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The TomTom GO 930T SatNav review.
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MikeB
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 1:04 pm    Post subject: The TomTom GO 930T SatNav review. Reply with quote

The TomTom GO 930 Traffic is the flagship GPS system in TomTom's premier SatNav range. Not only does it have the latest TomTom hardware technology, it also has new innovations such as IQ Routes and Map Share, combine this with an RDS-TMC Traffic receiver, and a full featured MP3 player and you get a portable in-car assistant that will get you from A to B anywhere in Europe or Northern America.

Way back in the first quarter of this year TomTom predictably announced the new GO models which are the flagship devices in their range of SatNav systems. Although some of the guys here have been using them for months on the Beta test team I deliberately stayed away from the testing so that I would get a fresh view of the SatNav when I came to review it.

Click here to read the full TomTom GO 930T review.

PocketGPSWorld.com Video resources for the TomTom 930.
My new TomTom 930 has arrived. It is just like christmas, but I restrained myself long enough to set the video camera up... Here is a quicktime (mac) video of the TomTom 930 unboxing. Click here for a Windows Media version. Apologies for the sound quality of the video.

We have made a short video of the first startup and setting up of the TomTom 930T.

We have also captured some of the on board help guides as well. This is available as a quicktime (mac) video or click here for a Windows Media version.

We have prepared a short video showing the ease which you can navigate home and the sort of voice directions that you are given on the journey. Click here for a quicktime (mac) video of the TomTom 930 on the road, or click here for a Windows Media version

Check out our Speed Camera demo video to see how the PocketGPSWorld.com Speed Camera Database and the Liz Whitaker custom voices work on the TomTom 930. The video is available is a quicktime (mac) video or as a Windows Media version.
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Last edited by MikeB on Sun Sep 28, 2008 5:25 pm; edited 1 time in total
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kingo110
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

great review, very professional and informative thanks
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uffe73
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 6:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, very thorough and informative review indeed! The only thing I was missing was some more words about the performance of the Enhanced Positioning Technology. As far as I understand EPT is the only feature that differentiates the 930 from the 730/530 and it would be interesting to hear if it works, also if it's possible to switch it off, in case it's not so great as it promises.

/Ulf
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lbendlin
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Those of you who are equally ancient as myself may remember an earlier attempt at dead reckoning. I think it was called APS, and used a true accelerometer. Not very successfully though as the data yield in the accelerometer degraded too quickly.

EPT makes do without hardware, and produces equally laughable results. Each time I get stuck in a traffic jam in the airport tunnel the TomTom shoots back up to the surface much, much earlier than my car's physical representation.

You can't switch EPT off.
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uffe73
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

lbendlin wrote:
You can't switch EPT off.

Interesting! That would be my main reason for not choosing the 930 over the 730. After all it's the navigation performance that is the single most important feature and, according to your statement, EPT seems to degrade the performance rather than enhance it. At least in some situations.
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lbendlin
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

that's not what I said. EPT only comes into play when there is no GPS signal (ie in tunnels and parking garages). In such a situation EPT is equally (or more) useless as APS. There.
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Lutz

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uffe73
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lbendlin wrote:
that's not what I said. EPT only comes into play when there is no GPS signal (ie in tunnels and parking garages). In such a situation EPT is equally (or more) useless as APS. There.


That's why I wrote "in some situations" Smile
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MikeB
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

According to TomTom the 930 does have "hardware sensors" which the other x30 versions do not. I have not had many opportunities to test it as the only tunnels I have been through were reasonably short and the EPT worked as expected. Then again I have not had to stop or vary speed too much when it was active.
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uffe73
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MikeB wrote:
According to TomTom the 930 does have "hardware sensors" which the other x30 versions do not. I have not had many opportunities to test it as the only tunnels I have been through were reasonably short and the EPT worked as expected. Then again I have not had to stop or vary speed too much when it was active.


If you have a chance, go to Norway for some testing. Outside Oslo there is a long tunnel with a roundabout inside. Drive a few laps in the roundabout and see where TomTom thinks you are! Smile

Joking aside, dead reckoning is a complex thing to get accurate, even with more accurate input data. Maybe an algoritm using wheel pulses enhanced by data from an accelerometer would be the ideal thing. Or use speed information from the vehicle together with map data.

However, the implementation in my 720, where the application assumes that I carry on through the tunnel with constant speed works pretty well unless there is a queue in the tunnel.
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Darren
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 12:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have split the post concerning speed camera subscription and moved it to a more appropriate forum here.

I also inadvertently moved Infama's post as well. As the board software doesn't allow me to re-add it I have instead quoted it here, apologies!:
Infama wrote:
The earlier version was called ASN (assisted Sat Navigation) and was WORSE than EPT.

EPT has 2 gyroscopes in addition to an accelerometer.

It works fairly well for me and I go thru 8 tunnels during my daily commute....better than nothing at all. However, it is far from perefct and it does take at least 1 minute of warm up time at the start of the journey to engage. If you are moving fast before that warm up time, then it wont be engaged for the whole journey, unless you are stuck in a traffic jam or something.

On balance, I rather have EPT than nothing.

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MrGumby
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:45 pm    Post subject: Text to voice Reply with quote

I do wish it could speak A138 as A-one-three-eight instead of A-one-hundred-and-thirty-eight. I think I'd have to switch off text-to-speech (can it be switched off?) or finish up thumping it in irritation.

Do all text-to-speech systems work the same way?
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Darren
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:48 pm    Post subject: Re: Text to voice Reply with quote

MrGumby wrote:
I do wish it could speak A138 as A-one-three-eight instead of A-one-hundred-and-thirty-eight. I think I'd have to switch off text-to-speech (can it be switched off?) or finish up thumping it in irritation.

Do all text-to-speech systems work the same way?

That is annoying but I can live with it as I prefer TTS to the standard voice.

You can select a non TTS voice if you wish to do so. The TTS engine's aren't perfect but TomTom's is one of the best, some others are more like Stephen Hawkins or a Dalek!
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lindon-p
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ive had problems with my RDS-TMC Traffic receiver its never worked, also ive had to format the hard drive twice and now had to send it back as the unit keeps shutting down.
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lostinuk
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bought a GO930T about a month ago, and here is my experience:

Bought to replace a stolen XDA Mini S running TTNav5.

I have had the unit exchanged by Agros, cos it kept losing it's voice mid journey (not only losing voice for directions but also sounds for speed cam warnings) and the bluetooth connection would often hang mid conversation. This would cut the conversation and give an annoying 'sample' kind of sound of the last spoken word, reverberating that could only be cleared by switching the unit off.

Even with the replacement unit, I am having the same problem with the bluetooth facility.

The TMC is, in a word, crap. I have subscribed to TTTraffic, which when it works is infinately better. However the day before yesterday, I keep getting a message saying that my subscription has expired. I subscribed on 02/10/08 and when I log into to myTT it shows as expired 31/07/05. I have called TT, and they are supposedly working on a fix!

Other than this significant shortfalls, actually using the unit is great. I like the boot up and acquisition speed, far quicker than my PDA. I am confused about the latest map guarantee, when connecting to TTHome, I am advised my map is two quarters old (I bought the unit less than a month ago).

I will, when I muster the will power, contact TT customer services to raise the latest map issue and the bluetooth problem, but as we all probably know TT customer service and getting complex issues resolved is somewhat of a challenge and I would rather get one problem solved at a time.
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hxb
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the EPT works lousy! Since it was claimed to have gyroscope/accelerometer, I had expectations, and that was THE thing that made me choose 930 over 730. However, the gyroscope/accelerometer must obviously be of bad quality, since in practice it is not much better than dead reckoning, and sometimes it can even think I am on a different road!

Also lousy is the fact the it has no sense whatsoever about which side of the road the speed camera is, so it warns whenever there might be a camera in the neighborhood!!

Finally, the maps scale lousy, so whenever I need to zoom out to see where about am I, or I need to browse the map to find a place for which I have no address, it skips lakes, rivers, roads and what not, so it is virtually impossible to recognize where it is!

I had a Sony before, and the maps scaled much better there, retaining useful information so it was easier to recognize. And it only warned me of speed cameras if they were pointing towards me.
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