Tom Tom not fit for purpous

[Rodbowen]

Over the weekend I got so annoyed by my Tomtom 1005 I literately threw it out of the window of my car at 60mph. It lies somewhere on the road between Llandysul and Lampeter. What an useless piece of kit and only 6 months old! Off to by a Navman. Leap year bug! for the price we pay it should work perfectly.
Rod

 

[Steveo]

I have a 1005 top machine would not change for anything my mates have navman rubbish mine runs rings around them.

 

[- et -]

Over the weekend I got so annoyed by my Tomtom 1005 I literately threw it out of the window of my car at 60mph. It lies somewhere on the road between Llandysul and Lampeter. What an useless piece of kit and only 6 months old! Off to by a Navman. Leap year bug! for the price we pay it should work perfectly.
Rod

In regard to expecting software perfection because of price, I am reminded of the launch of a NASA probe to Venus during the 1960s. The launch vehicle was blown up during the boost phase by the range safety officer, because it was heading the wrong way and had the potential to land in an inhabited area.

The post-flight investigation discovered that there was a plus instead of a minus in one line of the autopilot code. It had not been caught during any of the pre-flight simulations, and caused the booster to turn in the opposite direction from the planned trajectory.

- Tom -

 

[canderson]

Or try the first Mars Climate Orbiter where a 'cratering in' was the consequence of imperial/metric silliness when dialing in the thrust data.

**** happens, although we did sorta warn our friends in NL that this exact sort of thing could be a LOT harder to fix on a Nav3 device with its annoyingly locked-down file system.

Whatever - you can bet they did not do it on porpoise.

 

[- et -]

Whatever - you can bet they did not do it on porpoise.

That's a rather fishy comment.

(Yes, I know that a porpoise is actually a mammal . . .)

I just saw a note from TomTom on a social network that says the bug was in software in the GPS signal receiver that they buy from a third party. Of course, from the customer standpoint, it is still "TomTom's fault". I am reminded of the sign on the desk of Harry Truman when he was President of the United States, "The buck stops here."

- Tom -

 

[canderson]

Odd that so many of us with exactly the same GPS chip and chip firmware aren't seeing the same problem, isn't it? Talk about fishy.

Also - it's a Broadcom part.

 

[peterjholcroft]

Oh! how I understand your feelings. I was tempted many times to do exactly the same thing. I have had several Sat Navs and the TomTom 1005 is, by far the most useless. Earlier this year it refused to work for several days, until TomTom brought out a 'mandatory' update. At other times it has taken me up several dead ends and once tried to get me to turn into a field. On another occasion it told me that I was in a river. The routes it takes often defy logic. The inability to save routes or to load your own POIs is also a big minus.

I have now changed it for a Garmin 3590 - not the easiest to use, but superb once you get the hang of it.

 

[canderson]

No unit saves detailed routes for later 'replay', and there's no reason you can't add POI to your 1005. People do it all the time.

 

[- et -]

The inability to save routes or to load your own POIs is also a big minus..

I have loaded a number of third-party POI files on both of my TomTom units. My personal favorite is a "Mom & Pop BBQ Restaurants" file that I got from the "POI Factory" web site.

I'm not sure what you mean about "saving routes". If I know that I want to go to a given location frequently, I just save that as a Favorite. When I click on "Drive to Favorite", the GPS finds the quickest route for the traffic conditions at that time - which may not be the same route as on an earlier occasion. If I want to take a specific route to some location that will go via one or more fixed way-points regardless of the traffic conditions, I just create an itinerary.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[Andy_P]

Presume you mean "an itinerary on the XXL, or a couple of waypoints on the Go1535" Tom...

There's no "full" itinerary planning on that Go is there?

 

[- et -]

Presume you mean "an itinerary on the XXL, or a couple of waypoints on the Go1535" Tom...

There's no "full" itinerary planning on that Go is there?

Thanks Andy, I forgot that the GO 1535 does not have itinerary capability like the XXL540.

I normally use either "Drive to Favorite" or "Drive to Recent Destination", and it's been months since I needed the extra capability of "Itinerary" - which can be very convenient when I do need it.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

 

[Andy_P]

Thanks for clarifying, Tom... I still have trouble remembering some of your US model numbers! (and it's not getting any easier as I get older and TomTom's product launches get weirder!)