[Merged] GPS Sat Nav

[MikeHolmes]

Hi there
A friend is considering buying a GPS system for his car. Are there any good uk sites with advice and comments about the current range of systems?
Mike

[quadplay]

Don't know about any sites, but I recently bought a TomTom Go, and it's awesome! Bit pricey, though, at £420 - but in-car GPS navigation tends to be...

[KingPhoenix]

Originally Posted by jimbo

Don't know about any sites, but I recently bought a TomTom Go, and it's awesome! Bit pricey, though, at £420 - but in-car GPS navigation tends to be...

If your gonna spend that sort of money, id recommend buying an iPaq with the tomtom addon...... and the tomtom car kit....

[Acropolis]

i have an iPaq 1940 with tomtom 3 running on it and a tomtom bluetooth reciever and its brillitnat, it guides me through 600 miles a day and hardly ever goes wrong.

Try this place www.pocketgps.co.uk they are good for advice and products.

[daxx]

TomTom 3 on a Dell Axim X30i with blue tooth and hard-wired (just in case) works flawlessly. Axim x30 also able to use the blue tooth on my mobile for the odd bit of browsing when waiting to load up as well as the usual stuff that a pocket PC gets up to in my hands .

[goldoni]

I have the HP iPaq 1710 with Tomtom software and car kit it retails for £299.99 in the shops and can be had for £235.99 via some web sites.

Down side itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s not Bluetooth so you canââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t go walkabout and does not have a plug for an external antenna, but I have had no problems in my car or van and it puts me right outside my customers house which is quite cool.

I have a XDA with Tom Tom navigator, I've had it 2 years now and only a few problems have occured.

[Mike]

Hi all

Has anyone got sat nav in their cars and if so any recommendations or advice.

Many thanks

Mike

[Hom3r]

Hi

I got TOM TOM last year, it a stand alone portable unit that can be used on a bike or for those people who are in to walking hols.

The battery life is very good as well.

It cost us £400 but that was the week it came out.

There are know several versions

http://www.tomtom.com/

[ZrByte]

You could also go down the PDA route and just get a pda and a gps module, then buy something like tomtom for it.
I have this setup myself using an Ipaq 2210, a compact Flash GPS and tomtom 3. Cost about £210 total. Though it was all second hand (but in as new condition)

[Mike]

Originally Posted by ZrByte

You could also go down the PDA route and just get a pda and a gps module, then buy something like tomtom for it.
I have this setup myself using an Ipaq 2210, a compact Flash GPS and tomtom 3. Cost about £210 total. Though it was all second hand (but in as new condition)

So with a PDA you need three things : Unit / GPS Receiver / Software ie the maps.

Is that correct ?

Thanks

Mike

[Raistlin]

I decided not to get one of these navigator thingies, instead I just buy the TomTom city maps for my mobile as and when I need them.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by Mike

So with a PDA you need three things : Unit / GPS Receiver / Software ie the maps.

Is that correct ?

Thanks

Mike

You could do with some extra memory aswel in order to use the full great Britain map, however, yes that is all you need to get going.

The Ipaq 2210 (wich is what I use) has 64MB of memory, the smaller tomtom maps are about 15MB each, the medium ones are 32MB and the Map of the whole of the country is 100MB. Personally I would install the Big map, especially if you are likeley to be doing a long journey.
So then you have a choice of 128MB SD or bigger, or even 128MB of compact flash, though if you use Compact flash memory dont forget you cant use a compact flash GPS, you will need a Bluetooth or serial model.

My current setup is this.....
IPAQ 2210
S4800 GPS compact flash with external antenna
1GB SD card
Tomtom 3 with 100MB Great Britain map.
A dashboard mount is also helpful as it can be dangerous to keep the PDA on the passenger seat unless you have someone with you to pay attention to it. (I picked one up for 99p from wilkinsons, its meant for a phone but fits the PDA fine, though the edges could do with being trimmed a bit)

I highly reccomend this setup, its cheap and effective. Though if you are on a budget maybe you should considder the following.....
3900 series (very basic) or Ipaq 2210 (these are quite cheap and have a range of advanced features only found on high end pda's, though not worth it if you are only planning to use it as a GPS)
Serial GPS for 3900 series, or Compact flash for 2210
128MB SD
Tomtom 2 with updated maps (or maybe ebay for second hand tomtom 3)

I have a XDA with Tom Tom navigator, it does the trick for me.

I got mine from Here

[goldoni]

I would recommend the Ipaq 1710 which comes with Tomtom 4 map of the UK pre-loaded and you have the option of the European maps for about £130.00 (I think)

This version of HP Ipaq Tomtom is powered via a cigarette lighter plug and comes with everything to get you up and running for about £266.00 or cheaper.

Personally I think we are at the start of Navigation kits with the prices high. The next new version out is Tomtom 5 for the mobile phones said to be out end of April.