TT GO 730T - Dear Diary - First impressions

MLF · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 28, 2006 Posts: 7

Cutting a long story short-

TomTom Go 730 Traffic
- App 8.0.10 (9369/040301) OS:1000
- GPS v1.2, Boot 1.0012
- Map: ‘Western_and_Central_Europe_2GB’ v800.1762
- Language: English UK
Brodit
- Vauxhall Vectra B 2001 ProClip Center mount
- TomTom GO 730 T. Active Holder Tilt Swivel
- Brodit Accessories. Mounting equipment (MoveClip)
TYRE (Google Maps to TomTom integration) http://www.tyre.tk
- Version 5.24 [5.242]

All tried, tested and smiled upon by one frighteningly anal-retentive Scotsman. Your mileage may vary. No part of this text should be construed as advice, either professional or otherwise, but simply as a record of my experiences. I have no relationship, commercial or otherwise, with any manufacturer or distributer of any product discussed.

Cutting a short story long.....

Thursday 10th July 2008
Getting very close to making a decision. One thing still confuses me- the RDS-TMC receiver is well know as an add-on for e.g. the 720, but looking at "what's in the box" for the 730T on the TomTom website the receiver isn't listed. Odd.
Decide to stop in at Comet on the way home and see if I can get a look at one. I go into the shop and, against all odds, get to speak to The Keeper of The Bain Cell. He's knowledgeable and has used the 720 with GPRS traffic, says it's the mutt’s nuts, though it can get a little confused at times but it's still better than nothing. He agrees that the box contents are wrong on TomTom's site and shows me that the receiver is included- good. I casually ask if they'll price match John Lewis' online price of £279.99 and he goes to check. Comes back rather please with himself and says no problem. I'm fairly pleased with himself too and promise, almost sincerely, to pop back in the next day once I've checked out more about RDS-TMC.

Friday 11th July 2008
Time to bite the bullet and I drop back in to Comet on the way home.
"I'd like one of them and I understand you'll price match to £279.99".
"Oh we can't do that sir!"
"Well, why was I told yesterday that you could?"
"Who told you that?"
Description
"Don't recognise anyone like that working here, sir!"
Gnnnnnnn
"Okay, it was about 3:30pm yesterday and he had to go check with his manager. Can you find out who was the manager on duty at that time?"
Mr Benn-type disappearance
"Okay, they price-matched to our website price, which is £279.99 as well, so we can do it for that."
Un-clench fists
Get home, check the manual for warnings about battery life and note it doesn't say you should fully charge it before playing- good. Fire it up, play about- just like version 5 on my PDA, really! Note that it picks up enough satellites for a fix in several places inside the house- not bad compared to the old one, presumably down to the difference between SirfStar II and III. Just for fun, stick the RDS-TMC receiver on the living room window and watch it scan for a signal. Got bored, interrupted it and P'd about a bit, but when I left it alone it settled on a signal after a couple of minutes and I could browse traffic incidents etc to my heart's content. Result!

Saturday 12th July 2008
Took a backup of the device in preparation for upgrading it. Did a couple of minor mods and took another backup. Wanted to check that the backups were going to my data drive (which gets backed up) and not the o/s drive (which doesn't), so had a root about and found it was okay, but there was only one copy of the backup being kept, so previous changes would be lost. I'm guessing this is why I've been reading about "Windows Explorer backups", so that you can keep more than one copy. So I run a backup like that and it takes about 20 mins, do a bit more mucking about and then run another backup, leaving it running while I have a cup of tea. Return to find error messages all over the screen, relating to the USB, which both the TT and my data drive are attached to. Things go south sharply and I can't write to anything on the USB and can't restart TT Home to disconnect the device and the Windows USB disconnect doesn't work. Bum! Try to shut down, it sits there at the "Shutting down" message until I do a hard reboot. When it comes back up, it spends the best part of an hour cleaning my data drive. TomTom also starts complaining about not being able to access the selected voice file, and asked me to pick another one. Double bum! It all came good in the end, but I wouldn't want this to happen regularly!
Finally got a backup and started the update, which ran smoothly. Didn't do the map update, thinking that I'd like to know the map release schedule so that I don't download the day before a major update! Is there such a thing? Probably a closely guarded secret if there is!

Sunday 13th July 2008
Road test! Driving from home (~Ruislip) to Ramsgate. Nice and simple, select POIs near Ramsgate and look for Open Parking. Should have know better, but when the list came up with distances against them, didn't fully consider what they meant or where they were measured from. Turns out the closest marked car park to the centre of Ramsgate is in Margate! The reason for that seems to be that most parking in Ramsgate is short-stay (~1 hour), but I didn't notice all this at the time and happily set the destination for a good sized parking on the front at Margate.
Set out with the RDS-TMC receiver on the windscreen, but no signal. It now dawns on me that it warned me about the lane closure on the M40 quite early in the journey, and I don't think we had a signal at that point. Could it have stored the data from the Friday night? Got through the M40 lane closure and onto the M25. A few minutes later we noticed we definitely had a signal and a 9 minute delay reported on the southern section (around the 6 o'clock position) on the M25 but that was still the quickest route. Turned out there were speed restrictions *way* before we got near that, and the queue was far longer than advertised, but it ended pretty much where indicated. Not 100% accurate, but understandable. Another weird one was that, having realised I needed fuel, I wanted to do a Find Alternative - Travel Via - Clacket Lane Services, which I had just seen signs for- but it said “No route found”! Odd, but not a problem at the time, though it could have given me a bad moment if I didn’t know the area and I was running out of fuel! After that, it routed us onto the M26 - M20 and then off onto the A249, Detling Hill to cut across to the M2. Now, the overhead signs were warning of heavy traffic on the A249 because of the Kent County Show, but we kept the faith and went with it. Our hearts sank when we rolled up the tail of the traffic queue at the bottom of Detling Hill, but by sticking in the outside lane we rolled slowly up and got going again about 3/4 of the way up the hill. So, I wonder if it knew about the queue but knew it wouldn't matter (don't think so, because I think it would show even a 1 minute delay) or if someone was acting the Kent and decided not to report the queue at all? No further problems from there to Margate.
Much walking up and down the beach and we sussed that we were in the wrong place (but not why) and returned to the car. Tried to find an appropriate car park in Ramsgate again and the ugly truth dawned. Lesson learned!
Got to Ramsgate and parked away from the sea front. Had a nice wander about in the unusual sunshine, fish & chips, etc. Left quite late and didn't really think about the fact that we were trying to navigate to the far side of London at 7pm on a Sunday night! However, it proved to be a useful test of the TMC!
Set out with the RDS-TMC receiver on the windscreen, but no signal again. However, got a signal after we got further onto the bigger roads, which I think was a bit west of Kent International Airport on the A299 Thanet Way. It indicated delays but again not long ones and in time we joined the queue. At this point, which was in the road works at the start of the M2, I noticed that the map was definitely out of date and that we were sitting in a field according to it- but it came good at the vital point and directed us up the slip road and onto the M2, which was good because the whole layout was damned confusing. The M2 was pretty clear and we got onto the A2 Watling Street without incident, but we noticed that on most of that stretch it was indicating the general direction as Dartford, but later told us to join the M25 towards Gatwick!
What happened next was a lot more interesting, though. We had only been on the M25 for about 5 minutes when it got a number of traffic updates in a row and routed us off the M25, round the roundabout and back in the opposite direction! Well, for us that showed that a) it was receiving a signal, b) it was receiving data and c) it was making real-time decisions based on that data- but crucially it didn't show that d) the decisions were correct! My curiosity was peaked but we soon arrived at Dartford where a 1 minute delay was forecast. It looked nasty at the tolls, but actually it moved not too badly even though the two right-hand tunnels were closed (is that normal?) and we were though in a couple of minutes.
So, I was still curious as to why we had been re-routed to go the other way round the M25. I knew I could check www.trafficengland.com when I got home, but the traffic might have cleared up by then. If only there was someone I could phone who might be sitting by a computer.... if only my phone wasn't in my jacket, in the boot... Aha, but having set up bluetooth on the TomTom and loaded my phonebook from my phone into it, I had my brother's number ready to hand(sfree)! A few pokes at the TomTom and "Hello, are you anywhere near a computer?" It turned out that there were two delays on the southern route of between 15 mins and 30 mins, so we were avoiding between 30 mins and 1 hour sitting in traffic. Definite result! The two stoppages were around Leatherhead and Heathrow/M4/M40, so it was interesting to note that the TomTom routed us off the M25 at Watford and down the M1 etc, rather than continuing round to join the M40 as is usually the case. Got home on clear roads, pretty impressive!

Monday 14h July 2008
Have been eyeing the Brodit centre mount for a while, http://www.brodit.com/images/652226.jpg, but wasn't sure about the position. I've always had the SatNav above the dash and haven't had to take my eyes far off the road to look at it. The Brodit's position is about vent-height, so would it be difficult to look at? I realised I could test this by sticking the TomTom’s suction cup mount to the left-hand end of the clear plastic facia across the front of the clocks. As a bonus, I also tried running the RDS-TMC receiver left to right across the clocks and up onto the windscreen at the end. Good signal first time! So now I think I'll Velcro the receiver to the under-side of the dash and hopefully have something I can leave in place without attracting too much attention from Scrote Junior.
I went ahead and ordered the Brodit kit from DSL Developments (as recommended around these parts) and paid the extra £5 for next day delivery.
652226 Vauxhall Vectra B 2001 ProClip Center mount 1 £15.99
273006 TomTom GO 730 T. Active Holder Tilt Swivel 1 £34.98
213005 Brodit Accessories. Mounting equipment 1 £10.99
I'm slightly worried to notice that the web site says "Part Shipping Order" this evening, if I get part of it tomorrow and part afterwards, I'll want my fiver back!

Tuesday 15th July 2008
Had another USB event last night, not very happy. Okay, I’d be the first to admit that my USB is incredibly over-extended. Have disconnected the TomTom stand from the USB and will see what happens. I wonder if anyone else has had any USB hastles.
On a happier note, both last night and this morning, ran with the RDS-TMC receiver under the edge of the dash and got good signals both times. I feel a semi-permanent installation coming on. Only problem I’ve realised is that the design of the Brodit mount kind of assumes that you’re going to take the receiver away with the mount, so things might get a bit complicated if I want to leave it in place. We’ll see.
Okay, Brodit bits arrived this morning and I’ve had a go at fitting them. My only reservation was that the sticky strips on the MoveClip weren’t very convincing, basically just two strips of double-sided sticky tape. For those unfamiliar with the MoveClip can search for Item No. : 213005 on http://www.dsldevelopments.com/search.asp Sure enough, before I had finished rigging the whole thing up, the Active Holder had fallen on the floor! Still, I’m not too worried- I’ve got plenty of epoxy resin in the house and that’ll fix it no problem. Once that’s done, I’m happy with the setup- the ProClip really is pretty unobtrusive and I’ve got no qualms about leaving it in the car. The final job is to rig up the RDS-TMC receiver under the edge of the dash and we’re home free.
On the way home I decided to give the sticky tape another chance, but it fell off and I was lucky to be in almost stationary traffic so that I could find somewhere to put it. Interestingly, this ended up with the RDS-TMC receiver in the passenger foot-well, but it still got a signal! I’m starting to think that this is probably indicative of the signal strength around this area (basically Heathrow) than anything else- I don’t know what would happen way out in the countryside.
Got home and decided to sort out the MoveClip. I think the problem is that the back of the Active Holder isn’t a continuous flat surface. With the ProClip, both surface are completely flat, and the stick tape worked like magic- I can’t shift it with normal finger pressure. Dug out the Loctie (cyanoacrylate) and a G clamp, glued the MoveClip to the Active Holder and left it clamped for an hour- that fixed it! Took it all down to the car with the sticky-backed Velcro and ran the RDS-TMC receiver from the back of the ProClip across the underside of the edge of the dash, tucked it into the join between the panels at the end and round the end of the dash into a gap at the right-hand end of the windscreen. That allowed me to keep pushing it down right-to-left along the front of the dash into the gap between the front edge of the dash and the screen. Amazing how deep that gap is! My method is to take the “fluffy” part of the Velcro and wrap it round the cable and back onto itself (I’ve tried using shorter pieces and making them butt up to each other, but they come off too easily) then sticking a same-length piece of the “grippy” part to the underside of the dash- then the cable can be stuck in place or removed at will. Now the whole thing is hidden, except for a small section at the right-hand end that you can’t see when the door is closed. I’ve also stuck a piece of “grippy” on the back of the ProClip and a piece of “fluffy” around the cable just below the plug, so when it’s not in use it can be tucked our of the way. Nice! I was a little worried about the reception in the new position, but I haven’t had any problems since.

Thursday 17th July 2008-07-17
A couple of days later and I still haven’t had any problem with the wiring configuration, except that I have to be slightly careful to make sure the TomTom mates correctly with the RDS-TMC receiver when I sit it into the Active Mount, but I’m sure it’ll be fine when I get used to it.
The final feather in the cap is that this morning I found a piece of software that just makes life complete. For a while it has bugged me that I couldn’t sit at the PC and plan a route on, say, Google Maps and then download it to the TomTom- well now I can! All I’m going to say is that, as a professional techie, bad software makes me “skweam and skweam until I’m thick”, so this comes as a breath of fresh air. http://www.tyre.tk Oh, and it’s free, of course- I am Scottish, after all!
_________________
TomTom Smart Phone app

Andy_P · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:44 pm Post subject:

I'll have to admit I skim read your diary, but would say:

POIs - You found the TomTom-supplied POIs are pretty poor - couldn't agree more!

Mount - I used to use a Brodit "move-clip" with the much heavier Go300 on a heavy Brodit swivel mount and the two sticky strips held on like a limpet - no problems there.

Clacket Lane - no route found - There has been a stupid bug/error on recent maps where many privately-owned roads were logged as "no through traffic" (shown as dotted on the map). The software won't try to route you through these roads, but guess what? All motorway services are privately-owned! So no petrol on the motorway any more according to TomTom! If you have Mapshare, you can unblock any roads you find like this in the service areas again.

USB - While you are connected to the PC, the Go should be charging (slowly ) from the USB bus, so you shouldn't have to worry about battery life while backing up etc. No idea why you had all the hassles that time.

Backups - DO NOT trust Home to make the backups. You discovered it will only let you keep one at a time (utterly stupid!), but there are other reasons to avoid it too - it misses bits off its backups and often makes ones that simply will not restore.

Traffic - never used it so cannot comment.

Tyre - yes it's good isn't it!

Gmonkey · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:10 pm Post subject:

the POIs sets aren't a big deal - you can download POI and install new POI sets. any word on advanced lane guidance or the IQ routes? the 730 looks like a great unit over all, i want to play around with it.

Trevor1234 · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:52 pm Post subject:

Hi MLF
Well, what can I say other than I have read the whole essay through from start to finish and found it all very interesting.

Everyone who is contemplating purchasing a730T should read the article before parting with their money.

I agree with your comments on backing Up and Also agree that ‘Tyre’ is a must for most users.

A fine article.
_________________
Tomtom Go 720.
Navcore 9.510
Central and Western Europe v855.2884
GPS World Traffic cameras
Home 2.7
iPhone 3G

MLF · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 28, 2006 Posts: 7

Just popped in for a quick update....

I've been trying to use the TomTom every day just to thrash any bugs out of the system and I've noticed a few points. First, to answer a couple of points Gmonkey raised-

Advanced Lane Guidance- a brilliant feature that I hope they will expand upon because *it isn't universally available* at present! For instance, M40-M25 junction doesn't have it and I'd have thought it's big enough to warrant it! However, so far as I can tell, even if you don't get the full pictorial representation you'll still get a little diagram in the bottom left corner that is pretty helpful.

IQ Routes- seems pretty good. I've been using traffic all the time, but often with no blockages reported, so essentially relying on IQ data. It definitely does react to the time of day, e.g. one route home to work and a different one work to home, and I've got to admit it does avoid most of my know nightmares but obviously it isn't reacting to real road conditions. However, the success rate has been good enough to make me follow it rather than my own 'cunning' short-cuts.

So, over the last couple of weeks, I'd pretty much give a thumbs up to the 730T. The traffic function has worked much better than I had expected given some sorry tales from these forums, but then again I haven't been more than 50 miles from Heathrow, so YMMV! I haven't had any more USB screw-ups, so hopefully I just got unlucky a couple of times.

Something I should mention is that I loaded the Event Logger software from http://web.tiscali.it/macri/Event_Logger/. *This is not for the faint of heart.* I don't mean by that to discredit the authors, there are just some installation issues that can give you a bad time- they're documented, as is the workaround, but I still had a pretty bad time. Anyway, now that it's installed it does exactly what it says on the tin so I'm well pleased with it, but I do wonder if any of the problems I get are related to it being installed.

The biggest issue that has occurred time and time again, however, is features resetting after a reboot. I can usually tell when this is going to happen because I can see that it has either started up or shut down inelegantly, but of course that doesn't tell me what settings I'm going to lose. Some examples are-
Voice selection - not so bad 'cos it tells you pretty quickly
County selection - for post codes etc
All favourites!!! WTF!!!
Speed camera alert sound!!
Setting to correct route based on traffic data!!!!
It's getting to the stage that I'm considering carrying around a little check list of the important settings to run through after an inelegant reboot! Has anyone else seen anything like this? I'm hoping that either I'll discover this is related to something I've done and can undo again, e.g. installing software or that a future NavCore release will fix it.

All things considered though I'm still glad I made the investment and I think I'll get good use out of it. No problems found with the Brodit mount either.

Regards,
Martin.
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TomTom Smart Phone app

mikealder · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject:

For the record the IQ routes do not take into account the time of day, they only offer routing dependent upon the weekday/ weekend variable.

If you are going to use third party software on the device you can expect some additional "fun" such as the device crashing, as you are loosing favs each time consider creating a custom POI file with all the locations stored within it. A POI file shouldn't get wiped out if/when the device crashes. - Mike

MLF · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 28, 2006 Posts: 7

Thanks Mike, I was thinking of doing that anyway, due to the limitation on the number of Favourites possible- didn't know it would protect me against crashes, so that's another reason to do it.

Didn't know IQ wasn't taking the time of day into account- wonder why it does give me one route out and another route back then!?!?

Cheers.

Regards,
Martin.
_________________
TomTom Smart Phone app

mikealder · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:38 pm Post subject:

Consider the way the routing engine works, left turns will score less than right turns, other types of junctions will also have a bearing, the lowest score will be used for the presented route.
You will often find a different route for an outward leg vs the return - Mike

Anita · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:43 pm Post subject:

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