GPS Navigation System [merged threads]

[ferrarifan]

i used my gps all the way to nasugbu batangas. may napansin lang akong flaw dito. instead na direstuhin namin ang startoll, it always recommend an alternate route. since hindi pa namin alam pumunta ng nasugbu (acutally the original route was lemery), so sunod lang ako sa gps. so ayun, to my surprise, ang route namin is parallel sa startoll! so in that case, dapat nag startoll kami all the way to lipa at hindi kami dumaan sa looban. yun lang napansin ko

this could happen if your gps route preference is set to "shorter distance" and not "faster time". Faster time settings will lead you to major highways like Star. But if you really have wanted to drive through Star, you could have done so and your gps would have recalculated a new route for you.

[ferrarifan]

What I am saying is,

1. Garmin units bought from US have no preloaded Philippines maps.

My answer is "TRUE". If there is, it's good news so we can ask
Garmin to supply updated Philippine maps.

2. Garmin units without Philippines map loaded cannot be used or I mean
useless in the Philippines.

My answer is "TRUE" for obvious reasons. How can my Garmin unit show
me the directions in Manila if it has no map loaded?

I did not say that if you buy Garmin units directly from U.S. you have no way to make it useful.

Your answer is true only technically but not in the spirit of its intention. It is not only misleading but an outright lie in order to sell your product.

[ferrarifan]

Can the GPS unit be able to plug add'l info, such as one-way roads or bad traffic or road closures?

One-way roads feature is included in the free Phil. map, meaning it is a function of the map itself. GPS will not route you to one-way streets if they are properly defined in the map. For traffic and road closures, no, we don't have those yet here.

[arnielbenz]

Philippine map is free and can be had here:

http://roadguide.ph/forums/index.php

For now it only work on garmin units.

What this means is that it doesn't matter where you get you garmin unit, it should be usable here because there is now a 'usable' philippine map. [SIZE=4]Visit the garmin website, you will have an idea how much the unit cost[/SIZE]. If the one selling the unit says it is expensive because there is a philippine map in it, that should not be, because the map is FREE.

The only time the Philippine map will cost something is if comes from garmin (the map, not the device). But for now there is not yet an official RP map from garmin. So the next best alternative is the FREE map.

Note that there are 2 versions of the roadguide map (a.k.a. philippine map). The standard edition and the contributor edition. The standard edition is perfectly usable and accurate but the contributor edition offers better routing algorithm and updated POI and roads. Go over to the road guide forum and read... whether you are already a gps user or just planning to buy one.

happy g-p-s-ing!

mine nabili ko lang €149 ahehehe!!! garmin nuvi200 last feb 2008 pa, but the price now is a little bit higher, last april 14 nag nagdownload ako sa roadguide.ph ng philippine map, and to my surprise gumana sya! i tried it if it is useful and shocks when i typed caloocan city lumabas sa screen ay 11,255kmNE hehehhe!!! totoo kaya ito! dito pa kasi ako spain kaya malayo, hindi ko lang alam kung accurate yong map pag nasa pinas na ako. Lets see this christmas vacation...kaya lang tagal pa non

[wavecxs]

The roadguide map IS accurate enough to be useful. What you probably saw is the 'standard' edition. The 'contributors' edition is A LOT better, quick re-routing algorithm, more roads covered and more comprehensive list of POIs.

We went on a road trip to vigan relying solely on the roadguide gps map and it never let us down one bit.


re: one way streets and road closures, detours etc. as was stated in the earlier post, RP still has no support for such feature. Meaning, if the road you know suddenly becomes a one way street, the map wont be updated realtime. BUT since the roadguide map is a collaborative efforts between forum members, those you saw the changes (on the road) submits it to the forum and the map its updated accordingly.

[ghosthunter]

I would just like to mention, one way streets or closed streets aren't really that big a problem since the GPS device will recalculate a new route if you make a different turn or missed a turn.

[oj88]

I would just like to mention, one way streets or closed streets aren't really that big a problem since the GPS device will recalculate a new route if you make a different turn or missed a turn.

Not so in Makati. Because this is the city of one way streets and traffic, a missed turn could mean an additional 15-20 minutes of wasted time and fuel as you go around 3-5 blocks to get back to where you were and start over.

Been there, done that. :headache:

[ghosthunter]

Not so in Makati. Because this is the city of one way streets and traffic, a missed turn could mean an additional 15-20 minutes of wasted time and fuel as you go around 3-5 blocks to get back to where you were and start over.

Been there, done that. :headache:

Fortunately for me, my Nokia 6110 navigator GPS map of metro manila is updated with the one way streets included.

[liv]

The roadguide map IS accurate enough to be useful. What you probably saw is the 'standard' edition. The 'contributors' edition is A LOT better, quick re-routing algorithm, more roads covered and more comprehensive list of POIs.

+1... the standard FREE edition can route you to any place you want to go but the contributor's edition is much better... i'm amazed at how fast it recalculates right after you missed a turn.:2thumbsup:

[StraightSix]

You can buy Garmin Nuvi's anywhere and it will work in the Philippines. All you have to do is install the free Philippine map. If you can understand simple instructions, installing it wouldn't be a problem.

If you go to the roadguide.ph site, you'll see they're not happy how some people are making a sales pitch out of their free Philippine map.

Mahiya naman kayo ... stop making money out of it. Even if you just want to sell Garmins without the map, this thread is not the right place to do it. There's the classified section for that.

[oj88]

this could happen if your gps route preference is set to "shorter distance" and not "faster time". Faster time settings will lead you to major highways like Star. But if you really have wanted to drive through Star, you could have done so and your gps would have recalculated a new route for you.

He may also have a tick on "Toll Roads" in the Avoidance Setup.

[numbah5]

I just want to ask this, if i download the philippine map from roadguide.ph, can I save it in my sd card and use it on my carsthetics gps-capable headunit? And where can I buy an external gps antenna here in metro manila? Need your feedbacks please.

[StraightSix]

I just want to ask this, if i download the philippine map from roadguide.ph, can I save it in my sd card and use it on my carsthetics gps-capable headunit? And where can I buy an external gps antenna here in metro manila? Need your feedbacks please.

Didn't it come with a Philippine map? I've browsed their website and it seems they have a Philippine map for both HU models (single and 2xDIN).

The roadguide.ph map was made for Garmin GPS devices and applications - like Garmin Mobile XT software for PDAs/smartphones. If your HU's navigation maps are downright compatible with Garmin's, then it should work ... but IMHO it probably isn't.

[oj88]

^ I'm pretty sure that carsthetics doesn't work with the Garmin Philippine map available on roadguide.ph. Based on the youtube video demo, it runs a NAV software that was probably developed or co-developed with Agis (the maker of NAVFone). I have NAVFone on my i780 and the interface and map looks exactly the same.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtugfUokClY"]YouTube - GPS Carsthetics Audio_CAR entertainment system WITH GPS!!!(demo reel)[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFPxQF6Zyr4"]YouTube - Agis NAVFone[/ame]

[numbah5]

Called up carsthetics kanina. Kaya pala wala pang GPS map yung HU ko is because I have to buy the SD Card with the Philippine map in it at their office in Granada St. (Gilmore Ext.). Sabi din nila sa akin that they update their map every six months.

[StraightSix]

I see ... both applications do look strikingly similar. The carsthetics video for map selection showed only Manila, Cebu and Davao. Does Agis NAVFone have a similar map coverage for the country?

There might be a way for people with similar devices (with no Phil. map), to use the roadguide.ph map ... but it may not be feasible nor worth the effort for them.

The carsthetics HU, and a lot of generic GPS-enabled HU's flooding the market today actually run on WinCE. Even branded portables satnav's are. Ever wondered why portable satnav's are shaped like PDA's? Because they actually are.

They use a stripped-down version of WinCE, without the unnecessary drivers, applications and files - and made to run the navigation application straight away after booting up. The thing to do is to stop that process, load the missing files, and you'll end up having a regular WinCE PDA ... then you can load your choice of navigation software.

"Unlocking" WinCE is of course, very device-specific. On my Navman, it required a lot of registry editing, google'ing for needed files, and reading very lengthy sets of instructions ... and more google'ing

[StraightSix]

Sorry, what I meant was the carsthetics might be like a lot of generic GPS-enabled HU's flooding the market today that actually run on WinCE.

[zhardan]

i used my gps all the way to nasugbu batangas. may napansin lang akong flaw dito. instead na direstuhin namin ang startoll, it always recommend an alternate route. since hindi pa namin alam pumunta ng nasugbu (acutally the original route was lemery), so sunod lang ako sa gps. so ayun, to my surprise, ang route namin is parallel sa startoll! so in that case, dapat nag startoll kami all the way to lipa at hindi kami dumaan sa looban. yun lang napansin ko

Sir,

Yung map mo meron Star Tollway? The GPS software is programmed by humans and possible some errors are present. Don't rely too much in the directions given because it may not be accurate anymore because of updates. Updates on maps may not actually drill down to updates in the algorithm used by the program.

[ghosthunter]

Sir,

Yung map mo meron Star Tollway? The GPS software is programmed by humans and possible some errors are present. Don't rely too much in the directions given because it may not be accurate anymore because of updates. Updates on maps may not actually drill down to updates in the algorithm used by the program.

As long as the map in the GPS device is updated, you will be surprised how much detail you can get from the GPS device about the road networks and the places of interests listed inside.

As for relying on it, I would rather have a GPS that is 90% accurate than being 100% lost in a place you haven't been to before.

[StraightSix]

For tsikoteers in Europe, may libreng satnav software ...

You can download and use the full version of Navigon MobileNavigator 7 for free on a 30-day trial run.

http://www.navigon.com/site/uk/en/pr...igon-website-1

- It works on mobile devices that run on Symbian S60 3rd or Windows Mobile.
- It has detailed maps for the whole of Europe including Russia.
- It supports TTS (Text-To-Speech) for spoken street names.
- Reality View for highway junction signs and lane infos.
- It has 3D landmarks and buildings.
- Speed warnings based on the type of road.
- TMC (Traffic Message Channel) support for hardware-equipped devices.

The website lists only a few compatible devices with built-in GPS receivers, but I'm sure it'll work on more ... I've got 5 different external GPS receivers and it worked on all of them.

* If you don't have data subscription, better be within WiFi range whenever you start the app ... because it connects to the Navigon server for verification whenever you start on trial mode. No data connection is needed though when the app is already running.