TomTom 910 Map NEW Map problems

[bobaloolie]

I just purchased the 910. I've had it for a week, have installed the latest updates and maps... but am encountering some disturbing problems.

First is that several POI's either do not exist once you get there, or are off by several hundred feet, and even miles. This has happened about 8 times in just a few days.

Second, I cannot seem to search for Interstate Exit numbers, like you can on Magellan or Garmin. For those GPS units, you simply type in the City, then for street, type in the exit number (eg. "873). This is a major flaw in the TomTom since I often search for exits as destinations (for truck stops). The odd exit is available, but most aren't. (Anyone know how to load up interstate exit # POI's?)

Third, the Rest Area database for the U.S. is very, very poor. My old 1999 Phililps Carin has more rest areas.

Fourth, the TomTom will often take the shortest route, not the fastest route, even though fastest is selected in the preferences.

By far, the best navigation features are on the 910 over the Garmin 680 or Magellan 6000T. But the actual navigation itself is extremely disappointing.

My latest firmware (or at least the latest that TomTom will give me through the HOME software), is 6.524.

 

[fanchee]

Hello and welcome! I will answer some of your questions, but not all. Hopefully someone else will chime in as well. As for POI, they come and go some of them quite quickly. There's no way to keep up with the stores opening/closing and some of them even move to a newer/better location. Your best bet is to have a custom POI file created for your favorite stores.

I don't know about exit numbers, I've never had a need to use them. Hopefully someone else will chime in here.

As for navigation, the TT never replaces common sense and especially never replaces local knowledge. It may NOT take you the best route, but it will take you to your destination. For me personally, when I'm in a strange city, I don't particularly care which route it takes me, as long as it takes me to my destination.

We've heard from another member that the rest areas have been trimmed quite a bit in the new map POI. Not sure why TT decided to do this. You could create a custom POI of rest areas in the area you need...

No GPS is perfect, I've had Garmin unit and also used Magellan units. But for the features and price point, it's hard to beat the TT.

 

[hermdog]

I just purchased the 910. I've had it for a week, have installed the latest updates and maps... but am encountering some disturbing problems.

First is that several POI's either do not exist once you get there, or are off by several hundred feet, and even miles. This has happened about 8 times in just a few days.

Second, I cannot seem to search for Interstate Exit numbers, like you can on Magellan or Garmin. For those GPS units, you simply type in the City, then for street, type in the exit number (eg. "873). This is a major flaw in the TomTom since I often search for exits as destinations (for truck stops). The odd exit is available, but most aren't. (Anyone know how to load up interstate exit # POI's?)

Third, the Rest Area database for the U.S. is very, very poor. My old 1999 Phililps Carin has more rest areas.

Fourth, the TomTom will often take the shortest route, not the fastest route, even though fastest is selected in the preferences.

By far, the best navigation features are on the 910 over the Garmin 680 or Magellan 6000T. But the actual navigation itself is extremely disappointing.

My latest firmware (or at least the latest that TomTom will give me through the HOME software), is 6.524.

bobaloolie, what state are you in?

 

[bobaloolie]

Canadian traveling through the U.S.... southern and eastern States.

 

[hermdog]

Bobaloolie or anyone with the new maps,

I'd like to do a comparison of how many rest areas come up for you in a specific area versus what comes up for me. I have not received the upgrade yet. The version on my 910 is 650.1108. So if you navigate to a POI/POI in city and lets say Dublin, OH how many rest areas do you get? I get a total of seven. 1st one is 9.8M and the last is 28.4m

I'm curious to see how our results will differ or be the same.

hermdog

 

[FrankC]

I checked my TT910 with update and it did not list any exits for Dublin Oh. I also checked for closest to and the closest was 139 miles away. I am reloading the maps and I am going to do another check.

 

[bobaloolie]

hermdog,

Well, there you have it. Frank has done the search, and that's consistent with what I'm seeing as well. The 910 had most of the rest areas before the update, but now most are gone.

And now I'm beginning to think the same thing with the exits. I can hardly find any now on the Tomtom. For instance, I need to get to a truckstop in New Orleans where there is an RV dump of our tour bus. However, the only address is I-10 Exit 239. Frank C, are you able to search in your non-updated 910 to see if you can pull up that exit? Once again, not a problem for the old 700 Magellan roadmate.

 

[battom]

anyone try swapping the poi.dat files yet?

 

[FrankC]

Reloaded Maps, Loaded All state maps, and I got the famous NO POI's fond. Did the closest to Dublin. And it was 129 miles away. Did the same with my planned trip to Orlando along the route and it picked 3 or 4 in Florida Only. I would like to see that feature on the TomTom for how long it is to the next reststop so I know how long it is between PEE Breaks or how long I have to hold it. I think the most important parts of the TT is the POI's for gas stations and rest stops.

 

[battom]

you're a guy... just pull over and leave the door open so rubbah-neckahs don't get a peep show. hehe

I'll take my poi.dat file from the old maps and install on the new and see what I see and report back... sometime later this week though.

 

[bobaloolie]

Thanks battom. I would like to know. Unfortunately, I did not backup before installing new maps, or I would do it myself.

 

[hermdog]

I checked my TT910 with update and it did not list any exits for Dublin Oh. I also checked for closest to and the closest was 139 miles away. I am reloading the maps and I am going to do another check.

Interesting. So what's the version of the new map? Also have you guy's tried the suggestion of using the poi.dat file from a backup?

 

[FrankC]

OK, I put in the old POI Dat File and LO and BEHOLD the Rest Stops are back. I did the Dublin Check and there were Several About 8 or 10 listed. I did not cound them all. There were plenty of PEE Stops along my route to Orlando listed too.

 

[hermdog]

OK, I put in the old POI Dat File and LO and BEHOLD the Rest Stops are back. I did the Dublin Check and there were Several About 8 or 10 listed. I did not cound them all. There were plenty of PEE Stops along my route to Orlando listed too.

Great!! Thanks FrankC for reporting back. This is great news.

 

[bobaloolie]

Well, I can't say it's good news. Who wants an outdated POI database? The answer is that TomTom needs to address either an error on their part, or perhaps they simply cheaped out, and didn't pay to get the license for this info.

FrankC... what about exits? Can you search by exits in the old database?

 

[battom]

Thanks for the update Frank!!!
baboloolie... the answer now would be to merge the poi.dat files. Something TomTOm shoudl do. I would be willing to bet that it was something as simple as a data entry error on a script that left out a few categories or something....

If anyone has a way to edit the poi.dat file... we could do this here and add it. But I think there is licensing issues there...

I do know that you can view the poi.dat file and extract stuff.....

 

[fanchee]

This is getting interesting!

 

[bobaloolie]

Yes, it is interesting. I deleted my old maps unfortunately. So if someone does extract them, it would be great if you could post them.

However, lec510 did post a rest stop POI on this forum. And from what I can tell, it is excellent and thorough.

 

[battom]

And from what I can tell, it is excellent and thorough.

as with most things here @ TTF...

Send me your email via PM or email me thru my profile.

 

[FrankC]

I think TomTom should check this out. The latest backup I have is 170 meg. POI file. The old file is 156 Meg. Maybe there is a programming error. Since the DAT file is unreadable there is no way to check them out. Lets complain here and see if they will look into is and fix it and patch it up to us.,,, RIGHT. Were keeping them in business buying this stuff. For $39.00 they could buy a copy of Delorme's software and check theirs agains them. It is more accurate. I think most of us here already have a GPS that can hook up to a laptop, any how. I've been using Delorme since 1999 and my Magellan 330 still works great. I just thought I would get something smaller so my wife could ride along in the passenger seat instead of the laptop sitting there.