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Free2Roam · 12-06-2011, 06:06 PM

New to this forum. We are starting our 3rd year Full Time. Gave problems with our Rand McNally RVND 7710 to the forum leader, since we cannot get in touch with Rand McNally.

**JohnRR** · 12-06-2011, 06:12 PM

I'm not sure what you mean by the "forum leader".

bsirby · 12-06-2011, 06:39 PM

Hello and Welcome to IRV2.

MSHappyCampers · 12-07-2011, 08:37 AM

Welcome to IRV2! Happy to have you join us! You might want to post your questions on the GPS over in the Technical section to get more replies. Not too many people hang out in this area. Good luck & God bless!

Free2Roam · 12-08-2011, 05:25 PM

Thanks to all. We have the Rand McNally problem solved. Phoned them and talked to a great technician.

Free2Roam · 12-08-2011, 05:31 PM

All is well. Let's close this thread.

**JohnRR** · 12-08-2011, 06:27 PM

It sure would have been nice if you shared the problem and solution wit us

Free2Roam · 12-10-2011, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnRR

It sure would have been nice if you shared the problem and solution wit us

We are brand new to the site. I actually wrote it in detail to the person who originally sent me a welcome note. That person never got back to me.

As of now the problems are mostly solved by phoning and talking to a technician.
A brief recount.
1. The mileage to a place is not accurate. It told me I had one mile to go at the entrance to TTN Orlando. When leaving the said resort to go to Orlando tells me to do a u-turn 1.5 miles away when my first available turn in truck only is .25 miles away. Upon returning from the Chevy dealer Clermont to TTN Orlando the device wanted me to do a U-turn 1.5 miles from my destination. Good thing I knew where camp was and did not have our 38 ft 5th wheel attached.
2. You have to learn the way they put in streets. Put in the Street no directions ie.: N-S-E or W.
For County Roads put CR 50 etc. Trying to figure out if it is a CR is another matter, CR 50 in Florida is a 6 lane (3 each way) toll road.
3. I wanted to avoid downtown Jacksonville due to heavy road construction. I could not get the device to route me to US I 295 (would not click an drag to change route). When I took I 295! The device kept wanting me to turn around at all exits instead of rerouting me to I-95 south of Jacksonville, FL for our trip to Orlando.
4. The speed limit warning is not correct. It will tell me I am over when I am not.
5. There were two addresses that I could not get it to put in. One for Harry P. Leu gardens in Orlando and a Chevy dealership in Clermont.

6.The RNDDock took over my MacBook and would not shut down unless I did a hard shutdown.
7. It said it needed an update but there are no updates available.

There is a steep learning curve to this device. We have only had it for about 9 days and are deciding if it is worth keeping.

Also you cannot add places that you would like to see as Icons on the map. I would like to have icons Costco, Whole Foods, Food Co-ops and Health Food Stores you cannot add those.

**JohnRR** · 12-10-2011, 02:50 PM

I apologize that no one got back with you.

Thank you for the update with your problems and solutions, I've yet to get the chance to try mine out yet so I can only go by what I get to read.

stepside454 · 12-10-2011, 05:13 PM

We took a short trip with ours today , 120 mile round trip. It works fine for me.

BobGed · 12-10-2011, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Free2Roam

As of now the problems are mostly solved by phoning and talking to a technician.

Did the technician answer all of the questions you listed? If not I might be able to help with some of them, but don't want to go through the list if you have already received answers.

Grumpytrkr · 12-15-2011, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Free2Roam

New to this forum. We are starting our 3rd year Full Time. Gave problems with our Rand McNally RVND 7710 to the forum leader, since we cannot get in touch with Rand McNally.

First off, welcome to the forum.

Are you from Florida/Clermont area? I have a sister that lives down there. We will be down that way in April.

I sent my Rand McNally back. It wanted me to make a left turn into a parking lot, then go across a lake to get to a campground. I didn't know it had a boat mode!!!

Welcome and enjoy.

historyljc · 12-15-2011, 06:30 PM

Welcome Free2Roam to the forum. Hope all is well with you GPS now.

sdennislee · 12-15-2011, 07:21 PM

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the 7710. You are correct when you say the learning curve is steep. The more features a tool provides the steeper the learning curve.

I just finished 2300 miles (OH to TX and back) with the 7710, not a single issue the whole trip. First time it told me I was over the speed limit I was doing 60 in a 55. I missed that feature in the manual. It warned me of a steep descent that I didn't think was all that steep.

My favorite feature so far, is being able to specify which services I want at service center, then have the 7710 list only the service centers providing that particular service. I left low on propane so I had the 7710 list only service centers that sold "Metered Propane" vs. bottled propane. I also like being able to pull up the service center and click on the services button to see what they offer.

Stick with you'll have it mastered.

One thing to keep in mind with address locations. Basically there are 2 maps from which information is derived, 1) the as planned/designed version and 2) the as built version. Roads and houses don't always end up where the city planners thought they would.

I posted a very long explanation of this issue in another 7710 thread. I'll find it for you and post it here.

Here it is.

The truth is, "accuracy" is pretty much meaningless when it comes to a GPS. Now before you go throwing tomatoes at me for saying that-- let me explain.

The position your GPS calculates you at... the raw latitude and longitude will be accurate to within 10 meters, 95% of the time. Sounds pretty good, right? And if you were to add WAAS (see note below) the signal will be accurate to about 5 meters, 95% of the time. Even better, right?

Well... no. See what you are talking about is the accuracy of the map, not the accuracy of the GPS signal. And the accuracy of the map is nowhere near the accuracy of the GPS signal. When we consider where the street was mapped versus where it actually is it isn't uncommon for the map to be off by 100 feet or so.

When it comes to the accuracy of a street address, say "500 Main Street" it can be off even further... sometimes by 1,000 feet and sometimes by even more.

The map will be off to a further amount than the GPS signal will be, so the accuracy of the GPS's calculated position becomes almost irrelevant. 5 meters or 10 meters off will not make any difference in the performance of your street GPS as the weakest link is not the calculated GPS position, but rather than the map.

So now let's talk about maps. For the GPS devices sold in North America, all use maps from one of two companies, NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. Both will have neighborhoods that are mapped well, and both will have neighborhoods that are poorly mapped or missed completely.

So the conversation about "accuracy" almost becomes a mute point. The signal the GPS will calculate is as accurate as it needs to be, based on the weaker accuracy of the map.

And getting back to WAAS for a second, you might now see why it isn't important at all in a street GPS as the map will be a weaker link. WAAS drains the battery faster and therefore WAAS is disabled in most street based GPS devices since it provides no practical benefit and will just drain the battery faster.

Note: The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is an air navigation aid developed by the Federal Aviation Administration to augment the Global Positioning System (GPS), with the goal of improving its accuracy, integrity, and availability. Essentially, WAAS is intended to enable aircraft to rely on GPS for all phases of flight, including precision approaches to any airport within its coverage area.

WAAS uses a network of ground-based reference stations, in North America and Hawaii, to measure small variations in the GPS satellites' signals in the western hemisphere. Measurements from the reference stations are routed to master stations, which queue the received Deviation Correction (DC) and send the correction messages to geostationary WAAS satellites in a timely manner (every 5 seconds or better). Those satellites broadcast the correction messages back to Earth, where WAAS-enabled GPS receivers use the corrections while computing their positions to improve accuracy.