Newbie thoughts for those considering satnav purchase

Steveg

Hi

I thought that I would write a few words about my thoughts as a new user of a Satnav system and some of the mistakes I have made which could be avoided by others who may be purchasing soon.

Of the equipment I bought, (listed below) and I can recommend almost everything with the following exceptions....

1) I wish I had bought a larger SD card (at least 256Mb) as with TT3 maps aboard and the Excellent Postcode software (from this website) the darned thing is full and so I cannot use the maps of Europe without another card - so a further investment in a larger card is now needed to be purchased, much to the chagrin of my wife

2) If I had known what I do now I would have bought the Arkon powered mount - nothing wrong with the one I have, but it IS basic. I could use the extra volume available with the Arkon, as ZZ Top easily drowns out the messages from TT3 :D - also the fact I can charge and power my Fortuna Clip On from the mount at the same time as my PDA would be a great advantage.

If I had seen these forums before I tried to set everything up I may well have saved myself a lot of frustration, but there I go, doing things the hard way again! Embarassed

Information on getting things all working sweetly togher is not exactly overflowing from the boxed kit, in fact it is negligable.

I must admit to being a tad disappointed in the TomTom software - yes it is very good indeed, but far from perfect. Maybe I am/was expecting something rather better from it for the cost incurred. The postcode compatability is not very good, especially when compared to Nialls (SP?) software I downloaded from here. The Outlook integration is, frankly, rubbish it just does not accept that there may be more than one place with the same name in this country and if you don't want the one it offers then tough! Find another way to input the location! Twisted Evil

On most journeys around my homw town (Leeds) I know exactly where I am going so I have used these journeys as tests for when I really need the software. On every journey taken so far the software would most certainly have got me to my destination, or very close to it, but has an "Interesting" choice of route, by no means the shortest or most logical, nor even by the major routes, I cannot understand why? However, the outomatic re-routing when I take my own route works excellently and gives me great confidence that this will be of use when I am somewhere I don't know. I have on a couple of occasions had instructions to turn into one way streets (the wrong way), normally I would not blame TT for this as cities and councils are forever tinkering with one way streets and this may have been after the map info was available; but not so! one of the streets TT wanted me to turn into had been a one way street for most of my life as I recall (I am 49) so this is a bit of a clanger! Alos on a couple of occasions the software has suggested I take a turning which is not even there!!! nor shown on the on screen map, now THAT is a puzzle.

Downloading and installing Checkpoint from this website was also another great move on my part - strongly recommended!

All told I am fairly happy with my purchase as long as I do not TOTALLY rely on it to get me the shortest route (I have adjusted the settings to try various options, before anyone asks).

The smartest thing I did was discover the Pocket GPS World website and these forums - I wish to heck I had found them BEFORE I made a purchase! If you are new and considering a purchase my advice would be to read these furums closely and get some feedback before you buy, in the long run it will save you money and time/frustration.

Sorry for being so long

Good Luck to all

Steve

Steveg · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:09 pm Post subject:

Interesting to note that my posting (Above) has now been made "Sticky" - who does this and why

Not that I am objecting in any way (In fact am quite flattered) - I am just interested to know

Cheers

Steve

Tim Buxton · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:18 pm Post subject:

Steve,

Dunno who but I will hazard a guess as to why.

It's because it's a bloody good post. Thumbs Up

_________________
Tim

lbendlin · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:28 pm Post subject:

That's right. It's best when a real world user says things like this - it may actually help others. That's why I made it sticky.
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

Steveg · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 3:42 pm Post subject:

Thank you Tim and Lutz for your comments - I appreciate them (Wish however I could have got my spelling better!)

I wrote the post because I genuinely thought I could help others avoid some pitfalls I had got into (like the small SD card) and not to expect perfection from the software (as I did).

Glad to be thought of help

Steve

aliendad · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:15 pm Post subject: the final test

as said here i am also testing ttn2 using known roads, however in two weeks time will be traveling to scotland to a farm via ttn2 or 3 if it arrives in time, route planned from postcode, (before wonderful postcode program available here) got latitude and longditude from multimap.com then said navigate to...

if we find the farm first time i will be impressed, and happy

toby-tronic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 11, 2004 Posts: 20

I got the arkon powered mount and to hear it does charge the clip-on is big news.

Steveg · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 9:15 am Post subject:

Hi Toby

As far as I am aware (says he carefully now!) and through research on these forums, the Arkon has a USB charging port which the Clip on can plug into.

Unless anyone knows better?

Steve

Steveg · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:09 am Post subject:

Hi Toby (Me Again)

He is a cut and paste from the forum "Other Hardware and Accessories" where I actually asked the question if a mount existed which would charge my Fortuna etc....

*************************

I have a Arkon mount for my Toshiba E750, think they do one for the 2210.
http://www.arkon.com/pdapower.html
On the bottom are 2 usb connectors, one goes to your pda via the included cable, the other is for charging stuff. I plug my fortuna clip on into that to charge it. Connector on the top goes to the headphone jack on the pda and runs a powered speaker and you can choose whitch arm/pedestal you get.

***************************

Hope this is of help to you

Steve

toby-tronic · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 11, 2004 Posts: 20

Thanks guys.
_________________
HP 2210, many old sandisk 64MB cf cards, TT3, Fortuna Clip on, Arkon powered mount (Ford Focus), Brodit /proclip/arkon soundfeeder 250(Lotus Elise)

megamaniac · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 4:23 pm Post subject:

Thanks Steve for you interesting Post on TOM TOM3. i AM ALSO BUYING TT and it was nice to read unbiased advice.
Have you had any problems with TT Freezing up on your IPAQ?
I Read in a review that this happens with the 2210.
Steve (another one!)

Steveg · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:02 pm Post subject:

Hi Steve

Yup I sure did, I installed the update on the first day it came out and tried a short run to "test" it - it failer miserably, in 5 miles it locked 6 times - so I went home uninstalled TT completely and then re installed again (without the update) and all was well again.

Have decided that I have what I paid for (more or less) and don't plan to update and mess with things until it has been tried and tested to work with my gear (i.e. some other poor sod has tried it first!) :-)

On balance I am fairly happy with what i have, it does what it should, mostly, and WILL get me to places I do not know, and more importantly has acheived what I set out for in the first place - a way my American wife can go out in the car with confidence that she can get to wherever she needs to AND back home again. She rarely drove up to now because she feared getting lost, for this alone it has been worth it for us.

Feel free to ask any further questions you may need to know, if I can help i will

Steve

megamaniac · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 7:57 pm Post subject:

I have been reading that there was an update 3.01 that was screwing up the 2210, and now there is 3.02 also available.
Would you suggest that when I get my TomTom 3 to leave it as it is?
I am terrible with updates I reckon I spend more time upgrading than actually using Embarassed

My wife goes mad and tells me to leave things well alone when they were working!!!! But its like I just have to find out the hard way Evil or Very Mad

My first journey will hopefully be to Torquay from Northampton, I hope to impress her and show her It isn't a waste of money, and unlike alot of my Gadgets actually works Exclamation

Also we get there without too many arguments Laughing

icsys · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 8:07 pm Post subject:

I'm sure she will be suitably impressed.

Steveg · Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:15 am Post subject:

I agree she will be very impressed - mine was!

As you have a 2210 I would leave it with V3.0 for the time being at least until TT bring out the specific upgrade for 2210 users

The version 3.02 youmention is NOT an upgrade to TTN3 but is an upgrade for the TT GPS (just happens to have the same number sequence) at so I have read elsewhere in these forums

Cheers

Steve
(let us know how you get on)

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