That's the whole point to my interrupting the VSS wire.... so I can use ALL features of the Nav while in motion.

 

What do you mean not the same thing? You made a know-it-all statement and I disputed it. I don't have time to search out specific examples but you know darn well there have been "navigation" systems that don't use GPS. Hit up your favorite search engine if you want. Not that they know anything, but the salesman at the Pontiac dealer where we bought my wife's Vibe in 2004 led us to believe that the car's "DVD based" nav system didn't use GPS.

And what do you mean by "Not what the rest of us were talking about"? You blurted out some jargon in post #3 which happens to be erroneous, so please don't make it sound like I led the thread off topic.

 

Here you go, I set aside 4.3 seconds to search it for you:

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automot...igation_system

"It typically" [emphasis mine] "uses GPS to acquire position data to locate the user on a road in the unit's map database."

"Honda claims to have created the first navigation system starting in 1983, and culminating with general availability in the 1990 Acura Legend. This analog system used an accelerometer to navigate using inertial navigation, as the GPS system was not yet generally available."

Let me know if you want more GPS education GPSMan.

 

What you are talking about BRADY is typically used in ROCKETS, and SUBMARINES where #1 cost is not an issue #2 GPS is unavailable and #3 being off by a mile here and there does not really matter.

NOT THE SAME THING the rest of us were talking about.

Also, with INS the USER ( You ) needs to know where you are at all times. The INS only tracks CHANGES in your position. It does not, and cannot tell you WHERE you are at, only the changes in your position.
INS is like a blind person in a car. It can feel turns, and stops and starts, but cannot tell WHERE it is.

If you want to start a new thread Brady on INS, be my guest.
Every car CONSUMERS CAN BUY comes with a Navigation system that uses GPS. The modern Naviagation systems, including FORD's use a combination of GPS and INS working together. GPS can work without the INS, but INS cannot work ( for very long ) without GPS. INS is what gets your car through tunnels and canyons, but your position accuracy degrades quickly with extended GPS outages. I'm not into ancient Honda's, but those could probably tell you how far you've gone, and how far to the next city within a mile or two for example, but they could not tell you how to get to an exact street address, nor could they help you find your way home if you were lost.

 

Does Honda still use that kind of system today? I doubt it. That, alone, would tell anyone if such a nav system was really a good idea.

BTW, I would never, ever, quote Wiki as a fact source, because there is absolutely no verification work done on any of their entries.

 

Before the advent of GPS system technology, INS was the commonly used navigation system on most international airline aircraft. The crew was required to perform an alignment prior to takeoff, taking 13-14 minutes, and the first part of that was the input of the aircraft position. Systems were rather expensive due to the required quality of the gyros and accelerometer platforms, at about $100-$125K each. I know that the initial Pan-Am 747 aircraft, just to cite one example, had triply redundant INS. Accuracies were on the order of 0.5 nm/hour.

 

I present to you the 1981 Honda Electro Gyrocator dead reckoning nav system. It was available as an option on the 1981 Honda Accord. Maps were on transparencies ...

 

Lurch, that is very interesting. Do you have the specification accuracy ( without update ) on that system? Also curious as to what they charged for a poor man's INS?

 

I don't have much info, I just saw it posted on Engadget.com this morning and remembered this thread. This is all of the info I have on it: http://grandjdm.com/2007/11/29/old-school-jdm-sat-nav/

 

I am by no means saying INS is a good idea or the best present day solution, I just wanted to point out that one of John's blanket statements was false. John you do great work on the forum and I appreciate you very much but every now and then consider using words like "most" as opposed to "all."

Walt, my finger hovered over the post button for a while due to the Wiki reference for just that reason. It's not the greatest cite but you'd be surprised how many people use Wiki for important reasons. For example, my wife is a nurse and she said half the doctors in her hospital look things up on Wiki on a regular basis! I, on the other hand, recently learned via Wiki that Quiet Riot's big hit "*** On Feel The Noize" was a cover of a Slade song. So it's all good.