Newbie...be gentle.

[bigspaniard]

Hi All,

Now I am new to the forums and Sat Nav's in general, I am renting a car in the USA and the rental company wanted £70 to rent a device for two weeks, well looking at some of the prices online I could pretty much buy one for that. So I would like to find a device that would pretty much just be used for navigation, wouldnt need the mp3 or bluetooth features or whatever (maybe just change the voice?), just need it for navigation. Having a look on here it seems TomTom's are pretty simple to patch and put 'budget' maps on.
What I would want to do is buy this and then add the maps for the USA, then when I come back be able to use this in the UK and possibly Europe too.

Im not sure if there are model numbers that you cannot patch or if you can just put these maps on to every device? Im pretty good with patching and others things (experience with consoles) but I just wanted advice onthe correct device to buy and what I need to do from there.

One more question, would it be easier to buy a device that has an SD card and keep the seperate maps on these cards and change when needed?

Any help appreciated.

Sorry, just seen this model on Halfords TomTom XL2 IQ Sat Nav - UK & ROI

Any good?

[taffytell]

Hi bigspaniard

Firstly if you intend to use downloaded maps and activate them you will need to stay away from the latest tomtom devices.

This is because I believe on devises after the Go550/750/950 you will be unable to open the device in windows explorer, because of some licencing problem between windows and tomtom. I'm sure tomtom did'nt mind

Unless you are running Linux or something you will need windows explorer to back up, activate, modify or extend your tomtom system.

Also I would only recommend a device that can have the memory expanded with a SD or micro SD card.

I have a 8Gb micro card in a Go550 Live with maps for the whole of Europe, North America and the UK working fine. I understand the SD cards need to be class 6.

By the way you can buy "refurbished" 550 units from tomtom which were not in the cases I've seen refurbished at all but brand new, they just had old maps on them without the chance to update. you can find them here:

_http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/tomtom-outlet-store/go-550-live-regional-refurbished/index.jsp

If you search the web you can often find a PROMO code to reduce the cost by a further 10 or 20%

Good luck

[bigspaniard]

Thanks Taffytell! That helps a lot, I am going for a 550 as in your link and found £15 quid off too so just about the same amount as I was going to pay. I will buy a memory card to have the USA maps on there. Can I then have USA maps and UK without having to change anything and the unit will work wherever I am? MAy need a little help when this arrives?

[taffytell]

bigspaniard, yes you thats correct, all the maps go on the same card you switch maps by tapping the screen and following through;Change preferences; Forward arrow; Forward arrow; Switch Maps; Switch Map: Chose the map you want; Done.

The card is plenty big enough to take full version maps (unlike the XL2 which will only take one reduced info 2GB map, and that also means you cant get the UK and North America map on at the same time) the 8Gb card will also take all the computer voices you need that's the 2 UK male/female and 2 USA male female and any POI files, speed cameras etc.

When travelling in the USA the USA voice is better otherwise the place name pronunciation is strange.

[bigspaniard]

Thakns a lot, im have now received the device and after the epic carling cup win last night I am now free to do this tonight, I will let you know if I get stuck. Could you tell me which versions of the maps I should be looking out for? Also, if there are anything more I need to put on, do I need to find voices seperately etc Cheers.

[saintomer1866]

You can find a few voices to get you started here
https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthread.php?70125-TomTom-Celebrity-Voices&highlight=tomtom+voices
and russell1's MU link is still 'live' 4 years on :)
St.O

[bigspaniard]

OK, where do I start? Do I need to update to latest settings through Home and then p[atched the maps to add them? The latest USA and Canada Maps I have 'acquired' are 865_3261 so do I just need to update with home and then patch the maps to activate them?

[echelon]

OK, where do I start? Do I need to update to latest settings through Home and then p[atched the maps to add them? The latest USA and Canada Maps I have 'acquired' are 865_3261 so do I just need to update with home and then patch the maps to activate them?

that is the usual method , and is what I did on a tom tom one v4 with patched uk maps

[bigspaniard]

Thanks for all of your help, think i seem to have cracked this. UK and USA maps working fine?? I think, soon see when i get out there in a few weeks.

[slarty]

Something to bear in mind when going to the USA; in some states it's illegal to have a satnav (or anything else) on the windscreen. I know California is one of these.

[little_bro]

Something to bear in mind when going to the USA; in some states it's illegal to have a satnav (or anything else) on the windscreen. I know California is one of these.

I never have been pulled over in california for driving with a sat nav on the windscreen? but saying that they do have some funny highway laws.:o13:

[beamon]

OK, where do I start? Do I need to update to latest settings through Home and then p[atched the maps to add them? The latest USA and Canada Maps I have 'acquired' are 865_3261 so do I just need to update with home and then patch the maps to activate them?

Bigspaniard, where did you 'aquire' your USA maps from?

[little_bro]

I've down loaded this usa map 865.3245 has Iq and alg and so far works ok.
h**p://www.wupload.com/file/13334178/NA865.part1.rar
h**p://www.wupload.com/file/13334945/NA865.part2.rar
h**p://www.wupload.com/file/13334736/NA865.part3.rar
h**p://www.wupload.com/file/13334734/NA865.part4.rar

; North_America_2GB_865_3245
C7 50 94 37 ED 54 B3 CB 02 66 63 3F 92 68 D8 2B North_America_2GB-297.****