Confused as to what form of 4x4 navigation to use

[grhyso]

I'm hoping those with experience, especially of Perth, surrounding areas and the South West could help me with choosing what form of GPS navigation I should be looking at. I've been going over options and ideas for the best part of 2 months and have probably cut some options out but am now now sure which way would be best for me.

Options! (Far too many)

1. Incorporate offroad nav into a new stereo screen
2. Buy a dedicated offroad navigation unit
3. Buy a Garmin GPS and add either Garmin topo or Oztopo maps
4. Buy offroad maps for my current Android 10" tablet (Or buy a smaller 7-8" tablet for the same option)

Options 1 - From my searching of the net if I fit certain Kenwood Navigation systems these run Garmin road mapping and are upgradable with Garmin topo maps.
Pros - All in one unit
Cons - Cost, no free road map upgrades, less accessible for trip planning (although someone may know, is it possible to plan on Garmin basecamp program and upload waypoints and routes to the unit?)

Option 2 - Easiest option although seems like a one trick pony. Options I've found so far are VMS, HEMA, Mud Maps M7 and Dualnav7.
Pros - easy, buy it and use it.
Cons - Price, one trick pony, worried for the large initial expense it will be pretty well left in the draw until I go on a trip which could be a couple of months.

Options 3 - This seems like one of the better options. Preferably get a garmin 2797 for around $280 and dick smith advertise harmin topo for $50 on their website (RRP $229) or oztopo for $229. I would like to see some of these maps around Perth to see if I'm buying something worth $500. It doesn't seem you can get offroad maps for tomtom and navman supply HEMA routes of major tracks like CSR and Gibb River road on some units.
Pros - Free lifetime on road map updates, appear to be one of the better options for mapping.
Cons - again worried about leaving in a draw until I go away or need a GPS to find an address which I can generally do with my phone anyway.

Options 4 - I have already installed Androzic and memory-map to my Galaxy S3 phone and Toshiba tablet. I downloaded the trial HEMA maps and found them absolutely terrible. The free Austopo 250 were 1000 times better when I went 4wding on the weekend although I'd still like better mapping than this. I also have the natmpas that down under so kindly linking on here. They were also quite good but again I found Austopo 250 a bit better. My only reservation with this option is what maps can I buy? other than HEMA there arent' any more that list in memory maps digital map store? The other option is to buy oziexporer, having personally never used this I'm not sure what the differences are to Androzic, do you get maps with ozi?
Pros - Cost, we already own the tablet so just need to buy a ram or windscreen mount and software plus we use it for other stuff so I don't feel the money is as wasted.
Cons - Not sure on how wide a variety of maps there are?

As you can probably see I am leaning towards options 3 or 4 at this stage. Although having read about the Dualnav7 I am quite impressed with the amount of maps you are provided with as well as with 3D imaging of terrain etc. Anyone else's experience or advice would be great, I am very worried I'll spend a large wad of cash and be unimpressed with what I get as the majority of navigation seems to be aimed at the east coast of Aus. I am looking for something that shows more around the Perth Hills and down around the south coast of WA like Dwellingup, Collie, Brunswick etc etc.

Hope some people can help me! Cheers

[Downunder35m]

I can only speak from the little experience I gathered over the years and what once seemed to be "state of the art" is no considered obsolete.
Apart from Garmin it does not really matter what type of off road system you seek.
Anything will run either on Windows CE/WM or on Android.
This goes for the big players like Hema and VMS as well as less known brands.
Considering Microsoft has stopped all support for CE and WM it is clear that systems based on that will soon be obsolete.
Of course this is for new devices, second hand and Chinaware not included!
For the user it makes no big difference if he has the same map running on CE based system, an Android or the laptop - the map stays the same!
So it only comes down to good hardware and the software a user prefers.
Android is the way to go, unless you like being annoyed by the rotten apple.
I consider Androzic at the current stage as not fully useable for AU/NZ as most of our local Datums and Projections are missing in the database for the program.
Ozi Explorer runs pretty well and stable now on Android and offers the use of customs menus - so if you don't like it you skin it
The skin editor is pretty easy to use and it only takes a couple of hours to have Ozi looking the way you want and showing the features/buttons you want.
Still considered to be in the early stages but Ozi supports all local maps.

Garmin is in a league of its own and it depends on the deal you can get.
At least life time road maps should be included and for devices that offer topo maps and off road navigation a decent map should be included.

Some people here already know that I prefer to create the maps for my local trips myself, either some online sources or prefered from up to date paper maps.
IMHO off road maps, apart from pure topo maps, are overrated if they are from the paid section.
You might wonder why so I'll try to explain:
Most of the digital maps are created from paper maps, that means only if there was a new paper map (or these days direct digital map) created you supplier can hand out better maps.
For example, if you check the releases of the Hema maps you will notice that most maps have not changed over the years.
Some got minor updates in terms of closed tracks, changed permits but nothing really major.
When it comes to digital mapping data you only have one provider in Australia: Sensis
Garmin and Teleatlas offer maps based on Sensis data bought in the past that is now updated with own data.
The only "alternative" is Open Street Maps, where the users create and provide the new mapping data through real life track logs.
Satellite data is available from quite a few providers for free but all have a destinct lack of track details often combined with low resolution images.
With Nearmap gone greedy and longer offering affordable downloads our options are limited.

I would say the most affordable way to get a system and maps is either a good Garmin deal or a good Android device with Ozi Explorer for off road use and Igo Primo for Road use.

I'm pretty sure if we all scan our good paper maps we should be able to cover most of the interesting areas in very good detail.

[sharkcaver]

But the biggest problem of all for us in the West is sourcing good maps in the first place. We are the poor cousin in regards to our mapping over here. Old, antiquated maps and no chance in my lifetime of new mapping data becoming available. As has been said, your choice of mapping software will be only as good as the maps you can feed it.

Personally if you have a droid tab, I'd save a lot of expense and put ozi droid on it. But then you need maps, cause you only get the moving map software. But if you wanted to fork out some dollars, I'd look into a combo stereo/nav indash package that can run both autorouting road mapping and oziCe. End up with a far better music system to boot by that option.

The best mapping I've found to date for the area you suggested is DEC's COG maps. Purchased from landgate for $400 or so. That said, any mapping product I've purchased has been a let down for the dollars spent. But you don't have a lot of choice really, unless you get a copy of someones scanned images.

If you want screen clips, post me a co-ordinate.

[wrexy]

Life time updates are manufacturers definition of product not for as long as the unit functions. It may be only until a new OS is used or a significant update in product is released.

[HSV Rangie]

I run Ozi on a samsung 10.1 tab 2 in the car.

Have the full ozi on laptop at home.

Works well for me.

Michael.

[Downunder35m]

For those in WA:
Please check out the online mapping for Bing maps.
Don't focus too much on the big cties as for that we have street navigation.
If you know areas that have bad and outdated mapping/missing tracks and so on, check on the Bing map if they are any good.
I have checked a few of the still available providers and so far only Bing offers track names for smaller tracks in the areas I checked in WA.
Google and Yahoo miss most of the minor tracks, compared to Bing but I'm almost certain you guys ther will be able to make better judgements.

In case the Bing data is any good I might be able to provide Ozi maps for selected areas.

[Fritterbug]

Android and Ozi with whatever maps you can get your hands on.
It is great to be able to scan your own maps of National Parks or obscure places etc.

As for which device that is personal preference.
I use my Samsung S3 phone as it is always with me. I find the 4.8in screen good enough and easy to windscreen mount.

I have used Ozi for over 10 years on various devices so it is a no brainer for me.

As for Androzic it is a blatant rip off of Oziexplorer so I don't know how it still exists in the Play Store.
Genuine Ozi costs $25 from their website and is worth every cent.

Given you already have the hardware this makes for a cheap way to go as well.

[Downunder35m]

A sample from a different source, covering the area between Lake Austin and Lake Noondie : Please check if track coverage and detail level would be ok.
That is all I could offer in terms of map sources, if you need more details you have to supply proper paper maps

[MattC]

I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with Oziexplorer and a mixture of maps on it. Have it mounted on a Ram Floor mount and cradle. Works really well.

[Stevie-Ray]

Today in Drive; http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor..._newsletter_v1
Like that Ram floor-mount for the Samsung Galaxy Note, & although some might find it too low-down, I'm the sort of driver who looks up destination then goes there without looking at map again.

[grhyso]

Cheers for all the opinions and experiences guys, got a bit more searching and scouring the net I think.

One thing I'd be interested to know is, If I were to buy the Garmin topo maps which are a .img file I think, is it possible for me to convert these to an ozi explorer file for use on an android phone/tablet.

[sharkcaver]

One thing I'd be interested to know is, If I were to buy the Garmin topo maps which are a .img file I think, is it possible for me to convert these to an ozi explorer file for use on an android phone/tablet.

Not possibly i'm sorry. And I hear Oztoppo V3 is a far better product than Garmin toppo oz. And I also believe OZtoppo's road maps are now autorouting as well. So if ever considering Garmin topoAus, look deeper into Oztoppo. But all that wont help you with a droid

[grhyso]

So I've narrowed this down to basically android or garmin.

Android I can run on my 4.8" S3 screen or 10" toshiba tab or I can buy a tax deductible 7-8" tab which is closer to my preferred size I feel.

I suppose the issue I'm having in deciding is finding decent maps to run in Ozi, they sell 100K topo maps on their website and as previously mentioned I can buy maps from Landcorp but these are expensive. The only paper maps I have seen to buy are Hema maps which I don't find very good.

On the Garmin Oztopo is 25K topo maps. My reservation with the garmin is it's a one trick pony, unless I'm heading out bush it won't get used much.

In my now very knowledgeable mapping mind the smaller the scale the better the map? Any other places I should look for maps?

cheers again for your help

[Fritterbug]

In my now very knowledgeable mapping mind the smaller the scale the better the map? Any other places I should look for maps?

cheers again for your help

Depends what your doing.

Travelling long distance then small scale.
Driving around a state forest then large scale.

As for maps you will be surprised what turns up if you google Oziexplorer file extensions

[Downunder35m]

Other way around
1:25k is a very detailed scale, 1:250k a map that shows major things but not much detail.
By the way Garmin can be use on raod and off road
I can help with some maps for Vic and some others created from online sources - there should be a thread with them somewhere here...