Earthmate GPS LT-20 and Street Atlas USA 2006

This is the bundle with the 2006 Street Atlas software. There seem to have been significant improvements over the 2005 software, which is still being sold in various outlets in June, 2006.

I've been interested in GPS since I first heard about it, but the price has always been too high to justify purchasing a system. When I got a new notebook computer, it freed up the old one for other uses. Since I'm planning a weekend trip where I'll need some navigational help, I looked into the current prices of notebook-compatible GPS systems. At $100 or less, the DeLORME was a very affordable solution, and most of the online reviews were good.

But there WERE a few unfavorable ones, so I called several sources to inquire about their return policies. The only one with a 30-day unconditional return policy was DeLORME itself, so I bought it from them at the list price of $99.95 plus tax and shipping. (They have locations in every state, so they have to charge sales tax in all of them.)

The product consists of a matchbox-sized GPS receiver and two CDs in a jewel case. My first installation was on the desktop computer in my office. The software installed easily, taking a bit longer than most software. (The second disk is the map information, which I also loaded onto my hard drive. If you're short of hard drive space, you can leave the map data on the CD and use it from there.)

Though GPS usually doesn't work inside buildings, I plugged the GPS unit into my USB port and waited for it to find some satellites. After a few minutes it did so, and showed a big green dot in the approximately correct location on the map of my street.

I played with the software for a half hour or so, gaining a newbie's familiarity with it. This is complex and powerful software, and the user interface is considerably different from that in most Windows programs. But after playing with it for a while, you can figure out the basics.

Then I installed the software on my notebook (allowed by the licensing agreement) and took it on the road. When I activated the GPS, it took a minute or two to find the proper satellites (with feedback on the process from an LED on the GPS unit and a display on the computer screen). Soon the map display zoomed from wherever it had been to show my location in my driveway.

I pulled out of my driveway and to my great delight, the green dot moved along with the car. It followed my route precisely for several miles to the local Best Buy, where I picked up a power inverter to power my computer from the cigarette lighter in the car. It was fascinating to see the green dot follow me off the main street into the unmapped parking lot at the mall. It also followed me as I went back home.

I was alone in the car, so I didn't spend much time looking at the computer on the seat beside me. But at red lights and in the parking lot, I could see that the GPS system was working, and working very well.

When I got back home, I looked for a manual for the powerful and complex software. Nothing seemed to be on the CD, and the DeLORME help site didn't mention a manual, either. A call to DeLORME customer service led me to the 159-page manual in PDF form (on the unusual Help menu), which I printed out and am now about to study.

After about two hours of use, I'm amazingly pleased with this product. My weekend trip starts in two days, and when it's finished I'll come back here and update the review.

TRIP REPORT

I've just returned from a 950-mile round trip between Pittsburgh and Norfolk, VA, on which I used the Earthmate extensively. I'm extremely happy with what it did for me on the interstates and in the cities and towns. Details follow.

Equipment Setup
I used this product on a 2002-vintage Compaq Presario 730US laptop with a 14.1" screen. The laptop was on the passenger side of a 2006 Buick Lacrosse sedan, and was powered at various times by its own battery or its AC power supply. When in the car, its AC supply was plugged into a $29.95 "Gamer's Power Inverter" from Best Buy, which in turn was plugged into the car's cigarette lighter. The computer and software ran continuously and without problems from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening.

There were two of us on the trip, and at all times one of us drove and the other either watched the computer or put it out of the way on the floor. We have no experience in a driver-only situation, but we think the system would be usable but not nearly as useful in that case.

The computer's 14.1" screen was definitely large enough for our use. In sunny situations it was quite hard to read, but we think that a screen with newer technology wouldn't have such a problem. In any event, the system was never unusable due to bright sunlight (or any other reason).

As we moved around in our midsize car, it wasn't always easy to find room for the computer, but we always found it. We think we'd have had a better experience in a vehicle with more room in the front seat.

The Earthmate GPS receiver worked well for us, but we sometimes wished its USB cable was a bit longer. Its suction cup mounting dangles the USB cable from the windshield at a funny but functional angle. We found it's a LOT easier to remove the cable from the suction cup than it is to put it back in. After a few tries we got better at putting it back in, but we hope DeLORME comes up with a better mounting scheme for the receiver.

Basic Operation
The software ran well, and it wasn't too hard to figure out its basic features, though they work differently from most Windows programs. The large manual is very complete, but unfortunately it isn't organized in a way that highlights the operations that most users will want to know about.

When first mounted to the windshield, the system took one or two minutes, max, to acquire the satellites and display our current location. It would lose them occasionally, mainly when we were in heavily wooded areas or going through tunnels, but it always picked them up again within seconds. The screen display is very good at keeping you posted on the status of your connection to the satellites (but first you have to figure out how to get the right display).

Navigation
The system was nearly perfect at showing us where we were. The green dot stayed right on the street on the map, occasionally deviating one or two street widths to either side. We regarded this as a miracle of modern technology -- this little machine always knew our position within a radius of fifty feet or so.

Route Planning
We gave the system a few chances to plan routes and follow them, and overall it worked very well. It led us astray just once, when it wasn't aware of a No Left Turn restriction at an intersection in suburban Norfolk. When we obeyed the law and turned right, the system immediately "recalculated" our route and told us what to do to get back on track.

To get a route, you enter start and end points. In a few seconds the system shows you its suggested route, which you can modify in several ways. (I've only figured out how to modify it by sending it via a specific road or location. I think there are also ways to avoid certain roads, but right now these ways are buried in the manual.) We entered two routes: a local route in Norfolk, and our return trip from Norfolk to Pittsburgh.

We modified the suggested return trip route by putting a "via" point in Winchester, Virginia, a town we wanted to visit. The system immediately accepted the change and altered the route to accommodate it.

As you follow a route, a green dot traces your position on the screen, which shows two maps at once -- one of your immediate vicinity, and one of a larger area that shows the first one in context. It's interesting (and a lot of fun) to follow the dot as you drive down the Interstate. The system keeps you aware of local facilities and geographic features, and it's amazing to see the dot go with you across rivers and streams, and to see where those roads on the overpasses lead to.

The screen display shows your next turn, and a female voice tells you about it after you've made the last one, and again a minute or so before you have to make it. A description of the turn and the time and distance to it are constantly displayed on the screen. (But once again, you have to know which screen to look for. It's easy to get to it, but you DO have to figure out where to look.) When you're in a tight area such as the ramp of an Interstate, the screen display zooms in to show greater detail. Overall, everything is very accurate but a tiny bit short of perfect. (For example, the voice sometimes cuts off in mid-sentence, which can be confusing and sometimes misleading.) Especially at turns, we quickly learned to supplement the system's information with human knowledge and observation.

When you get "off track," possibly by making a wrong turn, the voice informs you of that fact, and quickly tells you what to do to get back on track. In fact, the corrections come so fast that sometimes your reaction time doesn't let you make them. When that happens, the system makes more corrections.

We got into trouble when we missed a turn on one of the closely-spaced one-way streets of colonial Winchester. A flood of corrections came so fast that we couldn't keep up with them, and we thought we might be getting more lost with every block. But we decided to "rely on our instruments," and when we got into an area with less confusing streets, the system quickly got us back on track. We were most impressed, and we agreed that we would have had a hard time getting back on track by ourselves. (Though we could have pulled over, looked carefully at the map on our screen, and done the navigation manually. Maybe.)

When we got close to home, the system's route in the Pittsburgh area differed considerably from the one we are familiar with and know to be the best. Instead of trying to correct it, we just went the way we know to be best. To its great credit, the system detected our departure from its route and quickly moved us to our alternate. We were impressed that it didn't just recommend turns to get us back on its original route (it started to do that once, but it quickly figured out who was in charge).

We got home safe and sound, with DeLORME navigating us perfectly to our house, with the green dot even following us into our driveway. What a miraculous device.

DeLORME vs. Mapquest
Before our trip, we printed out Mapquest directions for our route, just in case the DeLORME system didn't work out. We've compared the two navigational methods, and we have definite opinions about how they work together.

Mapquest laid out somewhat better routes for us, particularly near Pittsburgh where we are familiar with the best ways of getting around. (It must be said that due to its terrain, Pittsburgh is one of the country's hardest areas to navigate. Straight roads do not exist, and roads that appear next to one another on a map may be at the top and bottom of a cliff, respectively.)

Also, Mapquest's descriptions of turns and intersections were quite a bit more useful than DeLORME's, with more specifics and more detail.

Mapquest's superiority in these areas isn't surprising, considering its access to a huge database and DeLORME's reliance on map data limited to a single CD.

DeLORME's great superiority is in its ability to follow you wherever you go, to get you back on track when you stray, and to calculate the time and distance to your next turn or destination. (We found the latter to be extremely useful and comforting, especially on the Interstates.) And of course the DeLORME is completely self-contained, while Mapquest requires access to the Internet.

In future trips, we plan to rely mostly on the DeLORME GPS, but to use Mapquest as an alternate and possibly better source of routes, and as a source of more complete information about turns and intersections.