Re: Help with iway 500c

From: Jack Erbes (jackerbes_at_adelphia.net)
Date: 02/28/05 

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 11:00:54 -0500

Jerry Reed wrote:

> Hi Jack, Thanks for taking time to try to help me figure ou the
> interface with the iway 500. What is your pick of the available car
> mounted GPS systems that would be suitable for navagating a 35 ft 5th
> wheel around the country.
> Thanks again, Jerry

I don't have one myself. For my motorhome I am using an older laptop
and Street Atlas 9. That lies on the engine cover, NMEA input (serial)
is from a Magellan 330M wrapped in a handtowl and laying on the dash.
Cabling is a two-way splitter for the cigarette lighter and DC adapters
for the Magellan and laptop. Not the neatest arrangement as far as
cabling but it works.

The downside is that the mapping package is 4-5 years old now and
DeLorme won't update it because they want me to buy their newer software
which I hate and won't use.

For a stand alone package like the Iway 500 there are a number of
candidates that *may* work for you but unfortunately you have to
carefully dissect the online manuals (if available) to figure out if the
software is going to work for you.

If I could buy them and return them on a "no questions asked" basis I
would probably buy and try them at home and return them if they did not
work for me. If I were shopping for a stand alone I would look at items
like the Garmin StreetPilot and Magellan Roadmate lines. Anything that
runs Navteq software has already ruled itself out for me.

Maybe if we post of wanted features here, someone can tell us what does
or does not work.

My initial requirements would be to be able to:

1 - Preplan and save routes. And be able to do it without an active GPS
fix if I want.
2 - Set via points or waypoints to control or force alternate routings
and save them with the routes.

Once I'm driving I would want to be able to use hotkey keystroke on a
laptop or button push or pushes on a stand alone unit to do the
following things I can do with SA 9 on a laptop:

1 - Start and stop navigation
2 - Start and stop GPS status/info display
3 - Turn automatic panning and route calculations off and on.
4 - Manually pan North, South, East, and West
5 - Zoom in
6 - Zoom out
7 - Load a pre-planned and saved route
8 - Recalculate a loaded route (to update all the distances from current
fix)
9 - View the route details list
10 - Turn off display of route details

And I've probably forgotten a few other things I do routinely with the
SA 9/laptop combo.

I like being able to glance over at a laptop (11" or so) sized display.
  My navigator does most of the keyboard work for me at my prompting.
But I can also reach over and hit a key, or two keys with thumb and
index finger, and then a second or maybe third key for additional
commands to do all of the things above with SA 9. It is a moments
distraction, much like reaching to tune a radio or set a control on the
vehicle. I can glance up between keystrokes and am still paying
attention to driving.

For the most part, I don't mess with the laptop once I'm underway. I
pull off to do things like amending or revising the active route by
inserting via or stopping points. And on SA9 that is quick and simple
to do.

Jack 

-- 
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)
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