Garmin not as good as TomTom

[Ivor Whyn-Brayk]

I have the Garmin 760LM but I actually prefer my old TT Go

 

I know there's a lot of Garministas on this forum so please tell me why you like them?

I'm really interested to hear from folk who have had a TT in the past.

 

The reasons I like the Go v the 760 is the way it displays POIs (and loads them)

I could make an OV2 (e.g Castorama) and transfer it in Windows to the TT directory and the job was done.

If I selected the Castorama POI - it flooded the screen with Icons and i could zoom in to the area around my route. I like the idea that I could see more than one icon several 10s of kms apart

 

With Garmin. (if I've read it right. - I'm still learning) I have to use one directory on the PC to store all my POI stuff and use loader to make one gpi file (with lat long and bitmaps combined) that is then loaded to the unit.

If I want to update "ONE" coordinate, I have to remake the whole gpi file. How daft is that?

 

Then when it comes to display POI I have to go to Custom POI then a category, but I have to plan the category before I create the gpi file and, which seems unnecessarily restrictive.

 

I recently downloaded a bundle of Aires from "Campin Car Infos"

They are categorised as eg "AS" (Aire Service) or "APN" (Aire Parking Nuit) but there are lists for France Andorra Spain Germany, Austria etc etc

 

I tried uploading the French and Andorra set together but this experiment was unsuccessful because when I select Custom POI I get 2 x AS & 2 x APN and 2 x all the other data sets, but you cant tell which one is Andorra and which is France. And when you select any of these POIs, you get a list of names that are totally unfamiliar and you cant view them on a map to get an idea of where they are. So absolutely crap for forward route planning. How daft is that?

 

Please take a look at the attached pic of my Garmin's directory structure. Could my Camping car info be in D4827070A or D4828070A Is "France" a standard folder or did I create it somehow?

 

GArmin says it can accept a main and sub category, but I'm struggling to find a logical way of creating a structure to store all this info. But even if I do, the main problem I have is not being able to view multiple POIs on screen.

 

If you have a new TT Camper model tell me is loading and viewing POI stuff as easy as it was on the old ones?

 

 

[Deffheads]

Hi, I'm not familiar with Tom Tom, but was seduced into buying a Garmin 660ltm and not being great with computer speak, I struggled to get LPG eu locations in POI's, like you I can get a list in custom POI folder but not any icons on screen. Is it possible to set up icons on screen?

[sayeed of the road]

Well you can in Tom tom. But as the Op says, Garmin is a pile of Doo Doo

If you read other Garmin sites , there is great frustration that the European device is not as flexible as the Asian version. Some hackers transplant the Firm ware to make the device do what eg "YOU " want to do.

 

Garmin don't do the obvious as standard. I understand its a liability thing. Garmin are concerned tat if they present a site (which it can do) in the wrong position (which it might do .. but we all know the limitations, its not Magellan is it?... ) then some smart ass might sue for being directed to the wrong branch of Boots

[colin]

I have a newer TT and it's nowhere near as good at handling POI's as the older model.

At first it would not show 3rd party POI's on the moving map, that's now changed, BUT, it won't accept 3rd party icons, so you have a limited number of icons that you can use, then you have to remember what they relate to.

[bolero boy]

on agree with Colin, POI handling on newer Tomtoms is dreadful compared to the total simplicity of previous versions...

I have mangled to (slowly and painfully) load my Aires, Acsi etc POIs to my new Via 62 but the icons on screen are just different colour blobs, not like the great meaningful ones I used to use...

however, I needed a more upto date device/map and it's much better in several ways...

speed of rerouting, rerouting for traffic/accident etc...., side bar that shows upcoming items like petrol stations....

it also links with a app called MyDrive where you can plan a rpute and send it to the device....

this sounds terrific but be aware....it only actually sends the destination, so the TT recalculated the route again....

this is a shame as the app can be tailored to input size of MH and generate best route...but then this is lost when sending to the TT...DOH!.......unless you use this route to identify some waypoints and these will then also get sent.....

....BUT.....the app hasn't got a 'toll/non' toggle so planning abroad (where tolls are far more frequent than at home) can make this a bit more hard work...

just a couple of fairly simple changes to this set up (toll/non in the planning app, proper POI management as before and the ability to sent the full planned route to the TT) would make this a really terrific set up....

as it is, it can be a bit frustrating....

[Solwaybuggier]

We’ve just given up on TomTom Go 1005 (?) Camper - the routing was so bad we just gave up with it. Now got an Avtex One (Garmin 770 rebadged) and so far finding it loads better, apart from the ludicrous “pronunciations” of street names.

 

Each to their own, I guess.

[Bulletguy]

 

I have a TT GO750 and Garmin Camper 760LMT--D. The reason i bought the Garmin was simply because the TT doesn't recognise co-ordinates in certain East European countries. The mapping is in....but try putting a co-ord in and it won't 'read' it.

 

I only discovered this the first time i went to Serbia and Albania so had to rely on hard mapping or Google maps which for a solo traveller is not particularly good!

 

I'm told that current day TT gps have now caught up with Garmin and will read co-ords but apart from one 'blip' i'm more than happy with my Garmin 760.

[starvin marvin]

I have 2 Garmins, don’t ask. Much preferred to my old TT, however I’ve never found the need to install any POI.

[Brian Kirby]

I don't quite understand what the OP is trying to do. I get the impression that he wants to set a route from A to B, and then divert to the odd supermarket while en-route, and to do that he expects to see icons for his preferred supermarket chain appear on his screen, and then to select one at random and divert his route to it. However, I assume he would expect to stop while altering his route?

 

My Garmin is a Nuvi, not a Dezl, so may be arranged differently but, were I wanting to do as I understand the OP wants to do, before leaving for my trip I should have pre-selected a supermarket or two from my POIs, and transferred them to "Favourites" within the category "French supermarkets", and loaded one into the Trip Planner along with A and B. That way I would travel from A to the selected supermarket and, assuming it was open and functioning, from the supermarket to B. If the supermarket turned out to be closed, I would then pause on its car park and amend the route to include the second choice supermarket, proceed to that, and thence to B.

 

But, before doing any of those things, I would have downloaded all my POIs to the Garmin SD card, arranged in a series of function related directories (e.g. French Supermarkets). I do not bother with logos, I just assign one of the inbuilt logos to the POI after it is stored in Favourites to aid identification on screen.

 

My Nuvi has just over 63,000 POIs on its SD card, so the amount of screen clutter that would result from having all local POIs popping up with their logos as we travel would cause visual oblivion, I think! :-)

 

I wonder if the OP has discovered either MapSource or BaseCamp (both free downloads from Garmin), that allow the mapping to be installed onto a PC (either) or Mac (BaseCamp only)? Both programs allow the mapping to be installed onto the computer to view on a decent sized screen, but also POIs to be viewed, managed, moved, and created, in appropriate formats (.gpx or .gdb), where they are easily arranged into computer directories, from which they can be transferred to the Garmin device (via POI loader).

 

The advantage of this is the ability to switch from either program to Google Earth at the same location, to verify that the co-ordinates are accurate (quite a lot aren't! :-D). Then, when they are transferred to the device, one knows one will arrive at the entrance to one's intended destination, rather than some grubby shack a couple of streets away! Saves an awful lot of driving around waving arms at the landscape! :-D

[colin]

I don't have a massive amount of POI's loaded, but I do have them all showing at all times,

 

If I had supermarkets POI's I would also have them all showing, and when entering a route from A to B it would show any super markets enroute leaving me to choose one which was convenient and adding it to route, but leaving the option to easily change supermarket to visit if circumstances should change such as running early/late.

I would note that 32,000 POI's if over several countries are hardly likely to swamp a moving map.