REVIEW COMMENTS: Navman PiN Reader Review

Dave

Tim Buxton (Moderator) was recently loaned a Navman PiN to take to the PocketGPSWorld.com meeting at Tangmere earlier in the summer. Tim thought he should write a mini review on his experiences with the Navman PiN.

The PiN is essentially a Mitac Mio 168 DigiWalker with Navman SmartST V2 software. Very briefly it is a WM2003 Pocket PC with Intel PXA-255 300MHZ processor, a 3.5 inch 64K colour screen, 64Mb RAM and 32Mb flash RAM. It also has an SDIO slot which will take an MMC or an SD card. It has all the usual PPC applications associated with this sort of device, such as Word, Excel and IE.

The full review is available here.

nej · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:26 am Post subject:

clansfolk · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 16, 2004 Posts: 23

THis is the same unit that Toys-r-us sell for £299.00 with full UK mapping.
under the "Yakumo" badge have the original software plus Tom Tom haven't decided which is best yet - also came with a 256 card now upgraded to 512

Pete

UKHABU · Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 2:33 pm Post subject: Navman Pin

I have a had a Navman Pin for the past month and to be honest I think it is the dogs dangly bits!!! :D :D

The comment about having other areas on the maps helping sales is un-informed - what you get in the Navman Smart St pro V2 package is cd's that contain ALL of UK + Eire and N.Ireland and ALL of Europe.
The 128Mb card come PRE-INSTALLED with the areas mentioned : Southern England, Paris and Italy thats all - once you have installed the PC Desktop application you are able to delete unwanted areas and download the ones you want in minutes.
For the record on a 128Mb SD card you can have (A) All of England, Wales, Eire and Northern Ireland or (B) All of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
I use additional 256Mb SD cards and you can get all of UK(including Scotland Eire + N.Ireland) and most of France plus some spare!

the Mio 168/Navman Pin WILL take 1Gb/512Mb SD cards but they need to be FAST(ie not cheap!!) cards otherwise the unit cannot read the data quickly enough to function - standard 256Mb SD cards are fine.

I also run the MemoryMap OS 2004 software on it that allows down load of ANY OS 1:50,000 or 1:25,000 map or any portion of a map you require and again the Pin is brilliant for this.
I am a MLTB trained Mountain Leader and use this in addition to a Silva MultiNavigator GPSr (+ the usual magnetic compass and paper maps) and I have to say the GPS fix and display using MM OS 2004 are first class.

I recently used the Pin/Smart St pro V2 on a trip to Southern France and again it was the dangly bits! Even my locally based friends in the Toulouse area were impressed! - took us via routes even they didn't know about with un-erring accuracy - particularily around the tiny streets of Toulouse. There are several new bits on the N124 and it was quite amusing to see the Pin take us off-roading un-erringly along the true track but NOT on the N124 as represented on the map - you could see which roundabout the new extension was taking us too - as soon as you aquired the road again on the map it just resumed the navigation in seconds - the 2004 version of the road maps are given with the Navman ST Pro V3.

anyone tried running V3 on a Navman Pin? - this allows custimisable POI files and is compatible with several GPS speed camera databases - which will be a huge bonus.

The Pin/Mio 168 is a pretty good PDA i it's own right and I am already finding it indespensible (particularily good if you have a XP Pro desktop and use Outlook a lot like I do)

There is one problem with the PIN - her indoors really likes it so I will have to supply her with one (probably the Mio 558 as that has WiFi & Bluetooth built in)
Bev Lawton

Tim Buxton · Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:12 pm Post subject:

nej · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:31 pm Post subject:

Does anyone know if the Mio 168 has an actual serial port (like a 2210), and if there are any cables to connect this to external devices (i.e. like the ones you get for other PDA's that go into a cigarette lighter for power and also have an RJ11 socket for connecting a GPS).

Any help appreciated.

UKHABU · Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:05 pm Post subject: MIO 168 Ports

NEJ

The Mio 168 has its own integral GPS receiver that is dedicated to COM2 and requires NMEA interface and 4800 baud rate - you cannot change this - UNLESS you use a piece of software called GpsGate.

This is a restriction of DOS/Windows in only allowing one program to be associated with a COM port. GpsGate allows a virtual COM port to be physically allocated to (in this particular case) COM2 you can then associate as manyprograms as you like with this virtual COM port.
eg SmartST Pro V2 + any of the GPS POI programs (think GATSOS's!!)

On the GPS reciever there is an additional standard input for an external ariel - but not for an additional GPSr - why would you need one as the Mio already has one?

There is a standard Viewsonic V25 socket on the bottom of the Mio which combines USB and power input (either mains adaptor or car adaptors)
Output required is 5volts 1.0 amp max (standard mains adaptor supplied with the Navman Pin(Mio 168))

You can buy after market car chargers just ask for Viewsonic V25 plug.

icsys · Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 5:46 pm Post subject:

UKHABU · Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:59 pm Post subject:

That sounds good - I will check it out.

btw Re. previous post there was a typo :

The connector you require for Navman Pin (Mio 168) is in fact a V35 NOT a V25 as I stated.

Sorry for that!

barham249 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 19, 2005 Posts: 4

Hi, I got a NAVMAN PiN 100 from the US a few days ago. The PDA seems to work fine but I can't get the GPS to work. How did you do to connect the GPS? Thanks for your help

icsys · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 6:39 pm Post subject:

Does the UTC clock/counter on the GPS Status page ascend whilst trying to obtain a fix? If so then it may be that because the unit was purchased in the US the GPS receiver may require a long time to download the ephemeris details.
In any case the first fix is always the longest.
_________________
Ian.
iPAQ 2210 | Navman 4100 BT Receiver
Navman iCN 635
TomTom GO
Anquet OS mapping

barham249 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 19, 2005 Posts: 4

LJAndrews · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 17, 2009 Posts: 1

Hi people!

I have an old Navman Mio 168 PiN with SmartST V2 software which I bought and used for ages, but after not using the thing for a few years, I would now like to use it again, but I have a major problem...

I went to use it the other day only to find I don't have the cable anymore!! But I was wondering if I could simply get a copy of the 128MB installation card (mine has been formatted!) and install it to my Navman that way?

Any ideas from you smart guys please?

Thanks for reading.

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