[RichardL]

After lunch, I can not wait fot the mountain pass so I drove off on my own. There was a dark silver Mini 3-5 minutes in front of me. I finally caught up and stopped behind it for 10 seconds to make sure they were ok because they stopped at road side.

The satelite navigation system in my mini always tried to pursue me drive along the main road. Maybe I didn't switch off the fast route option.
But during the drive in the mountains, it totally fall in sleep, and only a blank green with an arrow showing on the screen.

I thought it is a pity to miss this beautiful touring road in the navigation database, is there some way to input it by myself? Or where I can download a latest map?

Glad to have the female voice woke up when I turned on the main road. Soon I found another silver Mini with two girls on board. But after a traffic light in Bowral they disappeared...

[swamos]

Welcome to MINI2 Richard

I don't have satelite navigation so can't really offer any advice on this. Hopefully one of our sat nav equiped members may be able to comment on the coverage??

Steve

[warped]

Richard

You will find the limitation on the Sat Nav is the coverage of the map CD ... the coverage is near complete in most urban areas but much more limited in rural areas with the exception of major highways

Having done Kangaroo valley before the drive day this was not unexpected on my part, but I would guess this was your first trip in the MINI to a more remote location ... the GPS component still functions correctly just has no data to plot against, if you have the right map book you could use the long & lat to plot your own position

My understanding of Map CDs is that they are made by independent companies but would need to be supported by the underlying Sat Nav firmware in order to operate ... also you want a new Map CD you pay for it I think Tim (IML337) was quoted something in the order of $300-400 for this, but don't quote me

You can always scroll the map to where you are going ahead of time and check out the degree of coverage (recommend scrolling initially with low resolution scale 100km and then refine the resolution when you get to your area of interest) ... I have used this method for example to check what degree of coverage I can expect for our little tour down to Tassie in May of next year

On drive days given that some of the roads we are taking are not exactly main highway I would generally recommend following someone unless you are very clear where we are going ... the Sat Nav is a great aid but it isn't bullet proof ...

Cheers
Steve

[gazah]

now for my question... can you program a personalised route [like a drive-day] into the satnav? & if so, could you do it then email it to other members to follow also? if not on the factory satnav, maybe on after-market versions with a pc hook-up?

warped, did you get that pic... or did i crash your email server?!?

[warped]

Man some people like all the bells and whistles

It is not possible to program way points on the MINI Sat Nav nor any other standard Sat Nav that I am aware of ... I would suspect that some after market systems might have such a capability. If you wanted to go to a number of set points you could always program them in and add them to your address book for easy retrieval during the drive ...

There is nothing to stop the current system supporting that type of approach if they wanted to add the feature to the firmware ... personally I would never use it. I want to go from A to B I hate going to A to B via C and D ask my gf how many times she has asked me to take 'just a little detour' only to arrive early at B having never seen C or D

And yes got the picture Gazah thanks for that

[gazah]

yeah, but the feature would be nice for drive-days where the chosen route is not always the one the satnav unit opts for! we could even do away with reccy-sheets all together!

would've come in very handy on sunday, for some of us anyway!

[swamos]

Quote: Originally Posted by warped

Man some people like all the bells and whistles

It is not possible to program way points on the MINI Sat Nav nor any other standard Sat Nav that I am aware of ... I would suspect that some after market systems might have such a capability. If you wanted to go to a number of set points you could always program them in and add them to your address book for easy retrieval during the drive ...

There is nothing to stop the current system supporting that type of approach if they wanted to add the feature to the firmware ... personally I would never use it. I want to go from A to B I hate going to A to B via C and D ask my gf how many times she has asked me to take 'just a little detour' only to arrive early at B having never seen C or D

And yes got the picture Gazah thanks for that

Ummm, why can't you guys just follow each other like we do up here

[cityclinic]

Quote: Originally Posted by warped

Richard

You will find the limitation on the Sat Nav is the coverage of the map CD ... the coverage is near complete in most urban areas but much more limited in rural areas with the exception of major highways
Cheers
Steve

Eric, our guest speaker at Woodbyne, was trying to explain current GPS limitations and the 'live data' solution MINI2.CLUBS and Erics company are currently working on for delivery to MINI owners by the 1st quarter of 2004.

The system is in beta phase however the reults are excellent so far. Vehicles on the MINI Tasmania Tour will be participating in a major live trial which will include the ability to track the cars via the internet on any computer that has a broadband connection. This will also include live pics from four camera cars which will be fitted for the tour.

The tracking feature can be password protected with users nominating who has access to the the url. For the Tasmania Trial there will be open access which we can turn on and off as required from the support vehicle travelling with the tour.

[gazah]

Quote: Originally Posted by swamos

Ummm, why can't you guys just follow each other like we do up here

we did, but that just meant multiple lost minis instead of one!

i can just see that it would be difficult without a navigator, so the satnav could be your defacto friend / spouse / other-half / mini-partner for the day! ...better power : weight ratio, & you'd also save on lunch!

[RichardL]

I checked WhereIs.com.au, and found they have the same map coverage as my satelite nav., maybe they are the geographic date provider to our Mini nav?

I will check the map CD later and see how the hell they store the route info. in the database. Maybe we can get a solution on it. In that case, we may be able to publish a Mini Drive Day Route info by email then everybody can download and write into their sate. nav. system and ready to go!

Ohhh, my, what a fantastic dream...!

BTW, once we know how they store the geoinfo in the database, then a pre-selected route can be easily done by driving on the route once and record all the GPS data to a harddisk then output to the satelite nav. system database...Technically it is not a hard part of the job.

[warped]

Given the amount of effort involved in updating the Map CDs I would imagine that most use a common data store hence the similar level of detail ... Have to admit though that a greater level of detail would be preferable ... Last time I was up in the Kangaroo Valley region, while we were physically driving past a lake, the Sat Nav had us about 50m into the water

I was surprised that Jarvis Bay had close to zero map data given that it is a reasonably popular tourist location ... similarly the information DB section is heavily weighted to major urban areas ... apparently the closest petrol station in Wollongong is in Sutherland

Having said all that it is still pretty bl**dy useful around the city

And as for following one another ... unless we institute a grading system based on drivng speed in the twisties (after getting stuck behind a few people I starting to appreciate the benefits such a system would provide ) people are going to get separated given the number of cars involved ... maybe you need to keep up a bit better Gazah

[Darryl]

Might be able to keep up if I had one of those new fangled JCW kits and/or the speed detector in the passengers seat would keep quiet.

Aren't those bends out of Kiama a hoot though

[warped]

Quote: Originally Posted by Darryl

Might be able to keep up if I had one of those new fangled JCW kits and/or the speed detector in the passengers seat would keep quiet.

Aren't those bends out of Kiama a hoot though

I believe the term you were looking for is 'speed limiter' NOT 'speed detector'

Vicki's new favourite is "were you comfortable with that? <pause> because I wasn't" unfortunately I had to answer yes to one of those on the drive day must remember to avoid pot holes when breaking for hairpins

[gazah]

Quote: Originally Posted by warped

... maybe you need to keep up a bit better Gazah

yeah... 'twas our first drive, & when leading a pack it's difficult to know whether to chase the car in front, or keep a pace so as not to lose the car behind! i actually spent most of the time keeping a leisurely pace @ the back of the pack, making sure i was available to clean up any road-kill from the break-neck-speed front pack!

however, i must say there was 1 particularly annoying time @ the bottom of bulli pass when a stray mini went left & a number followed it! i stopped shortly after the intersection to ensure all the stragglers made it back on route, but all but 2 then took off without a trace! then came the now infamous 'park rd fiasco!' ...'nough said!

[IML337]

I have just spent the last three weeks on a driving Holiday of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and The Netherlands (and yes yes I toured the MINI factory in Oxford - who wants to touch me? ). I drove a late model E Class Mercedes Benz with factory sat nav, and didn't look at a paper map once for three weeks - just entered destinations and did what I was told. I discovered two things on this trip...

The Nav system in my Cooper S is absolutely CRAP compared to the system in the Benz. This is quite disappointing for me, but thats the price you pay for being "first on the block" I guess, especially as I have the older, slower, CD ROM based system, which has already been completely replaced once (screen and under seat unit), but even still, BMW musn't have spent more than 5 minutes developing the user interface for it. I can't believe they fitted it in cars like the 5 series BMW until quite recently! The system in the Mercedes was superb, it took us everywhere across all the countries, even finding a friends house in a back street on the outskirts of a small town in north germany without any hiccups. Even in the Sydney metro area I've had my navigation system fail and reboot, as well as go into routing loops... It also had 'stopover' and 'via' functions, which our cars unfortunately lack, though I must say the "Information" function in ours was much better then the Mercedes one.

The mapping data, as already mentioned, is also very poor in Australia. The take up of this technology in Europe is obviously a LOT higher than it has been at home, and the mapping data is absolutely flawless - the way it should be.

The map CD ROM discs for our cars are available from dealers at a cost of over $300 ($369 rings a bell) and the core mapping data is provided by Sensis (formerly Pacific Access) who are the same company that have their logo splashed all over the whereis.com.au website

I think they are the people we REALLY need to bother. The MINI system might be a little slow, but I think it would be far more effective if the map had more detailing and more street numbering on it! I seem to recall also seeing a UBD logo on my navi CD as well?

The technology Brad mentions earlier in this thread sounds very exciting though! I'd love to help in the trial on the Tassie trip if needed!

Cheers,
Tim

[hamisho]

Just to add to this old discussion, my mum has a Jag S Type R and it has the navigation. With the navigation came the voice recognition. This means to set a destination home from somewhere in Aust (having previous set this position), all you do is press the talk button say "navigation destination home". It then asks if this is ok yes/no, and you start driving. You can also pre-program up to ten other destinations with words ie: "Mini Garage" And do the same thing to get you there. Zoom in and out, “minimise time”, “avoid toll roads” are all voice commands…. along with radio and cd commands..

The female guidance voice can be changed to French or American english etc… French is kinda nice when you driving alone in the car to somewhere you know…..also as a pretty nifty trick, the indicator clicking is muted when a voice command is made (also music audio)..not sure if other Nav systems do this….

It is also possible to program in "way points" from either a previous destination or a new one via the touch screen. This system is a DVD based system and we have found it very useful. Unfortunately the maps are quiet old and to replace it with a Jag part would cost $1,500 !!!! BUT, after a little investigation, we have found that whereis.com actually make this DVD for Jag @ $400. These new maps are not available until approx March 04. I believe that this is the case across the board. Just give the 1800 (?) number a call, if you are looking for some info…they are very friendly.

Anyway, just thought I'd add to this discussion while waiting for my Mini to arrive.... now 5 months... and as yet they still cannot confirm a delivery date !!!

[swamos]

Quote: Originally Posted by hamisho

Anyway, just thought I'd add to this discussion while waiting for my Mini to arrive.... now 5 months... and as yet they still cannot confirm a delivery date !!!

Welcome along mate

What did you order on your MINI? I thought waiting lists were only a few months now? Are you waiting for somthing that isn't available yet??

[kenhenry]

Quote: Originally Posted by RichardL

BTW, once we know how they store the geoinfo in the database, then a pre-selected route can be easily done by driving on the route once and record all the GPS data to a harddisk then output to the satelite nav. system database...Technically it is not a hard part of the job.

I can feel a Colin McRae style drive coming on with data like that.

100 metres 90 degree right over crest ....................

200 metres 45 degree left tightening to hairpin speed 45 ..................

Now for that, I would buy sat nav

All we would have to do then is hook up to satellite imaging to tell us there is a kangaroo on the road around the next blind corner. Good as gold, mate, good as gold.

[IML337]

Hi All,

I'm keen to speak to anyone who has factory Sat Nav in their MINI and uses it in the Sydney CBD, as almost every time I've used mine there, it's chucked a spastic and not known where I am. It continuously miscalculates the location of the car and thinks it's in the street on the next block from where actually it is, hence giving totally STUPID directions and constantly recalculating the route, as it's totally confused as to why the car isn't moving the way it expects. This ends up making the use of the sat nav pointless as it never actually does anything useful.

Has anyone else experienced this? It's not like it's happened once or twice either, it's been many times over a fair while now. Luckily I know my way around the CBD well enough to get by, but sometimes if I'm coming in a different way or looking for a specific location I don't know off hand, I'll use it. And almost every time I've done this it's been a WASTE OF BLOODY TIME

Thanks for any info

[Todd!]

I have heard this happens in built up areas... I read an article in Motor about 'grey spots' for satnav... it happens in many systems not just minis You cant beat the old trusty Melway / Sydway / UBD sometimes!!

Todd