TomTom 520 & US map download queries

Scooby99 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 11, 2009 Posts: 18

Hi – I own a TT 520 and I am going to Florida in 3 weeks (Disneyland etc, nothing too complicated). Thought it would be useful to buy Sat Nav maps and cheapest way seems to be to download (to buy on an SD card costs around £75).

Options seems to be to download (from TT website)

 USA v8.45 @ £54.95
 North America 2GB v 8.45 @ £64.95

Firstly, can anybody tell me the difference / will I be OK with the cheapest ?

Do I merely download to an SD card and swap the SD card with my current UK maps ?

Does this have any implications for my stored UK POI (are these saved on the internal memory, so when I am back in the UK I swap the cards back over and I am back where I was ?)

Is there any way I can check whether the download has been successful and the maps will work, or do I have to get to the States and swap over then, hoping that they will work ?

Many thanks for any help you can give – I am a bit nervous that I will create future problems for myself and /or I will get to the USA and find nothing works.

mikealder · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:47 am Post subject:

USA covers just USA, North America includes Canada etc.

Get a 4GB empty card (or larger as the device can support up to 32GB capacity SDHC cards), put your UK map on the card and then purchase/ download and install the North America map to the same card, pop the card in to the device and you can select which map from the change preferences/ manage maps/ switch maps option - Much faster than messing around swapping cards around as they are easily lost! - Mike

dhn · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:13 pm Post subject:

Scooby, your UK pois are within the UK map folder. There will be no issues when you swap maps as Mike mentioned.
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David

Scooby99 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 11, 2009 Posts: 18

Hi Guys - thanks for your help so far. I am not too technically minded, so just to confirm :

Step 1 - with the UK SD card in the TomTom, copy the entire contents of the existing card (I assume via Explorer ?) onto my PC;

Step 2 - swap the SD cards in the TomTom (I have a spare 4gb somewhere) and copy the UK maps from the PC onto the new SD card (do I create a new folder on the new SD card to receive the UK maps, and a new folder to accept the US map ?)

Step 3 - download the US maps and (I assume) and save it to the new US folder on the SD card.

Does this sound right ?

Any way I can check everything is OK before I get to the US ?

Thanks again for your help.

dhn · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 2:16 pm Post subject:

Scooby99 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 11, 2009 Posts: 18

dhn - many thanks for your guidance. I shall give it a go.

You haven't mentioned any way to check if the download and set up is succesful, so I shall assume I cannot check until I am in the US. Shame.

Thanks again.

dhn · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:05 pm Post subject:

No, while in the UK, you can switch maps and select US.

Now then, you'll see your car icon in the middle of nowhere because the sat signal is still placing you in Britain and, of course, the US map can't show you there.

BUT, you can do Advance planning...........

Select the start point, say (make sure you select the FLA flag, not the US flag) state - Florida, city - Tampa - street, City Centre.

Destination: Florida, City, Orlando, Street, City centre.

It'll plan the route and you can see it mapped out on the summary map.

Just remember when you do get to Florida, it may take a bit longer to grab the initial gps signal, maybe 10 minutes or more. So, if you've got a rental (hire) car, try to be in the open and stationary while your unit grabs the signal.
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David

Scooby99 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 11, 2009 Posts: 18

Excellent - thanks again.

mikealder · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:16 pm Post subject:

If you want to play around with the USA map while in the UK with both maps loaded bear the following in mind, if the device gets a GPS position fix it will offer to switch maps to the UK one as thats more suitable for the location, answer no to the on screen message to carry on using the USA map then switch back to UK&ROI when you have finished via the Change Preferences/ Manage Maps/ Switch Map option.

The same will apply when you get of the plane in the USA, if the UK map is selected and the device has a GPS fix it will offer to switch maps to the USA map - Sometimes this can make the choice easier rather than have to mess around with the device after a long flight - Mike

Andy_P · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:25 pm Post subject:

Can I stop you for just a second...

I'm a bit unsure where your existing UK map is.
You say in your first post:

dhn · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:30 am Post subject:

Scooby99 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 11, 2009 Posts: 18

Andy_P - you may have a point about the SD card - I have never checked but assumed the info was on a card !

I will hopefully be doing the downloading etc tonight so thanks again for all your help. If I get stuck (entirely possible), I shall post again.

Cheers.

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:54 pm Post subject:

dhn · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:58 am Post subject:

Valid point, Andy. You'd think there would have been an error message somewhere along the line, don't you think??
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David

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