Trouble with auto switch day/night brightness

[Deanster]

I'm having problems as well with my VIA 1505T. Seems no matter what I try the unit will not switch automatically to night colors when it is dark. I've done both a hard and soft reset, as well as torning the feature on and off on the brightness screen setting. No luck! Any other suggestions? I'm about ready to take it back to the store....

Thanks!

Deanster

 

[Andy_P]

Are you ever seeing it change?

These new models don't have a light sensor, so they can only change to night colours at a certain time of day. (another great TomTom improvement!)

There's a look-up table to tell it the approx. time of dusk, but it's never terribly accurate. You obviously need the clock set correctly for it to work, and I think you need a good GPS connection/lock as well.

 

[Deanster]

Sounds like you are correct about it having no light sensor - I can't find one anywhere. I also can't seem to find a table might to set the times for day and night - any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!

Deanster

 

[Andy_P]

The table is built into the software. There's no way you can get at it to edit it or even see it.

It's supposed to be clever enough to compensate for your Latitude and daylight saving time etc. but to my mind, it always switches over to "night" a bit too late in the evening, and also switches back a bit late in the morning.

But the main issue with it is that if you switch on in bright morning sunlight, it stays in "night" mode until it has got that satellite lock and checked the time from the satellites (so it's not even using it's internal clock) which means the screen is very dim when you want to use it straight away.

Have you found out yet if it is changing over at all if you've got the right time and a satellite lock?

 

[Deanster]

I have never seen it change on its own - I've always done it manually. I'm new to GPS and not sure how i would know if i have the "right time" and "satellite lock". I have the clock set correctly - but how do I know if I have a satellite lock?

Maybe dumb questions?

Thanks for the help and patience!

Deanster

 

[Andy_P]

No questions are dumb, except the ones you don't ask

On the old models the display went grey until you had a satellite lock.

On the new Go's and VIAs it will say "Waiting for GPS signal..." in the centre section of the bar at the bottom of the screen.
While it's saying that, it will never change brightness.

If you want to be geeky, you can go to Settings / GPS Status (or sometimes it's Settings / Connections / GPS Status ) to see a pretty picture of the satellites in the sky. No practical use, but a bit of fun!

 

[Deanster]

Thanks for the info - Yes I do in fact have a satellite lock and still have never seen the color change automatically. I sent an email to TomTom as well asking for assistance - we'll see what happens. I'm wondering if my VIA has a bug.

Thanks!

 

[Andy_P]

Hmm, can't think of anything else to try so far.
If it was an old model, we could try reinstalling the software, but in a VIA you'd have to ask TT to do it via MyTomTom (and I don't know if they have the systems in place to do that on demand yet!)

 

[251]

I go on long road trips at both day and night. My GO 2535 and XXL 540 both automatically change the brightness around dawn/dusk. I usually notice the change as my night brightness is set low as it will go so it's noticeable compared the day brightness setting when the change occurs.

 

[Deanster]

Very interesting response I received from TomTom regarding my VIA and automatic color changing, or lack of :

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"We are sorry to inform you that TomTom does not have the feature to automatically change from day to night colours. It will be available in the near future. We cannot provide you the ETA for the availability of this feature.

We are receiving lot of requests from customers regarding the same query and we have already forwarded them to our Product Development team for further review. We take all customer feedback received very seriously in the future development of our products. Suggestions are gathered and organized to understand the areas our customers are most interested in enhancing.

Our Product Managers review all feedback to determine future enhancements and products. Many of our current products and updates offer features based on customer suggestions.

In order to be kept informed of current developments, we suggest you to subscribe to our Newsletter. For more information, please click on the link provided below. If you are unable to click on the link, please copy and paste it into your internet browser"

http://www.tomtom.com/2091

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Sounds to me like TOMTOM had planned on having this feature on the newly released VIA series, but for whatever reason it didn't happen. Looks like it will though. Not a big deal, but would be a nice feature to have, especially since there exists a button in the settings to enable it!

Deanster

 

[Andy_P]

That seems very odd.... If the VIAs don't have it I think they would be the first not to.

I sent mine back quite a while ago, but don't remember it being a missing feature.

Can anyone else with a VIA confirm or deny this?

 

[Deanster]

I went back and asked TT if in fact the VIA does not have the auto color change feature as they stated, then why is there a button to activate it? The response I received was they were wrong, it DOES have an auto color change feature, and then game me instructions on how to activate it. Geeeeeez! I know how to check the box to activate it - my problem is it doesn't work. Every message seems to start the whole discussion all over again!!!! Frustrating! Stay tuned!