GPS Navigator - the final solution -I hope

Submitted: Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 14:42

ThreadID: 54079 Views:3786 Replies:5 FollowUps:5

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Mr Fawlty

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/4-3-GPS-Navigation-w-Bluetooth-Navigator-Maps-Software_W0QQitemZ310019098832QQihZ021QQcategoryZ34288QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is the GPS I bought for $299 (free postage), I was the only bidder, has a NavMate system, Navteq maps and is a little ripper. ALL the firetrails around Canberra are on it as are all the fire trails/forest roads etc in the Snowy and South Coast. In short I am IMPRESSED especially at the price. Only one problem, because I'm a pedantic crusty old fart and that is that the only voice installed on the card is a Godamned Yankee one, however the suppliers seem happy to provide me with the "Aussie chick" - "Yar bloodywell lost".... There is provision to record and use your own or someone elses voice, I know of no other GPS with that facility. I wonder would John Cleese do it for me..... "You stupid bloody idiot I told you to turn left"
With the MIO520 I only had to go 500 metres south of Tharwa PO and got the message "warning Warning end of maps do legal u turn" That of course is not the fault of the machine but the maps preloaded into it. On the face of it the Navteq maps do provide a superior coverage to the sensis (wheris) ones. It also has a "Trail" ie off road model yet to be tested as all the tracks in the Brindabellas seem to be known to it....
Spose if I had waited 6 months these things will be like pedometers and come in packets of "Blue Hills" - cereal to you youngsters...

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Reply By: Gramps (NSW) - Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 14:48

Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 14:48

What !!! STILL no casual skirt detector ?

AnswerID: 284729

Reply By: Sand Man (SA) - Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 17:25

Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 17:25

Sorry to rain on your parade Basil,

The TomTom Go 720 allows you to record and use your own voice.

There are that many prerecorded voices available it becomes tedious trying them. TomTom also has "computer generated voices" which convert text to speech, allowing the streets to be spoken.

A pity there is no Aussie chic to choose as a computer generated voice, so some pronunciations are somewhat "different" with the English lass I have chosen.

It could be worse though. Just imagine a computer generated voice with a KIWI accent:-)))

Bill

I'm diagonally parked in a parallel Universe!

Member
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AnswerID: 284756

Follow Up By: Member - Kiwi Kia - Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 19:12

Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 19:12

Just like home to a Qlander :-))

FollowupID: 549540

Reply By: Member - Alan H (Narangba QLD - Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 19:36

Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 19:36

I have an Aussie (Karen) speaking on a SP 7200. (one of many voice choices)

AnswerID: 284790

Reply By: Izey76 - Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 20:38

Thursday, Jan 31, 2008 at 20:38

Hi Basil does this unit have a breadcrumb trail feature,had a look on ebay and found another one and may be interested.
Do you think you can load topo maps onto the SD card and it will work with the nav system.
Thanks
Clint

AnswerID: 284805

Reply By: Mr Fawlty - Friday, Feb 01, 2008 at 10:17

Friday, Feb 01, 2008 at 10:17

Well all is fine with the GPS world to day, Horizon gave me the details to allow me to download the "aussie surfer chic" (Allison - cor I can imagine her standing there in a gstring bikini recording the voice) voice, a free software upgrade and a manual that is not in Chinglish...
Yep there is the breadcrumb trail, record your trip and off road faciities but beadcrumbs were not there untill I got the free upgrade...The two english voices that I could also choose from are Hyacinth Bucket or a very "west country" voice....
The TomTom 720 costs how much???
Gramps alas this one cannot find casual skirt, I'll have to just, well you know, follow my nose.....However this machine does unlike the MIO allow one to play movies in AVI, MPEG or MP4 format... Ahh whatever genre one should choose.....

For $299 this is incredible value and as I have discovered there is backup there if I need it leading me to save some hard earned $$$ that let me now buy a CISS for my Panorama printer....

AnswerID: 284903

Follow Up By: jay jay - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 14:34

Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 14:34

Hi Mr Fawlty
I to have bought one of these and find it fantastic. I live in Melb and travelled to Syd Monday to pick-up a truck and as soon as i turned on the unit it came up with a course to take me home from Eastern creek, i was impressed.
Can you give me the details of how to get the upgrades and voices you have? Have you tried to use it with Oziexplorer linked to your laptop? The only problem i have at the moment is to get the voice loud enough to here in the truck or with the window down in the troopy, maybe i need and extension speaker if that's possible?

cheers

jay

FollowupID: 550766

Follow Up By: Mr Fawlty - Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 at 14:05

Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 at 14:05

This is what I was sent from Horizon who do the navigator bit part, it worked for me:
Please try this

Here are the instructions:

1) Go to ftp://tempora:N0Tneeded@209.237.51.66/

2) Copy "uk_english.zip" to your PC then unzip it with Winzip

The password to unzip this file is: inhlku12

Please note that you will see the following two folders after it is unzipped:

"uk_english"
"uk_english2

3) Insert your NavMate SD card to your PC directly or into a SD card reader
that is connected to your PC. Please make sure you can see the drive name of
your SD card.

4) Copy "uk_english" and "uk_english2" folders from your PC to
"Navmate\voices" folder on your NavMate SD card.

If it does not work let me know. Normal we do not support E-bay units. But I
have a feeling everything will work just fine.

It did work for me, I downloaded an "English" manual while I was at it.

FollowupID: 552682

Follow Up By: Izey76 - Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 17:59

Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 17:59

Hi Mr Fawlty just doing a check up to see how your new GPS is working as I am about to purchase one from ebay.

Any problems encountered yet and have you tried to put any other mapping software on it yet.

Cheers

Clint

FollowupID: 553093

Follow Up By: Mr Fawlty - Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 09:38

Sunday, Feb 17, 2008 at 09:38

Yep a few problems have surfaced but they are mainly things like not having roundabouts where there are roundabouts, indicating turns into the wrong way on one way streets and I noticed on the South coast NSW roads indicated that were not there or were private entrances. However the route recalculation works flawlessly....
It even found the Commerong Island punt... "Caution, Vehicular ferry ahead"...
No I have not tried any other mapping software with it but because everything is on the SD card it would be easy to do.

FollowupID: 553183