My TomTom Rider just arrived today...

[Keba]

In TomTom v3 you used to be able to select via properties pages which shortcuts you wanted to appear on which pages so that you could put your most frequently used ones on the first options pages, you didn't need to navigate through 5 pages of shortcuts to get to the one you wanted.

See my post above - have to use a 'hack' to change the menus and I'm not totally certain it will work on the 5.4x software until the new SDK is released.

In TomTom v3 you used to be able to use the GoTo function to go to a specific GPS coordinates - save them as a favourite and then navigate to that favourite.

See same post above - have to create the item as a POI on a computer using various one of various utilities and then put the POI on the TomTom afterwards. This is not SDK dependant and works quite well imo.

One very VERY annoying 'feature' is that as soon as you place it in the cradle and you tap the screen to get to the navigation features it only gives you 4 options. You lose the ability to change from daylight to night colours, you cannot avoid road blocks or navigate around something, you cannot navigate to an address that is not already a favorite. The only way to access these features is to take it out of the cradle - not exactly something you can do while driving or riding your bike!

This should only happen if you are moving - its possible the TomTom thought you were moving and then only displayed the four buttons, but it should fix itself after its sync'd, or after you move a little bit then stop. Personally I would love to see the 'switch day/night' button on that main screen, but I guess the point TomTom are trying to make is this - you shouldn't be concentrating on a small lcd panel and pressing buttons on it whilst moving...

I've noticed too that the RIDER doesn't have ASN whereas the Go does - I'm guessing this is just because the RIDER is much smaller and they couln't fit the hardware that does the ASN calculations in the case - not that its needed imo as the v3 satnav chip hasn't failed me yet and has kept its connection 100% of the time.

I really can't believe they have done this, I really feel cheated that I have bought a newer version of a product and have lost a considerable amount of features. It's a pity not one of the 8 reviews I have read highlighted any of these issues.

Apart from the rather annoying menu change upon moving 'feature', I'm not aware of anything thats majorily different between the RIDER using version 5.4x and the Go using 4.x or 5.x (other than the RIDER of course does work with the bluetooth phones it supports whereas the old Classic didn't). Never saw version 3.x of the Go software, so can't comment there.

To make things a lot better - you cannot charge your Bluetooth headset while using it because as soon as you plug the charger into the headset it switches itself off.

Now that is indeed going to annoy me something cronic - I was hoping like anything to be able to hardwire the receiver onto my bike :/ I will come up with a solution to this problem eventually, don't you worry! Even if it involves creating a pseudo battery that is actually a link to my bikes battery by pulling the bluetooth dongle apart and hopefully not blowing up the dongle when rewiring it - not that I'm any good at that sort of thing, so maybe I'll buy a spare and play with the spare

I do have a spare charger though, so that stays at work and the other stays at home - to charge it both ends of the journey if needed.

TT Support just shrugs their shoulders and says very unsympathetically: 'Thanks for your £600 but you can't do that in this version'.

There is a suggestions area on the TomTom site - I think in the 'Plus' section. I'm going to be suggesting most of my comments above in this and earlier posts, and will no doubt post them again and again every few weeks till they start doing something about it

 

[sn1p3r]

Hey Keba, I have followed your link for the menu hack but only see the following utilities on that page, I see nothing for hacking menu functions?

Autoswitcher
Automatically switch between Day/night colours
SatSync
Sync the Go's clock (hw/sw) with gps satellites.
SetTZ
Allows you to change the 'timezone' used by Autoswitcher and SatSync.
Quickam
Speed cam util

Also, the point I am trying to make is that I never used to have to fuss with creating POI's on the PC and then do a sync. My customers would provide me with coordinates of their locations, I would type them directly into TT v3 and go. No PC required.

In TT v3 there used to be a tick box property pages that allowed you to select exactly which shortcuts you wanted on which pages. There is no longer any such facility.

I really feel that TomTom is playing big brother here - its not for them to decide what is and what isn't safe. I am a 'reasonably' responsible adult with a driving license very capable of identifying safe or dangerous situations. Last night I was driving up from Dover toward London. Just before the A228 there was a massive traffic jam. I could se it coming for about 1.5 miles. I had to remove the Rider frrom the cradle to access the 'Avoid Roadblock' feature, set it to avoid the M20 for 3 miles and it did so, taking me all the way around the jam. Problem is, because it forced me to remove it from the cradle to access that menu (and I was alone in the car) it actually made the situation more dangerous because I need 2 hands to do it all. If I waited till I was stationary (I would have had to stop on the motorway or drive right up to behind the car already in the jam) I would have missed the only turn off available to avoid the jam. Making the feature completely useless in my opinion.

 

[Mike Werner]

So, do we know yet if you can couple the Rider with a Bluetooth equiped helmet. Anything in the documentation, or do you need their BT device ???

 

[Keba]

Hey Keba, I have followed your link for the menu hack but only see the following utilities on that page, I see nothing for hacking menu functions?

Autoswitcher
Automatically switch between Day/night colours
SatSync
Sync the Go's clock (hw/sw) with gps satellites.
SetTZ
Allows you to change the 'timezone' used by Autoswitcher and SatSync.
Quickam
Speed cam util

Also, the point I am trying to make is that I never used to have to fuss with creating POI's on the PC and then do a sync. My customers would provide me with coordinates of their locations, I would type them directly into TT v3 and go. No PC required.

In TT v3 there used to be a tick box property pages that allowed you to select exactly which shortcuts you wanted on which pages. There is no longer any such facility.

I really feel that TomTom is playing big brother here - its not for them to decide what is and what isn't safe. I am a 'reasonably' responsible adult with a driving license very capable of identifying safe or dangerous situations. Last night I was driving up from Dover toward London. Just before the A228 there was a massive traffic jam. I could se it coming for about 1.5 miles. I had to remove the Rider frrom the cradle to access the 'Avoid Roadblock' feature, set it to avoid the M20 for 3 miles and it did so, taking me all the way around the jam. Problem is, because it forced me to remove it from the cradle to access that menu (and I was alone in the car) it actually made the situation more dangerous because I need 2 hands to do it all. If I waited till I was stationary (I would have had to stop on the motorway or drive right up to behind the car already in the jam) I would have missed the only turn off available to avoid the jam. Making the feature completely useless in my opinion.

My fault - I gave the link to the site that the person who posted the 'how to' info uses, thinking it would be there as well.

The post in question which does detail that info is here: http://www.mytomtomgo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2013

Coincidently, you could have searched pocketgps.co.uk and found the info too

In situations where there is a roadblock ahead, I just start a detour that I think will work and let the TomTom autogenerate an alternative route on the fly - it sometimes takes a bit to come up with something other than 'turn around now' but it does work out the new route quite well once its found a shorter way to where you are going.

I'm waiting for somebody to give us the ability to only have the standard menu rather than the driving one once moving - I'm sure somebody will figure it out eventually.

I can't think of any way around the POI/GPSLoc issue (other than TomTom releasing it as a revamped feature sometime in a new firmware edition) than getting a PDA type device that uses SDCards and using that to modify them - mind you, then buying a seperate GPS receiver and just using that with the PDA would probably work just as well given you are in a car... It may also involve having to find a program that actually works on a PDA for doing such a thing (I'm sure the TomTom Navigator people have something already though - probably just a matter of doing a search).

So, do we know yet if you can couple the Rider with a Bluetooth equiped helmet. Anything in the documentation, or do you need their BT device ???

No idea on the bluetooth helmet side of things - I don't have one to play with, and I've not seen anybody who has post anything regarding if it works or not - I'll pipe up if I see somebody post's anywhere...

 

[Mike Werner]

No idea on the bluetooth helmet side of things - I don't have one to play with, and I've not seen anybody who has post anything regarding if it works or not - I'll pipe up if I see somebody post's anywhere...

Keba

Is there anything in the documentation about paring the Bluetooth with an other that TomTom device ??

 

[Keba]

Keba

Is there anything in the documentation about paring the Bluetooth with an other that TomTom device ??

It only refers to the dongle, and only when the dongle is in a 'accept the next device to pair with me as the device I talk to from now on' mode.

I'm not sure if that will work with any other type of dongle - there may be other bluetooth dongles that work that way as well (bluetooth helmets might do that for instance) so if you have a helmet and thats how it works when it's in pairing mode, then its a possiblity....

 

[Keba]

Well so far (even though I'm not a customer yet), I have to say I'm impressed with Autocom's customer service department.

I've been conversing with them (5 emails in 3 days) about connectivity between the Rider and a Autocom unit and they are activly seeking a solution and are still on plan to have something sorted next week. Turns out the delay was TomTom sending a Europe map SDCard to them, so they can't actually test on the roads till the UK map card arrives (hopefully today).

They are looking at the Nokia Bluetooth Car Kit compatibility - no definite news on if that is going to work or not, but its starting to look like its a possiblity based on the email conversations so far. In the end I can always use a cable though - its just not as 'tidy'.

More news as it happens!

 

[(RIP) Shenzi]

Keba, thanks so much for this thread and the detailed info you have given in it. I had convinced myself that Santa had to bring me a Tom Tom Rider, this thread has changed my mind. Maybe I am missing something but the only advantage the Rider appears to have over a 2610 is the 3D display yet it seems to be way behind it in other more important areas. I accept that 'important areas' are subjective.

Regarding Bluetooth, the doohickey that Starcom are selling looks very interesting.

 

[Keba]

Keba, thanks so much for this thread and the detailed info you have given in it. I had convinced myself that Santa had to bring me a Tom Tom Rider, this thread has changed my mind. Maybe I am missing something but the only advantage the Rider appears to have over a 2610 is the 3D display yet it seems to be way behind it in other more important areas. I accept that 'important areas' are subjective.

Regarding Bluetooth, the doohickey that Starcom are selling looks very interesting.

I wasn't quite brave enough to suggest the Starcom bluetooth product to Autocom It did look interesting, but I couldn't find anybody reasonably local that I could enquire as to if it would work with the Rider bluetooth pairing system. Autocom on the other hand are less than 100 miles away from where I live and given the positive customer support experience ever since my first email, I'm defintely going with them.

Once I switched to a 3D view via the TomTom software in the car, I was hooked - I couldn't go back to a 2D view again to be honest. As you say, the pros vs cons of the 2610 vs the Rider is all about what you need it for - the Rider in my case (everybody gives me postcodes and a street number if I'm going somewhere other than work) is more than adequate - the only downside for me is the moving 'dummy' menu which I'm hoping will get modified to an optional setting in a future release. Until then I can cope with it - after all, I didn't have a GPS system on my bike up until now in any case! Lots of GPS systems in cars, just none on motorbikes before.

2610 (no battery) vs Rider (battery) is another consideration to keep in mind though - while I will eventually get my Rider wired into my bike, I can use it on multiple bikes (and cars) without needing to wire in a power supply - my wifes bike for instance doesn't have a 12v socket available, so that would be an issue in of itself...

Horses for courses as the saying goes!

 

[metro]

Keba, thanks so much for this thread and the detailed info you have given in it. I had convinced myself that Santa had to bring me a Tom Tom Rider, this thread has changed my mind. Maybe I am missing something but the only advantage the Rider appears to have over a 2610 is the 3D display yet it seems to be way behind it in other more important areas. I accept that 'important areas' are subjective.

Having both TomTom Go (v. similar to the Rider in terms of functionality) and 2610 there's no way I would use the TomTom on the bike although it's fine in the car. I use the TomTom in the car (bought it before the 2610) and while it is very straightforward it's really only an A to B route planner - stick in the destination and off you go, just what it was designed to do recalculating as necessary. Itinery planning was a fairly recent firmware upgrade and (compared to the 2610) is a bit crappy.

Did 3000 miles around Europe in the summer and could not have planned the routes on the TomTom anywhere as easily as using MapSource and the 2610. Fiddling with the routes and actually planning a trip is not what the TomTom is designed for (imho).

The difference between 2D-3D I find very odd - the only explanation I can come up with is to do with where the GPS is in my field of vision. In the car, the TomTom is at eye(ish) level and the 3D maps fit in with the view through the windscreen. I hate the 2D view in the car. However on the bike, having to look more downwards at the 2D image seems to be more like looking at a map on the floor so doesn't need to relate to the view ahead in the same way. I tried the TomTom on the bike with the 3D view and it just didn't seem 'right'. If the 2610 had 3D maps I don't think I would use them (on the bike).

Agreeing that the importance of the features is subjective, for the bike I would recommend the Garmin every time.

Andy.

 

[(RIP) Shenzi]

2610 (no battery) vs Rider (battery) is another consideration to keep in mind though - while I will eventually get my Rider wired into my bike, I can use it on multiple bikes (and cars) without needing to wire in a power supply - my wifes bike for instance doesn't have a 12v socket available, so that would be an issue in of itself...

Horses for courses as the saying goes!

I don't really see the lack of a battery on the 2610 being a major problem though it would be far more versatile if it had one. Wiring a GPS into most bikes should not present a major problem for those of us lucky enough to have more than one in the garage.
Given that the 2610 is too big to be carried in a shirt pocket and will need to be carried in something larger surely connecting a rechargeable battery to it isn't a much of a problem either. I am sure there are lots of people on this forum able to give advice on what would be a suitable battery and where to buy it. Here in France we can walk around with handbags I will probably give it a miss in Yorkshire though.