Go 630 Impressions

Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
10
It has been just about a month now since I bought my TomTom GO 630. As someone who has primarily used Garmin devices up until now, I thought I'd share my impressions of the TomTom device. Most of these are things that I don't really care for, but don't let that detract from the fact that my overall feeling towards my purchase is a positive one. These are not in any order of importance as I see them, merely as I remember them.

1.) No trip log. This feature was something that I was VERY grateful for on my last long journey when I borrowed a friend's Garmin. The ability to look back and see how much ground has been covered since you last reset the trip meter really is useeful. It seems strange to me that TomTom did not include such a simple feature.

2.) The other day, my travels took me quite far off the beaten-track to a small restaurant right on the beach. I'd had to take a dirt road to this point which was not on the map. When I tried to add my position to my favourites from my Quick Menu, I received the message, "Poor GPS reception. Are you indoors?" (or something to that effect.) I had full signal at that point. I was able to add the position by going to "Browse Map", and then setting the point on the map as a favourite.

3.) Twice now I have lost my favourites. They have just disappeared completely. It seems to be a result of the device locking up and then rebooting. When it comes back, all my waypoints are gone.

4.) It seems that after a few days, the device refuses to pair with my phone. What I need to do in this case is delete the phone from the device, reset the TomTom, and then re-pair the two.

5.) If I want to add a point of interest, for example a restaurant that I visit regularly, I have to create a new POI category. Strange that I cannot use the built in POI categories that already exist.

6.) I'd like the ability to adjust the volume of the hands-free audio and the navigation audio separately. Often these two volumes differ greatly and I find myself constantly adjusting it.

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully most of these will be sorted out in the near future with software updates.
 
5.) If I want to add a point of interest, for example a restaurant that I visit regularly, I have to create a new POI category. Strange that I cannot use the built in POI categories that already exist.

You should be able to "Add a Missing POI" via the "Map Correction/Map Share" menu rather than the manage POIs menu.
 
Last edited:
1. Go to the 3rd party applicatin forum and take a look at Offroad Navigator and Tripmaster

2. TT's are on road gps units. Even though you could--and did--set a favourite off a road, you'll not be able to set a route to it, only to the nearest road.

3. See the link here provided by SuperMod mikealder as a better way to retain favourites.

5. You have your answer for adding poi's to built in categories.


6. I think the way to do that is make a hands- free call and a separate volume slider appears for you to adjust.
 
Thanks for the replies guys... I'd like to respond to the points raised by dhn.

1.) I have dabbled with some 3rd party applications in the past, and I had quite a bit of fun doing so. That the TomTom devices are so customisable is definitely a plus. However, since the applications really are nowhere near the same sort of quality as the TomTom software, the novelty soon wore off and I was left with a bit of a mess in my root folder. The end result was that I wanted nothing more than to format my unit and get a clean start again. Thanks to a forumite here, I was able to do so with little fuss. My point is, a handy feature such as a trip-meter really should be included by default by TomTom. Few users would be prepared to, let alone know HOW to, install 3rd party applications.

2.) Agreed, I could not route to the exact waypoint, but that should not stop me from being able to mark my exact position. I merely mention this as it is clearly a bug in the software.

3.) Thank you, this is a very useful link. It also explains what is happening to my favourites, though it really is unacceptable on TomTom's behalf that a user must resort to such tactics to keep their favourites after an update.

6.) I will check re. the volume sliders for hands-free calling.

Thanks again for the replies. I wasn't looking / hoping for solutions to all my issues, but was rather hoping that my findings could benefit future users, and / or be noted by TomTom themselves for future software versions.
 
Your favorites shouldn't disappear like that. The problem is that Tomtom stores many of your recent changes in ram and does not commit them to the flash drive unless you power off. Some don't commit until you connect to a computer. So when you get the crash described in #4, anything not written to flash is lost. So you should connect to Tomtom HOME and download updates periodically, you'll get Quickgpsfix which makes your Tomtom pick up a GPS signal very fast, and at the same time you'll force your favorites to be saved to flash.

#4 is a known bug in a recent application update. See this post.
 

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
28,827
Messages
194,366
Members
67,761
Latest member
Onedrifter

Latest Threads

Back
Top