Paper maps can be studied BEFORE your trip so you can plan it.The electronic maps in these other devices don't allow that.I have a built in GPS in my Highlander Hybrid car-have used it a few times.They are asking me for the $300 update-a DVD disc that goes into the machine.And also have to pay for installation.What it has is good enough for now.I can always use my I-Phone,but if I or you do you may have to pay roaming charges.So paper maps,GPS systems all have their advantages and disadvantages.To sort it out completely-you might have to use both.
Anyone Have A GPS System They Love?
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A route can be followed in advance on my Garmin. Enter the destination, it'll calculate the route, then the map can be scrolled (and zoomed) to follow the details through. Also can press a button to get a step-by-step, turn-by-turn detailing.
Garmin also has (free) BaseCamp software to plan and keep libraries of routes on a PC or Mac and transfer the data into the Garmin device.
I checked for updates a few min ago ... another map update is installing now, two supporting software updates, and a version update on BaseCamp.
Garmin BaseCamp | Garmin Customer Support
Garmin Support Center is where you will find answers to frequently asked questions and resources to help with all of your Garmin products.
www8.garmin.com
cornutt
Well-known member
Thanksgiving adventures with Garmin
We have a unit that we bought about six months ago, when we needed to make a trip to Tampa for medical reasons. We were supposed to meet relatives for Thanksgiving at a hotel in the Buckhead area of Atlanta the other day. I wasn't sure I remembered the area, so we got the Garmin out and programmed it with the hotel address, and started on our way.
We ran into this: The previous times we've used the Garmin, it's been mostly travel on the Interstates. Well, from Huntsville, AL, to Atlanta there is no good interstate route -- you have to know and take secondary roads if you want to get there in a reasonable amount of time, and everyone that lives in this area has a route they prefer. Anyway, the Garmin had great difficulty with finding an off-Interstate route. At the start of the trip, it kept wanting us to go back the way we came and go to I-65, which would have us taking a much longer route. We got it to agree with us on the route we were using by setting a waypoint in Gadsden, AL (a town along the route). It then worked OK until we got to Gadsden, at which point it once again tried to put us on a route (U.S. 278) that I know from previous experience is non-optimal.
So once again, instead of it figuring the route for us, I had to tell it what route to use. I set another waypoint in Anniston, AL, and it then agreed with the U.S. 431 route we were taking. It did OK until we got to the waypoint in Anniston, at which point itinexplicably tried to route us around the back of a shopping center. So we turned it off until we got onto Interstate 20 and headed east to Atlanta.
At this point we didn't have much faith in its routing choices, so when it told us to gett off of I-20 at the Fulton County Airport instead of continuing on to I-285, I was a bit skeptical. Nonetheless, I went with it. Lo and behold, it found us an off-Interstate route that was an easy and quick drive! And the sightseeing was better to boot. We were at the hotel about 20 minutes earlier than I figured, and didn't have to sit in any traffic jams. Our relatives told us that it took the about half an hour to get through the trffic jams on I-285 and I-75. So go figure. In Atlanta, it did a good job of finding a route. In small-town northeast Alabama, not so much.
We have a unit that we bought about six months ago, when we needed to make a trip to Tampa for medical reasons. We were supposed to meet relatives for Thanksgiving at a hotel in the Buckhead area of Atlanta the other day. I wasn't sure I remembered the area, so we got the Garmin out and programmed it with the hotel address, and started on our way.
We ran into this: The previous times we've used the Garmin, it's been mostly travel on the Interstates. Well, from Huntsville, AL, to Atlanta there is no good interstate route -- you have to know and take secondary roads if you want to get there in a reasonable amount of time, and everyone that lives in this area has a route they prefer. Anyway, the Garmin had great difficulty with finding an off-Interstate route. At the start of the trip, it kept wanting us to go back the way we came and go to I-65, which would have us taking a much longer route. We got it to agree with us on the route we were using by setting a waypoint in Gadsden, AL (a town along the route). It then worked OK until we got to Gadsden, at which point it once again tried to put us on a route (U.S. 278) that I know from previous experience is non-optimal.
So once again, instead of it figuring the route for us, I had to tell it what route to use. I set another waypoint in Anniston, AL, and it then agreed with the U.S. 431 route we were taking. It did OK until we got to the waypoint in Anniston, at which point itinexplicably tried to route us around the back of a shopping center. So we turned it off until we got onto Interstate 20 and headed east to Atlanta.
At this point we didn't have much faith in its routing choices, so when it told us to gett off of I-20 at the Fulton County Airport instead of continuing on to I-285, I was a bit skeptical. Nonetheless, I went with it. Lo and behold, it found us an off-Interstate route that was an easy and quick drive! And the sightseeing was better to boot. We were at the hotel about 20 minutes earlier than I figured, and didn't have to sit in any traffic jams. Our relatives told us that it took the about half an hour to get through the trffic jams on I-285 and I-75. So go figure. In Atlanta, it did a good job of finding a route. In small-town northeast Alabama, not so much.
I'm also looking into using an Android app to turn my cell phone into a dash cam.
Apparently it works pretty good - the trick is to get a cell phone holder that minimizes vibration...
Apparently it works pretty good - the trick is to get a cell phone holder that minimizes vibration...
Cell phone GPS revisted. Although it works well enough in town, when the cell signal is lost, so is the GPS like functionality. So I might just spring for a "real" GPS unit one of these days. Fry's has a Garmin ("factory refurb") for cheap, with lifetime map updates. But hey, I don't have a problem consulting a paper map in advance and using a little bit of common sense to find my way around. The stories of GPS units sending people off cliffs and into lakes are a bit worrisome, LOL.
GPS sending people off cliffs or into lakes-think this may be due to the person trying to follow the GPS units voice directions and not paying attention to where they are really going.
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