favorites to POI

[woodentop]

Hallo everyone. This must have been asked many times in different forms, sorry...

I am in the process of updating from GO730 to GO5100. I have 100 favourites on the old box, I have tried transferring them to the 5100 using Content Transfer Assistant, but it doesn't work, so I suppose there is a compatibility problem (not mentioned by the salesman , of course.)

Is there a way around this?

Thanks in hope.

Woodentop

 

[canderson]

Yes, there seem to be issues now with all Nav4 devices and Transfer Assistant. It's been brought to TT's attention (some time ago now) but to no avail.
I prefer the transfer as POI anyway, for various reasons, not least of which the fact that you won't have a badly cluttered MyPlaces list on your 5100.

So grab a copy of POIEdit here >> http://poiedit.com/downloads.htm
Right now, page says downloads are offline. If you encounter that yourself, let me know and I'll get an English version to you somehow. The installer is only about 2.2MB in size.

Copy the "mapsettings.cfg" file from your European map folder on your GO 730 to a convenient spot on your PC.
Using POIEdit, you direct its attention to "mapsettings.cfg" on your PC. You may find duplicates and other fluff there (recent destinations and the like), but your favorites will be there as well. Delete all entries EXCEPT for your favorites, and instruct POIEdit to save the balance of them to a file called "_favorites.ov2". Yes, use the leading underscore. That will make sense in a moment.

Now, use MyDrive Connect to copy the POI file to your connected GO 5100. If you're not sure how to do that, let us know.

Once loaded to your 5100, you will find at the top of any POIs there an entry called " favorites" (you won't see the underscore, just the space, but it has forced this entry to the top of the POI list). From there, you can select it and any of your favorites within.

 

[woodentop]

Many thanks canderson. I think you have helped me before, I am very grateful!!

What you suggest sounds pretty straightforward, but I will wait until my tame PC guru is available, just to be safe! I'll let you know how we get on.

Take care,

 

[canderson]

If you have the ability to save off your copy of mapsettings.cfg from your 730 and send it to me by email, and trust me with those details, I will use POIEdit to make the *.ov2 file for you if you like, and will send file back to you.
Then it's just a matter of telling MyDrive to save it to your new 5100 unit. Let me know.

 

[woodentop]

Thanks again. The situation has changed slightly. I have changed to Go51, with lifetime map and camera updates, and I managed to transfer the favourites successfully using transfer assistant. Then I installed mydrive and applied all the current updates - it did eventually work, but it took more than 8 hours (!) to download and install. I gave up after 4 hours and went to bed, but it was all ok the next day.

I am working through the manual. Can you tell me how to save my current location as a "My Place"?

So, I won't take up your kind offer just now, but I am very grateful. Best wishes.

 

[canderson]

If you zoom in closely, and press the screen at the point where you see your chevron (your current location), it will bring up a circle with three vertical dots and the "Drive" icon. Press the icon with three vertical dots. Select "Add to My Places".

You can select any point on the map and do the same thing. The only thing different here is that you are selecting the spot where your chevron is located.

 

[woodentop]

Well, that seems to work, thanks, but it is a lot more cumbersome than just touching "My Location". I have to say that I am disappointed with a number of points on the GO51 operating system:

1. there's only one computer voice available, Serena is nice but my wife prefers a man's voice, eg Simon. Can you tell me how to download it or transfer it from my Go730?
2. on the old box I could choose the warning sound for (a) exceeding the speed limit, and (b) driving faster than a set maximum (eg 10mph over the national speed limit, which is when the traffic cops tend to notice you!) - that doesn't seem to be available on the GO51.
3. the sound for a speed camera is exactly the same sound as the seat-belt warning on my car, and can't be changed.
4. there does not seem to be any choice of changing the chevron for another vehicle symbol, which I could on the 730. (ok, that one is trivial..)
5. maybe I missed it, but can you choose (a) to have a compass symbol on the screen and (b) choose between north always up or your direction of travel always up?
6. This one really annoys me: The speed bar has a transparent background, which means the it is almost impossible to read in bright daylight; an opaque, coloured background would make it much easier to read the information.. It looks like a classic case of form over function: it is meant to be for driver assistance, but if I have to squint at the screen to check my current speed vs the local speed limit, that is just dangerous. It is a simple software change, but I no longer have any relevant contacts.
7. Can I navigate to coordinates, eg lat/long? Ireland doesn't have postcodes, finding a remote campsite without lat/long coordinates is nearly impossible.
8. how do I access the thousands of third-party POI's which I could download to my 730? eg a full list of all the club campsites?

Having read all of that, I think I may have bought the wrong unit, or is TomTom determined to move its product range backwards (functionality) and upwards (price)? I will welcome your comments and suggestions, and I apologise for posing such a lengthy question.

Best wishes, take care and good luck with your next President!

 

[canderson]

You're discovering that we've taken a few steps back with Nav4.

1) Computer voices are not compatible between old and new versions of TomTom units, and I don't recall a male UK TTS voice on the GO series. Seems like there's one for the Bridge units.
2) Wow - if those are the only warning sounds you wish you could change, you're in better shape that some of us. I still want customizable POI alert sounds!
3) See #2. However, you should be able to have it announce the warnings rather than just produce a tone. Check Settings / Sound & Warnings / Warning Type = "Read out loud". That will at least distinguish it from other vehicle noises.
4) Yeah, even Nav3 units had that. Nothing for Nav4 as yet. Guess they also considered it trivial.
5) If you look just above the +/- keys on the left, that little arrow will always point north relative to the position of the map. You can choose either map north-up or direction of travel. I'm a north-up kind of guy, but check out Settings / Appearance / Guidance view. If you select "2D (in direction of travel)", that will be your default 2D view instead of north-up. Then if you touch that little compass arrow we talked about earlier, it will shift your view to the other mode.
6) We've talked a lot to TomTom about using color and other features to develop best contrast for the best view in a lot of areas of the display. Nothing happening on that front lately.
7) Yes. Search / button upper right that usually says 'Whole map' or 'Near me' / Latitude Longitude. The device accepts coordinates three popular formats, but it's very fussy about syntax apart from decimal degrees. FWIW, when you are on this screen, it is your current coordinates that are being displayed as examples.
8) You can download *.ov2 (POI) files from many sites, and you can even transfer these from your 730 to your GO51 if you wish to do so. If the latter, let us know and we'll walk you through that using MyDrive (the web portal).

 

[woodentop]

That's just brilliant, many thanks. A comprehensive, detailed response, simple enough for me to understand! I've check out the settings and made a few adjustments, which I can test this pm. You are right, the illustrated Lat/Long coordinates are of the current location, which is a useful response to an emergency service "where exactly are you" query. I have never had to be rescued, but we have been to some pretty wild places.

If I may, I will get back to you in a new thread for instructions on loading 3rd party POIs, but I am happy and grateful to consider this one closed. Mind you, considering the perceived backward steps in functionality, I am a bit surprised that no-one else has jumped in here.

Take care out there.

 

[canderson]

Yes, let us know when you get to the point of POI. It will make a good tutorial all on its own.

 

[- et -]

[QUOTE="woodentop, post: 187380, member: 36534]"If I may, I will get back to you in a new thread for instructions on loading 3rd party POIs, but I am happy and grateful to consider this one closed. Mind you, considering the perceived backward steps in functionality, I am a bit surprised that no-one else has jumped in here.
[/QUOTE]

There have been quite a few comments to TomTom since they introduced the NAV4 units about their design choices for these units.

In terms of the response to you, canderson does a much better job of explaining the issues and how to work around them (if possible) than I can do , so I did not bothered to jump in once I saw that he had already responded.

- Tom -

 

[Arno]

Mind you, considering the perceived backward steps in functionality, I am a bit surprised that no-one else has jumped in here.

Regular visitors to the forum realise that this horse has been ridden to death.

I saw your post but was too busy the last couple of days to make a step-by-step reply

As Tom said already, I am glad that canderson gave you answers to your questions