Becker Map Pilot updates

[c63chris]

What's the best way to do this. Have already been bitten by speccing his on my new car for £500 and then finding you can get them on Amazon for £300 so being a bit more cautious now. When I picked my car up today the salesman said that I get 3 free updates so not to plug it in for a year as it's up to date now and I'd waste a free update. The website is pretty obscure and I haven't found a specific description other than the instruction to connect the Mappilot to my PC within 45 days to get free updates? Anyone now the score here?

 

[Giantvanman]

I would ask for clarification; they all come with a 45 day free update from Becker so the question is, why would the dealer's three updates be affected unless they are 'pulling a fast one'?

If you have the latest one, then you have the latest maps. When you plug into the PC (do it during a weekday) it is all self explanatory and easy to follow.

And you don't have to update any maps…….it will update firmware and register and give the chance to buy extras.

 

[Peter Hill]

Both the TomTom (previous car) and the Becker I was entirely misinformed by the dealers about the updates etc. The TomTom was totally false info.
The Merc dealers all seemed to assume I had a Command unit with a 3 year free updates policy. Or some similar but garbled policy.
Having had a Garmin before, in my C-Max, I had purchased a lifetime of updates, which is still continuing on another car, in Ireland, with a relative. That was when I started to discover what happens with other manf. (!)

As far as I can make out the Becker comes with a set of updates (software) and maps, out of the box. What they sell is an older set of software and maps. You need to do all the computer bits first, when it is first plugged in with a USB lead via your computer.
Then you get a 45 days of free updates, then it costs. The longer term (2 years?) map updates appear to be the best value. There was a general update and revision about a year ago (with new maps) which was free whilst they dealt with all the older 4gb devices, 3d views, full postcodes etc.

They still seem to have a very poor update policy despite them claiming to be regular and several times a year. The Becker UK people would seem to be helpfull though, but greedy for money. They also do not seem to spend any time checking the existing mapping for accuracy, or if they do they do a rather bad job. I bet they rely on their mapping coming from another company.

(Cannot understand why Becker cannot make it possible to check out the software and maps without having to go outside and dig around under the dash to get the bloody 'key'. I would love to use the Becker specific map routing when arranging my next trip, rather than 'theAA'. All the maps etc are on my computer, but you cannot access them without the 'key'.)

P.

 

[Piff]

I've got becker - bought form the interweb (ebay £268).
1st job was to plug it into pc to update software/firmware. Like said above, 1st 45 days free.

Only had it a year so not worried about updating maps yet. Becker did send an e-mail around on Oct with a 10% off voucher for updates if used by 31/12/13.

 

[parvez78]

When was the last Becker map update?

 

[c63chris]

When I logged onto the website and downloaded the content manager software it was offering up maps labelled as Q2 2013.

 

[Tony Piner]

Just updated my Becker to the latest software and maps. Maps has updated some local roads (4 years old) but still quotes as 2013. Map display looks better but it now states that no voice recognition for UK!
Not that the voice recognition was that brilliant, but it seems a strange upgrade that removes a function.

 

[bobmushroom]

Getting really frustrated with the hardware now!! Will not recognise the damn thing is connected and just hanging with the content manager not able to do anything tried on a mac running Windows 8 and a PC with Vista!! Anyone any suggestions?

 

[Tony Piner]

I found that I had to resort to using a Windows machine rather than my Mac and Parallels. Make sure that at you have the Becker red USB lead, although this should not make any difference. I reckon it took about 40 minutes to download the 2.5 software and then another 40 for the maps. Q 213-50-1. Can't understand why you can't just get UK rather than all of Europe to save time. BTW my BB speed is 30 Megabit. If you do use the Mac make sure the USB is shared on Windows ( I have Windows 7). However as noted earlier when I first tried I lost the PTT function.
Suggest you download the software to a USB stick to same time and find a friend with Windows.