How Accurate ?

[slimsta]

Hiya,
i don't want to open up a can of worms here, but need to ask a couple of questions that may be of help to me and possibly others.
First off i want to congratulate the people on this forum and the work they do, i think its great and there is more than enough info on GPS / Sat Nav to last forever, i have paid twice for camera updates, and to be fair they have served me well, and my intention is to continue using the updates too.
Here's the but bit .... Twice i have downloaded my updates and twice (both seperate occaisions) i have either experienced camera's that are not on the Tom Tom once i have dropped the updates on to the Tom Tom, and once where it is warning me of camera's and theres nothing there?
I don't have the capture of POI that can go on the Tom Tom due to having read that the "One" is waiting for a fix and at present only shows it sideways on your sat nav if you wish to use it.
My questions are, Where is the information from about what Camera's are up and what cameras are not?
Who updates this and puts it into file format to be downloaded to our devices?
Why now is it twice i have experienced incorrect info or in one case lack of warning that camera's were there having definately installed the updates and set POI Warnings correctly?
Its not about the £2.00 thats paid monthly, (i think that is great value for saving your licence and being safer on the road) its about getting the correct information - Saturday i went to Merry Hill Shopping centre, and parts of the Motorway i was getting camera warnings of Gatso's and there definately was nothing there, again i know if this were recorded and sent in on time i could of had free lifetime member ship, but as i said earier i don't have the "capture of POI" and don't fancy driving up the motoway with a wife and two kids looking at the Sat Nav sideways and not looking at what i am behind the wheel for !
Wifey is not that technically clever to be asking her to either make a note or mess with my Sat Nav !
Any feedback is appreciated, i think this is cause for a "Hot Topic Forum" entry !
Slimsta

[Darren]

The location data comes from a variety of sources primarily the user base. Updates are processed and added to the database once verified. Verification is done in a number of ways and so cameras will not always appear immediately as we need to confirm the accuracy of the submitted data.

When you refer to warnings of cameras that are not there, could these be mobiles sites? Because mobile camera sites are not always present this warning category is there to alert you that there 'may' be a camera present.

You do not need POICapture to report locations, you can you our on-line reporting tool, simply locate the correct position on the on-line map and then enter the other information. This can be used for new cameras, amendments and removals.

Obviously the database can never be 100% accurate. The data is not published by Government and so has to be gathered using other methods but we do aim to get it as accurate as possible and every contribution from the users who drive these roads helps us achieve that
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Darren Griffin

[Daggers]

Slimsta,

The data is provided by the members for the members, so can only be good if camera sightings are posted to the site (using the Submit Cameras option down the left hand side of this page). It's up to us all to keep the database up-to-date for everybody else.

Note that while POICapture is a useful tool, it is not the only way to record details of a camera.
(1) You could use TomTom's own menu system to Change Preferences ... Manage POIs ... Add POI (though you need to be prepared a short while in advance for this as it takes a few seconds!)
(2) If you can memorise the position of the camera, the Submit Cameras page uses a map to help you locate it correctly.
(3) I use a program on my TomTom called Quick Add Camera, which allows me to save a camera position in just a couple of clicks. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I got it from and don't know whether it works on the TT ONE.

With regard to the cameras that you were warned about, but didn't exist, I've had a look on the map for cameras on the motorway in that area. I couldn't find any GATSOs on the motorway in the Merryhill area (though I don't know where you were starting from!). There are mobile sites on the M5 near Frankley - by definition there might not be a camera there when you pass it. On the M6, near the M5 junction there used to be some temporary SPECS cameras through the roadworks, but these are no longer on the database, and should not be in a new download.

Hope this helps.

[slimsta]

Hi Daggers, thanks for the prompt reply, came from Coventry, and these were deffo Gatso Warnings - These should have not been on the latest updates, but i know if it hasn't been reported or no-one is aware of it then it will continue to come up each time there is an update, and it was Saturday just gone i downloaded and put the latest updates on, This may have been on the M6 i think that this happened.
There were also specs for road works but these seemed fine, when the Gatso warnings went off i asked the Wife if she had a pen and she didn't, i just find it difficult to record manually and didn't have a POI Capture program on the Tom Tom - Would be great if there was a one button record for this sort of thing, i don't feel as if i am doing my bit when i come accross something and can't record it correctly to report when i get back, last time there were specs that wern't on the updates but after i had reported it, it appeared that approx 14-18 other reports had come in for it.
Option 1 isn't practical with a wife and two kids in the car on a Motorway, i couldn't live with myself because i was pressing buttons and something went wrong, its just not an option, option 2 is perhaps an easier solution, but this was on the way to Merry Hill for a shopping day out, by the time we got there and sorted toilets out for the kids i don't care what anyone says the last thing in your head is a camera that you have tried to memorise!
Option 3 seems the most practical, would be interesting to see if this is possible to get on the One, thanks for the feedback
Slimsta

[DennisN]

Hi slimsta. Just a couple of points for you.
Remember not to overdo it with POIs - you had that bother before and so you'll lose some if you keep loading all the kids' bouncy castle parks and burger shops!!
The Tom Tom does frequently warn for cameras which "are not there" but are "in the vicinity". Even though I have "Warn only when on route", one local mobile camera sends me nuts every time I go within "crow flies" of it. And as Darren says, you'll get zillions of mobile camera warnings and never see one because they're out catching all the rest of us somewhere else - never fear, they'll come back and get you one day if you ignore the warnings!
There are a number of other ways of finding memorised camera locations for reporting - I often look at Google Earth - it's a free download and very similar to the pgpsw camera submission map, just more detailed and "real", with trees and stuff showing (and with luck, you could show the kids your house with it). You can get the latitude and longitude from there, then go to the same on the pgpsw submission page map. There's another free download too, http://local.live.com/ which has even better views for some areas - I can see my van parked outside my house! But I haven't yet found out how to see the coordinates.
It's a good idea to get into doing submissions yourself, you never know, one day you might get up early enough to report a new camera and win yourself a free lifetime membership (has to be real early though).
But even if you're not first, if you report one in the same position as somebody else, it might get that camera into the download so much faster. The reason why some cameras are not yet showing is because they haven't been checked "yet" - apparently some of us are not too accurate with the coordinates, so they get several separate reports of the same camera at various places along the road, that's why they have to be checked. But if they were to get say five reports of a new camera all at exactly the same spot, I think they'd add it to the download without waiting for one of their own people to confirm it.

Why not get the kids to start being memory experts? At least it'd be a good game to keep them from tearing the upholstery to shreds.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[DennisN]

Another location idea ... (trouble is, I haven't got a TT ONE so I'm not quite sure if these functions are available on it).

Teach your wife how to tap to "Browse Map". Then she taps the top right little arrow icon which will centre the cursor on your current position ("current" depending on how long it takes her to get to that button!).

Set your device to show coordinates (Browse Map, Options, Coordinates) and the coordinates will show where your cursor (current) position is so that your wife and all the kids can write it down, together with little scribbles like "just before a junction", "just after the bus stop", "by the bridge".

Then when you get home you can all look it up on the pgpsw submission map, adjust position and vote for where to submit it.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[Andy_P]

Remember that the database has been created and is kept up to date almost entirely by people just like you, so just saying it's wrong isn't going to help much. Certainly if you are getting alerts that you shouldn't, it is easy to find it on the map on the submissions page when you get home and send in a removal request.
However, I would say that there are VERY few errors these days, other than new cameras which are being added all the time, so are you sure you aren't getting alerts for mobiles or more especially the un-verified "pending" mobiles which have been added to the download package in the last month.

*All* of the "add camera position" options will take a few button presses. The quickest, as far as I'm concerned is not "Add POI" as suggested above, but "Add favourite"
This still takes about four presses, but is a lot less aggro than trying to sort out which POI category to put it in. I then convert the Favourite to a POI and save it with a proper name in a "New cams" category later at home.

Having said all that, obviously safety is paramount... Don't mess with ANY buttons if you aren't confident that you can do it safely. Could you ask your wife to do it? Mine does all of the entering of destinations and re-routing etc when we are out as a family.

Finally, don't forget you can re-run the route later yourself using the "demo" function, but if you still don't feel up to reporting the errors yourself you could give us some better information so others could check (where is Merry Hill? What road were you on? for example)

[Daggers]

If you were coming from Coventry, there are a number of Gatsos on the M42. These are all on overhead gantries, and I believe the database has them recorded correctly - I use this route regularly.

Andy - Merry Hill is a large shopping centre near Dudley.

[DennisN]

Andy - Dudley is sort of north and left of London, north and not quite so left of Swindon and level-ish and left of Birmingham. They speak funny. :x They travel from Coventry to Dudley via the M42 in order to avoid Birmingham (where they speak even funnier). The M42 is on the way to God's Own County. My brother used to live near Dudley. I don't know any more stuff about Dudley.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[Andy_P]

North of the Watford Gap?

I've heard there's moors and peat-bogs and stuff up North...

So would this be the famous Dudley Moor I've heard about? 8)

[DennisN]

On Dudley Moor 'baht 'at indeed. (For non Tykes, 'baht 'at means "without a hat").
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[Andy_P]

[DennisN]

That picture was before he went on't Moor 'baht 'at, 'cos when 'e's been on't moor 'baht 'at, 'e's bahn ter get 'is deeath a cold, then 't'wums 'll cum an eat 'im up (then 'tducks'll cum an eat up 'twums, then we'll cum an eat up 'tducks, then we sal all uv et 'im up).
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[RQ]

Could one provide one with a translation !

[dougproctor]

DennisN - is that the way they speak in Bristol now? And I remember the K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M from that good ol' Radio Luxemburgh and the 'orrible Horrace Batchelor! Memories.....

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