I'm still optimistic about fixing my car's map, but even if I do, I expect problems finding my next car with a similar in-dash map plus everything else I want. And rather than some other feature, "in-dash" may have to be sacrificed.
So I have done as Ed suggested and looked into Garmin, and other brand, GPSes.
My first big question is, All the photos when they show the map show a) it's an angle, a perspective map, as if viewed from above where the user is, looking at the route as if it starts at my feet. That's okay but 90% of the time I want a map that looks like a paper map, the view from directly above, equally above everything, with no emphasis on where I am except a blue or red dot. Does Garmin have that too? Anyone know about off-brands?** b) all the pictures show 1/3 or 1/2 of the screen coveed with an informational box. Is it possible to have a map for the entire screen? (I'm hoping they don't show that because they're trying to show as much info as they can in the limited number of illustrations they can have.)
All I want 90% of the time is a map, as easy to read while driving as possible. Once in a great while I want to know where a gas station is (although if I'm willing to stop for a bit, I'll have a phone with google maps etc. for that.)
I even went to Crutchfield where you can very often download manuals, and I dl'd the Garmin Drivesmart 66/78/86 manual. But afaic it's not clear enough, so I'm asking you.
**There is no doubt that by the standards of many, I'm a cheapskate. And a 6" Garmin is about $250 but a 7" knockoff is $68. I'm sure Garmin has extra features, but I won't use most of them. My own car has navigation (route me to a destination) and in 5+ years I've never used it And after a lifetime of being thrifty it is hard to stop. Without going by the rules of thrifty, I don't know how to choose what or which model I buy. And ironically, I have no kids and unless I get some long term sickness, or go to a fancy old-age home, I expect to leave a substantial amount to charity. All such money ends up as salaries (if not directly than salaries for the vendors, contractors, miners, farmers, oil-riggers, truckers), and almost everyone who works for the charity or any of its supplier will live higher on the hog than I do, with my money. So why am I saving my money? But I can't stop.
micky has me filtered but anyway... Garmin has a confusing array of products, often with the same name. A Drive 52 is $90 on Amazon. A Drive
52 with live traffic updates adds $50. Get into the models with bluetooth, verbal commands, live parking advisories, etc and the price climbs. Figure out what you really need/want. The base technology and maps is the same; bells & whistles cost money.
The display can be configured for 3D (pseudo-oblique) 2D with constant north, or 2D that adapts to your direction of travel. More or less information can be displayed. Configure it while parked. Poking at the thing as you drive down the road, safety issues ignored, usually does not have a happy ending. Little touchscreen menus are like that.
Well, the early version of Agent I use doesn't have detailed options, so I can still see everyone who posts, and since you were the only one who answered about the GPS, I read it, and you convinced me that it will probably have what I want. When I didn't get perfect results cleaing the drive, I ordered a cheap knockoff from Amazon and it should come later today. Hoping to go on a 4 day trip tomorrow.
2D and 3D are the words I'd forgotten, well, never really learned even though they show on Google maps above the zoom bar some times, and seem like they would be the right search terms, but actually the ad for the one I bought has a lot of text but nowhere uses 2D or 3D. And when I search for "GPS navigation 2D" very few of them have 2D mentioned, even though based on what you said, I bet they all have it. This one is the only one out of 27 in the first Amazon search page has lists 2D, but it's 9 inches, too big. "XGODY Truck GPS Navigation for car 9 inch Big Screen for Truck Drivers Navigation Bluetooth AV-in Lifetime North America Maps 3D & 2D Maps, 8GB, Turn by Turn Directions "
I saw "oblique" somewhere though now I forget where, but it's non-oblique that I want anyhow.
I think what I bought will have it, or I'll get used to what it does have.
Also ordered a new map DVD, in case that's the problem, but it says it will arrive between next Monday and Friday.
Sometimes when I buy from eBay, I look for where the vendor is, closer the better. This time it just said United States, but after I bought it I'm sure something said Massechusettes. Oh, good, I'm in Baltimore so it might come early. But today when I got the tracking number, it's in Los Angeles. :-(
I bought a 9 inch GPS from Amazon to replace my Garmin StreetPilot C330 because the loudspeaker quit and I could no longer hear verbal instructions. My new 9 inch GPS can fit all the information on the screen, and it has all the features I wished for in a car GPS. For example, when I am driving, my 9" GPS shows me the street numbers on both sides of the road.
In Amazon search, you will find match only in the listing titles, not in the text description part.
My old defunct Garmin StreetPilot C330 has used descriptions like: "Choose between either a three-dimensional navigation view or the more traditional "bird's eye" overhead view".
So instead of 3D, it used "three-dimensional", and instead of 2D, it used "bird's eye overhead view". I think Garmin has idiots like you in mind.
And I appreciate it, except I'd not have thought to google with those terms. For one thing, 3D is barely 3D, but I don't know a better name for it. Once people get used to it, it works.
There is no better term for it. 2D is two-dimensional (x and y axis). 3D is three-dimensional (x, y and z axis). A 3D map view shows you the depth of your view. When my 9" GPS is in 3D map view, it can show buildings in 3D true to the height too (only when driving in downtown areas).
I can choose between two levels of 3D map view. One level is the driver's eye view out the window. It will show up to as far as the horizon and distant mountains, and it will label major highways far far away. Another level is simulating the driver looking down on the road from a very high position above the car, so that the maximum number of streets and objects on the map will be within a few blocks in front of the car.
What options are you missing? I used Agent 1.93 for many years before I upgraded to 2.0, which I also used for many years. I recently upgraded to 6.0. All of them basically have the same feature set, mostly.
Well, it came as scheduled, and though it's $69, it has a wealth of options, including a list of nearby autorrepair places and a page to save clothing sizes!
It came 3D and the only thing that made it hard to find 2D was there were so many menus to look at.
Strangely, the hardest thing to set was the hour (It has the minute right), even after I changed the timezone.
And hard to set was having the map point north, instead of the direction I'm going (I've been sitting in a desk chair since I turned it on, but it still seems to think I'm going in a direction, and not even the direction I'm facing. I'm sure this will straight out when I'm moving. But to make the map face north, I tapped everything and finally tappeed a non-existent gas station (in a lccation which has never had a gas station) and then there was a compass to tap on.
And the third and final possible problem is that it says it needed to be charged and I can't seem to use it while it's charging, but maybe when it's more nearly fully charged that won't be true, and I don't have to charge it all the time. (Plus I put a cigarette lighter in my car that is on even when the car is off, so I can charge it while I'm inside.)
It's a great toy.
I have a bracket, a pole that comes off the floor, but How do you get a suction cup to stick to a vinyl dashboard, especially one with no flat spots.
It's missing really only maybe two options and only one option that I know is in version 4. The one in version 4 (and maybe 2 too) is the ability to ignore a subthread but not other posts in other subthreads or higher in the thread. It's either the whole thread or nothing.
But what is missing, maybe, I'm not sure how they later handled it, and that is, if I filter someone out, I can mark his posts as read; ignore his post AND the whole thread, much of it I might want; OR I can iiuc delete his posts. Maybe that would keep the rest of the thread, even those in answer to him. I guess I made a decision 30 years ago to never use that and now I'm not sure why.
I"m using 1.93, but I've paid for version 4, I think, just never got around to changing.
Does your current version have more than 3 actions for a Delete filter.
Just set the timezone. It will set the clock when it receives GPS signal, OUTSIDE. You cannot receive GPS signal indoor.
A GPS can only tell direction after it has received GPS signal and moved a few feet, so that it can calculate what direct it is heading. A car GPS will not tell correct direction after you have just started the engine. The car has to move a few feet before it can calculate the correct heading.
It doesn't make sense that a car GPS cannot be used when it is being charged. Charging will happen all the time when in the car. The only reason you can't use it is because you were indoor with no GPS signal.
I use black silicone adhesive. It will conform to any curvature, and you can slowly pry the GPS off and the silicone adhesive off without damaging anything.
Black is better than Clear or White because Black won't reflect light when used on your dashboard.
Technically correct, but. . . . That may vary with the particular model. My car maintains the last setting so as soon as it starts screen/map is oriented properly and will give me directions before I move.
I'm willing to accept some flaws in the cheap models. Especially wrt the time since I wear a watch and the car has a clock so I won't be using this for the time anyhow, BUT... I set the timezone and it made a difference but when it was 11:15PM I'd change it to 11:15PM and then tap BACK and it would change to 10:15PM. Five times. One time, after it got back to the previous screen it said 11:15 for one second and then switched to 10:15. (No "Save" key on the screen where the time is set.) I finally solved it by setting the time zone to Atlantic time, which is 1 zone east of the Eastern timezone. :-)
I have a wood frame house and I'm sitting upstairs and the GPS does work. It knows where I am. It's not recalling a previous reading because I never turned it on until I got to my desk.
Maybe I shouldn't have included this. Of course it has to point in one direction or another (unless maybe it was spinning!). So this was not a valid complaint.
This will be annoying. I set North to be at the top and every time I have to set it again. It's not listed in the settings like 2D/3D. It doesn't even remember through a full session until I turn the device off or even close the GPS. This is what happens when you buy cheap! Maybe somehow that will work better in the car but I doubt it, because this is supposed to be portable, for hikers.
For sure!
One problem with being indoors is that for charging I'm using a USB jack on the computer, so I can't start navigation after it's plugged in, because the Nav until thinks it's external storage. When I try to start navigation *after* the charging cable is plugged in, it asks me to set the Navi Path, I think because it thinks the Navi Path might be in the external storage. When I'm not charging, it starts fine without asking anything.
When I'm using a charger that's not a PC that won't happen. Now I think this is also he reason I can't use it when I'm charging from the PC, NOT because I'm charging but because it's trying to find the external storage. Another reason to think that is because the screen is displaying a flash drive, which is probably code for external storage. (Yes, see below.)
More features, even in this cheap one: Free Lifetime Map Updates, it says US and Canada pre-installed. Other countries available-Contact us. It accepts a microSD card, up to 32Gig, upon which I guess you can put music and movies! $6 for PNY at Amazon (I'll never do that.) Music file list, I guess it will play music (or whatever) Video file list, I guess it will play video Photo file list. Ebook file list Flashplayer list ???? Six silly games List of favorites, favorite somethings Calculator Unit converter Talks in any of 6 languages, European and Russian And I found a setting fo the USB so that it no longer thinks it's external storage (Mass storage). No I have it set as MS Activesync, whatever that is, and I can run the map while it's plugged in.
The GPS Iinformation page shows it's using signals from 7 satellites! It gives signal strength for each and it ranges from 30 to 19. There are slots for 5 more. And there is round map that claims to show where the satellites are, from Alaska to southern Africa. Wow.
It gives my latitude and longitude to 6 decimal places, my altitude in meters 121.6-decimal places, except the altitude varies by 0.2 meter, 8 inches. Even though I don't remember going up and down. And it has my speed, which I'm happy to say is 0.000000
It has a Calibration option, that asks if I want to calibrate, but the manual is only 8 pages and makes no reference to calibration. I wonder what it would calibrate?
Hmmm. the time is 11:24 but I notice it says 12:24, so I change the time zone from Atlantic to Eastern and now it says 10:24, so I go back to Atlantic and it's 11:24 again.
Under Navigation of all things it has more options, including Clothing sizes-- Bra band sizes, bra cup sizes... Aha, it's not for recording your friends' sizes, it's for converting from Eu/Fr, to UK, En, or Aus/US. Shoes for women, dresses for women, pants for women, shoes for men, shirts for men, suits for men, hats for men, pants for men.
Sunrise and sunset, trip monitor, country information, fuel consumption
And it says it's 4:30PM, 5 hours later. I've noticed this before, that there is a separate time for the GPS section, and no way to set it!
Another section called Overview claims to keep track of money, gallons and even kg of CO2. Wow.
I've left out the normal navigation things, like avoid specific roads, ferries, highways, toll roads. It has all those things
It also will give a list of businesses near whatever location you are, ("Places around cursor"). It's a long list, including several in the apartment building, where I know they don't do business, it's just where the owner lives. Plus it includes a swim club not far from me which for at least 15 years is owned by a mosque and not open to the public anymore, so it's a thorough list but maybe an old list (Well, until the civil rights laws around 1969 and maybe even longer, it wasn't actually open to the public because it was not open to Blacks or Jews, which is a big reason it went out of business and got sold to the mosque, because even after the law required it, black people refused to join.)
It has some options for commercial drivers, Number of drivers Max Continuous driving time Minimum Break time Maximum break time Maximum Daily driving time Warn in advance, 5 minutes default
Something about traffic, or historical traffic, but I don't know how it could know that.
Well, I stand corrected. That was the way my Garmin StreetPilot C330 behaved.
This new 9" GPS I have owned for less than a year behaves differently. I went out shopping and had lunch after I read your reply. I started my car. It did not remember the last heading it was facing. Maybe because I have elected in the settings not to save all my trips in the GPS flash memory. After it received the GPS signal, the screen showed the correct location but the heading was wrong. I deliberately backed up my car for quite two car's distance. The GPS did not update the screen, but as soon as I turned 90 degrees and moved forward, the GPS starts updating the correct heading. I think the algorithm was designed not to update the heading after it was first turned on, until the car has moved a certain distance or achieved a certain speed.
I think the manufacturing must have a good reason for an algorithm like this.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.