Rand McNally TND740

Ok so for the record let me explain my experience with GPSs. I started with Delorme Street Atlas. This was back in 2007 when I was a drive tester for Sprint in Houston. A drive tester btw is the "can you hear me now" guy more or less.
In 2008 I returned to trucking after a 12 year gap and continued using Delorme. There is a very good reason I use Delorme to this day and all will be revealed as this thread unfolds.
Later I took a chance and bought a Rand McNally TND710. I liked it a LOT. It dovetailed with my Delorme beautifully, they were a beautiful team.
I only had one problem with the 710. The method of connecting the power was STUPID. It was obviously thought up by someone who had never driven a truck or even bothered to think the problem through.
The miniature USB plug sticking out the side was an accident waiting to happen. The strain on it naturally destroyed the print on the inside causing intermittent power problems.
I shall eventually take mine apart and bypass the power plug with some concoction of my own - when I have time - that would be when hell freezes over.
Moving right along.
Finally I broke down and decided to replace it with something that didn't have such a vulnerable power / data connection. I foolishly decided to go with a Garmin (who bought out Delorme btw) 7" Dezl. It cost several hundred dollars and was the biggest piece of #### that I have ever used. It was just a costly paperweight. I might as well have taken the money and set fire to it. I tried to sell it to a friend who loves Garmin.
"Try it if you like it pay me" I said.
He used it for a week, spat on it and gave it to me back calling me bad words.
I'll continue this in a second post.

 

The Garmin did have a much better cable though and the positioning of the power / data connector was 1000% better than the R&M. Everything else was horrible.
So I decided to go for something else and grabbed a Cobra 7" unit at that TA at Perrysburg, OH.
I took it back to my truck, carefully unwrapped it, powered it up, spent 5 minutes (literally) playing with it, opened the window, vomited and took it back inside to get my money back. No problem, I got my refund and decided to think about this.
The major problem with the Cobra and yes even with the Garmin (one of many) was that the screen was absolute rubbish compared to the R&M.
Say what you want about R&M - and I am going to - their screens are bright, clear and very informative.
The competition is like looking at a Commodore C64 after a 4k monitor screen. Chalk and cheese.
So again I broke down and bought a 730 in another TA in Wyoming after the 710 finally gave me the finger.

 

I REALLY liked the TND730.
It was a really good piece of tackle. The screen had only slightly changed from the 710, they had added wifi - not very good wifi but it got the job done. I looked at the power / data connection though and groaned. They had made the same stupid mistake as with the 710.
Morons.
They had not learned from their mistakes. I called R&M and spoke to a great tech there. He said I wasn't alone it had been a common problem. He even fixed it out of warranty for nothing.
The 'fix' on the 730 was to put a strain relief clip on the suction cup mount and I must admit that actually worked very well. The plug sticking out the side was still a really dopey vulnerabity but you can't have everything I supposed.
Another problem with the 730 was the software crashes. A standard miniature C or maybe C++ screen would come up with a boingg saying that's it folks. A reboot put things back again. Annoying though.
Another major piece of stupidity was the search on wifi. Now remember what the TND part stands for.
Truck Navigational Device.
Not car or kid on a bicycle or pedestrian navigational device.
TRUCK !
So this thing needs to be geared up for trucks yes??
WRONG.
When you connect to your hotspot and start trying to look for diesel prices on your route so as to give your ride a drink of the amber nectar you don't need to see ANYTHING but truck friendly pitstops.
Only a retarded monkey would list Freds Gas Station buried in a truck inaccessible road in a list of supposed truck stops!!! Talk about unfit for purpose and liable to cause a 'problem'. R&M totally ignored the very name of their own unit. Trust me R&M nobody with a Prius is going to spend way over $400 for your magic box. Now to be clear there is an inbuilt list of truckstops which you can use built into the software. What I am talking about is using the internet to search for diesel prices along your route. You are forced to read the tea leaves between the listed truck stops and the prices on the wifi link. I really don't need to be screwing with that whilst driving at speed on an interstate. THINK about it R&M - I have a big truck with huge tanks Murphy at a Walmart ain't gonna do it. Or any other supermarket either.
Hold that thought.

 

Finally the TND730 started to flicker and then messed up the color. I could sometimes restore it by gently pressing the case north and south. It was done though.
I bought the first one in November 2011 the second one in November 2014. So they are averaging about 3 years lifespan and then you are supposed to chuck them away.
I think that is pretty unacceptable.
For that kind of money they should last a lot longer. The only reason to upgrade would be to get additional features.
So I hummed and harred and then bought a TND740.

It had the same clean crisp screen. Just lovely visuals. Outstanding. They have also introduced a marvelous magnetic mount. You can just reach out and grab the unit and fiddle with it up close. Extremely easy to remount. No connection problems and the criticism of the plug on the 2 previous models is completely negated. It relocates itself on the mount and I have a strong suspicion that the battery they are using is a great deal better than in the 2 previous models I have owned.
The wifi has been tremendously improved and changed to reflect what is going on with most electronics nowadays. When the unit is on it automatically seeks out my hotspot and connects itself. So the weather and fuel prices are right there. They are also giving traffic updates away now for free. No more extra $20 a month to see traffic. Lifetime firmware updates are also included. I paid a $100 for the first one.
A filter has been added to the wifi search for fuel prices though. It helps - a little not a lot. What is the point of eliminating say Shell or Chevron stations from the search because they are all gas stations selling diesel for cars? We all know that Shell or Chevron or Valero are a mixed bunch. Some are truck stops. Some aren't. Sorting for say Loves and PFJs is a bit pointless. Yes it is a truck stop but I along with tons of other OOs won't buy there because they are too expensive. I can save 20c a gallon AND get points AND get a shower at any Ambest for example.
That feature needs work.
It also doesn't provide the map with an overlay with the prices. It is supposed to but it doesn't. The weather is the same way I have found.
I have saved my biggest criticism for last.
The layout.
For reasons known only to R&M they have radically changed the layout. In the setup menu they ask if you would like the classic 'look'. When you choose that it is absolutely nothing like the classic R&M skin.
The speed, distances etc are virtually impossible to read. They are badly laid out and in tiny fonts white on black. Extremely tough to read. I am not going to go into a micro description of the GUI but suffice to say it sucks. It sucks big time.

Hoping to maybe fix the TND730 I gently opened it to try and see what might be going wrong with the display.
For clarity I am also an engineering technician with gobs of experience and knowledge about consumer and some industrial electronics. I would feel right at home working at a bench in R&M. So this didn't frighten me at all. I found out what was wrong with the flickering. Another piece of bad design or maybe designed in obsolescence?
The display is connected to the pcb with a ribbon cable with 2 nasty bends in it. It is vapor soldered (http://www.torenko.com/pdf/Todays-Vapor-Phase-Soldering-Tech-Paper.pdf) on both ends and then the whole thing is wrapped in grounded conductive tape. Impossible to remove without destroying everything. I found the exact problem and I probably could have fixed it in the factory but in the truck I had no chance.
So that was it for the TND730 - it has gone to heaven. More bad design issues but I will remember it fondly.

 

So I am stuck with the TND740. It is overpriced and probably also designed to only last 3 years.
There are good things about it and some definite bad things.
So how do I get around those bad things?
Back to Delorme.
I have a 15" laptop sitting on a footstool on the floor. On it I run the Delorme software. I also use that same computer for submitting BOLs and looking at email. For the most part though it is a dedicated computer for Delorme.
So what is so special with Delorme after all it is not designed for trucks and can be wildly inaccurate (although there are times it knocks the spots off of R&M)?
I can annotate the snot out of it!!
Truck stops, parking spots, restaurants, notes to self. Instructions on how to get in and out of somewhere. Which gate to use etc. It is all right there. I rarely have trouble parking because I have kept all these noted on this GPS software.
There are 2 modes with Delorme. One displays a macro window to the left and on the right a zoomed in one with tons of data in large clear to read white on blue fonts. I have my speed, distance to next turn, ETA and total distance. It also gives the name of the next road and the one after that along with turn arrows.
So that is why Delorme. It reaches the parts that other GPSs cannot reach.
It annoys me that R&M have advanced in many respects but retrenched in others but in practical terms by using the 2 units together (and there is always Google Maps too) I do just fine.
I hope this long thread helped someone just a little.

 

Everything you have written is true. The layout is appalling. You cannot read the thing. I find the magnetic mount though to be excellent. It does not fall off. I have had mine for about 6 weeks and it has never fallen off. The magnets are so strong it will snatch the unit out of your hand as you approach the mount. It will also self locate.
No, there are no more buttons on the screen. They are just awfully laid out. There was zero reason to change the layout. Somebody just decided (probably the same guy designing Wells Fargo GUIs) that we all needed a change whether we liked it or not!!
Another bad regression is that you can no longer mute the audio from the map screen. You need to back out of that and choose volume and hit the negative button. That will mute it. Want the sound back again? Well you are going to have to again back out of the map screen and keep hitting the + button. BTW the volume is nowhere near as loud as the 730.
Overall the 730 is a better unit. It just had an inherent software problem causing crashes and a self destruct feature regarding that crappy film connector.
Mylar connectors are a diabolical way of connecting things. They can't take vibration and will just internally snap. They can be used if the design is right so that they are NEVER bent / folded but not too much research went into that I am sorry to say.
In another thread the R&M guy decided to treat me like an idiot instead of somebody who has decades of experience with design, manufacture and production of electronics. He has drunk the kool aid and is a bit of a fanatic.
The truth is that research and development is paid for by YOU. They make something, any widget you can think of, then market and sell it. Now that they have your money - a lot of money and the price of these GPSs is way greater than it needs to be - you are trapped. They then use the complaints and returned units to stamp out forest fires. Production is altered on the fly. This is a fact, I know because I was one of those guys. It is standard industry practice.
Got me 2 trips to Malaysia.
To sum up. If you can manage it wait out the 740. Muddle on with the 730 and even consider buying an old stock one.

 

Very well said.