TomTom GPS running on Smartphone - bike equipped...

[Tobers]

I purchased an Orange SPV C500 (unlocked, decertified) and put my O2 SIM card in it. I got it from here:

www.mobilefun.com

It is a really lovely little phone. I had the 1st and 2nd generation SPVs. The first was so crap it was unbelievable. The second was better, but still bulky and rather buggy. This 3rd generation phone is small, looks great, is smalll, and works really well. It syncs with Outlook so I have all my contacts and appointments on the phone. And best of all, it runs TomTom Mobile. TomTom Mobile is a full street-level GPS solution with free speed camera updates, AND a subscription based (quite cheap I think) traffic information update facility.

TomTom site

Now I know TomTom is really cool, giving street level mapping for the whole of the UK. I'd seen it running on XDAs before using bluetooth GPS receivers. Could it run on a SmartPhone as well, and could it work on a bike?

First, installation of TomTom on the C500. TomTom comes on an SD card. The C500 only takes miniSD cards. No problem - it copies across OK. There is a whole world of information on this here: MoDaCo Smartphone Forum: TomTom Guide

Next - how to waterproof the SPV. I found the ideal solution - a Boxit case - very waterproof and bike-friendly:

Boxit case link

With a bit of ingenuity, I fitted the Boxit case to my RAM mount (previously used for my Garmin GPS V) and it all looks like this:



So, one waterproof SPV. Next, the GPS unit. TomTom on a smartphone works by receiving GPS positioning information from a bluetooth-connected GPS receiver. TomTom provide one of these in the package - a nice dinky little thing it is too. It "pairs" with the phone and sends the GPS info to the phone without wires. Cool! The TomTom app on the SPV C500 is really clever and pairing with the receiver is easy.

Unfortunately, during road test #1, I had the receiver taped onto my tank. It removed itself at fairly high speed up the A3. It was one of those "doh" moments and I really should have fitted it better. So I had to buy a replacement bluetooth receiver. A search of eBay revealed a Polstar receiver, which I duly bid for and acquired for £60 plus £10p&p.

Polstar GPS Receiver eBay Site

This is a really dinky device, a bit smaller than the TomTom one, and it takes standard AAA rechargable batteries (or non-rechargable if you like), plus comes with a mains and car adaptor. Good value.

Some shenanigans resulted as I tried to pair the Polstar with TomTom. Turns out I had to rename the Polstar "TomTom Wireless GPS" to make the pairing work. A full description of the process is in that thread on the MoDaCo forum linked to earlier in this post.

Here's a pic of the Polstar GPS receiver



I then downloaded the speed camera database for free from Pocket GPS and uploaded it to the C500 using Activesync (the smartphone sync utility). You can set TomTom to notify you as you approach a speed camera (or any other "point of interest". You can set the distance from the POI and the sound it makes, so you can have a separate alert for a fixed camera, say 200m away, and a different one for a mobile camera location say 1000m away.

Time for another test. This time, I experimented and put the GPS in my handlebar bag thingy and confirmed it could lock onto satellites no problem.



I found that I could press the phone buttons quite accurately, even with winter gloves on, whilst the phone was in the case. What I couldn't do was move the rocker switch up & down to zoom in & out.

So, everything works really very well. Most impressive in fact. Bloody stunning to be honest. The phone screen is quite readable as it is quite close to me - about the distance you'd normally hold a phone to dial a call. Accuracy is amazing and the thing plots routes very very quickly, and handles off-route re-routing very well as well. It can also handle re-routing around road blocks etc.

I then had to set up the connection to my Autocom so I could hear the spoken directions. Yes, the thing speaks to you too. The headset connection is a 4-ring 2.5mm pulg. The Autocom phone lead is a 3-ring 2.5mm plug. Oh dear. I could hear directions fine, but the microphone didn't work so I couldn't make or receive calls (well, I could but the other party wouldn't hear me).

So I went into an Orange shop and bought a cheapo handsfree kit which had a 3 ring plug on it (with a car lighter adaptor as it happens). I did a quick bit of soldering (white wire = microphone, red wire = speaker, gold wires = ground) and fitted the 3-ring plug to a 3-ring socket into which I plugged the Autocom lead. Result! Working speakers & microphone.

So now I get turn-by-turn directions en-route, which is v.nice. I can set the map to be 2D or 3D as well, but as I mentioned above, zooming in & out is tricky.

Here's a pic of the gadgets, with a can of lager for scale



The setup works equally well in the car too. The phone's speaker is plenty loud enough to provide good sound for spoken directions.

Next things to do: get "mains" power available into my handlebar bag thingy so I can keep the phone and GPS powered. I'll need to make a couple of holes in the bottom of the Boxit phone case to take the leads.

Things I'm not keen on: not much really. There is only one way of navigating to somewhere - you have to put in the town name or postcode, then the street name and house number. You cant just go to "Woking" for example. This is a bit of a pain because, if you were unfortunate enough to be going to Woking but didn't have the precise address you were going to, or the address was in a padestrian area, you cant enter it. Also, you can browse a map of the UK, zoom in & out, but cant click on a place and "goto" it like you can on the Garmins.

Other than that, bloody impressive. I'll be using the C500 from now on. Look out for a GPS V for sale shortly

Andy

[DrAlf]

Excellent write up and pix Tobers. I set up my Tom Tom Mobile for my Dad on his SPV200 a few weeks ago. He was chuffed to bits with it. I should hopefully be acquiring a used SPV200 for myself pretty soon so I’ll be fitting it to the GS ASAP.

[Tobers]

A quick update.

I sent the Polstar GPS back as the time to get a fix was far too variable - up to 15 minutes sometimes from a warm start. Instead, I bought a Leadtek 9537 which is absolutely superb - fast fix and very sensitive - can be used on the seat of the car instead of up by the windscreen, and works fine in my handlebar bag.

Annoying things about the TomTom navigation software:

- It has an autozoom which cant be turned off. This means it is impossible to get a consistent zoomed out view of, say, a 50 km radius. Instead, it keeps zooming in to 100m or 500m which seems to be speed dependent.
- You cant set it to "track up" or "north up". It is always "track up" so it is quite easy to get disorientated - you dont know which direction you are going in. This is fine if you just follow the directions, but if you are just wandering around exploring and not on a "route" it is very tricky to work out where you are. This is made worse with the autozoom thing described above

That's about it really - everything else works really well.

Andy

[richie]

Excellent Tobers, good solution for people not wanting to use a specific unit.
Thanks for the info....

[Eddy802]

do you luuuurve a gadget??!!

Nice one.

Can you give an approx all up figure Tobers?

PS. I've had my floppy handlebar bag modifed. A plate of 1.5mm nylon sheet, cut to shape and stiched into the inside of the front wall provides some support and holds the bags shape. The seam in the base at the rear left of the plastic clip has been split to provide a velcro closed inch wide opening to feed my cables in. Also had a couple of inch wide loops sewn to the exterior of the front to slip the belt clip of my PMR radio into.

The stiching in the nylon plate is sealed over with hot glue and the whole bag has been sprayed with a Nikwax treatment to enhance the waterproofing.

Looks and works as intended (off the bike!!).

[DrAlf]

Finally got TomTom mobile sorted out on my SPV200 - yeah I know it's retro - looking forward to the big test tomorrow morning. First GPS for me so can't wait

[Tobers]

SPV was free for me (via work) but say £150 on Orange prepay. Pay £20 to unlock it for any network.

TomTom is about £160 including the software, bluetooth GPS receiver and free speed cam updates from www.pocketgpsworld.com.

The waterproof case was £11.

Andy

[SilverFish]

Hi Andy,

I like what you've done with the C500.

Ive got the same phone (in the sleeker silver), and have tried to use it as a phone and MP3 player but found that the music would pause when you received a call naturally enough, but it would not "un-pause" once you had finished. Im not sure if this is a limitation of Windows Media Player and can be fixed by installing another app, or if its a setting Ive not yet seen.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Mike

[SilverFish]

I've answered my own question....

PocketMusic does it perfectly.

Now I just need to find out if I can have a stereo and mic lead made up. Im waiting on a call from Doug of Autocom now...

Cheers,

Mike

[SilverFish]

Hi Andy,

Im having problems getting the phone to autocom lead to work.

I've bought the Orange hands free kit and soldered it myself to an Autocom lead, and it tested fine straight afterwards. But, after a few hours the mic would stop working. I've resoldered it a few times now and each time it tests fine straightaway but then fails a short time afterwards or ends up too quite to be tenable.

I took it to my local helpful electronics shop but they said they wont do it as they've had the same problem in the past with mobile handsfree leads breaking down the connection somehow.

So I then took it to Epsom market where there is a mobile phone type trader who silver soldered it all for me (for free which was nice of him). Same thing as before though...

I spoke to Autocom last week who said they were waiting on some newly constructed leads specific for the C500 to arrive, sometime in the next few weeks.

How has you Autocom adapted lead been holding up?

Also, after a run out with it all set up yesterday, I found that my phone's battery drained itself down to nothing in about three hours. That was with the Bluetooth, TomTom and music player all running at the same time. How do you find you battery life?

TomTom Mobile itself has been fine, but I think you do have to accept its limitations namely poor battery life, doesnt give route preferences and only comes with the UK map (you need to buy other countries' separately). Im going to give it another week or two but Im now reconsidering the usefullnes of having all three devices (phone, music and GPS) converged on one device. I am impressed by its POI features and lighting quick route calculations however.

Im now thinking about keeping them all separate, especially now as 2610's are now cheaper than what I thought.

Thanks very much for your inspiration and guide though!

Cheers,

Mike

[Tobers]

Autocom made up a lead for me when I sent my handsfree wire thingy to them. However, I didn't send the original C500 lead, but instead a real cheapo one from an Orange shop with just a 3-pole (instead of 4 pole) plug.

The mic has been fine since then.

I run music separately on an iPod, and can imagine your knacker the battery on the phone with everything running at once. I've got power running to the phone to get around that.

However, yes you're correct, the SPV will work fine but isn't as easy to use on the move as a dedicated GPS with big buttons. But I really like the flexibility of having it with me as & when I need it. Often I'll be fine to get within say 10 miles of where I'm going on major roads, and then I'll switch the TomTom & GPS on to take me into my destination.

Also, it works great in the car - v.v.portable.

I wouldn't use the phone for music though - too fiddly I reckon.

Andy

[Bryn]

Being a complete novice where GPS is concerned, i see on the mobile fun link that 02 are doing a Nokia 6670 and Route 66 pack.. 100 mins /100 texts plus gps for £120 and £25 Per month.

I will shortly be out of contract for my mob...

Would this be a cheap (er) way of getting a gps on the bike?

I've got Autocom for my I-pod, but havent a clue how i would make all of this work...

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Bryn

[Bryn]

Any thoughts would still be appreciated! Bryn