GPS Devices Life

I’m STILL on hold with TomTom support - Tomtom GO 510 Car GPS Receiver (as I am writing this, I am holding on the phone with TomTom support!!!) I bought my TomTom in December 2007 from...

Awesome Little GPS - Tomtom GO 300 Car GPS Receiver I purchased my TomTom August 2006, when I got a job as a local courier for a delivery company. I simply could not...

The TomTom GO 300 is basically a Pocket PC, a GPS device, and a speaker, all rolled into a single unit. It’s about 2″ thick which means you won’t be dropping it into your shirt pocket for a stroll around the city.

The user interface is very easy to use and has just about everything you might want from a vehicle GPS unit. The maps look good but at times lack detail and accuracy. For instance, while they show main roads they may not show laneways or car parks. If you drive off a road into a car park, the unit may just leave the cursor on the road. Also, I am not yet confident in its routing abilities. Having used it in an area I know, I frequently don’t agree with its choice of route. I guess the main thing is that it gets you to where you want to go, even if it is not exactly via an ideal route.

Unfortunately the TomTom GO was ultimately a disappointment to me because of one major flaw. The USA version comes with the USA maps preloaded on a 1GB Secure Digital memory card in a single 975MB file. With the TomTom maps system there is no way to partition map files, nor is there any way to merge them. What this means is that if you want to dump some of your USA coverage in favor of Canadian coverage, you cannot do it, even if you load all maps onto a 2GB card. Since you can only work with one map file at a time you cannot, for instance, plan a route from Toledo OH to Toronto ON. You need two memory cards and you need to plan the route in two completely separate stages. You are therefore required to know where you will cross the border. As a Michigan resident who enters Canada frequently, this is simply not acceptable to me because I cannot plan a route to towns in Canada that are perhaps only an hour away. How insane is that?!

Another lesser issue which deserves to be mentioned is they way the maps are included in the package. As I previously mentioned, the USA maps are preloaded on the SD card and there is no backup supplied. The extra maps come on a CDROM disk. Given the fact that it’s easy to delete files from the SD card, why didn’t TomTom give us a DVD disk with all maps? With a DVD they could have also, for instance, provided a map file that covered the top half of the USA plus all of Canada. I can only assume that they saved 10 cents per unit by providing a CD instead.

I tested the internal (non user replaceable) battery by giving it a full charge, turning the unit on, and leaving it on my desk. After 3 hours the battery meter was at the 50% mark. If it was moving it would no doubt be doing a little more work, so I expect the battery life to be about 5 hours.

The GO 300 is a good product that should have been better. The map organization is simply woeful, and a GPS unit like this either stands or falls on its mapping and routing capabilities. Whereas the TomTom GO hardware designers should be very pleased with themselves, the software division of TomTom need to solve the issue of map file spanning. The interface is well designed, but the inability to span maps could be a deal breaker for people who cross national borders a lot. If this is a concern to you, I suggest you look at other brands such as Garmin. If not, you will probably be very happy with the TomTom GO 300.

I bought my unit from Compuplus.com . They are pretty much the cheapest source at the time of writing and they have a good record in delivering what you order. However, they have almost no customer service. Emails you send to the will be ignored and their support phone line is constantly busy. I guess they are among the cheapest for a reason. And by the way, if you find one super cheap on Amazon Marketplace, fuggedaboutit! There are a lot of international crooks there trying all sorts of scams.

Finally, for reference I am providing the text of a reply I received from TomTom support regarding the maps issue…

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In order to utilize the Canadian maps that come included on the GO 300 CD we recommend purchasing a second SD card. The map of Canada is too large to be loaded to the amount of free space available on the 1 Gb SD card that was included with your GO 300. A 128 Mb SD card will provide you with enough space to install the GO application and Canadian maps. After purchasing a second SD card, please download the GO application from the Support page on TomTom.com or simply click on the link below.

http://www.tomtom.com/updates/ttgoupg510.exe

After downloading the file please click run and the setup application for installing GO v5.10 will launch. Connect your GO to your PC using the supplied USB cable and select Install Application from the setup menu. After successfully installing the GO application, insert the GO 300 CD into the CD drive and install the Canadian map.

If you wish to install the Canadian map to the 1 Gb SD card included in your GO 300 package you will have to first remove the USA map that came preloaded. Be aware that if the USA map is deleted you will have no means of reinstalling it if it has not been backed up. The setup program on the GO 300 CD does have a backup function but that is for settings only. To back up the USA map connect the GO to your PC and power the device on. Go into the My Computer section of your PC and double click on the TomTom GO drive (usually E: or F:). Copy the United_States-Map folder and save it on your PC’s hard drive. After the United_States-Map folder has been copied and saved to your PC you can then use the GO 300 CD to remove the USA map and install the map of Canada. Again, please be aware that removing the USA map without first copying it to your PC will make it impossible for you to reinstall the USA map. Ideally a second SD card should be used if you wish to utilize the Canadian maps.

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For the more technically inclined, the TomTom GO units use the SiRFStar IIe/LP GPS chipset. Accuracy is in the standard 10 meter range. I have yet to discover if they employ Xtrac, however I can lock onto up to 8 satellites thru the wall of my house, although it takes maybe 10 minutes to lock onto that many.

UPDATE: after using this unit for a couple of months now I have still mixed feelings about it. It works well and the software is good, but I’m coming to the conclusion that the maps are old, maybe as old as 10 years in some areas. This is most evident when searching for street addresses, where higher numbers are often unknown. The unit also frequently thinks addresses up to a mile from where they are in reality. Not good.

UPDATE #2: another couple of months on and I no longer have the TomTom unit. Even though these units have the very latest USA maps, the maps had too many errors and omissions for my liking. I am now using a Dell Axim X50v Pocket PC, a GlobalSat BT-338 bluetooth receiver, and iGuidance 2.1 routing software. iGuidance uses NavTeq maps (TomTom uses TeleAtlas) with which I am much happier. The interface isn’t as pretty but the maps are more accurate. Also, the X50v is a great unit that has many more uses when it’s not being used as a GPS device. The BT-338 uses a Sirf III chipset which is a lot better (especially in cities) than the TomTom’s Sirf II. I think I’ll be sticking with this setup for the foreseeable future.

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