Firmware

[SShadow]

@Gilbert:
All very good points, some of which I hadn't considered before. Trust me, I am glad I bought a GPS because there have been times where I really needed one, and didn't have one. Hopefully, in the future, some of these weird routing errors will get weeded out.
Another example I have is an intersection near where I work. It tries to route me down some parallel streets in order to avoid the intersection, yet that ends up requiring me to make a left handed turn across 4 lanes of traffic in order to continue on what would be a straight route right through the intersection. Really weird stuff...

@F22
The funny thing is I get different results depending on the route when choosing Fastest or Shortest. Sometimes the shortest route is faster than the fastest route, and the fastest is the shortest... But then there are times where each of them are so far out of whack that I can't make heads or tails out of what the routing engine is trying to do.
Part of the problem is I think the routing engine takes into account road speeds, but the USA & Canada (and probably the NA as well) don't hook their speeds into the engine.
I'm really hoping that in the near future TT fixes this huge oversight.

 

[canderson]

Part of the problem is I think the routing engine takes into account road speeds, but the USA & Canada (and probably the NA as well) don't hook their speeds into the engine.
I'm really hoping that in the near future TT fixes this huge oversight.

From what I've been able to determine through testing of known routes, the TT 1) doesn't know the actual speeds on any N.A. roads, and 2) does the best it can based upon its use of three very generic road types, assuming a fixed speed for each type both a) in town, and b) not in town.

As an example, TT assumes an interstate highway will have the highest of the 3 possible speeds, but also understands that a U.S. highway passing through a town won't be as fast as it will be outside of town.

Several of us have fiddled with setting up routes on the 3 types of roads in and out of town, and have found TT's ETA estimator produces a very consistent (if inaccurate) result, regardless of actual posted limits.

From what I've seen in the manuals and conversations elsewhere, it appears that a TT unit in Europe is made aware of actual speeds on many roads. That might help both routing and ETA estimations.

Then again, there's NO way that one of these units is going to beat "local knowledge". In my opinion, they're to be used when you don't already have a good answer.

 

[Gilbert]

@Canderson

What you say makes a lot of sense as I notice TT routing tends to get me on national numbered roads even though some of them are more like regular city streets. The problem that is occurring is that some have no left turns allowed and tt seems to ignore this fact. It also ignores all the stop signs of city streets ending up recommending longer arrival times.

Eventually, we'll end up with a 15GB NA map that will have adequate routing data... Of course we'll have large MapShare daily updating... ;-)

 

[canderson]

@Canderson

What you say makes a lot of sense as I notice TT routing tends to get me on national numbered roads even though some of them are more like regular city streets. The problem that is occurring is that some have no left turns allowed and tt seems to ignore this fact. It also ignores all the stop signs of city streets ending up recommending longer arrival times.

Eventually, we'll end up with a 15GB NA map that will have adequate routing data... Of course we'll have large MapShare daily updating... ;-)

I think I can wait for that

You bring up another "local knowledge" point with regard to left turns and stop signs. The same goes for stop lights and slow speed limits in school zones or whatever.

My 720 (aka Suzie TomTom) really REALLY REALLY wants me to use U.S. Highway 287 through the town of Longmont. Of course, she has no way of knowing that U.S. 287 also happens to be MAIN STREET in Longmont! 25mph (40Kph for the metrified) with stop lights pretty nearly every block for quite a distance. I've come to ignore routing as I approach town. Anywhere along any route with which I am at all familiar, I only use routing in order to get current traffic info via the cell phone to
Suzie, but it's amusing to see her (sometimes misguided) preferences.

Assumptions of this sort are especially painful to those out on the east coast of the U.S. where many U.S. and state highways are nothing more than roads that connect one contiguous populated area to another, although you'd never know it to look at these on a map.

Expectations of these devices is often a bit misplaced. There's no way you can beat local knowledge with the present amount of memory and the current state of real-time traffic information. If I were in a town where I was relatively clueless, I'd not hesitate to fire up Suzie for real routing, as at least I'd know I would get to my destination, no matter how peculiar the routing, and that the ETA estimate would more than likely be on the pessimistic side, assuring an on-time arrival.

In all, I'd say that Suzie has done a lot better job for me that my many experiences with the rental EverLost systems!

 

[boren]

The TT720 produces truely terrible ETA's here. From home to work it's over 35 minutes, from here to O'Hare it says over 3 hours. In reality it's around 20 minutes to work and 2 hours to O'Hare. (assuming there aren't traffic issues, but that's a little too pessimistic)

Coming home a few nights ago we had a Garmin Nuvi 200 and my 720. With 12 miles left on the journey the Nuvi said we had 15 minutes left and the 720 said we had about 28 minutes to go. The nuvi was right within a minute or so. We were on a US highway all the way except for 1 mile on a county road. Not an interstate or anything, but still the TT720 thought we were going to average under 30mph all the way home. We're not driving an amish buggy here!

Like canderson said, I don't think it has any good road speed information and that leads to some really weird out of the way routings to highways. It would be nice if we could set the default speed for backroads, or at least a couple classes of roads.

It would seem simple to give access to change the default speeds. If there's major road in town, out of town and minor road in town, out of town that would probably make the routing a lot smarter.

 

[SShadow]

Ignore ETAs and only look at distances... The ETAs are almost always going to be wrong - at least until TT gets their act together and gets the speed limits installed on the roads.

 

[GarCor]

Voice Recognition on Firmware 8.010

I just updated my FirmWhare to 8.010 on my TT 920 yesterday and I noticed that Voice Recognition is missing. I was wondering if anyone else has had this isue. I was reading some of the other earlier post that this seemed to be a bug when they first released it a week or so ago.

 

[RAllenbaug]

VR

I also lost vr with the upgrade. How can I get it back

 

[Rick F.]

See post #5 in this thread:

https://www.tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?t=9924

'GarCor' found a missing file (support_asr.dat) in his 920 - added it - and his VR is back.

Hope this helps.

 

[imokah]

Sorry...I have not read through all 7 pages...but, is anyone else experiencing your GO720 not connecting to TomTom Home when you turn it on? It will not ask if I want to connect to the computer, but immediately goes to my password page..and after entering the password it shows my position blocks from my Home position. A reset of the unit fixes this...next turn on asks to connect to the computer....Old bug that is already known???

Forgot to say that I updated to 8.010

 

[dhn]

Sorry...I have not read through all 7 pages...but, is anyone else experiencing your GO720 not connecting to TomTom Home when you turn it on? It will not ask if I want to connect to the computer, but immediately goes to my password page..and after entering the password it shows my position blocks from my Home position. A reset of the unit fixes this...next turn on asks to connect to the computer....Old bug that is already known???

Forgot to say that I updated to 8.010

Look at this thread from a Brit forum: http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=67721&start=315

Goto page 22 at the bottom and follow the messages there. The bottom line is that people with passwords set (such as you, apparently) are experiencing issues with N8.

 

[imokah]

Look at this thread from a Brit forum: http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=67721&start=315

Goto page 22 at the bottom and follow the messages there. The bottom line is that people with passwords set (such as you, apparently) are experiencing issues with N8.

thank you, DHN..I checked out your provided link and Lamplight definitely has a couple great ideas...one of which, I think I will do..remove my password!! Yes, the other fellow had my same problems.

^BINGO!!!

 

[dhn]

thank you, DHN..I checked out your provided link and Lamplight definitely has a couple great ideas...one of which, I think I will do..remove my password!! Yes, the other fellow had my same problems.

^BINGO!!!

You are welcome.

 

[cez801]

Ignore ETAs and only look at distances... The ETAs are almost always going to be wrong - at least until TT gets their act together and gets the speed limits installed on the roads.

I have tomtom 720, with both the North America Maps and the New Zealand maps. In New Zealand the speed limits are in the maps - and I have found that the ETA is more accurate than when I am driving in the USA.

 

[cez801]

You need this:
1. North America map version 7.10
2. Firmware version 7.221
3. A file called support_asr.dat with the value '1' (no quotes) in the asr folder. Make sure that Windows' setting is to show extensions for known file types to make sure your file is NOT really support_asr.dat.txt. That won't work.

The csspeech files are in the North America map folder, NOT the asr folder. You should see a file called csspeech_TX.dat that is about 43 megs in size.

I bought my 720 a little over a month ago, it seems they come with the map called North America, but it has both USA and Canada.
I have the lips - but they are greyed out.
The map version is 720
The firmware version is 8.010
So I guess I am out of luck, because my device came with both the USA and Canada maps? (Although these are actually 1.6G in size).

 

[dhn]

I bought my 720 a little over a month ago, it seems they come with the map called North America, but it has both USA and Canada.
I have the lips - but they are greyed out.
The map version is 720
The firmware version is 8.010
So I guess I am out of luck, because my device came with both the USA and Canada maps? (Although these are actually 1.6G in size).

Yeah, think so. It has to be the North America map. Not USA&Canada. Further, the 720's are supposed to come with the NA map, not the inferior USA & Canada map. You may consider calling Support and plead your case about being given the wrong map.

 

[cez801]

Yeah, think so. It has to be the North America map. Not USA&Canada. Further, the 720's are supposed to come with the NA map, not the inferior USA & Canada map. You may consider calling Support and plead your case about being given the wrong map.

Yeah, I checked the box and it says Pre Loaded with Maps of the US and Canada.
So I guess I am stuck - and no voice recognition

 

[dhn]

Yeah, I checked the box and it says Pre Loaded with Maps of the US and Canada.
So I guess I am stuck - and no voice recognition

The last time I looked, North america WAS made up of US and Canada

Don't give up. Call and say you want the North America map...and say you want the larger sized one, not the USA & Canada (that's what it's called) map that came with the unit (apparently).

 

[tdq0504]

I just updated my tomtom go 720 to app version 8.010 and it caused the voice input address disappear, now I got it fixed, thank so much...

 

[BlankMan]

Yep, just upgraded to 8.010 on my 720 and voice recognition was gone. Called TomTom support already knowing what their response would be but I did it anyway. They confirmed it was gone because they "fixed" it in 8.010 because it wasn't suppose to be there.

See I never had to create the support_asr file when I got the 7.480 software it was there, TomTom nows says that was a mistake and it was not supposed to work. I said it's bogus that I had it and it worked (they claimed it didn't for everybody, BS I suspect to make it easier to swallow) and now you take it away??!!

At any rate, it's back and working once again. Gonna have to email my internal contact and the COO's regarding this, it is bogart. If you got it by their mistake like I did they should then Grandfather you. IMO