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Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 07 February 16 5:40 pm
by tronador
Please help! My tomtom Go720 lost its touch screen functionality today. I have a feeling it will not be able to be repaired. I've heard and read that new Tomtoms do not have the ability to add personal Poi's eg, caches. I absolutely need this feature. I load Poi's of all caches via GSAK. Can anyone recommend an in car GPS, that allows this. I have a handheld Garmin but have never had an in car Garmin. Recommendations please........... not interested in smart phone apps, so don't bother going down this road.

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 07 February 16 10:53 pm
by Goldenwattle
tronador wrote:I load Poi's of all caches via GSAK.
What is GSAK, and can you please explain this, as it sounds interesting. Do you mean that the caches appear on the car Tom Tom's screen as you are driving along? I didn't know about this feature.

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 07 February 16 11:02 pm
by tronador
Yes that is exactly what I mean. GSAK is a program , or data base that holds all my pocket queries. It can do some amazing things.
Now all I need is for someone to tell me what in car GPS still allows Custom POI's to be added. my research tells me that the new Tomtoms wont allow this any more as they are no longer just another drive on the PC. I do believe Garmin GPS will allow POI's. I dont' want an in car GPS that relies on data and smart phones and sim cards and all that stuff. I am quite happy with my Tomtom Go 720, its basic but navigates everywhere without the need for data...... and now the touch screen has failed so it wont work......

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 08 February 16 9:34 am
by MavEtJu
tronador wrote:I have a feeling it will not be able to be repaired.
They go for 50-60 dollars on ebay.

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 08 February 16 10:34 am
by biggles1024
I suggest a bit more research. About 18 months ago I started looking for a replacement for my Tomtom Go 730 and discovered, to my horror that the models that were new at that time would not accept custom POI's. Several months later, a firmware update changed that. I can't tell you which models they were because my TomTom rediscovered its 'voice' and so I stopped shopping for a replacement.
When the time comes, I will be buying TomTom for iPhone and dispensing with a stand alone GPS altogether. TomTom for iPhone doesn't use data except for traffic information if that is turned on. Currently, I'm really peed off with TomTom because they jacked up the price of their iPhone app to $85.00 from $70.00 and $60.00 (all round figures) when on special. Grrrr...

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 08 February 16 11:32 am
by tronador
Thanks for the responses. I'm going to call Tomtom. I'm not interested in any phone app. Don't own any i... anything. Not interested in this type of gps.

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 09 February 16 10:26 am
by jusojara
Depending on your budget the Garmin Montana does both. You can load your caches from GSAK and then place it in the car mount, switch it to driving (Nuvi) mode and it becomes a car navigation system with voice guidance. You arrive at you parking coordinates, remove it from the mount and switch back to caching mode and off you go.

It also navigates in Geocaching mode but without the 3D style driving mode maps (still with voice guidance) so you don't even need to switch modes, but as I mentioned this option would depend on your budget as the Montana is at the upper end of the price range but does both functions quite nicely.

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 10 February 16 6:22 pm
by LouiseAnn
I have a couple of Garmin car GPS I have been trying to set up for sensible work purposes. I have had a lot of trouble getting the proximity of the custom POI's to work they way I would want them to work, as I imagine you woul dhave them work if they were caches. I even tried a bit with GSAK (I made my work based waypoints into caches) and had to real success. I hope it's just me and you find a better answer for the Garmins, as the GPS themselves are great. If you do, can you let me know too?

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 10 February 16 8:53 pm
by on4bam
We used a TT One XL up until last year and now have a Nuvi 2597. Of course these models are ages apart (TT may be a 2005 model) but the Garmin Nuvi is a lot better in every way. GSAK + Nuvi_GPX_v2 macro puts all selected caches (+ P coordinates) onto the GPS nicely to drive to caches and last October/November it guided us through TAS and VIC without a glitch using free OSM maps (our model has European maps).
I don't use proximity alerts as we never cache "random".

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 10 February 16 9:30 pm
by tronador
on4bam wrote:We used a TT One XL up until last year and now have a Nuvi 2597. Of course these models are ages apart (TT may be a 2005 model) but the Garmin Nuvi is a lot better in every way. GSAK + Nuvi_GPX_v2 macro puts all selected caches (+ P coordinates) onto the GPS nicely to drive to caches and last October/November it guided us through TAS and VIC without a glitch using free OSM maps (our model has European maps).
I don't use proximity alerts as we never cache "random".
Thanks so much for the review. This is exactly the sort of info I need. My TT is toast and a brick as of Sat. I've been doing some research and have come to the conclusion that Tom Toms are no longer geocaching friendly because Custom Pois can't be added. I've looked online at the reviews of the Garmin 2597 and think this is the model that suits me. I've seen that macro and now that you say it works seemlessly with GSAK , makes me really happy.
Does that macro use different symbols for different cache types?
Thanks again for the help.

Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 10 February 16 11:53 pm
by on4bam
tronador wrote: Does that macro use different symbols for different cache types?
Yes. You get the same icons as on gc.com (green traditional, yellow multi, "earth"...). A cache with corrected coordinates is shown with an extra green "v".
In fact, it all looks about the same as on my Oregon 600 map.

The evening before a caching day it takes me less than 10 minutes to load the Oregon600 (GSAK + GarminExport macro + SendImagesToGarmin Macro) and the Nuvi (GSAK + Nuvi_GPX_v2 macro). It takes a lot more time to select the caches we want to go after 8)
BTW, I typically load about 400 caches. That includes all solved mysteries in Belgium, a nationwide "series" (1 in every town) and our day's selection.
During our holiday "down under" I had around 800 loaded including GA caches but I don't remember the icon for "trigpoint" or other "non-standard" caches.

POI's are in their separate category (own POI) and sub-category (Parking, corrected, multi, traditional, letterbox, mystery... ) and can be searched just like all other categories.

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Re: Tomtom vs Garmin in car GPS

Posted: 11 February 16 1:25 pm
by tronador
on4bam wrote:
tronador wrote: Does that macro use different symbols for different cache types?
Yes. You get the same icons as on gc.com (green traditional, yellow multi, "earth"...). A cache with corrected coordinates is shown with an extra green "v".
In fact, it all looks about the same as on my Oregon 600 map.


Excellent thanks for pointing me in the right direction for these macros. I had the same macro but for Tom Tom. GSAK is awesome. I do the same and load up the Oregon 550 and the Tom Tom..... until the TT died.