Columbus Sat Nav - are they having a laugh?

[Mph25]

Cheers!!

 

Incidentally - are there any other voices avaialable other than Helga (who appears to be mumbling into a pillow) - or any way to change the tone of her voice?

Edited 7 August, 2014 by Mph25

[Supurbia]

Original fit units are laughable tbh given the price of them, I'm talking about all cars here not just Skoda btw, my Insignia has one which so far appears to be ok but lacks speed cams, road speeds and isn't touchscreen, my mate has the newest touchscreen unit in his and it's supposed to play video as well, well it does as long as you convert the file down to basically a VGA mode,

 

When you think how much these units are they are always lacking, I had a Sony Mirrorlink DVD in the Passat as an afterfit, £299 and it did everything in high res compaired to an RN510 iirc @ £1700, the Insignia dash kinda miffed me off with this in the end, I had to sell the Sony as it would've looked stupid having two screens and the dashfit kit was another £200,

 

Regarding your problem, is there a hard reset on the unit? the Insignia has a disc which you load onto the unit meaning you don't need the disc once installed is the Superb the same I wonder or maybe a simple battery disconnect will help, maybe it's like Windows when it's lost an O/S file right now and a simple reload will sort it.

[WaveyDavey]

Cheers!!

 

Incidentally - are there any other voices avaialable other than Helga (who appears to be mumbling into a pillow) - or any way to change the tone of her voice?

There was mention on various sites i looked at that there was a male voice enabled in the setup I have but I still have the female voice and can't see where there is any option to change it to a male voice.

Cheers

Dave.

[psycholist]

I shut off the voice information as it's mostly intrusive and with the pictures on both screens and automatic zooming I can see where to go anyway. I find it mostly works well, though in Cork city it has a thing about wanting to use both quays crossing over and back for no reason when following the river through the city instead of just staying at one side. The ETA estimates are significantly out as well. At the start of a 104 km journey (Limerick to Cork) with speed set to fastest it predicted the 1:15 journey would take 38 minutes longer than it did, so nearly 50% out. I was driving at the speed limit all the way with no traffic in this case though. Even in traffic that estimate would still be out by over 20 minutes though... 

[mannyo]

The male voice is only available in the later firmware, early versions had Helga only. The later ones have two language options, under setup > language. One says English (Female), and the other English (Male). The setting is in the main language menu rather than anything to do with navigation settings.

[robocoprs]

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/index.php?/topic/296581-Skoda-Yeti-1.8-TSI-4x4-vRS#entry3563118

[robocoprs]

Post #34.

[WaveyDavey]

The male voice is only available in the later firmware, early versions had Helga only. The later ones have two language options, under setup > language. One says English (Female), and the other English (Male). The setting is in the main language menu rather than anything to do with navigation settings.

I had been looking for the different voice in the navigation settings rather than the system then language settings. Just been out and swapped it to the male voice and I think I prefer the female voice so swapped it back again.

Cheers

Dave.

[Mph25]

The male voice is only available in the later firmware, early versions had Helga only. The later ones have two language options, under setup > language. One says English (Female), and the other English (Male). The setting is in the main language menu rather than anything to do with navigation settings.

I'll try that

[Superb170]

I shut off the voice information as it's mostly intrusive and with the pictures on both screens and automatic zooming I can see where to go anyway. I find it mostly works well, though in Cork city it has a thing about wanting to use both quays crossing over and back for no reason when following the river through the city instead of just staying at one side. The ETA estimates are significantly out as well. At the start of a 104 km journey (Limerick to Cork) with speed set to fastest it predicted the 1:15 journey would take 38 minutes longer than it did, so nearly 50% out. I was driving at the speed limit all the way with no traffic in this case though. Even in traffic that estimate would still be out by over 20 minutes though... 

I've rarely seen it calculate journeys with any degree of accuracy in Ireland (but worked great in England and Wales recently) but I do find sections of motorways missing e.g. the final section of the M9 doesn't appear and when I updated it on the last Superb it was even more out of date.  I can't see how it would be so far out on Limerick to Cork though - its not as if there are a lot of alternative routes for it to choose from

[Superb170]

One feature I do like is the maxidot display for the nav system.  It gives you all the info you need - ETA, distance on current road, direction of roundabouts etc. I know its basic enough but at least you don't have to take your eyes of the road too much. 

[Mph25]

Whilst you do have to take your eyes of the road too much - I like the list of directions with a split map.

[WaveyDavey]

I usually leave the map on screen so as to see my speed and red light cameras as well as the audible alerts via BT. I sometimes have the nav on the maxidot but usually have that on average mpg.

Cheers

Dave.

[Nickolaidis]

I think that RNS id doing Ok job for navi, as I have tested and used various types/models (cheap/expensive) of Garmin units and did nit find to be comfortable wuth them, they are not reliablw so mych.

In several major situations in businss trips Garmin frozen itself with no reason, misscalculete routes and firmwares for them are, if you ask me, "half product value" and still have errors...Maps also same thing...

[Penpusher]

Perhaps. I do have it set to offer 3 routes - and it's not always easy to work out the differences -though I don't think the first route I had used was an alternative. I'll keep trying but I wouldn't trust it in a journey where I didn't already. Know the best way!

Any help on the firmware/maps?

When I bought my car, I had firmware 4120 and maps 7690 (v8).

 

I recently updated the maps to 8048 (v10).  The dealer wanted £199.50, but I bought a DVD on eBay and updated them myself.  I'll sell on the DVD and hopefully recover most of my cost.  The firmware is OK and doesn't need updating.

 

I wanted to update the maps as I found last year that most of the motorway from the German border to Warsaw wasn't on them, but they're on v10.  I'm going away on 28 August and will be driving to Lithuania and it's useful to have the maps up to date.  The western Europe maps go as far as Poland and I've got eastern Europe on DVD (also v10) to use once I cross into Lithuania.

[wawilkinson]

Yep, the Columbus Sat Nav is terrible (I'm sorry but it is), I've mentioned it on these forums previously and I don't go anywhere I don't know without having Google maps or an alternative sat nav on my phone/tablet at the ready but there aren't really any nice alternatives, unless you spend big money...

 

I'm looking into the Android, either dedicated or via a tablet approach, sooo much more possibilities but its early stages for Android in the car yet!

[Mph25]

I had been looking for the different voice in the navigation settings rather than the system then language settings. Just been out and swapped it to the male voice and I think I prefer the female voice so swapped it back again.

Cheers

Dave.

They both sound as if they have a mouthful of cake!  I find you need the volume louder than you would normally choose to make them audible. I wish there was a way to affect the tone but I think the sound qulaity is very poor compared with the radio.

[WaveyDavey]

Don't forget the satnav voice volume is set independently to the normal volume in the same way as the phone volume level is.

Cheers

Dave.

[Mph25]

Don't forget the satnav voice volume is set independently to the normal volume in the same way as the phone volume level is.

Cheers

Dave.

Yes I know - but the sound quality in mine at least is quite muffled and even muting the radio volume is not enough to hear it clearly unless the sat nav volume is higher than I would like. It us easier to hear my Tomtom over the radio than the Columbus with the radio muted!

[WaveyDavey]

Yes I know - but the sound quality in mine at least is quite muffled and even muting the radio volume is not enough to hear it clearly unless the sat nav volume is higher than I would like. It us easier to hear my Tomtom over the radio than the Columbus with the radio muted!

Mine's clear as bell when it's speaking. It lowers the volume of any media slightly during the speech. In fact the only thing that sounds slightly poor quality is my method of getting my camera alerts via Bluetooth sounds really bad if anything as it is done as though it is an incoming call so is of phonecall quality rather than normal quality from the Columbus.

I've never had any issues with the Columbus voice being muffled or inaudible at all.

Cheers

Dave.

[WaveyDavey]

Just another update now i've been running the v11 maps for a while.

 

I've used it six times now and each time i have also set the route via my TomTom iPhone app (Also running the latest maps). On all occassions they have both routed me the same way and with very similar ETAs. (Once or twice they have routed me slightly differently but none of these have been wild routes etc... and either route gave the same sort of ETA). I have also checked all three of the options given by the Columbus (i.e. shortest, fastest & eco) with the equivelant on the TomTom app and again they are all basically the same route.

 

I have also set the Columbus travel speed option to "Fast" and as noted above this seems to have made the ETAs a lot more realistic and in line with the TomTom ETAs. The only benefit i had with TomTom over the Columbus was the fact that i still have an HD Traffic subscription so the TomTom was a lot quicker to re-reoute me. The Columbus relying on its TMC traffic didn't give as much detail but on the three occasions it asked to reroute away from congestion the TomTom app was also showing the traffic issue and was wanting to re-route also.

 

 

So..... I can only suggest from these experiences that the new v11 maps have maybe also included an update to the routing engine etc..... which has therefore improved the results it now gives???

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Dave.

[Twelvebears]

I was a TomTom user but let my subscription expire because I knew my new Superb had satnav and was being delivered soon.

I've set it to Dynamic, was not aware of the driving speed options, and have found it accurate and responsive so far, with the ETAs seeming accurate enough.

I don't use audible instructions however, as I find the combo of 3D map and next turn info on the dash sufficient and less annoying.

I've honestly been quite impressed and I was expecting not to be....

[Bigpikle]

Now I've the had the car a few weeks and more importantly covered 2000 miles, and am currently in the S of France, I can honestly say I'm pretty impressed by the way the satnav has worked. It gave us a faultless journey down using the 'tour' function to plot a good a route via our overnight stop. I've been surprised how many of the local POIs have been in the system given the rural area around here, and the local roads all have their appropriate KM/hr speed limit displayed, which is helpful in remembering the different limits here.

 

I had a very expensive Merc system in the E-Class and it wasnt a patch on this one, not having a 'Tour' mode or anything like as many functions to help plan a route or change it as needed on the way.

[StuartTunstall]

I used mine in July to go on holiday to South Wales, worked perfect for me, much better and accurate than the RNS-E in my Seat Exeo... 

[mellyboy]

I use my in Spain for five months a year and was very much out of date with new roads in southern Spain , have had a update and is now picking up new roads locally and have full post codes which seems fine, should edit out the new toll roads in Spain . All in don't find it too bad , no sweat if plays up I have two Garmin's in reserve.