Questions Before I Buy TTN2

[keithmdw]

Hi All



I was going to wait for v3 but as I have been told in my other thread I could be waiting some time, so I have

decided to get v2 now and upgrade as and when in the future.



Just got a few questions (well a lot really) before I do about the way it works and what it can and can't do, as I have read some conflicting reports online.





1) As I understand that the ability to search by post code is unavailable, how good is TTN2 for searching for a property without a house number (where the house/building has a name instead), or where the street is un-named? Or can I look up th reference for a property/location on something like Multimap and then put that into TTN2?



2) Although TTN2 doesn't have the ability, are there any add-ins you can buy to integrate TTN2 with traffic news from Traffic Master or the like?



3) If I take a wrong turn while following the route, will it tell me or simply re-route? And if I have taken it deliberately, will I be able to tell it to re-route manually?



4) I am looking at the Bluetooth version of TTN2 and getting a Bluetooth CF card for my Axim so I am wireless. With this set up, is it possible to use it as a hand-held while walking around a town etc. as an on-foot navigator? This would be excellent for walking round London or another big city I don't know well.



5) How accurate is the MPH that it gives you?



6) Can you see the street names on any of the views so I know what roads I am driving down etc.?



7) Is it possible to set the current position into TTN2 and then after walking/driving, tell TTN2 to navigate me back to that point? For example, marking where I parked my car and then navigating my way back to it.



8) Can you go via places or would you have to make seperate journeys for each leg of the journey?



9) Do you have to navigate to a streeet/address or can I just say, "take me to xxx city centre"?



10) Can you plan routes without the GPS and then save them to use later? So I could plan my holiday driving at home when I have time and then call it up when we get in the car to drive?



11) Does TTN2 make an estimate of the driving time, and if so based on what factors? Will it adjust these estimates based on your progress to give an updated ETA?



12) I read the full maps for the UK are 95MB (I think), is this the max install size or can it grow much bigger, and if so how big and based on what? I don't want to buy an SD card too small.



13) What happens when new places/roads pop up in towns/cities etc.? Are you just stuck without them on TTN2 or can you update online etc. every now and again and get new maps/updates? If not, how often do maps get released?



14) Can it be told to show you where you are at this moment in time and show you it on a map? If lost or broken down for example?



15) Can I tell TTN2 to use Motorways and A roads as a preference and ignore minor roads even though they may be a better route? Or can I tell it to ignore a certain road (maybe because I know traffic is always bad on it or I heard a travel report to avoid it)?



16) If I am following a route along the M1 for example, and I see heavy traffic, how easy is it to tell TTN2 and get it to take me off the M1 for a couple of junctions and then put me back on after the accident/roadworks etc?





Many thanks in advance for any answers.



Regards



Keith

[DavidW]

Wow - a mega list of questions!



Very quick answers only, OK?



1. Finding streets is OK, you can set destinations on a map, and Navigator knows house numbers for most streets in the UK anyway (though it's not perfect - it doesn't know the location of every number, but of some numbers and it interpolates). As you can enter WGS84 coordinates, you can use multimap.com, MS Mappoint or similar to find precise locations.



2. Not currently.



3. Auto re-route is available and the default. Manual re-route is easiest achieved by selecting Original in the Navigator menu (or programming a hardware button to Original). Without that, Navigator tries to take you back to its original route.



4. Yes.



5. Pretty - certainly better than your speedo (we've discussed this before - search the forum for 'tachograph' in the Message Body to find a couple of old threads on this; indeed, it sounds like you could make good use of the forum search facilities to learn about tips and tricks, also people's impressions of Navigator 2).



6. Only in the safety screen or if guidance is off - if there's a map on screen with guidance on, it shows you the name of the *next* road but not the current one. This has been discussed before - and it's best said this remains an unresolved wishlist item for many. If you think about it, the name of the next road is arguably more important - though views on that differ.



7. Yes - use favourites, POIs, even memorise location and the recent locations list.



8. No waypoints at the moment - though if you put all the locations in a POI file (or favourites) before you start, it's easy enough to set the next destination. GPSAssist provides this feature, but there's no sign of further development and there's compatibility issues both with Navigator 2 and Pocket PC in general!



9. Select the city name and leave the road name blank.



10. No - last planned route only. However, you can save locations as POIs or favourites - just recalculate the routes when you want them.



11. Yes, based on the configured speeds for different types of roads. It updates as you go.



12. The full Great_Britain map is 95MB. POI files are unlikely to add more than a couple of MB to that. However, as 256MB SD cards are reasonably priced now, they get my nod over 128MB (in my case, a 256MB card leaves room for two full backups of my Pocket PC using Pocket Backup 2 Plus, and a fair amount of eBooks and MP3s). Sectional maps are smaller. As you're an Axim X5 user, be careful what you buy - older Sandisk cards and rebadges thereof don't work well in Axims.



13. Wait for the next map upgrade - you can't modify the maps yourself, even if there's errors. So far, the only new set of maps was released with Navigator 2.



14. Yes - the GPS status screen gives WGS84 co-ordinates, and you can switch to the map screen and double tap the GPS status area to get the map centred on the current GPS position.



15. This isn't perfect yet. You can choose shortest route or quickest route. You can tell it to avoid certain roads completely - but only in the Navigator screen. You can set avoid areas. Finally, you can ask Navigator to calculate an alternative route - though they get increasingly silly after one or two attempts. Many users, myself included, wish for enhancement in this area. It's still not disastrous though.



16. A few screen taps - tap the screen once for the Navigator Menu, choose Alternative, Roadblock, and the distance you think the road is blocked for.







David

[SteveW]

Interested in point 3, what happens if you select Original in the Navigator menu - I thought that it cleared any avoids you may have input along the way?



If you intentionally take a different route to that planned, it usually tries to get you to turn around and go back, the only way I have found is to tell it to avoid a particular road.

[lbendlin]

It will not clear the avoids - those are independent from the routes. If you create an avoid while in a routing process then TTN is a bit tickly - it will consider the avoid only starting with the next (re)routing.
_________________
Lutz

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TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

[keithmdw]

DavidW - thanks for that concise list of answers - very helpful.



I am much closer to deciding now and am really leaning towards getting it now rather than later.



Only real worry now is where to mount it! How good are these windscreen mounts? Do they bounce up and down with the inevitible pot holes?

[SteveW]

The one I got from TomTom ws not much use because it did not let me locate the PPC in the location I wanted. I have used the supplied bracket that allows you to clip it into the air vent. Not ideal, but I also have a car phone kit in the ideal location.

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