PC Miler 450 oddities

Yesterday, once again, my PC450 took me on a crazy, non truck route, this time through Bellingham WA - downtown. It also took me across 2 low weight limit bridges. When I finally got to my destination they gave me directions back to I-5, it was 2 turns away! I was ready to toss it out the window.

 

Option one: report map or routing updates here: http://www.alk.com/Maps/map_updates.asp Fixed within the next 90-day update cycle.

Option two: Open CoPilot Central. Click on maps. Then North America. The release date on that file says Oct 15 and I know for sure that I haven't done a 1.56G download on this thing yet. So that tells me that their map file is newer than my test unit, because I have had it much longer than Oct 15th. So I downloaded and installed those new maps. It doesn't tell you any release notes or anything, so I have to hope and assume that this improves the addresses and routing.

Note: I have no idea why the app says "no updates available" at the top when there was clearly a map update available for mine. Perhaps that part is only checking the current unit OS version and not the maps. But you'd think that it should.

Option 3: The window.

Hope that helps man. It's worth a try. But you better have a really good internet connection when you do it.

 

Yeah, since it told me no updates were available I didn't bother to update it. I'm using an air card so I'll have to choose my timing to update it wisely.

 

Had it doing some strange things like that. Turned off state mileage logging and the problem disappeared. Not sure if it's the same issue you're having but I would recommend turning that off for anyone who doesn't have a need for it. No sense making it work harder than it has to.

Other than that I still have the same issues I always had. I have got some updates and played with the routing options but still have same issues. For some reason though it has really grown on me. Now that I know what I can expect of it and what I can't I have a very nice eta tool that shows me upcoming turns and will let me know that a certain truck stop is close and to watch for signs to figure out how to get into it. I wouldn't recommend it as a much cheaper garmin car model with a couple of poi sets will be just as handy but it is workable. With minor tweaking on a bunch of things it would be excellent but isn't quite there yet.

 

That GPS is a peice of crap. I had one and it stopped working after one week. Pilot would not give a refund or exchange and PC Miler wanted $179.00 to fix it.

 

PC Miler wanted $179 to fix a one-week old unit that was clearly under warranty??? I've never seem them do that if it had a factory defect.

And yes, it makes a difference where you buy any item. It is up to that store what their return policy is, but the individual seller has NO effect on a warranty claim.

Just wanted to balance your statement for the other readers of this thread because I've worked dozens of warranty claims with their warranty center and have NEVER seen them charge a repair fee for a unit under warranty. The only time I have seen the buyer have to pay a fee on a warranty unit is when they have broken the screen themselves, or spilled coffee in it, or on the shipping to the factory of a broken unit.

 

Had a drop in Chicago the other day. PCM450 wanted me to take a very roundabout way to get there. A call to consignee confirmed there was only one way in due to a number of low clearances. If this thing was that good all the time I'd be in heaven.

 

I gotta agree. I've tried all kinds of different settings, restarts, resets and calibrations and this thing just keeps getting me screwed up every time I give it a chance. The latest but not unique place I can attest to the fact that it is completely worthless in is Marshfield WI. I hate it but I gotta get rid of it before I allow it to get me into real trouble.

 

It seems the smaller the place the more useless it is for truck specific stuff. It's a work in progress and I guess it makes sense they would concentrate on the bigger centers first. I would imagine it's easier for them to get the relevant information for the bigger cities also now that I think about it. But it is a great tool so long as you know it's limitations.