It appears that CoPilot Navigator 9 will only work with the Philips receiver and USB 2. I don't mean to be stubborn but I at least want to see if people have checked the obvious. Let me say that the cards for USB 2.0 could be a problem in a mobile environment. The plug in is a sore thumb waiting for someone to bend it. I would not like CoPilot 9 for these reasons. Not making their software backward compatible it bad and not making it compatible with NMEA receiver from third parties is poor. Does CoPilot 10 have these restrictions?
Laptop Requirements
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Pro,
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional or later
1GHz processor or better
256 MB RAM
16X CD-ROM
1 GB available hard disc space
USB 2.0 Port
GPS Receiver Requirements
Philips GPS antenna
If you don't have the above it may not work for you. Above is posted on their web site. If it doesn't run on your PC because you don't have all the Requirements. Don't buy it or complain it doesn't work.
As it turns out, I don't even want to use the CoPilot anyway. It takes up the entire screen to run and you can't shrink it so I can use my VMSpc engine monitor program across the top of the screen like you can with Delorme or Street and Trips etc.
I just wasted 29 bucks......well, not really, I'll give it to my son to use on his upcoming Christmas trip.
Thanks to all who replied with helpful suggestions....Well, nearly all, just those without the sarcasm.
hershey - albuquerque, nm Someday Finally Got Here
My wife does all the driving - I just get to hold the steering wheel.
Expedition - Suzuki Grand Viagra
J Walker wrote: It appears that CoPilot Navigator 9 will only work with the Philips receiver and USB 2. I don't mean to be stubborn but I at least want to see if people have checked the obvious. Let me say that the cards for USB 2.0 could be a problem in a mobile environment. The plug in is a sore thumb waiting for someone to bend it. I would not like CoPilot 9 for these reasons. Not making their software backward compatible it bad and not making it compatible with NMEA receiver from third parties is poor. Does CoPilot 10 have these restrictions?
The receiver is part of the package and should not be a problem. That is the attractive part of the deal - a GPS from a established, known, company with a good track record for less than $35.00 delivered. I think the catcher is the USB 2.0 connector. I have a used laptop and am lucky to know what a USB connector is. It is like this - I can remember picking up the phone which had no buttons or dials and having a operator ask "Number please" and the number I gave her only had 3 digits and 1 letter. I'm lucky I got the cell phone to work. That takes me back to the first point of price. On fixed income, I will refuse to spend $200 or $300 on a GPS unit, but at $35 delivered, it is a nice toy. It it doesn't work on my Panasonic CF48 Toughbook with a adaptor card, I will be happy giving it away.
Update: The USB 2.0 adaptor came today and I got everything up and running. Works great. Only operated around town, but everything was just as described. Appears to be as good as the DeLorme.
Update again. Got mine all hooked up and running in the car. Had to make a 30 mile short trip, so I tried it out. Everything worked great. Even tried to get lost but everything where I went it put me back on course. The prompts are a bit on the late side, ie right at the turn. But a quick glance at the map lets you see what is up. I only got it messed up on one city street that is no longer a thru street. I do not believe that any map shows that this is a dead end. In fact the only way out of this dead end is thru a alley which is not on any maps, even the city engineers map.
I have used my son's Delorme and like the CoPilot Navigator 9 better. His Delorme had me driving thru fields many times. The only thing I found fault is that it does not have the Traffic reports that I had thought I read that it did. That would have been nice. But I checked all the ALK info and do not find any claim that it does. Must have read that mis-information somewhere else. For $32, includes shipping, I am a very happy camper. Oh, it does have RV routing which avoids low bridges under 12' 6" and and routing to avoid propane restrictions. I see lots of people around here wanting that capability. I only have to worry about bridges under 9 foot clearance and the propane restrictions.
As to it being out of date. It shows all the new highways that I know of and is comparable to any maps I currently have. But my maps are not brand new either. It works for me!!!
* This post was
edited 12/23/07 12:08pm by wny_pat *
I purchased CoPilot Live Laptop 10 earlier this year under their competitive upgrade program. I was not impressed!
Here are a few of the things I don’t like about the product.
For me one of the major functions of mapping program is to be able to search along your entire route. The Help states that Searching Entire Route is available in the Guidance Mode. The only time Search Entire Route is available is when playing back a GPS log file and you must have your GPS up and receiving signals. Which is pretty useless if you have never traveled your newly planned route.
When trying to submit tracks the program can not find my internet connection.
The interface for Edit Route is very cumbersome. You must use a wizard to enter an address.
Then there is the issue of Help. They say Co-Pilot is Vista compatible. But to use the Help, you must go to Microsoft’s web page and download the Help Engine for operating systems prior to Visa.
When using Help it produces Errors. On top of that the Help functionality does not work well either. When selecting Help Topics nothing happens.
When entering Lat/Long after about three to five times doing this, will cause memory leaks. Causing the program to crash.
Tech support was clueless about any of these items.
Overall I find Co-Pilot hard to use, outdated, lacking functionality, too many problems and issues. I think the product was rushed to market without using good QA testing. This release of CoPilot appears to be more of a Beta release, not a product ready for sales to the public.
I’ll stick with MS S&T 2008 and Street Atlas USA 2008 Plus
ThunderingQuiet wrote: I purchased CoPilot Live Laptop 10 earlier this year under their competitive upgrade program. I was not impressed!
Here are a few of the things I don’t like about the product.
For me one of the major functions of mapping program is to be able to search along your entire route. The Help states that Searching Entire Route is available in the Guidance Mode. The only time Search Entire Route is available is when playing back a GPS log file and you must have your GPS up and receiving signals. Which is pretty useless if you have never traveled your newly planned route.
When trying to submit tracks the program can not find my internet connection.
The interface for Edit Route is very cumbersome. You must use a wizard to enter an address.
Then there is the issue of Help. They say Co-Pilot is Vista compatible. But to use the Help, you must go to Microsoft’s web page and download the Help Engine for operating systems prior to Visa.
When using Help it produces Errors. On top of that the Help functionality does not work well either. When selecting Help Topics nothing happens.
When entering Lat/Long after about three to five times doing this, will cause memory leaks. Causing the program to crash.
Tech support was clueless about any of these items.
Overall I find Co-Pilot hard to use, outdated, lacking functionality, too many problems and issues. I think the product was rushed to market without using good QA testing. This release of CoPilot appears to be more of a Beta release, not a product ready for sales to the public.
I’ll stick with MS S&T 2008 and Street Atlas USA 2008 Plus
I agree with you, I have had copilot 7 now 9, I was displeased with both because their data base is very old and not up to date. And their support system is next to useless, they will not answer your E mails, I had to E mail the head of the company to get action one time, since then it has reverted back to the same thing.
They tried to get me to upgrade to 10 for $49. I declined because I thought why throw money into the next version when they couldn't tell me if the problems I have encountered all over the country have been fixed, mis-numbered exits, bridges and overpasses not showing on the map, whole sections of some cities not even on the map! It is a flawed system, I will use what I have but never upgrade again.
I agree with you, I have had copilot 7 now 9, I was displeased with both because their data base is very old and not up to date. And their support system is next to useless, they will not answer your E mails, I had to E mail the head of the company to get action one time, since then it has reverted back to the same thing....
Interesting! I sent an email to ALK and got a response back within a couple hours.
Interesting! I sent an email to ALK and got a response back within a couple hours.
Back in August, when I purchased the competitive upgrade I mentioned in my prior post, I sent three emails asking for solutions to the problems I was having.
Well it's been over four months and still no answer...
I did send Co-Pilot 10 back to ALK for a full refund. In my refund request I documented all the problems I had encountered using their product. Other than the full refund I never got a response.
Other folks here swear by this product - I swear at it!
It will be a long time before I try another ALK product again. In the future if ALK can improve on their inferior product I'll give it another try.
Interesting! I sent an email to ALK and got a response back within a couple hours.
Back in August, when I purchased the competitive upgrade I mentioned in my prior post, I sent three emails asking for solutions to the problems I was having.
Well it's been over four months and still no answer...
I did send Co-Pilot 10 back to ALK for a full refund. In my refund request I documented all the problems I had encountered using their product. Other than the full refund I never got a response.
Other folks here swear by this product - I swear at it!
It will be a long time before I try another ALK product again. In the future if ALK can improve on their inferior product I'll give it another try.
It's to bad they don't have a system like a lot of other software, try it for 15-30 days and run it through it's paces, then if you like it you pay for it. If not it freezes up. But I guess they might go out of business if people find out the data base is ancient and the support stinks!
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