gps I am looking at buying one we had a few

Eric
I have a MIO which is the same unit as a Navman Pin.

They are far from toys, easy to use and the additional functions of a hand held PC, such as calendar+appointments, note taking and so on are invaluable to me. The handhelds are agricultural compared with them, not offering anything outside of gps uses.

The downside of the units is that they are not rugged. I hope there will be another generation that is weatherproof.

One thing I am not sure of is how they stand up to prolonged sun exposure (they have to be mounted behind the windscreen). Maybe others can comment on this because some deliver vehicles use them.

Hope this is of some use.
EV700

Mine is fantastic.

I bought a RA 45 (http://www.gpsoz.com.au/External_Aerials.htm#ra45) re-raidiating aerial so the navman didn't have to be mounted behind the windscreen.

I also bought a different mount that i screwed to the dash of the f250.

Wired both the aerial and the mount to a switch that enables me to leave both powered even when i turn the car off - so i don't have to re-launch the navman after quick stops on trips.

On a recent trip that inlcuded Darwin, Kunnunara, broome, etc. it was just great. Sit around the camp at night with the tourist brocuhers, and type in the address of anything you are considering looking at over the next few days and then you are able to select them from the "Recent" options in Destinations at any time and go to them directly. Or just wander around any unfamilar town/city and have it return you to the park very easily.

Straight thru Adelaide with the van on - no worries about looking at signs/street directories.

Thoroughly recommended.

Trevor Fox

Andy,
The map data comes from Whereis.com.au

As with any database, particularly one as big as all streets in Australia, there is plenty of errors. the maps come from a wide range of sources including fire maps, scanning paper maps, etc. But the number of errors is miniscule compared to the amount of accurate data.

To date i havn't found anything that actually gets me lost. You can usually see what is meant by combing the screen view and the real world view out the windscreen.

You can report errors on http://www.whereis.com/whereis/contact/cu_reporterror.jsp so that it can be fixed for future versions.

DubleDiff,
The maps zoom in and out - either manually or auto.

It doesn't profess to have all remote tracks on it and i am sure it doesn't. But as a voice & visual guidance for populated areas it is great.

Haven't tried it in the high country yet. Have tried it in the forsts and pine plantations in sw vic, and all the fire tracks, etc are there. Very handy.

You can add other programs, such as OziExplorer to the Navman and then use "Natmap Raster (Mapsheets), HEMA CD-ROM Maps, Adventurer Maps on CD, Westprint's Australia Outback Tracks, Meridian's Victorian Deserts, Otways, and Wombat Maps on CD, Queensland Raster, South East WA Raster, scanned topos, and many more." http://www.mapsdownunder.com.au/cgi-bin/mapshop/PIN-OZI-SD.html

You can also add any aerial photo, use an application like gpsdash (http://gpsdash.com/overview.ppc2.php) and drive around with a pictorial view on the screen! You need to be able to key in the co-ordinates of 2 known locations on the picture, then it will do the rest for you.

Another interesting add in is Astronavigator (http://vitotechnology.com/en/products/astronavigator.html), which tells you the names of all the stars above you at your current location or you can pick a location, time and date and see whats the stars would be there.

The possibilites are endless, but too much of it cuts into the drinking time i reckon!

For anyone who has got one already and hasn't upgraded the firmware, try:
http://www.fiddaman.info/navmanpin/Mio168_GPS_Firmware.zip

This loads a check utility to see if the upgrade is needed. The upgrasde improved my reception and reduced the start up time.

Trevor Fox

Hi
I have a Mitac Mio 168 which is identical to the Navman PIN. Mine is windscreen mounted with no adverse effects. the Mio comes with obviously the PDA, windscreen mount, 12v charger, 240v charger, USB interface & additional GPS antenna so that you can mount it anywhere. Came loaded with Copilot which is an excellent nav system for town & city navigation, I've loaded Oziexplorer CE which is the best nav system for country driving. I have found Copilot tends to want to stick to bitumen roads when a dirt road may be the shorter, quicker options but apart from that an excellent unit.
Also some excellent accessories are available on ebay:
Mitac Mio 168 on Ebay Australia
Mitac Mio 168 on Ebay International
Hope this helps.
Cheers Brad

Yeah had one since February, used it in Melbourne/Tassie during 4 1/2 week tour, never go outside again with out it. No problems to write home about.

It came with an external antennae and would recommend it as it helps initial locate. Its fun to argue with as well with out getting in trouble with SWMBO.

Go for it its useful and fun.

Regards
Russell

Agree with all of the above.
Mine is six months old- I don't go far without it.
Definitely NOT a toy- it's amazing how many minor roads are in the data base.
Worth the money any day.

I bought an iPAQ hx4700 - top of the line hp iPAQ with four times the resolution of the mio.

480x640 resolution.

I run a Haicom bluetooth GPS sitting up on the dash so i can mount the iPAQ anywhere in the vehicle and don't need a cable linking the GPS to the iPAQ as it is a wireless connection.

I run OziExplorerCE and can use any of the maps I have for Ozi on my laptop after I convert them to OziExplorerCE's format.

I have got the Navman software which can be bought separately to any unit but I've only just got it and haven't installed it yet. A mate did the same and his works fine. He's happy but says it's still ordinary out of town.

I use a RAM mount to mount the iPAQ and don't think you can get a much better setup.

The iPAQ can be bought for about $730 if you shop around. The maps and software cost a bit if you aren't resourceful. Resourcefulness can be improved by hovering around such forums as this. The Haicom BT GPS was about $300 and has about a 20 hour battery life and comes with a cig lead to charge it, or you can just leave it plugged in. Accuracy is no better or worse than my Magellan which was more than acceptable.

One of the good things with the iPAQ hx4700 is the expandability as it takes compact flash and SD cards simultaneously. You can fit a shed load of maps on a 512mb SD card and a whole shed load more on a 1 or 2 Gb CF card. Or if you want hand held capability try using a 1gig SD card with all your maps and get a CF GPS antenna.

The options are endless. But you won't beat the screen on this baby. :o)))

Dave

Eric,

All that stuff i listed above does not come with the navman pin, but are available for purchase and loading on to the navman.

The navman pin is essentially a mini-pc with built in GPS. You can buy a whole variety of applications that can be loaded on to it.

I have the astronavigator loaded on a seperate memory card, so i swap from the Smart St maps that come with with Navman to the Astronavigator by simply swapping cards.

I bought the Ozi Explorer Maps and took them and the laptop with me on my 3 months long service through Darwin, Gibb River Road, etc. I had the intention of laoding OziExplorer to the Navman, but never used it or the laptop - just about all the roads we went on were on the software that comes with the Pin.

GRR, & Kalumbaru Rd was there, the track of Kal. Rd to mitchell Plateau wasn't. i can't remember any other road not being already on the Navman.

Mine hasn't bounced around the dash. I have a dash mount for it - see prior response.

The re-radiating antenna and the fixed dash mount mean you can just grab it and pass it to anyone in the vehicle and it still works - no cables required. Somebody in the backseat can set the next destination whilst you're going along. Without the re-radiating antenna, it looses its signal when removed away from the windscreen but it usualy just hangs for a while when you put it back before it regains its bearings. The re-radiating antenna allows you to mount the unit below the windscreen and not worry about the position of the antenna an the pin.

Trevor Fox