AusS2000

I just got a Navman PiN as an early x-mas present.

One of the main criteria for getting a nav unit was to act as a speed camera warning device. And every 'expert' I spoke to said it was preconfigured to alert you of speed cameras.

The people I bought it from (Superalarm) told me I just had to activate it. After a couple of hours stuffing around and feeling like a newby fool continually ringing back for support it turns out you can't just 'enable' it. Speed cameras are built is as 'Points Of Interest' but cannot be made 'Active Points Of Interest' (audible warning on aproach). And then they aren't very up to date either. The camera on MacPherson St about 200m from my place has been there over a year and it's not on it.

If I can get a list of cameras with GPS style location (Latitude and Longitude) I can import it in as a custom POI and make it 'Active'. I've searched all over the net but can't find anything. I can't be the first person to do this in NSW surely.

Does anyone have access to a lsist like this or know where I can source one?

AusS2000

Don't you just love that. Two seconds after I click send I find it:

http://www.gpsriders.net/sc_sydney.wpt

AusS2000

If anybody is interested I nutted out the differences between the above file format and the one required by Navman/SmartST and built a Point Of Interest file of 91 cameras around NSW. Quite a bit of work.

http://s2000.byteserve.com.au/Navman/speedcams.csv

Also, here's a little icon to use on the maps:

http://s2000.byteserve.com.au/Navman/speedcam.bmp

Col

Well, after a conversation with "experts" I also went for the Navman. To say it is not the most intuitive to use is an understatement, everything you need to know is in the full manual, the Quick Start is really low level.

I have downloaded Wayne's list of cameras (interest sake only, I have no need for these reminders...) and now just need to nut out how to get them in the damn pocket PC and make them work.

I experimented setting up a "trip" with 5 waypoints and because I did not know the addresses I tried to use the map just to find the locations then click and add, unfortunately there must be a trick because every time I added it overwrote the previous point. I eventualy resorted to making all points "favorites" (yep, American spelling) and then adding them from favorites. I now find that it doesn't seem to like a trip that is a circle ending back at the beginning without retracing the total route.

Ah well, I've printed the manual and will now resort to a bed time read - if only life was simple.

I agree with Wayne, the expert was very unexpert and a salesman who hasn't really used the devices in detail, just sells them or hits "demo" on their in-house units.

AusS2000

Glad you decided on the Navman. There is strength in numbers. And at least with the PiN we can always load other software should we find it lying around the net.

To load the POIs you use the Desktop software. There is a POI Manager app that can be fired up from the Desktop software but actually replaces it when it loads. You then open the CSV file and Send it to the Navman. It should then appear in the Active POIs list and you can select parameters for it such as distance and time from.

Other software you may like to have a look at is GPSGate (for sharing the GPS with other apps), GPSDash (gives you a conventional GPS interface) and Travel-i (another app that accepts speedcamera lists and give a warning but with this you can use WAV files).

Col

AusS2000, obviously doing something wrong. I saved your file and the editor happily opens it and it displays Lat, Long, Speed_Camera - ~90 times. I then go save to Device from the editor and after saying make active, etc, it comes back "No POI in file".

AusS2000

Known error. I think Excel mucks with the file. Try opening it in a text editor and saving it then try again.

Col

Next...

I have saved it every which way using Notebook, Word, etc as .txt, .csv, I even let the editor choose what it wants to save and still no luck. I noticed that Smart ST on the notebook kept thinking Smart ST was running on the pocket PC so reset the device and resynced, then ran up Smart ST on the notebook and it was happier but still no joy.

I assume there is an error in the User Manual in that it seems to indicate that you "Save to Device" from the main MAP menu but in fact the only "Save to Device is in the POI Editor.

Today I did a trip to Gong Uni, then to a restaurant, then back to Five Dock, then home to B Hills. While I can live with the sometimes weird routes it computes, the errors at the end of the Gong freeway both exiting and entering where it was trying to send you in totally the wrong direction are pretty second rate.

Then it seems to be inconsistant when it gives you instructions. For example, going along Parramatta Rd it shows you going onto the M4 but doesn't give any instructions, yet when you travel on the Parramatta bypass it gives a "Keep Right" as you pass the exit to Kissing Pt Rd. This was also evident all the way down to Gong and back where it would "assume" a road was a continuation (eg end of 77) but not only did the name change but it was a T intersection. If you follow the visual map it is great but the verbal instructions on their own would have you tearing your hair out - something I cannot afford to do. It will be interesting in the S where the screen will be near invisible in the light.

I would love to do a side-by-side comparrison with the Co-Pilot and Garmin S/w to see how they treated a lot of these locations.

Col

Part II

Decided to check for Smart ST updates and it said it had an update so applied it. Then went through the process again but this time I happened to use the Tool button in the Editor and updated the same screen that it shows when you "Save to device" (the one with dist, icon, etc). Well it seems to have worked - don't ask me which of the fiddling was the fix.

Interestingly it does not show them on the map but I did a demo run past your place and it found the school cam. Now just need to work out why the icons don't show up.

I cannot believe there are only 90 fixed cams in NSW. I thought that I read somewhere there were over 350 in NSW alone. In discussions with RTA techos for work they are working on converting all red-light cameras into speed cameras, not sure where that is at but there are a few that double up.

Col

AusS2000 did you look at this site? This is from GPSOZ.

http://www.gpsoz.com.au/speed_cameras/

With some simple column shifts and name updates it looks as though it would be child's play to get it onto Navman.

We need someone with Road Angel or GPSGuider download to provide the database.

Also found this that refers to a uniden product. You can get the files which then upload to the GPS unit, now all you need todo is crack the file.