To all with in-dash Navigation

[HBH3]

Factory unit or aftermarket, I'd like to know what happens when you drive off the standard road and hit the trail... Does the screen just show a blank map? Does anyone's system show the trail? Coordinates?

Thank you.

[Boar-Ral]

Originally Posted by HBH3

Factory unit or aftermarket, I'd like to know what happens when you drive off the standard road and hit the trail... Does the screen just show a blank map? Does anyone's system show the trail? Coordinates?

This is the standard navigation display that you will see when offroad with the factory navigation:





We were approximately 20 km from Jasper National Park, according to the navigation system. Map coverage included roads up to the trail head, and then abruptly ended, as was expected. A friend that came with us in his H1 was using Fugawi on his Pocket PC and it includes a "bread crumb" option to start plotting your travels when you leave the road.

[marin8703]

with the pioneer avic-z1 when you go off of a know road or trail it will look like the picture that the previous poster had, however you can turn on a feature that shows your tracks. It puts dots on the screen after a certain distance/time and you can in a way find your way back if lost, or something of the sort. The amount of trail info will probably be the same in oem and aftermarket. Maybe major trails may be shown and small, real off road wont, dont really know.I havent taken it on a popular off road trail so i dont know if it shows it or not. The avic-z1 will show you you coordinates (long/lat). havent had any experience with the factory nav.

[Boar-Ral]

I forgot to mention that if you press the Emergency button on the factory navigation system that it will display your latitude and longitude.

[Bully13]

sometimes it will show a trail off road, but not very often.
Getta Garmin. We've got the factory nav and a 2820 Garmin.

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Garmin has a mapping program that includes backcountry roads. It's an expensive option however. My 2001 Garmin unit (which has over 30,000 miles on it!) uses breadcrumbs as well.

You could try this software for Garmin, which is the USA TOPO:
http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topo.jsp

Here's an example from the online TOPO WEST (Baldwin Lake southwest of Buena Vista, CO):
http://www.garmin.com/cgi-bin/mapgen...&rz=0&k=1&sc=1


You can see that the trails show up as dotted lines. Not the best, but at least you can get an idea of the topography, and have a general idea of where you're going. The hardest thing is if the maps don't agree with the actually terrain. I had a hell of time out there trying to find my way on some trails as they branched more than shown, and some of the plotting was inaccurate. I have a lot of notes on my maps....

[Boar-Ral]

I think the reason that the people I know use Fugawi is because it isn't really a driving direction program. It won't tell you to turn right, turn left, etc. What it is designed for is mapping, pure and simple. I own the Windows version and the functionality is incredible. What I love about it the most is that I can get a backroads book with cut lines, forestry trunk roads, etc. and scan it into the software. Fugawi then has me pick a couple points in order to scale and align the map, and then you can see your course plotted directly on the screen over top of the map. If you do not have maps like that, you can purchase most of the popular ones from their web site. The fact that they have added a Pocket PC version is really great news, as it will run on my mobile.

I agree that the Garmin hardware and software is great, too. I bought a Rhino a few years ago and have been impressed with its coverage, and I can upload new maps to it if I want to purchase more.

[whaaaaT]

yea you can see your lat and long with the factory. Also you can scroll to find where you are or back out on trail. No dot feature though.

[BlueHUMMERH2]

I should add that the Garmin software won't work with the factory in-dash navigation.

Boar-Ral:
Have you ever played around with ArcMap? I've been using it for a class on map-making, and it's really cool software. It's not really for trail use, but you can take Aerial imagery and display it in 3D, and other interesting stuff. It's cool if you like maps.

[HBH3]

Thanks everyone for sharing. It looks like for true topo mapping I'll need something separate. Has anyone tried one of the new UMPCs? Like Samsung's Q1 or ASUS R2H?

[Vettster]

One other thing to think of is if you ever are going to travel out of the country. (Mexico for example)
The factory units are worthless. No maps!
I have the factory unit in my H2.
A also have a Garmin 276C to tell me where I am at/going theres all kinds of map programs for it. Garmin and otherwise.

Drive safe,
Vettster

[Boar-Ral]

Originally Posted by BlueHUMMERH2

I should add that the Garmin software won't work with the factory in-dash navigation.

Boar-Ral:
Have you ever played around with ArcMap? I've been using it for a class on map-making, and it's really cool software. It's not really for trail use, but you can take Aerial imagery and display it in 3D, and other interesting stuff. It's cool if you like maps.

I have not used ArcMap, but based on its name, it sounds like it is made by ESRI, who also produces ArcInfo GIS. I do have some experience with that. I used to work at a GIS firm that used this software, at $150K per license. Geeze!

So, er, yes and no?

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Originally Posted by Boar-Ral

I have not used ArcMap, but based on its name, it sounds like it is made by ESRI, who also produces ArcInfo GIS. I do have some experience with that. I used to work at a GIS firm that used this software, at $150K per license. Geeze!

So, er, yes and no?

Yeah, it's related to ESRI. And it is very expensive.

[Boar-Ral]

Originally Posted by BlueHUMMERH2

Yeah, it's related to ESRI. And it is very expensive.

I am surprised that I remembered the name of the company. Are you in university working towards a civil engineering degree?

I wish that there was someone able to reverse-engineer the mapping disks that GM uses and create our own mapping data, even if it could not be mapped. Just to have the roadways would be awesome. I've meant to go over the disks in the past, but have not had the time to do that.

[BlueHUMMERH2]

Originally Posted by Boar-Ral

I am surprised that I remembered the name of the company. Are you in university working towards a civil engineering degree?

I wish that there was someone able to reverse-engineer the mapping disks that GM uses and create our own mapping data, even if it could not be mapped. Just to have the roadways would be awesome. I've meant to go over the disks in the past, but have not had the time to do that.

I'm studying Geology, and the class is "computer mapping" which is useful for certain things.