AA Navigater Vive

Deadlobster

Anyone heard about this sat nav before. Curious about it, it can detect speed cameras (6 types) but not sure if thats only UK or in Ireland as well. Its powered by evesham if that helps any. Was thinking of getting one and want one that will beep for cameras. Harvey Norman has them for about e280.

MOD

Just to let you know that I also saw this in Harvey Normans (280 euros), however if you have a look at the evesham website you could save yourself100 euros - same unit.

http://www.evesham.com/products/info.asp?e=EA14FA15-86D9-442D-AC6C-54BB0B54B768

I am just about to order this myself - jot my 3V(TSB) card today (have never had a credit card), any advice on using a 3V card would be welcome.

Overall I am no expert on GPS, but I know Navteq is better than Teleatlas for
Ireland and after having had a play with the unit in Harvey Normans it looked and felt good to use, also the fact that it has an AA association should be good.

I have also looked at the Garmin C510 - PC World are doing this for 239 euros (I haven't got to use/play with this one), it also uses Navteq mapping but is a much "chunkier" unit and from a practical point of view, the unit will be out of the car (in your pocket maybe) most of the time and the Evesham unit is much slimmer. You don't see to many of these stuck to the windscreen of parked cars - for good reasons.

If anybody has any experience/advice on this Navigator/Evesham unit I would love to hear from you.

Krusty_Clown

Firstly, the device doesn't detect speed cameras. It has a stored list of known speed cameras (static / fixed cameras only), and let's you know when you are approaching one of these cameras.

It wont have a camera list for Ireland. There are only a handful of cameras in Ireland, so it's not a big job to add 'Waypoints' for these yourself (although you may not get proximity alerts, unless your device supports it).

Secondly, Evesham/AA would not be the most mainstream of devices, so less community support, here and elsewhere.. The most popular devices seem to be Garmin, Tomtom and Altiris. There's probably a good reason why these devices are the most popular. Why don't you do some internet shopping and see what else you can get for your 239 euro.

As for the AA thing, I don't think that having the device associated with the AA makes it good. I would say (guess-work here) they have very little to do with the device apart from a bit of re-badging.

Krusty_Clown

Here's a review: http://techdigest.tv/2007/03/review_aa_navig.html

Here's another: http://www.itweek.co.uk/personal-computer-world/hardware/2174373/review-aa-navigator-vive

Deadlobster

Thx for advice, know a guy who knows a guy who get me a speed camera thingy, the not so legal thingies.

Krusty_Clown

GPS Receivers do a great job of telling you when you are approaching a static camera (Don't forget that there's a couple of hundred privatised cameras due on our roads soon ).. For the other types you need a radar detector, but that will only work for some types of speed checks (i.e. not lazer).

prospect

I have one of these AA machines and find it good, (that said I have never had a GPS before so have nothing to compare it with).

The deal for me was the inclucion of the european maps, which will get tested this very evening as I am off to Sardinia.

prospect

Well,

Back from the holiday, which was great.

However, the island of sardinia is barely mapped. Only the main inter-city roads are on it. I drove into Sassari, (the second biggest city), and the flipping place isn't mapped.

P

the boss of me

Is your device meant to have full Euro mapping or main roads only?

prospect

It says european maps, but doesn't say 100% coverage. I am assuming it would have more 'developed' countries at nearly 100%, but Sardinia is a bit like Ireland was 15 years ago.