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REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS!
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Dave
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Well unfortunately our pre-production model has now bitten the dust. I'm in contact with TomTom regarding this, I'm hoping it's just a one off faulty unit.



Strangely enough, the fault I have is after charging the receiver, I managed to power it on, and the bluetooth light would start flickering, I then switched it off and then switched it back on a couple of hours later and now the power light stays on green (constant) and no Bluetooth light. Now what's striking about this, it seems to be similar to the problems people have experienced with Emtac/Socket BT GPS's where they've either purchased them and found them DOA with the same green light on constant, or after a few weeks it's died.



This tends to suggest to us that perhaps the same Bluetooth chipset is being used across these devices and it's at fault here. Just in case there was a Bluetooth problem detatching it from the Serial Port, I've discharged the battery and waited 3 days to decharge the capacitor (backup battery), and then charged for an hour but still no go.
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Dave
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

There is very little between the two receivers that I can see at present, from a spec point of view they both run SiRF IIe, batteyr performance is around the same, that I get on the socket compared to the TomTom. The only difference is that the Socket can be picked up for £200-220, where as the TomTom is being released at £250.



Mike is correct, it's the PDA that defines he COM port that's being used. If you for some inexplicable reason are using that com port, then it will use another one. e.g. Navman tends to go with COM6, but on some PDA's it's COM5 because COM6 is in use.
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meisenstadt
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

SUMMARY: great product, but died after 2 weeks

DETAILS: Further to Dave's earlier posting, in which he wrote "the fault I have is after charging the receiver, I managed to power it on, and the bluetooth light would start flickering, I then switched it off and then switched it back on a couple of hours later and now the power light stays on green (constant) and no Bluetooth light.", I have now experienced the identical problem after 2 weeks of happy usage of the TomTom Wireless Bluetooth GPS (with Navigator 2 software running on an HP iPaq 5550... very nice... overall I'm very pleased). But now the GPS receiver has gone totally AWOL: sometimes I get the green light only, with no bluetooth light, and now for the first time I've seen 2 red lights... which should be impossible... i.e. both the bluetooth light and the power light are red; ugh. Will have to send back under warranty for a replacement. Dunno what happened, have been using carefully, and think it is a *GREAT GREAT* product, both hardware and software.
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Ewok
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Just a quick update - Have reloaded the system ROM 2.1, (H3970) re-installed TomTom and everything is working fine again. Still getting on well with the TomTom GPS although I have noticed some extended TTFF times. To be fair though you can't see alot of sky where I park my car.



Eric.
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Dave
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Samali, there are no performance differences between the two, go with which one you like the look of, or which one hurts your pocket the least. I have both the Socket and the TomTom BT GPS's here, they get run against different iPAQ's at the same time, and I really don't see any differences apart from the outer shells and the power on/off mechanism.
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Ewok
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Still very happy with my TomTom Bluetooth GPS. However I installed GPSAssist and It's all gone rather pair shaped. Apart from making everything much slower I now can not link to my GPS at all via Bluetooth. Uninstalling / reinstalling TomTom makes no difference either. I’m now waiting to download Rom Ver 2.1 for my 3970 to start again – This file on the Compaq Web site is missing at the moment!!

Has anybody else had problems with GPSAssist??



Eric.

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Samali
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Hi there,

I am planning to buy the Tomtom BT and would like to hear from users any further comments. I still don't knwo which one should I go this one or Emtac.



Thanks
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Ewok
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Well it arrived a couple of days ago now. Fist impression - wow ! impression today WOW !!!!!



I am just so impressed with... EVERYTHING.



Well made, well thought out. The car cradle turns it on and off with the ignition power. It comes with a lead to power your PDA and GPS at the same time if required. Really neat plug adaptors to recharge the unit no matter what country you are in. Just press on hold the button for a second and about 3-4 seconds later it's all up and working - this seems to have changed from the review where there was a much longer time for start up. 7 - 8 satellites seems to be my norm here - lots of trees everywhere, but as yet I have never lost a fix altogether.



Yes these devices are expensive, but worth every penny. It looks SO SEXY too!



HIGHLY recommended.



Eric.
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MikeB
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Ewok,



It is not the GPS receiver that gives the GPS COM port it is the PDA. It just so happens that with iPaqs it is COM8 for incoming connections. Other PDAs could have different port assignments.
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Ewok
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Just bear in mind that the Socket one only seems to give you Com 8 for your Bluetooth connection - make sure your software supports this. That's right isn’t it?



So Dave, I your humble opinion, would you go for the Socket or the TomTom? – or is there really nothing between them?



Eric.

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Dave
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Actually good news, TomTom sent me a new version just in time for the Pocket GPS Summit, the old version will be returned to TomTom shortly for investigation as to why it died suddenly.



If you're in the UK, don't go for the Emtac one, go for the Socket one. You'll find more Socket's than Emtac's in the UK, and the only different is the brand name stamped on the case.



The heat in the car, even on a hot summers day shouldn't damage the battery or GPS. They're designed to withstand very high temperatures. They might get hot, but it shouldn't impact on their use.



Plugging it in all the time should not cook the battery, and it's very easy to change the battery on these sort of Bluetooth devices, just finding a new battery may be difficult for a short while, but I would suspect a Maplin or Greenweld Electronics would be able to find one for you. These types of GPS Receivers have a NiMh battery which doesn't have memory effects, so leaving on charge should be okay. The only thing I would say about constant charging is that most of these batteries have a charging lifespan of around 400 charges (just over a year). Now I don't really know whether a 10 min charge, is counted as a full charge cycle and degrades the battery life by 1 charge. I would doubt it, but this probably needs further clarification.
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Ewok
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Ummm. It's covered by 12 months warranty though so it will just get replaced - or fixed..



I am about to order one tomorrow - Basically I can't get the Emtec one anywhere as no one seems to have stock yet.



I like the idea of being able to permanently fix the cradle wired up in your car, somewhere out of the way with an external antenna fixed up. That way the device could live in the car and would be available for you to take out as and when you needed – providing that 1) The heat in the car would not damage the battery and 2) Being plugged into the cradle all the time did not cook the battery. Do we have any guidance on this?

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Dave
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

Both specifications say around 6 hours, personally I've seen around 5.5 on both.
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freeway680
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

how about battery life, is it as long as the socket? and what about charging time compare to socket? I am seriously considering the bundle of tomtom, bluetooth and software



thanks
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Dave
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: TomTom BT GPS! Reply with quote

You can, you can velcro it to a baseball cap, or put it in a shirt pocket if you wanted to.
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