Navigation with Tablet

[ron4adams]

Since quite a few high quality tablets have been incorporating GPS chips in them, it has become easier to navigate without cell or internet service. It seems like Good Sam is overdue for offering a navigation app which can make use of the Good Sam trip planning software. The software is very easy to use with a low learning curve and just as accurate as Google Maps. However, once the trip is planned on the computer it would be nice to be able to navigate the trip without using the Good Sam GPS device. I have begun using my LG GPad with CoPilot App installed and it seems to work great. My particular tablet navigates routes flawlessly without a sim card installed or internet access. I just don't want to plan all of my trips on the 8 inch screen of the GPad. Maybe Good Sam is working on such an app and will be available soon. Maybe some of you can put in a word to the IT department.

[ron4adams]

Wow Gdetrailer. I guess I better ask Copilot if my check is in the mail, since I posted my positive experience. Do you think every one's positive experience is BS, but your negative experience is "the truth"? I suspect you also think my positive experience with solar hot water for my home is also BS since everyone knows the sun only shines in the day time when there is no cloud cover.

By the way, you can load more than 100 stops on a trip with Copilot, and you can actually zoom in tight enough so you can actually see the roads that you will be traveling. If you use your "common sense" you can adjust your route before you even start driving.

Gosh, my tablet and computer allows me to set them so they never go to sleep mode and if I use my common sense to keep them plugged in they never close my apps. Of course, maybe I have the "wrong technology" or am just a shill for the equipment that I like using and have had good experiences with.

[Gdlow]

zigzagrv wrote:
I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

wholeheartedly agree here

[2012Coleman]

This discussion reminds me of the days when you went to AAA and got a Trip Tick

[zigzagrv]

Deleted

[valhalla360]

wa8yxm wrote:


With Google Maps I was worried the screen size on my phone woudl be an issue. but... Turns out that as you approach a turn the map "Zooms" in automatically and then back out (Not far enough by my standard) so it is not.

The only issue with google maps is is the battery on the phone gets low..
.

You can get a mount for a tablet and go as big as you like but really your average cell phone is as big as most of the stand alone GPS devices.

If the battery is dying...plug it in...

[JimBollman]

We use the free version of CoPilot as a replacement for paper maps so my wife can figure out where we are when we might want to do side trips or check the route the Garmin is taking us on. CoPilot does tend to be buggy, but usually works. I like our dedicated Garmins, we have a 2689 in our B and a 2589 in our car. I like being able to talk to the Garmins even though they often don't understand,it does save some stopping to reprogram most of the time. I would pay money for a better app than CoPilot that supported local maps but since it is just back up as long as Garmin continues to support stand alone units it isn't high on my want list.

Another point on the curve, a friend used a smartphone and Google Maps to come about 400 miles to our house. She was so frustrated with it, and the several hour longer it took her (operator error mostly) that when we made some local trips and she saw how our 2589 worked she bought one before she went back.

[Gdetrailer]

mich800 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

zigzagrv wrote:
I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

Can't tell, but almost a "shill" review, way to glowing of a report and leaving out a lot of pitfalls/shortfalls in a Tablet based GPS..

There is no reason you couldn't have added your experience without being condescending to another member who coincidentally been around several years longer than you. Good information is getting harder and harder to find on many forums I visit because many good contributors just leave rather than try to justify and defend their opinion.

"Member" may have been around the "forum" longer, but I HAVE been working with computers since the 1980s. I didn't just fall off the computer "apple cart" yesterday.

When I see "glowing" reviews WITHOUT pointing out possible downsides it often sets off my BS meter..

When I am looking for real world seat of the pants user info, I have often found the reviews which are all sunshine and roses are often not true.. Same goes for the really bad reviews..

I try to "balance" my view with plus AND NEGATIVE views, giving some real world "I have used this" type of feedback and here is my thoughts..

I am not going to sugar coat it, not going to fill your world with sunshine and roses and not going to BS you to death in order to get you and others to buy in..

I took "others" reviews of CoPilot which at the time seemed to have the lesser of complaints than competing Apps and we tried it. For us, it was much more of a hassle to get it to work the way we travel. I don't BLINDLY FOLLOW, I CAN think on my own and when CoPilot deviated from what I KNOW is the better routes it proved to me that it is not better than paper maps..

Yes, fundamentally, CoPilot DOES function as a "GPS", but from my own usage I can say that it may not be all of that glowing review. It DOES have flaws, it IS difficult to enter your destination, it doesn't do multiple destinations, waypoints or even have rest stops.

I suspect that a standalone dedicated GPS CAN perform GPS functions MUCH better than CoPilot AND provide MORE features at the same time.

[Gdetrailer]

zigzagrv wrote:
Gdetrailer: Don't know what Android tablet you have, but sounds pretty crappy to me. I have had almost none of the problems you have described, but you are right about POIs to an extent. There is a way.

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor ever have worked for Co-Pilot or any of their affiliates!

It was a brand new top of the line Acer Iconia, quad core processor.

Not "junk" by any means, in fact after having it installed discovered that CoPilot never "terminates", it stays running in the background using Tablet memory and battery.. Had to forcibly shut down CoPilot.

Blasted App was as bad as a virus.

Then CoPilot decided it must download an upgrade, yeah, you guessed it, it crashed its self during the upgrade..

Had to fully remove the App, then download and install the new version which we were never able to get the maps to download properly.. The maps would fail downloading after several hrs..

Fixed CoPilot, removed it then scanned in our paper maps..

MUCH BETTER than fighting with free junk..

One thing I have found with Android and "Apps", the OS is half baked and the Apps are also pretty raw also..

[sempka]

^^ x2
Gdetrailer: You must have used a very old version of Co-Pilot. I do agree with POI. I have not had the problems that you encountered. Route planning could be easier, but it does give alternate routes that can be selected.

[zigzagrv]

Gdetrailer: Don't know what Android tablet you have, but sounds pretty crappy to me. I have had almost none of the problems you have described, but you are right about POIs to an extent. There is a way.

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor ever have worked for Co-Pilot or any of their affiliates!

[mich800]

Gdetrailer wrote:

zigzagrv wrote:
I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

Can't tell, but almost a "shill" review, way to glowing of a report and leaving out a lot of pitfalls/shortfalls in a Tablet based GPS..

There is no reason you couldn't have added your experience without being condescending to another member who coincidentally been around several years longer than you. Good information is getting harder and harder to find on many forums I visit because many good contributors just leave rather than try to justify and defend their opinion.

[Gdetrailer]

zigzagrv wrote:
I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

Can't tell, but almost a "shill" review, way to glowing of a report and leaving out a lot of pitfalls/shortfalls in a Tablet based GPS..

Tried CoPilot a few yrs ago, while it DOES "work" to a certain extent, we found that it is a very poor "replacement" for maps and highly doubt that it is "better" than a "dedicated" GPS.

Here is a list of "quirks", issues and shortfalls we found with CoPilot and a Android tablet.

#1 You get GPS OR "Tablet", not BOTH. In a nutshell, once you start CoPilot, NOTHING else on that Tablet can be used without causing Copilot to crash and burn. I suspect the same holds true with a Android phone.

#2 Sleep mode on the Tablet causes CoPilot to loose it's mind, waking up the Tablet causes CoPilot to have to START ALL OVER AGAIN. That means CoPilot acquire Satellites which can take 10-15 minutes, then you have to REENTER your Destination AGAIN..

#3 ANY interruption of CoPilot like sleep mode starts your trip over from scratch, but CoPilot gets highly confused when you are no longer AT THE BEGINNING of your trip route. Takes a long time for CoPilot to figure out where you are then often creates a NEW ROUTE from the original route based on the NEW LOCATION..

#4 Tablet may sip battery power for any other tasks, but start up Copilot and your battery life goes in the dumpster..

#5 Plugging in charge cable at any time while you have CoPilot running due to point #4 above causes CoPlilot to crash and restart the process.. This is a maddening thing to have happen while on the way..

#6 CoPilot using OFFLINE MAPS has NO REST STOPS or "points of Interest", At least with Paper maps they DO at least show REST STOPS.

#7 CoPilot (at least the version we had) had NO WAY what so ever to put in multiple destinations (points of Interest and your final destination in one trip).

#8 CoPilot did not have good routing, often wanting to take us on roads we KNOW we do not want to be on, either taking us through small towns with tons of 25mph zones and stop lights or going ALL Interstate..

We used CoPilot on a trip that we have done for nearly 20 yrs and from trial and error over those yrs we have figured out many roads we DO NOT WANT TO TAKE EVER AGAIN..

#9 The only way we were able to FORCE CoPilot to use the routes we desire was to create extremely short hops, pretty much using a paper map to find towns we KNOW are on our trip. The as we got to those towns we entered an new trip from that town to the next town..

Maddening to say the least..

#10 Offline maps are HUGE, you only want to download the SPECIFIC STATES you are planning to go through.. Otherwise it WILL take overnight or even 24 hrs to download the entire USA map.. Don't download the entire map if you have very limited storage space.

#11 "Accuracy" in "rural" areas was extremely poor, starting CoPilot at our home location was an adventure. CoPilot could never nail down our home location accurately, often showed our home starting location 1 to 10 miles away, never the same place either.. Church parking lots, farmers fields, grocery stores, gas stations but never where our home is..

Now that I have pointed out a few of the minus's, here is a couple of Plus's..

#1 CoPilot "free" was "free", didn't miss the silly voice instructions once the "trial" period was over, hated that stupid thing. Wouldn't buy CoPilot paid version just to get that annoying voice nanny.

#2 Nice to have "real time" destination time while traveling, found that once you get past all the hassles above, the times were often not far off.

#3 "Night mode" was nice, at least could see the "map" in the dark without turning interior lights on.

Over all feelings about Tablet based "GPS", not impressed.

If "CoPilot" is "BETTER" than a dedicated GPS unit then I can say that I will NEVER bother with any "GPS" ever again..

Folks, GPS is nothing more than a "tool", as such it truly does not "replace" paper maps AND your brain.

Our one trip with Tablet based GPS was frustrating and was not worth the effort we gave it..

[zigzagrv]

I started using Co-Pilot on my Android tablet a couple years ago and find it is the best GPS unit I have ever had. I bought a mount for tablets and have it mounted inside on the wall just below the outside mirror. Very convenient. You can also preplan trips with Co-Pilot. I usually pre-plan each day of the trip and load it up each morning before hitting the road.

[Dick_B]

Maybe I'm behind the curve but I like my Garmin GPS that rests on the dash and both of us can see it to be sure I make the correct turns. I must confess, however, that sometimes the GPS is behind in the latest highway information and my smart phone takes over.