Cobra Electronics 7700 PRO GPS

straighttruck · Aug 31, 2010

Brian at Cobra said: ↑

Please make sure that you have the latest mapping database. Click <here> on how to check.

Another map update should be available before the end of the year.

Brian
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yes brian my unit is fully updated as i said the canadian map needs a major update

straighttruck · Aug 31, 2010

well brian the 7700 F#&$ up big time today I entered a address 5373 Finch ave E Scarborough Ontario Canada ( this address is located near the intersection of Markham rd & finch ave e ) my start location was Kennedy rd & hwy 401 it should have took me along the 401 to Markham rd then north on Markham rd to finch then west 2 blocks on finch to the entered address But it took me along the 401 to Morningside ave ( 2 exits past Markham rd ) north on Morningside then told me to turn on oldfinch rd ( oldfinch rd is all residential NO TRUCKS ALLOWED and as a narrow 1 way bridge again no trucks allowed on the bridge max 5t ) this unit took me 10 miles past the actual location plus into a area where trucks are not allowed as I said in past posts this needs some major updating

Rug_Trucker · Aug 31, 2010

Yesterday coming from the Pilot in Roland OK to the Love's in Durant OK.

South of MacCallister OK on US69 every 1/4 of a mile or so it kept tell me to bear right , left etc, etc etc for 10-20 miles. Yes, I installed the upddate that was suppossed to fix this.

When I got to Durant it took me to Christies Toy Box instead of the Love's!( Different kind of love?) Love was another 6 miles or so down the road!

Today coming from Paris TX to Dayton TX it got me lost big time!

The address I was going to was 451 FM686. This is a frikken Sam's club distribution center. It told me that address didn't exist! I took me into Dayton and had me turn right down the wrong road. I turned around and drove into town and got directions from a local.

What is it with this unit that it doesn't want to find Walmart and Sam's distribution centers?

Also today while traveling on I-635 in Dallas it froze up for no apparent reason.

I don't know why but it stays zoomed out to the 8 mile scale and can't be reverted to what it was before when traveling. How can I fix this?

I was thinking about returning it to the factory settings. But I will lose everything in my address book. Some places like the Swift terminal in Houston that I had to label as it can't find the address that it actually is.

Thanks in advance.

Rug_Trucker · Sep 1, 2010

I am here at Sam's. 15 miles from where I should be according to Bebe.

What's the problem with these distribution centers?

straighttruck · Sep 1, 2010

well brian here is another lock up problem for you to ad to your books
this is the second lock up i have had with this unit
unit is set as a single axle 24ft straight truck 18000lb
unit was set to take me from millway dr in concord ontario to casebridge dr in scarborough ontario route was easy problem was i was southbound on hwy 400 exiting onto eastbound hwy 401 the unit lock up on the exit ramp and would not move had to power unit off restart ( must be programed by microsoft LOL ) an input info again

Rug_Trucker · Sep 2, 2010

going back to the problems I had this morning. Bebe tried to make me turn around. She picked several side streets to do it on. All with 5 ton limits! She did show that restriction, yet wanted me to do it.

Brian at Cobra · Sep 2, 2010

straighttruck said: ↑

yes brian my unit is fully updated as i said the canadian map needs a major update
Click to expand...

Please let me know the complete address so that I can double-check.

Brian

Brian at Cobra · Sep 2, 2010

Rug_Trucker said: ↑

I went to apply for a job in downtown Nashville. It wanted to drag me throught the middle of town and through all kinds stop lights. I just looped around the center of town and got off 2 blocks from the place.

It was set on the quickest route.
Click to expand...

To investigate, I would need the starting location and the destination address. Hopefully you have the starting address, but if not then at least the city and state.

Brian

Brian at Cobra · Sep 2, 2010

Poetry-in-Motion said: ↑

Hi Brian,

I'm new to this forum, but have read most of the entries in this thread. I purchased a 7700 a month ago after pretty extensive research primarily as a result of the information in this thread.

I'll happy to give you some straight, non-emotional technical feedback on this gadget, if you like, in the hope that Cobra will use it to make significant improvements to a promising tool.

You mentioned there have been no reports of the device locking up. Here's how to make it reliably freeze:

Enter a destination far from your present location and ask it to list points of interest along your route. If there are multiple locations, like rest areas or travel centers, the unit will reliably freeze, probably due to buffer overload.

This is very frustrating to me (and I'm sure others) because the only way to fix the problem is to turn the unit off and on. Then destination information has to be reentered from scratch because the unit doesn't save the current route. Asking the unit for Last Route doesn't work.

This effectively means I can never query the unit for POI's like rest areas or fuel stops along the route, because 1) I can't get an answer from a frozen machine, and 2) I have to reenter destination information from scratch every time I have to recover from using this feature.

The problem is poor coding because freezing from a buffer overflow should be captured (like limiting the number of POI's displayed to the first 20 or some such) in order to prevent this.

I'm a long haul trucker and I bought this unit to be able to enter a street address several states away in order to efficiently navigate to it. This repeatable freezing problem severely limits its usefulness to me.

I'll share other glitches in another post.
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I have not heard of reports of this type. It would be very helpful if you could provide a starting location and a destination address that causes a lockup when searching POIs. I can then try it here. If I can duplicate it, then I can have our engineers investigate.

By the way, what would make you say that it is poor coding from a buffer overflow? Do you have programming experience?

Brian

Brian at Cobra · Sep 2, 2010

Poetry-in-Motion said: ↑

Brian,

Here's some additional thoughts/frustrations with the 7700. (By the way, I have verified from the Cobra website that I have the latest map, software updates, and databases installed.)

Background - I'm a long haul trucker. Wrong turns/missed turns are VERY expensive for a unit that costs $1.50 a mile to operate, so to be profitable it has to be driven as efficiently as possible.

With that background, I bought this unit to efficiently navigate to an address several states away. I considered the Rand McNally, the Promiler, and the NuVi, and Streets & Trips before I bought the 7700.

Some in this thread have shared they feel the technology is not ready yet. I disagree; the technology to make this unit work well is here and operating. The unit obviously knows where it is at all times, is capable of plotting a trip, warning of speed traps and dangerous locations, etc.

So, the technology and hardware is capable and operating. The problem is with poor software coding and database upkeep. Here are some of my major issues with the 7700:

The unit freezes and crashes in a predictable manner (see my previous post).

The database is obivously a car database with truck stuff grafted into it. If the 7700 is a trucker "pro" device, then why is there ANYTHING associated with a car in it? Including useless auto info needlessly clutters up the option menus and makes navigation more difficult. If you want to keep this flexibility and include useless auto stuff, then why not let the "truck" and "auto" checkboxes control whether the auto info is displayed?

There are no warnings or alerts for weigh stations while driving the route. This is inexcusable for a device marketed to commercial vehicles that are ALWAYS require to pass through weigh stations when they are open. Missing one means a very heavy fine and points against your commercial license. Again, the hardware is clearly capable of issuing warnings or cautions based on location, so it can warn of weigh stations if programed to do so. There are only a few dozen fixed data points for weight stations in all of the US, so there's no excuse not to have automatic warnings for something this important.

Unbelievably, the unit also does not announce major interstate intersections in all situations. In the city, it does a fairly good job, but outside of major metro areas it's completely silent when major intersections are approaching. For example, I-75 south approaching the origination of I-16 in Macon GA when my route required me to take I-16. There are many other examples. Maybe this behavior has something to do with what is or is not labeled as an "exit" in your database, but the result reduces the value of the unit.

Internal menu scroll bars give inconsistent results when pressed. When navigating internal menus, the big black rectangular scroll buttons on the right may or may not scroll the page. Sometimes the button actually actuates the menu item to the left instead of scrolling. This behavior results in significant confusion and wasted time trying to figure out where you are when the display changed. Do the new items newly displayed mean the menu scrolled as desired or are you now in a sub-menu that you now have to back out of? VERY frustrating.

The scroll button problem seems to be that only the little bitty white triangles are the actual button, while the surrounding black border is not associated with the button, so touching the black border actually activates the sub-menu to the left. Truckers have fat fingers! So, make the whole black button active, not just the little white triangle.

Ditto for the "back" button in the lower right hand corner!!

There are MANY other issues that I won't take the space to detail here, but most of the problems seem to stem from:
1) grafting truck info into a car database,
2) programming from an automobile mentality, rather than a professional commercial driver's world, and
3) insufficient testing to identify and wring out these problems. So, the public is doing it for Cobra in a very public manner.

The 7700 retails for $499. I bought mine at the T/A for $349. I intially considered taking it back, but decided to keep it because I think it has more going for it than against it. I think the 7700 has the capability to be a$499 machine, but I think it's a $249 machine in it's present state. I'm hoping that Cobra will invest the programming resources necessary to make the existing hardware what it has the protential to be.
Click to expand...

I disagree with some of your comments. There is no such thing as a "car database" and a "truck database". There are map databases, and they can be used for different applications. The same database can be used on a car GPS or on a truck GPS. You make it sound like Cobra took a cheap "car database" and tacked on a few truck features. This is simply not the case. We have more truck routing mileage than ANY other truck GPS, so what are the others doing??

"programming from an automobile mentality" Maybe we have some POIs that are not directly associated with trucking, but that does not support such a statement.

I agree with your comments regarding weigh stations. We are in the process of addressing this. I must admit though, that driving in the midwest it has been a looong time since I have seen an open weigh station. Not that I get around like you truckers do. I don't know what it's like in other areas.

Regarding the issues with buttons, it sounds like your touchscreen is a little off. There is a touchscreen calibration you can perform. From the main menu tap on CONFIGURE and then scroll to the next page and tap on CALIBRATION. When calibrating, use something pointy. Do NOT use your finger! Take your time to do a good job, and feel free to repeat the calibration if you don't like the results.

"Insufficient testing" - since the beginning and continuing today, we have a group of professional drivers who work closely with us to provide feedback on the 7700. They drive their routes from coast to coast, testing new features and beta software, etc. etc.

If you find a problem with Windows 7 and you report it to Microsoft, you are not doing their product testing for them. If you find a problem with your car and you report it to Chevy, you are not doing their product testing for them. If you find a problem with our unit, we would greatly appreciate if you'd let us know so that it can get resolved. But we surely do not expect the public to do our product testing for us!

Rather than going back and forth here, I think it would be better to have a chat. Feel free to Call Customer Service at 773-889-8870 and ask for me. I would be happy to discuss these issues and any others you may have.

Brian

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