TomTom 510 poor GPS fix

Mongoose · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 17, 2004 Posts: 10

The unit behaves just as badly when you point it at the sky, thats what is so frustrating. If I thought this was a mounting/antenna issue I could probably solve it. It just cant seem to lock onto a signal whatever the situation.

saudidave · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 12:02 pm Post subject:

Have you tried a full 2 hour charge and then resetting it? My second GO510 wouldn't fire up at all until I phoned tt support and they suggested I did that. It now works just like it should and gets a fix in about 30 seconds. I'm beginning to wonder if the first one I had just needed that................ I have to say though that I see no appreciable difference between it and my tt5 navigator on a pda, either in tracking its position, navigating etc. With retrospect, I think I'd have bought a GO500 and saved a few bob.

shauneco · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 5:43 pm Post subject:

Thats because its the same hardware as the 710 the only difference's are the maps and size of the SD card

TheBadger · Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 5:43 pm Post subject:

I had exactly the same problem with my 1st 510. I would be a hour into my journey before it got a fix.
I'm convinced they've rushed released this range. I've returned 3 510's now to 3 different retailers. I too got the "oh no not another one back" when took the last one back to PC World.

mbeckman · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 30, 2006 Posts: 4

The first TT510 I bought at BestBuy was DOA -- it couldn't read the flash card. I took it back and they tried the card from another unit, which worked, so it was a bad flash apparently. The unit itself works pretty well, but the windshield mount is worthless! I have been back to BB twice to try new mounts and a different unit, and they all have the same problem: the TT510 loses power and reboots, then the battery runs down and the unit goes off completely. One the unit loses power connection, I can't get it to resume without completely stopping the car, remounting the windshield mount ,and futzing with it. Then it goes out again anyway in a few minutes. TT support acknowledges the problem and promised to ship me a new, redesigned mount "as soon as they come in."

The windshield mount is the ONLY WAY you can power the unit in a car. There is no direct power input on the unit — it gets its power from the mount. Also, the mount is the only way to attach a microphone (necessary for the bluetooth speakerphone feature), external speakers, or an external antenna (needed on one of my cars, since the windshield has an rf-shielding film over it). Thus for me the unit won’t be very useable intil they fix the mount.

A second issue is the lack of documentation for the traffic feature -- they don't explain in the manual how to use the traffic icons, how to route around traffic problems, or how to display them. No matter what I do, I get "no info" when trying to display a single traffic marker, although it shows me where on the road the incident is. TT support said they don't know how to use it either, but promised to figure it out and email me revised docs.

The final issue is that Mac support for this unit is ZERO. I tried the TomTom Home application to back up my unit, and it crashes. TT support said (after a week of silence) that they know about the crash and that I must back up by doing a manual disk copy. The only other feature in TT Home that works is the "Browse" option, which you can do anyway in the Finder. The TT Traffic Alert feaure says "Not supported in your country", and TT support confirms this, but promises support in a month. And none of the functions for operating the TT itself from the computer are supported on the Mac. Thus TT Home has absolutely no function on the Mac.

Other than those blunders, the TT510 interface is good, it's voice navigation clear and understandable, and the routing useful. But the flaws make this an iffy purchase.

PatC · Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject:

I agree, TT Home for the Mac is a complete joke. I wouldn't mind quite so much if it looked nice, but it doesn't even do that - one of the worst interfaces I've seen for a long time. Recently it updated itself to an equally useless newer version, with no obvious changes from the last version.

On the plus side I've never had it crash on me, but that could be because I hardly ever use it.

saudidave · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 1:20 pm Post subject:

I've just realised why my tt5 on the XDA found a position so quickly every time. The cradle that has the gps in it was permanently mounted on the windscreen and plugged in, so it always knew where it was. That still doesn't excuse the 510 though because the Garmin i3 gets a much faster fix than it does - maybe 30sec average as opposed to up to 2 mins for the 510 if stationary.

sraldous · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 21, 2006 Posts: 19

Take it back, it's faulty. My first Go 910 took 6 hours in a stationary car on my drive to get its first sat fix! The new one I got today got a fix straight out of the box in under a minute.

saudidave · Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:47 pm Post subject:

My 510 appears to have improved it's lock on speed over time and use! In addition, unless I'm imagining it, it is much faster to get a lock now that I've installed the 6.11 update. Overall, I am now very pleased with my 510

dirtyweeraincloud · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 26, 2006 Posts: 59

Want a fix?
Check this out
http://www.expansys.com/forumthread.asp?code=TOMTOMGO&thread=2261&man=TOMTO

	PocketGPS
	Web