missing postcodes

[Oscar61]

Hi Ladies and Gents...just bought an icn510 and can't say I'm that pleased so far, but I will reserve judgement just incase I've made some kind of newbie error, so here are my gripes so far.

My very first trial run from home to a known destination didn't start off great as the unit didn't know which way I was facing and sent me the wrong way down a cul-de-sac, but ok, once I'd turned around it figured things out however, my main complaints are this:

1) I've been on three journeys in a row and the software has given me "No Postcode Found' each time....ok two were industrial estates but these sites have been operational for over ten years so should be covered. I noticed on one UK website selling this unit that one of the features listed was '5 digit postcode'....as we operate with 6, sometimes 7 digits in our postcodes what's the deal here?

2) Putting the above to one side, I thought I'd forgive the unit for these let downs but tonight I found something even more startling.....in a couple of weeks I'll be testing the unit out on it's longest run, a wedding in Swindon. I entered the postcode of the hotel , no joy, I put Swindon in, there are three Swindons in the UK, the unit only knew of one and not the one I wanted.

If any experienced users could let me know of any mistakes I'm making I'd really apprecitate some feedback....as I'm a Mac user, I haven't touched the CD that came with the icn.......I was told that the unit would work straight out of the box but is there something I should have loaded onto the unit from the CD to improve performance??

Many thanks for any help....

[Tim Buxton]

With regards to the postcode issue, SmartST V3 uses upto the first five characters, for instance LE15 7 or LE3 0. To simplify, it uses the first portion in full and the first digit of the second portion. If you try to put in the rest of the second part, SmartST will not recognise the postcode. The only product with UK maps which uses full postcode data built in is AA Navigator, although the soon-to-be-released Tomtom Navigator 5 will also have this function. There are a number of third party addons but none of these will integrate with the iCN510.

I'm not sure about the Swindon problem. If you just type "Swind" into the area box, what results are returned?

There is a Service Patch available, but you need to install the Navman Desktop programme onto your PC, connect the iCN to your PC and then run the update facility from the Navman Desktop to get this, which is downloaded and installed through an internet connection.
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Tim

[Oscar61]

Thanks for the info Tim.

I tried putting 'Swind' into the 'Town' option and the same three choices came up:

Swindon, Cheltenham,...
Swindon, South Staffor...
Swindon, England,Unit

The third one is Swindon, Wiltshire but I think you can see from the readout above why I didn't choose it at first glance.....but I've learnt from this. Do you happen to know any way of seeing the full text instead of the truncated version as shown above?

I will borrow a laptop and run the update as mentioned.

The postcode issue is really annoying though, I think I'm right in saying that a full postcode narrows an address down to about half dozen possibilites.....not sure how far this area is widened by only using 5.I'm sure there are reasons why they've only used 5 but as an end user it diminishes the experience. If a synical third party had been with me on my first three journeys they would have had a field day picking holes in the system.

I was dubious about 'affordable' SatNAv to start with and finding out that it's down to third parties to address certain issues, and even then my model's not included, is exactly the 'post purchase' situation I feared and hoped to avoid.

I'm not righting the icn off completely, and I'm sure in most cases it'll do an acceptable job, especially with what appears to be a decent re-route facility.....but I'll reserve final judgement after I've done more journeys.

Thanks again for your time and assistance.

Shaun

[Simon1]

[Oscar61]

Thanks for the tip Simon, it's advice like this that will fine tune the way I use the icn and make the experience a little more enjoyable/efficient..

Cheers for now,

Shaun

[robertn]

This technology is no much past the horse and cart stage - we maybe at the Model T by now. Theres a lot of improvements to be made over the next few years.
In the mean time, I think once you learn how to get the most from the 510 it will become invaluable. I know I wouldn't be without mine now.

[Oscar61]

Following on from the Postcode problem I've just discovered another issue...it's a good job I'm patient otherwise I'd have been back for a refund by now...

As a freelance photog, half my hassle is finding places...I've just got my gear together for a shoot tomorrow and thought I'd see how well the icn did with the address. As I don't have a postcode I put in the town, which it found....I then put in the road....it found nothing, having looked at the area on MultiMap I put in names of another 4 major roads in the vicinity...again, nothing. Plan B was to get the unit to show me the area in question which it did, as I scrolled around the screen using the cross hairs, low and behold there were all the names of the streets that I'd tried to input.....Any ideas anyone???????

[JaguarV12e]

If you give us the name of the town and road (and postcode?), we might be able to see the problem.
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Tomtom Go 1005
Tomtom Go 730T

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