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Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:25 pm Post subject:
Quote:
I looked into this, and can't now find the link that suggested the RA mount was unpowered
Ah, I thought you had seen one (when you mentioned 'unpowered'), a picture of one I saw on a website did (I think) show the battery terminals inside the cradle so maybe it does have the power socket on the back.
I would only want this socket so I could connect my Lithium-Ion powerpack I bought in case I ever ran out of battery while out and about, I'd put it in a waterproof case strapped to the bike ready to plug in - remember it doesn't just charge the RA (in event of a flat battery) but it powers it as well. _________________ Aprilia Tuono, Zumo 550
Ipaq 2210/Fortuna/TomTom Nav6
& Road Angel 7000 + Memory Map
Last edited by Brian on Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
The RA cradle supplied with the cycle mount is unpowered, I've got one. it's just the car cradle with contacts removed and blanked off.
A word of warning - the RA cycle mount is not suitable for vigorous mountain biking, the cradle doesn't hold the RA 7000 securely enough. About a month after purchasing mine (from Memory Map) I received a mod kit from RA which comprised 2 large black elastic bands to hold the RA in more securely!!! This was in response to many people returning damaged RA's as a result of using the cycle mount.
I've since abandoned the mount and now simply tiewrap the cradle to my handlebar stem, works suprisingly well.
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject:
I had concerns about the RA flying out of the cradle, I'll probably stick with my modded car mount setup which I've now altered to be lower and more solid, I think a decent elastic band is probably a good idea, fixed around the top would probably hold the pen in as well. _________________ Aprilia Tuono, Zumo 550
Ipaq 2210/Fortuna/TomTom Nav6
& Road Angel 7000 + Memory Map
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject:
I used my new RA 7000/Memory Map combo for the first time in anger today, ignoring bad weather reports (heavy rain all day in my region) which luckily never materialised (they got it wrong again!), I headed to Gisburn Forest and rode the middle longest cycle route out of the three. The RA was set to 60% screen brightness which was perfect for the day, I left the display on all the time but had my back up Lithium Ion battery set up just in case (see photo below .. back up battery sits in a waterproof camera case cable-tied to the handlebars, the RA sit on my modded quick-release mount which I've again altered so the whole setup sits lower).
The RA/MM combo worked faultlessly, the route was created in MM, I had a run through in Google Earth and it looked fine, I found it is better to put your waypoints on the inside of corners, that way the direction arrow reacts just as you reach the corner, talking of the direction arrow - this is a great asset of the RA/MM setup where you can glance down at speed on your bike and see where the route takes you next without having to study the map too closely - this is one of the features that is missing from the SatMap which would improve that unit.
Those of you who cannot decide whether of not to purchase a RA or a SatMap, I've compiled a feature list in the form of a Wordpad .rtf file, it shows some of the pro's and con's of the two units, I cannot speak as a user of a SatMap as I've only ever tinkered with one at Blacks Outdoor shop, but until they get the SatSync software compatible with PC based route creating software it is going to be tricky to use. Plenty has been said about these issues on the SatMap forum so its up to you to decide, but I can tell you the RA/MM combo works really well .. if you've ever used MM on a PC or via a pda and you were happy with it then the RA will not disappoint you.
On a final note, I was then able to use the RA to navigate back to my home from Gisburn Forest using a better route than I picked to get there, and to be honest the RA was surprisingly good in this department also - Another plus!
Battery power? well I didn't need my backup pack on this occasion (you press a button on the pack to activate it), in fact I also used internal battery power to drive home and the unit showed plenty of juice left in the battery once home.
If you're interested below is a link to the tracklog of the ride in Google Earth's .kml format, this is easily created by importing the tracklog into MM from the RA, saving as a .gpx file and converting to a .kml file using GPSVisualizer (see above, click on the 'connected spheres' icon for a 3D flyby). ( note: I deduced from the tracklog data that the RA saves a tracklog point every 12 seconds which is quite good. )
All this useful info is certainly swaying me towards the road angel rather than the satmap. I have a new question.
If my maps run in Memory map 5, does that mean I can put them on my road angel? They are not all the most recent maps, but have been modified using a "fix" I found on the net some time ago (no idea what it is now unfortunately).
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:01 am Post subject:
I just installed one of my older 2004 OS 1:25000 (Lands End) maps to try in my RA 7000 and it worked fine. So I'd say you'll be ok with the RA. _________________ Aprilia Tuono, Zumo 550
Ipaq 2210/Fortuna/TomTom Nav6
& Road Angel 7000 + Memory Map
So, when navigating in the memory map screen, does it give you any warning of an upcoming waypoint, or major change in direction? My only experience of GPS is my Garmin Edge, which does not have mapping, but zooms in an highlights the fact you are approaching a waypoint.
Joined: Nov 15, 2005 Posts: 26 Location: Hampshire
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:39 pm Post subject:
Brian wrote:
I just installed one of my older 2004 OS 1:25000 (Lands End) maps to try in my RA 7000 and it worked fine. So I'd say you'll be ok with the RA.
How have you got this to work? I have rung Memory-Map on this issue and have been told that only Memory-Map V5 map data will work on the Road Angel 7000 and that I will need to upgrade
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:57 am Post subject:
EDIT : I tried another 2004 map (Ben Nevis) and I got a 'License Restriction ..' error message so it must have been a fluke that the other file worked though it did have the date '2004' in it when viewed with a hex editor, so it looks like you may need v5 maps if you want to add any more to the RA (remember if you buy a RA adventurer it comes preinstalled with 1:50000 maps.
Quote:
when navigating in the memory map screen, does it give you any warning of an upcoming waypoint, or major change in direction
The direction arrow points you towards the next waypoint so it is fairly obvious which direction to take, there's also the option of a pop up box which gives a distance countdown to the next waypoint, all this with the scrolling map in the background with a red circle indicating where you are on the map and a red arrow pointing in the direction of travel makes for a fairly foolproof method of navigation. _________________ Aprilia Tuono, Zumo 550
Ipaq 2210/Fortuna/TomTom Nav6
& Road Angel 7000 + Memory Map
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject:
An earlier discussion in this post about linking your photographs taken with a digital camera with the Track-log you may have created using your Road Angel (or most other GPS's that create a track-log gpx file), the following free software will allow you to link where you took your photos with the correct location within your tracklog then create a Google Earth kmz fly-by file ..
to quote their website ..
"PhotoMapper will assist in organizing your memories by adding a geographic position to the EXIF-data that is already present in your files, so called geotagging."
.. It is easier than manually doing it, a How To guide about the steps involved is posted on the ZumoForums here ..
Joined: Nov 12, 2003 Posts: 94 Location: Lancashire, England, Great Britain
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:10 pm Post subject:
I had another ride out on the mountain bike yesterday to try out the Road Angel/Memory Map setup, this time I rode a 10.5 mile circular trip from Hellifield in Yorkshire. After getting the bike out from the back of the hatchback I was particularly impressed with the Road Angel - having not had it switched on from its last fix at home 30+ miles away, it got a fix before I'd even got my bicycle clips on - impressive! I first rode up to Long Preston then taking an old unclassified road up towards Settle and back round to Hellifield. The first half was a steady climb up Green Gate Lane then Edge Lane which steadily gets rougher until you reach the bridleway which takes you eventually to Langber Lane and the downhill second half, taking you past Bookilber Barn which I remember went up in flames many years ago and has now been recently rebuilt as a house. Then, after following the track around the small copse and cutting back across some very muddy fields and crossing the railway level crossing gets you back to the car park.
Below are several photos from the ride (click to enlarge), the first being labelled with some of the features from the RA/MM screen for those of you who maybe haven't seen it in action, the pop-up boxes can be moved or cancelled so as not to clutter the map area.
Well, I finally got myself a RA at the weekend. I strongly considered the Satmap, but too many of the comments I've read about it have put me off for the moment (as well as the additional cost). Anyway, sometimes when I go out I like to just try different routes, rather than just follow one I've worked out in advance. Is there a way to get the map to scroll as you move when no route has been set? I did a quick walk round the block, and soon my position indicator had moved off the screen.
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