New version of viaMichelin Mapsonic much improved

[elan2s]

I have been playing (without a GPS Receiver) with the demo of latest version of Mapsonic (downloaded from the viaMichelin website http://www.shop.viamichelin.co.uk/shopexd.asp?catalogid=316 and click on “Demo”) prior to Santa bringing me the full version later in the month and it would seem to address a lot of the issues previously mentioned on this and other Forums.

1. If you set the speed in MPH then they now provide distance prompts in yards
2. It is possible to import the speed camera POI data from this site, as follows:

A Download files from pocketgps

B Using MS Paint resize the icons for each of the file types to 16x16 pixels (72% scaling seems to achieve this in Image/Stretch-Skew) you may want to then edit the image to reintroduce some white to the inside of the camera. I have used colour to differentiate between the different types of device –White for Gatso, Red for SPECS and so on.

C In Mapstore add the new POI classifications and assign the appropriate graphics file. DO NOT DO THIS IN MAPSONIC ON THE PDA
The above two processes are only required the first time you do this

D Using POIEdit (downloadable from http://www.dnote.nl/pda/poi/PoiEdit) convert the POI file to a POI ASCII file (open it in POIEdit and then choose Save As)

E Using POIManager import the POI files. It will ask you to synchronise after adding each file but click cancel and you can add other files so that you do all of the imports in one go. Note that the POI files have to reside on the PDA and not on the memory card to work. This process also copies over the graphic files associated with the POIs. You do not need to copy them over to the PDA

F If you wish to download an updated file you repeat the above POIEdit/POIManager proces,s (D and E above) but note that it seems that you need to delete the file on the PDA before you start or you will get a synchronisation error. On the PC side this is not an issue.

3. I suspect, although I have not proved this, that users of of MapSonic version 1.3 (and older?) can simply copy over all of the files from the Demo download (Michelin state that the only difference between the demo and the full version is the size of the map file) to the directory where their current application files are and benefit from all of the above. Alternatively Michelin invite registered user of MapSonic 1.3 to contact their Technical Support people to get the new version
Apologies for the somewhat longwinded (and first!) post but hope this is useful. The product does seem to be improving and all I have do now is to wait for Xmas.

[CryHavok]

Yeah, darn thing still messes with the speaker settings on the PC however. The old version "only" set the balance left. This one now also sets the Wave volume to 50%.

I've reported this bug to them, again. Hopefully this time they might fix it, rather than making it worse

[DennyL]

I think that would be a first, if they responded to a bug report by fixing the bug!

[CryHavok]

I've also found that if you have a card with an old (2.0) map in then MapSonic resets the Palm

Still, I've at least had an automated response. And, to give them credit, they have fixed 2 bugs I've reported in the past.

[elan2s]

After a slightly false start in that the copy of Mapsonic I received was incomplete (1 CD missing) and also 1.3.2 and not 2.5 (to their credit Expansys sorted this out with minimum fuss) I now have an up and running version of Mapsonic 2.5.2 on a Sony Clie TJ35 with a Rikoline 6010 receiver.

All in all this works very well and I have been able to add all of the Safety Camera information as per my earlier post. After installation I have about 11Mb of free space in the RAM of the Clie and putting the supplied 128Mb GB file on the Memory Stick has presented no problems so far in terms of system being out of memory.

Apart from the obvious differences between 1.3.2 ans 2.5 (primarily the enhanced POI handling) the maps have been updated to include such roads as the M6 Toll road. There are still annoying mapping errors such as (in my immediate locality) being directed along a road unsuitable for vehicles, across Windsor Great Park (closed to general public for driving) and also through a driveway and car park of a company. It would be so useful if you could set "avoid status" on specific roads to cope with the inevitable mapping errors and also set start and finish points on roads (seems to be primarily private roads) which are set to "No Access". I quite understand that they don't want to direct traffic along these roads as the norm but it is a bit of pain having to set start or finish some distance from where you actually want it to be..

[sherb-sherb]

Which Files do I need to down load for step A) from poscketgps.

Cheers

Sherb

[elan2s]

Sherb

You download the speedcamera database, once you have unzipped it you use the files in the "OV2 bmp" folder or if you wish you can use the ov2 files in the "speed zoned" folder.

Hope that helps

[ewanc]

Hi elan2s.
I'm stuck at "D". When i try to "SAVE AS" i keep getting the message
"EXTENSION OF FILENAME DOES NOT MATCH SELECTED FILE TYPE"

Any idea what i'm doing wrong?

Cheers, ewanc

[BaggieBoy]

Version 3.2 can use the .asc files from the Speed Camera Database package directly. There is no need to use POIEdit any longer.

[ewanc]

Cheers guys

Thats it all installed

Ewanc

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