TomTom RIDER Road Test

PCPete · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:39 pm Post subject:

One other thing I forgot to mention. On my bike I fitted the cable to allow the bike to charge the unit whilst riding. I found what I thought was an ideal connector. Under the seat a wired connector not connected to anything and with the ignition switched on a 12v supply, confirmed by my voltmeter thingy.

So I wired it up and went for a test ride.

Horror, as I was riding along the unit kept restarting! Just like a PC when you press the reset button! At first I though it was a defect with the unit.

Back home I tested the unit on the bike with the ignition switched on. It never flackered. However when I started up the bike and reved it, it started resetting. The problem turned out to be that when reving the bike or with the engine running the voltage on that connector occassionaly dropped, i.e. it wasn't a constant smooth 12v supply. The voltage drop caused the TT Rider to restart each time. I have since wired it directly to the battery. This isn't a problem as long as I don't leave the unit on the bike for a great length of time. To be honest I can't forsee any occasion where I would do that, even when the bike is at home in the garage I take the TT indoors.

I'm no mechanic and I don't know why that voltage would drop or even if it should? Does anybody know?

So beware when mounting the unit on the bike, test the connection first with a voltage meter to ensure a steady 12v supply.

mikealder · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:51 pm Post subject:

This could be down to a number of things, a very noisy alternator/ voltage regulator on the bike, ignition noise affecting the circuit (it depends where you connected the TT relative to the rest of the bikes electrical circuit), direct connection to the battery is probably your best bet as the capacity of the battery will keep the voltage presented to the TT unit semi stable in comparison to the raw alternator output, voltage drop and current drawn down certain wires will affect the installation, so without this knowledge or a wiring diagram it is difficult to be more specific.
The only this I would add is a direct connection to the battery has significant power behind it, please make sure you have fitted an inline fuse to the additional wiring feeding the TomTom unit as close as practically possible to the battery terminal - you don't want an electrical fire when/ if the wiring shorts out - Mike

Skippy · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:04 pm Post subject:

Tim Buxton · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:09 pm Post subject:

The RIDER will turn itself off if it is in the cradle with external power and then loses that power source.
_________________
Tim

Darren · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 6:14 pm Post subject:

Asturias · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 24, 2006 Posts: 2

TT Rider has many good points, but the lack of a PC map interface is a major drawback. I frequently ride with my local IAM group and receive an itinerary by email. It is the devil's own job to program this on the unit and I always make mistakes. The most frequent instruction I have is "Turn around when possible"

When other riders ask me what I think of the Rider I always say buy a Garmin.

Since you can buy itineraries from Tom Tom, the software must exist to create such an itinerary, TT just won't make it available to users.

If anyone knows of any third party software that will do this job I will be very grateful.

Darren · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:58 pm Post subject: Re: PC Interface

DavidHobbs · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:20 pm Post subject:

I thought this was a cool post regarding the RIDER: http://www.clubtomtom.com/general/no-man%e2%80%99s-ride-across-america-with-mad-maps-suzuki-and-tomtom/

Just thought I'd share.

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:21 pm Post subject: Re: PC Interface

Asturias · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 24, 2006 Posts: 2

Yes, it's exactly this Itinerary Planning that I use. Since I'm usually looking for a sequence of roads I have to do it by map position. That means lots of scrolling, change of zoom position etc. It is this I referred to as the devil's own job. Also when scrolling a map the TT Rider often takes a scroll as an "enter" and adds a spurious position that has to be deleted. (I will use a Palm stylus in future, that might help with accuracy and the screen sensitivity).

This would all be so much easier on a PC screen. In fact in order to set an itinerary I open Auroroute on my PC so that I can see the road layouts at a sensible scale and keep the whole thing in perspective. Otherwisee it is impossible to program a complex itinerary accurately, trust me.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the manual, I appreciate that, but I have read that section in detail. This is usually good advice "read the manual"!!

I find the Rider great for point-to-point navigation and instructions are clear and very audible- even though I always wear earplugs. In fact the ability to do complex itineraries is a great feature, I'd just like it to be easier to use.

DavidHobbs · Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:30 pm Post subject: Re: Itinerary Planning

Tim Buxton · Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:28 pm Post subject: Re: Itinerary Planning

Oldboy · Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:26 pm Post subject: Re: Itinerary Planning

Skippy · Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:24 pm Post subject: Re: Itinerary Planning

tyketriker · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 24, 2006 Posts: 4

Tomtom Rider and BMW = 2 week report

I contacted Tomtom Support on two items:

1 My mobile is not supportted on Rider but is on the other Tomtom products. I asked when the next software upgrade was scheduled. Answer was effectively go away and stop pestering us.

2 None of the four mounts work with a BMW R-series. Their reply was in a similar vein, go away and stop pestering us. Go look at 3rd parties for a solution.

Good News

Have just got one of the Nolan s-com helmets = GREAT!!!!

After several visits to my local Hein Gericke shop with very very helpful staff, the result=

Tomtom Rider has their intercom lead connectted into bluetooth receiver and into helmet.

Mobile phone is bluetoothed into helmet.

This gives full phone functions.

Can confirm that helmet can be bluetoothed direct with Tomtom Rider (thanks to Nolan support investigation) bypassing the Tomtom bluetooth unit. Problem with this is that if your mobile is not supportted by Tomtom then your mobile will need to be by lead.

For my mobile I have obtained a mini-usb to audio converter and then a Nolan intercomm lead. The Nolan intercom lead has different size jacks on each end and the helmet has two leads (other than the charge lead) each with different sizing.

So, mix and match and enjoy your riding.

Hope this rant / information is usefull to someone out there.

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