phone as a Sat Nav?
 

Afternoon org,

Just wondering if anyone has tried using a phone on the bike as satnav?

Myself and the Mrs are only getting into touring on the bike this year, and am intrested in getting a satnav, but i wasnt to make sure that we enjoy going away (if i can put up with her!) before forking out £300 odd for a tom tom rider, so am thinking of using a phone, a long time ago a mate and me did a trip, and purchased bluetooth headsets for the phones, and used a bit of velcrow on teh yolk to fix the phone to the bike to be able to hit the answer button, or speeddial 1, whilst riding.

However am not sure about putting my phone on the bike like that any more, so wondering any anyone has come accross any way to waterproof the phone and attach to the bike and still see the screen.

So far the only thing i have come up with is my tank bag and use the map pocket, however i will prob also fit a power adaptor to the bike and i would like to attach it to my autocom and dont really want to have loads of leads dangleing out of the tank bag, i would rather have it all hardwired.

Any ideas would be great.

Cheers in advance guys.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

What I do...

Program Sat-Nav on phone before getting on bike, attach headphones, adjust volume, stick phone in inside Jacket pocket, just have the voice directions.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

yeah, have thort about that, but still want to be able to charge it, we are looking at going to france, and with satnav on all the time there is no way the battery will still be charged by the time we get there, and dont really wany more leads and things coming from the bike onto me than i already will with the autocom!

If that makes sense.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

Stick phone under the seat then, attached to some way of charging it

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

I was going to ask the same question funnily enough. The overboard phone cases are good (waterproof) I have used them on the boat before but that might cause problems mounting/charging. I reckon best bet would be some kind of mount with strong velcro, then velcro on a waterprrof case, maybe modified if neccasary to get a charging cable in.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

1. Yes, I use memory map to display OS maps and a GPS position when greenlaning, it works fine on a Windows Mobile smartphone. You can buy the likes of Copilot software pretty cheap on ebay, and I think that would work fine too.

2. In a normal handlebar mounted phone holder, slipped inside a condom! :mrgreen: You will find it difficult to get the touch screen to work properly though the thick plastic of a tankbag pocket.

3. I doubt you are going to find a powered cradle for your phone similar to that supplied with a Garmin Zumo, so you are going to have loose cables running somewhere, be it to a holder, or a tank bag. I've never found loose cables to be a problem, so long as they are the curly telephone cord type.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

I used a £10 ish weatherproof fag lighter socket, a second hand waterproof case & mount and my phone or car satnav. Works a treat and muchos cheap - the only thing you miss off a bike nav it the sun visor....but if you could be bothered you could work something out.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

cigarette socket to charge the phone, phone in tank bag= simples.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

There is an android app for memory maps now :smt040 for those of you that use them.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

Good to know. I'm thinking about getting a second hand Android to use as a personal handset with my personal SIM when I don't want work to bother me.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

Do you have any sort of acceptable use policy on work kit? I did wonder if we had one that time I gaffa taped mine to the SV's wing mirror....

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

Yes we do, and I'm sure the holder falling off it's mount at 30mph and bouncing down the road towards Specialone's front wheel is not permitted :rolleyes:

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

That was karma, for making me go through that tight opening on to the road at the end of the pub carpark ;)

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

What you moaning about? Could get a Pan European through there :lol: ;-)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=moul...17.54,,0,20.54

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

It was one thing i was waiting for for so long, downloaded the entire UK at 1:15000 for the pda ages ago, but it having them on my phone is so much more convenient :)

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

It was funny when my front wheel was down the steps, rear wheel still on the car park level and my feet were dangling in mid air :p
There was a car coming as well so had to stop and kinda balance ;)

If your phone runs out of signal/internet the sat nav won't work will it?

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

Depends on the sat nav software and whether it reads its maps from the internet or from a memory card.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

copilot, sygic and memory maps are all stored on the memory :) Android that is.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

But wouldn't it need some form of connection to know where you are?

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

No, the majority of smartphones that would run such software are equipped with a gps receiver. There's not much point in navigation software without GPS is there! Mobile phones that don't have GPS use mobile signal triangulation and can only figure out approximately where you are, they could be a mile out, which aint a lot of good when you want to know where to turn left off the High Street. Of course that will have no signal if it can't get a clear view of the sky, but that's no different to a TomTom.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

Ah thanks, I guess I just didn't think about the GPS receiver being a stand alone thing as opposed to needing signal from the network :D

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

The only thing you would lose with zero signal is agps, which helps gps locate your position faster on first start up in a new area.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

Same here

Re: phone as a Sat Nav
 

and here :-)

Ste.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

I have an HTC Hero with Android's Co Pilot on it. It costs about £20 & it's one of the best sat navs I've ever used. I have the Fag lighter socket on the bike & as somebody said earlier, put it in a tank bag etc & wear the ear phones from the phone. I went to pick the SV1000 up on Saturday from North Yorkshire (granted I was in a van) & it took me to with 100yds of the fellers place, he lived right in the sticks as well.
I made a couple of mistakes as well thinking I knew where I was going on the way back & it just reset itself without any of the "Please turn around" commands that really get on your nerves.
It will also accomodate Bikes, walkin & cars, so all in all a damned good package.
You can get European maps for it as well, but the whole thing takes up 2gb of space on your phone, so download onto your pc 1st & make sure you have a decent SD card in your phone :)

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

That is usefull to know, i have my new Andriod phone coming tomorrow i hope, so i will look into this. I think the concensous it tank bag really isn't it?

I just liked the idea of having some form of bracket on the bars and hardwire everything i need, (power/audio etc) along the frame to under the seat to connect to the autocom. But cant have everything i suppose.....that is why you can buy things like tom tom riders to give you all that!!!

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

as I royal fkd up and my HTC 7 Trophy has no sat nav I was about to destroy it to claim on the insurance to get an ewwwwwwphone, then i remeber my car sat nav.

Quick googling later, new software on the tom tom, europe maps on an sd card, with a line out to the aux on my oxford rider intercom, and a water proof case from ebay for £20, water proof sig lighter under seat and jobs a goodun,

I can even put music on it and control the MP3's from that :-)

I have even changed the little map pointer to a motorcycle :-)

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

Im going to try M8 and Waze on my galaxy S3.
I have a cigar lighter on my curvy already for a tomtom and all I need is a galaxy s3 case and I'm ready to go.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/atta...1&d=1166059834

After a bit of faffing, a lot of coffee and some falling out - we've now got CoPilot route files (.trp) as an available option for exports direct from MotoGoLoco Maps.

i.e. you now no longer have to faff about with any 3rd party conversion software (e.g. Route Converter) to go from GPX to TRN, it's all done for you.

The only slightly tricky bit now is sussing out where your phone/device stores route files for CoPilot, but once you've got that figured out - it's plain sailing.

Happy days!

Full details in here --> http://www.motogoloco.com/blog/how-t...t-app-android/

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

It's not difficult, ive added custom routes to copilot Android, can't remember where but it was simple.

Re: phone as a Sat Nav?
 

Nah, it's not too tricky. On my phone at least, (HTC One M8 ) it's in here:

- My Computer\HTC One_M8\SD card\Android\data\com.alk.copilot.mapviewer\files\ EU\save

The trick is to have a route created and saved within CoPilot that you can search your PC for.