How to configure the TTS function ?

[anon]

Go720. Is there a way to configure the distant that the street name be announced prior to actually arriving at the turn? I find my unit tends to announce the street name only about 25 feet before the turn and that is not enough time for me to maneuver. I got a fair warning ahead of the time that I need to make a turn in unit of measurement but without the street name until very late. sometime I was right at the middle of intersection. I don't look at the unit while driving but rely solely on its TTS function to guide me around.

Thanks.

--anon

 

[dhn]

There is no way to adjust the distance ahead of time to the next street turn. Other than slowing down, there isn't much resolution to that.

You can adjust how far in advance you hear an audio warning to an upcoming poi.

 

[anon]

Thanks for your help. I am guessing that my go720 is probably off target by a good 100 feet or more on average because of the announcement is so close to the street to turn to. It shows average of 4-8 satellites connected at any given time. This probably has been asked many times before but since I am at it, I might as well ask--is there anyway to disable the 3 minutes auto shutdown? I connect mine via a regular (and the dock) usb cable to listen to musics and occasionally learning all its options on the unit. Also, to your best knowledge does the go720 comes with speech recognition stuff? Is there anyway I can just email you without posting all my silly questions on in the forum? Thanks. --anon

 

[dhn]

It's built in to the application that if it doesn't sense movement of the unit for X amount of time, it performs a shutdown. However, X is supposed to be closer to 30 minutes than 3 minutes.

Yes, 720's DO have VR capabilities. You must have application 7.221 or higher (which no doubt you have), North America map 710 or higher (which no doubt you have), a bunch of cspeechxx.dat files in your NA folder (which you should have --- use Explorer and take a look), and a text file called support_asr.dat with just a 1 in it, nothing else that resides in your asr folder (which you may have, take a look. If not, create such a file with Notepad).

Your questions are not silly and I (along with other mods) prefer questions are NOT sent privately but, rather, are posted in the approopriate forums here. That way, others learn and can and do help.

 

[spook45]

I have heard that some Tom Tom models will exhibit slow announcements if there are a large number of POI icons shown on the map screen. If you have POI category icons being shown on the map screen you might want to reduce the number to just a category or two.

 

[anon]

Auto shut down in 3 minutes: I was able to play music for hours and not touching the go720 right until after I started to used it with the car charger. I seems there is a cron job going behind the scene, too bad most files aren't Ascii. I guess, it wrote a new config file to assume that it will always use car charger to operate it.

VR: I updated per your and Guttyboy instructions and work fine with the latest App and Map. I don't see a single 'cspeech*' in the NA; but, now at least I get to see two extra icons 'Spoken Address' and 'Spoken Address dialog' per your instruction and both are gray out. Went to HOME and ran update but no 'cspeech*' files to be found. Thanks. --anon

 

[anon]

Thank Spooke45, I know how to remove POI cat from the POI but not from the MAP, how do I do that?

Thanks. --anon

 

[dhn]

Manage POIs-->Show on Map, uncheck the categories you don't want. I think that's the process. don't have my unit here to check.

 

[doctormstein1]

Go720. Is there a way to configure the distant that the street name be announced prior to actually arriving at the turn? I find my unit tends to announce the street name only about 25 feet before the turn and that is not enough time for me to maneuver. I got a fair warning ahead of the time that I need to make a turn in unit of measurement but without the street name until very late. sometime I was right at the middle of intersection. I don't look at the unit while driving but rely solely on its TTS function to guide me around.

Thanks.

--anon

It should tell you at 2 miles that a turn is coming then at one half mile and then when near depending on your speed

 

[anon]

I think that's what I got, too, but the announcing of the street name doesn't come until very near the street to turn to. Go by distant in measurement isn't reliable because the go720 itself is off target. Today I deliberately went off its route for at least 10 minutes (parallel to the main street at least 1/4 mile away) before it picked up where my new location was and re-route me back to its original route. This is pretty lame when it comes to dealing with parallel roads along the route. For now, I find that it doesn't do well in the city address. I went from Fairfax,VA into DC , around 17xx on P street, it managed to get me there at the corner of 17 & P and announced that I had reached my destination; but I am not complaining for what I have paid for it. 'dhn', thank for the POI fix.

Thanks.
--anon

 

[doctormstein1]

I think that's what I got, too, but the announcing of the street name doesn't come until very near the street to turn to. Go by distant in measurement isn't reliable because the go720 itself is off target. Today I deliberately went off its route for at least 10 minutes (parallel to the main street at least 1/4 mile away) before it picked up where my new location was and re-route me back to its original route. This is pretty lame when it comes to dealing with parallel roads along the route. For now, I find that it doesn't do well in the city address. I went from Fairfax,VA into DC , around 17xx on P street, it managed to get me there at the corner of 17 & P and announced that I had reached my destination; but I am not complaining for what I have paid for it. 'dhn', thank for the POI fix.

Thanks.
--anon

At the 2 mile area, i do most of the time get the name of the exit or street for the next turn, Not so much at the half mile but again the name when close

 

[Arno]

There is no way to adjust the distance ahead of time to the next street turn. Other than slowing down, there isn't much resolution to that.

It's not as easy as that.
I was in Kingston, ON today going down a street at about 20 km/h. The arrow for the left turn at the second street displayed and I said to SWMBO "I could swear that I have a computer voice active but there is no street announcment. " Waiting for the uncoming traffic to clear, I made the left turn and at that moment the Kate announced the street name.

Previously, on the 401 it displayed [617 EXIT], no name of the street and the voice was "Take the exit" although the exit is clearly marked as Division St.
Since I did not need directions to get home I never switched on the device after that.

Sitting here and typing this I brought it in, went to brows images and went backwards to the turn off and now, lo-and-behold, it shows the proper sign, see attachment.

I presume that the improper dispaly and belated street name announcements (and now getting map enlargements instead of scree prints) may be cause by the OS 8.350+
Cheers,
Arno

 

[dhn]

I'm aware that the TT does not always announce the name of the next street as it should........think I knew the reason ..... once!

 

[mvl]

There's a preference (I think in voice preferences) that can enable/disable early warning of a turn.

Perhaps you have it off. The Tomtom should give you repeated warnings:

1) about 1-2 minutes away (depending on speed)
2) about 30 seconds away (depending on your speed)
3) at the turn

I haven't changed that preference in a while, but I think it shuts off #1 and #2.

Also, make sure you aren't on app 8.300 or 8.301. Those two versions have slow street announcements.

 

[GarCor]

Go720. Is there a way to configure the distant that the street name be announced prior to actually arriving at the turn? I find my unit tends to announce the street name only about 25 feet before the turn and that is not enough time for me to maneuver. I got a fair warning ahead of the time that I need to make a turn in unit of measurement but without the street name until very late. sometime I was right at the middle of intersection. I don't look at the unit while driving but rely solely on its TTS function to guide me around.

Thanks.

--anon

You should see on the top of you screen the next turn you must take after you pass each turn on you route as well as how far it is to that turn..( if you have show next street name in your street name preferences..) In your voice preferences you have the option to disable early warning instructions and if you have this box checked it will only give you the warning when you are just about at your turn where as if you have this box unchecked it will warn you well ahead of time depending the speed you are traveling it can be as much as 2 ++ miles aread..

 

[Arno]

There's a preference (I think in voice preferences) that can enable/disable early warning of a turn.
[ ... ]
Also, make sure you aren't on app 8.300 or 8.301. Those two versions have slow street announcements.

I am on 8.351 but have no option for Speech preferences and don't remember how to activate that option in the Voice preferences menu.

 

[dhn]

Under Change Voice-->make a selection, even if it is the one you are using, and I think it leads to other options. (haven't my unit here to test).

 

[Arno]

Under Change Voice-->make a selection, even if it is the one you are using, and I think it leads to other options. (haven't my unit here to test).

I am using the computer voice Kate. Under Change voice or Enable voice I don't get any option to use a computer voice so I won't be trying that right now.
As an after thought I disconnected the device from HOME, tapped voices and lo-and-behold, the computer voices became available options. Selected Kate and you are right, the Speech selection option becomes available.
At this point I went for a coffee, guided by the 930.

Perhaps you have it off. The TomTom should give you repeated warnings:
1) about 1-2 minutes away (depending on speed)
2) about 30 seconds away (depending on your speed)
3) at the turn

Under Speech selection I untagged Disable early warning instructions ('ahead left turn') but I do not see timed selection options.
The result is odd as announcements are made at metric and metric equivalents to imperial distances .It will state 400 m (1/4 mile) but also 1 km and 500 m and then again 800 m (1/2 mile).
It has not changed announcing the actual turn too late. For the next turn, an on ramp to the freeway, it announced right turn 800 m (plus name), then again right turn 400 m (plus name) but, as I was making the turn it announced right turn 50 m (165 feet). That precisely would have gotten me onto the freeway into the opposite direction.
Cheers,
Arno

 

[mvl]

You found and unchecked the proper preference.

Certain metric speech is due to the units preference, and other metric speech is due to the language chosen. Kate is UK english which means a lot of what she says is metric. I use Susan (US English) and set my units to miles and never hear metric speak.

I get warnings in time for my turns in time. Perhaps you can minimize the displayed POI categories to speed up CPU processing.

 

[Arno]

You found and unchecked the proper preference.

Only after giving up and following Dave's suggestion.

Certain metric speech is due to the units preference, and other metric speech is due to the language chosen. Kate is UK english which means a lot of what she says is metric. I use Susan (US English) and set my units to miles and never hear metric speak.

It appears that I have not expressed myself properly. There is no imperial/metric mix in the dimensions given by Kate. The odd part is in the values. Sometimes 500 meter and 1 kilometer is given and at other times 400 meter (~= 1/4 mile) and 800 meter (~= 1/2 mile).

I get warnings in time for my turns in time. Perhaps you can minimize the displayed POI categories to speed up CPU processing.

I have not measured the timing or distance of early warnings but, as per the other poster too, the actual turn warning comes too late.

It doesn't bother me as I am more of a visual than aural person; having the device just below the rear view mirror and knowing roughly when to turn.
I do like Jane's concise pronunciation but SWMBO's name being Kathleen I take fiendish delight in showing others my start up screen.
View attachment 2704
Cheers,
Arno