ddubois

It makes me frown to think that I have a $2000 user interface for the air conditioning. At least I was able to use it for a few years (2000 Acura TL3.2 Gold) before shipping the car down to Hawaii.

Maybe Acura thinks Hawaiian TL owners don't need a Navi because the island is small, or maybe the Hawaiian TL owners just don't know what they're missing and don't complain. But I miss my navi a ton, especially moving to a new place with very confusing, non-grid-like streets. Is there a petition I can sign to get Acura to make a Hawaii DVD, or some entity who will log my complaint in a manner that might matter?

Assuming no DVD happens... What are my options? Is there anything for me to do with the screen the navigation system used - like mod it to watch movies (I won't watch TV while driving, I promise), or maybe put in a XM radio system that uses the screen for it's interface? Or possibly rip out the system and do something else with the dashboard real-estate? (But of course, if I did the latter then I would lose the ability to manually set the AC power level/vent directions.)

Sigh.

-Dan

NYDesi80

Sorry to hear man, I use my navigation all the time, and to not have it would be a broken limb for me. I feel your pain.. ouch!

Raheel

Um mod it so you can play dvd's, local channels, play mp3 cd's and show id3 tags on screen, play PS2..

that is so gay..

So no one in hawaii has a navi in the Current TL?

Sounds like canada

drcookie

Yup ... the only way to make use of the screen is to hook it up to a DVD player. How about a rear camera ?

Cheers !!!

Raheel

yup if you get the receiver and convert the rgb signal than you can hook up a rear view camera, dvd player, ps2, antennas for local channels

steveinathens

i believe that it is a matter of satelite coverage in hawaii, not the actual dvd having the data on it...

i'm pretty sure this is what the dealerships told my parents when they were buying cars in hawaii....

Larry Chisum

Satelitte coverage is as good in Hawaii as anywhere else in the world! Absence of vendor supplied map data is the problem.

Larry

steveinathens

maybe that is the case for military satelites, but i'm not sure this is true for commercial satelites...

for example, dish network has a different channel lineup just for hawaii. you can't just choose the regular channel packages you have on the mainland, you have to choose the hawaii package and its very limited compared to the packages available on the mainland. this was the case about 2 years ago...

sc354

I take that as an insult

Whatever I don't know why Acura doesn't have NAVI available in these cars. Tons of other car manufacturers put it in their cars...

oh well!

doopstr

Man, just be happy you are in Hawaii! I wish I was.

fasTLane

The sats serve the entire world. They are for both military and civilian use.
Acura/Alpine should update the maps.

steveinathens

hmmm, then why does it say this on dish networks site?

"Areas outside the Continental United States will usually need a larger dish to receive an adequate signal."

and this

"Customers residing in Alaska, Puerto Rico or Hawaii are not able to receive the 110 satellite signal or any of the channels broadcast from this satellite with the standard 20 inch dish."

i'm just curious, i'm not a satelite expert by no means....

fasTLane

Completely different satellites. Dish is a stationary geosynch and GPS is multiple orbits. I used a handheld Garmin in Maui and Kauai for hiking and driving about a year ago. No different than what our cars have. Acura is dropping the ball in paradise.

steveinathens

interesting! where did you go diving in maui?

galfert

Steveinathens,
I have no idea why you are talking about satellite tv and trying to compare that with the global gps satellites. These are not the same satellites systems. There are tons of satellites in orbit around the globe. The GPS system of satellites provides 100% global coverage. It is used by planes, boats, and multitude of land uses like measuring earthquake fault lines and not just cars.

Satellite tv has its own satellites and they provide coverage for whatever markets they are set for. Satellite tv has thier satellites in geostationary orbits. They never move in relation to the globe. They stay directly above the same point all the time. GPS satellites on the other hand (there are over 24 of them) are constantly moving and chaning their possition.

XM and Sirus satellite radio is yet a different bunch of satellites. These are also in geostationary orbits.

steveinathens

i have no idea either man, i dont know **** about it, i was just curious thats all. obviously i was wrong. no big deal....

fasTLane

Nothing at all wrong with curiosity... leads to knowledge and we could all use a little more.
Did not get to dive in my trip to the islands but I hear Molokini is excellent.

steveinathens

the visibility is incredible at molokini !!!! a bad day there would be 100ft, but usually 150+! even though its kinda touristy to go out there, its worth it. i've had some cool white tip reef shark experiences there and manta ray's as well. and depending on which mooring they tie to, there is some nice coral gardens there with good fish life. but really, the attraction there is the visibility.

i can highly recommend trips over to Lanai as well. cool lava tubes and such to dive in...

planetside

I would be surprised if it were a hardware issue that prevents the GPS from working in Hawaii. In all likelihood, it's simply the absence of map data. If this is the case, does anyone know if the upcoming uber-DVD update will include Hawaii?

Danny

galfert

Since not everyone has the Navi option I'll share some insight about it. Those of you that have it ......haven't you even scrolled all the way to the edge of the map to see how far it goes??? If you do you will notice that it doesn't have to do with no road data as much as it has to do with the fact that the map ends when you leave the continental US. So If you put the car on the globe outside of the map area obviously it won't work.

Steveinathens, Question for you. What does the screen look like since you are outside of map coverage area? Any error messages? How about going into the hidden GPS menu and seeing how many satellites you are picking up? In this screen you should also get a latitude, longitued and altitude. Perhaps this still works. So I predict it won't be of much good as a Navigation System but I think you will be able to pull GPS location data.

planetside

Hawaii is not supported simply due to no map data availability (there is also a marketing reason for the lack of support). There is no crippling of the hardware, though. With that said, I would imagine the GPS would be able to trilaterally determine its position just fine in the islands, but with no supporting map data, you'll be relegated to latitude and longitude information only. Needless to say, that isn't very useful for navigating. Sounds like there are no plans to support Hawaii, either. Anyway, this info comes from my contact at Honda R&D.

Danny

Black-n-Tan

dude.... you live in hawaii, you have nothing to complain about
j/k
that does seem to be a design flaw

a couple of my buddies are living in kuwai (spelling?) right now. i'm jealous

njtls

how much does it cost to get a car shipped?

ddubois

Thanks for all the responses!

1)
What's the marketing reason? Other car vendors have navigation systems I'm told.

2)
It's about $900 to get a normal-sized car shipped from California to Hawaii.

3)
I had actually found some threads about converting the screen to a DVD player after my post, but they left my head spinning. I can hook up my cable to my VCR to my TV, but if it involves buying obscure parts from Austrailia, reading several wire diagrams, and getting myself a soldering iron and some electrical tape, I want nothing to do with it.

Maybe there's someone in Hawaii who will professionally hook up my system? Anyone know of any?

jdone

In past visits I've driven rental cars around four of the islands. Pretty hard to get lost. There are really only three directions you can go-up the mountain, down the mountain, or around the mountain.

moat

I think i'd trade you my home in PA and my Navi for your navi-less setup in Hawaii......

steveinathens

i AM inside the coverage area. i live in Georgia. my parents live on maui and i travel out there 2 times a year, that's why i chimed in on this thread... sorry for the confusion

planetside

The marketing reason seems pretty straightforward. Only 2% of cars sold in Hawaii add the GPS option (that's not my data -- it comes from elsewhere). Adding Hawaii coverage increases the cost of the system, which ends up being passed on to the buyer. I guess Honda believes it's better to pass on the savings to the general mainland population that tends to have a greater tendency to purchase a GPS system. Being from Honolulu myself, I doubt I'd ever consider purchasing a GPS in any car I purchased there. The island is just not very large (well, most of the islands anyway), and obviously you're pretty much stuck in the 50th state where the rest of the maps won't do you any good

Danny