Positive experiences with TomTom Nav 2

Buffy Beagle

After reading all the problems people had been having we were getting quite nervous about upgrading to TTN2 and our anxiety was reinforced when we failed to get a satellite fix the first time we tried it out.

However, we have now put TTN2 to intensive use over the last 3 days and we thought it might be helpful for any readers of this forum who might be in doubt about acquiring TTN2 if we recorded the positive impression we have gained.

We are using version 2.02.

We have found it does everything that version 1 did just as well as before. In other words when in Navigator mode it works fantastically well.

Based on our experiences we now feel that the satellite fix problems are no better or worse than they were before. The key thing seems to be to allow TTN plenty of time to get its bearings in the car, stationary, on the road before you start navigating.

Plenty has been written about the mapping errors and anomalies and we are compiling our own list to throw into the pot, but so far in practice it has been possible to work around the imperfections fairly easily.

The new options for working out alternative routes have seemed to work reasonably well when we have tried them. When we have encountered road blocks it has been very helpful to get TomTom to work out an alternative before we decided which way to turn. Previously, we would have had to make an arbitrary decision which way to go, then wait until TTN stopped trying to make us turn round and go through the blocked road, before it would resume navigating on an alternative route.

The expanded list of Preferences (found under Advanced Properties) is very helpful. We're not very familiar with GPS Assist, but it appears that TTN itself now does a lot of things that you used to have to use GPS Assist for.

Best of all, are the improved Points Of Interest facilities. Firstly, the built-in POIs seem to be more useful. Secondly, you can now easily use POIs as places to plan routes to and/or from, and the process of looking them up is much easier (especially since TTN will look for any word in the POI text not just the first word.) Thirdly, it seems to have a large capacity for additional POIs under as many different categories as you can think of. Finally, it is very handy when you are driving to be able to tap 3 times on the screen to memorise the current location, so that you can later turn it into a Favourite or POI.

Hugh

simmybear

Glad your enjoying it, I used to like TTN1 then I sent off for an upgrade, was charged on the 3/4/03 and still not received the goods.

I'm sure that may take the gloss of my appreciation of TTN2 when I finally get my hands on it! Especially if its as buggy as others seem to report

Simmybear

agibbs

I agree 100% with Hugh - using TT2.02 is a positive experience! Sure there is still some way to go for perfection, but a lot of progress was made in this upgrade. Even the pitiful effort to include some postcode information is helpful when you are trying to locate the correct 'Station Road', and although not everywhere has house numbering this does seem to cover most normal urban streets very nicely.

The alternative route section is very important - it's when you are forced off into the unknown wilderness that having a navigation system makes sense - and worked for me the other day when the M1 was closed.

In fact the biggest problem remaining is mostly the missing bits in the maps, which is probably not TomTom's fault - I can look for places on streetmap.co.uk and not find them either (although much less often!) I did read somewhere that part of the problem is the UK system (or lack of) for notifying changes?

Anyway, I'm sure 'simmybear' will be happy when they get their copy - and look on the bright side, you may end up with a CD of 2.0x rather than the already out of date 2.00...

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Andrew Gibbs

mshah

I have received TT Nav 2 (Full version) a couple of days ago with the Emtac BTGPS. I have used it only a couple of times (total mileage of 10 miles or so). But playing around with it I have used it more than 5 or 6 hours.

The software version is version 2.00 (Build 323) and I am using an Ipaq 3870 with a 128MB SD card. So far I have had no crashes or any problems at all. The software takes a little while to get used to how to do things but once that is done then things can be done as second nature.

The number of customising options are excellent. So far I have no reason to upgrade to the latest patch unless I see a valid reason too or I find that I get some of the problems others have been experiencng.

This is my first GPS system so I have nothing else to compare it against but as a newbie to GPS systems, I think it is great.

I tried getting it to navigate across a route which I already knew. It did not take me along the route I normally take but did take me on a slightly different one which was not signifantly longer.

I think it is hard for a GPS system to give you the 'perfect' route everytime. If you work on the assumption that it will give you a 'good' route then this is more realistic.

Well that is my input after 2 days of using it. I will post something in this forum again after I have used it to clock up a lot more miles.
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mshah

I have used TT Nav 2 over 200 miles now using the Emtac BTGPS. I've also upgraded to v2.02 even though I did not have problems with v2.00. I haven't noticed any difference between the two versions in terms of speed or other performance. Still using an Ipaq 3870 and 128MB SD card.

I have found the system excellent to use. There was a little mapping error at M40 J10 where the roundabouts were not done properly, which led me going North bound on M40 instead of South bound. This wasn't too much of a problem as I was only suppose to be on the M40 for 1 junction. However, it was a perfect situation to test out the re-routing of the system. I had to go through a town called Banbury which I have never been to. I had no idea where I was and just followed the instructions from Nav 2 and it led me out of there and back onto the originally planned route. All smooth sailing from there.

I have also found that the ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) was pretty much bang on. As long as you are not speeding or you don't hit traffic then you can guarantee you'd reach there at the specified time.

I have noticed that with the Ipaq's bluetooth on, reading the SD card and processing the updates for Nav 2, it does suck quite a bit of juice out of the battery, one tip for this is to turn off the backlight during the day. It hardly makes a difference. If you have a power car connector then it isn't a problem.

One small quirk though which I will post in Wish list is that it sometimes takes far too long to calculate the route. Sometimes you calculate the same route and it takes really long one time and another time its just a little long.

Overall though I am 99% happy.

As for the Emtac, I'm 100% impressed with this. Never lost signal at all and had at the lowest point 5 sats (In built up area with trees) and at several points had 12 sats (open country road). Most of the time I had 9 to 10 sats. Journey was 80 miles there and 80 miles back. Totalling about 3 hours 45 mins
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