Friday, Apr 01, 2005 at 11:39
Brent,
I actually run 2 systems - one in the old Patrol, and one in the wife's work car (no mods or holes drilled, thank you).
So in the Patrol I have an old Lowrance GlobalNav 212 (basic, non-mapping) powered from extra ciggy lighter that I rigged up to be permanently on. It connects to a secondhand Toshiba Tecra laptop powered from a power supply that someone made for me (but you can buy them; alternatively some people use
inverters to get 240v). I use
Oziexplorer navigation software (very, very good) and Auslig 1:250000 digital maps. The Auslig maps are now cheaper and renamed "Natmap".
Note that with the basic GPS, to get moving map you need: 12v cable, laptop, laptop power supply, serial cable, nav software, digital maps, swivelling rack in front of passenger to mount laptop.
In the wife's car, which we use for less-demanding travel, I have a Magellan
Meridian Color powered from the cig lighter. I bought Mapsend's "Discover Aus Streets and Tracks" for detail. I set this up on the PC at home and defined 'regions' (states, more or less) which I copied onto a 256Mb SD memory card that slots into the
Meridian. So to get moving map with this setup, I needed: 12v cable, digital map/nav software (all-in-one), SD card.
The two systems thus achieve the same thing in different ways. The laptop could be replaced by a windows-based PDA. Both GPSs sit up on top of the dash secured with velcro - no external antenna.
Note that with mapping GPSs, the maps used are called "Scaleable Vector" maps - usuallly only supplied by the GPS maker or associate companies: you cannot load your own maps.
With basic GPS setups,
Oziexplorer can cope with any maps that you buy or scan yourself - all it needs is some calibration data, which comes with bought maps, and you can do it yourself with any maps that you scan or create yourself.
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