GPS for Dummies!

[Causette]

I'd like to get TOH an in car GPS thingy for his  birthday. 

I've searched, and read through, the postings on this topic, but I need someone - please - to explain very simply (as if speaking to a complete simpleton should just about do it!) exactly what components I need to buy.  Is it the just the unit itself , or are there other additional things I need to buy, too, to get it to work (and he won't want it to speak to him in French!) ?

Many many thanks,

Technically Challenged of Lisieux...  

[PaulC<P><IMG src="http:forums.livingfrance.comimagesline.gif"><BR>Paul, Debbie and Josh, <BR>London & Dept 24<BR><a target=_blank href="http:www.les-brandes.net" target=_blank>http:www.les-brandes.net<A><BR><P>]

If you want an all in one GPS solution thats easy to use / setup, The "Tom Tom Go" is a standalone GPS that sticks to the inside of the car windscreen with a big sucker - you need to buy a package that includes the Maps you want, the UK model Only has the UK maps and the Euro ones are about £150 extra for this model

I'm sure you could buy it with France installed from a dealer in France, worth a search on the net and / or a few phone calls.. ????

Oh, and it can talk in loads of different languages so no "tournez à droite" even if your running the French maps

Paul

P.S i'm looking to get one of these later this year and have been looking into it - i'm not a Tom Tom salesman

[Lachouette]

We have a Navman icn630 GPS system, which like the Tom Tom sticks to the car windscreen, and can be moved from car to car.  It came from the UK, with all European maps on a CD or two, ready to load onto the device, but what we found was that we had to buy an memory card, just like those you get for a digital camera, to load the extra maps onto.  If my memory serves me right, the UK maps fit onto 1 x 256thingy bits of memory, and we have France loaded onto another 256 memory card.  We just swap the cards over at the ferry ports.  OUrs too will speak to you in several languages, none of the bad!

Jan

[Baz]

Whilst more expensive than Navman icn 630, it may be worth considering the Navman icn 650 especially if it is to be used in more than one country. It comes complete with a pre-installed 2Gb hard disk with Western European maps installed as a plug 'n' go solution so you can purchase it and walk straight out of the showroom and have the system up and running in seconds. It is also totally portable between vehicles.  As prices are dropping almost daily it is worth looking around for the best discount and no computer downloads or swapping cards are necessary.

Baz

[Ecossais]

There are a couple of different types of portable GPS / Satellite Navigation systems.

 

You can get a standalone system like TomTom Go.  This is probably the neatest solution - it looks a bit like a miniature TV which fits into a clamp bracket which is attached to the windscreen to keep it from sliding around the dashboard.  The screen is touch-sensitive, and the GPS receiver (which communicates with the satellites to work out your location is on the back).  The unit operates from a rechargeable battery and is also supplied with a power lead to charge it (or power it) from the cigarette lighter socket.

 

When you buy a TomTom Go, you get “street level maps” of the country in which you buy it plus “Major Roads of Europe”, so if you buy it in the UK it would take you to 14 High Street, Small Village, UK but only to the town / village in France.  (The way it works is you first type in the town, followed by the street and then the house number – it has predictive text input like on a mobile so you don’t have to type every letter!  You can choose the language and also whether the voice is male or female – I think you get a couple of each to choose from).

 

You can buy street level maps of other European countries for when you take your TomTom Go on holiday, although they’re not cheap at around £100 for one country ready to use on a SD media card or £115 for 16 countries on CD (you need to copy the map onto an SD card).

 

TomTom Go sells for around €750 www.dabs.fr or £412 www.dabs.co.uk

You can get full information, pictures and screen shots on the TomTom website www.tomtom.com

 

If your husband already has a Toshiba / Compaq / HP etc PDA, you can use this in conjunction with TomTom Navigator – I bought TomTom Navigator last summer to use with a Toshiba PDA I have.

 

This works in the same way as Go, but you have a separate GPS pick up which sits on the dashboard and your PDA is held in a clamp attached to the windscreen.  There are more wires this way but it’s a lot cheaper – around £150 (plus the cost of the PDA).

 

Finally you can also get GPS to use with some mobile phones like the Nokia 6600, but I guess the standalone style would be of most interest to you.

 

As I mentioned I bought TomTom Navigator (as I already had a PDA) which works the same way as Go and have used it in the UK and in France (with the French street level maps).  I’ve found it very useful and reliable, and built up a lot of trust in it on a 2500 mile trip last summer.

 

Just one thing to point out – if your car has a heat reflective front windscreen, the GPS pickup might have difficulty communicating with the satellites.  I used my system in a hired Citroen Picasso in October and noticed that the signal strength was fluctuating quite a bit (although the SatNav still worked OK).  The windscreen seemed to have a different tint to the other windows – the TomTom website mentions possible problems with heat reflective windscreens.

[Causette]

Wow!  Thank you all very much for such informative replies - I actually feel ready to buy!  Funnily enough, I was in a car with someone yesterday who has a GPS set up (tho' it was built in to a very posh walnut dashboard in a very posh Jaguar!), and he obligingly switched it on for me.  I am still in awe of the technology behind it!

JudyM(14)

 

[Quillan]

You need to be aware that built in ones like you saw in the car are far more accurate than the ones previously discussed and do not suffer from loss of GPS signal which can happen in built up areas with high buildings or driving through forests. The reason for this is that they don't rely on just GPS but use inertia devices (these measure G forces for acceleration forward and backwards as well as side to side [for when you turn])and have sensors on the wheels (or wheel I should say). So driving in tunnels, towns, forests etc is no problem. You can have them for most cars as an option fitted by the garage but they do cost more and can't be moved from car to car which is on the down side.

I personally prefer the PDA and GPS separate route because you can use the PDA for things like a English - French - English dictionary, shopping lists and all the normal PDA functions. I bought a GPS unit that will also support the new satellites when they are launched for the new european system (forgotten the name but it's more accurate) plus it has a ultra sensitive mode for towns, even picks up a signal in my basement, not that I need it to but it shows how good it is.

[Jon 1]

Ecossais has given you an excellent response.  I too would recommend the TomTom Go.  In my opinion it is the simplest and most cost effective system.  Although I do not have one at the moment it is my intention to buy one soon.  You can purchase them for around £380 if you search on the Net.  If you do have a reflective car windscreen an optional external antenna is available for around £50.  You would require this for any GPS in this instance.  As Ecossais said you will probably have to purchase the additional map set for Western Europe, so this would have to be factored in as would perhaps the need for a larger memory card.  The total could come to about £580, but it still beats all other contenders in terms of ease of use and cost.

Jon

[Russethouse]

Don't forget to put it through Kelkoo, either .co.uk or .fr, to get the best deal !

[Ecossais]

Judy,

 

If you like the built-in style SatNav like in the Jaguar you were in, you can buy systems which replace the stereo in your car.  You could move one like this from car to car when you change (depending on the style of the factory fitted stereo).

 

I don’t have any personal experience of them, but some of the car hi-fi companies like Alpine make them.

 

If you’re interested, have a look at http://www.alpine-europe.com/alpine/english/t79._car-navi-special_mobile-media-navigationsystem.htm

 

To give you an idea of prices, the Alpine INA-N333RS is around £1000 (still half the price of the Jaguar one!)

 

 

[Causette]

£1000 ???  that's worth more than my car   And much as TOH is dear to me... I'd rather get him the TomTom version!

When we win Le Loto and buy a Jaguar, we shall have a built in one..  Until then, it's Landrover and TomTom (I love that name!) - and no more arguing over maps!  Bliss

[Quillan]

Don't know if you watched The Gadget Show last night but they tested 3 different types, a built in unit, a Tom Tom stand alone unit and a NavMan. To be honest they all came out badly and the TomTom came out worse for rural use and the Navman got a right slagging off.

I have just upgraded my old CoPilot4 to version 5 and I have to say it's very, very, good. It uses the latest Navtech maps and I did a rural trip today and it was spot on, much better than version 4. They have the best map compression in the business so its possible to get the whole of the EU in to a 512MB memory card. You get it as a single country product for the Pocket PC but the desktop version is street level mapping for the whole of the EU. You can unlock it for the Pocket PC at a cost of £99 which is actually quite cheap as it includes all of the current EU member states including the old eastern block ones, not that I am ever likely to go there.

I chose to go the Pocket PC route because, as I have said before, I can do so much more with it like I have French lessons on it and the Collins French - English - French dictionary which I find very helpful out and about. Not to mention all my B&B bookings and notes about my clients like what they don't like to eat when getting stuff for the evening meal. It also downloads my Times (and now the Guardian as well) every day whilst those waiting for the hard copy get it one day late round here. I also get the weekly TV programs downloaded for normal TV and Sky which is handy. You can't do any of this with a TomTom.

[Nigelt]

One advantage of using Tom Tom on a PDA is that there are quite a lot of add-ons available.  For example, I have downloaded the locations of all the Auchan hypermarkets in France.  This allows me to navigate straight to them.  You can also download the locations of speed camera sites and set up warnings when you are approaching them.  I know that speed camera detectors are illegal in France, but does anyone know what the rules are on using this information, as it is a database rather than a detector?

Also, are there updates for the maps on these systems? I was using Tomtom 2 in the Limousin last summer and found that the motorway wasn't on the map.