CoPilot 11 Truck
 

Well, ALK called me today to place my pre-order for the upgrade of my CoPilot from 9 to 11 (I guess since it took so long for the update they skipped version 10 completely).

The new version will be shipping on January 28th. They said they should have the website updated next week to show the new version. I'm interested to see what all they've done to it. The last time I talked to them they said they were doing a complete re-write of the program. Also, the new version is 100% Vista compatible if you're running that.

The best part is that I get the upgrade for free. The Live feature which they use as a selling point is just about worthless in version 9. I had people sending me messages and destinations and had no clue who they were. The people I had setup to track me, send messages, etc almost always ended up seeing someone else.

It did make for fun though when I would log onto my account, see me driving down a completely different highway on the other side of the country. I'd send a message asking where they were taking my truck, send them destinations in the middle of nowhere (northern Maine, northwest territory in Canada, etc.)

Anyway, just thought that people may want to look into it.

Hey Malakai, I just ordered co-pilot 11. it cost me $99.00 how did you get it free. I had both previous versions 4 and 9. they wouldn't work on my new throw away toshiba i just bought, thats now running vista. Also, did you ever upgrade to their new GPS reciever they say is better? just wondering if it is worth getting. going to put ms streets and trips GPS on also this week. do you know if that GPS receiver will work with co-pilot. Thanks for any info you can give.

The only reason I'm receiving the upgrade for free is from my 30+ calls to tech support about problems with CoPilot 9, mainly in the Live features.

I have a 3rd party GPS receiver that is weatherproof and magnetic. It's mounted on a plate on the passenger side mirror. Since I've installed it, the only time I lose a signal now is when I go through a tunnel or under a long bridge.

The receiver is 100% compatible with everything I've thrown at it. I use Franson GPSGate, which will let you "create" virtual GPS ports, allowing you to use multiple GPS programs at the same time. I can have Streets & Trips, CoPilot, GooPS (an addon for Google Earth) and the GPS addon for Drivers Daily Log running all at the same time.

Even when I first purchased CoPilot, I only had the old-style receiver that came with my Streets & Trips 2005. It worked fine with it as well. The reason I bought my receiver from a 3rd party vendor is because the original S & T one finally gave out on me. It would jump me from one side of the continent to the other while driving down the road.

Well, it's on the truck for delivery and should be here today. That works out good for me since my truck is in the shop for a new exhaust and will be finished for my run out this evening. Guess I get to give it a try this evening.

They still haven't updated their website for it. I'd like to have an idea of what they've changed...

Still can't give much of a review on CoPilot 11...

I installed it yesterday and well, it won't run. When the program starts, that's it - nothing else. It won't even give the opening splash screen. I called their tech support and talked with the lead programmer. Apparently they're finding that some AMD 64-bit cpu's don't like it, even though the operating system is 32-bit.

My laptop has been needing a good formatting anyway, so I'm going to try it on a clean install.

While I was talking to him I asked a couple questions about things that I didn't see in the users manual, mainly the Custom POI's and the "Save Current Location". Well, it seems that they decided to remove these completely from CoPilot 11. However, he said that they've received over 1,000 complaints already about this and they are already working on an update to add them back in.

So, now to finish the formatting/reinstallation to see if I can get it to work...

Well - it runs now - sort of.

I forgot to bring my gps receiver home with me, so I can't do a whole lot with it. Seems like not having a receiver attached causes it to crash. I might run to the truck tomorrow and grab it to see if that's the problem with it.

truly a pile of crap just my feelings about copilot who wants to leave their laptop on all the time buy copilot dnload it than return it for credit than buy a garmin and use the copilot just to check the garmins routing (truck routes)

Well, considering my laptop can do thousands of things that the Garmin can't - there's a start. I do my logs on it via Drivers Daily Log, I use the internet to check the weather, I use Google Maps for a satelite view of the destination, I use the internet for games, etc etc etc.

I turn my laptop on Sunday when I leave and shut it down Friday when I get home. It's never shut down on the road. Maybe a restart here or there, but it's always on and in use.

I agree with rustylugzz. I have had a lot of problems with laptops on the road . And have to replace my motherboard and lcd screen. i had to replace a lcd screen on a friends HP pc twice over 2 year. They just can take the shaking.
Sorry to say it only a matter of time. I still have my lappy on the truck but its pack safely away. I got me a mio c230 for $160. you can plan out a route easily . Just use your atlas. Never rely on you gps software alone.
.
http://reviews.cnet.com/car-gps-navi...-32627128.html

Unlocked it will do much more
http://opop.wordpress.com/2008/02/17...for-my-mio-c23

My laptop has just passed the 2 year mark for riding in a truck. I've had absolutely zero problems with the hardware on it. It has had to be formatted and the software reinstalled, but that was from my doing, not the truck. With a rough guess, I figure I can get another 1-2yrs out of it in the truck.

If you get 4 year out of your laptop thats great. you'll probably want to upgrade by then anyway. Good luck never hurts .

Exactly. I was planning on replacing it late this year/early next year anyway.

Well,

We've been shipping the CoPilot Truck 11 for about a week now. The first thing that I did was install it on an XP machine and a Vista machine because I wanted to check the install process and the compatibility problems that we had in the past with Vista. Both installs went flawlessly. The Vista machine is running a 32-bit version of Windows with an AMD 64-bit dual-core processor with no crashes. (1 gig of RAM.)

As far as the program, it did indeed get a whole re-write. The screens are bigger and they made everything with "left-clicks" and there is no "right-click" functionality now. The maps are updated, but with any GPS, if I look hard enough I can find roads that are mislabeled or missing. The POI's are working fine also.

The truck routing feature appears to be improved and works well as long as you create yourself a custom profile in the program and identify which roads you want to "favor" and "avoid." If you don't make sure to turn on "53-foot and National Network" routing and then choose which types of roads that you want to "favor and avoid" then it won't keep you away from low bridges and small streets, etc.

As far as bugs that I have found so far, the only big one is that it doesn't run at 1440 X 900 resolution. Setting your screen to anything lower than that makes it work fine. They report that the patch is already underway for this bug.

Regards,

Don (from www.dieselboss.com)

They sent me the email yesterday suggesting the screen resolution change and it works now. The highest setting I could find that works on my laptop is 1024x768 which is fine except that my laptop is a widescreen and now everything is stretched out. I'll give it a try today while I'm running.

I see that the traffic feature is a "pay to play" item. I thought it would be used if you have an internet connection.

I just wish I could use my custom POI's in it that I've already saved from version 9.

Screen resolution: So far I haven't seen any resolution bug other than at 1400. Many laptops don't even go that high. I am running it at 1280 X 900 and it looks great at that setting. Try that setting if yor laptop has it when you get a chance. This will be fixed in the first patch.

Traffic: IS NOT pay-to-play. You go to the Menu / Settings page 2 / Licensing / Traffic (GPRS) and enter an unlock code that ALK gives you for free by calling in (unfortunately there is an extra call to them involved.) Once you turn that on and you have a web connection (like an air-card) in your truck, then it works really slick. It shows you upcoming traffic problems in the city areas and allows you to "avoid" or "ignore." If you choose to "avoid" then it routes you around using the route preferences that you have set up in your "profile."

Custom POI's: Yes they did NOT put a POI "manager" inside the program yet and that is a major inconvenience in my opinion. YES, it is on the developer list to be patched because of all of the complaints, so keep your eye out for that fix. YES, there is a back door to manually transfer all of your previous custom POI's but I would not recommend it to anyone that is NOT computer savvy. If you know your way around the windows directory folders then it can be done.

Maps: Are updated through winter of 2007 using the PCMiler database, so that is a big improvement too.

Hope that helps you man.

Don (www.dieselboss.com)

Alright - I've ran the new CoPilot for the past 24hrs or so. It's definitely different than version 9.

I love the new display. The colors are much better and it just looks a lot better overall. I really haven't been to a lot of locations yet, but I did notice that it's picked up on some roads that weren't in version 9, so that's a big plus.

POIs - One major thing I don't like about the new setup is that the truck specific POIs aren't in categories like v9 (Cat scales, truck washes, etc). Now there's only one category - Truck Services. Truck Services is anything from parking in a mall parking lot to a full truck stop location. It's up to you to guess what it means. When I talked to ALK yesterday they said that's another issue that they're wanting to have resolved in a future patch.

How do you copy the current custom POIs from v9 to v11? I know my way around the computer.

Traffic - I found out about the traffic activation yesterday as well. I activated it and so far love it. It warned me of road construction and wrecks this morning coming through Buffalo, NY. Very nice feature.

Other than the issues I've listed before (the custom POIs, Save Current and the screen resolution) I'm impressed with the new CoPilot.

I agree that the new display is visually nicer and clearer. I continue also to try addresses that were missing from CPT 9 and they are actually in version 11 so that has been a major plus for it. The traffic feature is a super-cool addition as you say.

The POI sub-categories are actually still in CPT11 also - they're just not under "Menu / Settings / POI's." AND I agree that they should be put back there. You can still see them by going to "Menu / Plan or Edit Trip / Add (the plus sign or use New Trip) / POI. If you select "Pick Category" in this screen you will see a button at the bottom light up in many of the categories which will allow you to view the sub-categories like in Ver 9. For instance, the "Truck Services" category breaks down into: Truck Stops, CAT Scales, Weigh Stations, and Highway Exits.

The "Save Current" is also still in 11. It just saves it as a "Favorite" instead of as a Custom POI now. In "Driving Mode" you just click "Menu / Save Current Location."

Please EMAIL me using the link under this post and I will reply with my "importing custom POI's work-around procedure."

Don
www.dieselboss.com

The Favorites are limited to 25 entries, isn't it?

Very cool about the sub-categories. I didn't even notice that before.

I emailed you for the POI importing info.

Thanks

I just ran the POI conversion and it FREAKIN ROCKS!!! Perfect instructions. Now I'm about 98% happy with CoPilot 11.

Yes, it's made by ALK and uses the map data from PCMiler.

No, it's not a perfect product for truckers even though it's made for use by truckers. However, there's not much to choose from when it comes to a GPS solution for big trucks.

Yes, the developer is ALK / PCMiler. I have been using, selling, and supporting the program for 6 years. A new version (11) has just come out, and so far, it is a large improvement in terms of visually and mapping / truck routing. The previous version (9) was a good program, but it did suffer from some map data issues on certain addresses. Also, the ver 9 was difficult to make run correctly on Windows Vista but Ver 11 is installing and working fine on our Vista machines now.

Don
www.dieselboss.com

Anyone know about themes for copilot, all mine has is DEFAULT and nothing else, where does one get custom themes for copilot 11??

I "think" I saw something about the Themes in the users manual. Not sure how to use them, though.

I've stopped using version 11 and went back to 9. Just having too many problems with it. The phone calls and emails to ALK were a waste of time I guess.

I forgot to post the "problems" I'm having with CoPilot 11 (this is the same list of issues I've talked to with ALK):

• Bring back the map editor. The avoid/favor roads feature is invaluable
• Bring back the Save Current and the POI manager
• The map data may be updated, but it's still wrong. Look at a map of West Virginia. It only shows a couple roads that allow trucks. Sorry - there are very few roads in WV that DON'T allow trucks. I've been on designated truck routes in WV and CoPilot is telling me to turn around because I'm on a truck restricted route.
• When CoPilot is running, my cpu usage stays at 100% for the program about 98% of the time. CoPilot 9 used about 5% of the cpu
• CoPilot randomly crashes for no reason. It doesn't matter if I'm sitting still, moving, editing a trip, etc - it just crashes
• Where is the patch for the screen resolution issue? 1024x768 is fine if you have a standard monitor. My laptop is a widescreen and that resolution stretches everything this is a known issue with the program, but they won't even acknowledge it in the product FAQ page
• The Live feature is still as useless in version 11 as it was in version 9. It worked fine for a few days, then I started receiving messages from random people, the tracking info (if it didn't say "Device not connected" on the live.alk.com site) definitely wasn't tracking me. I created a new account - still doesn't work. This is the exact same problem I was having with version 9 pretty much from day 1 with it

I take I should not buy version 11?

Or did you get a fix?

I wouldn't have v11 if I would've had to pay for it. There's still no word on any fixes for it. The last time I talked to them, they said that they'll release patches in the coming months...

No update patch anytime soon...
 

I just got a response from ALK concerning the availability of the HORRIBLY needed patches for CoPilot 11. Here is the email I sent to them, along with their response:

So, they've officially lost me as a customer. I'll be purchasing Centrafuse in the next week or so.

Co-Pilot 11 may or may not be a fine program. I would not know. Brought a package from Diesel Boss including stand etc plus Co-Pilot. Just got a brand new HP Laptop running Vista 64.

Co-Pilot 11 WILL NOT WORK in 64 bit machines. ALK told me it will NOT be addressed in a future release. Perhaps in 12 when, if ever, it is releaseed. On the plus side, Diesel Boss took Co-Pilot 11 back and promptly credited my card

RJAllen :

Confirming what rjallen has stated:

We find that about 10% of users who are getting new laptops are getting Windws Vista 64-bit pre-installed on them. It is really not common that users even notice or know about the fact that the 32-bit and 64-bit versions exist. MANY programs are not yet up and running for the 64-bit Windows Vista so BE CAREFUL if you have a 64-bit machine when you are buying software out there.

ALK has told us that they will not be re-writing the Co-Pilot 11 version for 64-bit but instead will incorporate it into version 12, and we don't expect that out untill some time next year.