Lost In Space (or the UK)? Get the Navman GPS 4400! [Archive]

Philip Colmer

11-17-2003, 06:00 PM

Navman is well known for its GPS units but, so far, they have either been self-contained or sleeves specific for iPAQs. Until now. The GPS 4400 is their first GPS receiver to feature Bluetooth connectivity. It isn't the first Bluetooth compatible GPS receiver on the market, but Navman has a strong software offering, so how does the unit fare under strict Colmer testing? <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-POI.gif" /> <!> The Navman GPS 4400 combines the flexible SmartST routing software with a compact GPS unit that has a class two Bluetooth radio, supporting reception up to 10m (33ft). The multi-directional antenna can be augmented by an external antenna and provides accuracy of five metres 95% of the time. Or so the blurb goes … but what is it like in real life? What's In The Box? The GPS 4400 comes with:<li>CD-ROM of software and maps for your territory; <li>Adapter to power the unit from a car's cigarette socket; <li>Suction clamp for fitting the unit to a window; <li>Mount cradle for use with the suction clamp; <li>Alcohol swab, for preparing a surface to use; <li>Self-adhesive mounting pad if you want to stick the unit somewhere a suction clamp can't be used; <li>Armband; <li>Lanyard or wrist strap.These are all shown below in Figure 1. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-everything.jpg" /> Figure 1: What you get for your money You also get three AAA batteries for powering the unit and two screws to fit the mount cradle to the suction cup. Figures 2 and 3 show a size comparison between the unit and an iPAQ 3660 with a Bluetooth sleeve attached. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-above.jpg" /> Figure 2: Comparing sizes from an overhead view <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-side.jpg" /> Figure 3: Comparing sizes from the side Mounting the unit inside a car is easy if you want to use the suction mount. After screwing the mount cradle to the suction clamp, you use the suction clamp to hold the cradle in a suitable location and then slide the unit into the cradle. This has the advantage that you can leave the combination suction cradle in place yet slide the GPS unit into and out of the cradle when you don't want to leave it in the car. Figures 4 and 5 show the unit mounted in a car, from the internal and external perspective respectively. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-insidecar.jpg" /> Figure 4: The GPS unit mounted with the suction clamp - internal view <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-outsidecar.jpg" /> Figure 5: The external view of the unit mounted with the suction clamp If you don't want or can't use the suction clamp, the GPS unit has a non-slip pad so that it can be placed on a dashboard or rear parcel shelf. One thing you do have to be careful with when using the unit in the car is that some vehicles have an athermic (heat reflecting) or a heated windscreen, either of which can cause problems for the unit receiving signals from the satellites. Some retailers have notices on their Web site that such car designs are not sufficient grounds for returning the product if it doesn't work inside the car. The recommendation from the retailers and from Navman is to use an external antenna to get the signal to the unit. <PAGEBREAK> Setting Up Installation of the software is organised into a number of steps, the first being the installation of the installer onto your PC. This preliminary step allows you to pick the language you want for the rest of the process & the application. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-install1.GIF" /> Figure 6: The desktop installer For the rest of the process, the installer takes you through each of the steps required, starting with the installation of the SmartST software. SmartST is installed using ActiveSync. Once the software has been installed, it has to be activated, which requires an Internet connection. I didn't have a problem with the process in general, although I was a bit uncomfortable having to provide so much personal information such as my address & phone number. They should give you a choice of contact methods - post, phone or email - and ask you to provide the relevant information then. It should not be compulsory to provide all three. Thankfully, the second screen of demographic questions were all optional. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-install2.GIF" /> Figure 7: Installing the software onto the Pocket PC Activation took a LONG time. There seemed to be a progress bar in the window, but it didn't show anything until all of a sudden, it had shot all the way across to the end and the registration process was finished. The activation tool could do with providing better feedback to the user as to progress being made. I was using a high-speed Internet connection and it was taking a worrying amount of time to complete - I almost stopped the process to try again. Once the software has been installed and activated, you can install the maps. This process entails using the Map Downloader. As you can see from the figure, the downloader breaks the covered area down into segments. As you select each segment, it shows you how much space it will need. The right hand side of the downloader shows you how much memory is available in each of the three supported storage locations. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-install3.GIF" /> Figure 8: Installing maps If you are unsure as to which segment to choose, you can use the Find City tool (Figure 9). This allows you to enter the name of the city you are interested in. When you've matched a name, double-clicking on the name causes a shrinking circle to centre on the desired location and a red cross to be placed on the map. The problem I have with this process is that the red cross doesn't really do enough to tell you which segment you want - see Figure 10 for an example. It would be better if the tool either explicitly told you, or auto-selected the area for you. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-install4.GIF" /> Figure 9: The Find City tool <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-install5.GIF" /> Figure 10: Spot the red dot! Once you've made your selection, you tell the downloader where you want the maps to be stored. At first glance, it didn't appear that this was going to be a fast process - the downloading tool said that it was downloading the Southern England segment and it was going to take 16 minutes. Approximately 30 seconds later, it was telling me that the estimated time to complete was three minutes! Still, it was good to see a working progress indicator and reassurance that the process was working. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-install6.GIF" /> Figure 11: Downloading the maps <PAGEBREAK> User Interface Once you've done all of the installation work, you can start using the SmartST software ... well, almost but not quite! If you actually want to use the GPS unit, you've got to set up the Bluetooth connection first. This is documented very well in the manual - it takes you through each of the steps required with lots of screenshots. I'm not going to reproduce those steps here but it is reasonably straightforward:<li>Turn the GPS unit on; <li>Turn Bluetooth on if you've got it turned off; <li>From the Bluetooth Manager, get the COM port number for the outbound Bluetooth serial port; <li>Find the GPS device in the BT manager, if it hasn't already found it; <li>Connect to the GPS device.Note that it is not necessary to pair the Pocket PC to the GPS unit. After you've gone through the complete process, the Bluetooth software should remember about the GPS unit, thus avoiding the need to discover it again. Therefore, you only need to turn Bluetooth on and connect to the GPS device. When you first turn the GPS unit on, a blue light flashes twice every 1.5 seconds to show that it doesn't have a BT connection. After the connection is set up, the light flashes once every 1.5 seconds. If the battery starts to get low, the light changes from blue to red. Once you've got the Bluetooth connection sorted out, you can start using the SmartST software. It starts by taking you through a brief tutorial, explaining how the D-pad could be used, what tap and hold does and the menu navigation. You can turn the tutorial off for future start-ups. What you didn't appear to be able to turn off, though, was the licence agreement. It does seem a bit irksome that you have to agree to this every time you start the software up ... Having started the software, you have to tell it how to talk to the GPS unit over Bluetooth. This is done by specifying the port number that you got from the BT manager above and clicking on the button next to the COM drop-down list to open the connection. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-GPSno-fix.gif" /> Figure 12: Setting up the GPS connection As the system starts to determine its current location (getting the GPS 'fix'), it shows the satellite status in an arc. Figure 12, for example, shows that it is tracking eight out of the possible 12 satellites that are visible in half of the sky. After a while, the system settles down on which ones it is going to use and the display updates to reflect this, as shown in Figure 13. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-GPSfix.gif" /> Figure 13: After the GPS unit knows where you are This screen is useful if you are having problems with the system. It shows your current longitude & latitude, your bearing and speed, how many satellites it is using, whether it has a 2D or 3D fix and the time & date being received from the satellites. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-MainMenu.gif" /> Figure 14: The software's main menu <PAGEBREAK> The main menu is reached by pressing LEFT on the D-pad at any time. It is from here that you perform the initial GPS setup, adjust the volume and make any other setup adjustments (more on these later). The first two icons, though, are the key to setting up a route for the system to follow. There are several ways of specifying where you want to go:<li>Picking a pre-defined "Quick Nav" entry; <li>Picking a pre-defined "Favourite" entry; <li>Entering an address; <li>Specifying the intersection of two roads; <li>Selecting a Point of Interest; <li>Picking a recent trip; <li>Tap-and-holding on a location on the map and choosing "Navigate to"; <li>Doing the return journey.Figures 15 & 16 show the Quick Nav and Favourites screens respectively. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-QuickNavs.gif" /> Figure 15: Quick Nav selection screen <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-FavouritesPicker.gif" /> Figure 16: Favourite List selection screen The difference between Quick Nav and Favourites is principally one of numbers - you can only store three "Quick Navs", so these would be your most-used destinations. As you can see from the screenshot, Quick Nav also gives you easy access to picking the return trip or a recent destination as well. Specifying a favourite is easy - just find the location on the map, tap and hold, and choose Add to favourites, as shown in Figure 17. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-AddToFavourites.gif" /> Figure 17: Adding a new favourite Once you've specified your favourite destinations, it's another easy process to specify your three Quick Navs - just go into the Favourites selection screen and edit the three favourites in turn to specify which Quick Nav slot they are going to occupy. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-DestinationPicker.gif" /> Figure 18: Different ways of specifying the destination The remaining methods of specifying the destination are all grouped into a single screen, as shown in Figure 18. The easiest, entering the address, is shown in Figure 19. It is the easiest, but still not that easy to use. The idea is that you enter the road name and then the number. The problem is that the software is a bit quirky about the road name. For example, if you enter "trinity close", it doesn't match against anything. Instead, you have to enter "trinity", click on the drop-down list and then carry on typing in more letters. You can't always scroll down straight away because the software limits the number of results in order to economise on memory usage. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-AddressPicker.gif" /> Figure 19: Specifying the address I wasn't that happy with the fact that you could only specify the address and house number. In the UK, it is more common to accurately specify an address through the combination of a post code and a house number. Apart from accuracy, this is a lot easier to enter than a road name. I also have my doubts as to whether or not the software even uses the house number. It always failed to find the correct location of my home in the specified road. The next method of specifying the destination - Intersection - is even worse. In theory, it should work really well. As Figure 20 shows, you specify the two roads that intersect. The software, not unreasonably, is clever and once you've specified the first road, it limits the second list to be the list of roads that intersect with the first road. That way, it isn't possible to specify invalid combinations. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-IntersectionPicker.gif" /> Figure 20: Specifying a destination through intersection The problem is that I couldn't find any combination of roads that worked. In London, for example, Regent Street intersects with Oxford Street. The first problem is that the software lists NINE occurrences of Regent Street - two of which are in Soho and four in Mayfair. Similarly, Oxford Street is listed nine times, so it makes it pretty darn hard to find the right combination of Oxford Street and Regent Street. <PAGEBREAK> The final method that the software offers is points of interest. In order to be able make it as easy as possible for you to find the point of interest you are after, the software takes you through several filtering steps. The first, shown in Figure 21, allows you to pick a category. Now, the difficult thing about this is trying to identify which category is the right category, but no system is going to be perfect, so this is as good as any. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-POIpicker1.gif" /> Figure 21: Picking a category for the Point of Interest Once you've picked the category, you can pick the type of Point of Interest, as shown in Figure 22. This drop-down list is restricted to those types that are valid for the category that you picked earlier. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-POIpicker2.gif" /> Figure 22: Picking a type for the Point of Interest So, you've picked the category, you've picked the type. If you want to, you can further limit the number of results you get back by entering an area - this can be a town name, county or something similar. As an example, I entered London and clicked on the Next arrow. Figure 23 shows the first few results of cinemas in London. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-POIpicker3.gif" /> Figure 23: Cinemas in London Once you've found a point of interest that meets your needs or criteria, you can click on Show to just see the map with the point highlighted, or you can click on Go to get the system to calculate the route from where you are to the specified point. This feature works well in principle - so long as you know the name of the point of interest. There are some scenarios, however, where you might not know the name - you just know the type of "thing" that you are looking for. A good example is fuel for your car. You don't necessarily care what the name of the garage is - you just want one that is near you. Now, you can ask the software to give you all of the garages in a given area but what it doesn't do is show how far they are from where you are. It is possible to get the software to display POI icons on the map as you are navigating (as shown in Figure 24 below), so it might be possible to find points of interest as you go along your route … but that is only going to work if the locations are close enough to your route to be visible on the map. Once you've set your destination, the software goes off and calculates a route from your current location. It is also possible to use the software without GPS and specify a start point and an end point and get it to calculate the route. The software can display instructions for the route in one of three ways, as shown in the next three screenshots. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-POI.gif" /> Figure 24: Turn by turn instructions with the map <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-ExitScreen.gif" /> Figure 25: Instructions without the map <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-InstructionList.gif" /> Figure 26: Complete list of instructions In the mode shown in Figure 24, where it says "ETA", you can click to get other information displayed, including distance to go, time to go to destination, the current time and the current speed. You can zoom in and out by pressing up and down on the D-pad. However, the software does automatically change the zoom factor as you get closer to a turn so, unless you are stationary or in map mode (see below) the scale you select might not last long. Changing between the modes is done by pressing RIGHT on the D-pad. If you put the system into the mode shown in Figure 25, you can change the "ETA" area and the time area to show any of the display options listed above. The final display mode that the system offers is "map mode", as shown in Figure 27. In this mode, your current location is shown without any route instructions or other information. The other interesting difference between this mode and "turn-by-turn" mode is that in "turn-by-turn" mode, the orientation of the map is set to follow the direction you are driving in, whereas in map mode, the orientation of the map is always North. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-Navigating.gif" /> Figure 27: Map mode <PAGEBREAK> Putting It To The Test In order to see how well or badly the system performed, I decided to try it out on three routes: a very simple one (the way home from work), a slightly harder one (from home to a nearby shopping centre) and a journey that I've never done before. I was particularly interested in finding out:<li>How the re-routing performed; <li>How the software coped with UK road layouts, specifically junctions and roundabouts; <li>How the software announced the directions.My journey home from work is fairly straightforward and the software quickly picked the fastest route. I didn't want to go that way, though, because it gets snarled up with everyone else going home, so I tend to take a different route out of the city to join the main road home. The software spotted fairly quickly that I wasn't going the way it had suggested but did not tell me to turn around but, instead, calculated a new route based on my current heading and came up with one that matched what I was doing. The way the software handles roundabouts is excellent. It starts off by telling you in advance of the roundabout which exit you are going to take. Then, when it sees you have reached the roundabout, it tells you again which exit you are taking. Finally, as you go around the roundabout, it tells you to exit the roundabout. Figure 28 shows an example of what a roundabout looks like in the software. The white arrows show the one-way sections of road. The other key point about this screenshot is that your current location is shown in red, instead of blue, to show that you've lost GPS information. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-roundabout.gif" /> Figure 28: Navigating a roundabout The accuracy of the last turn announcement on a roundabout depends highly on how big a roundabout it is and how much distance there is between you getting onto the roundabout and getting off again. This is partly down to the accuracy of GPS itself and the maps that Navman are using, but also down to the way the software times its announcements. This behaviour was also noticed on slip roads off a major road. The software would tell you to come off the main road but often wouldn't tell you quickly enough where you were going from the slip road. If you didn't know the area, this could result in some last minute lane changing. The second journey really pushed the re-routing hard because although I asked the software to plan a route from home to the shopping centre, we were making a private detour on the way. The software tried to cope but did, at one point, end up recalculating a route that ended up taking us away from our destination. Luckily we knew the area well enough to ignore it and go the right way. The system did then sort itself out again and get the route right. One thing that was worrying, and the system did this twice on the above route, was that it missed out a step in the route. For example, we would be driving along a road and the next instruction would be to take an exit off a roundabout. What the software forgot to tell us was that we needed to turn right first to get onto the road that led up to the roundabout. This wasn't an issue of the maps being incorrect. In fact, the map display was accurate and correct - it was the steps in the route that were wrong. The final journey ended up being two journeys. The first was to go from our home to visit my step-son. The second was a little excursion from my step-son's home to a nearby park. The first journey went very smoothly and I was very pleased with how it got us almost to the front door. I say almost because of the inaccuracy of specifying the road & house number, as mentioned above. The second journey was not so smooth. This was partly because I was driving solely on the audio instructions. There were a couple of occasions where they left a lot to be desired:<li>The software told me to bear left as I approached a set of traffic lights. Once I reached the traffic lights, the software told me to turn right! Looking at the map, I cannot see why it wanted me to bear left. <li>The road signs suggested that I was approaching a roundabout, but the software didn't see it this way. Instead, it told me to bear left all of the time. Looking at the map, it does look as if the one-way pattern would prevent it from being used as a roundabout.In both cases, if I had been able to look at the display, I would have been more certain of where I was going. However, it is dangerous to take your eyes off the road, so Navman might want to look further into the audio announcements. Miscellaneous There are a number of pages to the setup part of the GPS software - they are pretty self explanatory, which is good. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-Setup-Display.gif" /> Figure 29: Display options <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-Setup-Guidance.gif" /> Figure 30: Guidance options <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-Setup-Routing.gif" /> Figure 31: Routing options The recording option causes the software to create a file that records all or part of the route. This is for use by Navman when diagnosing problems, which is a shame really as I could envisage possible uses for such a file. An example would be for an office to verify that a driver took the route they were supposed to take. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-Setup-POI.gif" /> Figure 32: Choosing which categories of POIs are displayed on the map <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/colmer-oct03-navman-Setup-Map.gif" /> Figure 33: Which maps are stored on your Pocket PC Since the GPS unit conforms to the NMEA standard, I was also able to successfully use the unit with Microsoft's MapPoint on my laptop and Pocket Streets on my Pocket PC. It was just necessary to connect to the Bluetooth serial port and then tell the product which port number to use. Navman plan to make updates to the maps available on a regular basis. It will also be possible for European owners to purchase the USA maps. They are expected to be available early in 2004 and retail for £149 or €219. <PAGEBREAK> Gotchas <li>Occasionally the GPS unit would lose sight of the satellites, which meant that the software was unable to continue tracking your position. In this situation, there was no audible warning so unless you were in a position of being able to look at the screen (something that is dangerous if you are driving), it could take you a while to spot this. <li>It can be a bit awkward turning the unit on and off because you have to hold the button down until the unit is on or off … but the only way you can tell is by looking for the flashing light, which is visible through the button you are holding down! It would have been better if the light had been visible on its own and not through the button. As it is, you have to try to press the button on one side so that you can still see the light. <li>It would be useful if the Point of Interest functionality could be enhanced to allow the user to find a POI of a given type based on distance rather than name. <li>The "intersection" functionality needs to be improved to make it more functional. <li>The verbal instructions need to be improved so that they don't mislead the driver. <li>The destination functionality needs to be improved to support post codes, or any locally similar mechanism for specifying addresses. <li>As you approach the next turn, the software gives you warning. I had the distance units set to miles, which meant that the software used feet when measuring short distances. My wife thought that announcing "900 feet" was a bit weird and was expecting a distance in yards. <li>As mentioned in the review, there were times, particularly when you come off a major road onto a sliproad, when the software doesn't move from one instruction to the next quickly enough, particularly with the verbal instructions. <li>The colour schemes need improving. Whoever designed the default scheme has failed the first major rule of user interface - never use red and green together! Red/green colour blindness is very common. Unfortunately, the software only gives you a choice of three schemes, with a day and a night mode. It would be better if you could define your own scheme.Where To Buy Navman in the US sells directly and through retailers. Navman in Europe sells only through retailers and I would suggest that you visit the company's websites to determine the most appropriate one for you. The retail price is £379.99, €539.99 or $399.95. Europe website: <a href="http://www.navman-europe.com/">http://www.navman-europe.com/</a> US Web site: <a href="http://www.navmanusa.com/">http://www.navmanusa.com/</a> Specifications The software requires 4,671K. It must be installed into main memory, but the maps can be installed onto a storage card. It should work with Pocket PC 2002 or Pocket PC 2003 so long as you have a compatible Bluetooth interface. If you have queries about this aspect, it would be wise to check with Navman first. The unit is 3.7" x 2.4" x 1.0" (95mm x 62mm x 26mm) and weighs 7.9oz or 223g without batteries. Conclusions Despite the long list of Gotchas, I am, on the whole, pleased with the way the unit worked out. The routes calculated have been very good, particularly if you don't know your way around. There are times when you would be better to have someone with you so that they can look ahead on the planned route to give you guidance beyond the verbal prompts, but they were few and far between. There were a couple of times when I literally drove just with the verbal prompts and I did manage to arrive at the correct destinations on both occasions :D The fact that the system lost sight of the satellites occasionally did worry me. I initially thought it might have been the batteries, but the light was still flashing blue. The problem didn't occur on the way home, so it was likely to be the location of the unit on the car's dashboard. I should have used the suction clamp :oops: Separating the GPS hardware from the Pocket PC works for me. It allows you to have the GPS unit in the best location for finding the satellites whilst letting someone hold the Pocket PC, or have it mounted in the car. Powering the GPS unit separately means that it doesn't place a drain on the Pocket PC and the three AAA batteries are supposed to last 30 hours - a good long route, then! Hopefully, Navman will make updates to the maps available at a reasonable cost, thus enhancing the investment of buying this product.