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Joined: 10/07/2003 16:21:49 Posts: 66 Location: United Kingdom
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:14 pm Post subject: Re: Serious Issues
Tim Buxton wrote:
Can you post it here?
Here is the list which I have to add is in my opinion and on my unit.
My perceived problems with the Navman550:-
1, Poor GPS lock times compared to iCN635, sometimes have to wait for 15+ minutes for a lock (same car, signal levels look good)
2, System crashes with error messages, reboot required to fix. Sometimes a hard reboot is required. Using TMC “auto avoid” makes this worse.
3, Screen goes inactive (frozen) yet verbal routing information still continues and the reverse.
4, TMC often ends up in an endless loop if the “auto-reroute” is enabled (don’t use this option).
5, Again on TMC re-routing it asks you to get off the motorway only to guide you straight back on at the same junction– bizarre.
5, Poor re-routing times, seems worse than iCN635 and different somehow. Often have to pull over to give GPS time to catch up, disabled all non-essential maps but still the same.
6, Poor tracking which maybe connected with GPS lock, never driven across fields with iCN635 but this happens frequently on 550.
7, Voice instruction format has changed e.g.
a, “Enter the motorway” incorrectly given in my opinion is it happens on non-motorways such as dual carriageways (these are not considered motorways are they?)
b, Turnings now often referred as “bear right” when it should be “turn-right” in my opinion.
c, Road turnings e.g. exits from a motorway cause a distance weigh point to inserted, so “continue x miles” no longer means you have “x” miles of that road to travel, it just means to the next weigh point and so distance information can no longer be relied upon in my opinion.
d, “Continue straight” sounds bizarre.
e, Turning information at roundabouts has now gone.
f, Verbal turn instructions seem to be issued a little late in my opinion compared to the iCN635.
8, The old chestnut “roundabouts!” I can accurately quote two roundabouts which are incorrectly reported. You have to keep an eye on the maps for confirmation which could be argued as being dangerous. Must be an easy fix as the route is visibly correct.
9, Another old chestnut, the “Destination” distance is way-off in my opinion.
10, Some mapping detail seems to missing compared to the iCN635.
Other points
11, Screen is smaller than iCN635
12, Sound is not as good as the iCN635 seems to be a tiny speaker.
13, TMC doesn’t work if the 12V power plug drops out, no warnings of loss given.
14, No odometer or measure of distance travelled (would be useful for businessmen keeping track of their miles). This and other stats must be quite easy to add.
15, No entry of Latitude or Longitude co-ordinates which would be easy.
16, No “insert” on touch screen so characters cannot be inserted to amend text (have to backspace and re-type) which should be easy.
17, No interface with Outlook or contacts database.
18, No off-line PC editing of favourites information (which would be very easy to add)
19, Would be nice to tag avoid areas to a favourite.
20, Would be nice to be able to avoid an entire road such as the M40/M42.
21, No on-screen alert of TMC events (voice only)
22, No on-screen dialog box to avoid current TMC event. User has to scroll to “Traffic”, “En-route”, pick the event and then select avoid.
23, User selected avoids lost if user changes the route from the calculated route (i.e. wrong turn, blocked-off route, etc)
24, No mute button to quickly stop unit from talking when trying to concentrate on driving etc.
If the Navman code was "open-sourced" then many of the above would be quickly fixed or added as the case may be.
Again I must say that these are my observations and my opinions, others may wish to add to or subtract from them or simply disagree.
Just recently got my 550+TMC so not yet seeing as many issues but compared with my 630 the sound is tinny, in fact the whole unit is a lot less robust. Having some difficulty picking up aTMC signal im area - probably need to move the aerial around a bit.
Current feeling tis that maybe I should have stuck with the 630 but time will tell.
Joined: 14/09/2002 20:56:18 Posts: 5231 Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:27 pm Post subject:
ordep wrote:
Having some difficulty picking up aTMC signal im area - probably need to move the aerial around a bit.
Cheers
Can I ask your locale and what you drive, too, please? There are some 'dead' spots in the coverage, apparently, and I have an awful time trying to get TMC reception in my Renault with an athermic screen. _________________ Tim
Joined: 10/07/2003 16:21:49 Posts: 66 Location: United Kingdom
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:24 pm Post subject: TMC Reception
ordep wrote:
Just recently got my 550+TMC so not yet seeing as many issues ....
Cheers
Oddly enough I have had no problems with TMC signals and in that respect it works well. My guess is that it may be signal strength and so area dependant.
I have wondered if the 550's aerial input could be linked to the car’s main aerial to provide a stronger signal and neater wiring solution?
Joined: 14/09/2002 20:56:18 Posts: 5231 Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:53 pm Post subject: Re: TMC Reception
buckrogers wrote:
Oddly enough I have had no problems with TMC signals and in that respect it works well. My guess is that it may be signal strength and so area dependant.
And whereabouts are you, please?
buckrogers wrote:
I have wondered if the 550's aerial input could be linked to the car’s main aerial to provide a stronger signal and neater wiring solution?
Keep the feedback coming - are we the only ones?
I tried it. It didn't do much for me by way of improving TMC reception, but did attenuate the radio signal somewhat. I'm currently experimenting with an exernal magmount aerial. _________________ Tim
Having some difficulty picking up aTMC signal im area - probably need to move the aerial around a bit.
Cheers
Can I ask your locale and what you drive, too, please? There are some 'dead' spots in the coverage, apparently, and I have an awful time trying to get TMC reception in my Renault with an athermic screen.
I live in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire and this morning I drove from there to Aldershot (A1M, M25, M3) and at Stevenage I picked up a good signal and held it all the way apart from a few 10 sec dropouts when i was shielded by landscape or bridges. allowed TMC to route me around slow traffic on the M25 and it took me through the centre on Watford in the rush hour so probably not a good idea.
Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:46 pm Post subject:
Quote:
through the centre on Watford in the rush hour so probably not a good idea.
That's one problem with traffic data on SatNav - it assumes all other roads for which it has no data are completely free when considering to reroute. One day we'll have intelligent units that can be fed with time based traffic information to guess where will be busy (based on historic data) and then reroute (if best) where necessary.
Certainly Trafficmaster and iTIS both seem to offer prediction services, but not to SatNav programs.
Joined: 10/07/2003 16:21:49 Posts: 66 Location: United Kingdom
Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:04 pm Post subject: Traffic!!
I have just been told that TomTom has "avoid roads" which sadly the 550 does not. To avoid a motorway you have to make sure you “avoid area” almost every junction if you wish to avoid the M42 for example.
Why don't Navman look at adding value to their products? all they have to do is visit this site occasionally they could pick up some great ideas.
Speaking of which I have written a small program that allows you convert FavVer4.dat files to Fav4er4.csv and visa versa. Using Excel you can sort, edit, delete, manage your contacts and convert them into lower case which actually works. It’s not altogether a risk free program but I’ve used it a fair bit without issue. Some of the data fields are unknown to me but you can enter just a name and a Lat/long and that seems to work. Essentially the program is a hack, but it’s better than nothing! If someone would like to try it just email me, use it at own risk though.
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