920 stopped talking across (but close) the border (US).. ??

[seldon]

I bought this 920 two weeks ago and I am trying to familiarize myself with the device because in 2 wks I'll try my luck in Europe.. I hope I don't get lost! )

I went with my kids to Niagara Falls, and I said what a heck, why not try it across the border - goat island is 5 minutes away.. once I crossed the border, the (computer) voice stopped, and I had only arrow indications.. it managed to find the park on the goat island (I had an itinerary) and I had good enough (visual) direction to find it without problems. When we left.. boy! it was crapping out, it didn't know where it was, and it was like in some kind of loop, recalculating every minute or so.. once I crossed into Canada, everything returned to normal...

What worried me most was not that it lost its 'cool', but that the voice stopped talking across the border! what a heck, I looked for a setting to deal with that, but couldn't find any.. I don't think it is normal to do that - I mean if it does it now, how about in Europe??

Maybe I am making an obvious beginner's mistake... I would appreciate any hint. By the way, it's a 2.213 version with 715 map (I saw 720 is offered as the newest map - and for Europe it seems it went from 1.5MB to 1.8MB, so there are some additions - however, when I try my 'latest map guaranteed' option / one time in 30 days / I get the message that my map is the most recent one.. and any map updates give me the same 715 instead of 720.. why?)

One last thing: I tried to change the preferrence for the routing from 'the fastest' to 'avoid tolls' AFTER I made the itinerary.. after the change, it kept giving me recalculated ones through the same 'toll' part.. I tried ten times, the same, it didn't want to take into account the change in prefference.. this is really dumb, in my oppinion, I should be able to force a recalculation any way I want..

Anyways, my question is: why the heck the voice stopped across the border?

 

[GarCor]

I bought this 920 two weeks ago and I am trying to familiarize myself with the device because in 2 wks I'll try my luck in Europe.. I hope I don't get lost! )

I went with my kids to Niagara Falls, and I said what a heck, why not try it across the border - goat island is 5 minutes away.. once I crossed the border, the (computer) voice stopped, and I had only arrow indications.. it managed to find the park on the goat island (I had an itinerary) and I had good enough (visual) direction to find it without problems. When we left.. boy! it was crapping out, it didn't know where it was, and it was like in some kind of loop, recalculating every minute or so.. once I crossed into Canada, everything returned to normal...

What worried me most was not that it lost its 'cool', but that the voice stopped talking across the border! what a heck, I looked for a setting to deal with that, but couldn't find any.. I don't think it is normal to do that - I mean if it does it now, how about in Europe??

Maybe I am making an obvious beginner's mistake... I would appreciate any hint. By the way, it's a 2.213 version with 715 map (I saw 720 is offered as the newest map - and for Europe it seems it went from 1.5MB to 1.8MB, so there are some additions - however, when I try my 'latest map guaranteed' option / one time in 30 days / I get the message that my map is the most recent one.. and any map updates give me the same 715 instead of 720.. why?)

One last thing: I tried to change the preferrence for the routing from 'the fastest' to 'avoid tolls' AFTER I made the itinerary.. after the change, it kept giving me recalculated ones through the same 'toll' part.. I tried ten times, the same, it didn't want to take into account the change in prefference.. this is really dumb, in my oppinion, I should be able to force a recalculation any way I want..

Anyways, my question is: why the heck the voice stopped across the border?

just a suggestion I don't know if this is the case but it could be that you have the voice as a european voice rather than a USA voice in other words it is in metric . I don't know if that makes a difference but it might be ?? Also do you have your units of mesure set as metric or US ??

I have the 920 that I bought in Florida this past winter and while using it coming back to Canada I had it set up with US units of mesure & US voice and it worked perfect.

As for your map you will need to get in contact with TT support and then you will need to send them a copy of you mpa guarantee & invoice then they will put the latest Maps in you TomTom support file that you can download.
I have the latest North America & Europe maps that I down loaded that way.

The way I set up my 920 is I bought a 4GB sandisk Card and then just draged my NA map to my desk top then copied the remainder of my TT internal memory to the SD card then I deleted the European map from the internal memory. Then drug the NA map back to the internal memory thus leaving me with about 1700 mg free on both the internal & sd card. That way I can switch between maps as I like.

 

[seldon]

Thanks, GarCor

>>I don't know if this is the case but it could be that you have the voice as a european voice rather than a USA voice in other words it is in metric . I don't know if that makes a difference but it might be ?? Also do you have your units of mesure set as metric or US ??

I hope it could be smth simple as that. However, the computer voice is american (susanne), and with my metric settings worked just fine in Canada. At the beginning seemed strange, but I guess since I can easily use any system (born metric, work imperial) I just had it showing distances in meters, while the voice would tell them in miles/ yards.. so it might not be that.. I'm also thinking that its recalculation loop might be because I chose (when returning) a simple 'navigate to' (Home) instead of doing any itinerary.. maybe it needed some guidance to know that it starts from US, and not Canada.. it might also be a bug on this release, 2.213.. beats me!

Yes, I sent my complain regarding the maps' versions to TomTom already.. and I do also have that forever-push-to-start bug I read about on a thread.. I don't know, sometimes its smartness seems to be its weakest point, and I'll tell you why: it's either you implement a really smart program, or forget it, it's going to rain loose with bugs and other rats at some point..

 

[46jimbo]

From my experience travelling in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, it makes absolutely no difference which voice you choose or whether you choose metric or not. All the variations should work!

It seems strange that the unit didn't want to work well in the U.S. Just a thought: if you chose 'No tolls', then isn't it impossible to get back to Canada, because the bridge is a toll bridge? Maybe this is what threw the unit into a tizzy.

In any case, try experimenting around home with switching voices, metric, etc. It should all work.

Remember when you get to Europe, you have to 'Switch maps'. Before you leave home, you can check out routes, save favourites, make itineraries etc. You can do all this before you leave on your trip

 

[seldon]

Hei.. the change of preference from fastest to no toll was made after I made the itinerary (if you recall I said the return was done with a simple navigate to Home.. I was on my way (passing already a couple of y points) when I changed the preference, and there were plenty of 'no toll' posibilities at that moment. no intermediary destinations or y points asked for that particular segment of toll road, there was no reason absolutely for the uni not to comply with my change.. but it didn't, it just kept giving me variations including that toll segment.. I think a momentary work-around would be to ask to avoid that segment, but it makes it complicated, you need to stop the car and operate the change by choosing an alternate road, when it is supposed to be smart enough to understand what you want. This is a bug, hopefully it will be taken care of

The looping was done at the border, on the island, It didn't know where the heck it was.. or it could be that you are right, my setting to avoid toll gave him no solution. I am wondering though if toll_border = toll_road for the unit, since the road actually is not a toll one, only the bridge is..

 

[GarCor]

Thanks, GarCor

>>I don't know if this is the case but it could be that you have the voice as a european voice rather than a USA voice in other words it is in metric . I don't know if that makes a difference but it might be ?? Also do you have your units of mesure set as metric or US ??

I hope it could be smth simple as that. However, the computer voice is american (susanne), and with my metric settings worked just fine in Canada. At the beginning seemed strange, but I guess since I can easily use any system (born metric, work imperial) I just had it showing distances in meters, while the voice would tell them in miles/ yards.. so it might not be that.. I'm also thinking that its recalculation loop might be because I chose (when returning) a simple 'navigate to' (Home) instead of doing any itinerary.. maybe it needed some guidance to know that it starts from US, and not Canada.. it might also be a bug on this release, 2.213.. beats me!

Yes, I sent my complain regarding the maps' versions to TomTom already.. and I do also have that forever-push-to-start bug I read about on a thread.. I don't know, sometimes its smartness seems to be its weakest point, and I'll tell you why: it's either you implement a really smart program, or forget it, it's going to rain loose with bugs and other rats at some point..

I am not sure what you mean by push forever to start but I know mine takes a little time to start or Boot up after pushing start button but so does my 3 year old Magellan.

If you have your unit backed up you might want to down load a newer verson of the navacore application I am using 7.481

I know when I first got my unit about 5 mts ago I called the TT support team and they helped me out with a few bugs I had with my unit or at least bugs with me understanding the unit

I found them to be very helpfull
If you don't have there # here it is 866 486 6866

One other thing is before you go to Europe you might want to go to Google maps with Tyre program and plan your route with it and download it to your TT rather than planing it with your 920.

 

[FvR]

Trip to Eurpe

I bought this 920 two weeks ago and I am trying to familiarize myself with the device because in 2 wks I'll try my luck in Europe.. I hope I don't get lost! )

I went with my kids to Niagara Falls, and I said what a heck, why not try it across the border - goat island is 5 minutes away.. once I crossed the border, the (computer) voice stopped, and I had only arrow indications.. it managed to find the park on the goat island (I had an itinerary) and I had good enough (visual) direction to find it without problems. When we left.. boy! it was crapping out, it didn't know where it was, and it was like in some kind of loop, recalculating every minute or so.. once I crossed into Canada, everything returned to normal...

What worried me most was not that it lost its 'cool', but that the voice stopped talking across the border! what a heck, I looked for a setting to deal with that, but couldn't find any.. I don't think it is normal to do that - I mean if it does it now, how about in Europe??

Maybe I am making an obvious beginner's mistake... I would appreciate any hint. By the way, it's a 2.213 version with 715 map (I saw 720 is offered as the newest map - and for Europe it seems it went from 1.5MB to 1.8MB, so there are some additions - however, when I try my 'latest map guaranteed' option / one time in 30 days / I get the message that my map is the most recent one.. and any map updates give me the same 715 instead of 720.. why?)

One last thing: I tried to change the preferrence for the routing from 'the fastest' to 'avoid tolls' AFTER I made the itinerary.. after the change, it kept giving me recalculated ones through the same 'toll' part.. I tried ten times, the same, it didn't want to take into account the change in prefference.. this is really dumb, in my oppinion, I should be able to force a recalculation any way I want..

Anyways, my question is: why the heck the voice stopped across the border?

Not sure why your voice stopped working. however, I just came back from Holland last week using my TT920 and it worked just fine. I have the V.720 European map with V. 7.481 I used various voices and they all worked OK. I was not able to get the text to speech to work there however. Probably cause I didn't have the Dutch language downloaded????

 

[a.b.normal]

Just playing with the 920 and noticed the under speech preferences there is a "read aloud foreign street names" ,possible you didn't have this selected?

 

[seldon]

no, actualy I had the settings OK.. I think it might be a bug in the software version I am using.. I mean I think this is it because otherwise it behaves as it should. I've finally got an answer from them regarding the 720 (newest) map - I got it for free, but it seems to me it should have worked better, without wasting time with it..

 

[F22]

I may not have fully read the entire thread but did you change MAPS and/or COUNTRIES when you crossed the border? You did go from the US maps to the CANADIAN maps and it might be necessary to tell the TT to load Canada. It might be possible that the "voice data" for Canada is not found as you cross the border.

Or I might be wrong it you did change. But being just over the border you might not have found it necessary.

I'm trying to remember our Feb trip from WA State to BC and back and what we did but I know we had voices while up there - my friends kept kidding me about TT!!!!!

 

[seldon]

so now I have a new sofware release with maps 720.. I'm sure stuff will work out, otherwise you'll hear from me when I come back.. BTW, there is one map on tt920 for both canada and us, so you don't have to change any maps..