Lots of 720 wierdness

[Froglips]

I have owned an original TomTom Go since it was introduced and it has been simply bullet proof if not very feature rich. I recently decided I really wanted a Bluetooth enabled GPS so picked up a 720 off of Amazon very inexpensively. The car charger died the first week. I have been trying to get a replacement from TomTom. The hoops they are requiring is driving to to just buy a new charger and has soured me to TomTom after a decade of being a loyal and vocal supporter. <rant mode off>

My new 720 performs very unexpectedly in a number of areas that were never a problem with my old Go.

The display screen never dims between commands despite being set for that in preferences. My old one faithfully dimmed between commands and the battery would last a full four hour trip. The new 720 never dims and the battery is good for about 30 minutes. Which brings me to what is with the battery in the 720. After being on the charger over night I unplug it and it show 80% charged.

The volume level is painfully low. Trying to use my iPhone hands free is pretty close to impossible, even sitting in a parking lot. People can't understand me and I certainly can't hear them. The volume on the TomTom is at max and the TomTom voice directions are plenty loud.

The FM output must be someone's idea of a cruel joke. I set it up. It played the TomTom sound at a nice volume through the car speakers. I select OK. The TomTom reverts to the internal speaker immediately.

I have tried the direct wired input. It works well but unfortunately turns off my car radio as soon as you plug in the mini-jack. I suppose I can load songs onto a SD card. The TomTom won't recognize that my iPhone has songs on it so I can't play music from my iPhone and have the wired connection to the car at the same time.

The display never switches to night colors. It appears to know it is night time but it thinks the day colors and night colors are the same.

I thought I would be able to access traffic through my iPhone. It says it can do data but I can't figure out how. I can't enable my account or anything. Feature not supported (900 series only? how did I misread this?)

I enjoy the larger display, the lane guidance, the map corrections, and the new software capabilities in general. Just so much that won't on my old unit that just refuses to on my new 720. The battery life issue is truly a pain. I hate wire drapped all over the car.

 

[doctormstein1]

I have owned an original TomTom Go since it was introduced and it has been simply bullet proof if not very feature rich. I recently decided I really wanted a Bluetooth enabled GPS so picked up a 720 off of Amazon very inexpensively. The car charger died the first week. I have been trying to get a replacement from TomTom. The hoops they are requiring is driving to to just buy a new charger and has soured me to TomTom after a decade of being a loyal and vocal supporter. <rant mode off>

My new 720 performs very unexpectedly in a number of areas that were never a problem with my old Go.

The display screen never dims between commands despite being set for that in preferences. My old one faithfully dimmed between commands and the battery would last a full four hour trip. The new 720 never dims and the battery is good for about 30 minutes. Which brings me to what is with the battery in the 720. After being on the charger over night I unplug it and it show 80% charged.

The volume level is painfully low. Trying to use my iPhone hands free is pretty close to impossible, even sitting in a parking lot. People can't understand me and I certainly can't hear them. The volume on the TomTom is at max and the TomTom voice directions are plenty loud.

The FM output must be someone's idea of a cruel joke. I set it up. It played the TomTom sound at a nice volume through the car speakers. I select OK. The TomTom reverts to the internal speaker immediately.

I have tried the direct wired input. It works well but unfortunately turns off my car radio as soon as you plug in the mini-jack. I suppose I can load songs onto a SD card. The TomTom won't recognize that my iPhone has songs on it so I can't play music from my iPhone and have the wired connection to the car at the same time.

The display never switches to night colors. It appears to know it is night time but it thinks the day colors and night colors are the same.

I thought I would be able to access traffic through my iPhone. It says it can do data but I can't figure out how. I can't enable my account or anything. Feature not supported (900 series only? how did I misread this?)

I enjoy the larger display, the lane guidance, the map corrections, and the new software capabilities in general. Just so much that won't on my old unit that just refuses to on my new 720. The battery life issue is truly a pain. I hate wire drapped all over the car.

make sure in the Volume preferences button you UNCHECK the link volume to noise level
Secondly in the Brightness preference button check the button that says to switch ot night view when dark
I thought that if you had the IPhone you would only be able to use the bluetooth feature with tomtom.with plus services. The application on your iPhone is different then the plus sevices on your 720 hope this was helpful. Maybe others on this forum can help you more. Good luck

 

[dhn]

Just for the heck of it, make sure you HAVE set day colours to be different from night colours.

 

[mikealder]

Which brings me to what is with the battery in the 720. After being on the charger over night I unplug it and it show 80% charged.

You need to have the device on the charger while in use, TomTom supply the charger/ power lead and it is expected to be used, if you run off the battery alone you will suffer from distorted sound and flashing/ pulsing backlight as the charge state decays.

The volume level is painfully low. Trying to use my iPhone hands free is pretty close to impossible, even sitting in a parking lot. People can't understand me and I certainly can't hear them. The volume on the TomTom is at max and the TomTom voice directions are plenty loud.

For hands free with your iFone make a call via the device and then tap the lower left corner of the display, adjust the volume up as the handsfree audio level is only accessible while you are within a handsfree call, it is seperate to the normal device volume (even though it looks the same).

The FM output must be someone's idea of a cruel joke. I set it up. It played the TomTom sound at a nice volume through the car speakers. I select OK. The TomTom reverts to the internal speaker immediately.

Depending upon the version of Navcore software you have installed the Navigation instructions may/ may not come via the FM Tx, the most recent Navcore (8,351) requires you to have an mp3 audio track playing before the navigation instructions can be heard over the FM Tx (European law - not applicable in the USA but the Navcore software isn't region specific).

I have tried the direct wired input. It works well but unfortunately turns off my car radio as soon as you plug in the mini-jack. I suppose I can load songs onto a SD card. The TomTom won't recognize that my iPhone has songs on it so I can't play music from my iPhone and have the wired connection to the car at the same time.

You need the iPOD lead to connect the iFone to your TomTom then it will control the music, I would just insert a large SDHC card in the TomTom, create a folder named "mp3" (all lower case and without the "") then put your music tracks in to it, saves having even more wires strewn around the car.

The display never switches to night colors. It appears to know it is night time but it thinks the day colors and night colors are the same.

As per the above post by "dhn" select two different colour schemes to see if the difference is easier to spot, there are also brightness preferences that you should take a look at.

I thought I would be able to access traffic through my iPhone. It says it can do data but I can't figure out how. I can't enable my account or anything.

Nope - iFone is useless for data connection to a TomTom, the TomTom requires the Bluetooth DUN profile, the iFone doesn't support this so it will never work - consider a better phone if you really need this capabilty (and yes I do use an iFone - I just don't like it very much).

I enjoy the larger display, the lane guidance, the map corrections, and the new software capabilities in general. Just so much that won't on my old unit that just refuses to on my new 720. The battery life issue is truly a pain. I hate wire drapped all over the car.

Consider wiring the charger cable in behind the dash, I have a rather neat installation with no wires showing from my 940 even though there are aerial cables, Line out, Power and RDS-TMC connected to this:



No wires and a neat install, its not too difficult when you give it a little thought as to where the cables can be routed - Mike

 

[Froglips]

Just for the heck of it, make sure you HAVE set day colours to be different from night colours.

Yep The original GO defaults to a night color scheme. Apparently that got changed sometime over the past ten years.

Check one issue. Thanks!

 

[Froglips]

make sure in the Volume preferences button you UNCHECK the link volume to noise level
Secondly in the Brightness preference button check the button that says to switch ot night view when dark
I thought that if you had the IPhone you would only be able to use the bluetooth feature with tomtom.with plus services. The application on your iPhone is different then the plus sevices on your 720 hope this was helpful. Maybe others on this forum can help you more. Good luck

OK. Unchecked the link volume to noise level...that was counterintuitive.

I can't use Plus services through my iPhone. Apparently (another poster) it is not compatible.

Thanks!

 

[Froglips]

You need to have the device on the charger while in use, TomTom supply the charger/ power lead and it is expected to be used, if you run off the battery alone you will suffer from distorted sound and flashing/ pulsing backlight as the charge state decays.

Wow, that is a downgrade. The original GO would run for hours off the battery. Why have a battery if the unit must be plugged in? Oh well. Beautiful installation.

For hands free with your iFone make a call via the device and then tap the lower left corner of the display, adjust the volume up as the handsfree audio level is only accessible while you are within a handsfree call, it is seperate to the normal device volume (even though it looks the same).

Got it. Just never tapped for volume on the 720 during a call. Kept trying to turn up volume on phone thinking that was the issue.

Depending upon the version of Navcore software you have installed the Navigation instructions may/ may not come via the FM Tx, the most recent Navcore (8,351) requires you to have an mp3 audio track playing before the navigation instructions can be heard over the FM Tx (European law - not applicable in the USA but the Navcore software isn't region specific).

That is a dysfunctional design to be sure. Love those legislation driven designs. Sounds like I should not have upgraden to the lastest version. Is there a hack to fix this design or a place to load the earlier version of Navcore?

You need the iPOD lead to connect the iFone to your TomTom then it will control the music, I would just insert a large SDHC card in the TomTom, create a folder named "mp3" (all lower case and without the "") then put your music tracks in to it, saves having even more wires strewn around the car.

OK. I have a 16gb card I can donate to the 720.

Nope - iFone is useless for data connection to a TomTom, the TomTom requires the Bluetooth DUN profile, the iFone doesn't support this so it will never work - consider a better phone if you really need this capabilty (and yes I do use an iFone - I just don't like it very much).


Consider wiring the charger cable in behind the dash, I have a rather neat installation with no wires showing from my 940 even though there are aerial cables, Line out, Power and RDS-TMC connected to this:



No wires and a neat install, its not too difficult when you give it a little thought as to where the cables can be routed - Mike

Where did you purchase the mounting plate with the docking plug?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[mikealder]

The mount is two seperate bits of kit, the part that clamps around the airvent is made by Brodit, it is known as a Pro-Clip and is attached to the car with no screws/ drilling etc so if/ when its removed there is no damage to the cars trim. The docking shoe is specific to the x40 model range and is available from TomTom in Europe (not too sure if the part is available in the USA as yet).

For the x20/ x30 devices there is an active (Powered) mount made by CarComm see Here for some additional details, this can attach to the windscreen or a Brodit Pro-Clip.

As for the Navcore version, it is possible to roll back to an earlier Navcore, BUT if you have updated the map then you might have problems, tap the sat strength meter followed by the version box and the resultant screen will show you lots of information, what version is your map? - Once I know this I can offer some links to get the older Navcore software for your device - Mike

 

[mvl]

Wow, that is a downgrade. The original GO would run for hours off the battery. Why have a battery if the unit must be plugged in? Oh well. Beautiful installation.

Tomtom made a decision starting with the 720 series to shrink the battery. They assume people prefer lighter/smaller devices rather than ones that can last a long time unplugged. Plus the IQroutes feature and realtime traffic really strain the CPU which results in even more power drain.

OK. Unchecked the link volume to noise level...that was counterintuitive.

This is a bug introduced in application 8.350. Auto-adjust is supposed to tune the sound based on the ambient noise that the microphone hears. My guess is that they mistuned the microphone so the Tomtom always thinks it's quiet. So auto-adjust plays sound really low.

That is a dysfunctional design to be sure. Love those legislation driven designs. Sounds like I should not have upgraden to the lastest version. Is there a hack to fix this design or a place to load the earlier version of Navcore?

New technology (time-of-day IQroutes) was introduced in map 815, and it needs a newer (FM-law-compliant) application to read it. So you have to have a pretty old map (810 or earlier) to be compatible with an application that doesn't have the FM law change. Given the improvements in IQroutes in later maps, I'd recommend using Latest Map Guarantee to get map 830, and "play" the silent MP3 here if you want FM directions without music.