New Toy - IPAQ Tom Tom PDA - What maps to use?

It looks good so far. I have had fun driving around getting abused by John Cleese.

I don't need it in Adelaide, but using it there is giving me confidence in its passage planning skills. I ran down to somewhere I hadn't been in Murray Bridge over the weekend. It selected my usual quick back roads route through the Adelaide hills without prompting and took me to within 10 metres of the final destination.

The country maps lack the detail of the Natmap rasters, but it runs Ozi happily and I am trying to work out how to cut the 1:250,000 up into reasonable size files to use.

If you get a laptop steer clear of the Dell's - I have no problems with my work unit, but no one makes a 12V power supply for them so you need an inverter.

Cheers

Pete

Pete,

I get a new laptop each year and tried a Dell..once! Always stick with the Toshibas now and I have had a great run with them.

Passage planning is one thing, but how does it go in 'pilotage' mode? Many an old Navigator turning in their graves with these new fangled toys, guess they only come with one personality.

Matt.

Pajman Pete you could use 1:50,000 maps for SA and use map merge to join them up so they became seamless, I also believe you can cut sections off the 250 seamless map so you only see the map that you require.

Pilotage is not bad - 12 Channel receiver gives accuracy to metres. It can navigate me into the carport at home! Now it just needs to be programmed to say:

Captain Sir, Navigator, we are 3 yards starboard of the gutter, 300 yards to wheel over to port to new course up Main South Road, car safe.

Pete

Pete,

Dell themselves produce an adapter that plugs into 12 volt, or 240 volt, or an airplane socket. It's also cheaper than any other solution too.

Matt,

What problem did you experience with the Dell?
The multi-National IT Organisation I work for use them by the thousands. No known problems with them at all.

Sand Man,

I shouldn't be so harsh, it actually worked OK.

I like Dell's idea of 'building' your own computer and ordering online, it was a pretty efficient process. I did have some issues trying to organise service and spares. I found them difficult to deal with and hard to get the 'right' person to talk to (at least in English). Also, I thought it was pretty bulky for its capacity and didn't like the display half as much as the Toshibas.

One instance where I have had a problem with the Toshiba, I got on straight away dropped it off locally and it was fixed very quickly.

Matt.

Sandman,

How much is the adapter and do you know a source in SA?

Thanks

Pete

Pete,

The only source I know is Dell themselves.

It used to be listed under Laptop Accessories on their Web site, but doing a search now, I couldn't find it. Suggest you give them a call quoting your PC model to see if they are available for it.

It is known as the Combination Power Adapter (ANZ) for the Latitude D family, Inspiron 510M, 700M, 6000, 9300 and Precision M60 Notebooks. The price when I bought it in late 2005 was $94.60 GST Inclusive.

It replaces the "standard AC adapter" and looks identical to it, but the input power cord is interchangeable. One for 240VAC and one for 12VDC + Airplane socket.

Thanks Sand Man

Thanks for your good advice DIO, but I only left the vehicle for 25 minutes and I don't have time to unpack all the junk from my work vehicle every time I stop at a building.

My bag was under a jacket in the back seat foot well. The car was parked on a slip road next to a major intersection in the afternoon rush hour in full view of the cars stopping at the lights.

No window tinting would have stopped whatever took the window out - there was glass right through the car. To add a little twist, I spent an hour and a half the next day vacuuming up all the little bits of glass. I then booked it into O'Brien's glass who told me not to worry about cleaning it up as they would look after everything including ... vacuuming up all the little bits of glass!

The police were not interested unless I actually witnessed the break in. The somewhat jaded Snr Constable I spoke to said that thieves are getting quite brazen because if they are caught they know nothing will happen to them, just another court appearance and they will be back on the streets.

All part of life's rich pageant.

Pete

I assume that you don't have the CFA maps? Or know where to get them?

I've got a full compliment of CFS maps, but no one I speak to on this side of the border seems to know if the CFA even has theirs digitised.

John R have you got a got a full compliment of CFS maps for SA, will they work in Ozi

John, I have the CFA maps on the hard disk but never used them as there are so many to try to work on.

SA_Patrol the answer to both your questions is yes. If you want to take this any further, contact me off-list.

John can I email you, I'm not a member so i can't contact you.

Sure: littlejohnnyr@yahoo.com
I'm just about to head off for a few days, so don't get too concerned if you don't hear anything for a little while!

You might need a program to share the NMEA from the GPS to the 2 programs

That sounds neat Tim, I will try it on the way home tonight.

It worked just fine, Ozi up on the display with the Tom Tom voice in the background giving directions.

Pete

Hi Tim,

My new rx5700 works great. Ozi Ce is working fine, which is all I use it for really, so far. There seems to be no software clashes or problems that could not be worked out in time. I'm still trying to work out the tracking function - got me buggered at the moment.

I'm getting bigger files also, after converting them with the software provided by Ozi. For instance, Southern Cross SH5016 is 2.25meg normally but 9.57meg after conversion. This is because of the zooming function (I think). I can still though, fit 6 or 7 map sheets on the internal memory.

I think it's great and can't wait to tweak it to its maximum capabilities.

Cheers

I like the way it comes with all the bits you need. This is the first PDA I have owned that I didn't need to get a car charger, or a case, or a mount or whatever. I am very impressed so far.

I like the bluetooth link to my laptop to sync files etc.

Pete

Equinox,

Reduce the colours to 32 and that file size will drop to around 6.4mb. Reducing the zoom levels will also reduce the file size (have'nt played with that yet).

OziCE will use the original ECW files though apparently it will run a little slower (have'nt noticed that yet).

He did take a bare bones report, but he said that was as far as it would go. AAMI were great and have already paid up, over the phone, no paperwork.

Pete

Similar story here DIO. I had a smashed window break-in in the Prado and drove around to the cop shop to make a report for insurance. The cop took the report and entered it into the computer and gave me an incident number to give to insurance co. She indicated that it was purely for statistical and insurance purposes. She did not even want to come out to the carpark and look at the broken window. I could have taken the bus down there and reported it.

As Pete said, unless you actually saw them do it or have video footage then the cops have too many other things to worry about to actually investigate such a minor offence with a view to apprehending those responsible. Given that you have insurance and will only suffer the inconvenience of replacing the goods (probably with better ones as Pete has done!) then there is not a whole lot of incentive to put police resources on this when they could be out booking people for doing 62 in a 60 zone!

Cheers
Muddy

Muddy Doe I think there are two important points here. First a crime was committed. Second you never know what they can lead too.

Whilst a manager at a Toyota Dealership we had some wheels stolen from a vehicle in the yard. (Not uncommon) They had broken windows on a couple of others to get jacks etc to lift the vehicle (before pushing it off to take the jacks around the other side).

Obviously this was reported and forensics came out. Whilst chatting the conversation turned to "bugger all chance you'll catch them I suppose" and the police officer made the comment that it is amazing how often, somewhere along the track these finger prints match up to another crime or suspect. They can't prove they did it but can put them at the premises etc. He went on to say the problem is too many smaller incidents are let go that could paint a bigger picture or pattern that leads them to the culprit. When they do get them they have a lot more and can do something about it by showing it isn't a once off event.

The person was caught about 4 months later over a domestic dispute. Even we (or the police) hadn't bothered they would not have been able to prosecute for this as well.

Trouble is the Police like most government bodies are so caught up in dealing with paperwork and things they shouldn't have to. They are left to prioritise the resources they have.