[davew]

Vaho,
A much better fix would be a way to fix an iPad or android tablet with Google maps to the dashboard and get rid of SMEG altogether! I have just spent half an hour sitting in the car trying to find places I have to go tomorrow on the satnav, and have given up. My car is 2016, and the satnav could do with a serious User Interface upgrade. For tomorrow, I will be fixing the phone to the windscreen and using Google. For me SMEG is a total failure.

I agree SMEG is not as convenient to use as a handheld TomTom, but are you following the suggested method in the handbook?
The following post shows the relevant handbook page explanation of how to entering a number of destinations into the "Contacts" list for easy access later...
https://www.cactusforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1195&p=13379#p9704

 

[davew]

Davew,
An example of my issues with SMEG: I had to go to a small town in the west of Ireland called Westport (pop. about 6,000). I admit it is not a city, but the entry fields are restricted to Cities.
When I type W-E-S-T into the "City" field, and it jumps to "Westtown. Co. Waterford" and does not allow the entry of any more letters. It effectively gives a choice of one, but Westtown is a small village (much smaller than Westport) some 315 km from Westport (according to Google Maps). Not much use to me.

If you could give a couple of locations - preferably hotels or building addresses, that you have problems with, I'd like to try them on my satnavs ...

 

[davew]

Davew,
It is quite random, I was looking to get to Kerry Regional Airport, but the satnav will not permit the entry of Farrenfore, the town where the airport is located . I was then surprised that is accepted Tourmakeady, which was unexpected. It does not accept the Irish postcodes(Eircodes), although it does accept those of other countries( UK and Netherlands at least).

My understanding is that all satnavs actually perform their guidance/ route directions by the sole use of the latitude and longitude of the start and finish points. If a location identifier in the form of a post code or address is entered into the satnav, these location identifiers have to be first converted in the satnav unit by a look up table, or an algorithm, into the corresponding lat and long values before the route can be planned and subsequently used for guidance.

Consequently, although it may be convenient to enter a post code or an address into the satnav, it is not the only method and the same route planning and guidance is available by entering the latitude and longitude values corresponding to the destination.

For the area that you mention - Westport, Mayo, I see various hotels etc that have an internet presence - these often give the latitude and longitude in addition to the address and Eircode...Presumably this is to assistance users of Satnavs which cannot cope with Eircodes.

In any event the latitude and longitude can be looked up at this web site which seems to cope with locations worldwide:
http://www.get-direction.com/address-to-lat-long.html

So using this web site for your example of one of your problem locations - Kerry Airport - the lat and long value can be found just be entering Kerry Airport, Ireland into the address box and the full address is returned as "Kerry Airport, Farranfore, Kerry, Ireland", together with the latitude in "Degrees - Minute - Seconds" format, given as 52 - 10 - 53 N, and the longitude given as 9 - 32 - 14 W

The actual effort then required for setting the destination into the Cactus Satnav is to enter the six digits for longitude and the five for longitude into the specific lat and long boxes on the screen, so this is not greatly different from entering an address, letter by letter, or an Eircode .

The User manual explains the Navigation menu sequence to reach the latitude and longitude entry screen. I tried the method and it seems straightforward.

 

[davew]

Also, regarding satnav, a Citroen service advisor told me last week, that any cactus built after a certain date in 2015 (can't remember the exact date) gets 5 years free updates. But you have to ask when you go for service, it's not an automatic part of the service. And it can take 4/5 hours.

Mine is April 2016, and I have 5 years of map updates included - I download them and update them myself, it takes just over 50 minutes to do the whole of Europe including GB/Ireland...

Is the latest update compatible with the Republic of Ireland Eircode system?
For example V93 KHF7 is the 7 character Eircode for Kerry Airport...

 

[davew]

Is the latest update compatible with the Republic of Ireland Eircode system?
For example V93 KHF7 is the 7 character Eircode for Kerry Airport...
[/quote]

No, I tried it and the Eircodes still won't work - and they don't in Sygic either...
[/quote]

Thanks for your report - it seems to confirm that the only viable way, even with the latest updates, for many destinations in the Republic of Ireland is to find their lat and long coordinates before setting off and enter those into the sat nav...

 

[davew]

As I have to use another internet connected device to find the lat/long coordinates of my destination, and convert them to deg/mons/secs to suit the SMEG entry format, it is simply much more convenient, and less error prone, to search for the destination on Google Maps on the phone, and when it is found, click "directions" and "drive" and clip the phone to the windscreen. It is just a pity the car can't mirror the phone's screen. Google actually issues it's verbal instructions through the Bluetooth connection to the cars sound system.

What I find puzzling is that you have told us repeatedly for almost two years now, that you have great difficulty with the Cactus satnav, and have totally given up on it - at least five times in the past 13 months - and yet you return to the topic over and over again...