Workarounds for CoPilot's problems.

[GrimBeard]

I don't post very often, can't be arsed really....................but, why don't we club together, say a fiver between 30 of us. Then we can buy PONDEROUS, who likes SHOUTING his name, a copy of TomTom5, then he can go and moan in the TomTom forum.

You never know he might even miss CP5 and all it's foibles.

"Sits back, waiting for the hate mail!!!!!!!!!!"

[nikpro]

Here, Here - what a good suggestion; just need someone to collect the fivers!!

[PONDEROUS]

Grimbead, Nikpro!

Such a touching offer! No, really, you shouldn't. I'm all embarrassed. Still, though it's the thought that counts. Come to think of it, though, isn't £5 between 30 people about 17p each?

Actually, just the much-vaunted list of problems and solutions would be the nicest present you guys could give to someone who excites such passions in you. If they make CP 5 work, then I can ride off into the sunset...

[Ako]

Ponderous

...

[PONDEROUS]

Ako

Let's see your list of solutions, then.

[Ako]

You need to get a life.

[nikpro]

Here is a list:

Download V.61 from the USA website
Change Language to UK English
Position on route slider one notch from left in options menu
Change voice alert to 7 secs. for just ahead
Downoad the post code finder software
If you don't like the route given use the avoid road function
If you still don't like the route given BUY A MAP and work it out yourself

All above solutions have been posted by People on this forum who use it to help others rather than just a SOAP BOX to whinge on!!

[PONDEROUS]

And the failed "shortest routes", the faulty route optimisation, the ineffective waypoints ...

When you solve these, you will have proved your point (or, at least, what I think your point is). By the way, has anyone actually posted any "abuse" on the threads where the solutions that you cite are located?

[PONDEROUS]

It seemed only right that I should try what nikpro suggested in his most recent post.

I therefore downloaded USA version .61, in which nikpro implied that I would find an "avoid road function". I had not found such a function in the UK version, and it might prove useful if it were different from the "tweaks", discussed on the thread entitled Sticky: CoPilot 5 ETA - Tweaking Road Speeds.

As far as I can tell, this Avoid Road Function is not in USA version .61 either, but I may well be missing something.

Could you tell me, please, nikpro, where will I find the Avoid Road Function in this version?

[AndyRat]

Could I make four suggestions???

1. Please could a moderator lock this topic.
2. Open a new topic to discuss what neil01 suggested in the first post.
3. If you want to slate the product, or those who wish to find solutions and share them, do it elsewhere.
4. Have a moderator delete any posts to the new topic that do not follow neil01's suggestions.
_________________
Mitac Mio 168 | CoPilot 5 | Brodit Mount | VW Sharan
TrafficMaster SmartNav | Built in | Isuzu Rodeo

[nikpro]

select the Map view option button in the navigation screen

select the intenary

highlight the road you want to avoid

select the avoid road button (looks like a no entry sign)

Presto - your route is recalculated!

[PONDEROUS]

nikpro

Thank you for sending a straight answer without further abuse. I hope that we can continue like that.

In your previous post, you purported to dictate to me how I should use my navigator and what I should do if I did not like the results. I can imagine what you would be writing if I suggested the same in the other direction.

I would be grateful if you could try to regard the following as part of a relevant discussion and not as some sort of attack on you or anyone else. I am the only one who has been attacked; that is for sure.

Your reference to the USA version got me thinking that you had found a feature that was not available in other versions. Unfortunately that is not the case, and it does not solve any problem that I have raised on this forum.

If Copilot produces an unsatisfactory route, I will have to put in some waypoints to correct it. That is time-consuming enough, and unnecessary from a programme that is supposed to give me the Shortest route (if that is the option I choose) or as near as makes no difference. It entails scrolling over the route to try to see where the shortest route is, which might involve numerous screens. It is not easy. It is made worse because the waypoints often do not function properly, and when they don’t, the scrolling has to start again. Any measure that would ease this would be welcome.

However, the Avoid Road Function is not such a measure. It allows the selection of which roads to AVOID, not which roads to USE. That means that which roads will actually be used is unknown until the route is recalculated. It is therefore a matter of trial and error and of little use to me in this context.

The Avoid Road Function is of course useful when a traffic jam is announced on the radio, but as a workaround to make up for the loss of automatic calculation of shortest routes... ???

You are of course entitled to use this function for whatever purpose suits you. However, please don’t try to make out that someone who disagrees that this is a solution, or insists that the maker must produce a solution, is wrong to do so.

If you have anything to add, then of course I shall be pleased to read it.

I would also refer you to a recent post by Bazzer, who insists that POIs are not yet fixed. I don’t know as I have not tried them lately. I do know, however, that Bazzer was right to say so, if he has his facts correct.

Your point about the add-on software to get over database search problems, as far as it does so, seems to be a valid one . I have the software already and posted my appreciation on the relevant thread before this exchange began.

I have said sufficient in other posts about the need for problems to be described and for challenges when they are denied, so I will not repeat it all here. However, will endorse I can only echo the words of ako about the right of us all to our opinions – although, sadly, ako does appear to believe that his rule applies in one direction only.

[GrimBeard]

Ponderous' it's GrimBeard OK, with an r, as in 'sole.

Now for the love of God, FFS will you stop whining. The majority of retorical posts are meant to be helpful, not cures, just over the counter medicine to help with your little problems.

Let's face it, CoPilot 5.0, good as it is, and it works for many of us, is positioned towards the budget end of the market, even at £400. If you want a GPS System to work as though your life depended on it, get a nautical standard one at around £5000.

If you don't like the route it picks, go your own way.

If you really don't like the product, let it go, life is too short, buy TomTom.

The reply to this post should be a classic!!! Sit back and watch the show.

GB

[PONDEROUS]

As for the R for A***, well you said it, and if the cap fits then you will wear it well, I'm sure. However, as far as these forums go, you'll simply have to pass when you see my name or put your brain into gear and thnk of something to contribute.

The fact is that the thrust of nikpro's post was that he had the answer to the routing problems while, in fact he had no solution at all. When he posts a "solution" that is as straightforward as his list of one-liners implied, then no further comment will be necessary on that occasion.

Now, what about the list of problems and solutions?

I refer you for a start to one of my own suggestions. That is that anyone who needs to download a set of 7-digit postcodes and see them as pushpins in a relatively small geopgraphical area might consider Microsoft Pocket Streets. This application can be run in the backgound while Copilot is itself still running. It allows users to find rural addresses that are unavailble from Copilot because of the 5-digit postcode limit, and many urban ones that are unavailable because of Copilot's faults.

This is not a perfect workaround, and obviously, the availability of Pocket Streets does not mean that ALK do not need to fix Copilot. It will help some users, however.

[jdw7]

Why don't all you ALK apologists lay off him (PONDEROUS). All he wants is for the product to work as advertised (and reviewed) - what's wrong with that ?

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