On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 11:28:56 +0100, Mike Hughes
wrote:

I'm looking to buy a small PDA type sat nav system that is portable and
that I can use for those out of town / suburban runs that I get.

I was thinking about getting Tom Tom Navigator with a suitable iPaq.
Went to look in Halfords who have a Medion System for £350.


I have a Toyota previa with built in satnav. It is supposed to have
inputs from speed sensors and steering sensors. One day my boss came
over from Holland with his PDA running tomtom. We had them both
running together with the same destination set on a trip over the
pennines on the small roads.Without fail they came up with identical
directions at the same time the PDA usually less than a second later.

One could have been forgiven for thinking they were using the same
basic "engine" and the same basic map (which might I suppose be the
OS!).


P.S. I have the knowledge for central London but need help when I go out
to the suburbs - which is quite often as I work nights.


They are very useful devices even after going to the same customers
for 17 yeras I find it handy.

DG

In message , at 18:37:46 on
Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Derek * remarked:
I have a Toyota previa with built in satnav. It is supposed to have
inputs from speed sensors and steering sensors.

What those do is allow the system to continue working in mostly urban
environments with lots of buildings, where the view of the sky is
obscured.

One day my boss came over from Holland with his PDA running tomtom. We
had them both running together with the same destination set on a trip
over the pennines on the small roads.

Which doesn't describe roads in the Pennines.

Without fail they came up with identical
directions at the same time the PDA usually less than a second later.

One could have been forgiven for thinking they were using the same
basic "engine" and the same basic map (which might I suppose be the
OS!).

Very likely. I had a Honda with Satnav and it undoubtedly used the same
mapping as Microsoft MapPoint - it had the same silly mistakes in the
data!
--
Roland Perry

In article , Roland
Perry wrote:
I had a Honda with Satnav and it undoubtedly used the same mapping
as Microsoft MapPoint - it had the same silly mistakes in the
data!

They may (or may not) have been deliberate. It's standard practice with
maps to introduce small errors so that they can be later be used to
prove copyright violations. But if it wanted to send you up the M25 the
wrong way perhaps not!

--
Tony Bryer

In message , at 20:24:07 on Tue,
31 Aug 2004, Tony Bryer remarked:
I had a Honda with Satnav and it undoubtedly used the same mapping
as Microsoft MapPoint - it had the same silly mistakes in the
data!

They may (or may not) have been deliberate. It's standard practice with
maps to introduce small errors so that they can be later be used to
prove copyright violations. But if it wanted to send you up the M25 the
wrong way perhaps not!

I don't have a view as to whether the errors were deliberate or not. But
they were the same! In particular, the street I lived in was numbered
back to front - ie No1 was at the wrong end. I assume they use some kind
of interpolation algorithm, rather than actually have every house in the
USA in their database!
--
Roland Perry