It's about time I updated this. The whole thing did take quite a lot of sorting out, but I have ended up with a pretty successful result, that I've tested thoroughly over 3000+ miles of France & Spain. What I wanted was a decent size visible display on the bike of my current location, anywhere in Europe, I.e. not a full Satnav display of a planned route- partly because I don't always know where I'm going to! I also wanted a tablet with me that I could use normally over wifi, to pick up email etc etc. Hence the android tablet approach.
Firstly- the solution- hardware: I ended up selecting a Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet. These are a pretty high-grade 8" tablet, android based, with the very attractive (and rare) feature that they are waterproof and dustproof. Waterproof is obviously an advantage on a bike, also I figured the latter to be important as that meant they couldn't have any case vents that a cover would block (waterproof is actually less useful when in use, as opening the charging port cover kind of kills off that feature, and the GPS needs the charger on - see below. So a cover is needed of some sort really, else a quick shower could be very expensive). They also do not need a SIM card, the model I bought is the wifi-only one, so there was no chance whatsoever of me inadvertently getting a huge bill for data usage. Picked up a very good secondhand one on ebay for just under £150.
Next I needed a casing/mount for it. Oh dear. Most 8" tablets are just under 8" long. Not the Sony, it's nearly 8.5. This was quite a hassle, it took out all the bar-mount options I'd found. However, after some correspondence with the very helpful seller I found this mini tankbag
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201602175796 was just big enough. I also got a car lighter socket, usb adaptor, usb to micro cable, and a 90 degree micro usb adapter so I could charge the tablet while inside the tankbag clear pocket. (working out the correct 90 degree adapter was a pain, took 3 attempts to get the right one!). That lot cost me about another tenner in total, ebay again.
So, that's the hardware - I ended up with a powerful tablet mounted on the bike that can be powered off the bike battery, has a reasonably bright screen, and is in a fairly waterproof situation- though I would try to avoid rain use, just in case. Photo below. Overall a very successful solution.
Next, the map software. Checked out the options and Navmii (formerly called Navfree) seems the most favoured for off-line maps. Off-line is important as it means all the maps are stored on the tablet, so you don't need an internet connection, and you don't get mobile data charges. It is very to install, and you just download maps by country. It is pretty easy to use and works well overall, enabled me to always immediately locate myself, easily set a route to somewhere, etc etc. Like all GPS things it uses a lot of battery power, even with it connected to a charger it would run it down quite a bit while in use. It did also freeze up a few times, and/or the screen started flickering heavily, quick reboot needed then.
No user guide/handbook is available, weirdly, so maybe some of the problems I had are down to user ignorance! It has two modes- viewing your current location on a map, and displaying a route, I'll cover them separately, though several bits overlap to be honest.
Current location/map view- this shows a pointer of where you are on a map- just what I wanted. Simple eh?! But a few observations- when you move, the pointer moves, not the map. So as you travel along you have to keep scrolling the map manually. Oh dear. I can't find any way to pin the pointer to the centre of the screen, alas. Also the fonts are poxy small, and they aren't scaled like on normal map, so a town name is in the same font size as a village. The map is built up in layers which is weird- and different parts can be rotated separately- so you can rotate the map/shape of the UK say but the place names don't move, and you end up with Bristol on the edge of an upside-down North Sea. Village names are on a different layer to city names, but not all layers are shown at once, so when you zoom in on the Lyons area suddenly Lyons disappears completely. That is very confusing. Finally, somebody though it would be a good idea to use light grey for non-major roads against an off-white background, that makes them very hard to see. I'm not really selling this, am I? It isn't that hard to live with though, despite these issues.
OK, onto the route display option (used without any audio). Routes themselves are very good, just like any other satnav really, it did try to send me the wrong way down a one-way street once but otherwise was aok. Sometimes a road will flash up red- no idea what it is trying to tell me. Route distances are dodgy- it told me it was 500km approx from Bilbao to Bordeaux, I rode the route in about 300km. Probably the worst thing about this mode is that if you zoom the screen at all it then drops back to current location/map view and you have to scroll the screen manually as you move.
With a little luck I may even have attached a photo of it to this ....
