About to Order a 540 TM - A Couple of Questions

[donut1953]

I recently bought a new 540tm but after having to reset the unit too many times I returned it to amazon for a new one.. Amazon did not have anymore 540tms in stock so I requested a refund.. After a little research and some info from these forums I decided on a 335tm instead.. Personally I do not find much difference in viewing the 4.3 screen compare to the 5.0 screen.. I also decided to drop the mexico maps since the closest to mexico I will ever get will be Arizona..

I did make the switch from my garmin nuvi 350 to the tt 335tm.. The one item on the garmin I used to enjoy was they would show poi such as state parks, golf courses, and names of bodies of water which appear on both sides of the road in which you were traveling.. I find tt screen with green on one side of the road and brown on the other side of the road you are traveling to be very boring and blah..

 

[canderson]

If the flash memory is sort of "designed" to last not more than a couple of years....

It doesn't exactly have a "shelf life". Most flash is good to at least 100,000 writes these days (far more if they manage the location of writes carefully like a thumb drive or SD card does), and if the TT has any sense, it only writes the current state of the unit at power down. When running, it loads what it needs into DRAM and works with that until power down, and then, only things that have changed (any of your configs, your destinations, etc.) should be rewritten to flash.

 

[Ged]

Single Country Maps & 540TM

I doubt they're an option systematically, but if they give you trouble in a few years, you may be able to sweet-talk Tomtom phone support into getting you the single-country maps. Phone support has been known to make exceptions as long as they seem fair - and it seems fair to ask for a smaller map.

Also, map prices are dropping dramatically as costs go down with automated user-anonymous-data sourcing. So in a few years, if may cost near nothing to purchase the smaller maps too.

Thank you for your comments mvl, appreciate it. Ged

 

[donato]

Mulit-routing on XXL 540 series?

Does the XXL 540 series have a multi-routing feature?

 

[dhn]

What exactly do you mean by mult-route? If you mean itinerary planning, then yes..

 

[rustybirman99]

I think Donato might mean if you enter many addresses, does it sort them in the most efficient order without back tracking ? I would like to know that if that was not what he meant !! Thanks.

 

[gatorguy]

RustyBirman, no Tomtom auto-sorts or optimizes routes. There are two 3rd party websites I'm aware of that will sort your waypoints for you so that you can then reload them as an itinerary, but it cannot be done on the gps itself unlike some competitors. Inconvenient if you need the feature and it can't be resorted/optimized if you're mid-journey and there's a change. In reality tho, it is a seldom used option even on the Garmin's, Magellan's and Motonavs that support it directly. If you work on the road in sales, delivery or real estate it might be a feature to look for. But for general day to day use for most, you may seldom if ever use route optimization or the lesser route sorting.

 

[donato]

The Garmin website describes what I mean by multi-routing for the nuvi 1450:
"n?vi 1450 includes advanced navigation features to take the worry out of traveling. With route planning you can save 10 routes, specify via points and preview simulated turns on the 1450's large screen. In addition, n?vi 1450 automatically sorts multiple destinations to provide an efficient route for errands, deliveries or sales calls. A trip log provides an electronic bread crumb trail of up to 10,000 points, so you can see where you've been on the map."
Can the XXL 540 series do this too? It is a feature that I like, but I could not find anything on the TomTom site to describe this feature. Thanks!

 

[rustybirman99]

Thanks for the quick reply Gatorguy. I thought Garmin cut out that option after the 7x5 series, except maybe on the 1690 ? Actually I would set up my itinerary on Streets and Trips beforehand and optimize it so I wouldn't use it much either. Does the Navigon 7200T have it ? I never bothered to look for it.

Anyway, I went to TT Home and downloaded an arrival phrase, but it didn't sound when I arrived at my location. I checked and it IS on the GPS, so what am I doing wrong ?
.

 

[dhn]

See here about what folder it must go in:
Create Your Own Content Guide

 

[gatorguy]

I thought Garmin cut out that option after the 7x5 series, except maybe on the 1690 ?

Every Garmin that offers multi-stop routing also offers route optimization.

 

[donato]

Just pulled the trigger on the XXL 540M

After weeks of reading reviews and researching all different kinds of models, I decided that the XXL 540M (with lifetime maps) was the best way to go. It was just $159.95 shipped. After a lousy experience with a Garmin nuvi 650 (which sent me all over creation, including places that did not exist), I want to give the TomTom a chance. Thanks for your help. I'll post my experience with it after I've used it for awhile. Is there anything else I should know or do when it arrives?

 

[dhn]

First thing out of the box......

Make an Explorer, not Home, backup of the unit's contents.

It'll be slow since the 540 is only usb 1.1 compliant, not 2.0. But do it.....

 

[rustybirman99]

dhn:

"I went to TT Home and downloaded an arrival phrase, but it didn't sound when I arrived at my location. I checked and it IS on the GPS, so what am I doing wrong ?"

I looked in the files and saw the arrival phrase I downloaded from TT Home was in #2 & #3 below.
How do I check # 4 ? Thanks.

Creating an arrival sound
1. Record your sound in 22050 Hz Mono, with a sample size of 16-bit, using your preferred sound recording or editing software.
2. Save your sound as arrive.wav.
3. Copy the file to the customvoice folder on your device.
4. Make sure that the recorded voice is enabled in the Voice preferences menu on your device.
.

 

[dhn]

I may have misled you........

While the compatibility guide shows the 540 is capable of handing arrival sounds (see here), in order to have a recorded voice enabled the unit needs a microphone.

And I don't think the 540 has one.........

 

[rustybirman99]

I pulled a prerecorded arrival voice from the TT Home site, so I don't need a microphone. As it does show up in the files you mentioned, I just need to know how i can get it to say that message when arriving. It IS showing as on my "device". Thanks

 

[dhn]

You could try this:

Download the free sound file application AUDACITY from here:
Audacity: Download

Load the arrive.wav file and save as an .ogg file and place the .ogg file directly in sounds folder.

See if that works.

 

[donato]

First thing out of the box......

Make an Explorer, not Home, backup of the unit's contents.

It'll be slow since the 540 is only usb 1.1 compliant, not 2.0. But do it.....

OK, thanks. Anything else? Will I need to update my maps after I do the backup?

 

[dhn]

Yes. Use Home to check for the Latest Map Guarantee. The latest is 850 for your model.