Upgrade to Destinator 6 or TOM TOM 5 for PDA

TonyHSoton · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 24, 2006 Posts: 11

Hi All,

I hope someone can help me out with my questions.

I am very new to Sat Nav and have an Acer N35 PDA with Destinator Lite software. So far I have managed to find out that in order to download either POI or Speed camera databases I will have to upgrade as Destinator Lite is not designed for this and has no POI, favourites or much else other than the basics.

From what I have managed to find out, I should be thinking of upgrading to either TOM TOM Navigator 5 for PDA’s or Destinator 6 for PDA’s. I have read that some people believe the Destinator software uses a better Satellite tracking system.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has installed either of these software options to an Acer PDA or any other PDA and would appreciate comments on the following:

1. What do you really like and dislike about the software?
2. Is it reliable?
3. Have you managed to download POI and speed camera databases and do they work?
4. Are the POI and speed camera databases free or do you have to subscribe and if so how much and is it annual fee or for life fee with free updates?

I am very confused about all this and have read that it is harder to get POI and speed camera databases to work with Destinator but I am not sure why and what the issues are at the moment. I would appreciate any views about these two software options as I have to decide which to buy for my PDA.

Many thanks for your help.

TonyHSoton

Greenglide · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:45 pm Post subject:

I have both TomTom V5 and Destinator V6.

keith405 · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:47 am Post subject:

Hi Greenglide could you please tell me how i copy the voice files for the speed cameras banks etc as you say copy the images and sound files (if required) manually but only once i have got the images but when i am near things i just get my favorites alert.

Thanks for any info
Keith
_________________
TT 920
Acer N35 & Destinator PN

TonyHSoton · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 24, 2006 Posts: 11

Thanks for your detailed reply Greenglide.

I am still not sure which one to go for. I am not worried about getting the various POI and Speed camera databases to work, its the sort I thing I like doing!

It may come down to price, and as you have said Destinator seems miles ahead on this. I think I saw TT5 at about £145!

Could you let me know if there are as many useful POI being created for Destinator as there seems to be for TT.

Also, is it just a case of converting these to the format Destinator likes?

Bit confuse about all this, but I think it will start to fit into place when I actually have the software and start actually doing......assuming I can finally make my mind up soon!

Many thanks again,

TonyHSoton Confused

Greenglide · Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:45 pm Post subject:

POIs come in various formats for the different SatNav products. For this reason the availability of POIs may not limit your purchase choices.

There are utilities to convert TomTom overlay files (.ov2) to CSV (as used by destinator) and other formats. This will not allow the extraction of the built in POIs with the product (this would be a breach of copyright).

I can't actually remember the name of the routine but a search of the forum should find it (it is POI.... something)

TonyHSoton · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 24, 2006 Posts: 11

Thanks for the info about the POI.

Since my last post I have found out that my PDA, Acer N35 apparently struggles to cope with Destinator 6, so it looks like the slightly more expensive TT5, although I have now seen that at about £117.

Someone said that TT6 is on its way, but so far have not been able to find out when, so dont know if I will wait for that or not.

Cheers,

TonyHSoton

Greenglide · Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:11 pm Post subject:

Keith405 - you may already have seen the thread about alerts for the GNAV10. If not the answer is there - you copy the sound files to DestinatorApps/Destinator/Common/Interface/Voice/All with the same name as the camera category and the bitmap file.

Suitable files are available from the tomtomsatnav site (as I said in my earlier post I think) - use wavepad to convert them from ogg to wav format. The sounds provided are excellent and if preceded with the standard Destinator "Ding Dong" sound (using wavepad to edit them) the sounds are difficult to miss.

TonyHSoton - I am surprised that a PDA would struggle to run Destinator but run TomTom successfully but obviously these things depend on the individual PDA, the version of Windows Mobile it is running and the precise way the application is coded. Both run happile on my Dell AXIM X50V but this is a 624MHz processor - TomTom uses proper VGA display, Destinator uses a scaled up QVGA which is quite acceptable.

Both will run on it with WM 2003SE and WM5 although the PDA runs better with 2003SE due to technical issues with the build of WM5 used.

Destinator sometimes looks as though it is running slowly (updating the screen in discrete jumps) but I think this is due to the data from the GPS only being supplied once a second (this is how NMEA works) and the screen is redrawn then. I think that TomTom "guesses" where you will be at intervals between receiving the GPS data and redrawns the screen accordingly - it does this if the satellite signal is lost under bridges, tunnels etc.

TTN6 does make purchasing decisions difficult. I dont think there is anything worth getting excited about in the software (but we could all be surprised!) but the most recent maps for TTN5 as far as I am aware are V605 and V632 (GB and GB + Major roads of europe). These date back at least to December last year and if you buy a copy of the product you cannot find out what the map version is until you have opened the sealed package and installed the software (or looked at the data on CD) by which time it is too late to get a refund - I got caught like that being supplied version 562 in May this year. TomTom and the retailer swore that this was the latest version available (read the advertising) and were economical with the truth when dealing with Trading Standards - I will NEVER deal with TomTom or the retailer again, but that is a personal issue.

TTN6 will certainly have updated maps (as the GO 510, 710 and 910 have) but it is very possible that the maps used will be the same as the GO series (the maps are the same format) which would mean they would already be several months out of date!

But they might have cleaned up their act!

TonyHSoton · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 24, 2006 Posts: 11

Greenglide,

Yes it certainly is a problem. Of course if buying a product we all want the software/maps to be as up to date as possible, so its tough to make a decision whether to wait or not, especially as I was reading a thread basically saying its on its way but no one can say when!

I have seen a lot of posts slating TT and the fact the maps are VERY out of date, so if at all I would like to wait.

I agree with what you said about the problem with D6 running on the Acer N35. I checked out the web site, and from what I can determine the Acer N35 meets the spec. I do know the processor in the Acer is only a Samsung 266Mhz, so thats nowhere near your Dell. I posted somewhere, asking if there was someone who could verify that D6 will not run on the Acer N35 and also decided to email Destinator about this (reply pending), so it may well be that there is no problem at all and maybe that has got around due to user error?!?! - who knows.

Are their any others worth considering other than Destinator 6 or TT5/6? I would certainly consider others and saw the write up on the Route 66 Navigator v.7. Sounded great until I saw the price! Also, if I decided I wanted another PDA, what would you recommend. Not sure I have brought the right thing now, but interesed to know in case I decide to start again sometime.

Anyway, I am not in any hurry so will just keep checking everything out until I decide.

Many thanks,

TonyHSoton

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