Offroad Use / Ideas?

kizer · 07-23-2007, 01:08 AM

Ok, I didn't even know where to begin with this question.
Ive built a CarPC, but its in an off road vehicle. My Jeep to be exact. Now I have a mouse style GPS and what I'd like to do is run an app that I could basically plot a route out on the screen. Then around that route I'd like to plot out service roads.

I guess in English I'd like to have a few different color roads/trails on the screen that I could later visit and maybe a few notes. Like locked gate and some other basic notes.

Of course Id like to see a nice little arrow on the screen so I know where I am in relation to the trails Im building.

Sorry for sounding so well uneducated its because Im rather GPS slow. Ive been using Iguidance for a bit and really enjoy it, but its useless to off road.

kizer · 07-23-2007, 03:13 AM

Did a bunch of Googling and came up with this one.
http://www.gpstm.com/

Not sure how easy its going to be, but what the heck its free and sounds like it might do the trick.

pip · 07-23-2007, 09:53 AM

DeLorme TopoUSA sounds like what you're after: see here

chrislloyd · 07-24-2007, 03:59 PM

i second the delorme app. it is amazing. goofy feature, but i like that you can change the pointer to a truck

the only thing i dont like much about it is that its not easy to use wih a finger - ie touchscreen. what i typically do is set up a route on my laptop and move it onto the pc in the truck. i can then simply open the route i intend to take. if i get off route, i can manage though the touchscreen interface. once at a destination, i often zoom out a bit and look for nearby lakes and such. i have found some amazing places not ar from my original destination.

i also ended up with a larger monitor than i origially though. i had a 7" - replaced it with a 10.4. this gave me a lot more viewing area.

as far as navigation type mapping i dont think very highly of the delorme. i use copilot to get to the trail and then delorme for the off road portions.

rotozuk · 07-24-2007, 04:54 PM

I'm also interested in doing something along these lines.

This summer while on vacation in Colorado I threw my old laptop in my Samurai and starting hitting the trails with iguidane. It turned out to be a great tool considering I really didn't know the area, and didn't even have a paper map with me. I covered about 3,500 miles in 2 weeks and it was great. The navigation to a city didn't always take the best or most scenic route, so I sometimes ignored the suggested routes. On the trail I was surprised at how handy it was. I expected to just turn it off once to the trail, but I-guidance actually had a lot of the forest trails in its database. It allowed me to explore around a lot more then I normally would have on my own during mid-week wheeling (had the trails to myself).

Since then I have bought some better equipment, originally for the tow rig, but have been wondering about making it easily swapped over to the Suzuki or my rock crawler. Software is the key question.

I'll be checking out the Delorme software and see how it does. It might be good for the rock crawler.. But I think your tracking software might be the better choice. I'll play around with both and see where they get me.

I just know that I don't want to use my Garmin hand held any more! As a side note, I'm using one of the USB mouse receivers with the new chip set. While in the Colorado forests, the Garmin kept loosing signal and the USB mouse never had a problem short of tunnels (even held signal for a bit near the entrances of tunnels.)

I'll probably make my OLD laptop the 4x4 PC as it is disposable, my vehicles are both rather open, and get VERY dirty after a weekend of abuse. (Dry desert wheeling for the most part = lots of dirt and dust.) Not sure if I want to drop the touch screen into the 4x4's for this reason.

Please keep me posted on what you find.

-Wayne
http://aaaprodisplays.com/rotozuk/4X4.html