Satnav that works effectively in London

DKLS

Just had a trip in London, with a number of appointments in central London, and My Tom Tom One, kept spacking out on me, I dont know if it was poor signal due to high buildings, but very infuriating.

Any recommendations of a new Sat Nav that can cope with the London skyline? And I will pass the Tom Tom One to my mother.

lauren_1

I reckon your best bet is to abandon the car, grab a map, go by tube and 'shamefully' look like a tourist.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

What car do you own? Some windscreens are not entirely compatible with radio devices.

scbk

You can buy extra aerials for most sat nav aswell, might help improve the signal

vikingaero

First advice would be to resite the Tom Tom from the windscreen pillar to the centre of the windscreen.

Second. Some of the external aerials do help and have a magnetic base so that you can stick them on the roof of the car. It should stay on at City speeds.

Otherwise there is only one old portable sat nav unit that uses canbus input and I think one new one (possibly the Panasonic Strada) that uses the compass as a form of dead reckoning when the satellites are lost.

Other than that you need a fully installed unit that runs off the vehicles canbus. I have a VDO Dayton MS5000 that uses the canbus and it uses the speed pulse of the ABS system to gauge distance travelled and direction.

Loads of my friends complain of decent nav units losing signals in London and Paris. Even worse to be completely lost in a foreign City with nutty drivers. Even with nav I still carry maps.

ozvaldinho

The top of the range TomTom 920 has some extra technology designed to be able to continue tracking the movements where no signal is available, ie in tunnels or in built-up areas. Something about advanced motion sensors, you can read the blurb on the tomtom website. I did think about getting one as we do a lot of business in central london, but it was £399 last time I looked. The cheaper 720 has just been cut in price, so maybe the top of the range one has gone down too.
I'd be really interested if anyone has a 920 and used it in Central London

boatman

I'm not sure you'll find much difference in other gps units, they're all pretty similar to your TT ONE. The TT920 has EPT, it enables position information to continue to be calculated and displayed in areas where satellite signal has been lost such as tunnels, urban canyons etc. The technology utilises a solid state accelerometer and gyroscope that can calculate acceleration/deceleration and lateral movements. Also If you look for a unit with SiRF InstantfixII it may help, but it is really designed to give you a faster fix when your GPS has been off for a while, it isn't any more sensitive than your unit.
http://www.sirf.com/products/location2_services.html

There is the new SiRF Prima coming out but its too new for anybody to use it yet.
http://www.sirf.com/products/multifunction3.html

Remember that many manufacturers have new units coming out so prices will be all over the place, it may be worth waiting to buy.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

vikingaero wrote: »

First advice would be to resite the Tom Tom from the windscreen pillar to the centre of the windscreen.

Not a great idea if you value an unrestricted field of view. I know the police do, and back it up with fines.

DKLS

Thanks guys I might just try an additional aerial before I splash the cash on a placement.

Kaz2904

I never had problems with my garmin, nor did my Uncle. Both times driving through areas we don't know. Mine took me right through London from Dover when I got stuck on the motorway.
It steered me around France with no difficulties and I didn't lose the signal. It's great!

iluvmylexus

tomtom used to do an ariel that was a length of wire on the dash,that seemed to work well, you do need an ariel for satnavs in london , because of all the "canyons"