[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Be careful in reposing all faith in Google - sometimes Google will take you by roads so narrow that you will find yourself in tricky situations that Google can't see! On the contrary, I find the "Fastest Route" mode works better for me in navigation, and I can't figure out how to set that in Google Maps.

Exactly. . I own a MMI LX340 and I always keep the mode to "fastest route", and it works. With that option ON, it selects the Highways, whereby driving could be easy and relaxed, rather than in between the villages with cattle's and poultry crossing the roads coming out of nowhere.

But, I did took the "Shortest Route" while going to North Bengal recently, as I knew that NH34 was in tatters at stretches. It took me through the villages of Burdwan district (via SH 7). The road condition of SH 7 was far better than the NH34.

So, both the option has its advantages. You need to know the perfect time to make use of that.

[sachinpk]

I have been using MapMyIndia Navigator for years now. I purchased one of their earlier devices nearly 5 years back. The MapVersion was 2.0, and I used the same device and upgraded till around Version 4.0. On Version 4.0, I was quite happy with the way routing was done. I knew in some stretches it had very old (and unreliable maps), but it was okay.

Last year I upgraded my device to Lx340, and the latest map version (which I guess is Ver 8.0). And then my trouble started. Routes chosen by the navigator was totally confusing, or way off the mark. I found the search algorithms were also now more confusing. One thing which pained me most was the wrong spellings on the maps. I saw this in the maps of two South Indian states (Kerala & Tamil Nadu). Chiyyaram shown as Siya Ram, and Pollachi Road shown as Collachi Road. From what I could make out, the place names are entered by people who have no cultural or social associations with the state in question.

Relying on the MMI device to guide me, I had also taken the Palakkad->Pollachi->Palladam(?) route which was to take me to the four lane highway just before Vijayamangalam Toll booth. The MMI device just went bersek, the route taken by it was through the towns like Tiruppur and Uthukuli. This was when I had a few relatives with me as well. With that I have lost complete trust on MMI and its Map versions. It was embarassing to sit in a car, with a set of confused relatives and a visibly irritated driver (a cousin of mine). From then on, MMI Lx340 is generally only used to know Distance to Go, Time To Go etc.

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

Today, I successfully installed version 9.0 maps in my Lx130 navigator.

Can you let me know if the place names etc. are accurate? Have they made any corrections on that? I am willing to try an upgrade, if I can get a bit more use of this product.

Originally Posted by gearhead_mait

I own a MMI LX340 and I always keep the mode to "fastest route", and it works. With that option ON, it selects the Highways, whereby driving could be easy and relaxed

Let me try this option. I might have chosen the "Shortest route" option. To be honest, MMI still does NOT give me the confidence, and unless I am on a very familiar territory I still rely on the old "Ask & Proceed" method.

BTW, has any one tried the GeoTag option in MMI? It is a very useful tool, especially if you want to share your favourite location with another user who has a GPS navigation device.

[iVento]

Now MapMyIndia sells refurbished PNDs in their official store!



"Attractive products with manufacturer's warranty"

LINK

Originally Posted by sachinpk

wrong spellings on the maps

That's the hallmark of MMI! But, I don't know, how many typos were corrected in v 9.0.

Can you let me know if the place names etc. are accurate?

They are 95% accurate and guide to the destinations or very close to the destinations. But, the remaining 5% will strike you unexpectedly when you are totally unprepared and defenseless!

Have they made any corrections on that?

I don't know. I think more points of interest were added to the new version.

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Let me try this option. I might have chosen the "Shortest route" option. To be honest, MMI still does NOT give me the confidence, and unless I am on a very familiar territory I still rely on the old "Ask & Proceed" method.

BTW, has any one tried the GeoTag option in MMI? It is a very useful tool, especially if you want to share your favourite location with another user who has a GPS navigation device.

Yes, the fastest route basically takes you through the Highways and the Shortest route takes you inside the Villages.

I don't know about Geo Tag, but you can save any route you travel through and whereby the map is not updated, for your future travel. So it is like self update of the version, but for this you need to be an avid traveller.
You can check the "GPS Test" functionality to get any latitude/longitude information of any place.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by gearhead_mait

I don't know about Geo Tag, but you can save any route you travel through and whereby the map is not updated, for your future travel. So it is like self update of the version, but for this you need to be an avid traveller.

I have used Geo Tag myself. For all my favourite/usual destinations, I have taken photographs of these places. Then reduced their size by around 60%, and using freely available softwares mark the GPS coordinates onto these images. JPG format has provisions for storing the geographical coordinates. Then in MMI, I can open the image and instruct it to take me to the geographic coordinates.

Another advantage is that I can share these pictures with any one, and they would also be use the image and then reach their destinations.

BTW, I took the risk and updated the device with Ver 9.0. Seems to be working much faster. In the city the route showns were pretty much accuarate. Need to test it on other routes and states.

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

I have used Geo Tag myself. For all my favourite/usual destinations, I have taken photographs of these places. Then reduced their size by around 60%, and using freely available softwares mark the GPS coordinates onto these images. JPG format has provisions for storing the geographical coordinates. Then in MMI, I can open the image and instruct it to take me to the geographic coordinates.

Another advantage is that I can share these pictures with any one, and they would also be use the image and then reach their destinations.

BTW, I took the risk and updated the device with Ver 9.0. Seems to be working much faster. In the city the route showns were pretty much accuarate. Need to test it on other routes and states.

Thanks!
How much did the up gradation cost you?

[sachinpk]

The upgradation costed me around Rs.990/-. We can pay the money online, they provide links to download the new files, with detailed instructions. A license file comes separately by e-mail.

[iVento]

Originally Posted by gearhead_mait

How much did the up gradation cost you?

I've got a used (1.5 year old) MMI RoadPilot II PND. Paid Rs.3000/- Found that that maps are rather old, v7.1 :(

Today, I have upgraded to Map v9 from the MMI website. Paid Rs.990/- for a Single Update Plan. Downloading the maps now. Total size Size is 743MB+20.5 MB.

The upgradation process is slightly cumbersome. I got the download link 7 hrs after making the payment, that too after reminding them 3 times. The activation file they are going to send me separately.

Anyway, happy to know that v9 works faster than the previous ones.

[sgiitk]

The bottom line is that in built up areas local knowledge beats any GPS. There has to be an algorithm, most probably AH > NH > SH > Local roads in terms of priority. In many areas the NH/SH have been taken over by the markets.

[sachinpk]

x-posted from Google Maps v/s MapMyIndia thread, as the below post is relevant on this thread as well.
----
Looks like MapMyIndia have pulled up their socks and improved their maps. Just back from a short trip in Goa. Had taken a car on rent, and used the MapMyIndia GPS all through the way. Starting from Bogamalo, I could reach the Naval Museum, Dona Paula, Regis Magos Fort and Fort Aguada. ashkamath Team-BHP-ian had suggested a scenic route via the Goa University, and the device was able to plot the route accurately. The device saved our time considerably, as we could just move on quickly rather than taking directions at every road intersection. Especially on our return journey our baby daughter had got visibly upset and had started whining, so reaching back at the base was important. And the device guided us through very accurately.

If maps are getting more and more accurate, I feel devices like MapMyIndia etc. would really catch up. Google Maps may gaining, but I find them very tiresome to use in a small mobile phone. As it is my phone is Samsung Duos whose battery backup is pathetic.

[Samurai]

MMI maps are very accurate. But the navigation software is seriously wacky.

Recently I decided to trust the MMI navigation to go to Kabini. And this is where is took us through. Thank goodness I have a 4WD vehicle.

A 4x speed video of the roads... Yes, all these mud trails were marked in the map. We were navigated through this maze via MMI in-Dash Navigator (ver 9).

Watch in 720p if possible for clear video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApdrXkTDV58

[gearhead_mait]

Originally Posted by Samurai

MMI maps are very accurate. But the navigation software is seriously wacky.

Recently I decided to trust the MMI navigation to go to Kabini. And this is where is took us through. Thank goodness I have a 4WD vehicle.

A 4x speed video of the roads... Yes, all these mud trails were marked in the map. We were navigated through this maze via MMI in-Dash Navigator (ver 9).

Watch in 720p if possible for clear video.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=ApdrXkTDV58

Yes. I also faced a similar situation while driving to Moregram from Burdwan (SH7).
It was beautiful 2 lane highway but after crossing the Ajay river, the MMI navigator suddenly instructed to turn right, where the road was like this:



But, I trusted my instinct and followed the straight path, and after about 300 metres there was a right turn which I took. It ran parallel to the original road (morrum road) suggested my MMI and eventually met with the road and MMI regained glory after about 3 kms.
To top it all, the voice navigation was mute during this interval, and the route taken by me for those 3 km was shown as dots.

But inspite of that, I would say MMI has been an awesome guide.

Thanks,
Soumyajit.

[R_R]

MMI has its difficulties, especially if you don't set the options correctly: if you check shortest route, it will take you on all sorts of strange routes. But my in-dash MMI device came in very handy during my recent trip on the Spiti Valley loop. The road repeatedly forked, without the slightest indication as to which of the two forks was the correct one. Since both forks were indistinguishable, we had to depend on MMI which invariably pointed us to the correct side of the fork. This happened so many times that we instinctively looked at the navigator when whenever we reached a fork!

R_R

[Traveller Nayak]

I am planning to buy Mapmyindia Vx140s Premium.

Would anyone know if this has the ability to plot the route taken? I am scheduled for a Leh trip and I am thinking it will be a good idea to have a GPS device which will at least help map the route taken - just in case I need to retrace the route - this may come in handy.