Navman GPS e Series

By Merle Nicholson, Tampa PC Users Group
merlenic@tampabay.rr.com

Navman GPS is a Global Positioning System receiver made specifically for notebook computers. It’s unique because of its USB connection to communicate with your trip planning and travelling software. It’s sold by Rand McNally in their retail stores and on the Internet.

A couple of words of caution from the start. As packaged, the software does not work on Windows XP. Only Win 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 or higher, Windows ME Windows 2000 (Italics mine). Sorry guys, but Windows XP would qualify as “higher”. So the packaging is misleading. But help is available for Windows XP. Read on.

The package contains the satellite receiver, Rand McNally Streetfinder software, USB and COMx: drivers, connection cables and a single lever suction cup to mount the receiver to the windshield. The GPS obtains its power from the USB connection, reducing the number of cables to use it down to one.

I assumed that with Windows 2000 and Windows 4.0 or higher, that it would work on XP, so I bought it. The Rand McNally StreetFinder worked only after I downloaded an XP patch from http://www.randmcnally.com. The installation was straightforward and the software obtained my position from the GPS after the 2 minute warm-up. But the GPS did not work with other trip software, namely Microsoft Streets and Trips and Delorme Street Atlas USA Deluxe.

So I returned the Navman GPS to the Rand McNally store. The salesperson said “I’ll bet you have Windows XP!” and cheerfully credited my card with the full refund. The reason I returned it? Of the three products, Streets and Trips, Street Atlas and StreetFinder, the Rand McNally StreetFinder is by far the weakest of the three, and the Navman worked only with StreetFinder. The GPS receiver that I’d used for the last two years had died, and I needed a replacement.

So I did two things. One, I sent a note to the technical support group at http://www.navman.com, the New Zealand manufacturer of the GPS explaining the situation, explained that I thought that they were hanging their hat on a very weak product, and asked that I be notified when a fix was available for XP. Second, I set up my boat’s handheld GPS to work on the notebook. It’s a Garmin GPS 76 that has marine navigation markers in its database and would work very well on the notebook except for a couple of things. One, it runs on AA batteries, and an adapter for a car would cost $35. Two, I didn’t like the idea of it sitting below the windshield because it looks valuable enough to be stolen and I was concerned that the extra heat under the windshield may shorten its life. But for now, I’d decided to use it. It does have one advantage: It has WAAS* reception, making it very accurate down to 17 feet, a very big improvement over standard GPS of 65 feet or so, depending on what source you read. In practice, you don’t need WAAS accuracy in a car, but well, gee … it just feels better, doesn’t it?

My older Rand McNally GPS had died a couple of months ago. I feel that I may have contributed to its demise. It had two connections, one was an adapter to a cigarette lighter socket and the other to a 9-pin COM port on the computer. The notebook sometimes got confused with the GPS plugged in; I think it was interpreting it as a mouse because the cursor would jump all over the screen unless you plugged the GPS in after starting up the travel software. It was misbehaving when it died and I think I had unplugged and plugged it back in and maybe zapped it.

The nature of USB should allow inserting and removing a GPS safely, which is one of the reasons I was interested in the Navman, the other being that it obtains its power through the same connection. That and the fact that many notebooks do not have COM ports kept my interest high enough that I’d decided I’d wait and see if Navman would fix the XP problem. It took them less than two months; I got a note from Navman USA technical support with the drivers I needed. They are intended for both Windows 2000 and XP.

So I went back to the Rand McNally store and bought it again for $139 + tax.

The fix they sent me contains two small drivers. One is for the USB. It installs in response to the USB system’s detecting the GPS for the first time. The other installs to map the USB’s GPS signals to a fake COM: port (COM6: in my case). With the two drivers installed, my MS Streets and Trips and my Delorme Street Atlas 2003 (notice I upgraded in the meantime, from 2002 Deluxe) both worked. In each, I went to the GPS setup, selected NMEA signal type and COM6: 4800,n,8,1, and after the warm-up period, it put me exactly in my back yard. I was no longer lost! Yea! Woo Hoo!

Accompanying this article are two pictures, one from the navman web site and one I took. Notice the difference?

Merle’s Navman setup with Gateway Laptop

Despite the problems, I do recommend this product. It’s unique. It works well and is convenient. Rand McNally stores, $139, or one of the following: