Navigation & maps ...

[CrystalPistol]

I see a lot of posts across the internet related to navigation, favorite means, features, dislikes, etc.

I have 2 Garmins I tend to use as toys. I have a GPS antenna that plugs into the USB of my laptop and works with the program (MS Streets) that turns the laptop into a reallybig GPS.

But I grew up looking at MAPS (folding maps from several states or Rand McNally's Atlas). I have a collection too that goes way back, I can find stuff on them that no longer even exist in real life, but I can find "where" it was. I still do what I've always done before a trip or next day's peg of trip, I sit down with a map or atlas and I study it so that when done, I don't need GPS …. my mind is then my GPS. I can know the road from here to there and know it's features in a thought without taking a hand off the wheel or grip. It was perusing maps that has shown me many interesting roadside attractions, monuments, places I wanted to see that I had forgotten, places I didn't know were near, IOWs …."the lay of the land".

I can't show you a GPS view of 1910 roadways, but I can pull out a map of them, I can use the map to find and visit.

Maps are a durable history, the updates are newer maps but you get to keep the old one and any notes … if GPS updates, you loose the old one. Yeah, I like and use maps, I use GPS just for play.

[Volkemon]

I have some of the early Tomtom 'One' devices that are turned into 'Tripmasters'



Cheap and easy to find, they are on ebay for less than $10

Then I install Tripmaster, some freeware. http://www.webazar.org/tomtom/tripmaster.php?lang=uk

Lets you use the Tomtom as a normal navigation device, or use this screen for all sorts of geeky stuff.



Copied from their page:

With Tripmaster, you can:

• display in real time :
  
  
  • the latitude, the longitude and the altitude of the point where you are,
    
  • the direction that you follow, with quantified indication and compass,
    
  • the elapsed total time since the departure, and the elapsed time while moving,
    
  • the total distance since the departure,
    
  • the distance since the last reset of the intermediate trip,
    
  • the instantaneous speed, total average speed and average speed while moving,
    
  • the maximum speed reached since the departure.
    
  
  
• display only if you want it the maximum speed or reset it when you want,
  
• reset the intermediate trip, while recording simultaneously, if the tracking logs are active, a tracking point, with the mileage carried out since the last reset,
  
• record periodically your position : latitude, longitude, name of the place, hour and altitude,
  
• record on-demand your position, with various specific comments,
  
• define several speed limits, choose one and to be warned when you drive over this limit by a screen display and/or an audible alarm.
  
• choose the format of tracks recording :
  
  
  • CSV for Excel importation,
    
  • ITN for a re-use in Tomtom navigation application,
    
  • KML for a direct importation in Google Earth,
    
  • GPX for a later conversion in another format for another GPS or a visualization with Google Earth,
    
  • POI for a later use as POIs in Tomtom application
    
  • NMEA to record directly the frames received from the GPS module
    
  
  

Kinda cool, I have used it as a route tracker, and it is pretty accurate. Displayed using google earth, it showed my route down to which driveways I stopped in. Should i deviate from a route i planned, its easy to see where exactly i went later.

Total time/moving time will show you REAL quick how much those 'short stops' cost you in trip time if arrival time is important.

Average speed when moving ignores stops. Lets you know your average cruising speed.

I am going to use the speedo function to check mine on the trike after the tire change.

So if you like to use the GPS units for fun, this gives you all sorts of data on your ride.

Looking for holders that look like leather pouches for the GPS and phone. I then can have them handy, but not ruin the aesthetics of the bike. I like the 'classic' look.

[jjvw]

We have several boxes of maps from various places we have been and I usually get more up to date ones when we visit an area again.

I always use a map first than plot out directions on my gps. Otherwise my old mind will remember it wrong.