Monday, Feb 14, 2011 at 20:58
I use GPS navigation in my work almost every day and have done so for over six years. When seeking an address in say Shepparton,
Bendigo or Ballarat, route 66 will always choose a very roundabout route that does not appear to make make any sense, even if you assume it is taking the shortest or most direct route. I had become very familiar with Garmin and its no nonsense approach to finding street addresses, usually in a logical manner.
I would disagree that the pre loaded maps are comprehensive for Victoria, try using them in the central goldfields area, there is lot of bush and lots of tracks, but very few are covered on the Hema pre loaded maps.
I also do some off road driving when not working and find that the Vic Spatial maps are excellent and the Hema works very
well in Ozi Explorer.
I know that most mapping on these types of units concentrate on the "outback" however there is a lot of tracks and bush in Victoria and not just in the high country which is the only region that gets a look in on the pre loaded maps. I see in an another post that there is problem with windows 7, I find the web based interface very difficult to use and understand and now I suspect there is a problem with Windows 7.
I have now run the Garmin and the Hema side by side in the car and the differences in the routes chosen is amazing. The Hema is constantly routing onto unused roads and tracks, whereas the Garmin will stick to main roads.
The Hema has a facility for defining speed limits for various types of roads, but as yet I have not been able to get an explanation from either Hema or Route 66 what their definitions are, I do know that the speeds entered into into the various categories do make a huge difference and have experimented with various combinations.
The Hema also has a problem with the clock, it has no facility to set daylight saving time in eastern Australia and will constantly readjust itself to any time, Rio de Janeiro or anywhere! This is only noticeable when you see a completely wrong estimated arrival time.
I have raised all these issues with Hema who are unable to provide any assistance as they only provide token support for Route 66, I was referred to Route 66 and also Navteq, the people who actually make the maps.
Emails with these companies have been unable to provide any solution to the time problem and provide an explanation of road categories, they have just gone silent after an initial followup.
I do not intend to completely disregard the Hema, as a topo GPS it is very good and does what it claims it will do. It is just that I have found the Route 66 software very inadequate.
An example of mapping problems is the fact that Route 66 still has the
Goulburn Valley Highways south of Shepparton as a dual carriage way road, when it has been a freeway for about five years. It has many other discrepancies that are too numerous to mention.
Navteq have a facility to report any mapping problems but after numerous attempts to submit the problems I gave up as it would not work.
The Garmin Nuvi 1260 that I purchased recently to replace my old Street Pilot is an excellent street navigator for just over $200.00. The aded advantage of this unit is that it is small and can be tucked under the sun shield at the top of the windscreen and therefore not affected by sun glare. The bigger units will not fit in this area as they will obscure your vision. I tried the Hema in this position but it is too big. I had to buy a sun shield for the Hema as any direct sunlight renders the screen unreadable.
FollowupID:
717704