marine GPS with voice prompting?
 

"Eddie" wrote in message
...
I got hooked on the Magellen NeverLost® when I rented a Hertz car
three years ago and it came with it. I liked the voice prompting
feature.
Is there a marine GPS that talks to you? I like to hear, "hey dummy,
turn to port at the next slough"
Well, maybe not that but how about "you will turn to port at the next
slough in 30 seconds"
Or something like that.
Anyone know of a marine Hertz NeverLost® type gps?
Thanks
Eddie


I am curious why you would need this feature on a marine GPS unit.

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 01:29:50 +0000, Eddie wrote:


Is there a marine GPS that talks to you? I like to hear, "hey dummy, turn
to port at the next slough"

I'm sure there must be a Windows equivalent, but if you use Linux there is
GpsDrive. I haven't used the product so . . .

http://www.kraftvoll.at/software/index.shtml

Around 8/26/2005 6:29 PM, Eddie wrote:

I got hooked on the Magellen NeverLost® when I rented a Hertz car
three years ago and it came with it. I liked the voice prompting
feature.
Is there a marine GPS that talks to you? I like to hear, "hey dummy,
turn to port at the next slough"
Well, maybe not that but how about "you will turn to port at the next
slough in 30 seconds"
Or something like that.


It'd be cool if you could get one that talked like a pirate... "Avast,
ye swab! Head so-so'east at t' next marker or ye'll be runnin' aground!"

:)


--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

It should come standard on all SeaRays and Bayliners.....Including the
part that reminds them to pull in their fenders, go slow in no wake
zones, put fuel in the tank, check the oil, don't let their bow line
drag in the water, Yield to the vessel in the danger zone (Stbd bow to 2
pts abaft of stb beam...probably asking to much...maybe it could just
warn the vessel of it's approach), Not talk on the cell phone while at
cruise speed through a quiet anchorage and everything else newbies need
to know. ALSO... there should be another version that allows other
boats to directly tell them what to do in case the designers forgot
something.


*JimH* wrote:
"Eddie" wrote in message
...

I got hooked on the Magellen NeverLost® when I rented a Hertz car
three years ago and it came with it. I liked the voice prompting
feature.
Is there a marine GPS that talks to you? I like to hear, "hey dummy,
turn to port at the next slough"
Well, maybe not that but how about "you will turn to port at the next
slough in 30 seconds"
Or something like that.
Anyone know of a marine Hertz NeverLost® type gps?
Thanks
Eddie



I am curious why you would need this feature on a marine GPS unit.

Dont you get enough back seat driving from your spousal unit?

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:59:21 GMT, Shortwave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 01:29:50 GMT, Eddie
wrote:

Is there a marine GPS that talks to you? I like to hear, "hey dummy,
turn to port at the next slough"
Well, maybe not that but how about "you will turn to port at the next
slough in 30 seconds"
Or something like that.

I kind of doubt it. The mapping structure is different - you navigate
with a marine chart much differently than you do with a road map - the
concepts are different.

Besides, marine maps are being constantly updated with changes - you
couldn't keep up.

The question is why you would want it to do that for you. Seems a
little redundant.

OT for this thread, but what the hell:

Nice job on that new boat, Tom!
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

One additional warning... Attempting to turn off the spousal unit may
cause over half of your assets to go missing. (As will attempting to
install an additional spousal unit or demoing any other spousal units)



John Sobieski wrote:
On 27 Aug 2005, wrote:

Dont you get enough back seat driving from your spousal unit?


Good one!!! My spousal unit laughed too!!

I have had my only spousal unit for 35 years and 6 days today. Still works
great.

Odd thing about it though, when I have it with me on the upper helm and go
on plane at 30~35 kph, it issues several warnings like "too fast, too
fast" then it disappears. I later find it down in the cabin. Seems the
speed limit is set too low on my spousal unit. It didn't come with a manual
so I can't adjust it.

Works the same in the car, it warns me of a car in front of me hitting
their brakes. The problem is the range it detects at. It issues a warning
message if the other car is a mile in front of me. At shorter distances,
the warnings get more pesistant and louder until they reach a shrill
screech.

Anyone have a manual? I learn something new about my sposal unit every
day:)




Regards,
SOB

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:59:21 +0000, Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 01:29:50 GMT, Eddie wrote:

Is there a marine GPS that talks to you? I like to hear, "hey dummy,
turn to port at the next slough"
Well, maybe not that but how about "you will turn to port at the next
slough in 30 seconds"
Or something like that.

I kind of doubt it. The mapping structure is different - you navigate with
a marine chart much differently than you do with a road map - the concepts
are different.

Besides, marine maps are being constantly updated with changes - you
couldn't keep up.

The question is why you would want it to do that for you. Seems a little
redundant.

Personnally, I wouldn't want it. I'd rather trust my brain to filter
information than some programmer's, who is sitting on dry land somewhere.

However, I was curious when I saw GpsDrive uses festival for speech
output. Reading the software's feature page, it uses sound output for
direction, speed, radar warning, GPS signal, distance to destination,
Battery level, access point, not for "directions". Festival is, among
other things, a text to speech program. I'm guessing it wouldn't be too
difficult to add something like "Next waypoint bearing . . ., distance .
.. ., ETA is . . ., etc.", but then, why would you want to?

http://www.kraftvoll.at/software/features.shtml