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My biggest niggle now is the 5km snail-trail the A10 always produces when switched on from cold. No other GPS unit I've ever had does this, so surely it can't be that hard to fix!?
Also, despite my earlier cocky claims that I've had no problems recharging the LiPol, it let me down last week: I thought it was fully charged, went away for a couple of days and when I turned it on for the first time, it died instantly! Result: no gps for the whole trip. Not good. So it would be nice if a future update not only fixed the battery indicator to show the true status of the charge remaining in the LiPol, but also bring up on-screen messages (like my iPod does) saying things like "Charging" and "Charging Complete" - i.e. positive confirmation that the unit is charging the battery when the power adaptor is plugged in, and notification when the battery is "full".
I had the some problem when i recharged the new LiPol battery for the 1st time, as soon I plugged the unit to a wall socket the unit switched on,I made a mistake of switching the unit off, it didnt recharge, tried again this time leaving the screen on all night , recharged fully, I used the unit for a full weekend of walks, about 24 hours total at full power and always on, on monday still 4 bar, I am happy with the 24hrs of power. but agree with you it should have a kind of notices like "Charging" and "Charging Complete" which I have on my digital camera. but early days maybe 1 day we will get that facility as well.
The v1.15 is due out very shortly....they are rectifying 'a tiny bug' before sending it out to registered people. _________________ I like mapping, I like mapping, I like mapping and I like to map!
The v1.15 is due out very shortly....they are rectifying 'a tiny bug' before sending it out to registered people.
Could that "tiny bug" be the lock-up that several people who bought units at the outdoor show (presumably with the new firmware) are reporting elsewhere on this forum?
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:22 pm Post subject:
Very strange as I am running 1.15 and have had no such issues. I presume my version is that which is being supplied as an update. _________________ Darren Griffin
Joined: Mar 21, 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Cambridgeshire, UK
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject:
a10user wrote:
lucevans wrote:
My biggest niggle now is the 5km snail-trail the A10 always produces when switched on from cold. No other GPS unit I've ever had does this, so surely it can't be that hard to fix!?
Also, despite my earlier cocky claims that I've had no problems recharging the LiPol, it let me down last week: I thought it was fully charged, went away for a couple of days and when I turned it on for the first time, it died instantly! Result: no gps for the whole trip. Not good. So it would be nice if a future update not only fixed the battery indicator to show the true status of the charge remaining in the LiPol, but also bring up on-screen messages (like my iPod does) saying things like "Charging" and "Charging Complete" - i.e. positive confirmation that the unit is charging the battery when the power adaptor is plugged in, and notification when the battery is "full".
I had the some problem when i recharged the new LiPol battery for the 1st time, as soon I plugged the unit to a wall socket the unit switched on,I made a mistake of switching the unit off, it didnt recharge, tried again this time leaving the screen on all night , recharged fully, I used the unit for a full weekend of walks, about 24 hours total at full power and always on, on monday still 4 bar, I am happy with the 24hrs of power. but agree with you it should have a kind of notices like "Charging" and "Charging Complete" which I have on my digital camera. but early days maybe 1 day we will get that facility as well.
Thanks a10user - that makes sense of the experience I had. I followed the instructions that came with the battery - to recharge it overnight before first use (presumably to top-up the charge- apparently the battery comes "partially charged") and so the first use I got from it was good and I was impressed by the battery life. I allowed the battery to completely discharge through normal use - i.e. the unit eventually shut itself down after giving a "battery critical" alarm. I then plugged-in the mains charger unit, the A10 powered-up, but gave the "battery critical" alarm again and so I switched it off, assuming that charging would continue to take place (every other electronic good I've ever had continued to recharge it's internal battery even when the unit itself was turned-off: this now appears NOT to be the case with the A10).
So when I disconnected the A10 from the mains charger 10 hours later, I assumed that it was then fully charged (and a quick power on did seem to back-up this assumption; the battery indicator showed 4 bars). The problem was, 3 days later, away on a trip, powering-up the A10 immediately gave the "battery critical" alarm, and that was it - no GPS for the rest of the trip!
Sorry if this has all been a bit wordy, but I think the lesson here is: The A10 MUST BE POWERED ON DURING CHARGING OF THE LI-POL BATTERY FOR THE CHARGER CIRCUIT TO FUNCTION. Furthermore, if the battery has been allowed to completely discharge prior to recharging, plugging-in the charger will power-up the A10, but the "battery critical" alarm will still kick-in and try to shut-down to unit after giving the 30 second warning. If it does this, then the charger circuit also switches off, and the battery does not get recharged! So the moral here seems to be: Recharge the battery before the power gets low enough the trigger the "Battery Critical" alarm and auto-shutdown.
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:11 pm Post subject: Features I'd like to see...
A few niggles I'd like to see addressed in future releases....
1) Route planning problem... Laying a route down in planning mode. A route is circular, but may share a long stretch of common start and end (e.g. walk to and from car park). When laying it down you start the route continue over some hills and then when it comes to the end section and you are going over old ground, the unit seems to think you wish to correct the previously laid route, rather than lay down the end section. This could be rectified by making laying a route and editing a route two separate functions. I may not have explained that very well, but hey... I'm stupid.
2) Battery information screen. My digital camera has a screen to let me know how much charge I have left (and even how many charging cycles it's had). Although the number of charging cycles may not be possible (the camera battery has on board circuitry to enable this), the idea of a remaining % charge would be a good thing to include now that the new rechargeable batteries are available.
3) I've bought a premium map. This has both 1:25000 maps and 1:50000 maps... great. I zoom into the map and I get 1:25000... but I want to zoom out and get more of an idea of the landscape at 1:25000, but if I zoom out too far, I get a 1:50000 view of the world (the unit switches to the 1:50000 map). Why can I not decide which scale I want to use. hmmmmm.... again I'm not explaining very well... so here goes again.
With premium maps, the unit has three map scales available
1:100000 (built in)
1:50000 (comes with the premium map)
1:25000 (the map you've paid good wonga for)
These maps allow you to zoom in, and when you zoom in too far, the next map scale takes over... neat, but this is the cause of my problem.
The 1:1000000 built in map can zoom into about 1:460000 before the 1:50000 map is shown (it's not really usable as you cannot read the writing at this scale).
So from 1:460000 all the way down to ~1:18000 the 1:50000 map is shown
The 1:25000 map takes over from 1:17000 to 1:1000 (and now the rasterisation of the graphics make the map unusable at this scale.) So you cannot zoom out to 1:25000 as the 1:50000 map takes over as the zoom range of the 1:50000 encroaches significantly on the 1:25000 maps scale.
What I'd like to happen is to be able to select which map I look at when I'm zooming in and out, otherwise the usefulness of the 1:25000 doesn't merit the cost. i.e. you paid a lot of money for 1:25000 mapping and you only get to see 1:17000 down-wards.
4) Log data... Why not have the option of saving the log data and tag it to a route. I bring up the route and I can see my previous performance statistics, etc. Perhaps even have a screen for a route detailing when I started it, how long it took, performance between waypoints, etc, etc.
In summary:
1) Separate route creation and route editing.
2) Separate screen detailing battery charge information for when four bars doesn't really give you an idea of remaining battery life.
3) 1:25000 zoom in/out problem. At least allow zooming out to 1:25000 and hopefully beyond
4) Once a route is created, allow log data to be captured against it. File by date. You'd then build up a performance log, you could even capture comments about the particular days performance (e.g. weather, who you were with, deviation you took, etc)
From what I understand of the basic unit... once you've done the hardwork of creating the base software (which SatMap have done by creating the A10), these extra bits and pieces shouldn't be to much of a problem to add. That is really the power of this system. Hopefully they still look at these forums...
What do you chaps think... keep the suggestions coming.
Joined: Mar 21, 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Cambridgeshire, UK
Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:14 pm Post subject:
I'll second finkployd's call for improved battery meter (how about a percentage bar of power left like my iPaq pocket PC has?) and user-definable map-scale transitions when zooming in and out (i.e. user can set the scale at which the map changes between 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 maps when zooming).
Also, can you please get rid of the current ETA calculation algorithm that uses a fixed, user-defined velocity (totally useless when walking over rough ground and ascent/descent) and replace it with a proper on-the-fly calculation that uses the GPS speed-made-good value like all Garmin units do? The existing function is embarassingly naff and completely useless (no offence intended, Satmap, but the current "feature" really is as much use as a chocolate teapot! I still love my A10 though )
Joined: Jan 17, 2008 Posts: 369 Location: Monmouthshire
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:09 pm Post subject:
When creating a new route all I get on the screen at present it the distance the cursor is located from my last known position (not much use when creating a new route). Could I instead be told how long the new route is?
I would also like the logging of altitude information tidied up (or something). I have no idea how the log calculates the total ascent and descent on a trip they always seem to be gross exaggerations. Also the start and end altitudes do not always appear to match those at the start and end points. And finally why is altitude data not reset when everything else is reset on the log screen? _________________ LostMike
Satmap A10. Platform 21
Software version 1.5.9193
Satsync 1.525
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:47 pm Post subject: Couple of points..
I think that someone mentioned this before, but, I'd like to be able to zoom in and out on my 1:25 maps as far as I like without the 1:50 taking over at some point. I'm not sure at what point the 1:50 takes over but it's very annoying.
One other small thing, is that while the new Blue blob that shows you where you are is commendable, I'd like it to be bigger, or the same size as the largest Red 'blob'. It was very difficult at times to see it in the sun today.
Nice easy one that I'd like to have: a power off confirmation check. As it is, one accidental push of the power button (when you actually meant to press the brightness button) and bang, it's off, requiring an irritating restart. A simple 'Press Power Button again to confirm Power Off' or similar would prevent this.
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So it would be nice if a future update not only fixed the battery indicator to show the true status of the charge remaining in the LiPol, but also bring up on-screen messages (like my iPod does) saying things like "Charging" and "Charging Complete" - i.e. positive confirmation that the unit is charging the battery when the power adaptor is plugged in, and notification when the battery is "full".
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