I bought a Sony streetmate off Yahoo auctions
the
other week. A few observations:
1. It took **Ages** t find its current
location ( around 6 hours) and could only see the satellites when I
had the
antenna hanging out the house window.
<<Six hours is well excessive ... even where I live the
etrex managed to find four satellites in about five
minutes.>>
2. Route planning seems a bit of a bodge
( if
you ask for rush hour root from March in Cambridgeshire t Reading it
proposes
east t the M11 down the M11 then round miles of the M25!!!)
<<OK ... but most routing programs don't
allow
for rush hour traffic. You should be able t realise that that's not a
sensible
route given your knowledge and move the route ... hopefully the software
would
then direct you around your chosen
route.>>
3. It doesn't even tell you if you deviate off
the
route. The built in one I had in a BMW I hired told you if you missed a
turn and
recommended a U-turn etc.
<<Fair enough ... but the StreetMate doesn't
cost
£1,600 (the cost of a basic Alpine nav system) and BMW charge about the
cost of
the StreetMate for an updated map CD. My brother in law has one in his
540i
and loves it but reckons that the BMW cost for it as an extra was s high
that
he would never get it fitted had he bought the car new. I have a "friend"
up in
London who runs a car audio dealership and he's been trying for the last
three
years at least t get me t fit one t my
car.>>
4. If you take the GPS card out of
the
laptop then travel without it in place it loses its location and has t be
re-configured... again several hours.
<< Fairly standard for a GPS receiver I think. If the
etrax
looses the data it has accumulated about the satellites that it can "see"
where
you live or you drive a hundred miles or s with it switched off then it
does
the same.>>
5. The internet traffic update has been
dropped and is no longer available.
<<This facility was of no interest t me but may
be
usefull for haggling over the price if (when) I decide t buy
one.>>
I have just bought a copy of Autoroute
2001
which should work with the GPS card provided and hopefully solve some of
the
functionality problems I mention above. However this also seems t be
taking an
age for the GPS t "find" itself.
<<Autoroute 2001 is a great program - however its GPS
support is limited to overlaying your position on a map. It will not make
announcements of where t turn or where you are nor even know if you're not
on
the route you planned (nor even care if you are or not). It does however
take
the coordinate information from my etrax and superimpose a little icon
for
a car wherever it thinks you are and it does seem fairly accurate for that.
Most
of the time t day whilst we were driving around it had the icon on the
correct
side of the road on a dual
carriageway.>>
Moving on a bit. Does anyone know where I can
get a
( reasonably priced) in Car power adapter for a laptop. I have an Advent
laptop
( PC world special!) which takes 20V 3A input,. I was recommended a Targus
kit
down Tottenham Ct Rd at £90! Any ideas?
<<Yep ... Maplin are doing part number QM80B which is a 150W
12v t
240v invertor for £19.99 but before you g running t buy one they are out
of
stock and no new stock is expected before Sept 1st however I do have one on
back
order and they say that they will hold the price even though it is normally
£40.
I understand they've sold 900 of them in about a week! They do do other
invertors for about £60 if you don't want t
wait...>>
Also just got my Pronto - again off the
auction,
and some X10 Modules and IR converter for my super dooper Home
Cinema/
Lounge..... All I have to do now is finish building it!
<<Know the feeling...
Phil>>