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Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 3:12 pm Post subject: Best Sat Nav for compatibility with PGPSW
Like many newbies, I will start with an apology for a potentially stupid set of questions, but I have done some searching and whilst I know there are no simple answers, and many opinions will differ, I just need a bit of a steer to some suggestions.
I am getting a new BMW soon, and the Sat Nav itself (which has to be the BMW Professional system, due to the model) won't take on POI's from PGPSW (or so I understand, from this forum), so for that reason (and the £1750 cost!), I am foregoing the Sat Nav.
So having been a user of PGPSW (and Google maps) on iPhone and a Galaxy Note, I am thinking of looking for a dedicated Sat Nav unit, and I would want one that best integrates with PGPSW (i.e. one that will give me voice alerts like the apps do). I think I need a dedicated unit to make address input easier and for re-routing around traffic problems - but I'm happy to be told there are apps that will do that on my phone(s) just as well.
I'd also like a solution on the laser/radar front as well (and I have briefly looked at some Road Angles) but I don't know if current opinion says radar and/or laser detections is worthwhile. If it is worthwhile, is it something that has to be done totally separately, no matter what base unit you have (like with a Snooper 3Zero), or is there a unit that combines Sat Nav, PGPSW integration, and radar and/or laser detection?
I am normally pretty good at finding out about kit, but the Sat Nav/GPS/detector world is so full of confusing options, I am struggling!
I would be more than happy to be pointed to a good retailer that kind guide me through, if that's possible?
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 10118 Location: Bexhill, South Sussex, UK
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 3:17 pm Post subject: Re: Best Sat Nav for compatibility with PGPSW
Hi Brad and welcome to the PGPSW forums.
braddersq wrote:
I'd also like a solution on the laser/radar front as well
The laser speed cameras calculate your speed in about a third of a second. Are they any use? You work it out.
Laser jammers are reported to work and get you a hefty fine for perverting something or other, as the guns can detect they are being jammed.
It would appear that the PGPSW database can be used from our compatibility list, but the instructions point you to Pimp My Nav here but whether audible alerts are possible seems unlikely from their write up.
To me it seems clear that trying to integrate with BMW Nav is at best pointless (i.e. with no audible alert) or at worst, impossible.
So on that basis, are there dedicated Sat Navs that will integrate sufficiently with PGPSW to give me audible alerts? If so, all recommendations would be gratefully received. If not, I'll stick to the Galaxy Note and I'll upgrade the Nav application (again, recommendations gratefully received).
As for laser detection, fair point about the reaction time, but isn't that the time from when they've actually got it locked on your car - but if there's laser beams flying around generally, which your detector picks up, you have a chance? I hold my hands up to knowing next nothing on all this, so I am more than happy to be told how it is, but it does strike me that there is still a big market in detectors, be that laser and/or radar. The consumer is not always the best barometer, but surely they can't be totally pointless?
But, as I say, I'm ready to be corrected and if the old bill have guns that make detectors basically useless, then I will rely on GPS and good judgment alone.
I'm only looking at legal means here, so jammers are not under consideration.
Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 10118 Location: Bexhill, South Sussex, UK
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 4:57 pm Post subject:
braddersq wrote:
So on that basis, are there dedicated Sat Navs that will integrate sufficiently with PGPSW to give me audible alerts?
Early TomToms but the later ones don't appear to allow third party POIs. Garmin do with POI loader. Cheapo Chinese running iGO (Most do) integrate well with PGPSW but no traffic. Sygic on a smartphone. On board maps so no data charges unless you use their traffic. There are others, of course.
Quote:
As for laser detection, fair point about the reaction time, but isn't that the time from when they've actually got it locked on your car - but if there's laser beams flying around generally, which your detector picks up, you have a chance?
Possibly, but I suspect that plod suspects you are speeding, aims his gun, bingo, you're caught (I can vouch for that). I don't think that you have laser beams 'flying around', and as they are narrow beams, they must surely be pointing pretty much straight at you to detect them. Still, they will give you advanced warning that you have already been caught.
Quote:
but it does strike me that there is still a big market in detectors, be that laser and/or radar.
Oh the power of advertising and urban myth Radar detectors do work, sort of, but more modern cameras are working by other means these days.
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....then I will rely on GPS and good judgment alone.
Combined with the PGPSW database, you are unlikely to be caught. Especially if you stick to the speed limit
Other than perhaps a Garmin then, it sounds like I am better sticking with the phone and upgrading the nav/traffic app on that.
And there could also be a case for a radar detector, just to mop up the remaining radar guns, but debatable as to whether it's worth it.
And of course, nothing can detect the unmarked car following you.
It's a funny one isn't. Been done twice in the last 5 years, once was to just that (an uber subtle Passat estate), and that was fair enough because I was pushing on - and the officer in question was perfectly reasonable about it! But I also got done about two years ago on the A4500
into Northampton, doing 50 on an uninhabited, banked dual carriage way... which had Armco down the middle.
I saw the van and consciously didn't even slow down. Turns out it was a 40 limit (as the limit from the village I'd passed through half a mile back was still in force).
Total joke in my view and now when I stick to 40 on that road everything zooms past me like I'm a road hog! My fault because of course you have to monitor the signs closely - since common sense and an awareness of the type of road and conditions is clearly not sufficient!
Joined: May 05, 2008 Posts: 870 Location: Southport
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 11:50 pm Post subject:
I have an e90 with Pro Nav & while it's not as good as the latest Pro Nav in the F30 it's still much easier to use than a TomTom et al.
I also have TomTom on a Galaxy Note 3 which I use for traffic & sometimes to double check the route, but when it comes to routes sometimes BMW get it right sometimes TomTom do, but I'd hate to rely on TomTom android for my only Sat Nav, it's plain hard work compared to the built in system which, don't forget, is a vehicle info system & lots more, not just a Sat Nav _________________ Galaxy Note 4 / TomTom GO : CamerAlert : CoPilot
Thanks for your reply on this IanS100. Funnily enough, I have been leaning back to the BMW Nav overnight, having read more about the Information Plus feature (where you can just call up BMW and have them look things up for you, which they then send it to your Nav). That might be the killer feature that gets me there - particularly when I think back to all the times I've either tried to use voice recognition on the Note to find places, or just had to bail out and pull over. It may be £1750, which is mental, but on a lease basis, I at least don't get stung for all of that.
Also, given the feedback I've had, which is making me think that getting PGPSW to work on a dedicated separate Nav might not in fact be as easy as I thought, except perhaps with a Garmin (thank you M8TJT), I am now thinking the best solution might be the BMW Nav for getting around and the phone for camera alerts (which can also be easily linked in to the car's Bluetooth, so it shouts them out through the speakers).
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