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Darren
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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 Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 8:59 am Post subject: TomTom unveil CURFER - a car and driver analyser |
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TomTom are busily announcing a raft of new products ahead of IFA Berlin opening its doors tomorrow.
One of the new products is TomTom CURFER, a hardware device that plugs into your cars OBDII port and links to your smartphone to provide feedback on your driving style and your car's performance.
It's an odd product, especially given it will cost £59.00. Are there that many drivers that want to analyse their driving style? The OBDII integration could prove useful, that gives access to a raft of car engine data that is otherwise inaccessible and every car sold in the EU since 2001 has this port fitted.
Source: tomtom.com
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DennisN
Tired Old Man
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 14902
Location: Keynsham
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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Does it do third party POIs? 
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Dennis
If it tastes good - it's fattening.
Two of them are obesiting!! |
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Kremmen
Pocket GPS Verifier
Joined: Mar 03, 2006
Posts: 7149
Location: Reading
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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Why pay £59 to tell me what I already know.
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Allan_whoops
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Joined: Feb 18, 2006
Posts: 369
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:25 pm Post subject: |
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Why?
You can get a cheap ODBII Bluetooth interface and Torque for a lot less.
A solution looking for a problem? |
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northamsaint
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Joined: Nov 08, 2004
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 8:32 am Post subject: |
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| Not sure if this one is capable, but OBDII readers can also read fault codes and reset them. Very useful if you get an engine management light come up. The codes mean you can replace faulty sensors etc yourself rather than getting a garage to detect it at garage rates. |
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MaFt
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Joined: Aug 31, 2005
Posts: 15320
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
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| Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:27 am Post subject: |
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| northamsaint wrote: | | Not sure if this one is capable, but OBDII readers can also read fault codes and reset them. Very useful if you get an engine management light come up. The codes mean you can replace faulty sensors etc yourself rather than getting a garage to detect it at garage rates. |
I'm pretty sure if they added this feature then they'd have advertised it.
I reckon they won't want to 'risk' it. TomTom are a household name - allowing people to reset fault codes or view them for them to try fix things themselves will likely get them into hot water. Someone will do something stupid with a fault code (either clearing it and causing major problems or attempting to fix it themselves and blowing their engine up etc). Media will report it as "TomTom told me to explode my car".
MaFt |
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saywell
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Joined: Apr 11, 2005
Posts: 15
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| Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:38 am Post subject: Not the only way |
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| You can get a cheap OBDII bluetooth 'plug' on ebay and a free app for your smartphone to do the exact same thing. |
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MaFt
Pocket GPS Staff
Joined: Aug 31, 2005
Posts: 15320
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
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| Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:00 pm Post subject: Re: Not the only way |
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| saywell wrote: | | You can get a cheap OBDII bluetooth 'plug' on ebay and a free app for your smartphone to do the exact same thing. |
But the people who know that aren't TomTom's market... They'll be pushing this through Halfords and the like. |
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northamsaint
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Joined: Nov 08, 2004
Posts: 23
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| Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:17 pm Post subject: Re: Not the only way |
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| saywell wrote: | | You can get a cheap OBDII bluetooth 'plug' on ebay and a free app for your smartphone to do the exact same thing. |
From personal experience the free apps that do this are useless. I've also read that the Bluetooth examples aren't as easy to set up and keep connected as the WiFi versions. I run a WiFi one through DashCommander. To be honest it's just pretty lights and dials. |
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alix776
Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: 03/05/2003 14:45:49
Posts: 3999
Location: leyland lancs ENGLAND
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| Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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The Bluetooth obd like the elm 327 are very easy to set up unless your on iOS and the apps will point you in Tue right direction you cant really break a car buy clearing a fault code unless your using professional grade software the apps on most phones usually will give you generic codes that point to a fault area
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BenM
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Joined: May 05, 2006
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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It will be interesting to see how the Car Finder feature works. Surely it can't be the same as a car tracker??
PS The voucher code Welcome15_uk knocks 8 quid off the asking price for this. |
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mcwarre
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Joined: Mar 25, 2004
Posts: 157
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:04 am Post subject: |
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| BenM wrote: | | PS The voucher code Welcome15_uk knocks 8 quid off the asking price for this. |
Thanks Ben. That still makes it about £51 overpriced IMHO  |
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IanS100
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Joined: May 05, 2008
Posts: 870
Location: Southport
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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| BenM wrote: | | It will be interesting to see how the Car Finder feature works. Surely it can't be the same as a car tracker?? |
To find the car it would need to have a SIM installed in the dongle so I'm guessing it just logs the cars last position and directs you back there.
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HummerUK
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Joined: Apr 21, 2007
Posts: 332
Location: East Sussex
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| Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 10:08 am Post subject: |
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I had one on order from Amazon and in theory today was the big day for UK release (27/09/16) but instead all I got was an email saying.
| Quote: | Hello,
We’re writing to let you know that the following items have been unexpectedly delayed:
"TomTom Curfer OBD Dongle Telematics System"
Estimated arrival date: October 18 2016 - November 07 2016
One of our aims is to provide a convenient and efficient service but in this case, we've fallen short. Please accept our sincere apologies. |
Anyway, I then found this post and thus have ordered one from TT using the code which still works.
The gadget is already on sale from other sources and I am not sure if that is an earlier version or launched in other countries first?
From what I understand to use this fully your smartphone has to be running the app (while driving) to get location and acceleration sensor data.
The spec does say it can store some data but if it has no GPS data I am not sure how much use this will be?
Lastly, I never knew that Garmin bought out a similar gadget several years ago which pumped the data into compatible EcoRoute HD SatNav's which sounds to me a better than using your smartphone.
Still no concrete release date from TT |
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CDK
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Joined: Apr 20, 2006
Posts: 122
Location: Ashford. Kent. UK.
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| Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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| HummerUK wrote: |
...
Lastly, I never knew that Garmin bought out a similar gadget several years ago which pumped the data into compatible EcoRoute HD SatNav's which sounds to me a better than using your smartphone.
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Yes, I've been using the Garmin EcoRoute for a few years now, first on my 1690 and now 3598. Though it works well, found it very useful on my R Class Merc which had a Merc manufacturing fault in one of the drive chain cog wheels, which effected the engine timing, the EcoRoute will only give the top level error codes, not any specific to the car manufacturer. OK for general engine codes, but not if, say, your inbuilt GPS or backrest has a problem.
It will also give readings on various other vehicle parameters, including milage and fuel consumption. It does have a error code/light reset ability.
Unfortunately I feel that performance has become a bit flakey after the last Nuvi 3598 software (5.20) update.
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