1535M questions

[titan_rw]

Hi.

Got a Go Live 1535 about a month ago. I bought that model because it was the only one available in Canada that had HD traffic. Have a few questions.

Does this support multiple destination routing? For work I have to visit 10-20 different addresses a day. I would like to be able to enter all the addresses on the PC, then have the GPS pick the best (fastest) order to present them as destinations.

Can I manage POI's on the PC? I can't seem to find where. I'd like to enter my different destinations as POI's so I can avoid re-entering the address when I have to visit somewhere for the second time.

When the car is moving, the GPS seems to disable entering addresses and getting at some of the settings. I sometimes have a passenger who can manage the GPS while I'm driving. Can this 'feature' be disabled? There's no reason the passenger can't type away on the gps while moving.

The menu also seem really slow at times. For example, I'll enter an address of my next stop. There's sometimes a 10-20 second delay after touching 'select' or 'done'. It seems like a lot of the time I'm waiting on the UI to respond. I'll spend 2-4 seconds typing the first few characters of the street name, and the unit will show the correct road. Then I'll touch the first road in the list. Then 10-20 seconds later it changes to the next screen. Then I'll touch 'select' as it is the right address. Then another 10-20 seconds later it gives me the option to touch 'done' to start the route. Seems like there's 5-10 seconds of me entering data, and almost a minute of me waiting for the next screen to show up.

Another thing, map related. Quite a few of my address's come up as "house number not available, closest number is xxx". I know the address is correct, and following the street further gets me to the right place. The map on the GPS shows the street exists where I need to go. How come it wouldn't take me there? For example, one today. Address was 7141 50 ave. GPS said highest house number available was 7099. I got to it via 74st, so 50 ave obviously exists at 7141. The gps showed 50 av, and 74 st crossroads. Why would 7141 not exist?


Thanks.

 

[dhn]

1. You can only add 3 waypoints in that model by using the travel via after the route is established. And the subsequent route cannot be saved as an itinerary. The route that is established with the 3 waypoints does do some route optimization, though.

2. Settings-->Favorites-->Add and then add addresses you want as Favorites. But be advised that if you rename a favourite as Lawyer's Office, that will show on the map, not the address. So name it 123 Main Street-Lawyer's office.

Another way is to add all addresses as a custom poi category: Settings-->Manage POIS-->Add POI Category and go from there with the creating a category and adding individual addresses as points in the category. Then, show poi on map and select the category you created.

3. Settings-->Safety Settings-->UNcheck 'show essential menu buttons when driving'

4. Try resetting the unit by holding the power button about 10 seconds till you hear the drum sounds. It may help with tardy keypress reaction.

5. Addresses are not stored precisely, just address ranges so some are not exact. Do you have the latest (880) map?

 

[titan_rw]

That's too bad it doesn't support >3 waypoints. I'd like to be able to create POI categories with say 50 entries, then for each day of the week, select 10 of them, and have it suggest which ones to go to in what order. It may not always select the right order, but it would be better than random order, and probably good enough I wouldn't bother hand optimizing it.

Do better (more expensive) tomtom's do the above? I imagine later, more models will support HD traffic. The 1535 was the only one that did when I bought it. If I was looking for a second gps without the hd traffic, what's a good one that supports multi-point routing?


I've got 880.3856 maps, dated Oct 2011. The unit has lifetime map updates, so it should update itself, right? There was a ~2gig download when I first connected it to the PC. I assume that was a major update.

I understand addresses are not exact, I'm just surprised it said that house number was not available at all, considering it knew that the next crossroad was higher than it's highest number.

I'll try the reset, thanks. It's not always slow, but sometimes it does seem to take a long time simply changing screens. Even recalculating a route can sometimes take 20 seconds or so. Which, if I miss a turn, or a turn was not possible, can mean I miss the next one.

 

[canderson]

None of the 'better' TomTom units do any better, unless you consider that some of the older models are actually 'better' than the new 'better'

You're beginning to understand why some of us are so fond of our older units. Like you, I have a GO1535 at my disposal, but rely heavily upon my older GO740 since some of the features I use regularly are unavailable on any of the newer units.

A while back, TomTom decided to completely reinvent their devices using new processor and operating platforms. In the process of porting all of the old ideas to the new devices, some of the features never made it - in all likelihood due to a time crunch to get the new models ready for production. As a result, some basic items that we considered part of the normal feature set of a TomTom GPS got left behind. Itinerary planning was one of them.

 

[titan_rw]

Which would be the best older unit for what I want to do for multi point destinations then? Not all destinations have real addresses either, some are out in the country, and would have to be added once I found it myself. So they'd have to support adding a POI as "where I am now" instead of strictly by address.

 

[dhn]

A 540 is the one you want in Canada. But lifetime maps (you had to activate the code online or by calling CS at 866-686-4866 for that functionality) is not transferable between units.

But all TomTom units are on-road models. You may plot a location off road but a tomtom will not be able to establish a route to a location off road.

 

[titan_rw]

Thanks, I'll see if I can find a 540.

I know they're on road units. There's roads to where I go, there's just not always an address. I just need to add a poi on a specific spot on a road once I'm there.

I'm not too worried about the lifetime map updates. I'll either live with older maps, or buy map updates.

 

[canderson]

I surely wish you could still pick up a GO740TM somewhere. Those were Live units with HD traffic, but retained the 'old style' features.

The next best choice would be either the XXL540TM. You'd still have lifetime maps, but the traffic on that model isn't "HD", just the original RDS-TMC version of traffic.

 

[dhn]

The 740 LIVE was (sadly) not offered in Canada.

 

[canderson]

Guess I didn't realize you'd been left out up there. I know that "Live" services were a bit late being deployed in Canada, but didn't know that your first Live units were all on the new platform. The 740 was starting to disappear from store shelves here just about the time you guys were starting to get Live up there.

 

[titan_rw]

Yea, the reason I bought the 1535 was that it is the only model (in Canada) to support HD traffic. I would have bought a 25xx instead, but they don't have live versions of those in Canada yet.

I see a factory refurbished XXL 540S on ebay for $75. Is that the same thing, just no map updates, and no (old style) traffic? Is that a good price?

 

[canderson]

Given that you can get a brand new XXL540TM for US$99 on Amazon right now, no, it's not a good deal.

 

[titan_rw]

Yea, but that ships from the US.

Aside from shipping, customs / brokerage fees can sometimes be insanely high.

The cheapest 540tm on amazon.ca was $180. And there'd still be shipping on it.

I ended up buying the 540s for $75, local pickup today. If I need to, I'll buy a map update. I'll have to see what it comes with.

 

[canderson]

Right - I keep forgetting about "NAFTA". Some day, someone will have to explain to me exactly how that was supposed to work!