Present position query.......

[I.R. Lost]

Salutations, fellow Sat Nav users,

I have always used Latitude and Longitude for destinations and waypoints where entrances to car parks don't necessarily match post codes, map codes etc.. The accuracy has been exact, and comes in handy especially where one-way systems are involved. I research new destinations or waypoints for Lat/Long, on Google Earth Street View/Maps etc., but on my just acquired Tom Tom 6000, the 'HELP' selection no longer has the "Where am I" Lat/Long present position facility....as far as I can see. Whilst I know we can still add pre-researched Lat/Long coordinates to 'My Places', I do miss the facility to copy my present position in degrees, minutes and decimal of minutes into my diary for my written records, once I've arrived. ( You could also tx your parked position to your fancy 'whatever G phone', to help finding your car later if it's in one of those vast or complex parking areas ) The present position information is known by the Sat-Nav gadget, but as far as I can tell the 6000 version won't spill the beans. It looks like that if I want this info as a back-up, I will have carry my two year old 'budget Tom Tom' model as well.........how say you people? Have I missed something obvious in the instructions, or has this useful tool been binned?

 

[canderson]

Nope. You haven't missed anything. We kept hoping that they would at least come up with the basic satellite status screen (ala Nav2 and Nav3 generation units) that shows current coordinates, but they didn't listen to us.

 

[mvl]

On the GO6000, tap search, and then tap the upper right and choose latitude/longitude.

You get a screen where you can navigate to a latitude/longitude, and it gives a sample format for you to type. The sample text is actually your current position, so you can record that into your diary.

 

[canderson]

Blast. Forgot that again. Could they have made it any more subtle?

 

[I.R. Lost]

Thank you Mods....both. As WD40 says.....subtle or wot? When I checked the 'sample' on the Lat/Long planning page, it was indeed the exact position of my house! Who guessed to look.....? However my position when I closed down the Sat Nav was over 40 feet away, so not the accuracy I experienced with my 'Go 940' which recorded present position to 'minutes' plus three decimal places, and my 'Home' Lat/Long was my usual parking spot. Not vital in this instance unless visibility falls to zero, however the width of an entrance gate or proximity to a small item of interest is what I'm often needing.

My next problem is that when inserting Lat/Long in degrees, minutes, and seconds plus two decimal places of seconds as in my other two Tom Toms ( one is my wife's, and she isn't swapping ) no option to select a 'Drive' icon has appeared except on three occasions. Once only did it produce the correct route and present 'Drive'. Twice, with two different Lat/Long positions inserted and checked, the route displayed was to a particular city centre location programmed by a 'map' selection from a couple of days previously, and with a grossly different geographic position to the selected one. I sat in my car on at least four occasions, and in different good reception areas repeatedly reselecting Lat and Long tests, but none except those three responded at all.

The balance of probabilities is that I've failed to follow correct procedure or download enough up-dates, or maybe instigate part of the set-up.............Of course it's just possible that there is a hardware fault.

All said and done, the 6000 is impressive in many ways. However it's abilities to cope with speed limit changes are poor in my area of Sussex UK, but on one route I drove yesterday, there are changes from 50 to 40 to 30 to 40 to 50 then 60, all within less than two miles. It certainly didn't cope with that. Camera alerts have been accurate on the patch I know well. Next trip to NY, NYC, and NJ, back to the iPhone map app plugged into the dash. Stuff is less complicated thereabouts.........

 

[canderson]

Much depends where you are vs. a 'known' piece of road. The magic is that the device will, up to a point, attempt to assume you're still on a road, even when you're in your driveway. However, whether these newer Nav4 devices display the 'road snapped' (assumed) coordinates or the raw coordinates as you start to move off road is (as far as I know) a question none of us have attempted to answer yet. I know that I have not yet attempted to see whether the Nav4 produces the 'road' or 'real' coordinates before it finally realizes you are genuinely off the road (and makes all the dots showing you the way back). Back in the 'old days' (pretty sure it was early v8 for Nav2), we did have a release of code that showed the wrong set .. 'wrong' in that people wanted the 'real' ones and not the 'presumed on the road' coordinates.

As for entry of coordinate data, be certain about how you've entered the data. It can be quite fussy about the syntax, and though you don't specify your location, I see from your IP that you're in the UK. Beware especially careful about E vs. W (or if you switch to decimal input, + and -) in your entries! I've found that dd.mmmmm dd.mmmmm (or in my case, dd.mmmmm -dd.mmmmm) is by far the easiest format for me to use on these new units.

As for speed limits - I would certainly expect that some day, they'll be letting us make our own map modifications again, something I really miss on these new units.

 

[I.R. Lost]

Thanks again for the tips about entering Lat/Long coordinates.

I've tried entering this detail whilst on roads, Mall car parks, front drive, and all sorts. I enter in the format I use on the previous Tom Toms adding degree, minute and seconds symbols from the keyboard. e.g., ( I use the * for degrees in this example )

N50* 45' 15.91" E0* 16' 20.53"

The same position can be written as:

N50* 45.265' E0* 16.342'

I've tried variations on spacing, and swapping the N, S and E,W symbols from before to after the digits in each variation. There is 95% no useable response.

I'm going to use the Go 6000 for the next couple of weeks, and keep getting to know it. If still no joy after that, I'll probably pass it on to one of my children or relatives. I'll look at Garmin etc., or possibly just swap/borrow the wife's Tom Tom when I need to be a pedant about accuracy. The irony is that together with my brother, I share a patent for an advanced Inertial Navigation feature, but inertial has a drift rate plus other expensive corrections.........Handy if you are streaking across the sky or down a mine though.

As I mentioned before, am impressed with some of the other features, but as you say, MAP MODS would be good....I hadn't got around to that yet.

Back in 2012, I had a tech problem and found the main call centre in Amsterdam was excellent.
However I'll wait until I've got to know this one better......thanks again.

 

[canderson]

To save some entry time, it is not necessary to enter either the degree symbol º nor the minutes tick ' when using decimal minutes (dd mm.mmm)

If you were to enter N50 45.265 E0 16.342, that will be accepted. However, adding the º or ' alone will not cause any complaints by the unit. HOWEVER, you cannot do both (for whatever reason!)

So this works
N50 45.265 E0 16.342
and this works
N50º45.265 E0º16.342
and this works
N50 45.265' E0 16.342'

but THIS (which is what you were showing) does not!
N50º45.265' E0º16.342'

 

[I.R. Lost]

Thanks for all the help folks........I have now established that I'm entering the Latitude and Longitude correctly. Nine times out of ten my Go 6000 simply doesn't respond, and therefor I've sourced a two year old model that works perfectly in that respect. When I need the accuracy guaranteed by the Lat/Long mode, I merely fire up the old model for the final segment only. I already run a manifold for powering a couple of other gadgets, so no problem. The 6000 is otherwise fine until Tom Tom's lost features reappear either with them or another manufacturer's. Still interested to hear if anyone else in UK has come up against this problem. I also spend time in NYC + occasionally out of town in NY and NJ. An iPhone in a cradle seems to work OK, because requirements are simpler in that area.......

 

[I.R. Lost]

I've talked to the helpful people in Amsterdam, and they have promised to get back to me.
When the operative inserted the same coordinates as self in the standard Lat/Long NSEW dd*/mm'/ss.ss" format, or dd*/mm.mmm', or even the less accurate dd*/mm'/ss" for a destination that I have regularly used, the operative also got no useable result.

From what I gleaned, having entered the coordinates, a location description should appear ( as it did on previous devices ) and an icon......probably 'drive', should be offered for route approval and initiation. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm the only person to use this 'top accuracy' option.
An Email from Amsterdam informs me that the operative will check with the software people.

Yesterday I got an uninitiated pop up around five minutes after departure, then again later. It was a full screen monochrome menu for voice command.......what's that all about?
( to be fair, I haven't yet re-read the guide and manual yet. It's possible I inadvertently said something or gave it a funny look whilst programming the route? )

P.S, Mods......I see your suggestion for selecting an 'Avatar'. Not sure what that is, or how to paste one in......doh! I've checked 'Avweb' and 130 octane Avgas, and I doubt if it's one of those 'smiley faces'.

 

[canderson]

The 'Wake Up Word' (which is fact, the phrase "Hey TomTom") may exist in the code for your device. If so, there may have been something on the radio or in your conversation that was detected that triggered this. Try that phrase intentionally to see what happens!

 

[Arno]

P.S, Mods......I see your suggestion for selecting an 'Avatar'. Not sure what that is,

I was first going to just give you this:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=avatar#seen
But in computer forums it is usually just a picture associated with a user name as you see "NO" WD40 for canderson on the Stourbridge Lion for myself.

Go to the top of this page, click on "I.R.Lost" (yourself) mouse over to "Avatar" and select a file (picture) that will instantly allow others to recognise the poster.