On the Road Again!

After trying several times to login and getting weird error returned at HTML, I finally got logged in and kicked it off. The time and date clearly visible.  I have never once downloaded and installed the upgrade to my TomTom without it falling over and having to be restarted.  Let's see how it works this time now that I am documenting it! So this time it only failed once.  At 6% updating it lost connection with the device. Except the device screen says it is connected to the laptop! When it restarts it goes back to downloading from the TomTom site. The device came up to say the update was commpleted but whern I go back to the laptop it's updating! Again? The same one? This is a crap system.   Finally at 17:24 it finished!   Hurrah!

The routes my brother plans down to the minutest details with places to eat, fuel up and see sights have been in the TomTom 410 for weeks if not months. With 2 and a bit days to go there's a change!  I have spent a good hour on MyRouteApp trying to get it to change the first waypoint from the ferry terminal to the Shuttle terminal in France! It kept coming up to say that it couldn't plan a route as there were no roads! Finally it worked. Now I have to get it from the phone to the unit.  My phone needs to be connected to the TomTom by bluetooth tethering. It needs to be done now as once we set the wheels in France it cuts off.  It's a very stupid idea. So I have to sort it before I set off at 7am (at the latest) on Thursday!

I have been using MyRouteApp, and its predecessor Tyre, for about a decade. I use it mostly to create routes for the TomTom 410 that I use on the bikes and have done for many years. I decided that as an alternative to the Ohrex satnav that we have been using in the motorhome for two years, that I would upgrade to the Navigation add-on in MyRouteApp. An upgrade a year or so ago means that with Gold membership I can plan routes that take into consideration the overall dimensions on Molly the motorhome to avoid low bridges and narrow roads. That's the theory.   The Navigation uses Here maps. It was a simple job to sign up and £15.95 later through PayPal the navigation button on routes in the app on my phone lights up. I have a test route planned that will take me all of two miles into Hythe to the catholic church's car park! I will give that a go. What has proved far more difficult is to download the offline maps from the app onto the phone. All the buttons seemed to be greyed o...

One word. SHITE. Another company that doesn't really give much of a shit about customer support when things go wrong. The support site from when you login in no longer allows you to log a call and wait for someone to answer. Instead you get a bot.  The bot is programmed to not actually "listen" to the problem but to just chuck out useless questions and never get to the bottom of the problem. The problem I have is that when you click on the TomTom MyDrive Connect icon on the Windows desktop it opens a webpage.  As expected. Except: Can you tell the bot this? No.   It asks what the problem is with - then lists a load of things.  Eventually you get to the problem. Then it closes the window. Had it logged a call?  Who the **** knows. Then they direct you to another website..... A pattern here?

Why? I think one of the problems with the charging of the TomTom on the cradle using the direct wiring is that the two pins on the mount are getting wet and maybe not working correctly.  I have given them a blast of WD40, a little blast, and see if that solves the problem. Then I saw another V-Strom owner had one of these to cover the pins. Not cheap for a bit of moulded plastic but should do the job when the TomTom isn't in the cradle/mount. Time will tell! Sold on eBay .

Since moving from the Rocket to the V-Strom I have been trying to get the TomTom mount, and more importantly the power supply, right. On the Rocket I had a power socket on the left side of the engine near my left shin. I ran the TomTom lead from there to the mount in the handlebar. No problem.at all. The V-Strom has a power socket on the dash panel under the rev counter. I cut down the long lead to make it shorter. The problem is when on full lock the clutch or brake hoses touch it and the connection is lost.  I have tried to find a shorter plug to keep it from contacting. But finding one is proving difficult. I have tried powering it using a USB plug rather than powering it using the mount. Even with the lash up of the small plug and right angle connection, it's not powering all the time.  So time to resort to the TomTom lead from the battery. I had to order one as I had cut down the other. The bike is due to go into Robinson's for a service and I will take it and ask them to...

The power situation was a problem on the Czech Trip and the TomTom had a lot of problems. It's hard to definitively say that the two were connected. The power was that the cigarette lighter plug connection was a loose fit in the power socket. I tried to get around it by bypassing the power lead that goes through the mount with a micro-usb cable into the charging socket in the unit.  That was no more successful as the usb plug also didn't fit very well in the socket. I have a new  that fits nice and tight. I have given it a short test and it seemed to have worked.  The problem with both setups was also that the plus stuck out too far.  As for the TomTom. It was still having problems even after it was charged fully overnight in my room. Luckily on the Czech Trip we had Phil and his 2022 BMW RT to take over!  When we got back I logged a call to TomTom Support and they suggested a reset of the unit might help. I did that. I connected to the laptop and recently did a...

Yep, it's that time again.  I only knew there was a map upgrade as I connected the TomTom to the Dell to transfer a couple of routes I had been planning from MyRouteApp to the unit. Once the 410 is connected by the USB cable to the laptop,. MyDrive Connect fires itself up and as usual, it knows who I am but never remembers my password. Once entered it told me there were three upgrades. The local bodges, plus the entire Europe and US maps. As I am unlikely to travel to the US in the near future I didn't tick that box. Off it went. The download stage took about a quarter of an hour and then it started installing.  Or so I thought. I left it to its own devices and popped back later to find the very familiar "checking" under the timer. To know what maps need upgrading it has already connected to the 410.  So why at this stage does it always seem unable to find it again? I usually have to unplug the USB cable from the laptop and it errors to say it has lost the connection!...

Sunday the 17th October 2021.  The Meldrews Sunday Breakfast meet incorporating Ride the World. Didn't happen. Why? The Meldrews part did and that is blogged already.  The Ride the World bit didn't. Why? To complete the challenge to ride to two places on the Overland magazine's challenge, I needed to have the TomTom fully functioning and on the bike.  I had done the groundwork. I had made sure that TomTom could communicate with the Cardo Scala fitted on my Shoei Qwest helmet. TomTom fully charged. All good. What was a stumbling block as that I had not actually foreseen nor had I checked was that the locking kit was in fact locked or maybe unlocked. There are two keys. One locks the whole shebang to the RAM ball on the bike that means the TomTom cradle is locked in place and can't be removed. The other key locks the cradle so that the TomTom can't be easily removed or it can't fly off the cradle in bumpy, possibly off road, conditions.   And yes, both were locked...

I decided to go ahead with the installation and using the RAM-B-367U kit that arrived at the weekend.   This is the least obtrusive once everything is removed off the bike. Just the ball on the handlebar mounting. That was all very easy to do. From the angle it was taken it looks as though it obscures the clocks but from the seat it seems okay. Need to check it with the tank bag on as well. I wired up the plug to use the accessory output socket. The socket is protected by a 3-amp fuse.  The TomTom should draw way less than that. It worked perfectly well from the Rocket's output socket. Nada. Dead. Tried the car kit for the the 410 that powers from a car lighter plug. Still nothing. Added a post to the V-Strom Owners FB page.  Plenty of replies. In the end I checked the fuses and with my untrained eye and reading glasses it looked like the fuse was blown.  I have ordered a load more on eBay but they won't arrive until late...

I decided to move the TomTom mounting from "in the wind" by the left side switchgear. As it is already removed what could be simpler? Easier said than done!!!! For some reason the spare RAM mounting kit I had in stock came with 11mm nyloc nuts. I hate nyloc nuts. Also who the **** uses 11mm! The supply spring washer too! In the end after what seemed like hours I finally managed to get it behind the screen and above the clocks. The area is so confined I could only turn the nut about a quarter each time.  It took wiggling and a jiggling to get it where I wanted it, also to be able to lock it in place with the anti-theft kit!  The key to the ram-ball mount is a little bit of a squeeze. The next job is to fit the new power cable and connect it to the battery rather than the accessory socket. Oh yeah. Baloo is back after a wash and brush up.

I have been using the TomTom on Pepé since I have had the bike. Firstly with the old style Rider and more recently with the 410 model.  This one came with the locking anti-theft kit.   I now need to refit the RAM Mount etc.  I took it off to tidy it up (rust etc)  and then I discovered that when it was last serviced the very helpful mechanics at Laguna had routed the power lead along the frame rather than where I had it dangled over the top of the air filters.  Sadly it seems to have melted somewhere there was no power.  In the end I had to cut both ends off the cable to be able to tidy it up. I ordered a new power lead from TomTom and it arrived recently. I will be a bit more thorough with this one and rather than use a Hella DIN plug into the power output by my left ankle, I will connect to the battery. I can then let the excess wire coil under the seat rather than at the handlebar end.  I never like cutting wires. Too long better than too short...

The TomTom MyDrive Connect software is installed on an old Dell laptop that was Windows 7 when we bought it in about 2011 and that we have used until last year. It was upgraded to Windows 10 as I was using it for working from home. I doubled the memory in it as it was very slow.   Now it has developed a problem with the keyboard and the A, S and D keys no longer work.  My "office" setup at home uses a stand and a separate keyboard.  That gets over one problem. The newer Dell is a 17" screen and was Windows 10 from the start. Today I installed MyDrive Connect from the TomTom website. To see if it is really any better I decided that I would install the US mapping to the 410. It's not a truly scientific test, but the 6gb maps file downloaded in 16 minutes and it then began to upgrade the unit itself.  The US maps are on the installed SD card rather than on the main memory. Let's see what the time difference is! Update: It took 1h 58m in total. This included on...

One of the benefits of the newer style TomTom devices is the free for life (or until they change the software!) upgrades. I connect mine from time to time to pick up the small community upgrades.  And often it is a surprise that there are any map upgrades... Why they don't email the user base and tell us! Anyway, I decided to do mine this evening.  I connected the 410 to the laptop. Started MyDrive Connect and entered my password. Two upgrades.  The Europe and US maps. The US maps probably aren't really needed but as they are installed on the SD card in the until I might as well import and install them. It all started well, then after several failures when the message pops up to say that their servers are busy it all has to be restarted.  Over and over.  After 50 minutes it is 78% through the download.  It has already been to 100% but failed to keep the connection to their over worked servers.   Maybe they should have thought of that when they sol...

Buggery bowlocks. Once updated the damned buggery thing won't pair with my phone. It did before the last update. Now I can only upload routes etc through a wired usb connection and not by Bluetooth. Call logged with TomTom support. Update 18/6/19 TomTom Support have replied to tell me all the things I have told them I have done and if that doesn't work, to reset the unit and try again. Update 19/6/19 That worked with a factory reset.  I had to enter the setup information again. The only problem is that now it pairs to my phone the MyDrive Bluetooth route transfer system doesn't work.

Yes, it is that time of the year again when the map updates come out. I had the email from them and connected the TomTom and it started the download of the Europe maps. I un-ticked the US maps as I am unlikely to need the maps for a year or more. The download bit got to the end and then it said "checking" it did this for over an hour and so I aborted it as it was late and I needed to go to bed.  I have had this before! So this morning I logged the laptop in and connected the unit via USB.  That was about 90 minutes ago.  It immediately  came up "Updating - Do not disconnect your device" on the TomTom and the TomTom banner is on the laptop but no exe running. I get some breakfast and a cup of coffee and nearly two hours later, TomTom My Drive still not running on the laptop, the unit says that the update has finished. Am I the only user that has this problem? Update 17:10 I decided to give it another go and kicked off My Drive Connect a...

Plugged the unit in to do some tidying up of routes etc and it asked to do an upgrade.  It has the Europe mapping on the unit itself and the USA on the additional micro-USB card. Over two hours to download and install. I hope BT can maintain an internet connection for that long. It's something they never have managed before. So once the two hours was up, I checked and it had the little upgrade to do for people's own updates. I must work out how to make changes to maps like this as I often come across speed limits that are wrong, not just temporary but where the local council has changed them. Around this part of Kent it is an epidemic. Once that was over I checked the routes by clicking on My Routes on the unit. None.  Not one. Whaaat? A moment of panic and a few choice words and I did the IT Crowd favourite of re-booting.  Et voila! My Routes are all there including the pre-loaded European routes of interest that came with the unit. I wanted to m...

Finally, I have managed to get the gpx track that I recorded from the TomTom off the unit and onto the laptop so that I can open it n Tyre . Previously when "sharing" from the 410 it failed. Now, and just a coincidence, after an upgrade to the laptop software and downloading the US maps, it worked. I was surprised that the files was almost 5mb and once imported to Tyre showed over 30000 waypoints.  Luckily, the program manages to plot them by choosing one every 300 to 400! The picture shows the actual trip I did. Including going the wrong way and around a block near the Eloi crater as "we" failed to find the Eloi 2 crater a few yards from the first one!! I might try and use "record" again and see what happens.

Attached the 410 to the laptop tonight and it needed to do a Europe Map update, This apparently caused by the new out of town speed limit introduced across France that sees the limit reduced from 90kph to 80kph. As far as I have read this is actually only a trial period.  Let's hope France and her people see sense.

One of the problems with the lazy-boy set up is the need to maintain a loop at the front that allows the 'bars to be turned left and right to full lock. ( https://rocket3man.blogspot.com/2018/06/tomtom-410.html ) With a cable coming up from around my left ankle to the headstock, it needs to leeway as the unit is mounted quite high up on the left bar. On the old setup it was easy to keep a loop that worked. The new cable seems more limp and keeping a loop seems much more difficult. So I need an alternative. Hard wring the cable into one of the connectors under the tank might solve the power problem and also ensure that power was only available when the ignition was on, but doesn't allow for a clean removal of all but the ball. So after a hunt around my brother, Neill, found this solution. It's handlebar mounted. Available in chrome to match the bars and other stuff on Pepe. But...... How much? http://www.powerlet.com/shop-by-vehicle/triumph/2008/triumph-rocket-iii-touring-20...