Navman GPS

[willym]

Hi guys, this is an interesting link from the - dare I say, the Pajero forum - that shows how to give your Navman GPS and others based on Windows CE software full PDA functionality, including the ability to run other navigation software such as Oziexplorer CE.
The link is - How to Hack an Navman S series - Pajero 4WD Club of Victoria Public Forum
There is a comprehensive thread and instructions on how to do it.
I haven't tried it yet - downloaded the software and will have a go over the weekend

 

[Krankin]

Post up your results after youv'e had a go.





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[KraftyPg]

Same theory applies to all similar types of GPS. It's not an overly hard thing to do, but just for those who worry about warranties and fear companies wont uphold warranties any problems doing this sort of thing usually results in a void warranty. I've done it on my old MIO and it does work but the limitation is the processor (as with most of these smaller units) not the software.

 

[willym]

Downloaded and installed software as per Pajero forum instructions and all worked OK.
Downloaded and installed the trial version of OziEplorer and it worked OK as well.
No probs with GPS going back to original setttings.

 

[Old.Tony]

I broke into my NavMan and installed TomTom on it for all of 5 minutes to see if it would work.

It absolutely did. For all of 2 minutes. It then locked up repeatedly, the hardware used by NavMan is so bad it couldn't even skip across the water properly when I flicked it at the bloody lake, so how the hell is it going to tell me which road to take?

I'll never waste my money on NavMan garbage again. $900 to buy it when it was new, and the maps were already out of date ... "yes sir, you can have new maps for $180" ... actually, no, the unit has now drowned and is being used by the local squid to find their way home.

 

[equipt]

Don't want to get too off topic and stuff, but all big GPS brands (Navman, Tom Tom and Garmin) offer some sort of latest map guarantee. What this means is that you can go into a shop and buy a GPS that has been sitting on the shelf for 2 years, take it home and update to the latest maps for free, also if you buy a GPS today and in a week a new map pack is released you can get that update for free also. The latest map guarantee normally lasts for 30 days once the GPS is 1st activated either by receiving a GPS signal and driving around or by activating with the S/N on the website.

 

[Old.Tony]

My NavMan purchase was prior to these being available and it's so wet now, I doubt it will accept an update any more. But the new gear should be ok in my car as long as it's not NavMan.

 

[KraftyPg]

Not sure about a 2 year guarantee but the several week guarantee is definitely open most people. Many GPS units like Mio, Garmin and Navman (all owned by the same company now) of more than 2 years old wont install company specific updates because of limitations in the old chips, which is pretty much the companies just forcing consumers to buy new units given that the actual chips haven't changed that much in the last 2 years.

Even units like the one Woody brought of ebay with the newer chips have limitations in that many can't run entire map sets without freezing, the solution in Woody's case was to know where he's going and only install the applicable maps for the area. Your unit might accept 16 or even 32 GB SD cards and your map file may not appear to be a very big file (I think stuffing around with Woody's we were looking at only a few hundred meg per map file) but to process and render it with the limited RAM most of these hand held machines have quite often leads to problems which is what forced us to find the solution for Woody's unit.

Still looking into my options with this GPS stuff and the possibility of future proofing it for atleast a few years but at this stage my options are still pushing the $600 mark and I'm not sure if that's the way I want to head.

 

[Old.Tony]

There's a cheaper alternative than all this mucking about.

Buy a $100 GPS unit every year. If the battery fails after 13 months, or the maps are too old after 13 months, etc etc - who cares, it's not your problem any more.

Those of us with in-dash units are in the $hit but we'll get over it!

 

[KraftyPg]

I can actually buy Nav units for under $100 these days and in such a throw away society the buy now replace tomorrow at that sort of cost is nearly attractive, the problem comes when you want to install maps like Hema etc because Sensis (or the equivalent) isn't enough. The power in a cheap unit just doesn't cut it for such maps.

 

[Krankin]

I'll never waste my money on NavMan garbage again


.

Amen.....

 

[terryc]

Still looking into my options with this GPS stuff and the possibility of future proofing it for atleast a few years but at this stage my options are still pushing the $600 mark and I'm not sure if that's the way I want to head.

Since part of my background was in IT support for GIS (Geographical Information Systems), I was thinking about rolling my own system on a car PC. However. since most of the data out there was rather trash quality, I decided just to stick with buying paper product, aka maps.

I'm also expecting to stick with them for a very long time. Commercial product deliberately introduces errors to catch people illegally selling their data and "the intelligence" behind many open mapping products is frightening.

 

[crack]

at times i wish i didnt buy my navman but i bought it in a rage as i was lost and wanted to get the F out of the city. ive been debating wether to install hema 4wd maps but im a bit put off with how poorly it has worked in the city. tempted to buy a new laptop and get a programe for it.

 

[KraftyPg]

I think 08KC (apologies if it was someone else) was or still is running a crappy or netbook for this purpose.

The advantage of a crappy is it's power, even the most basic of crappy will run a maps package but of course the disadvantage is it's size, even the 7inch netbooks (as if any bloke wants to admit he's only got 7 inchs ) takes up space and is not going to be the easiest to operate with only one person in the car.

The CarPC idea (the one Biscuits adapted for the Nav) has merit for it's small and convenient size because it does pretty much everything the crappy will do, however last time I priced the CarPc it was about $1400 (all bits included) where as a netbook for music and maps is about $250-300.

Not that I'd ever buy and iPad but there are alternatives for around the $500 ($600 with GPS) that will also hold music and maps and run the full package and be a little easier to mount yet still be removable to use outside the car but they too have drawbacks.

I'm still thinking about my options.