Help using my 720 as a handsfree phone system

mrfreeze

Hi Everyone,

I have had my 720 for a long time now, and only ever used it as a GPS.

Now i want to use it as a handsfree phone kit with my new works vehicle.

I'm looking for help and advice as to how to do this. In particular can someone recomend an active mount that i can permanently fix in the car.
Secondly will this mount allow connection to the stereo to use the speakers or is it best to stick to the unit speaker. If you use the unit speaker is there a signal out that can be used to mute the stereo same as a standard car kit.
Lastly is the inbuilt mic sufficient to use or is an extended wired mic needed and if so does it exist and can it wire to the active mount.

Any help, advice or previous experiances would be of great help.

Thanks in advance.

Neil
_________________
Go 720 v8.351 GPS v1.20 Boot 5.5120
Kate v710 UK & ROI v850.2781
Go 920 v8.351 GPS v1.20 Boot 5.5120
Kate v710 UK & ROI v850.2781

alan_sh · Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:28 pm Post subject:

I can't help with all this but with my 730, the phone will ONLY come out of the built in speaker - so any form of "active" mount is worthless. There is no way to mute the stereo because there's no connection to it.

As to the mike, it's OK and I don't think there is any alternative anyway.

Does that help?

Alan

mikealder · Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:07 pm Post subject:

If its a company vehicle you might not want to install extra kit wired in to the car but its its an option have a look aty the iO-Play, this lets you stream music/ nav instructions and camera warnings from the TomTom using its Bluetooth connection (Wireless = less mess in the car with cables strewn all over) - It also doubles as a handsfree kit for your phone at the same time, sound is routed through the car speakers and it is very reliable in use see Here for some additional information - One of these ticks all the boxes you want with the stereo being muted during Nav instructions or phone calls etc, the TomTom itself cannot control the stereo output and phone performance is best described as hit and miss from what I have tried over the yesrs - In the end I fitted something that works reliably 100% of the time - Mike

AndyVaughan · Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:36 pm Post subject:

I will back Mike up on that one. The last TT that had decent hands free was the x10 range.

Everything after that has been poor - the mic is useless, reliability has gone out of the window.

The iO play is an excellent piece of kit and you can stream Nav instructions through your speakers.

They are a doddle to fit as well.

DennisN · Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject:

If you have a compatible phone (which probably means something your kids wouldn't be seen dead holding - like my Nokia 6230i) you will be able to use it for hands free - UNTIL IT BREAKS DOWN. I went through seven (7) 720s and a 920, all worked fine for a short time then gave me mega grief - the last thing you (I) want in a business call is for the thing to chop the call off, leaving the 720 bleating like a demented goat - you can't get it going again without some effort which is not too practical at 70mph on a motorway (or 20mph in the High Street).

I can't agree with Andy, though. In my opinion, the last TT that had decent hands free was the x00 range, which is why I resurrected my GO700 and have had perfect hands free performance for months now. Shame really. When the 720s/920 worked, they were great - addressbook, caller ID, read out loud incoming texts, decent sized dialling buttons, decent sized keyboard buttons for sending texts (not hands free, parked up, but the buttons suited my chubby fingers better than those fiddly things on the phone!) the whole works.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

mrfreeze · Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys for your input.

Shame its not up to the duty, seemed like an excellent choice to deal with handsfree.
_________________
Go 720 v8.351 GPS v1.20 Boot 5.5120
Kate v710 UK & ROI v850.2781
Go 920 v8.351 GPS v1.20 Boot 5.5120
Kate v710 UK & ROI v850.2781

theripper · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:53 am Post subject:

I dont know if its just me or is everybody else playing around with their TT, I have a 520 refurb, latest maps upgraded by tt home to latest software and it all works perfectly as a handsfree

rjbsec · Lifetime Member Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 78

GO 540 Live with Blackberry Bold and no hands-free call issues, though would like more options available - seems few if any phones are compatible with all options e.g. read/write messages.

DennisN · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 12:57 pm Post subject:

AndyVaughan · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:28 pm Post subject:

I find it depends how much you use it.

Mine would work fine if I was only making a couple of brief calls.

Try driving 400+ miles making/receiving loads of calls and it would fail every time.

It was less reliable if you did any of the following:
Used bluetooth for streaming audio
Played back mp3s
Used RDS-TMC
Used a computer voice

If I used a standard voice and just navigated then it was more reliable, but it would eventually fall over and either reboot, lock up or stutter/repeat bits of the conversation.

The only way out of this was a hard reset, as Dennis says not easy whilst driving at any speed, and if you were lucky you didn't end up with a corrupted file and file access errors.

Once they started it was reformat and reload, even harder to do than a reset whilst driving Laughing

The iO Play is so much better for call quality and it has never once let me down. Very Happy

DennisN · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:57 pm Post subject:

Correct, Andy, couple of calls now and then is fine. But my phone is my business - I get calls to book me for work and that's the only way I get work, so I get and make quite a lot of calls when I'm busy (I wish right now!!). I couldn't afford to have my customers cut off mid call, especially when the device locked up, so I couldn't instantly call back and pretend I'd lost my signal. I blamed the combination with RDS-TMC because I didn't do the other stuff. For a time, I ran RDS-TMC on the 920 and handsfree on the 720 and thought I had solved it, but it came back again, so plain volume of calls was a factor.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

mrfreeze · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:50 pm Post subject:

Following on from my original question, i now understand its not up to the task of been a handsfree system.

What i would like to do is still get an active mount so i wondered if anyone can recomend one over another.
Additionally what connections do you get with an active mount.
I know you get power obviously and tmc (don't use) but do you get line out or igniton live to power it up etc?
_________________
Go 720 v8.351 GPS v1.20 Boot 5.5120
Kate v710 UK & ROI v850.2781
Go 920 v8.351 GPS v1.20 Boot 5.5120
Kate v710 UK & ROI v850.2781

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