Compass! How come I never found that before?
 

Yes folks, today I discovered that my RNS-D has a compass in it. :o
After 13 years of driving D2 S8's with RNS-C and RNS-D, how come I never knew that!

Yes HP, its there - tho' i recommend sticking with the Satnav as rhumb line navigation is all very well at sea but not so good overland. +++

Its an RNS-D only feature, so don't kick yourself too hard ;)

OK, still taken me two years to stumble upon it. :ROFL:

There is compass in text based SatNav as well, it's under rear parcel shelf and is used to determine heading when there is poor or no GPS signal and distance is taken from ABS sensors. I had imagined all factory SatNavs would work in this manner.

HPSause is talking about a pretty graphical compass on the screen +++

The RNSC/D and later all use gyroscopes and ABS speed pulses to help when GPS signal is low.

The early Text based nav is the only one I'm aware of that has an actual electrical compass on the parcel shelf. From memory, it also has a relay that switches the compass off, when you turn on the heated rear screen so that it doesn't mis interpret the interference.... +++

That's a good description of it (which I didn't find for nearly a year..:) ). It's pretty to look at, but a bit of a gimmick really.

I was so surprised to see it that I thought it indicated a fault of some sort! :tuttut:

I often drive with the compass displayed, when I don't need the sat nav. Not for any real reason ... I just like how it looks. The colours match the dash lighting better than the sat nav display does.

I've used the compass display mode like that for years, though admittedly I found it by accident.

Usefully though, as well as an indication of general direction, it provides coordinates, should you ever need to give someone your precise location.

... which reminds me: Does anyone else use the coordinate input of their RNS-D to navigate, or am I the only coordinate geek?

Navigating by coordinates is far far more accurate that navigating by post code or address. Here's what I do:

1. Find the precise location on Google Maps/street (by postcode or whatever).
2. On the map view (not street view), right click the exact spot and select "What's here?".
3. A pop-up dialogue appears, displaying the address and coordinates underneath (eg: 54.528970, -1.359761).
4. Convert the coordinates into the format used by the RNS-D.

You can either do the maths and convert the coordinates manually or, a quicker way, use http://www.nearby.org.uk

Copy and paste the coordinates from Google Maps into the box at the top of the page, click 'Go' and scroll down for the result. Under 'Copyable' you want the fourth box down, in this example: 54:31:44.292N 1:21:35.140W

Round off the last 2 digits for the RNS-D: 54:31:44.3N 1:21:35.1W



Of course it's not a very practical way to navigate for unplanned routes/detours, but if you're able to plan a journey in advance it's a great way to ensure you're guided right to the door.

Blimey..;)

So, go on then. How do you display it. I 've never spotted it.:cool:

Select map/compass view (which displays the map), then simply press the right-hand knob to toggle between map and compass.

Cool. I'll try that in the morning when I head West South West to work.+++

:ROFL:

Don't forget to turn wheel and go off-course a little when you see buildings ahead of you, otherwise you might knock them down.

Seems like good advice!:D

Yep, do this with my RNS-E as I'm often visiting rural fields with inprecise locations. I usually go by Google Earth as you get the lat/long from the curser position on the screen when you find the location you want :)

Ah, neat. I'll have to try that :)

I remember always getting ****ed off working it out from Google earth which is a diff format to the GPS, although i read you can select in Google decimal degrees or degrees, seconds, minutes, which might save the calc. Im guessing some of you (Adrian?) may have already figured this out..

I tried it once and gave up due to the length of time to enter the co-ords into RNS_D. I looked at doing it for the last annual meet where some of the stops were at random points along the road but it was too much of a faff and I guessed that the forum members were there to enjoy a drive and not to discover their satnav functionality. :p

By the way HP, its all in the manual ;)

Yes you need some spare time on your hands to program it :rolleyes:

It takes maybe a minute longer (if that) to enter coordinates, than it does to enter a postcode or address, once you get used to doing it.

Granted, it may take maybe 2 or 3 minutes to find the location and get its coordinates from Google Maps/Earth, but you could easily lose more time than that trying to find a house number or address when you arrive at the general location provided by post code input.

Cool - tried it last night. Never seen that before! I'm not sure it's any use whatsoever, but it looks good (a bit like the wife:ROFL:).

Is there anything else in these cars I didn't know existed I wonder. Perhaps I should do the very un-blokey thing and read my owners handbook. :D

I guess that Mrs Peach doesnt read this forum! ;)
Real men would have thrown the manual away but I have to admit to reading it cover to cover which is where i found out about lat/long entry but as I said earlier and was mentioned by others, faffing about with decimal degrees or degrees and decimal minutes or degrees/mins/secs makes it all a bit long winded. If you are into these things, there is an properly validated conversion tool which also deals with OSGB (eastings/northings) on the Ordnance Survey site.

No, not normally, but if she did would be flattered and not notice that I insulted her at the start of the sentence....... I hope.:love: