Sat Nav in West End of London

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  timebug Posts: 18,320

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  06/01/15 - 10:16 #2

  I had to drive through London last week for the first time
  in many years, including the Hyde Park junction you mention.
  I had the cheapest Tom Tom sat nav available,and it worked
  throughout the journey with no glitches or hiccups. So maybe
  you have a bad one? These things are mass produced ,and
  like the tablets that folk complain of on the forums, it is quite
  logical that from a production run of millions, the odd one will
  be below par ,for whatever reason!

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  chrisjr Posts: 33,282

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  06/01/15 - 10:43 #3

  dosanjh1 wrote: »

  I took the wrong exit at Hyde Park Corner on Saturday night (it's a bugger of a roundabout if you don't know it well)
  
  I was expecting my Tomtom to come to the rescue but it went fitz on me as it couldn't find a satellite.
  
  It worked sporadically and i managed to get to my destination but it did have me driving around aimlessly fir about 20 minutes.
  
  I guess it's due to the narrow,tightly packed London streets with tall buildings either side of the roads.
  
  Is this common or have I just got a poorly performing sat nav? It only cost about £150. Is there a model that will get around the London streets (away from the main drags I use like A501/A40 or A4)?
  
  Sorry for posting in this board but I can find a suitable one.

  From experience of various TomTom's I've owned over the years the various different models seem to vary more in the bells and whistles they have added on rather than the basics of navigation. So I would not be at all surprised if the GPS receiver in all their models is the same unit. Which would of course mean they would be as equally good/bad/indifferent as each other in acquiring and locking on to satellites.
  
  I've also got a Garmin and that doesn't seem very much more or less sensitive than the TomTom it replaced.
  
  Also the type of windscreen you have can have an effect on GPS performance. Some types of heated windscreens or ones with certain special coatings can seriously attenuate the satellite signal. Which when you add on the problems caused by surrounding buildings could easily tip the unit over the edge and make it lose track of where it is.

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  toofast Posts: 2,240

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  06/01/15 - 11:12 #4

  Why don't you purchase a gps booster for your tomtom off Ebay. They are cheap and easy to fit.

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  dosanjh1 Posts: 8,727

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  06/01/15 - 20:19 #5

  timebug wrote: »

  I had to drive through London last week for the first time
  in many years, including the Hyde Park junction you mention.
  I had the cheapest Tom Tom sat nav available,and it worked
  throughout the journey with no glitches or hiccups. So maybe
  you have a bad one? These things are mass produced ,and
  like the tablets that folk complain of on the forums, it is quite
  logical that from a production run of millions, the odd one will
  be below par ,for whatever reason!

  chrisjr wrote: »

  From experience of various TomTom's I've owned over the years the various different models seem to vary more in the bells and whistles they have added on rather than the basics of navigation. So I would not be at all surprised if the GPS receiver in all their models is the same unit. Which would of course mean they would be as equally good/bad/indifferent as each other in acquiring and locking on to satellites.
  
  I've also got a Garmin and that doesn't seem very much more or less sensitive than the TomTom it replaced.
  
  Also the type of windscreen you have can have an effect on GPS performance. Some types of heated windscreens or ones with certain special coatings can seriously attenuate the satellite signal. Which when you add on the problems caused by surrounding buildings could easily tip the unit over the edge and make it lose track of where it is.

  
  Thanks for the replys, I'm wandering if because I took a wrong turning and the receiver had to recalculate that caused the problem? My thinking is if you go along the prescribed route everything is fine but if you go wrong you'll get a problem because it can't get a satellite signal and a route isn't loaded? So you may not be getting a sat signal all is good because the route is loaded? Does that make sense?
  

  toofast wrote: »

  Why don't you purchase a gps booster for your tomtom off Ebay. They are cheap and easy to fit.

  
  Great tip - I didn't know these were available and I'm researching them now:)

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