CoPilot Live Truck laptop version 8 ??

Ive been using it since february. It is touch-screen friendly, so if you hook a 7 inch touch screen up to your laptop, it will be like using a 7 inch gps screen. The buttons are large, so they are easy to click with the touch screen, unlike software such as MS streets and trips.

The routing isnt perfect, its put me in some minor situations such as going down a no-truck road, and telling me to make a right turn on top of a bridge instead of taking the ramp. But any gps can do that, not just copilot.

The only standalone gps i used was a megellan car gps from the early 2000's. It had 3.5 inch screen. After using that, i would never settle for a gps under 5 inches of screen. That leaves me with spending $400+ for a standalone gps that only does one thing. Laptop + Touch screen is the best way to go in my opinion. Plus the gps software uses the laptop's processor to calculate the route, and a laptop's processor is many times faster than a standalone gps's. The route calculates almost instantly on laptop.

You can also play small MS games like solitaire while your sitting in a dock getting unloaded. You can also hook up a camera to the laptop, and run a dash cam from it. You can run media player and play your own music without a CD, just run an aux cord from laptop to stereo. You can control the media player with the touch screen. It also makes copilot's audio come though the speakers, which sounds great.

Copilot was worth every penny to me. Ive also had good experience with customer service.
Just a side note - after you get a route done, close copilot and reopen it. It will save your route automatically and reload it. The reason for doing this is you cant zoom in/out after you change the route unless you restart copilot. It took me 2 months to figure that out.

 

Say what? What do you mean by "you can't zoom in or out after you change the route?"

 

Once i make or edit a route, it stays zoomed so it shows my location and my destination far apart. But i cant zoom in or out while im moving, it always goes back. If i restart copilot, it lets me zoom in/out at will while im moving.

If im stopped, i can zoom in/out or scroll the map no problem, just not while im moving.

 

I've been using version 8 for a couple of months now. Over all I like the program but the software is unstable. If you get to clicking too fast it will lock up. I've tried everything, even had a good conversation with diesel boss and they agree it's not the most dependable. I'm using it a a back up device not my primary gps.

 

That's a setting. It sounds like you are in "2D Destination" mode or "2D Next Turn" mode. Go to "Menu | Next Page | Driving Views | and then choose either 2D or 3D, whichever you prefer. But it sounds like you are in one of the auto-zoom modes. If you are in "2D Destination" mode then it is supposed to automatically keep zooming the map out to show the entire trip when you are moving.

 

CoPilot 8 is definitely memory intensive because of all that it is doing with the laptop processor, memory, and the networking connections being used. It is about 50% less than version 11 (the previous version) used, but it is undoubtedly still a bit of a hog. To reduce, or eliminate, instability issues, here is my guide for that:

1. Have enough system memory. For Windows XP go with 2 gigs. For Win 7 try to have at least 3 gigs or more. Memory is a cheap upgrade if needed!

2. Eliminate background "bloatware." I often find that drivers are not even aware that a dozen or more unneeded programs are running in the background. The biggest culprits that affect system stability (and therefore CoPilot) are messenger programs and anti-virus programs. If you are navigation down the road (verses sitting stopped somewhere and surfing the web) then turn off any extraneous programs down in the system tray. Norton, McAfee, and Trend antivirus suites are especially bloated and will interfere with stable operations. If you are not currently connected to the internet, you don't need them running while navigating.

3. Turn off the Windows "Automatic Updates!" I can't stress this enough for mobile computer users! Windows will automatically be set to "Download and install updates automatically" unless you go into the control panel and change this. I find this ALL the time to be the case that users are not aware of this. If you connect to the internet eve just for a little while to check something, Windows will often begin an update in he background without you noticing. Then you either disconnect from the internet or even worse, shut down your system in the middle of it and BAD things can happen (up to and including having a complete Windows crash.) Just set this setting to "check for updates but let me choose when to download and install them.)

4. Turn off you wireless (wifi) adapter in your networking settings when you are not using internet. Another thing that many drivers don't realize is that as you drive through cities and towns your wifi adapter built into your laptop is scanning (and sometimes trying to connect) to available networks around you (even when you are moving or sitting at a light.

5. Finally, check which version of CoPilot 8 that you have. Go to Menu, Next Page, Settings, Next page 3 more times and click "About CoPilot." Version 8.2.0.545 is the newest and is less susceptible to background program interference. If it does not end in 545 and you got it from me, then let me know and I'll get you a new download link.

By the way, items 1 thru 4 above are best practices to be used IN GENERAL for all mobile users and not just for CoPilot.

 

4. Turn off you wireless (wifi) adapter in your networking settings when you are not using internet. Another thing that many drivers don't realize is that as you drive through cities and towns your wifi adapter built into your laptop is scanning (and sometimes trying to connect) to available networks around you (even when you are moving or sitting at a light.

Thanks for the information Dieselboss. I checked the version and I'm running .545. I've done everything except #4. And this makes since because the program will run for days and then when I have problems it is almost always in a city. I have 720 miles to drive tomorrow so I'll test it out again. Thanks for the support.

 

You're welcome. It really had me scratching my head for a while until I worked with a driver who said "It only burps when I'm in the city and I'm stopped at a light!" We tried to figure why for over a week. Then we determined that at a stop light, you will often be there long enough and close enough to a random free wifi hotspot and a whole bunch of things were set at their default settings to automatically look for updates when an internet connection is detected. So here's what would happen:

Microsoft said, hey lets check for updates
Anti-Virus said, hey lets check for updates
Apple i-tunes said, hey lets check for updates
Adobe flash said, hey lets check for updates
Apple Quicktime said, hey lets check for updates
Media player said, hey lets check for updates
and another half-dozen programs did the same thing
THEN CoPilot said, "I have encountered an error and must shut down."
(lol)

It didn't help that his system was older and had a TON of things running in the task manager as well. So the perfect storm would sometimes occur. Once we showed him how to uninstall some bloatware and turn click his wifi adapter off when he wasn't actually trying to USE the wifi, problem went away.

Since then, I have found that most drivers are not aware that their wifi adapter is AT LEAST scanning nearby wifi at all times, but depending on their settings, may also be trying to CONNECT as well. On more powerful systems that are running efficiently they don't notice it as much, but even then it is a security concern at a minimum.

 

Thanl you Dieselboss. excellent info.