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Basic Sat Nav

t1pper

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Aug 7, 2014
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uk
Hi,
I am in need of a sat nav just something reasonably basic without too many options as its the first time I have owned one.

Just need to navigate in the UK with a postcode address searches.

Thanks in advance.
 
My advice would be for a Garmin Nuvi, but I am biased.
See here and here.

This one has the features I think are important, but in my opinion you should get one with more features than you think you will need because later you may end up needing them, I know I use all the features mine has.
 
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X2 on the Garmin Nuvi i didn't want "features" i just wanted simple show me where to go device . Halfrauds advised a tomtom which i got tried and returned it was bloody awful compared to my very old Navman which i would still be using now if i hadn't drowned it in acid brick cleaner :doh:.

I didn't update the Nuvi or read instructions just plugged it in and away , i've had almost a year now and only just found out it will tell me where to get fuel , take me to map coordinates and all sorts of things i didn't want but am now happy to have .
 
You will be surprised how useful a garmin sat nav with safety camera alerts (speed trap cameras both fixed and mobile) and real time traffic is, I use mine even when I know where I am going because it will alert me to my speed and dangerous stretches of road, and if I have told it where I want to go it will reroute and advise me if delays in traffic are going to slow me down.
Mine is six years old now and I regularly update the maps.
Personally I believe the costs are worth what they potentially save me in unnecessary contributions to the governments retirement fund.

My mother and my ex wife both had a tom tom before I bought the garmin, personally I would not touch tom tom with a barge pole.

With regard to the apps for mobile phone navigation I believe that while they are very good they are not as good as a dedicated sat nav, also they do not use satellites but the mobile phone tower signal to determine their position, direction of travel and speed etc so will not be as good where signal coverage is poor.

On another line of thought for minimal out lay you could turn your laptop into a sat nav, only problem is where do you mount it (size and so on), I bought one of these and installed this program on my lap top that I take with me when I travel just in case I need to find something online, I am surprised just how good it is but it is still not as intuitive as the garmin but will make a good backup.

If you have a tablet there are navigation aps/programs for them as well but most tablets do not have a standard usb port, those that do have a micro usb port and a few have built in gps so do not need a dedicated satellite receiver.

If you want a cheap sat nav then flea bay might be an option, or cash converters or similar but with them you take your chances.
When I change my satnav it will be because it no longer works or is otherwise useless.

Just a few ideas for you t1pper.
 
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Where did you get the phone ! I want one ..... i so want one of them :pray:

As for the satnav you just type in the postcode and press go and that's it , they are poxy touchscreen but even i can type the postcode right on my first attempt sometimes . However i do trust it implicitly it does make mistakes but like taking you off the motorway to spend 45 minutes negotiating your way through a town centre when the next exit will take you directly to your destination in 5 minutes , But it always gets you where you are going .

The only thing that annoys me about mine is when a road is closed and you have to take another route it will insist for miles on your returning to the correct route .
 
Shayne re the going through town you possibly have your sat nav set to most direct route, try changing that to fastest route and yes road closed can be annoying, that and new junction/road that your sat nav does not know about and it suddenly gets confused because it thinks you are in the middle of a field, sat navs can be fun.
 
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It is on fastest Julian its a certain junction i'm thinking of and i suppose it should be faster through Lancaster to Heysham but the traffic there is diabolical the next exit adds about 10 miles to the journey but at motorway speeds who cares . I also need to find out how to kill that average speed warning beeper , there's a stretch of road i do occasionally and the bloody thing starts bleeping and flashing "average speed camera 40mph" for what seems like an age when everyone is doing 80 !
 
Thanks Julian. I've just downloaded that program to my Samsung tablet, which has GPS, and it found my location instantly, I've also put Clives place on too so it should be a good back-up to the Garmin DEZL.
 
Shayne that must be one of those cases where local knowledge trumps the sat nav, perhaps their is a configuration setting that might help, and yes mine also complains about speed cameras/speeds, I think it just be getting confused sometimes with an adjacent road.

Chas only a pleasure mate, it seems like quite a handy program so far.
My search for a off road gps mapping program and quality maps continues ;)
 
X2 on the Garmin Nuvi i didn't want "features" i just wanted simple show me where to go device . Halfrauds advised a tomtom which i got tried and returned it was bloody awful compared to my very old Navman which i would still be using now if i hadn't drowned it in acid brick cleaner :doh:.

I didn't update the Nuvi or read instructions just plugged it in and away , i've had almost a year now and only just found out it will tell me where to get fuel , take me to map coordinates and all sorts of things i didn't want but am now happy to have .

I normally get my sat nav and plug it in straight away, get any free map updates and the software updated.

You will be surprised how useful a garmin sat nav with safety camera alerts (speed trap cameras both fixed and mobile) and real time traffic is, I use mine even when I know where I am going because it will alert me to my speed and dangerous stretches of road, and if I have told it where I want to go it will reroute and advise me if delays in traffic are going to slow me down.
Mine is six years old now and I regularly update the maps.
Personally I believe the costs are worth what they potentially save me in unnecessary contributions to the governments retirement fund.

My mother and my ex wife both had a tom tom before I bought the garmin, personally I would not touch tom tom with a barge pole.

With regard to the apps for mobile phone navigation I believe that while they are very good they are not as good as a dedicated sat nav, also they do not use satellites but the mobile phone tower signal to determine their position, direction of travel and speed etc so will not be as good where signal coverage is poor.

My brother offered me a deal on a TomTom (he was involved with them at the time) when I was looking; my response was I'll stick with Garmin... How long have Garmin been doing GPS receivers and how long have TomTom?

It is on fastest Julian its a certain junction i'm thinking of and i suppose it should be faster through Lancaster to Heysham but the traffic there is diabolical the next exit adds about 10 miles to the journey but at motorway speeds who cares . I also need to find out how to kill that average speed warning beeper , there's a stretch of road i do occasionally and the bloody thing starts bleeping and flashing "average speed camera 40mph" for what seems like an age when everyone is doing 80 !

Never had to go to Heysham, but I would regularly go into the Lakes and it would try the same sometimes!

Speed camera and speed info can be outdated... the ones that get me are the sections of the motorway where there was a section of roadworks with average speed cameras, and that has now been lifted... bing bing bing bing... damn thing.

What ever satnav you go for, always have a look through the route first and check against a paper map... you'd be amazed at the difference that can make to a journey!
 
@Julian T & Chas:
I use oziexplorer on a pc (toughbook CF19) for navigation.
There are a lot of maps available for downloading at various websites but the best maps I found so far are the ones I compile myself from opencyclemap.org with a program called MOBAC.
For garmin users, take a look at opentopomap.org. It's also based on openstreetmaps and it looks like a german topographic map.
 
For off road, I use a Garmin GPSMAP 620 and open street maps which are free from garmin.openstreetmap.nl and are 25k routable maps with track level detail. Works really well. I don't like the street nav on it, so I use tomtom on iOS.
 
Ive got a old road angel 7000 navigator if your interested. Needs to be plugged in as batteries are dead. It can actually be used with memory maps
 
Update....
I borrowed a Tom Tom unit on Saturday for a 400 mile round trip to Derbyshire from Wiltshire drove my usual route while having the navigator switched on, I found it was trying to send me on a very long winded tour of the UK as I drove it was dropping huge chunks of mileage off and I reduced my journey time even tho I was towing 3500kgs.
However it was helpful to find my end destination.
Think I will need a bit more research before deciding what I need, it did pin point the location for me, but really lost out on the overall route planning.
 
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Ive got a old road angel 7000 navigator if your interested. Needs to be plugged in as batteries are dead. It can actually be used with memory maps

Thanks for the offer, I am not sure what will be suitable as I am a bit of a plank when it come to techy things.

I will have a bit more time this week to review your unit (plus some of the things discussed) and see it is suitable.

Thanks again for the offer,
Regards
T1pper
 
Update, but really lost out on the overall route planning.

That's Tom Tom for you, I was on the motorway heading for London after a visit to Bournemouth and my Tom Tom told me to exit at EVERY M junction I came to, got rid and bought a Garmin.
 
Its all in the settings mate and setting it up is no more difficult than setting up a new tv . I hated the look of the tomtom so much i didn't even try it out before returning it , the Garmin i like because its plain and simple . I once borrowed a mates satnav , can't remember what type and i near threw it out the window . I later learned that he will not drive on motorways and being disabled he milks every mile out of a journey when the opportunity presents itself so the damn thing was set to take the scenic route through every town and village along the way ! Tick the fastest route box and jobs a good'en :thumbup:
 
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