Garmin sat nav

I can't remember when I last up-dated my Tom Tom, but I found it very difficult to do so - the thing is not easy to use anyway. In fact I think I had to abandon the effort. I am not sure if it has an internal battery but in view of the above perhaps I ought re-charge it so thanks to all above for reminding me.

'

I used it last in 2017 I think, to "find" Doncaster Racecourse, not actually turning it on until I had left the motorway at a junction bearing the one and only sign that indicates the Racecourse. If I can't find Yorkshire from Dorset with no more than a sheet of paper with A-road and junction numbers written in great big letters...

I'm not sure how I managed to reach the place, vowing never again. I didn't expect a racecourse to be practically in its city centre, and coralled by so many complicated and very busy junctions so close together the poor little box of electronics could not keep up. At one point it helpfully put me in the lorry queue for the rail-goods terminal....

Oh Harrogate, how easy thou wert!

No, sat-nags (as a friend calls them) are not always what they are cracked up to be. They are good though, for frightening motorhome and caravan owners leaving the camp-site near me, into ignoring a sign giving them a much easier route away than our very constricted, one-way street.

"I can't remember when I last up-dated my Tom Tom, but I found it very difficult to do so - the thing is not easy to use anyway. In fact I think I had to abandon the effort. I am not sure if it has an internal battery but in view of the above perhaps I ought re-charge it so thanks to all above for reminding me."

Nigel, I had a Tom Tom Start 25 and found it to be very easy to operate and extremely accurate, maybe you had a different model. If you really want a challenge, try inputting a simple post code into a Volvo integrated sat-nav, I have managed it once but then forgot how I did it so I reverted to sticking the little Tom Tom on the windscreen until it gave up the ghost. Before I buy a new one I am back on the old AA road atlas. For the last couple of years of my working life I did a 'gig economy' job with a 'fly-by-night' firm contracted to BT to reconfigure telephone lines with FTTC broadband. I have to say that the little Tom Tom found every green roadside cabinet the length and breadth of the country with unerring accuracy and I could not have done the job without it.

BTW, I have a 'sat-nag' too. She is sat at the side of me nagging me that she wouldn't have gone that way if she had been driving or that I am driving too fast or is telling me exactly when to indicate because I always do it too late apparently. I find it very useful as I consistently seem forget what a terrible driver I really am.

My son in law has an Audi, can’t remember what model but it’s huge, anyway he got frustrated with its onboard sat nav system, it would always give the exit required at roundabouts counting round against the traffic flow, most confusing, he came to the conclusion that as it was a German car then the sat nav had been set up for left hand drive he tried but could not see how to recalibrate it to right hand drive, now he uses his IPhone for navigating. Dave W

GPS was a US Naval Research Laboratories project of the 70's and in that sense had a military purpose but it was intended as a general positioning system (not primarily for nuclear activities - although doubtless that was part of its mandate). Civilian use was always part of the intention, although the military have access to much higher precision than the civilian option.

I worked on components for the early satellites via a (non-military) contractor to NRL.

Mil precision was via SA, selective availabillity or the lack of it ! In the gulf war so few mil grade satnav sets were available that they had to use civi ones and turn off SA, I'm not sure it was ever used after that ! Noel

Back to the original theme, new battery seems to have fixed it.fairly easy to fit as well.

Chris - I don't know mt TomTom's model. It's sitting next to the computer but examining it reveals no designation. The most awkward thing about it, is having to remember it has no [Enter] key or equivalent. It took me a long time to discover it assumes you are entering the destination at the start if the journey itself, then you select [Drive].

It is accurate, but slow to react in heavy traffic in complicated areas giving no time or space to do anything but either take the correct turning immediately (if you can); or continue as the traffic dictates and try to correct the mistake within the next few miles.

It's often also slow and ambiguous on roundabouts, and never clear if it has counted as the first "exit", your entry road.

Best way is simply to avoid driving in cities! Luckily I do not need to.

'

Duncan - Encouraged by your and other's comments I've just examined mine. If it has an internal battery it is not replaceable. The case cannot be opened, and is probably glued together.

Nigel, I don't doubt a word you say about your experience with a Tom Tom. It seems we must have had different models of the sat-nav device, one more convenient to use than the other.

Just did my annual free update on my pair of Garmins, a year old Zumo for the bike and an old Nuvi for the car.

Surprised how long the Garmin program took to decide that the sat nav was actually linked up to the computer. Couple of minutes before the right picture appeared on the sat-nav displays and 5 or 10 minutes mimbling before the program said connected and ready to update. Nuvi is running short of memory so only UK and Ireland now, down from all of Western Europe when I got it maybe 7 years ago. All that map data is big 3GB used and 3 GB spare but Western Europe is about 8 GB!

I was surprised how much faster the later one was at loading the new maps. Less than half the time for over twice the data. Certainly no apparent difference in how fast it actually does its sat-nav thing.

In many ways Waze on a smartphone is a better bet because it shows you what's going on with traffic right now. But it chews through data at a ferocious rate if used all the time. Not completely convinced about the Waze display compared to Garmin either.

Clive

Though available for civilian use, 'The bulk of the program is budgeted through the Department of Defense, which has primary responsibility for developing, acquiring, operating, sustaining, and modernizing GPS.'

Galileo was developed by the EU specifically because GPS and GLASNOST are military systems. Not for moral reasons, but because military systems during times of tension are liable to be encrypted or used to apply political pressure.

Dave

So of course we walked away from it, I'll stop now or it will get political

Am just updating my, basic, Tom Tom.

For a time, having said "Searching for updates", the PC then said "Device not responding" (Repeatedly! )

After several attempts, managed to download the two smaller updates.

The third large one for Europe, including UK refused for well over an hour "Device not responding. Try reconnecting your device"

Suddenly, almost instantaneous "Updating". (ONLY takes 50 minutes of "Updating your device"  )

How else would I have spent the last 3 hours?

Which do I prefer, electronics or mechanical devices?

Send answers on a £50 note!

Howard  EMOJIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited By Howard Lewis on 17/07/2021 14:30:59

Edited By Howard Lewis on 17/07/2021 14:31:32

For those of us old enough to remember maps on paper AND know how to use them, buy a copy of Phillips Navigator ! OK it's about £20 but the scale is almost as good as OS and shows just about everything you will need to know about whats around you. NO CONNECTION WITH THE PUBLISHER ! Noel

When portable devices like satnavs are left alone a long time, they can actually still be running a processor on low power. As the battery drains to near zero, the processor function can get corrupted. Remove the old battery and leave it out for a day. Fit a new fully charged battery and see if it boots to the normal screen. Some satnavs have a reboot or reset option buttton hidden in the case that can do the same thing? When you buy a car satnav you are often not buying a piece of hardware kit, but a business model for future expensive updates.

Edited By Jim Smith 8 on 17/07/2021 17:16:52

I find a little time spent on google maps gives me a good idea of my route so no need to have a sat nav wittering all the time, the last few miles can be easier with a sat nav. My sons girlfriend at the time was amazed that I drove from Oxford to Turin without a map or sat nav. I had done the trip once previously but I think her mum uses a sat nav to go to the village shops so 800 miles without a map was surprising to her.

Mike

That reminds me of what my wife told me about what a ‘lucky driver’ I was - because I did not actually come to a halt at any of the roundabouts while travelling from Shaftesbury to Croydon. The old lady only drove at about 20mph, locally to her home, and likely stopped at most roundabouts, even if traffic was sparse.

Anyhow, sorted the PC pic. The Garmins will not work reliably from a USB connection. Cost me £8.49 for a power lead (one with good positive reviews) - over 4 times as much as the sat nav cost me, from a car boot sale.

On the in car charging lead for my previous Garmin there were resistors between the data pins and ground (I think). An ordinary USB lead won't work, but when my power adaptor died I cut the end of the lead and grafted it onto a normal lead and it then worked fine off a cheapo 5v fag lighter adaptor. Values are on the interweb somewhere.

Hello all.

Note to Clive Foster, You may be able to update your Nuvi with all of Europe again.

I suffered from being unable to update my Europe map on my Nuvi. The best I could achieve was the Benelux countries & France (without the UK). But my Nuvi is able to have additional memory installed (up to 32Mb on a micro SD card).  Memory was about £12 at our local supermarket. There is a memory slot at one end of the Nuvi body.

The memory was installed, the Garmin update programme recognised this, and now have Europe and the UK maps back on the device.

Hope this helps.

Alan.

Edited By Alan Donovan on 18/07/2021 06:35:24

I tried the USB because my wife’s power cord would not hold in (my old cigar lighther socket is likely in need of an up-grade). It worked OK, then played up. The following day it worked perfectly for a 211 mile journey, then stopped working. So the supply must be marginal from the USB (possibly temperature dependent?) - or garmin have somehow altered the parameters. All back working OK, now, with both sat navs.

On topic with Garmin, but changing the focus a bit.
Acouple of days ago a friend came and told - quite annoyed - that during the update process of his Garmin he was asked if he agrees that Garmin uses his position data so that he can receive e.g. traffic jam warnings. He decided to refuse this offer!

Now I always thought that a navi gadget is just a receiver, so how could Garmin get data back? Now I also have a Garmin, Model Drive 60, and thought I will check that out. It was bought in 2017, so maybe time for an update. First had to charge the battery, I thought it was not working first. But after some hours it was fully charged, and I started updating. Lo and behold, I also got that message, and I also refused. Then all went well, first it did an update of the software, and then an update for western Europe (for all maps I would have needed additional memory). The card updates needed about 3 hours, but now it is all working again.

I still don't believe that this device has any ways to send data back to the factory, except someone can explain how it's done.

Regards,
Hans