GPS for PDA - Maps of Ireland?

kuroino

not sure if it is the right forum for this question.

i'm looking for gps add-on for f-s pocket loox 720. both hardware and mapping/routing software. considering tom tom navigator 3 vs 5, but not sure which one contains detailed enough map of ireland.

does anybody use it here?

another question: does anybody sell this stuff in dublin? it would be much nicer to look at it before buying it, than to order it from uk (as usual).

Villain

I know CoPilot has excellent mapping of Ireland very detailed especially dublin, but I haven't used any others so can't compare.

trap4

The dearth of good GPS mapping for Ireland has led to the setting up of a volunteer project called OpenEir which aims to produce an open source map of Ireland. We also have a Yahoo! Group here. Its early days yet but interest is picking up.

kuroino

thank you guys.
diggin out the issue, i discovered that destinator pm has a version uk & ireland, which seems to have a good cover for ireland.

the garmin's one from europe select package is not bad either. they have it online, it even depicts my estate, which is not shown on any printed maps

trap, the project is interesting, but i did not get my head around it yet.

btw, i've found another nice peace of software - oziexplorer, which allows to bind any map represented as a set of raster images (say, you can scan a road atlas) to gps coordinates, switching from one image to another as you progress through the terrain

skearon

kuroino wrote:

not sure if it is the right forum for this question.

i'm looking for gps add-on for f-s pocket loox 720. both hardware and mapping/routing software. considering tom tom navigator 3 vs 5, but not sure which one contains detailed enough map of ireland.

does anybody use it here?

another question: does anybody sell this stuff in dublin? it would be much nicer to look at it before buying it, than to order it from uk (as usual).

I checked quite a few programs last Christmas and ended up getting CoPilot, it is very good, I also have it Loox 720 and it works well

As I already had a bluetooth gps I just got the software and a car mount from Brodit, however CoPilot also comes as a package with mount and gps.

In September Version 6 with newer maps is due, hopefully that will include Ashford/Rathnew bypass on N11 and perhaps new M50 section

jkb_dub

Regarding Tomtom, version 5 only has improvements for N. Ireland as far as i know from their support team.. TT3 is as good as useless for Ireland.. I have TT3 and ordered the upgrade simply as I travel a lot on the continent.... and one day I'm sure they'll have a decent map.. by that time my ipaq will be obselete

Tomtom does have the major roads of europe map but as we don't have many "major" roads it's not the best..

Ken

BigMoose

I have found Mapopolis quite good for Ireland - I had a look at Tomtom which was next to useless in comparison. Not tried the others mentioned here. Anyone know how they compare to Mapopolis? They are over due new maps for Western Europe (rumours that they would be released in March but no sign yet).

kuroino

spoke to one guy, who deals with gps/navigation/tracking systems professionally (as a software developer). he said the best maps are in destinator.

from the hardware perspective, i went for sysonchip cf device. have not received it yet though, so could not provide any feedback so far

woody

BigMoose wrote:

I have found Mapopolis quite good for Ireland - I had a look at Tomtom which was next to useless in comparison. Not tried the others mentioned here. Anyone know how they compare to Mapopolis? They are over due new maps for Western Europe (rumours that they would be released in March but no sign yet).

I use mapopolis aswell but has no Northern Ireland Maps yet

kuroino

finally bought destinator 3 europe + uk + ireland. not bad for areas around dublin. went to blacksod, mayo last weekend. there is no such thing on this map only a single road going to nowhere

byrnefm

kuroino wrote:

finally bought destinator 3 europe + uk + ireland. not bad for areas around dublin. went to blacksod, mayo last weekend. there is no such thing on this map only a single road going to nowhere

Reminds me of looking up Google Maps online. According to it, my folks live 11 miles from the nearest road... and even Killybegs has yet to get a road going through it! :rolleyes:

BigEejit

Tomtom 5 has no irish maps available as far as I can see .... works quite well in the UK though (except for a annoying habit for taking you on small backroads sometimes - often far slower than a main road) the old Tomtom 3 that I had had the N22 down in Cork, Tomtom 5 had nothing .....

Dummy

Am using Navman on my Ipaq. Irish Mapping is terrible.

- The M1 ends at Dublin Airport.
- Once you leave Dublin, you are driving in unchartered territory.

As for the UK and Europe - It's brilliant. The Navman paid for itself a few weeks ago driving through the UK and France. It even negotiated Paris very well.

byrnefm

There's an article in the Irish Independent's Motors supplement today about satellite navigation for Ireland, that is, the lack of it! Apparently NavTeq are getting near to completing mapping out Ireland:

The biggest player in the provision of the digital DVD databases which are the core of such systems says it's on track to have the whole country digitised by the end of this year.

Navteq, a Chicago-based company ... [said] the end-2005 forecast made by its representitives here 18 months ago will be achieved, a spokesperson said this week.

I wonder how much their DVD will cost?

jkb_dub

BigEEjit, did you upgrade from the previous TomTom3 ?

With the upgrade to TT5 you get all the maps of Europe. If you install the UK Plus maps you will also get the major roads of Europe included in the same map (previously this was a separate map).

I checked the roads in Ireland, the new stretch of the M50 is included, and I can see the N22. There do also seem to be improvements around city centres. It's still way off what it should be.

S2000

have a look at www.CarWatch.ie for mapping software and GPS devices for Ireland.

Let me know if I can help you with anything.

Adrian