GPS Navigation / Digital Mapping System for a 4X4

[Bigchaser]

Can somebody in the digital mapping world of knowhow, please recommend a navigation system to be used in a 4X4. I know this may sound strange but I have no experience with sat – nav systems, I’ve not even used a Tom Tom.

I would like a system to have the following points,
· Easley transferable between vehicles
· Can plot routes into the system (roads and piste routes)
· Make a track of routes travelled
· Add extra maps as required
· Load routes downloaded from the web and friends

I intend to use the system in the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and possible Australia.

I have read about in car computers, tablet PC’s, Toughbook Laptops (with or without remote mounted screens) and stand alone GPS’s like Garmin 276C or its later model, the 278C. But all I’ve succeeded in doing is confusing myself .

Thanks in advance ,

Charlie

[dave ett]

Have you thought about using a netbook with a USB arial plugged in? There are many many map sources which will work with a GPS unit, and that way you'd have everything you needed in one package.

An Asus EEEPC 901 is pretty small, very robust and would be fairly simple to mount on the dash.

[pawperso]

There's so many options that I'm not suprised it's confusing if you've never even used a GPS before!

It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it though. A stand alone GPS unit from garmin would very probably cover all your needs quite easily. Plenty of maps available from Garmin, you can easily add your own waypoints and tracks as you travel, and there's plenty of ready made files here on HU that you can transfer across with details of embassies, petrol and accommodation etc etc

Garmin I think would be a good bet to do everything you need 'right out of the box'. Depending on where you want to go in Asia and Africa getting decent map coverage may be tricky though.

The only real downside to a dashmounted GPS unit is the screen size, which itself is only an issue if you want to zoom out and plan a decent stretch of route. A lot of people go for running a system on their laptop to have more screen available to make things easier. But I think a normal GPS system coupled with good old paper maps works pretty well.

[Bigchaser]

Thanks for your replies guys....

[Bigchaser]

Over the weekend I downloaded mapsauce and nrounte, and managed successfully instal both on my laptop with a base map. Now all I need are some more detailed maps, anybody got any good links for free map downloads?
Next I will buy a USB GPS receiver, and try to get that hooked up and working.
If all that works ok, I’m on the hunt for a used Toughbook.

[Desert Driver]

Originally Posted by pawperso

There's so many options that I'm not suprised it's confusing if you've never even used a GPS before!

It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it though. A stand alone GPS unit from garmin would very probably cover all your needs quite easily. Plenty of maps available from Garmin, you can easily add your own waypoints and tracks as you travel, and there's plenty of ready made files here on HU that you can transfer across with details of embassies, petrol and accommodation etc etc

Garmin I think would be a good bet to do everything you need 'right out of the box'. Depending on where you want to go in Asia and Africa getting decent map coverage may be tricky though.

The only real downside to a dashmounted GPS unit is the screen size, which itself is only an issue if you want to zoom out and plan a decent stretch of route. A lot of people go for running a system on their laptop to have more screen available to make things easier. But I think a normal GPS system coupled with good old paper maps works pretty well.

so which garmin would you recommend?

[horacebat]

Hi there,

I've been "lurking" around this for the last couple of weeks and have been playing around with all sorts of possibilities. It's taken me a while to get there but theres some learning to do !

I've got both Mapsource, Google Earth and Multi Map, but looking around the groups there appears to be a common theme, but heres some things that I've found out along the way:

GPS
I've got a 60c Garmin which only has 64MB space on it which I used for boating, it appears to fit a lot of Maps in the space required and can be picked up cheaply on ebay or online. The newer ones (cs and csx) accept SD Cards, so if you want to be ultra prepared get an SD card and prepare it all up front. When I'm away I'll take my netbook with me, and will use this to update my GPS and download routes from time to time.

POI
Use Ulrichs POI database, it's growing all the time and looks like is going to be (if not already is) the defacto standard for Overlanding.

Maps
Use the Open Street Map tiles to get the maps that you require, its amazing the quality of these maps, and that they are open source!, All the areas of Africa that I'm intterested are covered:
Worldwide routable Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap

They are also routable (eg from A to B via roads rather than "As the Crow Flies")

There is also the smelly bikers maps as well, although I've not used these ...

Software
Once I've installed the Open Street Maps onto my machine, I use Mapsource and these installed maps from above provide a detailed maps of Africa to what I need. Highly recommended.

Routes
Theres a number of routes kicking around from all different sources. The good books written by Chris Scott for the Sahara and other on the Arctic Highway provide access to some good routes which look fun ! (I've still yet to put this into practice!).

You can also create and amend routes as you go along ...

Enough of my ramblings .. thought I'd give you my findings over the past couple of weeks of looking into this.

PB.

[beddhist]

Your profile says you are in Kalimantan. If this is correct then for maps you need those from navigasi.net. If you can read and write Bahasa Indonesia then please contribute back to the project.

For a GPS you need a Garmin, to be able to use free maps. There are few free maps available for other brands. Go for one with a big screen, like a Nuvi. Some Nuvi models have problems with track logs, it seems, so you need to do some research there.

Originally Posted by horacebat

POI
Use Ulrichs POI database, it's growing all the time and looks like is going to be (if not already is) the defacto standard for Overlanding.

Can you give us a link to that, please?

[horacebat]

there the sticky on this thread of the forum:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eearth-36431-6

really very good ...

Lots of Campsites etc, its a shame we can't set up an App that auto adds POI and maybe allow people to comment on them too .. this has got to be the next step for the POI db ?

My php isnt that good, but I'm guessing it can't be that hard! ;-)

[beddhist]

I've spent several frustrating hours with Google Maps and bugs in GPSBabel, but here is a map of my Thailand accommodation waypoints. Perhaps this is how it could be done? Ulrich has found a way to change the icons, I couldn't.