Sender: Eric Alan Durant From: Eric Alan Durant Subject: Re: street pilot Newsgroups: sci.geo.satellite-nav References: <1wLi7.30112$Ki1.2605710@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net> Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor User-Agent: tin/1.4.5-20010409 ("One More Nightmare") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.8 (sun4u)) Lines: 35 Message-ID: Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 15:20:39 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.213.42.164 X-Trace: srvr1.engin.umich.edu 999012039 141.213.42.164 (Tue, 28 Aug 2001 11:20:39 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 11:20:39 EDT I bought one in August, 1998 and have been happily using it, mainly in my car, ever since. I used a velcro patch to attach the mounting bracket to the dashboard -- that works very well. With the backlight on, the screen is readable in most conditions. If you're going to be using it primarily in a car with a 12 V cable, you might want to consider the color version. I've read that it drains batteries quickly, but it should be good for car use. When I bought my SP, I bought a couple of MetroGuide cartridges for the areas I wanted, but, today, the better (only?) way to go is probably to buy the MetroGuide CD/cartridge combo if you want detailed maps (and Garmin has added automatic routing in the latest version). The 16 MB cartridge is a good size since you can, generally, load 2 large metropolitan areas onto it. If you get the MetroGuide CD, you might also want to get the combination 12 V and data cable. My main complaint is that, even when set to relatively low detail, the processor has trouble keeping up with a combination of high zoom (1/4 mi scale or closer) and a dense metro area (when using the MetroGuide, not the basemap). I especially have trouble in downtown Detroit -- the SP often has to crunch for about 30 seconds before it can draw the map. That being said, it doesn't slow down nearly as much in downtown Milwaukee or Minneapolis. I think they do very well for ease of use while driving. I mainly find myself using 2 buttons for zoom in/out and another 2 to cycle through the map/route/trip computer screens. As for accuracy (snapping to the right road on the MetroGuide map), it has always been good, but has been near perfect since SA has been turned off. Of course, you lose the signals in long tunnels, but reacquisition is pretty quick. -- Eric http://www.edurant.com/