CoPilot Live 8 Embedded

chuckster · 01-20-2005, 11:52 AM

Well as some of you may know I purchase CoPilot Live 8 out of curiousity really. I want to see if it can be embedded into Centrafuse.

I'm happy to say that I managed to get part of it embedded. The part of CoPilot I have been able to embed is Planning mode. The planning mode screen has a Window name and it embeds fine. I ran into some hickups during early testing where it didn't embed and I think it happened to do with it not getting shut down correctly.

In order to view the Guidance mode Centrafuse must have always ontop not checked. The guidance mode will load over Centrafuse and it will work fine. When selecting Planning mode again Centrafuse will regain focus and the planning mode will be embedded. I was pretty impressed by this.

I was also able to find the OSK. The OSK has large keys and is easy to use with the touchscreen. I haven't used it long enough to really review performance but so far it appears to work with slights bugs once in awhile like hangs requiring CTRL-ALT-DELETE to close the app. I can't reliability reproduce it so I can't say what causes it.

I did notice that Centrafuse does not close the application on exit. It appeared to close the app in one instant but the taskbar still had it running. I say appeared because the it was in the taskbar but when I selected it the app didn't open. Almost like it was an empty link so I just right clicked on it to select close.

I can post some pics if anyone is interested this evening. Any special screen shots you would like to see?

Chuck

veetid · 01-20-2005, 12:12 PM

chuckster: I am going to fix the not closing of apps.... I am going to change from sending the Close command to sending the Kill command.... That will close all these apps for sure...

david

chuckster · 01-20-2005, 12:14 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by veetid

chuckster: I am going to fix the not closing of apps.... I am going to change from sending the Close command to sending the Kill command.... That will close all these apps for sure...

david

I'll keep a look out for the update and give it a shot.

Thanks,
Chuck

camsgs3 · 01-20-2005, 12:16 PM

good to hear chuck,

yea please post some screen shots of it embedded into CF.
How bout 3d view,planning mode,& guidance mode or anything else you think will be good, like some new features

antimatter · 01-20-2005, 12:19 PM

Yea i would love to see some screen shots

camsgs3 · 01-20-2005, 12:25 PM

Oh yea, how is the POI database, is there alot?

chuckster · 01-20-2005, 07:01 PM

Hi Folks, Here are pics of CoPilot 8 Live. Keep in mind that I do not have my carpc installed at this time so everything is just bench testing at this time. Let me know if there is another pic you would like to see and I'll do my best to accomodate. I will not take advantage of the messenger options of CoPilot as I do not have a cell internet connection.

1st Image: Embedded CoPilot minimized in Centrafuse. In the screenshots you can see the POI icons. Mousing over them will describe what they represent. You can select to not have the POI Icons on the map if you wish.

2nd Image: Embedded CoPilot maximized in Centrafuse

3rd Image: Guidance Mode. This opens a separate window ontop of Centrafuse. I have not gotten this to embed. When needing to go back to Centrafuse just tap Plan and this window will close and Centrafuse comes back; pretty neat actually how this works.

4th Image: On Screen Keyboard which is large and easy to use. The OSK is an option you can select. When tapping a text box the OSK will automatically come into view.

5th Image: POI of Fast Food Restaurant near my home. There is a lot of POI selections but there are a few popular dining Restaurants I know of that are not in the DataBase. I'm not sure how accurate it is overall but it seems to have most places.

6th Image: 3D view mode. I don't care for this view very much. You can select to have the next intersection show up at the bottom of the screen and as you can see in this image mousing over a road will display the name.

Hopefully this post will answer some folks questions. I know I had many questions but people weren't sure so I just thought I would try it for myself. I bought the US and Canada maps. It is a very fluid motion map...What I mean is only one map is needed for North America which I like. With CoPilot if you decide ahead of time that you want to take a certain route that was not initially planned for you then you select the road you wanted and it will re-route uising yuour desired path. The PDF Users Manual is 86 pages and is easy to follow.

A couple things I did not like about ALK is their policy with the trade-ins. ALK advertises on their website that if you send a competitor software to them they will really discount the software (Software only is $99 with trade-in). ALK also advertises that there is a money back guarantee after so many days if you don't like the software. The problem with these two items is that they can not be combined, not mentioned on the website. You trade-in the ALK competitor software for the discount but if you decide you don't want CoPilot for what ever reason then you will not get your software back. There is no option buy it, tryit, then send the competitor software for refund....This was a very bum deal. There are always loop holes so I already planned out what I will do

.

Enjoy,
Chuck

Chita79 · 01-20-2005, 07:48 PM

some of the buttons on the interface seem kinda small to work with in a carpc environment.... destinator 3 seems more "carpc" friendly... tell me your thoughts on this

chuckster · 01-20-2005, 08:01 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Chita79

some of the buttons on the interface seem kinda small to work with in a carpc environment.... destinator 3 seems more "carpc" friendly... tell me your thoughts on this

Chita79 - Yes in planning mode it is very difficult to do anything because the options are small. There is also a tool bar that is not shown in the screen shot because I had it disabled. The toolbar allows for quick options access. The tool bar buttons are very small as well so they help a little instead of using drop down menus.

I much prefer to work from the guidance screen. Wish I could figure out how to embed the guidance screen. I can't figure out a window name for that screen. It does run just fine externally though.

What I would of liked to try was the PPC version of CoPilot. Since that is made for a small touch screen already it may have been a better choice for use on a 7" touch screen display. But....since it is made for PPC I doubt it will load and run on a PC.

I think Destinator is neat but I don't like the separate maps. I go to Canada often and I would like to just select the destination as the Canada address and go. This may prove difficult to use in my application. If there was a way of merging the maps into one then I would find it friendlier.

Chuck

Chita79 · 01-20-2005, 08:38 PM

yeah, i find destinator to be the best for my needs... but between USA and canada all you would need to do is switch a map, it takes a few buttons on the screen... and its very touchscreen friendsly with the menu and buttons... you should really give it a try

chuckster · 01-20-2005, 09:00 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Chita79

you should really give it a try

I got it loaded. I keep running into bugs and problems so it has become aggravating. I got the taskbar thing that keeps appearing for one thing. I'm trying to find the best one that meets my needs. I've read these forums up and down to get an idea of what I want but everyone has their opinions and most are great points. The only way to find out what I want is to try one of everything if I can.

I may end up with Destinator in the end because of it's integration and support through this forum. I'm just not convinced yet.

I've tried Delorme Street Atlas and that is just a horror show with a 7" touch screen. I like copilot because of it's clean interface in the guidance screen. I like the POI and how that works. I like the full text navigation screen which commmunicates turn by turn while displaying the upcoming intersection and turn required. Instead of showing the whole map it just shows the one leg of the route. Very clean and easily understood.

Thanks for the comments and discussion.

Chuck

chuckster · 01-20-2005, 09:06 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Chita79

between USA and canada all you would need to do is switch a map, it takes a few buttons on the screen...

I forgot to ask one more thing. In destinator can you enter a destination that is not part of the currently loaded map? If not then how is the destination handled when you need to change maps in order to reach it? I always this.

Let's say I want to go to Toronto Canada. I currently live in Massachusetts and I travel there a couple time a year. I would like to enter the end point and have it plot my route. I would also like to have stops along the way using the POI interface. Can this be done?

Have you had to switch maps during a trip? How did you handle this with Destinator.

Thanks for the help.

Chuck

Chita79 · 01-20-2005, 09:51 PM

As far as maps, i never change because im in california and the map i always have loaded is the entire west region of the USA. I would never really drive anywhere outside of the map, so im set. Your case is different. I'd contact Ninja Monkey who is the creator of Destinator 3 for carpcs. I'm sure he can answer your questions better than i can.

i personally dont use POI's much, so that would be a better question for the Destinator chat area.... Give it a try

antimatter · 01-21-2005, 01:06 PM

First of all i use Copilot 7 and iGuidance 2

I have never once used planning mode with copilot...ever

Destinator is fine for other countries but for us in the USA we get a bumb deal by having our maps split up. So if you want to travel from state to state you can't.

This makes me angry. I think that it is sooo lame. So unless someone figures out how to make one huge map or combine all of the split up ones then Destinator is NOT an option for me.

I guess if you didn't ever need to switch maps and didn't mind the POI then Destinator NM 3 would be fine. I think it is great what an awesome job Ninja monkey has done. Unfortunatly it is more suited for other countries. And since the majority of people that use it are not from the USA i doubt we will ever get a coast to coast fix.

giz@turbocharge · 02-03-2005, 05:15 AM

What are you guys using as the gps name in CF to get it to embed? I could not figure that out and ended up using the alt-tab program to toggle.

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