RE: Satnav comes to Road Angel
Discussion
Being one of the few who have seen the new Road Angel Navigator in action - it's pretty impressive
The Tom Toms are really bulky in comparisson and I know the Camera information has been spot on for the last 3 years since I've had a Classic Road Angel
Yet to buy one - but no doubt I'll get one soon - personally - just bloody handy to have if your going to a new biz meeting and as previously mentioned, one less thing to worry about
www.blackspot.com
groucho said:
I wonder if they would let me trade in my RA Classic in part exchange? When I was at the GFoS last year, there was some company there selling all of these gizmos, the bloke in the stall said he would give me £200 for my RA Classic if I would buy the RA2 at £400.
yep - think there is an exchange with Intranetic and even road angel direct
cerby4.5 said:
Why does anyone need SatNav, Can't they read a map??????
IMHO its a gadget for stupid people who should not really be in control of a vehicle anyway!
It came as a std feature in my 2004 Jeep, first thing I did was take it out and put a decent Alpine head unit in its place!!
cerby4.5 said:
As I learnt in the Army: Planning & Preparation Prevent Piss-Poor Performance!!
What did the MoD have to say about you stripping the latest military navigation kit out of your jeep and putting in ICE?!?!?!
Good job you weren't in charge of anything more sophisticated like a tank or a missile.
Never mind an air or sea craft!
In response to someone's question earlier in this thread, you can actually buy a cable that allows you to connect the road angel (as a GPS receiver)to a pocket pc running tom tom. Which means you dont need a separate GPS unit for the satnav. Link is here https://www1.securesiteserver.co.uk/holux/catalogue/index.php?cPath=41&osCsid=03ee0a112326ea48f2d8807fb610e7d1
You can also get a nifty bluetooth dongle for the road angel from the same site.
You can also get a nifty bluetooth dongle for the road angel from the same site.
andyps,
The cable you are after is manufactured by Holux (Totalpda are a distributor- I tried them first and will not again!), Holux
Having successfully lost a road angel I have one of these cable spare, it connects from the RA2 to an Ipaq 39 series (plus others), if its compatible with your kit and your interested let me know - £30 new so how’s £15 sound?
Cheers,
Steve
The cable you are after is manufactured by Holux (Totalpda are a distributor- I tried them first and will not again!), Holux
Having successfully lost a road angel I have one of these cable spare, it connects from the RA2 to an Ipaq 39 series (plus others), if its compatible with your kit and your interested let me know - £30 new so how’s £15 sound?
Cheers,
Steve
If you have a smart mobile phone (i.e. Nokia 6600) the whole lot can be done for about 150 credits (Bluetooth adaptor, software, memory card etc)
www.pocketgps.co has all the reviews etc
www.pocketgps.co has all the reviews etc
I had a Road Angel classic for over a year. I did look at connecting the RA to a PDA, but the custom cable and other bits made it an expensive solution. About 9 months ago I sold it on ebay, raising more than enough cash to get TomTom mobile for my phone.
Road Angel had a better database of speed cameras, a simple user interface and loud alarm help save your license. However, it is expensive for what it is - I paid £400 for the device, and a lifetime subscription to the speed camera database costs another £100 or so.
The TomTom is outstanding for navigation, and at only £175 (plus phone) is a bargain. I have regularly applied pocketgps.co.uk's free speed camera database, but find it is not as accurate as RA: it has more false negatives and more false positives. Also, the speaker on my phone isn't as loud as the old road angel, and the alerts are not always audible over the stereo (which is usually cranked up to overcome my MR2's engine and road noise. This means it is not as good at protecting your license from the scameras.
I drive 30,000 miles a year and the TomTom saves time and stress. When I'm driving I can concentrate fully on the road, even to the extent of paying only passing attention to signposts. It is also useful on frequently travelled routes to know my ETA and distance to the next turning - 2 useful bits of info that TomTom tells you at a glance.
TomTom now offer a subscription service for speed camera data which can be used with the latest versions of their products. I cannot comment on the reliability of this because I haven't tried it, but it may be better than the free pocketgps database.
TTM is one of the cheapest navigation solutions, mainly because it uses a mobile phone and a bluetooth GPS. The phone part of this brings the cost right down to better than free - I have an Orange C500 that came with £210 cashback with a year's contract, and the TTM cost only £175 on top. The disadvantage to this is that you get a small screen when compared with a GO or PDA solution, but I have found that isn't too important. As you get spoken directions, the information on the screen is rarely critical.
Using a phone is not only cheap but makes the system more portable and therefore more secure - when you get out of your car you will always take your telephone with you, but would you always pack your stick-on nav solution in the glovebox?
Another benefit of using a phone is that you can buy a subscription to live traffic information (downloaded over the phone's GPRS connection), which TTM can use to reroute you around traffic jams as they form. Clever stuff, but this costs about £6 per month on top of the GPRS charges. So far I've not bothered, as I doubt the service would help me avoid £6 per month in fuel / time sitting in jams.
So, if you're on a budget (like me), TomTom mobile is ace. If you have 9 points already and want to invest to protect your license, consider splashing on the Road Angel. It is unlikely that the new Road Angel will be as good as TomTom at navigating, but it will probably be better at speed camera warnings.
Road Angel had a better database of speed cameras, a simple user interface and loud alarm help save your license. However, it is expensive for what it is - I paid £400 for the device, and a lifetime subscription to the speed camera database costs another £100 or so.
The TomTom is outstanding for navigation, and at only £175 (plus phone) is a bargain. I have regularly applied pocketgps.co.uk's free speed camera database, but find it is not as accurate as RA: it has more false negatives and more false positives. Also, the speaker on my phone isn't as loud as the old road angel, and the alerts are not always audible over the stereo (which is usually cranked up to overcome my MR2's engine and road noise
. This means it is not as good at protecting your license from the scameras. I drive 30,000 miles a year and the TomTom saves time and stress. When I'm driving I can concentrate fully on the road, even to the extent of paying only passing attention to signposts. It is also useful on frequently travelled routes to know my ETA and distance to the next turning - 2 useful bits of info that TomTom tells you at a glance.
TomTom now offer a subscription service for speed camera data which can be used with the latest versions of their products. I cannot comment on the reliability of this because I haven't tried it, but it may be better than the free pocketgps database.
TTM is one of the cheapest navigation solutions, mainly because it uses a mobile phone and a bluetooth GPS. The phone part of this brings the cost right down to better than free - I have an Orange C500 that came with £210 cashback with a year's contract, and the TTM cost only £175 on top. The disadvantage to this is that you get a small screen when compared with a GO or PDA solution, but I have found that isn't too important. As you get spoken directions, the information on the screen is rarely critical.
Using a phone is not only cheap but makes the system more portable and therefore more secure - when you get out of your car you will always take your telephone with you, but would you always pack your stick-on nav solution in the glovebox?
Another benefit of using a phone is that you can buy a subscription to live traffic information (downloaded over the phone's GPRS connection), which TTM can use to reroute you around traffic jams as they form. Clever stuff, but this costs about £6 per month on top of the GPRS charges. So far I've not bothered, as I doubt the service would help me avoid £6 per month in fuel / time sitting in jams.
So, if you're on a budget (like me), TomTom mobile is ace. If you have 9 points already and want to invest to protect your license, consider splashing on the Road Angel. It is unlikely that the new Road Angel will be as good as TomTom at navigating, but it will probably be better at speed camera warnings.
ledaig said:
andyps,
The cable you are after is manufactured by Holux (Totalpda are a distributor- I tried them first and will not again!), Holux
Having successfully lost a road angel I have one of these cable spare, it connects from the RA2 to an Ipaq 39 series (plus others), if its compatible with your kit and your interested let me know - £30 new so how’s £15 sound?
Cheers,
Steve
Thanks Steve,
Unfortunately your cable probably won't work for me - I have a classic Road Angel and a Dell Axim x50v which is not listed on the Holux website - I will call them and ask if they can help.
Thanks for the other suggestions too.
Andy
>> Edited by andyps on Monday 15th August 16:11
i have had one of these on order for the past 4 months and i should be getting it next week.
Its just what i have been waiting for ,as i don't want my dash cluttered up with lots of units. I also like the way it has an internal battery so you can walk around with the unit as well as in the car. Well done Blackspot for the road angel navigator, I have pre ordered mine with a companty called speed detectors uk as i bought my road angel 2 from them when they first came out over a year ago. i think the site is www.speed-detectors.co.uk give them a try there very helpful.
Its just what i have been waiting for ,as i don't want my dash cluttered up with lots of units. I also like the way it has an internal battery so you can walk around with the unit as well as in the car. Well done Blackspot for the road angel navigator, I have pre ordered mine with a companty called speed detectors uk as i bought my road angel 2 from them when they first came out over a year ago. i think the site is www.speed-detectors.co.uk give them a try there very helpful.
just to let you know speed detectors (www.speed-detectors.co.uk) rang me today and there in stock...yip eeeee should have it on sat 20/08/05 so i will post a review after i have tried it over the weekend, i'm well happy ;-)
cerby4.5 said:
Why does anyone need SatNav, Can't they read a
IMHO its a gadget for stupid people who should not really be in control of a vehicle anyway!
It came as a std feature in my 2004 Jeep, first thing I did was take it out and put a decent Alpine head unit in its place!!
cerby4.5 said:
As I learnt in the Army: Planning & Preparation Prevent Piss-Poor Performance!!
Q: Are you an old person?
Q: Do you have a TV or do you still listen to your “transistor radio”?
Q: Are you aware that the military use such devices, or were you really just in the TA? PDA’s etc are also used with OS maps, and can save immense time on any outdoor pursuit.
Q Are you aware that your name is cerby4.5 and your car is a chimaera? Should it be herby4.5…?
cerby4.5 said:
Why does anyone need SatNav, Can't they read a
Actually, reading a map is totally impractical in my car (but then so is shopping, commuting, and going out somewhere nice for the evening)
Something like this would save a lot of stress in an Atom - especially if you wanted to go the pretty way!
Gassing Station | In-Car Electronics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff