Sat Nav POI

[shelleyamy]

Feeling bored whilst recovering from some broken ribs, started messing about with my TomTom, and trying to find some useful bike related POI on the web.
Not much out there, so I decided to create my own.
I’ve started off with a relatively easy one, Hein Gericke, and I am ¼ way through one for all the official Suzuki dealers.
I have relied on their web sites for postcodes, which may not be spot on, what would be nice if anyone with a TomTom,(not sure if they work on other makes) could validate the accurateness of my boredom.

Anyone else know of any useful bike stuff?

Mike

[timwilky]

I don't see how the location of a HG would count as a POI.

Bikers have the same POI requirement as cagers. Speed camera locations and fuel. Birds shop, blokes ride

[SoulKiss]

There was me hoping to see a couple of TomToms being swung around in an artistic manner on the end of their charging cords, maybe on fire...

Thanks for the dissapointment Shelly ..... - LOL!!!

[Bluepete]

I did the same thing after screwing my knee up. Found this website

http://www.tomtomfree.com/POI_collections.htm

Which, somewhere does have all Suzuki dealers in it somewhere. All free, easy to download and enter onto the TomTom. I put loads on for our Devon Holiday, including all UK Lighthouses!
When you really get Google going at it, there's tons of free stuff out there for GPS users.
Hope the ribs recover soon!

Pete

[shelleyamy]

[quote=timwilky;1263782]I don't see how the location of a HG would count as a POI.

They interest me.

Mike

[shelleyamy]

I did the same thing after screwing my knee up. Found this website

http://www.tomtomfree.com/POI_collections.htm

Which, somewhere does have all Suzuki dealers in it somewhere. All free, easy to download and enter onto the TomTom. I put loads on for our Devon Holiday, including all UK Lighthouses!
Pete


Can't find the Suzuki one,but some other useful stuff there.


Hope the ribs recover soon!
Pete[/quote]

Thanks, always thought they were a bit of a wimps injury,but they hurt like buggery

Mike

Pete[/quote]

[williamturner1]

As a student (imperial) i haven't got so much money. But I do have a phone and far too much time browsing the internet. So I worked out an alternative:

Fitting a TomTom to your SV using nothing but your phone, £10 and 30mins online.

On my sv650 K3s the rev counter is the same diameter as most standard "sucky" in-car mobile phone holders. Ive got one with a 6inch flexy arm. It is bent so the mobile phone holder pushes against the top of my DoubleBubble screen, to help minimise movement.

Phone is an N73 brought specially so I could load tomtom on it. TomTom is ver6, not entirely legally brought for less than a pint from a well know electronic auction site.

Phone has a small strap which, when using phone as tomtom gps on bike i connect to the bike (throttle cables) with a caribena. If the phone falls from the mount through vicious bump (not happened yet) or the mount come loose from the rev counter (happened about 3times in as many thousand miles) phone dangles and doesn't meet Mr Road at much speed.

N.B. Only dissadvantage to this is you can't see your rev counter. However, I never know what gear im in or what the revs are. Im always in the right gear. If i need to change I change. If ive only got shrapnel in the wallet then i keep low revs and make a noise like a diesel, else i have fun but remember to change before the rev limiter rudely interrrupts my fun to save the engine.

THE INTERESTING PART!
I like riding small country twisties. When bored I maps.google.co.uk and zoom in and spy areas of extreme kinks and bends in the small roads.

Create a google account, you can use an existing email. With account go back to maps.google.co.uk -> My Maps -> create a map. Next to the zoom and hand tool is the "placemarks" tool, use it to mark out a route.

look around the top right of window for EMAIL, PRINT and "KML". Click this and it will save your route as a *.kml file.


The Problem: GOOGLE MAPS -> TOMTOM itenary file (*.kml->*.itn)
TomTom can do normal navigation, it can do "browse map", advanced planning (i.e. no gps turned on) and it can do Itenary. Itenary you can set a start point and multiple way points and a finish point, you can then sequentially navigate through these points. However, note!, it is possible to re-order the points on the phone and even change start and finish points.

E.g. you have a route planned, half way through a nice pub is passed. After lunch you realse you should be home before the other half discovers your absence and your route should be cut short. You mark the waypoints youve passed as "passed" and change one of the waypoints to come as a finsh not a waypoint. This way you can nav to said waypoint and then go home. i.e. said waypoint is on a big road you recognise (vs the others which are on tiddler roads youve never been down ... but looked fun from the confort of your computer)

[ free!! ] TYRE: a program to convert Maps.Google.Co.Uk KML file -> TomTom Itenary file.
It can also convert placemarks created in "Google Maps". What a useful program!
http://www.janboersma.nl/gett/


I regularly go for rides with my friend (bmw 600fs) around newdigate & farley green and, to be honest, plan a route at work on maps.google.co.uk. At home
__# download the KML file,
__# convert it using TYRE software
__# use bluetooth or the nokia data cable to upload the TYRE file (*.itn) into TomTom's Itenary Folder on my Phone's 1gb mem card.
__# On the phone fire up TomTom, go through menu to Itenary and choose Load File and its rite there.


The reason itenary is great on tomtom whilst on a motorbike is you can deviate from the way you've marked if you miss a turn (which is easy when you have others riding with you) and it'll get you right back on track. Best bit is you don't even have to let the others know you missed a turn, or taken the wrong one etc as you can just drive on whilst tomtom works out alternative route.

This means "faff" free group riding. I love it as it makes such a difference.

My TomTom Settings: not 3d view, but flat propper "map". Sound off. POI Fuel Stations enabled (!!!)

[shelleyamy]

As a student (imperial)

Create a google account, you can use an existing email. With account go back to maps.google.co.uk -> My Maps -> create a map. Next to the zoom and hand tool is the "placemarks" tool, use it to mark out a route.

I am trying to do the same at the moment,but with MS Autoroute.




This means "faff" free group riding. I love it as it makes such a difference.

My TomTom Settings: not 3d view, but flat propper "map". Sound off. POI Fuel Stations enabled (!!!)

I tend to use my TomTom with just the sound,so i have it tuck away in my pocket,and some earphones.

Mike

[tigersaw]

I have a phone and tomtom, but version 5.2 I think. i tried a similar idea by making an itinery, because I wanted to follow a specific route, not the one tomtom reccomends. However, it didn't really work because each time I got to an itinery point, it required me to select the next point in order to progress - what I wanted was it to automatically just follow the route, going from one point the next without intervention, so it could stay in my pocket. Does version 6 do this?


Edit: just been swotting up on this - seems I'm probably not setting up my itinery correctly. When entering points on the route, it adds them as destinations, i need to click on each one and change it to a waypoint. I believe it will then route me 'through' each waypoint towards the final destination without stopping. Not sure if it will insist I visit each waypoint precisely, or allow me to pass nearby.

[williamturner1]

tigersaw: Yup! you've hit the nail on the head. You need to make each point a WayPoint. I've found that tomtom is quite tollerant of passing waypoints. I don't know its tollerance but certainly 10m normally is fine ... but whilst it works a treat there have been a handful of times when i've had to either go up a road for the sake of visiting a waypoint (up as in turn into it, go 10m up road, turn around) or pull over and manually set waypoint as "visited". Otherwise I can't recomend it enough.

HOWEVER tomtom softweare engineers reading this please note. Can you get better map data so tomtom can tell the difference between a gravel strip and a raod less then 5m (OS yellow road). I've had a few fun experinces that were dam funny on the bike and laughing about afterwards with mates, however if i had been in a car in a rush to go somehwere i would not have been impressed!