. I managed to overcome TomTom's deficiency in recognising some locations by obtaining the co-ordinates from OziExplorer (the night before) then entering them into TomTom as a destination and then it provided me the detail I desired. TomTom falls down by not having a comprehensive Place name database of the more remote locations, for instance Drysdale River, or Middle Lagoon. Garmin had no problem with these.

All in all, in 4WD mode, the HN7 will give you a great moving map display of exactly where you are in the vast area of our Country and the ability to record your track for future reference and also any waypoints (points of interest) you wish to mark along that track.

In Street Navigation mode, it should provide a reasonable voice guided function as you travel in the more built-up areas and major towns.

It will not provide a trip planning function as does TomTom, or Garmin, etc.

Hi Trevor
I have an earlier version: Hema Navigator. If you are using OziExplorer and the associated maps (1:250,000 or Hema Maps), the Hema doesn't give you voice instructions about how to get somewhere but what it does do, and what has proven invaluable to us, is show you where you are exactly.

We have had a couple of experiences where we were faced with a number of wheels tracks and had no real idea which track was the track marked on the map. Once you start to head down one, you can pretty quickly see if you are on the track marked on the map. If you're not, you turn back and try again. It's worked every time for us. Two occasions are memorable - in Nuytsland Nature Reserve and in the Gammon Ranges.

It is also quite easy (once you decide to learn how!) to plot your route ahead of time and then follow the plot marks (waypoints) on the screen. A voice can tell you how far to the next mark. That also is useful although sometimes I add too many and the voice can drive us mad - but it is easy enough to delete them.

I found the Hema Navigator so useful that I bought the app for my iPad and that too works like a charm. It costs a bit but that is balanced by the fact that it doesn't require internet access - it works anywhere (so long as the iPad battery is charged). If something goes seriously wrong with the iPad, I have the Hema Navigator and a pile of Hema (and other) paper maps.

I hope you come to enjoy it, although if you were expecting voice instructions while using the Hema maps, for example, I can understand your disappointment.

Megan

Perhaps you are expecting the wrong things.

The typical street navigation devices are strange in the world of electronic navigation in that they will navigate for you.

Most GPS uints other than street navigators will not nevigate for you or tell you where you should go.

They will provide you very accurate information on where you are now.....the direction and speed at which you are traveling at a given time..and if they are mapping GPS units they will show you a map.

But you are responsible for knowing where you are going, the actual navigation and the choices.
That is the way it has to be, because once you get away from well defined and reulated streets you need your wits about you and your eyes well and truly open.

cheers

Hi Trevor

Your not the first and you will not be the last to complain about the unit, for the price you paid you could of bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab2,3g that will do everthing and more.. Run Ozi Explore, Memory Maps with Victopo and Sygic for AUS and NZ (these are added costs but you'd still be around the same $$$) or just use Google maps which is great ...
Plus it has around a 10inch beautiful screen etc.. Pay movies and music etc

I bought a Magellan XL years ago, cost 1200 bucks, the GPS would go offline under tree canopy etc, the city software was pathetic at best, the Topo was great but was always song guessing where I was and sometimes getting lost, with this one is nearly had a year is spot on everytime using Rooftops in The High Country is brilliant although now I can get around without mapping etc.. so I know how it feels to get something your not happy with...

Anyway Goodluck...

I have the Hema 6 and I am more than pleased with it. After all it is just a "moving map" That is all I need when travelling outback WA. I also use a MIO on the wife's side of the car that has been loaded with off road maps and a trick to make it work the same way as the Hema. More than pleased with it although the costs are out there. I was a passenger for the Big Red Bash so I had a play with it while going along and found lots of things on it that I did not know existed. such as Hat trouser and "bra" conversion. Must remember that next time I am in buying pants. Overall it does what I want it to do and most of the maps pick up those little side tracks that I need for camping .

I see the Hema ( and probably a lot of others too ) only go as far as 250K maps ?

What device ( or maps ) have 25K ones ??

When navigating thru nat parks and forests, the 250K maps are too big and don't show a lot of small tracks ( and contours )

PLenty of small tracks & contours on this one....

I use iPad mini with Hema
Great for the outback, didn't get lost in the back tracks near innamincka.
Use all the other apps & internet in towns

I also bought the HN7 just for the moving maps and im happy with it so far. I also have an ipad air with hema and mud maps but its to big to mount in the Patrol. The HN7 is smaller and doesnt take up much window space in the lower right of the windscreen/dash area. But i cannot work out how to get into the Ozi part of it when im in the 4WD section. The instruction booklet is all but useless.

Hi Guys
new to all this however got sick of my Garmin for outback trips so bit the bullet and bought a HN7. All $700 worth.
Drove from Perth to Alice. about 200k out of Warburton passing no turnoff on the Great Northern it repeatedly asked me to perform a u turn in varying kms. The unit then turned itself off repeatedly and could not find a location when it did run.
I rang Hema when I arrived in the NT and was told that it was a power issue and that I should go out and buy myself a new charger!! The guy on the phone from the help desk was obstructive and of no use whatsoever.
I have since fully charged the machine again (did it when I first opened the box as per instructions)and it wont even turn on.
I will keep you posted with Hemas response.