Becker 7934 Traffic Assist High Speed - Opinions/reviews ?

[venk25]

Does anyone have any experience with Becker 7934 Traffic Assist High Speed GPS ? Office Depot carries it: http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?id=646295

There are a few reviews online - looking to see if anybody has any experience here and if there are any comprehensive reviews.

My take on any product is to see if it has the features I'm looking for. Then explore cons and see if I can live with it ! So, trying to see what the cons are and decide !

Can someone confirm if the following is true ?

- no TTS (text-to-speech) but speaks numeric routes - something like "Route sixty six"
- no street name display in 3D map view
- no text directions (like itinerary or google text directions)
- questionable map updates, support

Please give your thoughts - both pros and cons.

Thanks.

[mike rivers]

[dchall8]

Office Depot dropped the "regular" price to $130 so I got one. I'm in the category of 'not sure I want or need a car GPS but for this price I'll try it.' So far it exceeds what I expected from anything this cheap.

I drive in the Texas back country all the time. It is very normal to be off the cell phone grid. If I get off a highway or a state highway sign is missing, I would have to continue driving to find even a cell tower. Having the satellites up there all the time is a plus. On to the Becker...

I liked the idea of playing MP3, too. Out here a radio is only good for mariachi music. However, the Becker will only navigate AND play music to the extent that the onboard 2 GB SD chip will hold it. So if the chip uses 1.5 GB for navigation, you only have half a gig for music. If you don't need to navigate while listening, then you can pop out their SD and use one with only music on it.

It acquires satellites and gives me a map before I get out of the hotel parking lot. After it acquires, it seems to update my location about 4 times per second.

Red line routes are easy to see. I did not like any of their mounting hardware so I placed it in the dark cubby hole next to the speedometer in my Dodge Caravan. With the flat bottom it leans back against the plastic dash screen nicely. I put a piece of non-skid rubber under it and put a piece on the top back of the Becker with double sided tape to keep it from sliding and scratching the clear plastic. I don't expect it to stay there if I go off roading, but it is a Dodge Caravan after all. If I'm driving with the sun coming in the driver's window, the sunlight washes out the display completely. The night time dimmer mode seems to be fine.

I was impressed with the advanced warning for turns. I have heard that the notifications on some brands come too late. These are very timely and start well in advance of the actual maneuver no matter how fast you are driving.

Speed limit display only works in towns where they have it in the database. I have not speeded apparently because I have not gotten any warnings about speeding. I think I have that set up correctly.

Now about these points of interest...out here in the boonies, they are years behind. I realize that keeping up with POIs is a full time job for a large company, but in the absence of frequent updates, I would like to be able to update the POIs myself. The hotel I'm in is not on the map...in fact, the entire section of town I'm in is not on the map.

Putting destinations into the DB is almost trivial, but you can only put in 50. That's fine, but the worst part is scrolling through a long list to get to the destination you might want. Scrolling is the wrong word. You have to tap through a list of four at a time.

While putting the destinations in is easy, setting a route that tracks from one destination to another is redonkulous! They need a much better way to put in waypoints. I'm not expecting a 'Google Maps' implementation of routing, but programming it in DOS would be easier. It can be done but you need to have the book open and push every button in the right order, no matter how non-intuitive it might seem. It is also disappointing that there is no way to visualize the route the Becker picks for you. I drive well over 500 miles to get home. Prior to the Becker I had four routes that were significantly different in distance but not in time. I have not driven home yet, but I have to wonder where it would take me?

When you plug the Becker into your computer, you can read the .ini and .txt files as well as see the .bmp images. Putting routing waypoints into one of those files is a LOT easier than doing it from their menu. Unfortunately I have not found the POI location files. They must be locked in the .map file. I have software that reads GIS .map files so the fact that I cannot open it gives me the impression that theirs is encrypted...which makes sense.

Maybe with the price drop, Office Depot will sell enough that a user's group (in English) could form. At least it might get a mention on these forums.

[dchall8]

I found something that makes up for the points of interest (POIs) shortcomings of the Becker. POI-Warner is an overlay program that works along side the Becker navigation software. POI-Warner costs 30 euros, downloads easily, installs pretty easily, and, once you get it working, it adds the ability to add POIs very easily. POI-Warner seems to have been designed for speed cameras and speed traps in Europe. There are a couple sites where you can download tons of European POIs and speed traps (extra cost). In the US you are pretty much on your own. There are POI websites with millions of POIs, but who needs a POI to find the nearest Wal-Mart? There are probably some good ones, but I didn't see any. If you want to know where all the highway rest stops are in Texas, write to me.

You can customize POI-Warner with your own icons (you make them or get them from the POI sites). You can also add custom sounds, alarms, warnings, announcements, or any other sounds. Save them as .wav files into the POI-Warner folder on the Becker and POI-Warner will find them. Then you associate the appropriate overlay (say, "gas stations") of POIs with the sound you want, and all the POIs in the same overlay will be announced with your custom sound. You can also customize the timing of the announcement. No matter what your speed, the announcement will come based on the number of seconds until the destination.

And speaking of speed, POI-Warner has custom announcements for that too. If you have an overlay of speed limits, say "55 mph markers," you can set the maximum speed for approaching one of those POIs at 60 mph and POI-Warner will announce, "Slow down you're driving too fast" if you are driving faster than 60. There is also directionality of POIs available with the paid for European speed camera data. That means that if you approach a speed zone from the slow side, you will not hear an announcement. The POI will be displayed on the screen, but there is no audible announcement. However, when you approach from the fast side, you will get the audible announcement. This could be useful for school zones, hospitals, or any speed marker.

You can download and install POI-Warner before paying for it. It will not run, but at least you have a little confidence that your system is compatible. You plug the Becker into your computer with the USB cable and download POI-Warner to your computer. It will install on the Becker automatically. Then you regi$ter it and get an activation code. I had an operating problem that was resolved when I reloaded POI-Warner, but other than that, it seems to fix the POI issues on the Becker.

After you get POI-Warner running, you can turn overlays on and off easily. Editing the overlays is best done on the computer. The format for their POIs is as follows
xGPS,yGPS,"Comment between two quote symbols that can go on forever but cannot have any commas"

Here is a POI recorded by POI-Warner (note that it doesn't quite follow their own format...not sure why even though I've asked and gotten an reply)...
-100.9543280, 35.6013800, "recorded: POI-Warner (22.03.03 10:47:50 179°/0kmh)"
-POI-Warner (22.03.03 10:47:50 179°/0kmh)"

Notice it is two lines with an extra quote mark at the end of the second line. Apparently I did not assign that point to an overlay, otherwise the name of the overlay would have been where the word 'recorded' is.
Type your overlay in Notepad and save it with a name like "Shell Stations.asc." Save your icon as "Shell Stations.bmp." Then drop the files into the "pois" folder inside the POI-Warner folder. POI-Warner will absorb the text file and let you know by changing the name to "Shell Stations.bak." I tried to type in my own POIs but the resolution of my x,y position was too crude. The POI floated all over the place. Use the Becker navigation to mark your POIs and they will stay put.

Tomorrow I'm taking my first 500+ mile trip since getting the Becker. If I learn anything, I'll write back.

[steve614]

I've had my Becker since last November, and I'm basically pleased with it. No, it doesn't announce street names, but it's the only one I've seen so far that says "please" when it tells you to turn.

One of the main reasons I got it is because you can purchase its map of the European countries for $97. I asked Garmin and Magellan about their price for the same map and they both quoted $250!

I also like the uncluttered display -- many other units show every little street, and that's distracting when I'm driving.

[jaysax]

Just got one from techforless (techforless.com) here in colorado springs for $58.00. Perhaps office depot gave up on the unit?

Can't really add much to the discussion yet. What about anybody else that has had it for a while?

Jay

[steve614]

I believe Office Depot has stopped selling it. I've had mine for several months, and I'm pleased with it.

[mfranck]

11-20-08

I've had the Becker GPS #7934 for about two years. Since there aren't many reviews on here, I'm going to be rather thorough to hopefully help y'all out. I agree with all of the "cons" that have already been reported by other users here. On an ongoing basis, the biggest pain in the brain I have is the way it lists customized POIs, as another user already stated. (You know, all the addresses that you add yourself so you can get around? ie: the most important ones and the reason you probably bought a GPS in the first place?) It only lets you store 50 but the worst part is that it sorts them in a way I cannot figure out and believe me, I've tried. (It's not alphabetically by name, it's not by address, it's not by order entered etc.) So when you go to find an address you previously entered it takes a really long time to find it, scrolling down 4 addresses at a time. UGH! This is insane to me! I often give up and re-type the address into the system rather than search for it. It would also be nice if there were not only a sorting option, but a classification option, so that I can classify types of address together, ie restaurants, clients, friends etc.

The other problem I have is that the ONLY way to re-charge the unit is through the cigarette lighter in your car. It does not come with an AC adapter for the wall nor an option to battery power. This is annoying for several reasons: First, as mentioned by another reviewer, the unit does take several minutes to locate your car via satellite when you first turn it on. I don't care to sit in my car during that time so it would be grand if I could just take the unit out of the car, plug it in to re-charge in my home, and then turn it on several minutes before I need to leave. Secondly, not all cars have cigarette lighters and those that do very often have blown fuses so they do not work. (For some reason this always happens when I rent a car for a long trip. Annoying! Then I have to rush home and re-route the entire trip on Yahoo Maps which defeats the whole purpose of having a GPS system!) Thirdly, the charge on the unit sure doesn't seem to last long when it's not plugged in. I've literally charged it all the way up to 100% in my car, disengaged it for use in someone else's car, thinking I had plenty of "juice," only to find the power had petered-out in a half hour or so! (This means my bragging "Oh we won't get lost - I have a GPS! No need to print out maps!" was for naught!!! ummmmm and quite embarrassing!) Fourthly, the same problem applies if you want to take your GPS for a walk around the neighborhood or for a bike ride. Power peters out. (Does anyone else have this problem? It could be I have a problem with my unit, I dunno, but this has been the case since I've had it.) And lastly, without a way to "keep the power mobile" when you travel (overseas or intra-nationally) you can be totally stuck not having a car's cigarette lighter to recharge the darn thing. I don't always rent a car when I travel and even when I do, that is no guarantee of a working lighter. (I can't very well ask strangers to power me up with their cars, so there is nothing I can do! ugh) Makes buying map software for other countries kind of a moot point, if you can't power the darn thing reliably, what's the point?

The directions have been pretty reliable for me, though I agree having the option to preview which route it is going to take you on would be a great advantage. In a local area, we all usually know the best route, but there is no option to choose it. You *can* actually zoom in and out on the map and if you have the patience you can slowly scroll up and down on the map (using your finger to "drag" it) to follow the route, but this can be a very slow and painful process as sometimes it cannot zoom in enough that you can see the actual streets it is taking. Also sometimes the unit misinterprets your finger dragging on the map to be a "single click" and it will take you to other options, which can re-set the point you were at in scrolling through the map. = ARGH!). It works pretty well for short trips, but is harder on longer trips. BUT at least it gives you some idea of the route you will be on. It's probably not feasible on the unit due to memory load, but I don't see why the Becker website can't offer a route print-out of their database if you are pre-planning a trip. I mean, how hard would it be to program something like that? That would make a lot of people's lives easier and solve the problem most of the time. (Do other makers of GPS units have that feature??? What about list sorting for addresses?)

It does let you choose "fastest or shortest" route and whether you want to avoid toll bridges, but that is the extent of it. Only one time did it lead me in the wrong direction and luckily I could tell since I was familiar with the area. (It directed me to turn onto a freeway which led right onto a major bridge here in CA = so wrong! The street I needed closely paralleled the freeway and perhaps the satellites couldn't pick that out, or perhaps the map wasn't up to date. Not sure. If I hadn't known I would have been taken on an hour+ ride over the Bay, had to pay a toll, plus sit in traffic to get there, only to turn around and do it all over again to get to the correct destination. (= not amusing) But I'm *sure* that was a rarity. The Unit can't always know everything, so I don't expect perfection and the occasional directional oddity is bound to happen now and then. To me, it's well worth the pay-off of getting everywhere else quickly and easily! And honestly, it's only happened a couple of times in two years!)

I came upon this user review site because I had to go to the Becerk website (www.mybecker.com) to find out if I could buy another cigarette lighter power adapter for my unit. (fyi Their website does not list the price.) Apparently the only service office in the entire United States is in New York. The # is 1-800-448-0944. My power adapter broke one day when I went to unplug the unit from it's power cord, the little pins on the end of the cord stayed IN the unit, and the metal part pulled out (it's supposed to be one whole piece!). I tried to put the cord back into the unit and draw the pins out, but it wouldn't work. So as of this moment I don't know if a new cord will solve the problem or if the pins will be stuck in there or otherwise make the unit inoperable or un-fixable. I will be extremely annoyed if it cannot be fixed with a new cord! This may have been partially my fault for lightly wrapping the cord around the unit during storage and to keep the unwieldy cord from interfering with my driving. It's quite long, which *is* nice (so you can mount it many places while still plugged in), but it can also dangerouly wrap around the steering wheel or tangle you up, which you have to prevent. (Anyone find a better way to control the cord? How do you NOT wrap it around the unit when you store it, to prevent the problem I've had? Or was it even my fault?) Seems like that part of the cord is cheaply assembled, by the looks of it and the fact that I know I didn't unduly abuse it. I mean really, it just sits in the car! Buyer beware, I guess... or get a spare cord.

I also found that the Becker website offers an external GPS antenna you can mount on your car to help with faster or better reception. That might be helpful if you live in an area with fewer satellites. (There is an option on the unit to see how many satellites you are connected to at a particular location.) The site also says you can get map updates at Navigation.com but when I searched the site for Becker as the manufacturer it was not listed. Somehow I thought when map updates became available they would be free, but after reading the other reviews here, I am thinking NOT. I doubt I would pay more than $10 for a new U.S. map because I just don't travel enough to justify it. Also, I see that there are newer models of the unit on the Becker website that offer some cool features, so you may want to check those out too. I'm sure they are more expensive but maybe the price of a new map, plus the newer unit, with more features would make it more reasonable to you. http://www.mybecker.com/enUS/index.html

It comes with the music player and picture viewer but I've never bothered to use either. I figure with CDs being so easy to burn and with picture viewing already available on cameras nowadays, they are completely wasted features for me. I say offer a unit without the bells and whistles for a cheaper price. (By the way I did buy mine at Office Depot. I have noticed OD is carrying Tom Toms now so perhaps they have an exclusive contract.)

Two things I would look out for in entering addresses that have gotten me into trouble: 1. When you enter a street address you MUST know and enter the correct full address, meaning Avenue, Drive, Parkway, Circle etc. Occasionally I have just entered the street name and have ended up in a vastly wrong area because I didn't pay attention to Ave, Dr, etc. Plenty of towns (like San Francisco!) use the same street name with a different ending five different ways. If you don't know which street ending you need, I suggest you find out ahead of time. Sometimes there is only one option, other times there are many, and depending on how long the street name IS you may not be able to see it on the drop down display. So you must enter the street address all the way to get it right.

Secondly, the same carefulness applies to towns and zip codes. I've had instances where I enter a town, say Los Angeles, California and then go to enter the street address. I then clicked Start and went to the destination it told me. I eventually found out (after arriving 1 hour PAST my intended destination) that Los Angeles is not just a city, but a COUNTY too. So when I entered LA as the city, the GPS found the street address that exactly matched it... and for some odd reason, it adjusted the city to San Pablo as the town (which is *in* LA County) after the fact. (Probably because it was the first listing.) Had I double checked, I might have found another listing for Los Angeles the city. (=OMG so annoying but my fault for not double checking the ZIP.) This has happened to me more than once (you'd think I'd learn!) so just be sure to check ALL info exactly before you travel. Usually I get away without knowing the zip code at all, and perhaps my LA/San Pablo experience was an oddity because of the way the zip codes are zoned in LA County, but I just wanted to point it out to help others avoid the same downfalls. If it's really important, get the zip code ahead of time and don't rely on the just the GPS finding it for you!

So those "con" issues aside, I've been quite happy with the system. LOL it may not seem that way from the above, but I am. It's the first GPS I've owned and was considerably cheaper than other units I looked at, at the time. It does give directions vocally well in advance, as well as listing the next turn in text on the screen at all times. It counts down (voice and text) as you get closer and closer to your turn so it's pretty hard not to be able to get in the right lane on time. If for some reason you miss a turn (which I hardly ever do) it quickly re-asses where you are at and creates a new route automatically. Love that! (Makes me feel like I can't get lost in a bad neighborhood, going in circles.) Having both voice and text notice for navigation is VERY helpful to me because I don't have a great working-memory and sometimes forget what was just said to me, especially in crazy road conditions, traffic, or when talking in the car. It makes driving a no-brainer! From what I'm told by other GPS users, the way it gives directions is much better than other GPS units. (Anyone else have thoughts on that or comparisons to other units?)

You can alter the volume of the announcements or mute them altogether if you prefer. You can also enter a 2nd destination along your trip, but not more. It counts down the miles left to your destination as well as the estimated arrival time (on screen). There are also options to show your longitude/latitude and sea-level correspondents, if you are into that kind of thing. The website says it warns you when you are approaching the speed limit, which I have NEVER heard and didn't even know about, though I think it would be a VERY nice thing to have. I'll be sure to speed this week, just to check it out! lol (Perhaps they added this feature to a later version of the unit than I have? I'll have to test it.) The night vision option is great too, it makes it easy to see the screen when you are driving at night, by illuminating the route on the screen and decreasing the back lighting. = A lot easier on the eyes. It also has colored "mood lighting" on the sides of the unit, in case you lose something it can act as a little flash light or (LOL) give you some colored lighting for in-the-car-romance! (Was that their intention?!) It also shows you gas stations, ATMs, and restaurants as symbols on the map when you drive which could prove helpful in a crunch. When I zoom into street level, it even shows the actual names of restaurants and stores as I drive in the city, which is nice. (I'd love it if the unit would allow me to zoom in on a POI and get the phone # to call before I drive there. What's one more data field, after all? A girl can dream, right?)

Those are my main thoughts. I realize I covered more negatives than positives here, but of course we always want to improve on what we have. I do recommend this product and would buy it again. (Although, the power situation would definitely make me look to see if other units offer more flexibility first.) I've never been good spatially-directionally so this was the best purchase I've ever made for myself! Everyone needs one! No more anxiety about getting lost in bad places or circling around trying to find my way someplace and wasting time and causing aggravation. No more being late because Yahoo Maps was wrong or because there was a road detour and I got lost. No more asking people for turn by turn directions. More helping people who ask ME for help with directions in the city. A lot more spur of the moment trips and destination changes as I travel. No more friggen Thomas Guides and bloody road maps all over the car that I cannot read - even on my best day! The GPS means freedom, confidence, and independence wherever I go. Yay! I'll never be without one now that I know how much easier life is *with* one. It's well worth a couple hundred bucks. (Do I sound like a commercial?)

If I can answer any questions please feel free to email me at MarinBookkeeping@yahoo.com and I'll tell you what I know or poke around the unit to figure something out for you. When I bought the unit, Office Depot did NOT allow me to return the product once it was opened so I wasn't able to check-out the features ahead of time and the box itself showed very little info, nor did the Becker website itself. I understand needing to know specific info for your own purposes. Sometimes the ONLY way to get that is from someone who has used it a lot.

Yours in safe and happier driving, Michelle