hi folks,
when navigating twisty roads in unfamiliar territory i found it useful to have one's gps giving you a sense of what's ahead. however, for this to work the "zoom" or "scale" of the unit need to be set at the right level - i.e. the screen should show maybe a mile of the road ahead, not more. i call this the "twisty bits setting"
problem is, the gps i have constantly auto-zooms the resolution (scale) of the map based on some weird algorithm. when i zoom in it invariably will zoom out automatically shortly after. my unit does not support selecting a fixed map scale. what i'd like to do is get a new nav that has this feature. i've been checking multiple units in stores, and tried to read online manuals but can't find mention of such a feature. i concluded that it exists on some units but isn't easy to discover BEFORE one buys it!
anyone here use their nav in the same way, and if so, do any of you know if your particular model nav has a fixed "twisty bits setting"? if so i'd appreciate to know what model you have, as i'd like to buy it!
(i'm also looking at the tom-tom iphone app, and am wondering whether it has twisty bits support)
-aw1.
aw1,
I did use detailed zoom to anticipate the upcoming twists and turns for unfamiliar roads on my very old Garmin iQue 3600. It is very helpful particularly at night or in fog when visibility is limited. Knowing how sharply a turn is ahead of time helps you decide how fast to go... The iQue 3600 (bought in 2003) was stolen this summer from my mini van; so bought a new Garmin Nuvi 265w. I've not tried the detail zoom yet with this unit, but will have an opportunity to do so later this week. Will report back then. Generally, when a quidance page comes up, these units auto zoom out of the detailed setting and you'll have manually zoom in again for your purpose.
hey woofpack (funny name btw),
interesting, thanks for sharing.
i just recently checked out a reasonably high-end garmin at the costco in-store display (a running unit) and was disappointed to see it didn't have twisty bits support. so it will be interesting if your unit does!
constantly reaching into the unit to set the zoom back "in" when navigating twisty bits doesn't work for me, especially when both hands are needed to manage the turns!
I use a Motorola Q9h with CoPilot Live (either v7 or v8) and the "twisty-bits" setting works just fine. There is no autozoom functionality.
Hopefully you're thinking of previewing the route before you get into the car, and not watching the GPS for what's ahead while driving.
Personally, having driven HWY 1 from Bay area to Monterey with a Garmin 360,... I found it much more useful to keep an eye on the road and take blind turns slow. The GPS helped a little bit, but didn't really put things in perspective... One time I actually took uphill, hairpin a bit faster than I should have thinking the turn wasn't that fast. Just my 2 cents.
If I remember correctly, PCM can do that!
