Adventures with Tom Tom

Hylda&Jon · Guru

Adventures with Tom Tom

kandagal · Guru

We were very careful crossing highway when we left Moonbi Lookout & safely on the road we headed south. As we approached Dubbo we put Orange as destination into Tom Tom. I said to Keith I think this is where we turn left towards Wellington & then onto Orange. he says no, Tom Tom says to turn right here & he was going to follow his instructions. So on we go & eventually Tom Tom tells us to turn left & we go down the road towards the Dubbo Zoo. A good road then but quickly it became a narrow, bumpy country road with no where for us to turn around. So we must go on. A check in the atlas showed us that this road was 17 kms shorter than the highway & that is why Tom Tom in his wisdom chose it. We did manage to find a very good spot to spend the night - Toongi Hall - an open, flat area with flush toilets. Cost - a gold coin. This morning we had to continue down this country road all the way to Molong where we were able to again get on the highway. On the country road this morning we passed about 100 cyclists doing a run.

Now we are parked up at Carcoar Dam. Have met up with some friends so will stay a couple/few days. Everyone keep safe Alice

copper1 · Guru

Hi Alice and Keith Yes the mighty Tom Tom, we recently brought our new Landcruiser from Dubbo and that's the way Tom Tom took us. I must say tho it was a pretty drive and all those statues that the farmers have in their paddocks are very well made. Hope you enjoy Carcoar we love it there as well. Enjoy your travels wherever "Tom Tom" takes you. biggrin

milo · Guru

we too had fun with tom or Karen I think ours was,(female voice)
we had been down some very narrow one lane roads when we had the motor home..
sometimes we took Karen's advice and other times we did our own thing and told her off!!
some times we think why the bloody heck are we going this way, while it may be a shorter way
for normal vehicles , its not for us in the motor homes.. are there any more suitable for motor homes??

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Navlady tries to tell me to go what I think is the wrong way on a regular basis, I don't always listen to her though as I have built up an immunity to her telling me where to go now. I often get told where to go. I have found it's got a lot to do with how you have your settings set.

Sounds like you enjoyed Toms directions in the end though, Alice.

brian · Guru

I don't think that any of them are much better.

My Garmin tried to take me across the mouth of the Murray river some years ago. Locals told me that there is a track there that has been used when the river is dry.

I don't blame the devices as much as the poor mapping that is fed to them, normally by Sensis, who are happy to take your cash but don't put in the work to update their data.

There are many instances where the device tells you to take a road that is shown on the mapping data, but just isn't there in reality, or where a road was realigned decades ago but is still shown in its original location.

Pam · Guru

Maybe you can adjust Tom to find major roads instead of shortest distance.

brickies · Guru

I always like to have a look at a map before we make the journey And then program the navigator some time better to program to some where along the way then reprogram to next town if you want to go via a particular route

Patto44 · Senior Member

We have found google maps on the 'smart' phone to be far more accurate and you can see where it is taking you.

I used to get told where to go numerous times by my wife; now I can I can tell the B*** in the phone what I think without getting into trouble.

Patto

leevin · Senior Member

Garmin RV 760LMT

neilnruth · Guru

We used to live down that bumpy road kandagal. I'm glad it took you that way (sorry it's so bumpy) otherwise you wouldn't have been through Yeoval and Cumnock. Did you stop and look around or go straight through? A lot of the bumps are where the road crosses the old railway line. Did you see the 'bikes' (sculptures) in the paddocks along the way? It's Mulga Bill and Banjo Patterson country and there used to be a bike event for Mulga Bill weekend. You can stop at Yeoval showground for a minimal cost. Molong is a nice little town too. Places like Yeoval and Cumnock have suffered from outsourcing, economic downturn etc. They need people like grey nomads to stop and spend a few dollars in the town.

valnrob · Guru

Sweetie in our Navman took us thru a sugar cane paddock, when we were about middle of it Sweetie said "navigate off road" bwahaha!

kandagal · Guru

We did enjoy the sculptures - most were very clever.

cultana · Senior Member

I have little problem with my HEMA 6 and the Garmin 3590. They both make different decisions on how I should get from A to B.
I just take swap between their decisions and let them sort themselves out based on my decision.

Simple Plan using a real map, set GPS, and follow the map.

johnq · Guru

I have been holding off on another GPS, hoping the price with map updates will come down.

Choice magazines say that Tom Tom has marginally better results for some States, NSW is one. Garmin next. Apparently Navman is very clunky to use.

So far my only conclusion is that sales staff don't know their products and recommend what the boss want shifted.

Radar · Guru

Hi All

Own 2 GPS units I will not get into a debate about which is better but the first one I could use while driving, replaced it after about 3 years with one with a bigger screen needed to stop to use but they both helped me in my work as a delivery driver.

Son who is touring around on his motor bike, 3. Months in Morocco, Spain you get the idea tells me that he uses APP. called Osmand. He learnt of it on a mountain bike forum in the UK . For a couple of dollars you can down load the full version which I intend to do but there is a free version. Now why I am going to go the full version is a few dollars toward these guys is cheap and it helps to keep it that way.

Now have had 4 weeks in UK returning home last week, we had a rental car 12 days 2900 miles, one end to other, Marilyn got the hang of it and had me driving right though the centre of most towns, villagers and some places we should not of been, was able to explained the map resize look for detour when the road become blocked on the M4 on our way to Devon Coast, my experience with GPS would not of worked. What she was able to do was great.

I should mention now I have put the 2 GPS into retirement and use my Aldi special Bauhn 10.1 Tablet, big screen so easy to read,9 hours of battery life and with wi.fi I can pull into Maccas get a coffee and catch up with my GN forum life could not be better.

Hope I have not bored you with my rambbings but have a look at osmand before you spend those hard to get dollars.

-- Edited by Radar on Tuesday 22nd of October 2013 12:47:59 AM

-- Edited by Radar on Tuesday 22nd of October 2013 05:34:03 PM

johnq · Guru

_wombat_ wrote:
johnq wrote:
I have been holding off on another GPS, hoping the price with map updates will come down.

Choice magazines say that Tom Tom has marginally better results for some States, NSW is one. Garmin next. Apparently Navman is very clunky to use.

So far my only conclusion is that sales staff don't know their products and recommend what the boss want shifted.
Garmin have free lifetime maps, updated 3-4 times a year

Thank you Wombat.

I should have said hoping for the price of GPS with lifetime maps and traffic up dates will come down. The updates of speed zones and fixed radar I need to look into. Reckon I will go for a bigger screen too.

-- Edited by johnq on Tuesday 22nd of October 2013 10:35:26 AM

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

Radar wrote:
Hi All
Own 2 GPS units I will not get into a debate about which is better but the first one I could use while driving, replaced it after about 3 years with one with a bigger screen needed to stop to use but they both helped me in my work as a delivery driver.
Son who is touring around on his motor bike, 3. Months in Morocco, Spain you get the idea tells me that he uses APP. called Osmand. He learnt of it on a mountain bike forum in the UK . For a couple of dollars you can down load the full version which I intend to do but there is a free version. Now why I am going to go the full version is a few dollars toward these guys is cheap and it helps to keep it that way.
Now have had 4 weeks in UK returning home last week, we had a rental car 12 days 2900 miles, one end to other, Marilyn got the hang of it and had me driving right the centre of most towns, villagers and some places we should not of been, was able to explained the map resize look for detour when the road become blocked on the M4 on our way to Devon Coast, my experience with GPS would not of worked. What she was able to do was great.
I should mention now I have put the 2 GPS into retirement and use my Aldi special Bauhn 10.1 Tablet, big screen so easy to read,9 hours of battery life and with wi.fi I can pull into Maccas get a coffee and catch up with my GN forum life could not be better.
Hope I have not bored you with my rambbings but have a look at osmand before you spend those hard to get dollars.

-- Edited by Radar on Tuesday 22nd of October 2013 12:47:59 AM

Rader, here's a link for Andriod, is this just for the UK or world wide?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand&hl=en

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

johnq wrote:
I have been holding off on another GPS, hoping the price with map updates will come down.

Choice magazines say that Tom Tom has marginally better results for some States, NSW is one. Garmin next. Apparently Navman is very clunky to use.

So far my only conclusion is that sales staff don't know their products and recommend what the boss want shifted.

Garmin have free lifetime maps, updated 3-4 times a year

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

5inch screen is better

Delta18 · Guru

Always set your preferences to Fastest route, not Shortest. This will (should) avoid the backtrack, backstreet directions.

Cheers Neil

Radar · Guru

Wombat hi

To answer your question world wide, the system uses Google maps. You down load the maps you need eg. which is the whole of Australia, then when you are on your service provider to up date but uses satellites when being used away from your base.

I am not explaining this real good. Google Osmand and have a read or play with the free version. The 40 year old kid in the UK uses it to play with, on the road total of 4 months this year, then each night he would plot his route for next day, changing his mine when ever. Remember he was on his motor bike by himself ok she did come down and join him for her honey moon for a few weeks.

After using Osmand I have put the Navmans away as it's another thing I won't be needing when I am travelling, no need to up date maps or information as it will do it automatically when I turn my tablet on at wi fi points.

For normal road touring around any country it's worth taking the time to look and play with this system. At less then $7.00 it's great buy

Car GPS has one use only that's in the car, I was told I could use it while I walked around the streets but the battery don't last long enough.

We gained so much confidence with it driving around the UK in our first overseas car rental we are now planning to drive some of Europe next year.

Hope this helps. Ralph

dorian · Guru

Thanks Radar.

Osmand appears to be exactly the thing I have been looking for. I have two GPS devices that no longer have map updates.

osmand.net/

That said, it appears that Osmand does not provide access to Google Maps as a standard feature. Instead it uses maps from the OpenStreetMap project. However, you can add support for Google Maps via a "tile".

code.google.com/p/osmand/wiki/FAQ?

"Why does OsmAnd not offer access to google maps?

Basically, there are two reasons. Firstly, OsmAnd is meant to support the OSM project and tries to take that path as far as possible. Secondly, licensing issues. OsmAnd cannot be distributed with google map sources, however, you can add the tile source manually with this code:"

Radar · Guru

Dorain hi.

Thank you I am learning all the time, I just don't listen when the boy speaks, I think now he said that and besides I now only hear what I won't hear, then when it goes wrong I ask again. Saves saving all this information. Ralph