First thoughts on CP6 from a Satnav virgin

[GregW]

I've had CP6 on my Loox 720 for a few days now, and it is the first satnav system I've owned. I've used it a bit over the weekend to navigate up into Derbyshire. I'm using a Holux GPSSlim BT GPS reciever, which I am very happy with.

I got the software, Holux & Arkon mount for just under £250 from Clove - excellent service, btw. Really happy with them.

Installation is just so easy - plug in the SD card and follow the simple instructions. It found the Holux without any difficulty. I also installed the speed camera database, which was still a bit of a faff, although apparently much slicker than with CP5.

I was not too impressed with the custom POI feature that was used by the speed camera database. Firstly, the default setting of 3 miles is just way too much for speed cameras, particularly around Nottingham where there are hundreds of the bloody things. I changed the warning distance to 1 mile, which is still too high, but - and here I may be mistaken - the setting is global and so applies to ALL my POIs, not just cameras. I would like to change this.

Secondly with the POIs, I simply get an alert on screen (plus a voice saying something like "Point of Interest coming up"). But the screen says "TRUVLO:123@60" - not exactly, but you get the idea. It's not exactly blindingly obvious that it is a 60mph camera, is it? I've seen a friend's TomTom with the same database, and that flashes up a speed limit sign overlayed onto the map at the actual location of the camera.

I also get offered the opportunity to add it as a waypoint, or to ignore. If I do the latter, I get no more warning of it as I approach. If I add as a waypoint, I lose the overview of my route. I assume that if the camera had been beyonf my next turn, I would still get told about the turn, but I had a nervous few minutes wondering if I was on the right road.

I've had no problems with the 7 digit postcode - it's what I mainly use to set up routes.

On my first outing I got caught in a jam on the M1, and just hit the Detour button - it seemed to work very smoothly and certainly got me out of the heavy traffic. It routed me through an area I was not familiar with, and I had no real problems with the clarity of instruction.

One slight problem - and I hesitate to call it a map bug - is where the A615 crosses the B6013 near Oakerthorpe. While the instructions indicated you do not turn off the 615, in fact there is a dog legged junction where you briefly (for 50 yards or so) join the B road, and then turn off. It would have been easy for me to have stayed on what looked like the main road, and then gone wrong. Luckily, I know this bit of road, and just went with that knowledge.

Generally I've found the routing easy to set up, but I've not played with the advanced options yet. The waypoints are really useful, and allow you to set up a favoured route that you know is generally better than the calculated "quickest" route. E.g. when I drive to Surrey from the Midlands, I very rarely go down the M1 to the M25, preferring instead to cut across to the M40 via the A43. It's a few miles longer, but traffic is typically much better. Simply pointing at a couple of points on the A43 and adding as waypoints lets the software do its thing. But it is slightly annoying that you may need to check that it simply does not route you down the road to a waypoint, and then back up again. My preference as a user would be to simply point at a road and say "via that route", rather than pick an actual waypoint.

The PDA hosted online help is a little superficial for me, and explains very little other than the blindingly obvious basics. The documentation on the PC (CHM and PDF files) seems more comprehensive, however.

I've played for half an hour or so with the PC program, and that looks OK. It is really good for planning out routes, and playing with alternatives. It is a really useful add on to the PDA hosted package. But I feel it could embrace the PC/PDA linkage a lot more so I could, for example, maintain a set of favourites, my home, and work locations via Active sync. At the moment I have to duplicate the information. I'm also unsure what downloading route map data will do to the existing map data I have on the PDA - I am loath to just download the region around the route, as that may prevent me from planning other routes outside of that area when away from my PC.

One thing I like about the PC planning is the printing options - you can make a pretty comprehensive navigation pack very easily.

I use graphics software a lot, and one thing the PC package could benefit from is a decent zoom/pan interface via the mouse. I want to zoom with one button (potentially mouse wheel), and pan with another (e.g. left mouse down). The current UI is rather clunky.

DISCLAIMER: I have tried to use the manual as little as possible, and only tried things by browsing the UI. So I may have misrepresented some problems, in which case the UI is probably at fault for not making it obvious. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it....

Overall impressions:
- Pretty pleased with it so far.
- Disappointed with the speed camera POI presentation.
- I've had no bugs I can think of
- Waypointing is good, but could be easier to use.
- Integration with PC is really useful, but could go a bit further to make it the stand out feature.

I've still got another 3 weeks before my 30 day money back guarantee kicks in. At the moment I'm thinking I will keep it, but it is frusrating that I can't do a trial period with this, TomTom, Navman etc with my hardware. I can do this all the time with other PDA software ranging from a few quid to £50, so I don't understand why I can't trial a £100+ piece of software.

[iancjc]

Don't wish to rain on your parade but you don't have a 30 day return on the software - that's yours for keeps they won't refund opened software.

http://www.clove-tech.co.uk/ordering/returns.asp

quote:

The goods must be returned in their original condition with all documentation and original boxes. Opened software cannot be refunded. See our terms and conditions section for full details.

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TyTn II (WM6.1) / tomtom one v2
TTN6.03 tomtom 7.xx (one)

[Smilodon]

(from US site) I believe the key is that you have to buy it directly from ALK...

ALK Return Policy

We know you'll love our products. If, however, you are not satisfied with any CoPilot product you purchase directly from ALK, you may return it within 30 days for a refund of the price paid (excludes shipping and handling). Please note: Expansion keys for Europe and Canada are not returnable items.

For your return to be accepted:

you must have purchased directly from ALK. ALK products purchased at retail locations are only refundable through the retailer under the retailer's terms and conditions. You will have to contact the individual retailer for their specific terms and conditions.

the postmark date on the package must be within 30 days of the original product ship date.

if your product contains software, and you have activated the software, you must first deactivate the software and provide to ALK the deactivation code (you must activate our software to use it for more than a few days' time).

If your product contains a GPS receiver and it is scratched or otherwise determined to be non-saleable by ALK, we will deduct a $50 usage fee from the refund amount.

[GregW]

It's all academic anyway - I'm going to keep the software as I'm rather liking it.

I may have to change my car mount, however. The Arkon powered job I got wobbles around like a drink jellyfish on anything but the smootest of roads.

[iankb]

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