Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing GPS Speedo recommendations?

I tend to use the “SAT NAG” We been married 40 years! She’s very reliable, and has a wide vocabulary!
“Mind that cyclist”, “It’s to cold”, “I don’t want to go to the pub” , “SLOW DOWN”. She always seems to keep me within the law

The one I linked to earlier here arrived at lunchtime. Charged up the LiPo battery and popped it in the Mini. Sitting next to gear lever it worked a treat showing Mini digital speedo 2 mph high at 30 and three mph high at 60 mph. Spot on what I had surmised from other far more expensive GPS devices.

At barely 2 inches square it could easily be adapted to fit above steering wheel. Usefully displays real time, average and highest speed + trip which is reset after switching off. Also has resetable odometer, auto backlight and is IPV6 waterproof, all for under £30. Will be perfect for bike

I use an app on my cell phone. Compared with my E350 Merc its 100%.
Last used on the Amsterdam/Paris train trip.....max speed observed 187mph!!

WAZE navigation app on the phone is excellent and free or the Life360 App which also has other benefits is also excellent and they offer a slim version free or a the full fat one for £35 per year

Which is great if you have an internet connection. Recently did a trip to Northumberland, Scottish Borders and back to North Yorkshire, approx 300 miles. Had a signal for about 10 of those miles!

Try "Here WeGo" You download the maps beforehand, UK, Europe anywhere in the world. No signal, no problem. And what's even better to any self respecting Yorkshireman -it's free.


Sir P

I was involved with the early days of Satnav (precision differential positioning for the offshore industry). Our first 6 channel receiver, made by Trimble, was the size of a carry-on suitcase and cost $100,000. Ephemeris data (the satellite orbit data) had to be download from a site in the US and uploaded to the receiver. What progress that you can now buy something much better for less than £30.
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I was also involved in the early days of GPS development testing, my old company was the earth science division of Texas Instruments and we travelled all over the world ( at sea) so we were good test beds for GPS. TI was one of the companies asked by the US Gov to develop the GPS receivers. When the first reciver came onboard it was approx 2ft x 2ft x 1 ft with a cable and hand held key pad interface the size of a house brick.. The total number of sats at that time in earth orbit were 4, so we could only use the GPS for the limited times in the day when 2 or 3 sats were in angle..We also had what was termed at the time as an Atomic Clock ( now known as a cesium standard ) using the AT we could still navigate when we went from a 3 way fix with 3 sats to only 2 sats and the atomic clock.. Upto the development of GPS our navigation was undertaken by radio navigation, systems such as Loran, Pulse 8 ,ARGO, mini-ranger etc.. or by using single spot transit satellite fixes.. When we first used GPS for the first time it was such a step forward.. The early development of the GPS was interesting, I had a direct number to white sands missile base in the USA to see if the satellites were stable when we wanted to use them, as in the early days of development the sats were often manouvered for optimum positioning etc. Those were happy days..

Happy days indeed. I worked for Decca Survey in the UK (later Racal Survey) and started out on land based electronic navigation system. I worked for the Pulse 8 department for a while when we used it to send differential corrections for the GPS. The reference station was in Aberdeen. Did a lot of work on error correction coding. Decca/Racal had the first differential system running for precision positioning. Back in the days when SA was still on and sub meter accuracy was required instead of the then circa 100m of GPS. I believe we were the world leader at the time. How things have changed!

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I initially started with Geophysical Services Inc ( Texas Instruments), then moved to Horizon Exploration, Veritas and finally CGG, stayed in the marine seismic exploration business for 37 years then retired. In the 70's and 80's the industry was very cyclic, pegged to the oil price, used to have 6-8 year highs and lows. But it was a good industry and lots of fun ( and I was young) , still have friends all round the world. Prior to GPS we used Decca survey a fair bit in UK waters and the N/Sea and then Pulse 8 in parts of the Far East, the rest of the time it was mainly ARGO or Maxiran depending on range needed. I remember well the joys of helping set up texas tower base stations along the coast, then undertaking baseline crossings to confirm station positions.. Reliable GPS was a huge leap forward when it was available 24/7 and stopped the nightime issue of "Skywaves" and losing lane count on ARGO and Pulse 8 at extended ranges. Yes GPS changed the world in many ways.. but I had a lot of fun with radio nav..