Lanes in east anglia

I live in march which is about half hour from peterborough, and as with most rural areas i have plenty of greenlanes that are driveable. Although my disco is finished yet im looking at using a laptop to log the routes i drive so i can share my delights and sights with others, and because i think it would be pretty cool to have a laptop next to me on the go; pretty sweet if you ask me lol.

Now i have two problems, i have no gps software, or a laptop holder/tray ... So if you guys can share a little knowledge with me then ill be able to share some with you .. Cheers in advanced.

search GPS dongle on ebay, dirt cheap. Memory map is the bollox but pricey, depending on what size laptop as to where to mount it, netbook or tablet much more convenient, and no hard drive to get knocked about.
Dont be afraid Google is your friend.

Memory Map, torrents are your friend, and make a tray up. I use an old IBM T23 laptop, 11", maybe 12" screen with bluetooth dongle and TomTom receiver.

I made a tray up by removing the passenger grab handle, drilling and bolting in a chopping board, and using sticky back velcro!

Paul D said:

Memory Map, torrents are your friend, and make a tray up. I use an old IBM T23 laptop, 11", maybe 12" screen with bluetooth dongle and TomTom receiver.

I made a tray up by removing the passenger grab handle, drilling and bolting in a chopping board, and using sticky back velcro!

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Bit far to reach when your driving, or do you take your butler.

No need to reach when driving, set it to scale, lock on signal and the map moves for you .. The only things I change on the move are map scale (I and O keys, but rarely) and zooming into and out of the map (+ and -keys) which are easy to reach.

I find it better there than right next to me. I tried it with a Acer Aspire One Netbook sat on the dash and whilst it did the job it also hid too much from view when on the lanes .. the larger screen whilst out of the way, is easier to see when you're at a junction and is also well out of the sunlight, unless it's very early morning or late evening ..

I wouldn't recommend a laptop for this purpose. The read \ write head of the hard drive is held as close as 3 nano metres to the platters when spinning, the kind of bumps you experience when greenlaning could cause a catastrophic hard drive crash.

A tablet is much better with solid state memory, I have one with an app called "outdoors". Not only does it provide OS maps you can buy but it records your route.

AliV said:

I wouldn't recommend a laptop for this purpose. The read \ write head of the hard drive is held as close as 3 nano metres to the platters when spinning, the kind of bumps you experience when greenlaning could cause a catastrophic hard drive crash.

A tablet is much better with solid state memory, I have one with an app called "outdoors". Not only does it provide OS maps you can buy but it records your route.

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Not heard of Solid state drives then?? I have an Asus eepc laptop that runs memmap & win xp with a bluetooth gps dongle, Brilliant setup I have a tablet that I bought last year. it sits in the pouch of my laptop bag and never gets used cos it's ****e..

Here is a route I did around your area:

redhand said:

Not heard of Solid state drives then?? I have an Asus eepc laptop that runs memmap & win xp with a bluetooth gps dongle, Brilliant setup I have a tablet that I bought last year. it sits in the pouch of my laptop bag and never gets used cos it's ****e..

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Yes I know about them, decent ones are relatively expensive still. Seems like overkill for a laptop that will get bashed around in a Land Rover.

Tablets are easier to use on the move too.

For an holder I use this When I had the disco it sat on the dash and stuck to the window fine Now I have the 110 I've "modded" it so it's bolted in permanently.

SUCTION CAR KIT MOUNT HOLDER FOR TOSHIBA NB100 NETBOOK | eBay

AliV said:

Yes I know about them, decent ones are relatively expensive still. Seems like overkill for a laptop that will get bashed around in a Land Rover.

Tablets are easier to use on the move too.

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£60 off ebay for my asus. and the thing doesn't get "used" you turn it on click on memmap. and that's the only interaction you need, all the time you're driving.. unless as Paul; said you need to zoom in or out and a single click of a button is ,much easier than trying to spread the screen with ya hands whilst bouncing about on a green lane.

redhand said:

£60 off ebay for my asus. and the thing doesn't get "used" you turn it on click on memmap. and that's the only interaction you need, all the time you're driving.. unless as Paul; said you need to zoom in or out and a single click of a button is ,much easier than trying to spread the screen with ya hands whilst bouncing about on a green lane.

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It's just a preference, I've used both setups before.

AliV .. Got a closer view of that route ?

ipad with mm app, brilliant. I had a bad experience with my laptop. much prefer the iPad setup.

BIG_GINGA_BEARD said:

ipad with mm app, brilliant. I had a bad experience with my laptop. much prefer the iPad setup.

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I told ya to wipe the drive before you took it to be repaired

Bubble300tdi said:

AliV .. Got a closer view of that route ?

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Sent you a PM with a map you can zoom in on, I think this route is the one where you drive across the golf course fairway which is always fun.

AliV said:

Sent you a PM with a map you can zoom in on, I think this route is the one where you drive across the golf course fairway which is always fun.

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Iv driven most of the lanes in march and yes .. The fairway is very, very fun !

BIG_GINGA_BEARD said:

ipad with mm app, brilliant. I had a bad experience with my laptop. much prefer the iPad setup.

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+1

I use MM on my iPad, very easy to setup, don't need a PC to do it, just the app and I think its good VFM, £25 for 25,000 sq/km or something like that, I got the whole of east Anglia, sailsbury and mid/south wales out of it. Get a screen mount and its ideal as you can see in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yu2Ts2UcHQ

I have now got an iPad mini as I like the slightly smaller screen, for laning I find it a bit better than a normal iPad but that's just preference...

I bought a asus eee pc after Redhands advice, got it off eBay dirt cheap, GPS dongle from maplins and a torrent copy of memory map, it's the dogs gonads. I have made it better by buying a remote touch screen monitor that I have fixed to the dash, went to Wales last weekend and it performed perfectly

What's wrong with a good old paper map!

I've just moved from out of march. Loads and loads of lanes out that way, Rapidly seem to be being TRO'd at the moment on a permanent basis though.

We have a weekend jaunt being planned, first weekend in july at the moment. From Chatteris direction aiming towards yarmouth. Didn't make it last time, Too many lanes. Your more than welcome to come along.