An Adventure Upgrading My Navigation System

Karma

Adventurer
HI All,
I have just refurbished my vehicle navigation system. For many years I had been running a Garmin GPS 3+ interfaced to a laptop running Terrain Navigator topo mapping software . The first two laptops (an HP and a Dell) eventually just fell apart from vibration. Then I decided to get serious and bought a used Panasonic Toughbook CF29. This combo has worked fine for four years. The Toughbook is definitely TOUGH!! Then I changed vehicles to a Jeep JKU and had to install the navigation system. I can swap the system between vehicles (both are Jeeps). When I fired up the nav system in the JK the GPS 3+ was dead! Now I was in trouble. I had no idea what to replace the 3+ with (Garmin no longer supports the 3+).

I had several requirements that I wanted the new GPS to meet. First, I use a serial old fashioned RS 232 computer port to communicate with the GPS. The connector at the GPS end is proprietary Garmin and old fashioned and also provided vehicle power to the GPS. Since this worked well, I wanted to retain the same cables and connectors. Most all new GPS units use a USB interface with a separate power connector. My older Toughbook only has one USB port and I use that one for a 64 GB thumb drive where I have the mapping software and maps stored to save wear and tear on the computers hard disk. So, I didn't have a spare USB port for the GPS. The USB interface requirement eliminated many of the newer GPS units from consideration, maybe all. I wasn't sure at this point.

I got on the Garmin site and was overwhelmed by the variety of Garmin GPS's. I really had no idea! Where to start? So, I brought up the Terrain Navigator GPS set up utility to get a list of compatible Garmin units. There were about 50! This narrowed it down a little. Then I called Garmin's Automotive Group for advice. The Customer Service rep had no idea what I was talking about when I spoke about interfacing to a computer. I was talking to the wrong folks. I was guided around the Garmin organization and finally landed in the Outdoors group. Here was someone who spoke my language and understood exactly what I wanted to do. He suggested the Garmin 78 which was is new. It is basically designed to be used as a handheld for hiking but had a dashboard mount available. It had the proper connector and was not terribly expensive. You see, when I have my computer on board I only use the GPS for GPS data points to feed the computer. All references to maps are on the computer. In this case I set the GPS unit to display its trip computer or compass. I rarely use the GPS internal maps which are instead provided by the computer. This would be the situation if I am on a back country trek or even a long highway trip. But in the city I typically use just the GPS unit and leave the computer at home. I don't want my expensive Toughbook stolen.

OK, I was not perfectly satisfied because the 78 is a vertically oriented unit which is appropriate for hiking but obtrusive on the dash (sticks up further than my old horizontally designed 3+). I thought I could live with this defect given that I could not find a reasonable alternative. I checked with My Topo, who provides the Terrain Navigator mapping software, and learned that the new 78 should be plug and play with the software. GOOD! So I bought one from Amazon.

It arrived and I plugged it in right away and went for a drive with the software set for real time vehicle tracking and recording and displaying the track on the map. It worked fine-for about a half a mile! Then I got a software error message and the software switched out of the real time tracking mode. I repeated this several times before I was convinced I was in trouble. I called My Topo tech support and it was a mystery to them. Ed at My Topo suggested that I upgrade my software version (I was only one generation out-of-date). I was sent an upgrade DVD free of charge. It arrived two days later. After the upgrade was installed I went for a ride. Yahoo! The problem was solved! I now have a new nav system that works just like I want it to work.

Now some words about the new 78 GPS unit.

The GPS 78 is better than my old 3+. It's Sat acquisition time is much faster. It almost never looses Sat lock. It gives reliable elevation data. The display is in color and its brightness is adequate. And it provides more functionality for navigation, routes, tracks, and markers. All in all it is very impressive. Where it falls down is its internal maps. They are close to non existent. Oh, all the major highways are present but things like neighborhood streets or even lesser major streets are totally missing in action. If this is the only navigation tool you have it is inadequate, almost non-useful. Of course, it does provide the very useful breadcrumb track so you don't get hopelessly lost.

However, the 78 can accept a wide variety of Garmin maps which you have to buy separately. It has the ability to use additional microSD memory cards (none are provided) to store downloaded maps. Clearly, Garmin decided to provide almost no mapping in the unit with the hope that their optional maps would be purchased. Well, I bit, with the appropriate amount of grumbling.

I guess there are several ways this can be viewed. To keeps costs down, Garmin ships a minimal unit but with an excellent ability to upgrade the maps with any package the user wants. Do understand, this is basically a hiking unit where highways and city roads are not part of the equation. So, I am asking this unit to function in a non-native mode. Perhaps this is really the best situation since I can now customize with my maps of choice. How well it functions in the city is yet to be determined.

I ordered the City Maps for North America package. It should arrive today. I have serious doubts about this experiment. The display on the 78 is small compared to the usual size of of an automotive GPS unit. Will I be able to actually see the maps in sufficient detail for it to be useful? I don't know. But, without the City Nav maps the GPS unit is very limited especially for navigation with out the computer hooked up. Today I will find out. After I get a sense of the situation, I will update this report.

Other than the map situation (an important consideration), I find the 78 to be a very good unit. Oh, it looks good too.

An important final thought. My Topo is a fine company. It's willingness to provide quality customer support is a huge factor in my decision to stay with them. Also, the mapping software is first rate.

Sparky
 

RobRed

Explorer
I wont comment on the GPS choice itself but let me point out that your thumb drive isn't saving wear and tear on your hard drive one bit. The HD is still spinning and the heads moving if the computer is on and doing anything at all, including accessing data on your thumb drive. I would move my data to the HD and use the Thumb for back ups. The system will get faster because of it.
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
I agree on the thumb drive thing....the only way to save your HD is to not have one and go solid state.
That said I have been running laptops in 4wd's since 2007 and have never had a HD fail and I run hardcore washboard and keep my laptop on 16hrs or more a day non-stop.
My Acer netbook has been going strong for a couple of years with nothing more that air to blow out the dust now & then.

Keep us posted on your setup and some pics would be great.
 

HumphreyBear

Adventurer
Yahoo! The problem was solved! I now have a new nav system that works just like I want it to work. Sparky

Sparky, congratulations on getting the system to how you want it. Probably a much greater challenge than just going out and getting something all singing and dancing straight off the shelf. I am sure there are other people out there who will benefit from the idea that they don't have to replace everything to have the latest marketing concept to show off. Keep us up to date.

RobRed said:
let me point out that your thumb drive isn't saving wear and tear on your hard drive one bit

I would move my data to the HD and use the Thumb for back ups. The system will get faster because of it.

You cannot categorically state that first assumption, and I think it is at best parenthetical to the post's intent. The second statement is not correct.

HDD heads move whilst seeking for the actions of reading or writing, therefore the storage of the maps on the thumb drive will decrease the requirement of head seeking. Storage device IO is not proxied through the primary HDD, so the act of reading a map off of the thumb drive will cause no commensurate head movement on the primary drive. There may be a small amount of concurrent reading application files/dlls, cache etc but locating the data (maps) on a separate drive system is best practice in corporate GIS teams. The degree of significance of the saving across the lifespan of a device is completely unique to that device and its usage, so my point is that the categorical nature of the assertion is misplaced.

As far as speed goes there are many factors and variables, but assuming it is a good quality USB2 thumb drive versus a 4 year old 4200-5400rpm HDD then the transfer rate for reading the maps and panning around to new sections of map within the application will ordinarily be much much greater on teh thumb drive as the access speed for read IO is usually incredibly fast on solid state devices, even older ones, compared to HDD and the controllers of quality machines like the Toshi in question will cope admirably with feeding that data volume to the CPU, OS and application. Again this follows best practice of separating the program data from the operating system and application drive. This goes double for IO and/or computational intensive applications. This only applies to a separate physical device, partitioning a single HDD will produce no similar benefit.

1leglance said:
That said I have been running laptops in 4wd's since 2007 and have never had a HD fail and I run hardcore washboard and keep my laptop on 16hrs or more a day non-stop.

I know people who have great experiences and negative ones with spindle drives. I think bad luck plays a part here - a massive whack to the device from hitting a pothole at speed, for example, just as the drive is writing to disk causing a head crash etc.
 
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Karma

Adventurer
HI All,
Thanks for your reply's. Considering that I have had this same basic nav system up and running for over ten years, you might find it surprising that I'm still finding ways to optimize it. The best addition was the Panasonic Toughbook. However, the CF-29 is an older unit and for computational purposes it is slow. Meaning such basic things as booting and shutting down are slow. For nav purposes it is plenty fast enough because the computational needs are not extensive. However, the addition of the thumb drive has definitely sped things up when switching between maps during real time vehicle tracking.

The Toughbook has a disk activity LED in the front panel that illuminates each time there is a disk access. With the thumb drive, the activity is definitely much lower than when I had all software and maps stored on the hard disk. I think the thumb drive has succeeded very well making the system faster and more reliable. Reducing disk accesses is the name of this game. At 64 gigs, this is a large thumb drive. I have all maps and mapping software stored there. About 59 gigs are used. If I had used the hard drive for all this data, there would not be sufficient space along with all the normal programs that require disk space. Yes, I could have installed a larger disk (I've this before on this computer) but why?

Before I made the switch to the thumb drive I investigated solid state drives. There were two problems. First, they are expensive. Second, they are size limited though getting bigger every day. There may be a time in the future that the solid state drive makes more sense than a thumb drive. But, not now. I definitely would have to have a good reason to switch because reinstalling all this software is a bi*ch.

I don't understand the argument that hard drives can live with shaking and vibration with no problems. I have ruined two drives on my previous laptops. When you look at the incredibly small tolerances that hard drives use, it's inevitable that they will eventually crash in a vehicle environment. My purpose is to retard this process as much as I can in my nav system. I think the thumb drive does this. But I also think that no magnetic based storage system is immune. You just try to do the best you can.

So, before you criticize my decisions too much, perhaps you should try my solutions first. I personally think the thumb drive was a great idea. I see no drawbacks.

Sparky
 
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