The trouble with GPS

[Ben]

How many of you hanker after the good old days of maps?

Like many I have used GPS for a few years with only occasional satisfaction.

Yesterday was a good case in point. I had been lead to believe that they were ideal for navigating around London so tried it to get me to somewhere in Chiswick.

The first issue was with City Select which for some reason has a software glitch that likes to send one off on odd dog legs when using the stage by stage routing tool. So you need eyes like a hawk and considerable patience to eliminate these.

Then the Quest itself: This has the annoying habit of telling me to turn after I have overshot at a snails pace. It tells me I am off route more than it doesn't and always when I am not. (Seldom when I actually am!)

My experience is that it usually gets you there in the end...but not quite as well as I used to, unaided.

The amount of times it has not known that streets were 'one way', or blocked, or pedestrian (or whatever) are worrying.

GPS seems great in theory, but on balance i find it a real distraction.

It doesn't help that the Quest has a pathetic volume which i cannot always hear on the motorway.

I like the fact that the software can pinpoint house numbers, but it frustrates the hell out of me that it cannot always get you there in a logical and simple fashion.

My 2610 was only marginally better.



Ben

 

[(RIP) sherpa]

Things to try

Hi Ben

Just check a few things on your Quest

Is it updated with the latest software V3.90 from the site

Have you got it set to the type of vehicle being used (I guess car/bike)

Is road lock on?

I don't have many issues at all with my Quest and have used it effectively for many 1000's of miles

HTH
Sherpa

Been to the PO yet?

 

[GS TRV]

Hi Ben

Just check a few things on your Quest

Is it updated with the latest software V3.90 from the site

Have you got it set to the type of vehicle being used (I guess car/bike)

Is road lock on?

I don't have many issues at all with my Quest and have used it effectively for many 1000's of miles

HTH
Sherpa


Been to the PO yet?

What's Road Lock? I've had a few prob's like those mentioned.

 

[fcasado]

What's Road Lock? I've had a few prob's like those mentioned.

Road Lock has to be turned on when not navigating off-road, it keeps the pointer on the road. I can't explain any better sorry

I haven't got problems with my quest either, even navigating in London, used that on the bike and on foot

And the volume on the motorway is fine, maybe check the volume in the intercom if you're using one...

 

[jimbo]

Like many I have used GPS for a few years with only occasional satisfaction.

Odd, maybe its because I am so completely useless with a map and have no sense of direction, but I find my 2610 brilliant. It not perfect, but it gets it right 98% of the time and on the other 2% is not too difficult to sort out the problem.

Unaided I have spent bl**dy ages lost in various places, getting later and later and more frustrated. No longer.

Whilst it may be true many other share your view, I think its only a small minority of the GPS users.

 

[guitarman]

I've also had these issues with the Quest. Especially the "late" turn indicators and subsequent "off-route" messages.

 

[Mouse]

Road Lock has to be turned on when not navigating off-road, it keeps the pointer on the road. I can't explain any better sorry

Road Lock (also called "Snap to road" I think) means that if your GPS position is within a certain distance of a road, it assumes you are actually on that road.

In normal use, this is good, because small errors in the GPS position are compensated for because the unit can safely assume you are actually on the tarmac.

If you leave the road (as stored in the GPS's map) then you will have to travel a certain distance (about 50 metres?) before the GPS will show you your true position. But if you are riding off road, there's no need to turn this feature off, unless you are very close to, but not on, a road in the map.

 

[fcasado]

Road Lock (also called "Snap to road" I think) means that if your GPS position is within a certain distance of a road, it assumes you are actually on that road.

In normal use, this is good, because small errors in the GPS position are compensated for because the unit can safely assume you are actually on the tarmac.

If you leave the road (as stored in the GPS's map) then you will have to travel a certain distance (about 50 metres?) before the GPS will show you your true position. But if you are riding off road, there's no need to turn this feature off, unless you are very close to, but not on, a road in the map.

Thanks Mouse

 

[Ben]

Hi Ben

Just check a few things on your Quest

Is it updated with the latest software V3.90 from the site

Have you got it set to the type of vehicle being used (I guess car/bike)

Is road lock on?

I don't have many issues at all with my Quest and have used it effectively for many 1000's of miles

HTH
Sherpa
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Hi John

have Pm'd you

Ben

 

[jimbo]

Just looking at the other posts..
I find that in towns like London the reception is poor as there is so little sky to get a line of sight to a satellite. This means that the accuracy of the GPS drops hugely and even at time looses tracking completely. It doesn't report short 'drop-outs' like this, so sometimes you think the GPS knows where you are, but in fact its doesn't. This is a real problem in a maze of backstreets.
Adding a remote ariel like This helps a lot.

 

[araspitfire]

As other's have said, using a GPS (without dead recconing) to navigate in cities tends to make your life more difficult... It thinks you are on a different road, because it lost view of the sky just as you made a turn, it gets busy looking for satalites and misses giving you warnings (though the quest may indeed have an issue with this, my 60C definately does not... unless sky-view is difficult)...

But hankering after the good old days of maps is not necessary... just buy some maps and leave the GPS for other navigation tasks where it works better... mine works great for me all the time over here in The Netherlands... course I walk in cities... (gives the GPS more time to figure out where it is when it regains lock...)

Al...

 

[black1100]

The trouble with GPS is many users expectations of it. If you use it as a tool and appreciate its strengths and weaknesses then it is a bloody god send. 3 weeks in europe taught me that one

BUT......after ploughing through a few GPS forums and comparing the masses complaints with my experiances then it is an easy conclusion to come to that most users bought the dam things as an expensive toy and not a helpfull tool, so when the "glitches" or "characteristics" come to light they start stamping their feet at the money they have "wasted".

I havent switched the thing on since my return to the UK, it would be just a distraction, but consider it the best investment i could have made for my recent trip.

 

[Fanum]

I'd bet that the odd 'dog leg' diversions are caused by not inpuitting the route accurately enough

It happens if you manually put w/p's down on the screen in Mapsource or using the unit directly.......let's say you try and come out od a road and head south on a dual carriageway........you pick a point a few miles down the road and select it, but not accurately enough and the point is actually on the North bound side.......so the GPS tries to take you down the road, back up it to the point on the wrong side of the road and then on to the next place in your list of Vias or WP's


It doesn't do to depend on a GPS for navigation...use it as a hint device or to home in on a difficult place to find in a lot of smal roads.......I use mine a lot in Central London and the trick s to keep an eye on the next few turnings, so you know thatyou're doing the next but one left and the second right...then if you go between some tall buildsings and it loses satellite lock for a few hundred yards, you know what to expect and you're not suddenly floundering.

They do haev their limitations in town, but on the whole, they're a lot more convenient than using a map

 

[Bert]

That's 'cos...

I say I say I say!
That:
1- too many people don't take the time to really learn about their units
2- spend oodles of dosh - usually on the wrong GPS!
3- have unnatural expectations!!

Get a 276C ! the best one by far - used in conjunction with a hand compass and a map
It also helps, if you engage the best 'computer' in the world- that which lives between your ears!!!! and you'll get to where you want to be!

Love to all from the old git!

Off-road maybe but always navigating!