TTN5 First Impression from a TTN Virgin

insanity

First things first, the only GPS software I have used previously is CoPilot Laptop 7, and that was with a USB GPS mouse. Oh, and AutoRoute 2005, but that doesn't count! I thought I would share with you the first experiences of TomTom 5 from the perspective of someone who hasn't used their software before. Oh, and much kudos to www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk - top notch service and next day delivery as promised. This bit is about the installation of the kit, I'll post about fun routing stuff when I've used it.

So, on with it... and the first thing to note is the size of the box. It's small. And light. When I spend £200, I expect a big box that weighs half a ton, not half a kilogram. Anyway, the fact that it is small and light means it is easier to hide from the Mrs, who would freak out if she realised how much I spent on it :D

Opening the box is a bit like pass the parcel at your 5th birthday - the first thing you get is a little silver box saying "Open me first". It contains the SD card, the activation code card and the quick install guide. Ignoring the temptation to tear the seal off the SD card holder, an inspection of the big(er) white box underneath reveals the car charger, the help/manual CD, the quick start manual (as usual, half a million pages but only 3 in your language), a licence agreement (does anyone ever read these?) and, of course, the TomTom Wireless GPS MkII.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Ok, I've changed my mind - for my £200 I like small and light. Let's just hope it performs as well as it looks. The only gripe I have so far is that you only get a car charger in the box, so let's hope the damn thing has enough charge to last for a couple of hours of playing before I go anywhere near a car.

I might have cheated a little bit, but I decided to do a hard reset of my hx4700 before starting with the install... after all, I did buy the iPAQ with TomTom in mind so have very little else on it at the moment. As instructed, I took a backup of the SD card first by simply copying everything off it to my laptop, then I took the plunge and stuck it in the top of my PDA. The install ran automatically and without a hitch (but it doesn't give you any choice as to where to install it to), and after asking me which language to use (I'm always tempted to try learning a new language the hard way by selecting something other than English, but I'm too much of a chicken) and a couple of preferences I was on to the voice selection.

Being a northener, I'm not sure I like either Jane or Tom, but I figured the female voice would be a little less irritating. Might try the US voices at some point (they're on the CD apparently), but, and no offence to the Americans on here, I'm in no hurry too. Still, both voices seem like they're better than the clipped horrible text-to-speech mechanical robot from CoPilot Laptop.

And on to activation... not having my phone set up with my PDA just yet (hard resets kind of break things like that), I went for the manual option via ttcode.com which worked first time. A nice little tour followed, useful for newbies like me, and then the real fun began. After confirming that I was using the TomTom wireless GPS, and turning the little box of magic on, the software connected to the GPS without problem and I got a fix after about 30 seconds which correctly (if you allow for the fact it wants to put you on a road) positioned me by the Tower of London.

All in all, I'm extremely impressed so far. Bloody simple to set up and a quick and accurate fix have left me thinking that it was money well spent. I'll let you know how I get on with my first route and trip - it's likely to be a short walk at lunchtime, but that'll test out what people have been saying about the routing messing up when doing walking trips...

vik4sh · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 29, 2005 Posts: 19

Agree totally with your comments. Just recieved mine too from globalpostioningsystems (ordered yesterday at 2pm recieved this morning!!) fantastic service.

been having a little play, navigatiojn from contacts works well and the new GPS reciever picked up a fix relativly quickly.

All in all a very nice package. :D

Now need to give it a good drive test.....

Privateer · Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:54 am Post subject:

Hi insanity,

Thanks for the write-up on installing TTNav 5.

What is the memory size of the SD card?

Does the CD contain all of the maps? I.e. if the SD card became corrupt, could you use the CD to rebuild it?

Regards,
_________________
Robert.
iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14.0.1: iOS CamerAlert v2.0.7
TomTom GO Mobile iOS 2.3.1; TomTom (UK & ROI and Europe) iOS apps v1.29
Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D

insanity · Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:24 pm Post subject:

The SD card is a 128MB one, with very little free.

And no, the maps are not on the CD (as far as I can see), so do what it says and take a backup of the SD card before it goes anywhere near your PDA.

As a further note about the install not asking you where to put stuff, it does only put about 2MB worth of stuff into RAM, so I'll let it off. The rest of the stuff remains nicely on the SD card.

broomlands · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 03, 2005 Posts: 4

I am about to upgrade from version 3 to 5. Tom Tom are offering a good price for this. However I am not sure if the Pocket Gps speed camera software will work with the latest version. Has any one tried this?

vik4sh · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 29, 2005 Posts: 19

Hi,

Have just installed the camera database on TTN 5 using the following guide:

http://pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=21790

Works a treat!!

broomlands · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 03, 2005 Posts: 4

Thanks for that. Very helpful Laughing

Privateer · Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 3:11 pm Post subject:

Glad you liked the guide. Thumbs Up

_________________
Robert.
iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14.0.1: iOS CamerAlert v2.0.7
TomTom GO Mobile iOS 2.3.1; TomTom (UK & ROI and Europe) iOS apps v1.29
Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D

insanity · Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 3:32 pm Post subject:

And here's Part II...

I'm always impressed when something that uses Bluetooth "just works", like it's supposed to, and in the case of the TomTom Wireless GPS MkII, I'm very impressed. Not only did the TomTom software connect to it from the iPAQ without a problem, but connecting to it with AutoRoute on my laptop was just as simple. Anyway, that's besides the point...

I didn't do any routing on my little walk at lunchtime, but I did wander round the urban jungle that is the City of London. Apart from the odd ocassion it thought I was on a parallel road, both the software and receiver performed brilliantly. Both in the map browse view and 3D navigation view, I could see where I was and where I was heading (apart from at one point where it got confused for about 10 seconds and actually had my heading the other way down the road I was walking on...). I guess I should heap praise on the hx4700's screen at this point as well, bright and clear even in the lunchtime sun.

Since getting back to my desk, I've played around with the routing a little bit and it all looks pretty sensible. Yes, the map has (lots of) errors, including the wrong name for the street I live on, but I can live with that - after all, I figure as I'm driving along and I get told to "Turn Left", TomTom won't actually tell me the street name, and if I don't look at the map I'll never know! Admittedly, it does mean checking stuff when planning the routes, but with AutoRoute on my laptop (and Pocket Streets on the iPAQ) using NavTeq data, I figure I should be able to find most places sooner or later Laughing

I suppose time will tell as I actually get around to using it in the car, but so far I'm pretty darn impressed with my first experiences of TomTom.

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