Procedure for entering new maps - TomTom and Nuvi

BillyJ1946 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 12, 2007 Posts: 9

Hope I am in the right place for this question. A search didn't turn up much, which surprises me.

I am a geocacher with a lot of hand-held experience. Now I am going to buy an automotive-type GPS. I think I have narrowed it down to the Tomtom One XL and the Nuvi200W. I have seen both in operation, and they look pretty good. Size and price are about the same.

While I would welcome reasoned advice on any topic, my specific question is this.

The time will come when the internal maps are out of date and need to be updated. How do I get the new data into the unit?

The right answer would be "You download it directly to the unit via a USB cable from your computer."
The wrong answer would be "You buy an SD card reader/programmer, attach it to your computer, buy an SD card, program the card from your computer, and insert the card into the slot in the unit."

Many thanks in advance for your help. By the way, are User's Manuals for these units available online?

Bill

Andy_P · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 1:17 am Post subject:

Can only speak for TomTom...
To get new maps, you connect the device to the PC using the USB cable, load TT's "Home" utility and you can buy the maps, download then and then install them all from there.

Downloads are VERY slow though and cannot be resumed if the connection drops out. This means some people have had to have several goes at getting them (downloading in the middle of the night etc.) I suspect this may be down to the quality of their particular internet connection though.
I downloaded a Western Europe map for a rind last week and it worked first time, but took about 3 hours to download!

No card readers needed. When the TT is connected via USB it basically becomes a dumb card reader itself, and the PC just detects it as a new hard drive or "mass storage device" (or two in the case of machines with both an SD card AND internal Flash memory).

TomTom manuals are downloadable as .pdfs from HERE

Some of the OLDEST manuals (such as the GO "Classic"s) are actually better written and give a better description of some of the basic principles and functions!

PaulB2005 · Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:56 am Post subject:

With the Garmin the last set of maps came on a DVD with a program called MapSource. You load this on your PC and then attach the Sat Nav with the USB cable. Run MapSource, select the regions you want on your Sat Nav and then send them to the unit.

The DVD was free but you have to pay for the unlock code ~£45.

BillyJ1946 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 12, 2007 Posts: 9

Andy and Paul, my thanks to you both. It looks like it can be done on both units. Not very conveniently on either unit, but then, it doesn't have to be done very often.

I have used MapSource on my Garmin GPSMap60CSx, and was not very impressed. It got the job done, but only with a certain amount of yelling and confusion.

It beats me how/why these companies can build such a wonderful piece of hardware, and then do such a poor job of everything that surrounds that hardware. The support software, the GUI in the machine itself, and especially the Operator / User Manuals, kind of remind me of the 6-page owner/maintainer's manual I got with my first motorcycle, a '68 Honda CB350. But I guess I would rather have it that way, then the other way around.

Thanks again, gentlemen. I'm grateful for the help

Bill

Andy_P · Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:29 pm Post subject:

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