LPG & SatNav

[lp24]

Just got back from a trip to Devon. We bought the SatNav to find LPG and I wouldn't have been without it. If you're going for LPG get a SatNav that'll allow you to add POIs for LPG stations (and other things!)

Les

[ermie571]

or do what I did....and found a POI converter on the web...free download...converts all major POI files. I have autoroute - and converted the tomtom LPG POI into a format that autoroute could import.

chuffed
Em
x

[mikey9]

Having worked with maps and mapping data for the last 20 years - I have avoided getting a sat nav.

The big issue for me is lack of currency of the data (my daily job is updating mapping data at the Council oop in the Highlands and I know how many changes we make per day to addresses, road layouts etc.). This information takes anything from 6 months to several years to get into the databases held by NAVTEQ and TELEATLAS (all your Sat Nav road network data comes from them). Then YOU have to apply updates (you do pay for /and apply updates don't you...?) making another 6 months + delay depending on how quick you are off the mark.

My view has always been - I can pay 3.99 for a road atlas every couple of years - and yes it is out of date before I buy it - but:
It only cost £3.99
No-one breaks into cars to nick your road atlas
It doesn't drain your battery
You can light a fire with it if it's cold
I can read a map! - It isn't that difficult

Downsides are the detail (or lack of it) when looking for obscurely named LPG stations in strange towns.........so I will probably give in having found the use for which Sat Navs were intended.

I want a sub £80 sat nav with cheap euro coverage - usb download facility for POI stuff - and I will likely ONLY use it for finding LPG stations.

Any suggestions to save me researching it into it then finding you long term users have all found the downsides with the one I buy

[ding-dang-dhu]

My view has always been - I can pay 3.99 for a road atlas every couple of years - and yes it is out of date before I buy it - but:
It only cost £3.99
No-one breaks into cars to nick your road atlas
It doesn't drain your battery
You can light a fire with it if it's cold
I can read a map! - It isn't that difficult

That's my view on Sat's but when I had a lpg jeep, I did find it a pain having to find stations selling it when on a trip. Trusting the signs outside the station to tell me if they sell it or not. Things have moved on there I suppose in the last few years.

So I can see the only real use I would have for one is for lpg stations.

And anyway Mike you have guys breaking into your van for a sleep, how did that pan out by the way?

[Mocki]

major roads and fuel stations dont change that often, and its far better to use a sat nav and find fuel than a 3.99 map and not find it and have to use the expensive stuff..... two tanks fulls and its paid or the GPS anyway......

only last week someone reported that there were no LPG stations on the M5, but there are loads, the GPS paid or its self in one trip, i we had had the same paper data that the man who said there were not any had.

Updates of the LPG poi's are free and up to date within a month - n ot everyone is as slow as local authoritys!

[Ian Hulley]

I was a confirmed satnav skeptic BUT even having driven vans and a lorry for years I got completely lost in South Birmingham having been diverted off the M42 and had to navigate my way out using the sun (shut up ... it's not funny ) 12 noon ..... drive with the sun behind me and turn right

SO work bought me a satnav and it's brilliant, especially with all the POIs Mocki added and the Aires Mr T kindly donated.

Ian.

[R0B]

and i thought folks bought it for the pics of bare ladies...

had to navigate my way out using the sun

[kathyshack]

anyone got a garmin lpg poi they fancy sharing with me?
thanks in advance
kathy

[R0B]

kathy have you tried these..
http://www.lpgmap.co.uk/download.php
http://maft.co.uk/garmin/download.htm
http://www.autogas.ltd.uk/download-area/poi/

[kathyshack]

cheers rob!

[lp24]

This site's good for POIs
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=POIs

I had my doubts about satnav for general navigation. I work for a highway authority and get the complaints about people using stupid routes due to their unswerving belief that the satnav knows best! My favourites are those who get routed down the old donkey path by the 199 steps in Whitby (ignoring all the signs!) It's VERY steep !!!!!

[mikey9]

Updates of the LPG poi's are free and up to date within a month - n ot everyone is as slow as local authoritys!

...ok - I take your dig in the manner it was intended

POI data I used to sell for a well known mapping agency - I know how they pull together a range of datasets to create a lot of data - millions of points - volume doesn't make it accurate tho. The only real way to get accurate (current and correctly located) is on the ground visits - very regularly and no-one can afford to do that - across the whole of the UK.

The LPG POI data is I suspect much better as you suggest it doesn't change very often and it is updated by users (who have a vested interest in it being good!). Also the number of stations is relatively limited - a few thousand points.

We update addresses when changes are reported/requested (i.e new or changed addresses) we name new streets before they are constructed. We then communicate this to emergency services etc. but the sat nav operators collect this (independently) from on ground visits.

We like lp24 get the complaints when the (privately owned) sat nav operators and their (sometimes incompetent - do they not look out of the front window when they are driving:shock:) users get it badly wrong. We have a right good laugh at them tho.....

...had to navigate my way out using the sun

- been there on the M6 - big accident - got off just in time - no page in atlas! - M6 runs North South - I want to go North - sun behind me (it was midday ish) - keep driving ...... it works of a fashion........

ANyhow-s whay kit have you all got.....?

[Mocki]

by far the cheapest and most justifyable way to go is a pda or pda phone and tomtom 6 .

the easiest is the tomtom or garmin cheapos from halfwits or alike, but then they are ONLY a gps, and nothing else.......

personally i couldnt justify the money on something that would only do the one job, so i went for a pDa, and then a pda phone, with a bluetooth gps receiver... works a treat, and isnt a security risk, as it is my phone, i do take it with me everywhere, so no need to smash the window, it isnt there!

as or the "hard of thinking " beleiving every instruction , half of it must be urban myth, and / or tabloid journos, like the recent cabby driving down a river in norfolk, which turned out to be a road that followed a river bed as a ford, which in the dry season is no more than 6" deep......reported by the press as if he drove into the river becaused the gps told him to ......

[mikey9]

Gonna have to be the cheapo option for me as I won't even fork out for my own mobile....never mind a pda or the rest. I have been ther over the last few years but only when the company were picking up the tab. useful to realise that I don't really need one.

So - am off to look at TomTOm and Garmin cheapos.

Tis very funny following drivers on the A9 heading South out of Inverness with illuminated screen telling them to go straight on - they are still following the same 100 miles later at Perth - ther is only 1 bliddy road - how much navigating does it need

[lp24]

Started with a Binatone x350 but couldn't load POIs so I passed it on to my son and got the TomTom Go720. Brilliant

Les