Anonymous

Anyone got any tips on satnav software to use on a laptop, ive got a GPS reciever for it but not got any software/maps yet.

Im guessing there is nothing shareware, so whats my best option?

Anonymous

PS

Ideally want some sort of POI warner as well built in (or that can run at the same time at least), for speed cameras etc.

St3V3_C

Tom Tom seems to be the one everyone is talking about.

http://www.tomtom.com/

Anonymous

Daft question (especially coming from someone with a software engineering degree who should know the answer really, LOL) but can the tomtom software intended for a pocket PC be run on a laptop on XP instead?

Anonymous

Was looking at something like this perhaps:

http://www.gpsw.co.uk/details/prod1354.html


But be nice to hear from somone who has actually used a specific system.

Jim Galbally

i THINK ms mappoint does GPS (its the new autoroute) have a looksie on their website

frog

You can run something like autoroute and load camera sites, etc... in there as points of interest, but all it will do as far as I know, is show where you are, it won't give you the sort of 3d views and vocal directions you get with proper sat nav afaik.

Would love to know what you come up with though

There are loads of other bits of s/w available, but nothing I can recommend since I haven't tried any

frog

Looks good, says you can add your own pushpins = camera sites !

Anonymous

Id probably run a seperate POI warner, that way you can add cameras into that and get an audible warning when you approach them etc.

PhilM

Navigator 4 I think its called mate

frog

Chip,

I am not aware that one GPS unit can "serve" several pieces of s/w at once.

In which case, you will need some kind of GPS server, which takes incoming data from the GPS unit and makes it available to n applications via "logical" serial ports. There was a freebie available on the net for this, can't remember where though

Mappoint looks like an updated autoroute, only shows you current location, although it will re-route and show you current speed and heading.

frog

Forgot to say, if you want to write your own GPS application for POI warning, etc... I have a load of code snippets for visual basic that explain how to interpret the GPS data in a lot of detail

Anonymous

The poi warner software for tom toms is just an add on and uses the same gps eye, so thats weird that its different to that.

frog

Chip, maybe the add-on "hooks" into the main software and gets GPS information from that. Dunno.

Jim Galbally

chip, it nicks the data from the tomtom app, not directly from the GPS unit...

frog's right, it can only talk to one process at a time. they dont have a proper stack

oh the joys of direct serial communication eh

Anonymous

Doh, oh well, looks like i will have to buy another one and plug into two different USB ports

Anonymous

Someone out there must have done this surely?

Ie ran satnav software and a poi warner that work together on a laptop?


Not exactly rocket science!

andyhardy

Infomap Navigator 4 is ok - very fiddly to use but ok once you're navigating.

The best one yet is Destinator 3 though - includes importable POI. At the moment the software is only available for PPC but using www.mapmonkey.net you can use it on PC and import free UK speed camera databases

Cheers,

Andy

frog

Done a quick search on google and found this:

http://franson.com/gpsgate/guide.asp...2&platform=ppc
http://users.hol.gr/~dzach/gpsfeed/
http://www.popularshareware.com/Seri...load-1817.html

Anonymous

Nice one froggy woggy, that should prove useful

frog

My pleasure sir Once you've figured it all out, let me know so I don't have to bother with all the research, etc...

Now, if you could find maps of all the tracks in the uk, you could use GPS to record how well you are doing just like the pros

Anonymous

The germany map has the ring on it for most GPS systems, as its classed as a road

Im going to run out of ports/virtual ports on my laptop though at this rate

I need one for each of:
SECS ecu
Wideband lamda kit
Touchscreen (appears like a mouse basically)
GPS etc (plus virtual port for same)

not good at all

frog

dunno about SECS (not sex) and wideband kit, but touchscreen and GPS should be available in USB.

PS: Just had a look at mapmonkey, has camera warnings built in

rsdene

iTrader: (1)

microsoft autoroute 2005 for me mate

Anonymous

SECS and the wideband kit are both 9 pin serial, not too bothered by running them both at once though TBH, and i have a 4 way serial switch so i can just swap between them.



That MapMonkey looks the bollocks, nice one for posting about that, thats the best option ive seen so far, especially the big keyboard on the screen to allow you to type placenames easily on a small touchscreen

andyhardy

Aiii - it's the best bit of kit out there, just a shame you have to jump through hoops to get the Destinator SDK.

A pre-sorted official version will be available in the next few months though - keep an eye on that and the powerloc website (http://www.destinator1.com), they're the guy's who make Destinator

Cheers,

Andy

Anonymous

Problem with that mapmonkey is the cost of the maps/sdk you need to run it by the looks of it.

I think it might be time to start looking at a pirate version of something

Does autoroute 2005 have a POI warner in it RSDENE?

Anonymous

Autoroute doesnt do on the floy rerouting or voice.

going to be that navigator 4 software i think, have emailed the gps warehouse a couple of questions about it.

Anonymous

The professional version for 130 quid does EVERYTHING i want

http://www.directions.ltd.uk/moreinfo.php?id=1120

Speficially designed for a touch screen, and includes importing speed cameras and setting warnings when you approach.

frog

That looks the ticket chip, nice one