The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

jk0

This is bad:


I think I mentioned I can't use a mobile phone, so still rely on a satnav to take me anywhere new. I always try to buy one with 'lifetime updates' of maps, traffic cameras etc.


However, 'lifetime' is rather a loose term. Both my first Tomtom & my present Garmin still work. However they can (deliberately it seems) no longer connect to the supplier for updates. I've been fiddling with my Garmin for days, but it's gone the same way. It spent 75% of a recent trip back from Bristol telling me it was 'searching for satellites'.



Presumably they have to download new satellite positions from time to time?


I've just ordered another Tomtom. I guess we'll see how long it is till that is rendered useless.

GreyQueen

I spend a couple of ££ at The W0rks every few years on an AA road atlas. Works brilliantly for me.


Time was, before the tech boom, that drivers managed to find their way all over this country (and all over the world) by such simple analogue means as paper map books and road signs. Time to go back to the older, simpler ways and tell these manufacturer-shysters to take a long walk off a short pier?

jk0

Thanks GQ. Nice to see you.


Maps would be brilliant if I had a passenger who could read one. Mum & sister are useless at that!



Most of the time, I have no passenger at all, so that's why I need an electronic map reader. (Particularly in towns.)



Have you ever tried to find somewhere in Bristol? It's a nightmare.

DigForVictory

Owch, yes I remember both struggles with satnavs & the blinding yerwot of trying to get the A to Z cooperate with a One Way System.

Whatever you do, please do not try to drive at 25 mph with the A to Z on your lap - it makes cornering much trickier.

I fell on sat nav tech with rapture once it fell below £100 a unit as my work hauls me all over the place (I can be teaching in Belfast one week & Wales the next before going back to the day job based in Manchester & that sent me to Lancaster for a day last month...)

Started with a tomtom, replaced it when it died (condensation & repeated abuse), then husband opined I had backed the wrong horse & should be using a Garmin - at which I am currently holding a grudge as it's completely in the dark about a bridge over the Mersey let alone that you have to pay a toll. Driving on blue is bad for morale...

I reckon these devices have a reliable life of about 5 years but if you enjoy the raffle, you can get up to a decade of life (& longer if the cabling is treated gently.) The Tomtom I was especially fond of as you could download locations of interest (Cadw, Eng Heritage, Every Sainsburys, Morrisons, Asda etc) as well as fairly easily set Remember this place (for carparking in towns I visit less than five times a year).

I have and cherish my smartphone but will not use it as a satnav in part as it burns through the battery but also often doesn't update in time to say get off at the next junction on the roundabout. That is a massive risk to my health & wellbeing on the road & not one I will mess with!

I came with news, what was it? ah yes. Even Geordies Can Get The 'Flu. I was shocked & appalled to hear North East schools had been closed as local virus outbreaks were held to be risking the citizenry. From what I had seen & met of the North East I thought these souls were near immune to everything except old age & ethanol. (The article is clear that it's schoolchildren that are at risk, but also the potential vector.)

So please, if you have not already, give thought to a flu shot as part of your Advent preparations?

jk0

GF uses Waze on her smartphone which she swears by. Does that App work in your part of the world, DFV?


BTW, regarding Tomtom POI's, has anyone found a way of getting them to show EV chargers? The built in Tomtom in my electric car used to have them, but now mysteriously doesn't. There doesn't even seem to be an option to pay for that, which seems mad.

DigForVictory

Waze, eh? Aka Waze navigation and live traffic? Looks like my phone could download it, but I think I have to pay for it. Will consult teenage son taking driving lessons on which apps he’s met & what their owners reckon.

Personally, I like a custom gadget for some things, but I may try to get work to fund smart code on the official issue gear. They’re moving from pool cars to a short notice call from enterprise deal, and many cars have inbuilt tech. (As a techie, I have *both* a kindle and the app, but then I read to oxygenate the brain!)

Not knowing where the next charging point is sounds a deliberate e car maker gap in the tomtom market & thus I’d put money there’s a samizdat version somewhere, as that information is just too useful!

littlemoney

jk0 wrote: »

This is bad:


I think I mentioned I can't use a mobile phone, so still rely on a satnav to take me anywhere new. I always try to buy one with 'lifetime updates' of maps, traffic cameras etc.


However, 'lifetime' is rather a loose term. Both my first Tomtom & my present Garmin still work. However they can (deliberately it seems) no longer connect to the supplier for updates. I've been fiddling with my Garmin for days, but it's gone the same way. It spent 75% of a recent trip back from Bristol telling me it was 'searching for satellites'.



Presumably they have to download new satellite positions from time to time?


I've just ordered another Tomtom. I guess we'll see how long it is till that is rendered useless.

Satnavs don't have to download satellite positions. The only item to download is map or system updates. The unit send out signals to find the satellites. If you do an internet search for "sat nav not finding satellites" you will find various solutions to try. Hopefully you tried some of these options first.


When I asked how long lifetime updates was for, I was told it was for the lifetime that the unit was available.

thriftwizard

And what's wrong with a good old-fashioned Magical Mystery Tour?! Half of the nicest places I've found, I've found entirely by accident, mostly by missing signposts. I can understand that work-wise it might be vital to get from A to an unknown B as quickly as possible, but in your own time it's much more fun to travel hopefully!

Sometimes I have to travel to pop-up market venues I've never been to before, usually pretty early in the morning. The trouble with sat-navs is that most of them have evidently never been there either!

I do own one, which was given to me as a well-intended Christmas present. But I have no idea which of the Offsprings' cars it's currently in...

unrecordings

As I don't drive, I've traditionally been navigator, which with a very good sense of direction, i'm pretty good at on the hoof directions. I did also get lost in Bristol once though

GreyQueen

TW, I had a delightful sojourn up some lanes in West Sussex last summer when hacking across the wilds in pursuit of a Roman villa. Saw some beautiful things (and nearly got wiped out by a manic farmer type in a Landie, but that's a whole 'nother anecdote).


The proper way to said villa was barely better than the unothodox way we arrived, in terms of quality of roads/ driving, but I got to experience two routes instead of in/ out on the same one. I think the ability to think on your feet is a useful lifeskill to hone.