Magellan crossover

Kiwi Kia
I have always used Garmins No 6 was a Nuvi 660, the latest is the 760, every where I go they are spot on , and the reason you were not shown as being on the road on the cape was probably you were on the new road , and your unit was not updated , thats my guess ,
And as for your statement maps are made freehand would have to get the trophy as the silly remark of the month.

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Hello, some Garmins actually have a "Lock on Road function" to remove (hide?) the problem of either the GPS or the map being out (or both!). Garmin maps/gps units are not perfect either and they obviously realise it.

Cheers
Greg

Doug, there was a bracket missing before the word 'almost'.

My statement is not silly it is fact ! I will try and keep this simple so that you can understand. The plotting on those older maps would have been done by a human being using a machine that uses a spot of light and tracing it along features on a stereo viewfinder over two aerial photographs. I have watched it being done. The base maps in some cases are obviously rather old. Your remark about the silly statement of the month just shows that you have no knowledge of map making.

I stated a fact about my Garmin NUVI, it is only six months old and uses the latest available map set. I have found many instances where the Garmin plot does not correspond to the road. Try heading south from Winton to Opalton and the Garmin will announce your arrival 5 km out of Winton - what happened to the other 90 odd km still to run ? I have just completed over 15,000 km in the last three months and found many places where the gps track was off set from map road (the gps position will be correct). Also, as I previously said there are technical reasons in the (mathematical algorithms) as to why a gps will show a different road plot from the projection used to make a topo map. There is a new map making (mathematical projection) now being introduced but the present map sets will not be all converted for many years.

Kiwi Kia
That's ok, your the map expert , but you didn't explain too well so I immediately conjured up the vision of some dude sitting down at a desk all day drawing maps with a bloody biro, ....well you did say ....by hand .
And so you might have travelled 15000 Ks in 3 months, I used to do that too 12 months every year and the only two spots I can recall where it was off was just North of Bindoon WA and the new road bypass for Churchill's Head NT , both of which were rectified on CN 2008, I'm now using CN 2009 and that's even better.

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Greg
Yes some units do have road lock, ie the Quest, the Nuvi 760 does not, it's so good it don't need it .

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Doug, Do you know when CN2009 come out ? I don't have my unit handy at the moment but I purchased it in April.

Doug - they possibly have "lock on road" permanently on if its not available as a manual function. Anyway the 760 is no longer top of the tree in the Garmin in car navigator range - when are you getting one of these?

Nuvi 5000

Cheers
Greg

My Nuvi 760 is also often "off the" road. Some roads doesn't even exist on the "Where Is" mapping.
Did a trip with a survey technician in a government Nissan with a Nuvi 760 a few weeks ago. Their GPS was "off the road" by miles in some parts of the SW WA.

Yes - I have CityNav and it is far from perfect in out of town areas but that goes for all mapping products aimed at that market. It is one reason why people go for units such as the Hema Navigator where you can use both Whereis style mapping and voice nav (for main roads/cities/towns) and OziExplorer (out of town areas..plus it has wider range of applications).

Cheers
Greg

Greg
I use the Shonky maps when I'm out bush/out of town. They are good but not perfect. I will probably buy the OzTopo from GPSOZ. I would already have bought them if the v2.1 was ready prior to the NT latest trip.
Cheers
Zig

Kiwi Kia
City Navigator 2009 - Garmin has released City Navigator 2009 updates for the majority of GPS units. For those that own IQue's, StreetPilot III's, Quest's and non 'X' model handhelds will have to wait another week or two. New in 2009, traffic support, update lane information, updated rural road classification, more speed zone data. The update will be available for download form Garmin's website,
I didn't go for the update, I opted for the full version on CD so I can have it on the PC as well .

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Thanks Doug, I take it that the CN2009 has only just been released then ?

Hello - You can use scans of paper maps with OziExplorer.....and get the best of both worlds. Ozi Ozi Ozi Oi Oi Oi!!!

Cheers
Greg

The gps is right it is the maps that are slightly off.
The mathematics required to plot a flat map from the earth's curved surface is rather tricky so little errors occur everywhere. The paper map gives you a good pictorial overview of where things are in relation to each other on the earth's surface but the gps gives you an exact point.

Hi Kiwi Kia do you have a track log and the coords where it was out and can check on the Mapsource and Raster maps , as you can see on my screen shots above Mapsource are out on that road in many places

Hi Skippy, Sorry I did not keep track logs as we were on a 'real road' at all times. I note that the gps 'road' and the real road did not match almost all the way up the peninsula to Cape York but the worst spot was around the turn off to Weipa (several km out).