I was wondering whether it would be possible to get hold of a file (where?) of all the UK postcodes as POIs and then load it onto the RNS510 using the POI Inspect0r tool... Has anybody looked into this?

You should then be able to find a full postcode using the the POI search?

I been googling around this morning buit haven't yet found one...

Well if anybody is interested it can be done.

I downloaded a file of all 1.6 million UK postcodes and their lat/long. :eek: Played around with it to get it in the right format (a pain with such a large file - had to setup an SQL database for it as too large for spreadsheets). Then used POI Inspect0r to add the postcodes as POIs. Burnt a new DVD and quickly tested it. I haven't copied the DVD onto the Hard Drive yet, but obviously it is never going to be as fast as a proper postcode lookup system.

The unit start off locally and then expands across the UK gradually, so the furthest the postcode the longer it will take to find it. Still the tests I did were under a minute which is OK for me. It might be faster once on the HDD.

Anyway, it has made me happier to know that I can find a place with only the full postcode, and I can take my cheap handheld stanav oout of the car...

Well done indeed. When I read your first post I really thought you were going to be wasting your time. I just couldn't see the POI system scaling that well. I'm amazed.

Hats off to you - very impressed here too :wow:

I hope the PAF file you download was too out of date

Good idea

However, How do you then search for a particular house no.? If i did that on the road were i used to live it would just put me at the top of the road and i'd then have to drive about a mile and a half to find the right house

Carl:thumbup:

Hats off to you - very impressed here too :wow:

I hope the PAF file you download was too out of date

Unfortunately it is somewhat out of date - probably 3-4 years old I think. But getting an up-to-date database from the PO would be ridiculously expensive!

Good idea

However, How do you then search for a particular house no.? If i did that on the road were i used to live it would just put me at the top of the road and i'd then have to drive about a mile and a half to find the right house

Carl:thumbup:

Good point, you can't! Well you could look at the map to find the associated street and then go through the normal Street Lookup, but that does seem to be excessive!

My main gripe with the current lookup system is that you cannot find addresses which are not on public roads. For instance my address and quite a few around here in the countryside are down tracks. To find it on the standard lookup you would need to know the name of the main road which the track turns off, and that isn't part of the address...

At least the postcode POI gives you a location on the map that you can aim at.

But I'm not pretending it's perfect... I still want to see a full postcode search facility in the next map upgrade!

Dont get me wrong i was impressed you had managed to do it. I was only asking as i didnt know if you had found a way to do that aswell

V4 maps still don't have full postcode search. But i can live with it for now as IMHO i still think the MFD3 is way way way better than any TomTom/Garmin etc

Carl:thumbup:

scouter - I may be able to get hold of a bang up to date postcode database. Will keep you posted.

Aye it was a little annoying that the V4 maps didn't add full postcode searching.

But saying that I've found the RNS every bit as capable as my old Tom Tom.

scouter - I may be able to get hold of a bang up to date postcode database. Will keep you posted.

Thanks definitely interested

I'd definitely be interested in this as well.

The main reason I've not made a disk with poscode POIs was down to not having the data.

scouter, is there any possibility of getting a copy of the file you used for this?

Bagpuss.

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