Issues with new GO 730

I?ve gone back about 10 sets of posts and see SOME relating to my questions. But, rather than tag posts onto some of those that have had no activity recently, I decided to start my own.

Here are my comments/issues/questions relating to my new GO 730:

First, a comment-

The User?s Guide is lame. I?m not talking about that basically worthless Reader?s Digest P.O.C. that accompanied the unit either. The larger, supposedly more ?comprehensive? .pdf version I downloaded is darned near as worthless. No details on anything where you need details.

This is actually my third CO 730. The original had so many problems I returned it to the Best Buy store a couple of days after buying it. The replacement would not retain any initial settings and when you got through making those basic settings all you got was a white screen that indicated NO MAPS (or similar). I had that one just a couple of hours. The third unit seems to be nearly 100% ?there?.

Bluetooth connection to my cell phone-

I set my Nokia cell phone to be ?Visible to all? and set the SIMM connection to on. I initiated the GO 730 to connect to the phone. After a 0000 password entry and a bunch of hitting YES on the phone the 730 indicated all was well. I downloaded my address book to the 730 from the phone. I made a call to test the setup and that worked beautifully. Then?I shut the phone and the 730 off and turned them both back on in that order?phone then 730. The 730 indicated no phone connection. The Nokia did show as a phone option on the 730 mobile phone screen. No combination of shutting the phone and 730 off and turning them back on would make a connection. I ended up deleting the Nokia from the 730 and starting over. Made a call?all OK. After shutting them both down and turning them both on again (phone on then 730 on) I end up in the same place. 730 won?t connect to phone. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG HERE?!

Unit ?drops out? when broadcasting via FM to car radio-

The 730 will broadcast wirelessly over my car radio only briefly. After an instruction or two they disconnect from each other and the radio plays static and the TomTom reverts to the internal speaker. Doesn?t matter what frequency I use?low, middle or high?it happens. What gives?

Connecting and controlling an iPod Nano-

I am electronically challenged. I have an iPod Nano (3rd Gen) and a Monster iCarCharger (iPod connector at one end and both a ?power port connector?/cigarette lighter charger and 1/8? stereo mini-plug to connect to my car stereo. The TomTom has a corded output that is also the 1/8? stereo mini-plug. So, me thinks all I need is one of those splitters (two 1/8? stereo mini-plugs into one) to run both the iPod and the TomTom through the Aux. input of my car stereo. I plugged the splitter into the radio. Next I plug the iPod into one side of the two inputs in the splitter. I hit play and I get music on the radio. As soon as I plug the patch cord from the TomTom into the other side the iPod can no longer be heard, but I hear the TomTom over the radio. So, I switched the TomTom for the iPod. The iPod plays until the TomTom is plugged in. Can?t make both play at once. Any ideas?

Alternative?Run the iPod THROUGH the 730 using an iPod Connect Cable-

So if the two-into-one theory doesn?t pan out, is the iPod Connect Cable deal the way to go? The User?s Guide mentions it, but tells absolutely nothing about it. The Cable is not even listed on TomTom?s website, even though they mention is as an accessory in the User?s Guide. How does this thing connect to the TomTom? It can?t be through the USB port on the 730. If is doesn?t, then where DOES it connect? And if you use the Connect Cable (which appears to have the iPod proprietary connector on that end, does this cord power/charge the iPod connected to it? Need some guidance from someone who?s ?been there, done that?.

Another comment-

My daughter had a Mattel Speak & Spell back in the mid-80?s (over 20 years ago) that did a far-superior job with computer generating intelligible English than this brand new, ?technologically advanced? device. Some of the names pronunciations are almost comical (and if I didn?t know the name of the street I WOULD NOT KNOW THE NAME OF THE STREET AFTER THE 730 SAID IT!). One of the reasons I bought this unit was for the text-to-speech street name announcement feature. I?m pretty disappointed with this part of this 730. Plans on the horizon for better computer voice enunciation?

HOME 2 slow?

When I connect my 730 to the PC and HOME 2 starts, it takes it 15-20 minutes to check for updates. This is even if I?d just done it the day before! Is the HOME 2 a step backwards or something? Problems with it?

Have you considered putting a 16GB or even 32GB SDHC memory card in the TomTom and filling it with music? - it will save having cables all over the car and the M Tx will work fine when playing music from the device. If you do decide to take this approach create a folder on the SD card called "mp3" (all lower case but no "") and put the music tracks in to this folder for the device to locate the music.

The TT iPOD cable isn't a very good idea as it doesn't charge the device while its in use, on a long trip you will flatten the device prior to getting to the destination.

As for the phone I would consider a dedicated handsfree kit for the car, the TomTom tends to be rather problematic getting it to work reliably with phones, I went for a device called iO-Play which lets me have the phone AND the TomTom connected via Bluetooth (yes thats two devices at the same time) and all sound (including phone conversation) is routed through the car speakers - Mike

Mike,

Thanks for the reply. That iO deal is way too salty for my "hours and pay have been cut back 10%" budget. If I do anything, it'll have to be the Connect Cable. Just looking for feedback on how that works, understanding there are more cords involved.

Anyone else have input on the other items in the original thread?

New one...

Why, after I DO dink around for 5 minutes each and every time I turn the cell and the 730 on to connect them, does the audio come out of the TomTom's behind instead of through the car speakers? This is while I am running both instructions and playing MP3's via the car radio. Since those are playing (cord to audio input of radio) through the car radio, why doesn't the phone call audio also come across the car radio? Is it ME not doing something right or something else poorly throught through and executed by TomTom?

Thanks for any guidance you folks can provide!

Handsfree audio has never been available through anything other than the internal speaker, there was a hack you could do on the x10 devices to send it via the LineOut but as soon as that got out on the forums TomTom issued an update that rendered the hack inoperative and its not been possible since (This is the prime reason I went for a dedicated handsfree kit that does use the cars speaker system) - Mike

I just don't get it. WHY would TomTom build in the elaborate line out and FM features for instructions and music but leave out line out for the darned phone? And then render useless a work-around someone else comes up with! Someone is jealous maybe?

Still drops FM connection every time I try to use it. Anyone have similar experience? Worthless feature?

OK...The User's Guide clearly states "You only need to do this once, after which your TomTom GO will remember your phone" relating to connecting to a Bluetooth phone. Then why do I have to go through the connection process like I did the first time EVERY TIME I turn the unit on?? I am getting real frustrated with this unit. Kind of wondering if I bought the wrong brand (not model, but brand)!

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I bought my 930T 2 days ago and was equally frustrated until I took a few seconds to read the big message on the screen It says that FM only works while you are playing music in the background. If you're not playing music, it turns off in about 30 seconds (as designed). They're probably not allowed to transmit "dead air" by law, so this makes sense.

If I play music, it works fine for any amount of time.

My Verizon phone works flawlessly, once I paired the two devices with a code of 0000

Mike

When they say "FM only works while you are playing music in the background", I presume this means you have it on an FM radio station, not that you require music. Correct?

I had an 930T that was defective. Decided to go with a 730T that I have a raincheck for. Had trouble hearing the 930 instructions so really want to be able to play it through an FM radio station.

To hear navigation via FM, you MUST have a silent mp3 playing constantly (looping).

You'll find such a mp3 in this thread in a post by Andy_P. Just put the mp3 in the mp3 folder and set to loop.

Do you have an E71? That Nokia is incompatible with Tomtom. Every other Nokia I've tried, and every other one posted on this forum, had no problems. Did you try a pin reset?

Doubt it - I think the Tomtom actively broadcasts silence over the aux, and it broadcasts at very high power. I'm sure it's overpowering the output of the iPod. Go the MP3 route on the Tomtom, much much easier.

Seems to be resolved by the latest HOME update: 2.7.1.1812.