djambalawa
19th May 2009, 08:30 AM
Ok I bought a gps usb "mouse" for my wifes laptop and have downloaded the trial of OziExplorer to try it out. I don't have any good maps but for testing I used gmapmaker to convert a google map of Darwin to Ozi format (cool proggy - http://www.mgmaps.com/cache/gMapMaker-setup.exe - does google, MS, Yahoo and other maps and automatically makes .map files etc)
After some confusion with comm port settings etc I've got it all working.
I'm still a bit confused about some things - I'll read the manual etc over the next few days but these are some of my early impressions/questions... thanks in advance if you can clear them up for me...
By default it doesn't seem to show your position on maps... the "moving maps" feature almost seems an after-thought - I'm sure I'm missing the point here but isn't this the whole idea? ie to see yourself on the map etc? Took me quite a while to work out why I couldn't see my position on a map... had to go to the moving maps menu and tell it to start communicating with the gps...
Handy gps type things like speed, direction etc - is there a popup window or something that shows this in large print so a driver can see it?
I knew this wasn't a "navigator" system that directs you but I didn't realise it is just really looking at a paper map electronically (with waypoints possible etc I see) - which is still very cool - but when you need street navigation what program (PC - laptop) do peeps use? I did a google search and only came up with Travroute but there was no trial to download to see how it works?
Because of the above point I assume that oziexplorer is no good for determine distances etc as it would not automatically follow roads when calculating - unless you made overly complex waypoint paths?
Once I get this all working I'll look at getting a mini laptop like caverD3 and a touchscreen I'm thinking :)
After some confusion with comm port settings etc I've got it all working.
I'm still a bit confused about some things - I'll read the manual etc over the next few days but these are some of my early impressions/questions... thanks in advance if you can clear them up for me...
By default it doesn't seem to show your position on maps... the "moving maps" feature almost seems an after-thought - I'm sure I'm missing the point here but isn't this the whole idea? ie to see yourself on the map etc? Took me quite a while to work out why I couldn't see my position on a map... had to go to the moving maps menu and tell it to start communicating with the gps...
Handy gps type things like speed, direction etc - is there a popup window or something that shows this in large print so a driver can see it?
I knew this wasn't a "navigator" system that directs you but I didn't realise it is just really looking at a paper map electronically (with waypoints possible etc I see) - which is still very cool - but when you need street navigation what program (PC - laptop) do peeps use? I did a google search and only came up with Travroute but there was no trial to download to see how it works?
Because of the above point I assume that oziexplorer is no good for determine distances etc as it would not automatically follow roads when calculating - unless you made overly complex waypoint paths?
Once I get this all working I'll look at getting a mini laptop like caverD3 and a touchscreen I'm thinking :)