GPS Navigation with Netbooks and Droid
by Chris Guld, www.geeksontour.com
We love GPS systems. Maybe too much! All of a sudden we have more GPS navigation devices than coffee cups! And we can’t decide which one we like best. So, we’re using them all.
We’ve been using Microsoft Streets and Trips on a laptop since the beginning of our travels in 2003. Actually, the first 2 years it was Mappoint - S&T’s big brother – but basically the same thing. See this previous article about that. A couple years ago, we got a Garmin Nuvi 255 – a dashboard navigation device. And just a few months ago we bought our Motorola Droid cell phones which includes GPS and a Navigation application for free.
The photo above is what the cab of our Class-C motorhome looks with all three navigation devices. It’s tough to get a good photograph of this, but hopefully you got the idea. What you can’t see is that I am usually sitting in the passenger seat with a large print Road Atlas on my lap to keep me grounded in the midst of all these screens.
Laptop GPS
Jim always plans our travels using Streets and Trips. Every route we’ve ever plotted is stored on a S&T file somewhere. It’s so easy to see the entire route (8,174 miles planned for this summer) or zoom in on one spot. And, with the Points of Interest megafile, we are assured of finding anything we want like a Thousand Trails park, a Walmart, a Flying J, or a hot springs!
One problem with using a GPS system on your laptop is how hard it is on the laptop. They are made to be portable, but I don’t think the constant vibration or the teeth shattering drive on I-10 thru Louisianna was part of the designers’ plan. We recently purchased an ASUS NetBook – it’s our spare computer since both Jim and I have our own laptops. We’re wondering if it can do the job of being the Streets and Trips computer.
Testing the Netbook for Streets and Trips Navigation
It’s so small it sits nicely on the center console.We don’t even need to bungie it in, And it’s so light, I don’t think it feels the bumps and jolts as much as the bigger laptops. We also don’t need to plug it in because it has 7 hours of battery life. This is much more convenient than the larger laptop. Streets and Trips installed just fine on the Windows 7 operating system, and I was delighted when I plugged the GPS receiver into the USB port and our position was displayed almost immediately. We have had trouble in the past with the GPS receiver being recognized. This was a good sign.
BUT – after using it for a couple 300 mile days – I don’t think the little netbook is going to hack it for our Streets and Trips computer. The screen is just too small, and there’s not enough horsepower to run Streets and Trips well.
- Screen is too small. Although everything fits, I just can’t see the route like I was accustomed to with the larger laptop. Here’s a photo of the screen below. With all the toolbars at the top, the GPS pane at the left, and the next turn info at the bottom – the map portion is pretty tiny.
- Not enough horsepower. I could actually live with the smaller screen if I could click and drag things around quickly. I can even use F11 to temporarily get rid of the toolbars and sidebars, leaving more room for the map, but the response is just too slow. Although everything works just fine, the screen refresh takes a long time. At one point during our drive, we decided it was time to look for a Walmart. I selected the option to show all the Walmart pushpins … and waited …. then I stopped GPS tracking so I could reposition the screen to the route ahead … and waited … I found a Walmart and right clicked to add it as a stop to our route … and waited. If I hadn’t started the process early enough, we would have been past the Walmart before I finished!
Most netbooks come with 1 Gb of memory and the Windows 7 starter edition. Jim upgraded ours to 2Gb of memory and the Home Premium edition of Windows 7. We still have a few other things to try, but I’m discouraged with this initial test.
Testing the Droid for Navigation
Truly amazing! We’ve started using the Droid for our navigation around town instead of the Garmin Nuvi. After all, your cellphone is always with you right? So, if you need a GPS, how cool is it to just get out your phone and turn it into a GPS navigation device? It uses satellite GPS to get your position. It uses Google Maps via it’s Internet connection for the maps.
It works pretty good. Jim purchased the optional car docking station – he tells me that he didn’t spend more than $30 for it. Here’s what it looks like, mounted right next to the Garmin Nuvi. It can also be mounted horizontally and the map display changes accordingly.
It didn’t have any disagreements in directions that we noticed. It’s speaker is almost as good as the Nuvi. One advantage is the voice recognition. Jim said in a loud voice, “Navigate to Patriots Point” when we were driving through Charleston. And, it did! Later I spoke at the Droid saying, “Navigate to Myrtle Beach State Park” and it responded by displaying, “Navigate to Royal Beach Skatepark?” The road noise is a problem.
I’m tempted to say that the Droid can replace the Garmin Nuvi, but I’m sure I will change my tune when we’re in West Texas or Eastern Oregon this summer. That’s because the maps are displayed on the Droid via the Internet. It gets the Internet from the nearest Verizon tower. No tower, no Internet, no roads! Your position comes from the satellite GPS, so you’ll still see the marker for your position moving around the screen. But you won’t see the map – so it doesn’t do you much good.
So for now, we need them all. I’ll update this topic when we’ve learned more. Meanwhile, anyone else out there using a netbook for navigation? Or the Droid?
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I currently use the G1 HTC which is based on the Android 1.5 (now 1.6) version of the OS which is less powerful than the Droid. We live in the Denver Colorado area and frequently we go through canyons and in certain areas of the mountains where there is ZERO cell coverage. Surprisingly enough, we haven’t had a problem getting TO the destination as it seems to stay in memory for a while, the problem occurs when if you are STARTING your trip from your destination point and there is no data coverage, you can’t get directions! We use the Google Maps GPS application 99% of the time, but in the rare instance when it doesn’t work, I’ll pull out our Garman GPS. I would also recommend everyone keep an atlas with you as well.
I have been researching new GPS unique to Trucking/RV use. Seems like they all get the up/down from various reviews. The Rand McNally trucker GPS seems to overall have negative response from the truckers? The new Garmin 465T seems to have more positive reviews, even though some put it down. With the unique characteristics of large RVs you would think one of these GPSs designed for truckers/RVs would be best in ensuring you don’t end up on a road to hell.
Anyone have any feedback on the best RV GPS system to go for? Especially the Garmin 465T model?
Thanks, just trying to stay out of trouble.
We purchased a Dell netbook last year with GPS built in and it uses CoPilot Live (www.alk.com) software for the navigation. You can specify whether you are driving an auto or RV, height of 12′6″ or 13′.
The software will also work on any other netbook or laptop with a USB GPS receiver.
We too have had multiple GPS units running at once as a comparison! I like the CoPiliot software, but find it sometimes does take a while to locate itself with the netbook.
OMG! You cockpit looks like mine with the gadgets! Love it!
Re: “he tells me that he didn’t spend more than $30 for it”. Jim….the right way to say this is “it was $20″. DW knows that that means it was $29.99.
Anxious to see anything re the Droid…ready to get one.
We up til last year always use Delorme GPS system in our coach It has been very reliable, and even though i now have a Garmen NUVI 750 I go back to the Delorme For trip planning fuel pricing and stops while traveling it locates walmarts, Flying J’s, Cracker Barrel, and campgrounds. A little harder to learn but when it is voice activated you can go shift through map and do it with out taking hands off wheel. Sells for around 89.99 basic package with satelite locator for dash.
I have my old Garmin – which backtalks all the time. I am never on the right road – we call her the wicked woman. She re-routes us, tells us we are off track, if she could bite, I think that she would probably bite us. We do use Microsoft Streets and Trips to plan while we are still at home. We can print off critical information and pretty much know what we want to do. Then we load up, grab the wicked woman and hit the road. She has always gotten us where we want to be – just not always the way we want to go and the tone she uses sometimes is scary. Mrs. G likes the laptop with Microsoft S & T but tires of having the laptop on her lap. The cell phone has GPS but we ahaven’t used it yet. Our first trip of the season is next week. If we don’t get lost that is…
I’ve been using a netbook for navigation that I have mounted in the front of my van, in a Ram Mount bolted through the floor for a laptop. It’s very convienent to swivel into numerous positions so I can glance at it or my copilot. I’ve been using both Delorme Topo USA or Delorme Street Atlas for GPS navigation. Definitely not the most intuitive interface available, but I’m getting used to it. The nice thing about the netbook is that I can pull over and do some writing by voice dictation for my website, or go online instantly with our Verizon Broadband internet card, or stream Pandora by bluetooth through the car stereo; super convienent! I think a netbook is essential for laptop based travelers even for just backup purposes if your livelihood is internet based.
Glen, I was using a a Garmin nuvi 1490T because of the large screen. Routing is for auto’s with the 1490 and got me in to trouble towing a 37ft fith wheel. Purchased the Garmin nuvi 465T and it is doing the job. Truck mode and selectable auto mode. Routing is great. Originally had the MS Streets and Trips but wife got tired of holding it in her lap. Also tried the Verzion GPS system on a LG phone but the screen was too small.
I’m a techie from way, way back. And I like gizmos and much as anyone, but I am impressed with your set-up.
But I have to ask, with all the gagets and screens to view, how do you watch the scenery on your trips?
If the netbook doesn’t work out for a navigator, you could hook it into the Class-C chassis computer and get constant updates on the engine.
I didn’t see the rear monitor screen in your photo, surely you must have one. And if you install a front facing camera, and display that on a screen in another corner of the windshield, you won’t miss anything as you monitor the rest
Glenn Odom,
RE best GPS for RV/Truckers: did you read the recent article by Mark Polk?
http://blog.rv.net/2010/04/a-gps-for-rv-owners/
You might want to try turning off some of the fancy windows 7 features on the netbook to speed it up. They can be a real resource hog from what I understand. Did you try running S&T under the starter addition? There are some suggestions for increasing the performance of the netbook at http://www.ehow.com/how_5633623_adjust-windows-ultimate-netbooks.html. Use these suggestions at your own risk. I don’t have any personal knowledge that they work or what the impact will be on your computer.
Just got a new nuvi 765. Speaks street names. Oh yeh. It’s a good thing they also print it out because the sound that comes out of her mouth is very confusing to say the least. I learned quickly to check the route before you leave. We asked to go somewhere and were routed thru the campground and into a private driveway. Had I had the fiver on, I’d still be trying to figure out how to get out of there. If I had tresspassed I would have made it out of there because the road she put me on was parallel to where I needed to be, but I don’t think the farmer-breeder? wnted me to go thru his pasture.
Tried to use macrosoft streets and trips on an fast enouth laptop, had few problems with speed, had major problems with info provided. Tried to use the screen hints to navigate thru Yakima Washington, not a single one of the listings matched a road sign. Have not been east of the mighty muddy, maybe the maps are better in the East, but this one cured me of using anything but a GPS.
Current is a Garmin NUVI used as a backup in areas not traveled in a few years and outside of fairly constant arguments with the voice about proper route to the freeway and requests to make a U turn on a narrow two lane the trip times and road speed are a real help. A netbook with a full load of 7 is probably like an overloaded pontoon boat in a cross wind. Would require a leap of faith but you can probably get the “portable” or cell phone load and get back speed. This should be done with help as auto install programs tend to get carried away!
We upgraded to Win7 Home Premium because of a couple things we really wanted to do with the Netbook – like use it as our Wi-Fi hotspot (see previous article – Windows 7 = Wi-Fi Hotspot) and that doesn’t work with Starter Edition. Notice that we also doubled the RAM. We will try some performance tweaks, but I really think that the way I was using Streets and Trips was more the culprit.
After writing this article I tried loading S&T on the netbook without any other files, no megafile of pushpin sets … no trip planning file for our whole summer, just the current day’s destination … it was a lot faster. I’ll keep trying.
It appears you have a Ford front dash and engine cover. We had a similar arrangement in you Ford van. I used a piece of lauan about as wide as our laptop and about deep enough to slide under the dash and above the engine cover area where the cup holders were. I then placed a thin piece of ridge foam under the lauan and on top of cup holder area. This allowed the laptop to have a soft / very slight movement while driving. The screen moved only on very rough roads. If movement of the laptop sitting on the hardeer lauan surface presents a shifting problem, shelf liner material cut to size would reduce movement. Also, I made a box like cover for the closed laptop so we did not have to ‘hide’ the laptop. It also doubled as shelf when needed.
pff
Chris, how about a 12″ laptop, running all of the normal drives, bigger memory, etc? It’s not to much bigger, or costlier than a good net book. Robbie
Robbie,
My bet is you’ll be fine with that computer – as long as you are only running S&T, and an uncluttered trip file.
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We went through the same trial & error process as you describe.
Our solution is a NetTop PC by foxconn and a 14″ monitor (or size to suit you)
The NetTop comes bare bones (no Hdd or memory).
Install a 40Gb SSD and 2G SODIMM, Win 7 Home Premium w/S&T and/or DeLorme (or whatever); plug in the GPS head and done deal.
The really NEAT thing is the papoose carrier for the NetTop.
It is a bracket that screws on into the 4 Vesa mounting holes on the back of the monitor.
The dual Atom cpu and entourage is appx 1.2″ x 5″ x 8″ and hides behind the monitor with his litte antenna poking up.
The SSD cures the Hdd crashes from rough road thumps.(Hello I80 Chicago area!!)
The NetTop has built in WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth for mouse & keyboard.
AND a BUNCH of USB ports for addons.
WE plug in a Media Center remote for controlling streaming video too.
One of our USB addons is a second WiFi device set to “Bridge” mode so we automatically connect to our Home Router wirelessly as we pull into our driveway.
The audio “out” plug is sent to our radio “Aux in” for beautiful sound and Cell phone Bluetooth too via the NetTop.
We are as pleased as a pig in syrup with this lashup.
No problem with compute horsepower at all.
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AND get the free software “inSSider” to sense ALL WiFi networks within your range at any time. Find a “hotspot”; read your email.
Cheers
Toad
I have a NetBook – not the Asus but rather an Acer – and agree that while they are handy, they lack a little horsepower. They were intended as inexpensive email & web browsing devices with general computing as less of a priority.
That said, the newer NetBooks with dual core processors may be better options for small & light general computing devices. Unfortunately, their prices approach those of ‘regular’ laptops.
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