Distinguished Gentleman

WRX-Mark, keep calm, the M6 toll is already on TTG (well it's on mine anyway).

It's highpoint so far was 2 weeks ago when driving to Rally Germany on the motorway thro' Lille (nightmare!) and I managed to miss the motorway split that I should have taken (don't ask!!). It took me off the motorway a few hundred metres further on, round a few back doubles, and back to the correct motorway. Time lost?, about 3 or 4 mins. Top stuff!! I luv it.

All the car parks that I need for Rally GB are plumbed in ready for the off, together with some devious routes to them via country lanes.

John

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

The Navman PiN comes with a full set of maps that Cover europe out of the box.

I am in Germany and have all the maps to get me back to the UK as standard.

And I can say that the new software currently being tested is fantastic.

Steve

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

Hello Gents

Quite a detailed thread going on here regarding the Tom Tom

I have been offered first chance on a TT3 set up... it's about a month old and from a mate of mine who needs some cash released.
It is something I was going to look into later in the year so as yet I have done very little studying on the subject, I do not know if it is the smaller screen package ( like in the picture at the start of the thread ) or on a full PDA unit.... I am going to have a look at it tomorrow evening hopefully.

Is there any advice you can give me ?
Anything special I need to know ?
Is there a certain set up that is the best ( or one to keep away from ) ?

I did say I have not studied up on it yet

I guess you'll want to know the price..... he said he paid £440 for it and is asking £350.... is that a fair one ?

Thanks in advance
Simon.

( Sorry ) I don't want to divert this thread but I would be gratfull for some advice.

Chris L

Simon

Depends on what you want. TT Go is a purpose built all-in-one sat nav unit. Very impressive, very portable, no wires etc etc.

What you've been offered is a more traditional sat nav package based around TT3 running on a PDA with an external GPS receiver. It really depends on what you want. If you think you will use the PDA for things other than sat nav, then consider your mates package. If you're really only after sat nav, then TT Go has to be worth a serious look.

I run TT3 on a Dell Axim PDA and it works fine. I'm very happy with it. My installation is semi-permanent and fairly neat, so I've cut down on the wires. What kit is your mate offering? £350 isn't too bad if he is running a decent PDA. Otherwise, you can buy complete brand new kits for less.

Chris

douglasb

Hi SSS

To a large extent, whether or not that's a good price depends on the PDA that you get and what else you want to do with it.

Aldi and Halfords have both run promotions recently where a brand new PDA with TT3 has been under £300 new. The PDAs were fairly "low-spec" with 200MHz processors. At £440 new, you should be expecting a good PDA (I've recently bought an iPAQ 4150 - 400MHz processor - with TT3 and amplified mount for about £450). You also need to check how much RAM the PDA comes with. Essentially, TT3 needs 128MB. With a 128MB memory card, you won't have any space for anything else; you need 256MB.

What I've found so far (I drive 25-30K miles per year) is that when I'm in areas that I know, then I will know better short-cuts than TT3. However, when off the home turf it is invaluable and the "roadblock ahead" feature has taken me around traffic problems ahead and along roads that I just didn't know existed.

I've started to use TT3 for any journey to a customer site even if I know the best route, simply because the "roadblock" feature is so useful.

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

Thanks Chris..... Douglas,

That's very helpful..... What I think I'll do is get the full spec list off him when I have a look at it, then I'll post it on here for you to have a look over.

I am probably on the other end of the spectrum to many users as I only do around 8000 miles a year... but with doing so little it can be a pain finding my way around, maybe the more basic plug and go set up will be the best for me.

I don't really think that I will get much use from a PDA as such.... I have a Road Angel already in the car, so the camera's are covered.
One of my mates from off here has a hard drive installed with MP3's on and uses his PDA to run his music through.... that may be worth thinking on as a future project.

Thanks
Simon

STi-Frenchie

Dumb question time...Chris L, you said it was useful when you were at the German Rally. Does this mean the Tom Tom GO would work equally well in France and Switzerland i.e. all the maps would be on it?

I don't know *anything* about GPS's and navigators...as you can tell !

Bajie

Guys
Got a TTGo. Wicked bit of kit

BUT
Which directory are you adding the speed camera database too.
I don't have the Great Britain Navigator director and can't get to activate the new POIs as I can't "see" them.
What am I doing wrong.
all this new fangled technology .. it'll never catch on ....

Chris L

STi-Frenchie: TT3 / TT Go UK editions come with detailed maps of the UK and Northern Ireland, plus a map of the major roads of Europe. The European map was good enough to navigate us down to Trier and almost right down to the street where the hotel was.

If you buy TT3 / TT Go in France (for example) I would expect that it would come with a detailed map of France and a similar major roads map for the rest of Europe. Tom Tom's site can probably give you more detail. I know it is also possible to buy extra maps of each country if you so wish - not cheap though. You'll also need a fairly decent sized SD card to store the maps (256Mb holds detailled maps of UK and major roads of Europe for example).

Chris

bigsinky

sorry to disappoint you chris but the maps for NI are $hite. if you come off main A roads then the maps are non existant. kinda defeats the purpose of owning one in NI. the maps of mainland uk are superb though. door to door no probs. i have emailed expansys and tomtom to see if they can shed any light on the crappiness of NI maps, but they just don't seem interested.

cheers

big sinky

Chris L

That's alright - I'm not in Northern Ireland

Seriously, I was aware of the problems with NI - I was just trying to illustrate what TT3 actually comes with.

whiper

Just bought a tomtom following thread on here.

Superb bit of kit - best £400 I have spent in a while.

STi-Frenchie

Chris, thanks for the info. I'll check out the TomTom site and see what they say...I'll also have to educate myself on how this technology works ! Cheers !

Bajie

It seems you have to also download

CheckPOInt

to get the speed camera detection working.

I'll try it later tonight unless one of you guys beats me to it

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Hi STI-Frenchie, as I said already the NAVMAN Range no matter what you buy will come with a complete set of detailed european maps, you will get 3 CDs with it of detailed maps of all the major european countries.

I have the iCN630 and the PiN and the maps are interchangable between both devices. The TT3 maybe be good but if it doesn't come with maps of other countries except for major roads I see little point in getting something that costs more than the NAVMAN and is less use.

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

Right just to update you all,

My mate has got the Ipaq 2210 with 128mb chip in it, It really looks the part but after weighing it up I shall do some more studying on the subject before I commit myself to anything.

I think the TomTom GO set up may be worth a better look at to suit my needs, I would be intested if some of you could post pictures of your in car set ups if possible.
I did visit PC World just for a look the other week and they were very unhelpfull on the subject.... they never even had one to demonstrate for me ? amazing sometimes they just don't want your money.

Cheers guys I shall keep my eye on this thread and get up to speed on this subject very soon hopefully

Simon

STi-Frenchie

Hi Wurzel ! The Navman does look enticing (and the price too !).

I see it runs Windows mobile 2003...any problems with it from a security and stability point of view? (If I may issue an understatement) Microsoft O/S's tend to make me a bit nervous and I use them day in day out

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I know where your coming from but I have had one for a month now and have had no probs with it, it hs never crashed and the new V3 software due out next month is fantastic.

Viruses etc not sure as it is not connected to the internet, it does sync seemlessly with outlook and excel etc, out of the box all teh software comes with it you do not need to buy anything else, you also get the car fitting kit with it and ciggy lighter thing, a mains transformer with detachable plugs for different countries which are worth their weight in gold.

I am about to buy an SD WiFi card for mine with 256mb ram on it so I can connect it to m wireless lan at home.

Honestly I can not rate it high enough but the ultimate decision is yours.

I have never seen a TT device but have heard that the PiN is a much better alround unit and package.

Steve

Chris L

Simon have a look at Handnav - that's where my kit came from. You should be able to compare prices for a bundle with what your mate is offering you. Check the size of the SD cards included though, as they are often just 64Mb.

Pocket GPS World has loads of good info and reviews.

Chris

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

Thanks for that Chris..... That Handnav site is exellent !!

andrewdelvard

Sorry only quickly looked at this but....
CheckPOInt Will work with TomTomGo?

andrewdelvard

I've just checked that on the CheckPOInt website.
No it won't. Shame.
http://checkpoint.oabsoftware.nl/

jowl

The new version of TomTomGo will have support for displaying POI's built in. You'll just need to download the safety camera database.

I'm not sure that the 'old' version of TTGo supports custom POI's

sparkykev

Has anyone seen a better price than £425 at www.comet.co.uk
?

bigsinky

some ggod news at least. seems the camera POIs will be available for TTgo. have a look here

cheers

big sinky

bigsinky

seems the update for TT go will be at the end of summer 2004. current update on the TT site is version 4.21 which i already have

C'MON TOMTOM GET THE FINGER OUT

jowl

The end of summer? Was that about2 months ago!

joni

The camera database at pocket GPS is free and maintained by enthusiasts who may or may not have the time to devote. In my experience it is nowhere near as accurate as the proffesional subscription systems (I have a Geodesy also). In my area alone, there are two cameras not recognised and another nasty Specs on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells.

Unlike the Geodesy, it will not warn you of temporary traffic works cameras such as those near Heathrow on the M25, as the updates are infrequent. It's free and that's nice but I expect a little more from a GPS warning system than recognition of "most" cameras. That's a little close to Russian Roulette for me

jowl

Really? In my experience it is excellent. I drove from Sheffield to Norwich to Yarmouth and it found EVERY camera including some where they were obvisouly mobile...that weren't there on the day! I'd rather be warned about it anyway though.

There are also other Speed camera POI's that can be used in addition to the PocketGPS one. I use a couple of others as well and I sometimes get multiple warning of the same camera's...but better safe than sorry.

I have to say I have never tried subscription based systems. It's just the PocketGPS one has found every camera so far!

Bajie

So who is actually using the speed camera database with TTGo.

I posted a question Here so at the moment I feel I am waiting for the latest software revision [currently running 4.2.1].
If you are able to view the speed camera database, which directory on the TTGo did you put it in. I thought it had to go in the Map directory.
Dummy's Guide for Bajie please