TOMTOM One XL- Top Tips

The Wandering Wilkos · Post by **The Wandering Wilkos** » 15 September 08 10:53 pm

Im a bit of a Newbie to this toy, but bang for buck Ive found these little beasts to be the best Caching buddies around.

Did everyone know that they can easily be set up to read HTML. Yep thats Caching notes, complete with finders logs, cords and decrypted hints. Once its set up its as simple as "Save as" to TOMTOM? Word documents saved as HTML, normal Text files, they are covered as well. With the standard memory theyll fit about 200 Caches pages without too much trouble. They even have a zoom function to increase the font size for those more experienced Cachers that need glasses and are too slack to take them Caching. They have even included a search facility. All of this functionality is there but not just turned on.

With a little tweak you can copy *.loc files under a nice neat location (say an assault on Port Stephens). I just download and copied across 100 + caches into it in under 3 minutes. Gone are the days of manually inputting co-ordinates for Caches.

I just need to find someone that can set it up to play DVDs to keep the Geokids entertained on the way there and Ill be happy

Anyone have any other secrets to share?

tronador · Post by **tronador** » 15 September 08 11:43 pm

Can you tell me how you copied the .loc file to your tom tom. I have a tom tom go 720 but don't know how to add coords to a poi. I can create a poi but don't know how to get anything into it. well except one by one manually. Very tedious.
When you added your .loc files, do they show up as you drive along, therefore telling you a cache is nearby???

The Wandering Wilkos · Post by **The Wandering Wilkos** » 16 September 08 12:53 am

Yep this is really easy. First of all copy this link into your favourites

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/gpsbabel/

This software will convert any GPS format from and to what ever you need. Magellan owners get excited about NOW.

Select the Input file format as Geoching.com.loc [W] and the output format as TOMTOM POI file (.ov2) [W]. Convert the file and download the output to your PC and then plug in the TOMTOM and drag the *.ov2 into the maps folder (most likely the Australia folder). Beforehand you can name the *.loc file something meaningful. Go to the TOMTOM and under POI youll now have all the Caches under that POI category. Within TOMTOM you can set any icon to the POI file, additionally you can also set a separate alarm to that File so it will alert you on approach of any Cache within that specified folder. Personally Ive turned off all alarms apart from the Caching folders as my only POI interest is in Caching.

If you wish to bulk load *.loc files just paste the various files together and remove the HTML header and trailers. Have a play and if this is not clear please add another post

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 16 September 08 1:26 am

I'm still running GSAK 6.6.3 registered as I don't see the need to re-register for V7 onwards. 6.x exports the TomTom POI file. If GSAK 7 added the ability to export the cache descriptions as well to the unit that could be a good reason to upgrade.

As a side topic then, has anyone tried copying the TomTom SD card to a larger card so you could fit more data on there which could be useful if we can export cache info.

Then once I have the POI in the TomTom I can easily say go to it, but how do I get it to show more info about that POI?

tronador · Post by **tronador** » 16 September 08 11:14 am

Thanks so much WW. Will give that a try.

I don't use GSAK so that isn't really useful to me.

SecretSquirrel-BJC · Post by **SecretSquirrel-BJC** » 16 September 08 3:06 pm

I have a TomTom One XL - and use GSAK to output ov2 files.

But how do I get the HTML files working?

Sounds good if it works on my model

Post by **caughtatwork** » 16 September 08 10:08 pm

SecretSquirrel-BJC · Post by **SecretSquirrel-BJC** » 16 September 08 10:13 pm

I have just tried that and it is amazing - it works!!!

I just backed it out after - to sort out some other menu options, but this is amazing.

Could have saved myself some dollars.....

WoW!

SecretSquirrel-BJC · Post by **SecretSquirrel-BJC** » 16 September 08 10:23 pm

Wilko just pointed me to

http://home.comcast.net/~spheasant1/TTMenu.html
http://www.opentom.org/Menu_structure

so that I can play with all the menu options.

Wilko - THANK YOU

This is great!!!!!!

The Wandering Wilkos · Post by **The Wandering Wilkos** » 16 September 08 10:36 pm

Glad you enjoyed it, it is VERY cool stuff. If you have a TOMTOM I encourage you to give this a go.

I will have a play over the next few days and post the default menu with the document reader added in so that you can retain the existing options, plus read Caching pages.

As a test I have also embedded a JPEG in a word document and saved it as HTML and was able to view the picture as well on the TOMTOM. This is still early days for me on this so I will keep you posted when I discover other uses.

allrounder · Post by **allrounder** » 18 September 08 11:38 am

will this customisation work with the TomTom One 3rd edition?

ArgusTuft · Post by **ArgusTuft** » 18 September 08 2:10 pm

allrounder wrote:will this customisation work with the TomTom One 3rd edition?

Yes! I've been using a One 3rd for about a month and have been through the custom menu exercise after finding about it in one of the TomTom forums. (http://www.gpsreview.net/forums/). You have to be careful to NOT upgrade the units firmware (from 7.166 to 8.010) as the new firmware disables the reader and itinery functions (among others). It's possible to revert the firmware if your unit has the new one

allrounder · Post by **allrounder** » 18 September 08 3:55 pm

excellent! thanks for that ArgusTuft (love the name)

The Swaggies · Post by **The Swaggies** » 18 September 08 8:01 pm

richary wrote:As a side topic then, has anyone tried copying the TomTom SD card to a larger card so you could fit more data on there which could be useful if we can export cache info.

Yes I backed my XL card (copied) to my PC & Laptop and then copied to a spare SD card and it works fine. I think it holds about 2000 poi's via GSAK and I have been told that the only limitation to the number of POI's is the size of the card.

Now I can see I am going to get a bigger card again and have a play with all this other stuff that's mentioned here.

Keep up the good work C@W & Wilkos

The Swaggies · Post by **The Swaggies** » 18 September 08 8:12 pm

The Wandering Wilkos wrote:Im a bit of a Newbie to this toy, but bang for buck Ive found these little beasts to be the best Caching buddies around.

You have shown us how to enter one caching page, is there an easy way to save say 1000 caching pages like on my pda.

Also is there any way I can stop Tom Tom from taking the most roundabout route (usually via a dirt road) to a cache when there is a perfectly good bitumen road that is usually only a 1/4 of the distance available. This normally happens in the bush.

Geocaching Australia

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