Cheap navigation - Mio Moov and OziExplorerCE

[pudestcon]

It looks good Dexter,

 

I assume you will paint the screws black to blend in:big_grin:

 

What size screen is the Navman S50? I have one of the 7" no name brands talked about previously in this thread and I'm going to be flat out trying to find a place to install it in the T500 - I think your idea might work for me though. How's the glare/reflections in bright sunlight? Thanks for posting the photos.

 

Pud

 

 

[Tracktop]

Go the Mio not the Navman way - for air use anyway - may Navman is streets in front of the Moi for the car ( no pun intended) but the MIO is much better and easier to run Oziexplorer on.

 

 

[HunterJ]

Hi All

 

Used my Moov 370 in the Tecnam over the weekend - took the missus for her first jaunt with me in preparation for our odyssy to Natfly.

 

As Norman May said "Gold Gold Gold" - standard mounting bracket clung to the panel like you know what to you know what, no problems with the sun and a snack to use in the air.

 

Did a number of waypoint changes and flew the tracks - all good and even the 'boss' in her abject terror was able to read and operate the unit.

 

Its hard not to go exploring through the back end of this gadget - yup I did and got a bit wayward a couple of times but worked it out in the end - again all good.

 

Found using a stylis very handy which gave quick and accurate selections - may be handy for those with larger fingers but not essential.

 

Only down side was that I could only get 2 hours out of the battery soooooo in goes the cigarette lighter socket tomorrow.

 

Slarti is going to be very intoxicated at Natfly when those of us who will be there shout him to thank him for his help and knowledge.

 

Cheers

 

HunterJ

 

 

[kth_logan]

Taking the plunge

 

I have been watching this thread for a while now...Slarti you must be so busy helping all your fellow aviators out. I can tell they all appreciate it..

 

Today I have taken the plunge and ordered a Mio Moov 300 and will see if I can get this all configured..

 

Will keep you posted of my progress.

 

Have a good easter guys..safe flying...too many mistakes being made recently.

 

Regards

 

Keith

 

 

[kth_logan]

Ready to go.

 

I have got the Vio 300 (very good for $99):thumb_up: and it works well in the car for normal driving better than the old original Tom Tom..

 

What I have done so far is to load the files to unlock onto the SD card. But I do not think I have unlocked it yet.

 

Can you guys shed some light onto this for me. How do I know it is unlocked now?i_dunno

 

Have ordered OziExplorer and maps from Maptrax - ready for the next stage.

 

Regards

 

Keith

 

 

[slartibartfast]

If it is unlocked, it will reboot once during startup and leave you in a desktop with lots of icons.

 

If you have followed the instructions you found for setting up MioPocket, you will get there.

 

It's almost impossible for me to guess where you went wrong. That's why I offer to do it for people. The most likely is the name you used for the folder on the SD card where you put all the files. If you have a Mio 300, it should be Cobia_400_64_AU.

 

Feel free to post it to me and I'll get it working and send it back - gratis. PM for my address.

 

 

[mechfx]

Count me in for 1 please , will pm you today....

 

 

[Brett]

Just a thanks note to Ross for helping me out as well ,,,much appreciated :thumb_up:

 

 

[mechfx]

Arrived today, play tomorrow..... big thanks..

 

Art

 

 

[mechfx]

another happy customer, well done Ross.:big_grin:

 

 

[kth_logan]

Mio Navigation

 

Ross,

 

have been running around with this in my car for some time.

 

Was on a (Solo) navigation yesterday and turned the unit on twice to see if it was working OK...It was great...just confirmed my calculations...awesome.:thumb_up:

 

Many thanks for your help, it makes me feel a little bit safer...for the confirmation aspect.

 

Also used it on the ground for distance and heading information...of the route I flew yesterday.

 

 

Regards,

 

Keith..

 

 

[ianboag]

el cheapo Chinese GPS's

 

Could be that I'm trying to teach my granny to suck eggs here Ross. :-)

 

There's a lot of good stuff round about "unlocking" various models of these. I seem to have found a real simple way to run OziEzplorerCE with minimal drama (no unlocking sequence) so I'll pass it on ...

 

When the ecCGPS fires up it has a menu with GPS - bluetooth - music - video - massage your feet - whatever. There is an entry in this menu (twoards the end) called "setup" or "settings" - shows as two gears on the both the (otherwise quite different) units I have played with.

 

If you select this entry and follow your nose you get to an item called "nav path". It shows something like \SDMMC\AMIGO\AMIGO.exe or something like it. This is the normal "street etc" GPS stuff.

 

Assuming that your GPS has a SD card of some sort, load OziExplorerCE on to it in a folder called OziCE (or whatever name takes your fancy). This will involve ActiveSync or something similar and is well documented elsewhere. The OziExplorer page is as good a place as any.

 

When you have done this, take the GPS to the Select>Nav path place, press the arrow to the right of the AMIGO etc program name, then scroll into the OziCE on the SC card folder and select OziExplorerCE.exe. Press the floppy disk symbol at the top RH of the screen to confirm the selection. The navigation app name should now show as \SDMMC\OziCE\OxiExplorerCE.EXE. Press "x" to go back to the main GPS menu.

 

Now when you select "Navigation" you get OziExplorerCE. All the other functions are still available too. If you need it for driving, just go to Setup>Nav path, select the orginal AMIGO or whatever and it's back how it was.

 

Cheers IB

 

 

[slartibartfast]

All perfectly accurate Ian, but those cheapo GPSs are not locked, they already run a fairly complete version of Windows CE. So there's no need to unlock them. What you describe is changing the path to the program which gets run when you click "Navigation".

 

I did that for Pud and Turbo, but they both found that the screens are not bright enough on the 7" models. Haven't tried any others.

 

Caveat Utilisor.

 

 

[ianboag]

Some of them even let you find the Windows folder and you can specify explorer.exe or shell.exe as the "nav" program.

 

Wahoo. Too easy. :-)

 

Who needs unlocking when there's an already open door?

 

Cheers IB

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Have you found one of these cheapo devices that's usable in the air Ian? The only ones I've seen have been too dim and badly affected by glare. I'd love to hear of any good ones.

 

 

[ianboag]

Haven't got as far as "air" yet .... Still georefing NZ VNCs and making up waypoint lists and all that.

 

IB

 

 

[ianboag]

I have been mucking round with the el cheapo 4.3's on the ground and can see what you mean about bright light washout.

 

However. It surely can't be beyond human ingenuity to make a sunshade out of a black plastic folder. One sees commercial ones advertised for $30+ so a homebrew one should be possible for a tenth of that?

 

Tomorrow I get to try it all out on a 7" one ....

 

I like the idea of a GPS that enables one to locate a chart position instantly ... my other fiddle is that I scanned the NZ VNCs and made up a "road atlas" that one can actually use in the cockpit. CAA of course have all sorts of reasons why it's inappropriate but I've just figured that I need to say on the front page that "this is not be used for navigational purposes" ..... :-)

 

 

[pudestcon]

However. It surely can't be beyond human ingenuity to make a sunshade out of a black plastic folder. One sees commercial ones advertised for $30+ so a homebrew one should be possible for a tenth of that?

It's not the direct sun that needs to be shaded ian - that's the easy part. What I've found is that the reflections from inside your cockpit or vehicle does the damage - even the light from your shirt or skin, even your hand on the steering wheel in the case of ground use in a vehicle is faithfully reflected back to the screen.

 

I would love to hear about it if you solve the problem, so good luck with it!!

 

Pud

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Hi IB,

 

What you suggest in post #264 is what I tried with my cheap chinese 4.3" GPS which is basically a touch-screen PDA running windows CE6.0 with a GPS built in.

 

It turned out the 4.0GB SD card had some sort of copywrite protection. Not only could I not back it up onto my PC (although at first it appeared I did as all the folders appeared in the backup destination, its just that they were empty), but I also could not write OziExplorerCE onto the 4GB SD card even though it had more than 2GB of free space. My futile attempts eventually corrupted the card and I had to order a replacement SD card from the eBay vendor for $40 to be able to continue using it as a road GPS.

 

In the end I have to swap cards to change from road to aviation use or vice versa. Just something to be aware of, unless you have the hack for the road GPS card.

 

Cheers,

 

Glen

 

 

[ianboag]

the el cheapo GPS thing

 

I got a 7" one. All reflective, dark, low light, shirt reflection showing etc etc. First I pulled the protective plastic off the screen which helped.

 

Then I fired up the road GPS app. It had an option for "night"or "day". Turned it to "day" and suddenly the screen looked a lot more readable. I admit I haven't tried it in a plane or in a car on a really bright day, but it didn't look too awful. I found the backlight button in "settings" and turned it up to max. That helped some more.

 

So I loaded up OziCE. The "world" map looked fine, but my scanned VNCs were a bit dull and didn't have enough contrast. So I put the map JPGs through Paint Shop Pro and tweaked the histogram a bit. It's looking a lot better - I haven't entirely got there yet, but I think I can see the day when I have eminently readable moving-map VNCs on a 7" screen that is totally cockpit friendly.

 

Progress - two steps forward and one back .... it's like walking up a pile of gravel :-)

 

IB

 

IB

 

 

[Gibbo]

Found this little critter..

 

Noni GPSPlot

 

Freeware with donation. Forum has hundreds of instances of automotive GPS adaptions.

 

Has the abilty to import Google earth and 'other maps'. Also able to import CSV files for points.

 

Gibbo

 

 

[ianboag]

I now have it all loaded properly on 4.3" and a 7" el cheapo Chinese machines.

 

Brightness is not an issue - I can read the 4.3 one just as easy as the 7. The 7 has a more contrasty and "TV-like" screen. If I set them both up with the same map image at the same zoom and hold it at arms length there is no difference in readability. If anything I prefer the 4.3 screen.

 

Go figure.

 

 

[Upthere]

Need Help

 

I have a 7” GPS with a 4GB SD card which is working great.

 

I recently purchased a MIO Moov 370

 

I took the SD card out of the 7” and placed it into the Mio 370.

 

Unlike the 7” I cannot get the 370 read or to show were SE card is.

 

Do I have to unlock the Moi 370, if so can you explain how.

 

Or can you tell me what I am doing wrong.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Hi Upthere.

 

Yes - you need to unlock the Mio.

 

All the instructions and downloads can be found here.

 

If that all looks too hard, I can set it up for you on an SD card and post it to you.

 

Cheers,

 

Ross

 

 

[pradeep]

Hi Upthere,

 

I got my Moov 370 yesterday and spent lots of time to figure out why it isn't reading/showing the SD card on XP (on linux it showed the card but didn't open it). After several hours of struggle I ended up in copying the files to the (flash) rom itself. It was a risk I prepared to take, if something goes wrong you may end up with a brick, luckily I was managed to unlock it.

 

Now everything works fine. But some extra steps need to be taken, like you have to select the Moov mode to connect to usb and so on. But overall I am happy.

 

I can post you what I did to unlock, if you want, but remember these are not risk free, it worked for me and hope it will work for you too.

 

Regards,