Question re. TomTom for Palm (GPS Navigator)

Hi all.

I recently purchased a Palm GPS Navigator system for my Palm TX
(basically, it's a TomTom bluetooth GPS receiver and software
re-packaged by Palm). The system is working very well, but I have a
few questions regarding the system, so hopefully someone will be able
to offer advice.

First, with the TomTom software, it appears as though regional map
files must be downloaded individually to my SD card. In other words,
it doesn't appear is though there is a single, national map file. From
what I can tell, only one map can be selected, or "active", at a time.
While this isn't a problem for regional navigation, it does seem to
cause a problem if I have the midwest region map selected as my active
map and I want to, for example, plan a trip from Indiana to New York.
While Indiana is included in my selected regional map, the New York map
is on another regional map file, and there doesn't seem to be any way
to selecte a New York location as a destination unless I have the
regional map including New York selected as the active map. Since it
seems as though only one map can be active at a time, is there any way
to plan cross-country journeys with TomTom, or is it only limited to
plotting navigation within the single selected regional map file? Is
there a single, national map file available on one of the CDs for this
(the kit came with 9 CDs)? If so, I haven't been able to find it yet.

Also, I noticed that it's possible to view speed with TomTom, but does
there exist a freeware GPS program for Palm with which I can view other
GPS-derived information, such as altitude, time of day with a second
display, and so on? If so, where can I download such a program?

Finally, every now and then my Palm TX won't lock on to the Bluetooth
GPS receiver's signal. When this happens, I've found that the only fix
is to do a hard reset on my Palm TX by toggling the recessed button on
the back of the handheld. Has anyone else run into this problem, and
if so, is there a good fix for it?

Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help!

indy465@yahoo.com wrote:


On one of the CD's there should be a folder named Major Roads of America
that has all the major roads on it. That includes everything down to
and including the major state and regional highways. You can plan cross
country trips on that map. But you cannot plan a trip from the U.S.
into Canada.


You're right, only one map can be in use at a time and routes must start
and end on that map (not on an adjacent or joining map).

For longer trips you can plan your route on the Major Road map and then
plan a route to the final street level address from the appropriate
regional map after you get closer to the destination.

Any favorites you create are stored in the folder of the regional map
you were using when they are created. That is unfortunate in that you
cannot easily "share" favorites between different regional maps.

One work around I've found for getting favorites from one map to another
is to use Itinerary Planning and add all the Favorites you want to see
on another map to a new itinerary and save it to a name you can
remember. Don't worry about trying to create a route or finishing the
itinerary, just get the Favorites in it and save it.

All itineraries are stored in the same folder (named ITN) and can be
seen and used from any map. When you open an itinerary that has
locations that are not on your map, they are lined out as unusable.

Change to the second map and open the itinerary with the favorites
mentioned above from Itinerary Planning. The Favorites will be seen
listed, you can select each in turn and use the Options, View on Map to
see the location, and then, while viewing them, you can add them to the
Favorites again and they will be in the second folder.

When you place a Favorite at a street address on a regional map and then
use the method above to move it to the Major Roads map the favorite can
be see in the map view as located in an area with no roads unless the
address happens to be on a major road.



Answered above.


Tom Tom does not save any tracks or any of the other data that could be
extracted from the NMEA data from the GPS receiver. That is a stupid
omission in my opinion. I think the Tom Tom software was either
developed by or aimed at users who are not very technically inclined.

I'm not using TT5 or GPS on a Palm, you may be able to find some links
to Palm freeware here under the Third Party Software topic:

http://gpsinformation.net/


Can't help with that, I'm using my TT5 on an iPAQ and with a cabled
receiver.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)