RV FEATURE
About three years ago , I got myself an expensive , name-brand , offroad GPS navigator . It was a decent system that included both on-road point-to-point navigation as well as offroad topographical mapping . It did everything I needed it to do ; however , I was acutely aware that the system was based on a very cheap Android tablet that was never really designed to be used on the hot dashboard of a 4WD .
Nevertheless , I persevered with it until the inevitable happened . The battery swelled up and split the unit into two pieces . I enquired with the manufacturer as to what the cost would be to fix it . I nearly fell over when they told me it would be over $ 200 . It was about this time I thought I could probably put together my own system for less money with all the features of the name-brand unit .
This is a description of what I did as well as a list of the resources I used so you can build one yourself …
CHOOSING A BASE SYSTEM
The first item to purchase is a suitable Android notepad with a screen size of around 7in . A search on the internet will present several options , many of which are not much better quality than the system I replaced . Eventually , I found a Lenovo 7in Android tablet that appeared to have the specifications I needed and , being a recognised brand name , the quality promised to be reasonably good . Priced at $ 99 on special at Big W , I assessed this as good value for money .
I wasn ’ t wrong . The construction of this notepad is far superior to the previous unit and its metal case would aid heat dissipation . The Lenovo was also thinner and lighter .
The performance of the Lenovo is acceptable . It wouldn ’ t threaten a Samsung Galaxy in the speed stakes but it proved to be more than enough for what I needed .
The full map display on OziExplorer offers loads of useful details as well as control over map scale and zoom settings
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