GPS Navigation System

[volsfan 43]

I am looking to get a GPS navigation system for my car. Anyone have any idea where I can buy one in town?

[Gary 4,125]

I am looking to get a GPS navigation system for my car. Anyone have any idea where I can buy one in town?

 

You will have to go to Bangkok to buy the best GPS and map available. Here is the link:

 

http://www.gadgetrend.com/index.php

 

Any decent Thailand map will be compatible with ONLY Garmin. If you have a Garmin there is only one other option that I know of. Google Rotweiler maps. Rotweiler maps have some glitches but are pretty good considering that ESRI Gadget Trend maps will cost you 12,000 baht. I use a Garmin with Rotweiler maps and have no major problems. The maps are supposedly free BUT you will have to pay a donation to download their maps.

[HILLY 9]

This is not going to be much help Bill but there is a shop on Sukhumvit that does good ones. It is on the left heading South between Central and North Pattaya Road on a corner. They sell retro fit or fit where the radio goes but has its own radio combined.

 

The screen slides into and out of the radio fitting so it does not look worth nicking if anyone looks. Dont stick the other sort on the dashboard unless you are prepared to take it out any time you leave the car in an unsafe area. (That means just about anywhere not guarded by straight security). So that means anywhere as well. Mine was factory fitted in my Volvo and pops out of the top of the dash so you cant see it when parked up as it automatically closes when the ignition is off like the radio type units do also.

 

Garmin is the only type to get or one that will run Garmin software as that is the one way ahead of the others in Asia and particularly Thailand. Now wait for the downsides.

 

You will get a book in English that will likely have no diagrams or pictures in it. It is about an inch thick and heavy going. Some of the features on the set are not described.

 

Searching for places ain't that easy either as everything has been translated from Thai to English using phonetics by someone who had their own idea on how to spell words and could not be bothered to look up the English translation. You will find that some hotels are miss-spelt in the software so if you don't succeed at first then add double letters where single ones should be or even change e's to i's etc.

 

You will hate the "search for" facility using the keyboard letters that are in alphabetical order rather that querty but dont worry about that as you have to select every letter and space one at a time. It likes to put letters in that you never asked for and to get rid of them you have to virtually start all over.

 

When you have done the above simply press find. If you miss-spelt it or the bloody speller did then it will hang for ages looking for something that does not exist before telling you nothing found. Even better is when it finds 2 thousand hits and lists them for you to scroll through for the one you want that likely wont be there. Never look for anything containing Sukhumvit as it will list a million places. Ahhh nearly forgot. When you get to the bottom of the list and want to recheck to see if you missed it the only way is to scroll from the bottom up but you have to do this anyway as the menu is at the top if you want to TRY to change the spelling.

 

One nasty little quirk is when it says you are off route which it does every time you cannot see the sats because you just went past a high building or are in Bangkok centre. In Bangkok it is bloody useless as every time you go under a fly over or the skytrain it keeps telling you it does not know where you are. Using your mileometre when you loose the signal combined with the last instruction you can get where you want to go sometimes.

 

Up dates come out about once a year but this does not mean that the latest roads built 2 years ago will now be showing. Around the airport dont trust it as if you go the way it wants you to go you will be using old slow roads and get stuck in congestion as the Thais wont pay tolls so use the free roads. Just another example of Thai logic here as it must be better to escape a 20 Baht toll than use 5 litres of extra gas to get where you are going. This must be the reason that the Skyway to Chonburi is always empty of traffic.

 

You will also get the piss taken out of you by your mates who dont have one.lol. It does list most golf courses but as they are always going bust and changing their names you need to know what they were called before to find them. Take yesterday for example. We were playing at Emerald near Bang Chang but that aint in the memory as it used to be called Century Bang Chang which is.

 

We drove straight up to the clubhouse where the others were sitting outside having libations and we unloaded the clubs ready for a caddy to take them from us. No caddies and no other fuckers around either. I went to protest at my mates libation table but apparently we had passed the bag drop on the way to the clubhouse. Can you believe that the bloody software jerks cant even put a "bag drop" position on a golf course? Scandalous in my books.

 

Anyway they are worth having and don't let me put you off mate as 90% of the time (after understanding how to use the little fucker) it will get you where you want to go. The other 10% of the time it might find some interesting short time areas though. Have a good map as a back up though.

 

Why not buy a unit with a built in DVD player and have the "when driving you cannot watch" function disabled. For best effect then get yourself a Thai driver and good insurance, Come on you know it makes sense.

 

If you get one then happy to save you some time in the understanding.

 

This post was edited by me cos I can't spell.

Edited September 12, 2007 by HILLY

[Gary 4,125]

I actually have two Garmin units. One is a 2610 Street Pilot that I swap back and forth between the car and the truck. It talks and has a fairly large screen. The other doesn't talk and is a hand held unit. (eTrex Legend CX) It actually does everything the big one does but beeps rather than talks. I like to use it when I'm on the motorbike and I keep it in the glove box when I don't want to bother with the big one. If I do get lost, I get it out of the glove box, turn it on and it knows exactly where I am at and will then guide me to wherever I tell it I want to go. The complete Thailand map takes more than 125 MB of memory. As purchased neither of them had enough memory. I bought one gig memory cards for both of them. If you buy one, I recommend buying one that you can easily upgrade the memory. I wasn't able to get the total Thailand map on the 2610 original 128 MB memory card.

[Taltos 7]

Do not forget to wipe the windshield so that the smear from the plastic ( do not know the word ) does not shows. That is often reason enough to brake into the cars here in Europe as lot of people only put the equipment in the glove partment.

[Gary 4,125]

Do not forget to wipe the windshield so that the smear from the plastic ( do not know the word ) does not shows. That is often reason enough to brake into the cars here in Europe as lot of people only put the equipment in the glove partment.

 

The Street Pilot 2610 sits on the dash on a beanbag. The beanbag is heavy and has a non slip fabric on the bottom. It stays where you put it and when you want to put it in the glove box, you just pick it up, unplug it and put it away. No marks and no suction cup.

[volsfan 43]

Gary,

 

Thanks for that link. I am going to look into that for sure.

[Taltos 7]

I somehow missed the link Garry provided. Is it just me or are they expencive? I want a Garmin 60 and they are almost the same price as here. I hope to find them in Singapore and cheaper.

[Cerberus 97]

Boydsound,

 

Take first U turn past the Bridge over Sukumvit when heading towards Bangkok and you will see it on your left about 500 metres after the U turn when heading back towards Pattaya.

 

They have all the Garmin units and different systems for the display, from slideout TV screens, to removable dashboard ones.

[Gary 4,125]

I somehow missed the link Garry provided. Is it just me or are they expencive? I want a Garmin 60 and they are almost the same price as here. I hope to find them in Singapore and cheaper.

 

The Street Pilot 2610 that I have costs 35,900 baht from Gadget Trend. I bought mine off eBay for less than 8,000 baht. I paid about the same for the eTrex Legend CX.

 

Buying a GPS unit is not the problem. Getting the maps is the BIG problem. Gadget Trend charges 12,000 baht to put the map on one unit and you can't use the map on your PC. If you want to look at maps and transfer information back and forth from your PC to the GPS unit, they want the ridiculous price of 32,000 baht.

 

I use maps from Rotweiler:

 

http://rotweilermaps.com/maps.cfm

 

He gives you two passwords so you can put maps on two units. The best part is that you can also use the maps on your PC. The maps are supposedly free but you will have to make a donation to be able to download them. The maps are actually pretty good and the donation is a fraction of what the ESRI map costs. There are some glitches but I have heard ESRI maps have glitches too.

[BigDUSA 71]

There are some glitches but I have heard ESRI maps have glitches too.

 

I have a Garmin Nuvi 350 that I use in the US. I've driven in NYC and even with all the tall buildings it manages to keep track of the sats. USA maps have glitches. Garmin makes a quality unit.

 

I would recommend guys going to Garmin's website and d/l the updates for your unit.

[davethailand 91]

Pop in and see Chris at East Coast Choppers in Jomtien as I'm sure he is a dealer for them, OK its a Harley shop but I'm sure the Garmins that are used on the bike are car compatible also.

[Gary 4,125]

Pop in and see Chris at East Coast Choppers in Jomtien as I'm sure he is a dealer for them, OK its a Harley shop but I'm sure the Garmins that are used on the bike are car compatible also.

 

The rugged Garmins built for motorcycles are called Zumos. They will set you back over $500 US even off eBay.

[davethailand 91]

The rugged Garmins built for motorcycles are called Zumos. They will set you back over $500 US even off eBay.

Blimey

[hybrid 1]

i've found the sat nav on my nokia n95 functional in thailand , even when i was in sakeo

i would say tho it was to good lol .. its got all the mud tracks on as well so the shortest route option is one hell of a bumpy ride .. was fun following it tho