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Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 9:29 pm Post subject: Re: Audi Q5 MMI sat Nav
xos8249 wrote:
I have had two factory fit Audi MMI sat nav units since 2008, the latest being a hard drive based model in the Audi Q5 from 2011. I also have an old TomTom unit which serves as my baseline. Although generally the Audi unit is reasonably capable once you get used to its foibles, compared to the venerable TomTom the Audi unit has three major drawbacks.
1) It has not got 7 digit postcode entry
2) it has no touch screen, so postcode entry is done by selecting letters and numbers on screen using a rotary switch and a push button for accept. Painfully slow.
3) It has no facility to download Points of Interest, so no speed cameras or anything not on the included Audi POI database (which is a bit patchy).
the Audi unit does have an address book, and does store input locations, which gets around some of the postcode limitations, but that doesn't help for new ad-hoc locations.
I generally run the old TomTom in parallel if I'm gong anywhere that I am not familiar with, if only for the speed camera warnings.
Pretty much everything you have said there applies to the harmon kardon unit in my Peugeot 3008 hybrid which was standard fit in the vehicle, so I'm less bothered as I didn't spec it. I've stopped using it as I can't add the speed camera database, and I'm back using the trusty iphone 4 with Navigon Europe satnav app, and Cameralert app - both of which are portable and can be used in hire cars when travelling. In practice the Peugeot OEM unit has less credibility for as my navigon often gave different routes with shorter journey times which usually proved correct.
Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:12 pm Post subject: Peugeot 508 Factory fit sat nav
MY 2011 PEUGEOT 508 has a Factory fitted unit which is definitely inferior - no postcode entry and when you are going to a suburb do you put in the suburb or town? Get the wrong one and you can't find the road. It's also common that you cannot find the road but when you arrive there it says you are on that road so how come you can't find it?
Also when you start up the car and your phone blutooths ypu can't call up the sat nav for what seems an interminable length of time. The other problem is you can't update the maps or add the pocket world camera alert database.[/list]
Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 27 Location: Central Scotland
Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 12:31 am Post subject:
I have also had numerous Tomtoms including IMHO the best Tomtom the GO 700, I also have the BMW Pro hard disk based system which at first i didn't think would be up to the job having used other in-car satnavs such as Vauxhall which were very poor. But the BMW Pro Nav is really good for Send To Car from google maps, Googles POI searches and postcodes and the 10.2 inch screen. Like many others it has its failings, such as no way to include my many POI`s built up over the years and of course no speed cams. I have to rely on camers alert on my GS2. Soon as i can upload my own POI`s it will be nearly perfect for me.
Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 10:40 am Post subject: Factory Fit Navigation
BMW Business Edition with full "Professional" equipment.
Map views are good but no customable POI, so no speed cameras at all. I have found no way of inserting these and like the Audi driver's earlier post, I have to use 2 systems if I need the speed camera warnings of dangerous roads etc.
The cost of updating maps on the BMW is circa £500 so in time even these become less than perfect.
BMW say that you do not need to have Speed Camera data, but I suspect that they do not want to be sued for failing to detect cameras leading to driver disqualification! _________________ DaveL
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Garmin Nuvo user
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Joined: May 05, 2008 Posts: 870 Location: Southport
Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 1:57 pm Post subject: Re: Factory Fit Navigation
Darren wrote:
In what way is TomTom's Android App disappointing?
I have the Android version installed on an SGS3 which has a hi res screen of similar size to my old TomTom, and it’s fitted to the dashboard much closer to my eyes than my TomTom PNDs ever were, yet TT Android is all but impossible to read. The roads and road names are tiny and the very small amount of auto zooming at junctions is of no help at all.
Zooming in manually invariably causes it to change screen and although zooming makes the roads bigger, road names remain in the same size tiny font, which I can’t read when the phone is on the dash.
The tiny settings button is very difficult to hit if not completely stationary
It takes an age to load and crashes or freezes with regular monotony.
Drive off the planned route and it often insists for miles that I make a U turn rather than reroute, even though the route I’m taking is much shorter and quicker that the one TomTom has chosen. It does eventually catch up but a manual recalculate is much quicker
Add the above to the lack of ‘good’ poi support with audible warnings and to me, it all adds up to very disappointing app
xos8249 wrote:
I have had two factory fit Audi MMI sat nav units since 2008, the latest being a hard drive based model in the Audi Q5 from 2011. I also have an old TomTom unit which serves as my baseline. Although generally the Audi unit is reasonably capable once you get used to its foibles, compared to the venerable TomTom the Audi unit has three major drawbacks.
1) It has not got 7 digit postcode entry
2) it has no touch screen, so postcode entry is done by selecting letters and numbers on screen using a rotary switch and a push button for accept. Painfully slow.
3) It has no facility to download Points of Interest, so no speed cameras or anything not on the included Audi POI database (which is a bit patchy).
the Audi unit does have an address book, and does store input locations, which gets around some of the postcode limitations, but that doesn't help for new ad-hoc locations.
I generally run the old TomTom in parallel if I'm gong anywhere that I am not familiar with, if only for the speed camera warnings.
The BMW system has the same drawbacks but a plus point is that I can sent destinations direct from Google maps to my car, and full custom routes direct from www.bmw-routes.com, which makes up for the sometimes clunky interface.
davel1975 wrote:
BMW Business Edition with full "Professional" equipment.
Map views are good but no customable POI, so no speed cameras at all. I have found no way of inserting these and like the Audi driver's earlier post, I have to use 2 systems if I need the speed camera warnings of dangerous roads etc.
The cost of updating maps on the BMW is circa £500 so in time even these become less than perfect.
BMW say that you do not need to have Speed Camera data, but I suspect that they do not want to be sued for failing to detect cameras leading to driver disqualification!
There isn’t any way of having customised POI on the Hard Drive based Pro Nav. I use a Nexus 7 for ‘safety camera’ warnings and SGS3 for TomTom Traffic, which means I’m running 3 systems, which is all getting out of hand but it’s not much of a problem now I’m used to it, and certainly no more work than fitting & removing a TomTom every time I get in the car.
The Pro Nav maps can be upgraded for about £200 (or less) if you do it yourself, which is fairly simple _________________ Galaxy Note 4 / TomTom GO : CamerAlert : CoPilot
Joined: Jan 27, 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Halifax. West Yorks
Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 6:30 pm Post subject: Skoda / VW RNS 510
Have new SKODA with Columbus RNS 510 fitted, looks the business does all sorts of cool stuff.
In the manual for the Sat Nav (which I had to contact Skoda to get a weblink for, manual with vehicle was out of date !) we are told of link to a VW site :-
says plenty of user "Destinations" & "POI" can be created and uploaded onto SD card then imported into RNS 510, all exciting stuff for us pensioners with nothing else to do.
Have managed to create one Destination for a local B&Q but after trying to translate the instructions from German to English, unfortunately the syntax and grammar lead me to places where I dont want to go, so its a bit os luck if I get something to upload. Online software is only in German
Anyway the "Destinations" are supposedly *.vcf files but even with all the Googling in the world I have not yet managed to create one that will load correctly. Gmail is supposed to give *.vcf for Contacts but they don't have the correct format ?
To say this Columbus Navigation which cost £1600 is the "Flagship" for all of VW/Skoda vehicles in Europe and some in US the online software is dissapointing.
I did email their website asking for assistance (in English last week) but as yet no reply.
Not even bothered yet to try "POI" for "Safety Cameras" perhaps next year, or I could just carry on using my LG Nexus 4 stuck on the windscreen !
Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 1:24 pm Post subject: Mercedes APS audio 50 system
I've had three Mercedes with fitted Sat Navs, the latest in my E class Estate. However, I've only ever had them included in the car deal, and not paid extra for them. My biggest gripe is the fact that they won't/can't take my own POI. I've given up searching for a solution, (other than pay £2000 for the HD version) and rely on my iphone with camralert which is more than adequate.
The bluetooth connection is fine if you only want to use the sound of the iphone, but I can't get it to interrupt the radio/cd like the inbuilt if connected via the hard wiring supplied by mercedes. Its a small price to pay.
Overall I'd mark the system 7/10 as it sometimes takes a longer route than expected, but is very good with traffic holdups. Could do with 6 number postcode. The other reason for a low score is that you have to buy the disks from Mercedes and there are far too many different versions available. Mercedes seem to link a different system to each of their models.
Sadly most factory fit systems seem to be the cheapest they can get just to tick a box and add to their standard spec.
The system fitted in my Mitsubishi is a very basic Garmin set up and was very disappointing compared to the sat nav I have had previously. I was surprised that non of this was up-gradable, so you are stuck with it unless you are prepared to replace the whole unit. Surely they are missing a trick here. I am sure most owners would be prepared to pay for up-grades as they became available.
I have had 3 in-built systems with each one an improvement on the last. My first was in a Volvo XC90, biggest piece of c**p I have ever encountered. After a while I left it buried in the dash and used a portable TT in preference.
My second system was in a Jaguar XF (2011 model). Functionality wise this was a step forward with the exception that it only operated in 2D mode. It's worst failing though was to ignore J18 southbound on the M5, consistently refused to acknowledge its presence. It also had a tendency to put me on lower classification roads when there was a major road nearby. The TMC was also rubbish so I ended up using the trusty TT Via Live in preference.
My latest car is a Mazda Cx5 with the inbuilt Mazda NB1 system provided by TT with live services. Suffice to say it's all I use now. There were some issues with Live services for a period though these seem to have been resolved with a recent update. My only gripe is that I cant get the PGPSW speed camera database loaded onto the SD card. Not a major problem since I use the Camera Alert app on my iPhone which broadcasts through the radio speakers via Bluetooth and works very well in practice muting the radio if it's on. Very pleased with the system and really wouldn't want anything else.
Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 6:56 pm Post subject: Re: Skoda / VW RNS 510
dasower wrote:
Have new SKODA with Columbus RNS 510 fitted, looks the business does all sorts of cool stuff.
In the manual for the Sat Nav (which I had to contact Skoda to get a weblink for, manual with vehicle was out of date !) we are told of link to a VW site :-
says plenty of user "Destinations" & "POI" can be created and uploaded onto SD card then imported into RNS 510, all exciting stuff for us pensioners with nothing else to do.
Have managed to create one Destination for a local B&Q but after trying to translate the instructions from German to English, unfortunately the syntax and grammar lead me to places where I dont want to go, so its a bit os luck if I get something to upload. Online software is only in German
Anyway the "Destinations" are supposedly *.vcf files but even with all the Googling in the world I have not yet managed to create one that will load correctly. Gmail is supposed to give *.vcf for Contacts but they don't have the correct format ?
To say this Columbus Navigation which cost £1600 is the "Flagship" for all of VW/Skoda vehicles in Europe and some in US the online software is dissapointing.
I did email their website asking for assistance (in English last week) but as yet no reply.
Not even bothered yet to try "POI" for "Safety Cameras" perhaps next year, or I could just carry on using my LG Nexus 4 stuck on the windscreen !
I have the RNS 510 in my VW cc, if you download a program called POI inspector http://poinspect0r.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/important-update-57.html (there is a one off small licence fee) you can batch convert the tomtom ov2 speed cam database and upload it to the RNS 510 via the SD card.
The database icons will show up on the map screen but no audible warning.
You can also use the custom tomtom POI database and upload that.
Compared to tomtom on iphone it is not bad at all, you have full postcode, the choice of three route types and integrated traffic.
The system responds well and is very easy to follow if you select navigation in the instrument cluster as well as the RNS 510. I would give the tomtom app the advantage on routing and traffic but it is close and to be fair the traffic is free on the RNS 510.
The big benefit for the tomtom though is reading out street names, the RNS 510 only reads out the road numbers A or B roads such as A666, but the countdown indicator in the instrument cluster is very accurate so I have now learnt to rely on that.
The map updates are 199 euro, however if you really don’t want to pay that and not bothered about stealing copyrighted material then updated firmware and current maps are available to download for free and burn yourself on the internet.
I used to have the tomtom running as well as the RNS but now I just use the pocketGPS app and the Bluetooth connection to provide an audible warning for the camera icons on the RNS 510.
Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 27 Location: Central Scotland
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:03 pm Post subject: BMW Pro Map Update Costs
I updated my maps in July for my holiday to the Pyrenees, I bought the latest map DVD`s from my usual BMW dealer for £27 odds including VAT, I then emailed sieras5@inbox.lt and got the activation code for£32 ish. Popped the DVDs in and no problem all updated for under £60.
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