Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

I know as you were traveling around recently you were able to meet up with drivers and give them a live demo. I've got friends scattered around all up your way, several up in Woodleaf (as if there's that many people there in the first place!).

I was just wondering if you would be passing through this way at the same time I'd still be around the area. My Street Pilot III was still going strong but a couple drops onto concrete from shoulder height cause the display to start to separate internally, and each successive shock causes the damaged area to grow.

Still with all the abuse it's been a good unit. Mile on it are split between sitting on the dash bouncing in a freightliner Century, and mounted on the mirror mount of a Kawasaki and getting constant vibration which has subjected it to much more continuous stress than was ever intended.

If I get the TND it will live a pampered life and only be in the truck, never on the bike. Besides I doubt it is 100% waterproof.

If you aren't going to be down this way maybe we could find a suitable place to meet closer to you. I have some people to visit up in Concord/Kannapolis area out in the country.

 

Follow up to the errors and other problems I have been having with the TND500 unit




After updating the unit to version 1443, I am still having a number of errors as mentioned before.


A solution is in the works at this time for this unit, I am hopeful that these problems will be resolved shortly.


I do encourage any and all users of this product to use the “send logs” and “tell rand” functions to get information back to them


Even if your unit is not having any error problems. Still send in the information. It will help speed the bug and data fixes.

 

I am not not on the road and am available when you are. Concord is about 45 min from me. I live between Statesville and Salisbury off US 70..

Thanks,
Mark

 

I hope our solution will work for you, if not you still have my E-mail so we may try to get a better handle on the issues.

Thanks,
Mark

 

I am not sure if it is a map error or routing issue. I have seen this exact same thing happen. The new updates are great. I do see huge improvements but the same routing error has happened to me and still appears to be happening in this update. The new "set origin" options is a great way to demonstrate this problem.

Enter in 578 Bell Ave, Cadillac Mi as your start/origin point with a destination of TA #198 Saginaw/Bridgeport twp mi.

The GPS will route you past exit 144 about 8 miles down the road only to flip around and go then go back to this TA. I have seen this with other truck stops including the TA in Toledo Ohio.

The set origin is a great way to demonstrate this to RM.

Thanks,

Steve

 

Installed the new updates on Tuesday. I was only able to run with them for a few hundred miles in Ohio but they look great.

The detour in the detailed directions is awesome. I can see using this many times instead of creating a via point. BTW the "avoid" feature is something that everyone should also be aware of and how to use it. It is a very powerful and useful.

The routing did seem to be better.

Set Origin is great. Can't say enough about this new feature. I played with it quite a bit. It will be very useful in planning a route out before you start the run. The only thing I noticed is that it threw my milage off on all of my odometers.

These are my favorites that I have found so far. Should we still be only using "fastest" route and no avoids with this release?

Thanks,

Steve

 

I know RM is getting the info, has researched some of it and already responded as I had included my e-mail address in my Tell RM e-mail. I will be happy to send you the info as well however.

Can you tell us how the map updates are going to work? Possible cost and how often we will be able to update. IE every 3 months, once a year etc...

I would really prefer to pay a subscriptions and get updates on a regular basis than only get one update a year. To bad they are not able to do map updates via the Dock.

Thanks for your help,

Steve

 

yes, stay with fastest with all to allow at this time.. have not gotten new code yet.

TA - I changed the unit to car mode and it still takes the wrong exit. Sounds like a POI DB error. RM will check.

If you see routing like this - change the unit to car mode, if it now takes the correct exit it is a mapping error for truck attributes. If the car and truck mode show the wrong exit still then it is a POI DB error.

POI DB errors can be corrected in a short amount of time.

As far as the mapping updates, have not heard anything final yet back from RM.

Yes, continue with the "tell Rand", it goes to the same people that I work with.

Thanks,
Mark

 

Do somebody use Rand McNally intelliRoute TND500 for Hazmat ruoting,are a unit
accurate,some advice.

 

Hello
I can definitely feel Espressolane's opinion. I am seeing some of the same issues.

The POI feature flat out stinks as far as it hangs up, makes you search by truck or route with no option for just searching unless you have a route planed.

Question, I thought the TND500 was supposed to offer construction issues on a route. I have not seen it if it is there.

When are the keyboard layout and other upcoming features coming?

If I may, I am in no way an expert and I don't know if it is how the TND500 works but I think the SD Card memory should be replaced with an internal hard drive. Or the SD Memory not relied on as much. Video cards and such need a lot of power and Flash memory is very slow compared to internal hard drives. SD Card could be used for certain kinds of updates or such.
The unit does lock up a lot on me. Rand McNally, is this because of the SD Memory Card? Would a internal hard drive help you with this issue? If this is the problem I don't think you will be able to create a program/fix to help. Only my uneducated opinion. I hope someone will enlighten me so I will get off this rant. Most of the time I will just leave the unit alone for several minutes and it will recover. When I think I have enough time to search for a POI and the unit locks up or refuses to share any of it's information with me I will do a restart, (ten to thirty minutes, five to thirty miles should be more than enough time to come up with something.) When the unit comes back on it has more often than not still been locked up.

I can not recover from sleep mode. The unit does a complete restart. It says going into sleep mode fine. When I try to recover I only hold the power button down for a quick moment, not even half as long as when fresh starting. This is when the power cord is giving power and or when the truck is off and no power is running thru the cord. I did recover once from sleep mode this week and I thought it was because I held the button in a little longer. I tried that several times and unit still does not recover from sleep mode.

FYI I am receiving updates again to the unit and TND Dock, although I have not done any updates this week.

I am noticing height restriction issues. Posted speed limits, much less of an issue but it is a nice feature. I also know these things are changing on a regular basis and unless RM knows about them they can't let us know about them. I'm sure it would be next to impossible for anybody to have all that information for all the small town's and roads etc. Larger towns also for that matter. I know you have a contact RM feature but when you're working for somebody and in different areas always, it is hard to mark down what the route problem is. I don't know if RM or anybody can but a feature that would help is to use a button marking the approximate location you are at and a list type of options to mark the problem. Then RM could use that info to investigate the information.

I am trying to be patient with RM and the TND500. Again I want to like it. I don't expect perfection but I personally need a GPS and a truck specific GPS unit. I can't find my way out of a wet paper bag so that is why I want a GPS and went with RM's reputation. I still have some time to return mine. I do not want to have to go to a car version. I have sworn a hundred times I am returning the unit.

I personally like how the TND500 will calculate the names/numbers you are trying to enter but like Espressolane mentioned sometimes location may not be in a specific town/area. I know you can't enter something that's not there but maybe it is in that township, county, state etc., should have option to force a find so unit can look in it's database and give you other options. Can't do this if unit stops letting you enter info.
I don't want to toot anybody else's horn or condemn them but had it not been for Verizon lying about the cost of using there navigation system I would still be with them. The one feature they had that was almost flawless when I used them was zip code in the find feature. You did not have to use the zip code but if you did all you needed was the street name and address location number and the zip code and it would give you the city and state. From what I can remember it was in the high 90% area of accurate.

Sorry for being so long winded. Most of everything I am saying is to help Rand McNally and the Beta Testers give us a first class unit. I have been using mine about three weeks now so I can give this info that repeats itself. I am mostly in PA, NJ, NY, Conn. Del.
Thanks and have a safe holiday weekend. dan