Sony NV-U50 Sat Nav £99 (or £89 with code) - More than 10 in stock again!

zappomatic

i got one from Peter Jones today (last one) - has the 1.06 software, allows full postcode search and includes Belgium and Northern France.

Beachy

I managed to get one of these units and it appears to be well made and comes with all the accessories including a case, and mains charger which are handy. The windscreen mount is also easy to adjust and fixes to the screen securely.
The NV-U50 allows me to concentrate on my driving rather than worrying about getting lost and the speed camera plug-in from SCDB works well.
Overall for £92.95 delivered I would say that this a very cheap price for Sat Nav, probably not as good as my friend's TomTom One but at least £70 cheaper! Having the maps of northern France and Belgium is a bonus too, handy for the occasional day trip or holiday.

The unit has locked up a couple of times and I have had to reset it by pressing a pen nib into the hole underneath and also when the battery indicator indicates two thirds charged a message pops up from time to time saying that the battery is low even though there is enough charge remaining for another three hours use.
Has anyone else experienced these problems with theirs?

roony

Beachy, how easy was it to put the speed camers on? I tried at the weekend to use the method at Pocket GPS world forums..
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=38750
...but keep getting an error message and can't figure out where i've !!!!!!ed up. If SCDB is easier i'll go down that route, or wait for Sony to release and official download.

zja10

hi, when you go to scdb, do you have to pay the €9.95?

or is there a free way of getting the database?

roony

From what i gather you register for free, then pay the €9.95 to gain 1 years access to download anything from the site.

Beachy

roony wrote:

Beachy, how easy was it to put the speed camers on? I tried at the weekend to use the method at Pocket GPS world forums..
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=38750
...but keep getting an error message and can't figure out where i've !!!!!!ed up. If SCDB is easier i'll go down that route, or wait for Sony to release and official download.

It was pretty easy apart from the installation programme being in German! Takes about five minutes, you download the zip file then extract all the files and then run the setup file while the unit is connected to your PC via Active Sync. The procedure on pocketgpsworld looks a bit too complicated for me!

It's free to register and download the Speedlimit plugin which is dated 15th August 2006. If you want to update the database the cost is 9.95 euros per year but I haven't done that yet as I am testing the functionality of the programme. So far so good - it has pointed out the fixed cameras that I am aware of in my area and also traffic light cameras that I did not know about.
It chimes well in advance of the camera and displays the speed limit and counts down the distance to the camera in metres.

However if I have to reset the unit the Speedlimit plugin is removed and has to be reinstalled. Hopefully Sony will release an official download soon and maybe a firmware update to stop the unit crashing!

Beachy

What a bummer - my unit will not power on even though it has been on charge all morning

It may be faulty and that is why I have had problems with it locking up and the battery low warning for no reason. Problem is as it was a clearance bargain I doubt whether JL will have any replacements in stock :doh:

zappomatic

Beachy wrote:

What a bummer - my unit will not power on even though it has been on charge all morning

It may be faulty and that is why I have had problems with it locking up and the battery low warning for no reason. Problem is as it was a clearance bargain I doubt whether JL will have any replacements in stock :doh:

It sounds silly but have you checked the master power switch on the bottom of the unit? The button on the top is just a standby button. Also try the reset button.

If you're worried about John Lewis not being able to replace it you could insist it is sent to Sony, or you could try Sony direct for a swap.

Mine's been good so far but did once tell me to continue following the road for 3025 miles! Err....?

zappomatic

As of this morning, in stock at: Brent Cross (3), Kingston (3), Reading
(1), Southampton (2), Watford (2), Newcastle (1), Sheffield (1), Liverpool
(2), Aberdeen (3), and Norwich (1)

roony

Beachy, thanks. Ive installed the speed camera SCDB and it's great. If you look at their site you have other options to paying for the access to updates. if you put a link from your website to theirs they give you access for free. Most poeple have free web space, as i do so i thought i would try my luck by simply posting their link in my web space as technically this fits their terms

sure enough, the day after i uploaded it they sent me an email saying i had full access to all downloads. it really was just a page with the link to SCDB on it and nothing else.