Buying a GPS? A Laanecoorie follow-up

Hi everyone. At the recent Laanecoorie gathering I was asked to provide some guidance for the purchase of a GPS from Ebay.
Searching for ‘GPS 7” under ‘all categories’ will get close to 2,000 responses. You can search through this listing, or refine your search (select ‘GPS’ from Categories list on lefthand side and reduce your listing to about 500 choices).

There are a variety of types of GPS available on Ebay. There are units that fit into your dash to replace your CD/DVD/Radio player (either single or double DIN), and there are units that look like an Apple tablet and attach to your windscreen using a suction cup gadget. These last ones are the ones we are looking for. The single and double DIN units are fine, but most people will be looking for an add-on GPS, not a dash replacement unit.

What you need to look for in a windscreen unit is:
• Operating system is Windows CE 5.0 or 6.0 (preferred)
• Screen resolution is 800 x 480
• Internal memory is 128Mb (or better)
• Tf card (Micro SD card) slot is good for at least 4Gb card

There are Australian suppliers, as well as the Hong Kong and Chinese suppliers, that offer a variety of warranties (up to two years), as well as add-ons like sunshades, free map upgrades, reversing cameras etc. (Some do, and some don’t offer a Micro SD card as part of the package. I prefer to buy these cards separately, as I want to get high quality, name brand product.) All this at a range of prices that seem to start at about $70 and upwards (including delivery).

Next, the software. Go to the OziExplorer site and read about the OziExplorer CE product. You can download it for free, but there will be limitations on its useability. Buying the full PC software as well as OziExplorer CE will allow you to scan and calibrate your own maps.
Lastly, maps. You should buy topographical maps which are set up for OziExplorer CE , and the seller will advise this in their advertisements. A search of Ebay for topo Australian maps should get you several suppliers of DVD’s of maps, though some of the suppliers only appear occasionally. Look for the highest level of detail in your maps, ie 25,000:1, or 50,000:1 rather than 250,000:1 which is too broad a level to contain the detail we are looking for. I have seen DVD’s of all the Victorian topo maps available on Ebay from $17 to $30.

In summary, these are the steps you need to follow:
• Buy the GPS unit from Ebay
• Download OziExplorer CE onto your computer
• Buy your preferred map DVD from Ebay
• Load OziExplorer CE software onto your GPS memory or TF card
• Load your maps onto your GPS memory or TF card
• Mount the unit in the car so the inbuilt aerial can ‘see’ the sky, ie under the windscreen glass somewhere on top of the dashboard, plug into your 12v power supply in the car, and away you go.

Be aware that the normal GPS software (probably IGO8) will run by default, and you will need to know how to switch the GPS software over to OziExplorer.

So now you should have the best of both worlds, a very capable street navigation software, and OziExplorer for the off road work. You will know exactly where you are lost!

Cheers Desertgeorge

Thanks Desertgeorge,
It was an interesting presentation on Sat. night , lots of imfo.and well presented and I'm glad you have left us notes etc of all the guff we need to follow up on. I'll cerntainly be looking into it all.

Thanks again George.
John Goldanfish

Hi George,

7" unit just arrived, so now its time to play

Peter

Ipad and VMS ........ problem solved

mariner3800 wrote:Hi George,

7" unit just arrived, so now its time to play

Peter

I have ordered one of the Chinese 7" units as well, about a week ago.. Should be here soon and then I will have some fun fiddling with it for a while.

What are you going to use yours for, I guess the first thing would be to purchase oziexplorer ce and go from there.

Hi Bob,

I have mine up and running ( sort of )

I purchased Ozexplorer CE and loaded that and all was good.

Then I had trouble finding maps and waisted $50 on a set of state maps at 250,000 : 1. DON'T BY THESE MAPS AS THEY DO NOT GIVE YOU THE DETAIL, I should have read George's post more closely???

I HAVE JUST ORDERED NEW MAPS from ebay

Search Victorian digital maps and you will find a Vic map for $17 at a scale of 25,000 to 1. If you search the sellers other items you will see he also has a heap of maps for $40, which may be worth purchasing as you get the Vic map included??

I'll let you know how I go when the map turns up

Peter

That is good to know, I'll have a search for the digital maps at 25,000 they should be fairly good.

I have oziexplorer ce and a range of maps already, no gps yet though. I hope it arrives next week

What nav system does yours use, Igo 8.3?

I am a bit of a collector of things and there are a lot of tools available on one of the forums for these Chinese gps units.

http://www.austech.info/gps/ lots of good info.

Hi Bob.

Yes it has IGO8 and seems to do everything I need at this stage. I have a Navman my 75 as well and the IGO maps seem to be just as good.

I will let you know when the 25,000 to 1 maps turn up.

Peter
Marniner3800

I recently purchased a Chinees GPS 7” with Wince after seeing Desert Georges demo at Laanecoorie, I also purchased an OzieExplorer calibrated Vic Topo map off Ebay and loaded it onto OzieExplorer CE, but I was wondering if there is a way to reduce the size of the map file, its in Jpg format and quite large, the GPS has an 8gig TF card so its not a real issue at the moment.

I have also calibrated another map in OzieExplorer which I have not loaded onto Ozie CE yet that I think will work ok, but not sure how I will go calibrating my John Tully maps due to his different GPS Coordinates.

Cheers
GolenSlumbers

Maps Sources - This one is fairly good http://users.cdi.com.au/~johnc/4wd_links.htm

There is a good section with ozf2 maps for oziexplorer (Vic)

Have not downloaded yet as I'm nearly out of downloads for the month

Thanks for the link to the maps Crocky111, they look good,
I will download there Vic maps tommorrow when I get home,

BTW Crocky 111, if your out of down load for the month pm me your addres and i will post you the download on CD.

Cheers

GoldenSlumbers

Hi Goldenslumbers,

No problems, I can wait..

I did manage to grab a few this morning and they are pretty good. I mainly got the ones around Maryborough as I want to get up around there sometime soon.

Still looking for other links as well

mariner3800 wrote:Hi Bob.

I will let you know when the 25,000 to 1 maps turn up.

Peter
Marniner3800

Did your maps arrive yet Peter..

I ordered some this morning too, 25,000 to 1 is too good to pass up and at $17 it has to be a bargain.

Gday guys
coming in on the end of this excellent post

Was wondering if the link was available for where to buy Vic. maps , 25000:1 @ $17

It does seem like a great deal

Many Thanks

Hi ttrash,
I got mine from ebay $19.95 plus delivery, the CD i received contains one map of vic in ozf3 format,

link below
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Victoria-Topographic-maps-OziExplorer-Off-Road-GPS-/260935877930?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cc0fd852a

Golden slumbers
Many Thanks for posting that link
very helpful

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Victorian-Digital-Topographic-maps-Oziexplorer-DVD-/300734604148?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item46052de374#ht_500wt_922

Was where mine came from, $17.00 and $5.00 postage...

Thanks very much Bob

Hi Crock111,

Sorry have not checked this area for a while.

Map arrived and is loaded OK.

The 1:25000 is the way to go, good detail. Now I have to learn how to use all the functions of the GPS, but all looks very good.

Peter

PS thanks George for all your help

Peter

Hi Peter,

I ordered the same maps and you were right, they are the way to go...

I have been fiddling with primo2 and I like it better than the igo..

Detrackozi has provided a launchpad with menu options for car nav and ozi and it works good..

Thanks to both of them...

Hi Bob,

CN you explain what you mean by a " launch pad"????

Thanks

Peter

Hi Peter,

Have a look in the next message thread, you will see the messages that Detrackozi has been writing and the start of it all

He has personalized mine!

and if you ask him I am sure he would be obliging

He has done one for George too....

this is how mine looks now, it is a modified pez menu...



I kind of like the Primo for the car, the igo8 is just in case

The oziexplorer works real good too...

Hi Bob

Your new screen looks great. I'm hoping Detrackozi will send me a copy of the file, but I have a lot of problems getting sent messages out of the oOutbox into the Sent box, so he never hears from me.

Peter, (Mariner 3800) any management suggestions what I might be doing wrong?

Cheers George

BTW Happy birthday Peter

Cheers George

Hi Crocky, I really like the menu that you have. Is that something that Detr... Made for you or is it freely available? If so, where? Also what is Primo as mine has Igo8 and I've loaded OziExplorer but I don't know of this Primo.
Cheers

The primo is another igo product...

Have a squiz at http://fixmygps.info/forum/showthread.php?tid=2517

Lots of really good info and help too...

You will see where I asked for help with a launchpad....