Just bought a sat-nav ...

[Blue_SV650S]

Bit of an impetuous buy to say the least!! :D

Its a Garmin nuvi 250 - Halfords £115 ... (anyone else got one? ... are they any good ... I have no idea!! :lol:)

Just uploading new vehicles to it ... gonna make my icon a little bike 8)

[Wideboy]

does it work one the bike, im after one that will do car and bike

[Girth]

I've just got the Nuvi250W its for car but can be put onto the bike.

[Blue_SV650S]

does it work one the bike, im after one that will do car and bike


It is not for a bike, but I can;t see any reason it wouldn't function on the bike (as long as you don't get it wet ;))

[Ruffy]

I think the general consensus nowadays is that there isn't really a bad sat-nav on the market. Mapping's generally OK and routing algorithms tend to be fine. Other features really depend on personal preference.

does it work on the bike, I'm after one that will do car and bike

It is not for a bike, but I can't see any reason it wouldn't function on the bike (as long as you don't get it wet ;))I've been looking into bike sat nav myself. Weatherproofing is the obvious difference between car specific and bike specific models. Also, as it's difficult to hear the instructions from a car model's speaker when you're togged up on a bike, the bike specific ones come with some sort of headset (generally bluetooth to avoid wires).

As yet, the £3-400 for a TomTom Rider or Garmin bike specific equivalent is too rich for me. But since my car TomTom (Go 520) has Bluetooth, I may invest in a bluetooth headset and maybe a suitable Ram mount to properly rig it up for the bike. (A plastic freezer bag will probably do for waterproofing!)

[Blue_SV650S]

I've been looking into bike sat nav myself. Weatherproofing is the obvious difference between car specific and bike specific models. Also, as it's difficult to hear the instructions from a car model's speaker when you're togged up on a bike, the bike specific ones come with some sort of headset (generally bluetooth to avoid wires).

I thought they were FM?

I nearly went for the cheaper Route66 or LG ones they had in Halfords, but I know Garmin are a good make, so paid the extra. I like the idea it has euro maps too 8) ... I might even have to go to France now 8)

[Blue_SV650S]

Ok, had a play now.

I want to be able to plan a route on it and then it follow that route/guide me, not just ride around waiting for it to take me an illogical way or going past what I know to be wrong and then it re-calculating another silly way. The routes it comes up with are in reality poor on both the shortest distance and the fastest time.

Apart from sticking 800 places to stop off along the way - and on the sat nav this is an extremely slow and frustrating process as it only takes one at a time, each one really slow to do as it keeps flashing back to current position and you have to navigate back ... So I can't see any neat way to do this using the Garmin 250 GUI. You know like point at the screen and it joins the dots and makes that your route. :(

Do you know of any software I can make a route with on my PC and the upload to the sat-nav?? ... I really like the way 'Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl)' works, so a bit of software that works like that (i.e. put in start point and destination in; it gives you a route it comes up with, but you can then move the lines about to where you want them and it makes/calculates that the route) then upload that route to the SatNav so my satnav can understand it and works to that route, not its own BS, even if it has generated it by way of waypoints for it to understand?

I've hacked into the XML file that I believe to be the way point file, so I could handraulicaly put in new waypoints, but it won;t stitch it as a route ... I am not sure what is the route file ...

[Blue_SV650S]

Ok, just downloading Garmins POI loader ... that might help me out 8)

[dyzio]

So it's not so good... :(
Give us updates as I was planning to get one myself.
Cheers

[Blue_SV650S]

So it's not so good... :(
Give us updates as I was planning to get one myself.
Cheers


As far as I am aware, all the Sat-Navs don't have a 'plot my own route easily' function (I asked the Halfords dude if there was one that did ... he categorically said "NO" (not like he will know anything :lol:)).

There is lots of ways I have found to get waypoints/POIs in ... but still failing to get it to take a full route ... early days mind :)

As with all these things, I get more fun hacking it than using it!! :D

[Stu]

Any use?
http://www.bestbikingroads.com/useful_docs/MapSource_Tutorial1.pdf

[embee]

The Zumo uses Mapsource for PC route planning, don't know if other Garmins use this too.

Mapsource isn't the most intuitive software, but a little practice gets you to do straightforward routing very easily. For example on the PC you can put in start and end points, then simply drag and drop the route in between to where you want it. Routing on the Zumo itself can be tedious, but if you have intermediate points saved as "favourites" it makes it a lot easier to send the route where you want it.

Zumos are pretty pricey, but they've got a lot better (Zumo550 can be got for around £350), and come with full Euro maps and cradles for both the bike and the car. You don't get a headset though. They have lots of good features but some shortcomings too. They are decent mp3 players, the higher spec ones do text-to-speech (TTS) so read out street names rather than just "turn left" etc, it'll do picture slide shows, in the bike cradle it has a fuel gauge function etc.

[Blue_SV650S]

That bikingroads website is cool, but again, only gives you a start and end waypoint, not a pre-determined route the sat-nav will follow. From what I can make out (and I admit I haven't read the tutorial in its entirety) even if you use the software it won't make a route for the sat nav, just allow you to visualise and set waypoints. ... you would still need to plot that route by stitching the waypoints in the sat-nav ... the software is doing nothign more than I can do already in other (free) ways ;)

embee, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that what I want isn't possible ... for some stupid reason, you can't pre-plan a route and upload it to your sat-nave to follow ... I mean WTF?? I can't be the first person to want to do this surely?