 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |
 |  |
 |
 |
 |
 | |  | |
|
| ||||
| Barry Crawshaw fits MS5500 George
Collings fits ZT50 Barry
Parkes fits ZT16M |
| Developments with VDO | |||
|
Barry
Crawshaw monitors the MS5500. | |||
|
MMM MONITORED PRODUCTS - Developments with VDO In
the light of experience In April 2002 (p163), I described the early months of an extended trial of the VDO Dayton MS5000 navigation system. This covered the equipment and its installation, and my initial experience during the first few hundred miles of use. Here I shall mention some of my reactions after a full year's use of the system, and developments that have taken place with the equipment that is on the market. Understandably, I have developed quite a dependence upon the thing, with its disembodied imperturbable voice crystal-clear maps, and comprehend-at-a-glance diagrams of junctions. As most of my driving is on unfamiliar roads, the VDO (as I call it, for short) has restored even solo driving to being a pleasure instead of a pain. However carefully I prepare a route plan from paper map, I am inevitably thrown by poor signing, unnamed streets, and other hazards. My continually finding somewhere to pull in and re-plan is frustrating for me and an irritation to following traffic. The VDO eliminates that downside of travelling. Although we find guidance to a destination to be the most useful function, it is helpful on quiet roads (where route finding is easy) for Muriel simply to watch the vehicle marker make its magic way across the map, keeping a check on progress. ("Have we passed that crossroads with D492 yet?") Yes, we still use paper atlases and sheet maps, and enjoy the great variety of detail they show. | |||
| |||
 |
| New
model of VDO navigational computer (MS5500) and a selection of screen displays. |
|
I have experimented further with the speed warning function, but seldom use it now. Turning it on and off, and adjusting between the various speed limits needs to be done too often; and I observe speed limits carefully anyhow. Under the 'route selection' heading's two main choices, there is no ideal. 'Shortest' really is just that, sooner or later taking you along back-streets that are simply too narrow or cluttered to weave a motorcaravan through. 'Fastest' I have come to interpret as the most free-flowing, reasonably direct route. This may or may not get you to the destination in the shortest possible time or at the highest possible average speed. It may add many miles to your journey in order to give you motorway (or similar standard) roads. For example, near home, I was given a devious 22-mile route when the direct 11-mile route is entirely satisfactory. On another occasion, I was taken along two sides of a triangle of motorways. 'Fastest' may suit lorries that need to avoid narrow roads with tight corners: 'shortest' will be fine for cars that can nip through the back- streets. Motorcaravans could do with a middle course, but that could be difficult to programme, and none of the navigation systems seem to offer that compromise. The moral of all that is to preview the planned route on the screen before departing and, if necessary, to add 'via points' to force the route to your preference. That brings me to one of my dissatisfactions with the basic guidance programme. Once you insert a 'via point', the planned route is displayed on the map screen only as far as that point. You cannot check the 'via point's' effect on the remainder of the route. When a manoeuvre is being approached, the system gives an advance warning and more detailed instructions later. The position at which the instruction is given is speed-dependent so that, at whatever speed you are driving you receive the instructions a set time before the manoeuvre. In tight, city-centre situations, junctions can come in quick succession. Sometimes the instructions come too late for a lane change to be considerate to others or even safe. My only other serious complaint will, I hope, like the one above, soon be ironed out. The diction of the recorded words from which the instructions are synthesised was consistently excellent in the first version of the software I used. In a more recent version that I am using at present the words first and third (referring, for example to roundabout exits) are scarcely distinguishable. Of the many Continental countries for which there are VDO maps (on CD), I have had the opportunity to try out only the one for France. Its style of mapping is identical to that used for the UK though slightly fewer minor roads seem to be shown. I have found that many motorcaravanners, venturing abroad for the first time are nervous about the challenges of driving there. I am sure that the use of a navigator such as VDO would greatly ease the stress, as the system even shows the anti-clockwise passage through roundabouts. To conclude this part, the weaknesses I have highlighted above are far, far outweighed by the advantages of a navigation system. I emphasise the value of being piloted through unfamiliar cities, even abroad, of not getting lost in a maze of unsigned country lanes, of knowing exactly where you have reached, all without the human navigator of the team having slavishly to follow on a map. | |||
| |||
|
Recent developments of the MS5000 1. Early in 2002, the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) facility came into operation in Britain (and was already operational in the major Continental countries covered by VDO). The installation of a small VHF receiver and aerial allows the reception of signals that carry information about road congestion and other conditions such as fog. Symbols, which indicate the type of problem, are then superimposed upon the screen map. If delays extend over large distances, this is displayed on a separate diagram, and the VDO offers to calculate a detour that will return you to your original route beyond the obstruction. 2. Guidance: For planning a route to a particular street name, the normal sequence is to enter first the town name (you may have to guess the nearest town to a hamlet or small village), then the street name. Later software allows you to enter the street name first, then to select the town from a list that appears. This ('QXS' method) is a little quicker unless the street has a common name such as High Street! 3. Postcodes provide a brief, unique location for streets and large individual establishments. Here is the good news: the latest guidance software does accept 'abbreviated' postcodes (the initial letters and the digits) for guidance to a destination. I should have liked grid references. They are so useful, being found in many campsite guides (including those of the two big clubs), AA touring guides, and many other publications. Perhaps there simply is not enough demand across the whole of this market, and they are virtually unique to the British Isles. New model unveiled Last November, I was privileged to be one of the first motorists in Britain to see a radically new model of VDO Navigator demonstrated. This MS5500 system is new in regard to the computer, the software, and the way of gaining access to the most up-to-date mapping. The new computer has an improved processor, which gives much faster access to the maps (now on DVD), faster movement around the operating menus, and faster route calculation (about 10 seconds from London to mid-Scotland). The new software contains an increased number of facilities and some relatively minor but very valuable improvements, such as showing on the screen the scale of the map in use. Previously that was not shown, so, unless you could remember the scale you had set earlier you could not estimate distances from the screen. Most radical of all is the new (C-IQ) method of providing map data. With the MS5000, described above, you buy a map CD for each country according to your requirements. These cost around £100 or, for the TMC version £150. So you are not likely to renew them very often! With the MS5500, the arrangement for access to maps is quite different. You are supplied ('free') with a DVD that contains all the map and other data for the whole of VDO's European coverage. To obtain access to this data, you buy as much time for each country as you wish, from a day to a year Thus, if you were to make a motorcaravan trip to Switzerland (where better?), you might buy two days at the start and two at the end for transits through France, and three weeks for Switzerland. Normally, the user will take a full year's use of their home country. This map access can be ordered by phone or through the VDO web site. Authorisation, in the form of an access code to the VDO computer; can be sent to the customer by phone, e-mail, or (SMS) text message. The map disc content is in four parts, each of which can be selected separately as desired. They are the mapping (23 countries); the TMC data (11 countries); useful information, such as the location of fuel stations, TICs, museums; and many other features of interest to the tourist; and finally 'guidebook' information (including pictures), such as in Michelin and Varta guides. The MSS5000 system remains available, priced at £1500 including Britain map and installation by Conrad Anderson (see below). Installation can be carried out either at their works in Birmingham, or at a mutually arranged location, to which travel by the installer is charged at 35p per mile. VDO map disks for Britain still cost £150 for the TMC version, and £100 without. A set of eight disks for Europe (with TMC) costs £280. For the new MS5500 system, there is a choice of screen sizes. With a 5.8inch screen (MM5000), the recommended retail price is £1700. With a 7inch screen (MM5500), it is £1800. For access to the map data on the DVD, the price per region (such as UK) ranges from €3 per day to €90 per year. For access to all Europe, the corresponding prices are €8 to €179. Access fees are charged to subscribers in Euros, and the above figures are an approximate guide only It is also possible to buy 'lifetime access' at about €170 per country or €360 ;or Europe, including the UK. For prices of the MS5500 equipment and its installation, contact Conrad Anderson at the address below. Contact
addresses: VDO's
preferred installer for motorcaravans Barry Crawshaw. |
| ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
| | ||||
 | ||||
| Want
to come for a fitting but can't find us? See
the find-us page for | ||||
|
| ||||
| Do
you want a |
Conrad
Anderson provide a fitting service with
free electric hook-up & water.
Customers
wishing to stay overnight may do so.
See
the Fitting page
for details.
 |
Technical Helpline: 0870 872 2998
Telephone: 0121 247 0619 Fax: 0121 247 0974
Order products by telephone or fax or by using our order
form.
Opening
Hours: Monday - Friday 9.00 - 17.30 and Saturday 9.00 - 13.00.
