Feet instead of yards

Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
1
I just bought one - 3rd and it alerts me to turns in yards. I would like it to tell me feet instead. My son has the XL and he said he changed his "voice" from UK to English and that worked for him...but not me.
 
I just bought one - 3rd and it alerts me to turns in yards. I would like it to tell me feet instead. My son has the XL and he said he changed his "voice" from UK to English and that worked for him...but not me.

I have a 510 but it should be similar. Tap the screen and tap "change preferences". Then scroll through the pages until you find an icon for "set units" (mine in on page 5 of the menu pages). Tap this icon and you canchange between yards and feet by switching betwen miles and kilometers.
 
i was wondering the same thing. my tomtom 3rd is doing the same thing, the units are all in miles until it shows yards before a turn. i tried what you suggested and it looks like the right thing to do but it still shows yards.
 
I have a 510 but it should be similar. Tap the screen and tap "change preferences". Then scroll through the pages until you find an icon for "set units" (mine in on page 5 of the menu pages). Tap this icon and you canchange between yards and feet by switching betwen miles and kilometers.

I thought this only changed it from meters to yards???
 
Thats all it does on my 'one'. I don't see an option for feet...would be nice tho. And I already have an english voice.

Mine does yards but I do not remember ever hearing "feet". I believe that setting the units to miles or kil. does determine what your voice on the TT says. I have never heard meters from any of my voices-even the British voices.
 
Maybe I'm just cynical, but since yards and meters are pretty close to each other, I suspect that all TomTom is doing is changing the words, not computing the actual units. A difference of about 10% in the announced distance to the next turn is probably not going to be at all noticeable.
 
Why do you people think in feet for long distances? Isn't 100 yards easy to visualize. It's a football field, after all. My mind's eye can 'see' this more easily than '300 feet'. So if the unit tells you to turn right in 300 yards, just think 3 football fields.

Anyway, we Canadians have metric road signs, and I find that Jane speaking in metric is a nice fit. (I find that Jane's voice is the loudest and clearest of all the choices.)
 
I am not sure. I will check. But I think I have a voice that says and shows feet when it is chosen. I will look when I get home.

On the other hand I may just be crazy.
 
I just bought one - 3rd and it alerts me to turns in yards. I would like it to tell me feet instead. My son has the XL and he said he changed his "voice" from UK to English and that worked for him...but not me.

from UK to English? They speak English in the UK, I thought. :p

It sounds like you're confusing three different things.

1. Metric/English Units. In Preferences under "Set Units", you can choose the following...

a. Miles (& Yards) or Kilometers (& Meters)
b. Format of the time display... am/pm, military.
c. Coordinates in d.d; d, m.m; or d,m,s
d. Celsius or Fahrenheit
e. Barometric Pressure units


2. Language Translations. In preference under "Change Language", you can set the language of the text displayed on your unit. English-US and English-UK are two of the options. I'm not sure what the specific differences could be. "Color" or "Colour" perhaps** This setting however will narrow down the voices you can choose from.


3. Voices. In preferences under "Change Voice", you can choose any dialect you wish. I'm using one with a British accent even though English-US is my default language as per #2. The Irish dialect is also in English so you can select it. There is no point choosing voices that are not in a language you understand so those don't display as options. I do not believe that changing voices will effect your settings from item #1 or #2 above.


** Edit: Confirmed. Where it says "change map colors" in prefs is spelled "colours" when English-UK is set as your default Language, not voice, as per item 2.

Edit 2: I played around with various combinations and yards, not feet, is used when you choose "miles" as your default unit of distance.

Perhaps the XL model has additional options for refining your chosen units?

Regardless, "yards" seems reasonably acceptable to me since the resolution of this device can't accurately be measured in "feet" and certainly not "inches" or "centimeters" for that matter. :p
 
Last edited:
Get into the 70's everyone..!!!! The entire world (except the US) is on the Metric system...LEARN IT...!!!

LOL-- Celsius
 
Get into the 70's everyone..!!!! The entire world (except the US) is on the Metric system...LEARN IT...!!!

LOL-- Celsius

Yes, let's start bashing the American culture... it's the easy thing to do. :rolleyes:

The US system of units is English, we tried metric in the 1970's and the conversion was a huge failure... mostly because few local governments wanted to spend millions converting road sign-age. To no avail metric was crammed down our throats in grammar school and I found little use for it until high school & college.

Myself, as an engineer, am now intimately familiar with proper usage and conversion in both systems but find the one learnt from childhood as the most intuitive... kind of like one's first language.
 
the most intuitive... ??

Miles, yards, feet, inches, gallons, cups, ounces, pounds, tons, pecks, acres, furlongs, means nothing...today !!

Mulitplying by a factor of 10 is pretty easy... in the metric system..!

I too grew up with Imperial / English measurement and I am too an engineer, but have fully embraced the Metric system...

I do understand your position though...no worries mate...

celsius
 
the most intuitive... ??

Nice try, clipping that out of context. Yep, it's certainly the most intuitive for certain people that grew up with nothing else.

Hey, why not do a metric clock too? Let's think about it. :p

10 metric hours per Earth rotation.
10 metric minutes per metric hour.
10 metric seconds per metric minute.
10 metric deci-seconds per metric second.
1 metric deci-second = 11.5740740 standard Earth seconds

Noon would become 5.000 metric time and 6:00 PM would become 7.500 metric time. Instead of saying "six o'clock pm", you'd simply say, "seven point five oh oh mo'clock". :D

You could get rid of the silly AM/PM and it certainly would easier for computer programs and conversions. You can even add fractional metric deci-seconds without any fuss... just add the required decimal places. very cool.

We'd need all new clocks and have to scrap the time zones for new wider metric ones ... a very small price to pay...

Like you said, multiplying by a factor of 10 is very easy... so why not a metric clock? It's stupid? No, I clearly demonstrated how easy it is to understand, convert, & program.

No wait, perhaps something to do with the current system being more intuitive for people that already fully embraced the silly 24-hour day.


no worries here either, I just thought that would be fun to think about. :)
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Latest resources

Forum statistics

Threads
28,820
Messages
194,341
Members
67,754
Latest member
CSXLocomotive

Latest Threads

Back
Top