Thought out loud

Yep, that’s right. After doing quite some detours and swearing that I seem to be incapable of finding a place somewhere further away, I’ve finally got myself a Navigation system.

I already had some navigation aids, even TomTom. But it was always installed on a PDA using a Bluetooth GPS receiver. IF it worked, it worked great. But most of the time, there was more hassle than benefit. Usually one of the batteries was empty (Receiver or PDA). If that wasn’t the case, the receiver was so disoriented, that I had to drive about 20 km until it finally got a lock. For long distance drives, thats not so much of a problem. Usually one of the batteries will die once I get anywhere near my destination.

Apart from the navigation part, I was fed up with using wired headsets for my mobile phone while driving. Luckily, todays navigation devices offer hands-free phone operation using bluetooth and integrated microphone and speaker.

Finally, i decided to buy a TomTom GO 930T because it offers me all the things I want as explained above, and it even features TMCpro! Luckily my local dealer had one in stock

After picking up the nav I was eager to test it right away. Still on the car park in front of my dealer, I had to install the nav so i could test-drive it home. The packaging is of good quality and the packaging system looks like someone gave it quite some thought. The suction-cup arm fixing it to the windscreen is sweet and sleek, you hardly see it behind the nav.

The nav is powered through a standard USB-C connection and the provided car-charger offers an angled plug so the nav can be placed so far down, that it almost lies on the cockpit. Too bad that the cable is too short. My cigarette-lighter is not next to the ashtray, but between the two front seats under the armrest. I was only able to power the nav with the power cord going right across the cockpit.

Next is the TMCpro antenna. Which is long, very long. It reaches from the lower left corner of the windscreen up the A-Column and across the top just about to the mirror. At least you have 4 suction cups to adhere the cable to the windscreen. The connector is a straight plug which is about 4cm long. Not so sleek as the power-plug.

After having everything set up, its quite a cabling mess in the left corner of my cockpit. I’ll try to move the TMC antenna so it runs across the bottom line of the Windscreen.

Then, the big moment was here. I switched the nav on. And about 10 seconds later it knew exactly where it was. I AM ASTONISHED! Even now while I’m writing this, the Nav gets a quite clear signal from the GPS satellites. And my window and shutters are closed.

I’ll play around a bit and get to know all the functions and gimmicks. Update will follow

The Nav already impressed me on the drive home. Operating is very intuitive and doesn’t require long study of the handbook. Although I recommend reading it to take advantage of all the features. I would like to go into a bit more detail and describe the features i’ve used so far.

Box Content

The packaging makes a practical and solid impression. the Nav itself is held securely in its own box, separated from the accessories. I suppose that is so the devices for the separate countries can be easily replaced. Apart from the Nav itself, you get the following:

• In-Car Charger
• Windscreen-mount with suction cup
• TMCpro antenna with 4 suction cups
• Bluetooth remote control
• Desktop dock
• Quick Start guide
• Installation Poster
• CD with full handbook as PDF
• Accessories-Catalogue

What I’m really missing here is a pouch to keep the Nav safe from scratches when it’s not used.

Installation

The Installation was quite straight-forward. Stick the holder to the windscreen using the suction cup. It says that you should clean the glass before sticking the support on it. I didn’t, and it holds just fine. Next was the TMC antenna. I chose to route it up the windscreen and then across towards the rear-view mirror. The “Egg” I positioned behind the nav. The Power-plug is angled to the rear. This means you can almost sit the nav on the dashboard, thats what i’ve thought. Too bad that the plug of the TMC-Antenna is straight down and about 4cm long. No sitting on the Windscreen in that case. The Suction-Cups of the Antenna don’t hold as well as the one from the support, but that might also be because I didn’t clean the windscreen prior the installation. When I get time, I’ll re-route the cable to go across the bottom edge of the windscreen.

The Power-Charger is a standard cigarette-lighter model which holds quite firmly in the socket. First thing that surprised me was, that the charger has its own fuse. The power cord is long enough to reach from the nav in the lower left corner of the windscreen across the cockpit and down to the ashtray where the cigarette lighter is. so much for therory. Too bad that i’m driving a car that isn’t exactly built to standard. My cigarette lighter is between the two front seats under the armrest. If I route the cable directly from the socket, across the steering column to the nav, it fits. I’ll have to either get a USB-Extension or a Extender for the Cigarette lighter socket.

Handling

If you ever used a TomTom-Nav before, you know exactly how to operate it. If you never had one in your hands, you’ll learn it quickly. The basic functions are found very easily. The configuration for the more advanced features (Hands-Free, FM-Transmitter, etc), which are not necessarily core-functions of a nav, are also easy to find and the on-screen-explanations are very simple and understandable.

The screen is bright and easily readable. It even switches from day to night-view automatically when it gets dark. This function is nice, but until now, it switches a bit fast.

I’ll try the TomTom on my way to work on monday and let you know how it went…

Today I used the GO 930 to get to work. I know, its somewhat over-delivery but its good to measure the accuracy of the nav in an area you know. After driving out of the garage, it had a lock almost instantly. about 3 mins later the TMC-Data was downloaded. It kept receiving the TMC-data on a regular basis <4mins.

My journey to work leads me aroud Zurich over the “Nordring”.  And usually its jammed. Via TMC my Nav was informed that there would be a delay of approx. 15 mins before the Gubrist-Tunnel. WOW. Of course it wanted to keep me away from the jam and re-calculated the route. Through the City. Not so cool. But still i’m surprised how fast and well it worked. Eventually it took me more than usual to get to work, but the trip through the city gave me a interesting sample of the capabilities of the nav. It guided me safely through the city and gave instructions precisely then, when I needed them. When driving through tunnels, it briefly lost connection to the satellites, but re-locked very quickly after exiting the tunnel.

The Telephony-functions really knocked me off my shoes. Usually, linking two devices of different brands via bluetooth is somewhat tricky. If one of the devices then offers a functionality which is not the core-competence of the manufacturer (Handsfree -> TomTom), trouble should be pre-programmed. The Go 930 taught me better. After pairing my phone, which is a SonyEricsson K800i, the nav asked me if I would like to copy the phonebook. After about a minute, over 400 contacts were copied.

While I drove on, I received a Text Message. 10 seconds later, the nav showed an envelope and gave an audible signal. Tapping the envelope showed me the message and gave me the possibility to either reply or call the sender. WOW! Because typing is not advisable while driving, I chose to call the sender. The sound quality coming from the nav was very convincing. Everything loud and clear. Also, my friend heard me loud and clear, almost no background noise. OK, there was not much noise, because I was still standing in the traffic Jam. I’ll test it on the Highway at 120km/h when I get the chance.

When making a phone call, you have the option to either use a Bluetooth headset, the Internal Speaker, the Line-Out connector or the built-in FM-Transmitter to give out the sound. I gather that except with bluetooth, the internal microphone is used. If you discuss confidential stuff on the phone, I would refrain from using the FM-Transmitter. Although you can choose the frequency it transmits on, everyone around you can tune in and listen what the person on the other end says. Its not very probable, but technically possible.

All in all, I am still very happy with the nav. I’ll update on this once I’ve used it for a bit longer.

Here is my conclusion about the TomTom GO 930 T as far as I can judge now.

In-Car performance

I’m still very impressed on how fast the nav gets a loc. Entering a destination address is easy as always. you can choose from the following destination types:

• Home
• Favourite
• Address
• Last destination
• Point of Interest (from the internal POI-Database)
• My Location (navigate to my current position? me is confused)
• Location on map (point where you want to go)
• Latitude / Longitude
• TomTom Buddy
• Last stop (cool to find your car again )

When you approach an intersection or exit on the motorway, the nav shows you a schematic drawing of the road(s) ahead and which exit to use, if data is available.

the TMC Feature is veeery nice. You just have to interpret correctly what the nav is telling you. Short example to show you what i mean:

Few days ago, the nav told me that there was a traffic jam before the Gubrist Tunnel and a wait of about 15 mins. In its generosity it asked me if it should re-calculate the route to minimise wait times. Of course I accepted the offer thankfully and followed the directions blindly. It lead my straight trhough Zurich City at 7:30 on a work-day. In the end i’ve lost more time than I whould have through the jam before the Gubrist.

You see, you have to see the information of the nav in context. Motor-way jams are either there or they arent. The usual downtown-Traffic-light-mayhem is usually not reflected in TMC. For more details on how it works, check the Wikipedia-article.

Bluetooth headset

Another very nice feature is the bluetooth headset functionality. After pairing your phone using the wizard on the nav, you can make and receive calls direcly from the nav. You can pair multiple phones, which is very useful if you have one for business and a private one, like me.

If you like, you can even copy your phonebook to the nav. This happens in the background and doesn’t disturb you while using it otherwise. downside to that is, that you don’t see when its finished. However, you can only have one phonebook on the nav, so if you have different directories on your phones, you will have to copy it every time you switch phones. For my 400-something contacts it takes about 3-5 minutes to copy.

The nav even tells you when you received a new SMS text message. If you install the appropriate Language-pack, it even reads the SMS aloud. It’s not so comfortable with foreign languages, but thats usually good for a laugh

Writing SMS or dialling numbers over the nav is possible, but a bit fumbly. I wouldn’t do it while driving along the motorway with 120Km/h.

In the Next part, I’ll get into the features when connected to a PC.