Cojones

I tried an experiment tonight on the way home from work. I wonder if any other E60ers have noticed this...

I have an 04 530i with Sat Nav Business. I set my destination and let Sat Nav work out the route, then I ejected the Sat Nav DVD and guess what...it continued to work...all the way home...25 miles and many roads and junctions. TMC also continued to function to alert me to traffic hold ups. Brilliant.

Now I'm guessing that there is a buffer or RAM that the Sat Nav loads the route into, so that's where the navigation info was coming from after I'd ejected the DVD but my questions are...

1. Will it load all the route independent of size of the route, e.g. 50, 100, 300 miles so you can eject the DVD as soon as you've plotted the route?

2. Does traffic info need the DVD to be inserted. Doesn't it just download the info from the carrier channel and look at your present co-ordinates to show nearby holdups?

3. Would it alert you to hold ups if a route was not plotted?

This is a great feature as it means I can now have sat nav guidance (not tried to see whether dynamic planning still works without the DVD inserted - I am guessing not though) and MP3 music while I drive (yes I only have the 1 drive on my dash).

Anyone else experience this?

thanks,

cojo

Rudy

I remember someone mentioning this "feature" a while back. It's clearly something that only works with Business Nav. If you eject the disc with Professional Nav, it's just keeps telling you to insert the disc...

bruce_miranda

The Business Nav has only one slot in the dash. If it didnt work as above then on a trip you would have to decide if you wanted to listen to a CD or reach your destination.

Cojones

Exactly. It's great, but how much of the route does it store in the buffer, all of it?

bruce_miranda

Yes the entire route is stored, unless you really really go far away from the directions you wont need the DVD till you need a new destination.

silver530sportwagon

Once the directions are set, the disc is no longer needed. The only downside is that automatic re-routing is no longer available when the disc is out.

acme

Don't laugh. I've got an '05 Chevy Tahoe that works exactly like you described. It's the dumbest thing in the world. It is my wife's vehicle, and every time I drive it and turn on the nav I get an error to insert the disc. I have to pop out the Barney's Greatest Hits disc and then fish around the console for the now-very-scratched-up nav DVD.

Wanna know the even dumber part? The particular model I bought had a 6-disc changer in it as standard equipment -- but when the nav option reverts to a single-disc player for an extra 2 grand. The only way to use the nav while listening to a CD is if I put the music CD in the rear seat entertainment DVD player. I wonder how many millions of dollars GM spent coming up with a system so completely convoluted and user-hostile.

Anyway, sorry to jack the thread. I just needed to vent. Thanks for listening. Please continue with your discussion already in progress.

Cojones

I beg to differ. I ejected the sat nav DVD again this morning on my way to work and further along my route was forced to take a detour from the main road due to traffic build up, I turned off and went round the houses, literally, and the sat nav knew where I was and recalculated my route to get me to my destination. I still think it's a brilliant function and am excited that I found it (as you can probably tell). Just need to perfect the MP3 DVD burning thing to avoid skips and unreadable tracks and I'll have a fully functional car as I'd like it!

big_ipaq

I second that. If it needs the DVD again, it will ask for it. I did it countless time across Europe with my old 530i.

bruce_miranda

I did say it would do that, but within limits. If you were travelling from england to scotland but took a detour via france I don't think it would cope.

For acme with the Chevy I think someone has once put a route in and never went there. Probably worth putting the nav disc in, cancelling the route and therefore stopping it from asking for the disc.