Sat Nav Postcodes?!

[rosswebb]

Hi Ladies & Gents,

Well hello, I'm a complete newbie and novice, just bought my first Porsche Boxster 2.7 2006 plate. The In built Sat seems quite out of date and more annoying than anything I can seem to enter post codes. Kind of a fundamental floor for a sat nav.

Any idea where I can get a s/ware update to fix?

Thanks

[spyderman8]

OPCs will happily send you a set of CDs/DVDs that are probably only 2 years out of date for circa £400. On the other hand, I have a friend who bought a set via eBay for considerably less - and they work just as well in the car. Er, his car.

[rosswebb]

Thanks! Ebay it is then Any idea what the s/ware is called?

[Magic919]

Tomtom.

[MDian]

The built in satnav on even the latest generation Porsches are the same rubbish you get in most, where it can only handle a maximum of 4 characters (due to licensing). It also has a habit of taking you down some of the most horrific single lane b-roads despite certain options being ticked. I stopped using it a while ago in favour of navfree on my iphone!

[sidicks]

rosswebb said:

Hi Ladies & Gents,

Well hello, I'm a complete newbie and novice, just bought my first Porsche Boxster 2.7 2006 plate. The In built Sat seems quite out of date and more annoying than anything I can seem to enter post codes. Kind of a fundamental floor for a sat nav.

Any idea where I can get a s/ware update to fix?

Thanks

You can enter the first 4 / 5 digits of the post code in the address field on early (PCM2) versions of the Sat Nav.

It will then prompt you for the road name and house number etc.


Sidicks

[Richard Hamilton]

It is nothing to do with licencing. It is because the rest of Europe only has 5-digit postal codes, and they aren't street level codes like ours. Becker/Porsche obviously didn't consider us Brits were important enough to include when they designed the system.

[Moog72]

458 Italia said:

My 991 has full 7 digit postcode input and it has never taken me anywhere I didn't want to go.

The Range Rover on the other hand enjoys directing me up bridle paths where to continue you have to go over a stile.

Ditto on my 981 Boxster. 7 digit postcode search and works well.

[MDian]

Richard Hamilton said:

It is nothing to do with licencing. It is because the rest of Europe only has 5-digit postal codes, and they aren't street level codes like ours. Becker/Porsche obviously didn't consider us Brits were important enough to include when they designed the system.

Whilst I accept the rest of Europe use 5 digits; it is to do with licensing, as most car manufacturers aren't willing to pay the additional fees involved to cater for the longer UK postcode. It would however seem the very latest Porsche system manages it, but my CR from 2012 doesn't.

[Acf69]

Sat nav took me down a muddy rutted road today which at times I was very concerned I was going to end up without a front lip or half my engine left behind the car (luckily this was my A5, the turbo I knew wasn't going to make even the "easy" route to my friends house

[Richard Hamilton]

MDian said:

Whilst I accept the rest of Europe use 5 digits; it is to do with licensing, as most car manufacturers aren't willing to pay the additional fees involved to cater for the longer UK postcode. It would however seem the very latest Porsche system manages it, but my CR from 2012 doesn't.

I stand corrected. Crazy that you get full code search with NavFree (an excellent app I use myself in my 3.2) yet not with PCM until the latest PCM3.

[GDEvans]

Ross

I'm assuming you have the full PCM sat nav with a screen, rather than one of the single din head units that did navigation (but without maps).

The PCM in your car is almost certainly 8 bit. The CD drive was upgraded around about 2000 to a 16 bit drive. What this means is that the older unit can use only 8 bit CDs.

The sat nav can be upgraded from 8 bit to 16 bit simply be swapping out the drive. The head unit stays the same. However, the cost of this would be more than buying an all singing all dancing TomTom!

Both drives are compatible with the Opel maps. The latest set for the 16 bit is 2010-11. However, from what I have read it is unlikely that these maps will be updated again. Remember that the cars these units are in are now generally over 10 years old. From what I have read on the GPSUnderground.com site, the latest maps for the 8 bit unit are 2002!

If you do have the 16 bit unit, there are places that you can download for free, but I can't possibly condone that as it is illegal. Try Google if you want to do stuff like that ;-)

I was warned before buying by Boxster that I should prepare to be unimpressed by the PCM. As a phone, radio, etc it is pretty good. As a sat nav it is quite poor, with no postcode entry. Plus mine frequently says "Initialising" - a few times per journey, normally just when you need it. I am now using my TomTom with the latest maps and speed camera warnings. Even considering replacing the CD drive with a storage box!

[Peter Cee]

Use GPS Angel on your iPhone to convert from UK postcode to Lat and Long.

Input Lat and Long as the destination on PCM.

Works every time.....

[MDian]

Peter Cee said:

Use GPS Angel on your iPhone to convert from UK postcode to Lat and Long.

Input Lat and Long as the destination on PCM.

Works every time.....

That's not a bad idea, plenty of resources on the web for that so just get the Long and Lat from the postcode before leaving.

[GDEvans]

Surely you can just enter the address of you destination? There aren't many places that don't have a street address published with their postcode!

[PGM]

MDian said:

That's not a bad idea, plenty of resources on the web for that so just get the Long and Lat from the postcode before leaving.

I use googlemaps for this and use that method which works well.

[widdle]

good suggestion that last one, just downloaded GPS angel. plus you can email your location if you wan to get picked up somewhere and you don't know where you are!

back on topic, I entered in Bradford into the PCM (3.0) in the 911 and it didn't even recognise the city down the road from me, no idea on that one, so used the map/iPhone combination. GPS coordinates makes a lot of sense to me.

[Ady128]

I don't understand what your problem is. You say you CAN enter your post code?

[GDEvans]

widdle said:

good suggestion that last one, just downloaded GPS angel. plus you can email your location if you wan to get picked up somewhere and you don't know where you are!

back on topic, I entered in Bradford into the PCM (3.0) in the 911 and it didn't even recognise the city down the road from me, no idea on that one, so used the map/iPhone combination. GPS coordinates makes a lot of sense to me.

Porsche are clearly trying to protect your valuable investment by keeping you away from the inner cities! ;-)

[GDEvans]

Ady128 said:

I don't understand what your problem is. You say you CAN enter your post code?

I think it depends on the model of PCM. I believe you can on the PCM 3. You definitely can't on the PCM 1. Not sure about the PCM 2.