Street Atlas isn't all that great... any ideas?

**NightHunter** · 02-10-2004, 03:43 PM

I have contacted Delorme many times and all I get is appology's and nothing else. Pretty much "were sorry but screw you, you bought and now your stuck" It is a good thing it's only $50.00 so they dont have much to live up to. I think that is how they look at it anyway. As for iGuidance or Routis, $100.00 and it is worth every dime. Ditch Delorme and go with something worth while....

**siueclipse** · 02-10-2004, 03:43 PM

copilot

**chut** · 02-11-2004, 09:39 AM

routis 2004 all the way.

Originally Posted by cybuch

I am running street atlas 2004 and a magellan GPS on the serial port and it works perfect. It always shows me on the correct street, no problem there. What I realy do not like is the fact that it does not scroll smoothly, it waits until you are close to the top of the screen then it moves the map down half a screen. Sometimes if your turn is just off the screen you may miss it because by the time it moves the screen you have past the exit. It knows your speed from the GPS but when it calculates your ETA it does it by the speed limits that are set for each street you have to travel on. So sometimes it says "left turn ahead 1/2 mile, 60 seconds away" and you are going 45 MPH. Its a bit off. I heard Routis works really well, but I do not want to buy another software without testing it first. So far I bought Street Atlas 2004 and MS Streets & Trips 2004 and they both kinda suck. So if anyone knows anything about routis please let us know if it works well!
Steve

**nl4jy** · 02-11-2004, 12:01 PM

I bought that Delorme crap first bundle with that crappy GPS mouse. Then I bought Destinator 2 weeks later. I would recommend Destinator. But I suggest not to buy it yet as Destinator 3 is coming soon.

What Destinator2 WILL DO:

Zoom in and out based on your speed.
Telling you directions by miles and yards.
Quickly recaculate missed turns in about 5 seconds.
Big buttons so touchscreen is great.
Screen scrolls smoothly.
(next 2 is my own experience w/GPS mouse bundle)
Satelite is already locked when I open the program. No need to wait.
Going under overpass will not make me loose signal. (tunnel is another story)
Location hardly jumps all over the map.
Location is usually locked to road, except when I go into my garage, it'll go offroad. But none of the parallel movement and I'm in the water ****.

Now the bad Part.
Destinator2 WILL NOT DO:
Plot pitstops = cannot choose route that I would want to take.
Cross different zones = cannot choose a destination on a different zone. Have to use the Major Roads and Highway map, which doesn't show local streets. MAYJOR NO-NO for those that constantly travels between zones.
When I'm going parallel on a highway that has service road, it kept thinking i'm on the service road when I'm NOT. Very annoying when it tells me to do a right turn then a left to get onto the Highway when I'm infact still on the Highway. (maybe if I move the GPS mouse over to above the driver side instead of the passanger side. Will have to try that to see if it'll fix this problem)
POI = weak POI database. Many of my destination is popular Point Of Interest, yet it's not on the software. (i.e. Hunter Mountain. Six Flags Great Adventure)

For those that don't know what Different Zones are. Let me clarified.
Canada is seperated into only 2 Zones. (not really that bad)
But for US. NY is seperated into 3 zones. NYC is connected with LI and NJ.
Upstate NY is broken to 2 zones. 1 is with northern part of Penn. and another alone by itself.

So with my own experience. I tried going from Brooklyn, NY to Philly, Penn. I had to use 2 Zones and 3 maps.

I've heard Destinator3 will solve if not all the issues stated.

**kalito** · 02-12-2004, 12:05 AM

i seen that a gps mouse works better in serial than usb connection! what you gy thing.....

**MatrixPC** · 02-12-2004, 03:55 PM

I use Earthmate GPS and SA2003. The map is okay but not perfect.
When I set up a route and try to use a different one, it doesn't recalculate the route. Thus voice Guidiance is out of picture.
Doesn't work after resume from hibernate. If the software still running when the machine hibernate. The GPS/SA dead after resume. If SA is shutdown before hibernate and re-run after resume from hibernate, then all where fine but it takes longer for GPS to lock the signal than cold boot. So hibernate still works but it a matter of restart the software.

I am not sure if I want to try a different software because there are no trial version and it is expensive if you don't like the software after buying it.

**Jmiller808** · 02-12-2004, 05:52 PM

has anyone used Microsoft Streets & Trips? if so does it integrate well with mediacar or mediaengine?

Im currently using rand mcnally's software. its not all that great but it came with my gps. would like to have one that will display that my turn is comming up as well as any other nice features.

**divinity** · 02-12-2004, 06:00 PM

I used Streets and Trips with the 1second hack and a Delorme Earthmate (the newer small USB one) on my old sytem. Worked great, relatively quick sync, on track most of the time, and I loved it. All that was stolen, so I acquired the old Earthmate (the serial one) from dad, and have been trying that on a laptop. Very unacceptable so far, puts me waaay off the road, takes forever to synch, and has trouble keeping in touch with satellites. So a new (used) earthmate is on it's way thanks to Lytheum.

**G_Loc** · 02-12-2004, 06:55 PM

I guess I'm not the only one with that problem.

My Earthmate almost always refuses to work or receive satellite info when I connect it after having the laptop on hibernate.

No serial ports on the laptop, so I can't try that cable. blah.

**adamis** · 02-13-2004, 12:14 AM

I use Streets and Trips 2004. I don't care about about directions so much, especially voice navigation at this point. The program will do route planning as well as outline the course on the map. Personally I think this is just as good as voice directions, sure it's not as glitzy but it get's the job done and it works, without the program telling me I'm not on the right street.

Alas I'm trying to move to Linux and am looking for an alternative...