TT 510 does not recognise the M4

[-Jonno-]

Hi,

A few days ago I bought my first satnav, a GO 510.

I've installed Tomtom home on the PC and the updates went smoothly. I took it out for a test run this morning. It got very confused. When I got onto the M4 heading West, it was as though I was driving through fields. There were roads visible onscreen but, apparently I wasn't driving on one. By time I got to Llantrisant, it started working fairly well, recognizing the roads and displaying my location correctly. I got back onto the M4 heading east after plotting my route home and all was fine.

I took it out for another test covering the same route and it was about as useful as a chocolate teapot throughout the journey. Not recognizing the roads I was driving on at all and constantly trying to calculate new routes as it was so confused.

I'm driving an old Ford Fiesta and ran the unit on the Battery part of the way and Mains on second part of test 1. I ran the unit on battery alone in test 2. (A little bulb lit up as I typed that, maybe this is the cause - does the tomtom need to be plugged in for the during the journey?).

I off to a bad start. Any ideas on this?

Thanks.

[Andy_P]

[-Jonno-]

Hi,

Thanks for ruling out the internal battery as a problem, although it was a little disheartening that this was not the reason. I bought the TomTom for travelling through North Wales a week Monday through to the Friday. I’m concerned that if I need a replacement from Amazon, it may not arrive in time.

I didn't go into the GPS screen during the tests, but the route screen (that displays you moving) had four white bars lit up towards the bottom right of the screen most of the time.

I am currently running the unit (indoors). The GPS screen shows six blue bars and two grey. Highest numbers in blue are 33(11) ; 30(28) ; 27(20). These change quickly though. Five minutes later and I have four blue bars and one grey – 28(11) ; 27(20) ; 26(28).

The location of the unit is now displayed correctly on the map I notice. Earlier it was about 150 yards off.

Does speed or car heaters affect the signal for the TT?

[sgould]

When my 700 went "off road" a reset cured it. Have you tried that? The reset hole is accessible from the back when you disconnect the mount.

Don't poke the hole in the front - that's the microphone!
_________________
TTGO 700 (dead)
iPhone 3GS + TT holder
iPhone 5 (hers!)
Western Europe Map
Eastern Europe Map
Kenwood DNX-4210DAB with Garmin maps

[Andy_P]

I don't have an x10 model I'm afraid, so I can't comment on your signal strength (My300 would show a big fat zero indoors!), but a steady four bars when driving sounds reasonable.
Heater or speed ( 8O ) shouldn't affect it, the only thing that can is an "athermic" heat-reflecting windscreen, but I doubt your "old Fiesta" has one of those.

I could have just been a glitch, that has now sorted itself out.
It might be worth arming yourself with a safety-pin and trying a reset if it happens again.
Reset hole is:

Insert pin and hold for a few seconds. It might take a time to re-find the satellites afterwards, but it might sort out the problem.

[-Jonno-]

Thanks. That reset button is tiny but I found it eventually.

I'll give it another try tomorrow.

[-Jonno-]

Well, it's a beautiful day here in South Wales today so I took the 510 out thinking if it doesn't work today, it doesn't work at all.

I went for a thirty mile drive, mostly around areas I already knew and also some places I'd never been.
The 510 didn't put a foot wrong the entire journey. I had a five bar reception - most blue bars on GPS screen were very strong connections. The unit did recognize the M4 West bound.

I know now that the unit isn't faulty. I don't know if it was the fact that I'd pressed the reset button or the great weather that got me by without a problem.

I'm wondering how bad the weather has to get before the unit struggles. Also, would adding an external antenna make any difference in bad weather?

[mikealder]

The reset has probably helped matters along here. I had the same issue with my 910 a while back, a prod in the right place with a pin soon sorted it out. You shouldn't need an external aerial for the x10 range as they pick-up a signal in the most demanding situations (even when you have athermic glass - but this does degrade the siganl somewhat), I would try it for a while longer before deciding on the external aerial - Mike

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