Memory Map and Road Angel announce the Road Angel Navigator

Tim Buxton

Memory Map and Road Angel have joined forces to come up with the Road Angel Adventurer 7000. This fully waterproof device has a 3.5" screen, an SD card slot and a host of other extras. It also has ROAD ANGEL UK and Eire street level mapping and Memory-Map OS Landranger® 1:50,000 – Britain’s National Parks maps.

Furthermore, you can use Memory-Map V5 maps on it and ROAD ANGEL have full Western Europe street level maps available as an upgrade. Click here for further details from Memory Map's website.
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Tim

algypan · Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:09 pm Post subject:

This looks like a nice piece of kit I like the way that they have put the os map on it as well and of course it is fully waterproof, This should be a good selling point for walkers or bikers out there

nuttynurse · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:06 am Post subject:

This looks very much like it has the combination of features I would like i.e. road navigation, backpacking OS and speedcamera database. Now, I think I appreciate that this essentially a Road Angel 7000 in a waterproof jacket with OS maps, but before I get too excited can you experts answer the following questions:

1 How well made is the RA?
2 How good is the RA at road navigation?
3 How good is the speed camera database in alerting you to all camera types
4 What is their after sales service like when things go wrong?
5 Anyone got a RA 7000 series if so what's ARE YOU HAPPY?

Thanks for any replies 8)

stuart · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:09 am Post subject: Road Angel Adventurer 7000.

nuttynurse has asked some good points about this unit. It does look very practical, but if the build quality is anything like the Road Angel I bought wayback when, then I'd wait to see reports. How long will it be before TomTom release an OS Maps version on an SD card. Now that would be handy.

Darren · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:29 pm Post subject:

Indeed. And the RA Road Navigation software is (or was) pretty poor. I used one for a few days borrowed off a neighbour and was less than impressed.

Funnily enough Road Angel have not once actually produced a unit for us to test despite many requests and many broken promises.

Makes you wonder why?
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Darren Griffin

lundavra · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 17, 2007 Posts: 76

Just got one mainly so I can all the OS maps available.

The menus can be a bit confusing but perhaps I will get used to them, seems to take ages to get back to the Memory Maps after it has been switched off.

One major problem is that the 12v charger lead produces very high level of RF interference which means the car radio will only receive very local VHF/FM signals. I am waiting to find out whether this is a faulty lead or poor design.

The six free updates requires a Direct Debit being opened for a subscription to the updates so it is not as free as it appears. I never use Direct Debits and don't want to pay £50 a year for updates that I don't really need. Means I get a reminder eveerytime I switch on which is irritating.

MB

lundavra · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 17, 2007 Posts: 76

The charger interference is a known problem with early units and a replacement is on the way to me.,

MB

dmailer · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 24, 2005 Posts: 9

I received my shiny new Road Angel Adventurer 2 days ago so it is early days yet.

But my first impressions are good. :D

I have been looking for a device combining traditional satnav and hand held map based GPS for some time. I was using a Palm PDA / Bluetooth GPS with ViaMichelin for SatNav and Fugawi for mapping. It never really came together as a combination. Sad

So far the Adventurer seems to measure up pretty well. I've read the critical posts of the Road Angel Navigation 7000 and this is basically the same device with MemoryMap added. It costs £100 more. Road Angel justify this on their website by pointing out that various freebies and vouchers are included which offer more than £100 of value. OK if you want all of these - I probably will in time so feel it is probably worth the extra - just!

I have used it in both satnav and handheld mode. Both work well. The satnav menus are a little confusing but not illogical so I am sure I will get used to them - a considerable improvement on ViaMichelin. The memorymap handheld software is fantastic. Very easy to use and supports upload / download of maps, routes, tracks etc to a PC for further analysis.

One nice feature it does have is the ability to turn-off voice control when in navigation but still get audible alerts for cameras etc. The inability to do this on my previous system drove me mad.

I'll post again in a couple of weeks time to comment upon the accuracy of the navigation and camera database.

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lundavra · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 17, 2007 Posts: 76

I was told that you can fit England & Wales Memory Maps on a 2GB card so possibly Scotland will also fit on a 2GB card. I have some SD cards on order so I can just swap the card over to change the maps.

MB

stav2002 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 30, 2007 Posts: 1

a couple of questions.

1) could i just buy a RA navigator 7000 and get the memory map add-on, would this allow me to use the os map on the device?

2) is there a headphone socket so i can use the sat nav on my motorbike?

Stargate2006 · Banned Joined: Sep 02, 2006 Posts: 236 Location: Essex

Is there a headphone socket so i can use the sat nav on my motorbike?

Yes you can, is got headphone socket for your motorbike.

I have use Road Angel 6000 last year in the summer and took it back to halfords of faulty unit system problem with the postcode not working to correct it all the times.

I have now use the old new road angel 2 and navman N60i.

You could try phone the road angel company about headphone socket for advice there.

Have a nice day Smile

dmailer · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 24, 2005 Posts: 9

mikealder · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:07 pm Post subject:

I did ask the suppliers at the recent NEC Out Door Show about BlueTooth Audio support, they said they had it on the list of things to do, no committed date though.

They also said that if you had an RA7000 device and wanted to put Memory Map OS maps on the device this was possible - something that would save a purchaser quite an amount if they already own the vs 5 compatible maps - they did stress it would only work with vs 5 maps.

Shame there is no audio output considering the device sports mp3 playback, but if its in the pipeline things are moving in the right direction, still not too sure about the device in general though - great idea though - Mike

psioneer · Spammer Joined: Jun 28, 2007 Posts: 3

I'm not quite sure why this site seems to be so down on Road Angel's Navigator 7000 - could it be because it's a direct competitor to it's own subscription based camera database service ??? :D

Certainly it has received better reviews from other reputable sources.

Over the past few years I've had TT3 & TT5 on my iPaq and have recently bought a Nav 7000 to replace the clutter of cables and boxes (did I mention I also had an original Geodesy Morpheous)

As far as I can tell - it does exactly what it says on the tin.
I've run both TT and Road Angel together and have seen no noticeable difference in their routing choices.

I don't think anyone would deny that all SatNav's have their individual quirks, and faults and limitations - a quick search of this sites reveals any number of "Garmin is terrible by a TomTom" or "TomTom is dire, buy a Garmin" posts.

Point of my post? I just feel that you seem to be unjustly negative about the Navigator 7000...
For me, for £200, its doing a great job at keeping me legal and getting me where I want to go
8)

Darren · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:32 pm Post subject:

Not at all, if it's a winner we'll say so regardless of it being a competitor or not (and it's not really as we are platform independent).

Sadly Road Angel despite many promises have never provided a unit for review which makes you wonder why. We only got this one as Memory-Map provided it.

Which 'reputable' sources do you refer to? Certainly none that are specialist GPS websites that's for sure?

I can assure you that if it was good we'd say so, but it ain't.
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Darren Griffin

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