TomTom hacking
Well, I am a geek so it is excusable.
There are lots of ways to customise and update and hack and otherwise subvert your TomTom GO.
Splash screen
The splash screen image that appears when you turn the unit on or off lives in the root directory and is called 'splash.bmp'; this needs to be a 240x320 BMP file (it looks rotated by 90 degrees if you view it on the PC) and you can create one yourself or download one from many web sites.
Here's one I made earlier with my picture, name and mobile number (in case my beloved gets lost or stolen). Note that this is saaaaad.
Points of interest
The POIs that come with the unit are a bit limited (and not tremendously accurate, though quite near enough for everyday use). Luckily, there are lots of free POI files to download. Each POI database comes as a pair of files: Something.ov2 and Something.bmp (the overlay data and the icon graphic, respectively). Drop these files into the map directory (Great_Britain-Map if you have a regular UK unit).
First and probably most useful is the UK speed camera database:
I prefer to use the 'speed zoned' POIs as these tell you what the speed limit for each camera is (and it shows on the map and nav display as '30', or '40', or whatever). To get the benefit of this database you obviously need to set POI warnings for each of these; you can set it to warn 'only on route' which will only warn you about speed traps you're actually passing through (and will miss some, because the database isn't perfect and sometimes just has one POI when there are cameras both sides of the road), or not, in which case you'll be warned about a camera anywhere NEAR you even if it's on a different road. Depends how paranoid you are.
You can also download customised voice alerts to go with these which replace the built-in beeps and bells with things like 'GATSO, 60'.
Note that these are specific to your software version, because they're produced by hacking the associated data file. As with all these things you should have a known good backup before you start fiddling about - if you screw up your original and only SD card you could be a bit stuck. Watch out especially to make sure when you copy things over to the SD card that you have enough space, and that you unmount the TomTom properly using 'Safely remove hardware' on Windows or 'unmount' on Unix (an incomplete data file will render the TomTom unbootable).
More general POI files:
Voices
There are various sets of voices available. The official ones are copyright and law-abiding folks like you and me have to buy them from TomTom or on eBay. However, suffice it to say that if you want them badly enough, copies can be found lurking in the darker corners of the net (*cough* BitTorrent *cough*).
Here are a few legal ones:
You can also edit and make your own with the POIpatcher program.
Menus
You can change the layout of the menus if it's not to your liking.
Colour schemes
You can edit the colour schemes yourself; they're just text files containing RGB codes. Alternatively, use the Color Scheme Editor.
Add-on applications
General customisation
Useful sites
Discussion forums
Internals and hardware
There are lots of ways to customise and update and hack and otherwise subvert your TomTom GO.
Splash screen
The splash screen image that appears when you turn the unit on or off lives in the root directory and is called 'splash.bmp'; this needs to be a 240x320 BMP file (it looks rotated by 90 degrees if you view it on the PC) and you can create one yourself or download one from many web sites.
- http://home.arcor.de/pomfrit/gosplash.htm
- http://www.tomtomsatnav.info/splashscreens.html
- http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=27219
- http://www.mytomtomgo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3156
Here's one I made earlier with my picture, name and mobile number (in case my beloved gets lost or stolen). Note that this is saaaaad.
Points of interest
The POIs that come with the unit are a bit limited (and not tremendously accurate, though quite near enough for everyday use). Luckily, there are lots of free POI files to download. Each POI database comes as a pair of files: Something.ov2 and Something.bmp (the overlay data and the icon graphic, respectively). Drop these files into the map directory (Great_Britain-Map if you have a regular UK unit).
First and probably most useful is the UK speed camera database:
I prefer to use the 'speed zoned' POIs as these tell you what the speed limit for each camera is (and it shows on the map and nav display as '30', or '40', or whatever). To get the benefit of this database you obviously need to set POI warnings for each of these; you can set it to warn 'only on route' which will only warn you about speed traps you're actually passing through (and will miss some, because the database isn't perfect and sometimes just has one POI when there are cameras both sides of the road), or not, in which case you'll be warned about a camera anywhere NEAR you even if it's on a different road. Depends how paranoid you are.
You can also download customised voice alerts to go with these which replace the built-in beeps and bells with things like 'GATSO, 60'.
Note that these are specific to your software version, because they're produced by hacking the associated data file. As with all these things you should have a known good backup before you start fiddling about - if you screw up your original and only SD card you could be a bit stuck. Watch out especially to make sure when you copy things over to the SD card that you have enough space, and that you unmount the TomTom properly using 'Safely remove hardware' on Windows or 'unmount' on Unix (an incomplete data file will render the TomTom unbootable).
More general POI files:
- http://www.tomtomfree.com/index.html (excellent set of POIs including supermarkets, petrol stations, service stations, and lots of shops and DIY stores)
- http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/tomtompoi.php (weird and obscure things like bird sanctuaries, Centre Parcs and Dr Who filming locations)
- http://www.poihandler.com/ (needs free registration)
- http://www.poidownload.co.uk/ (very comprehensive UK company locations generated from postcode data, but you will need to use the makeov2 tool to convert them to TomTom format)
Voices
There are various sets of voices available. The official ones are copyright and law-abiding folks like you and me have to buy them from TomTom or on eBay. However, suffice it to say that if you want them badly enough, copies can be found lurking in the darker corners of the net (*cough* BitTorrent *cough*).
Here are a few legal ones:
You can also edit and make your own with the POIpatcher program.
Menus
You can change the layout of the menus if it's not to your liking.
Colour schemes
- http://www.colorschemeeditor.com/index.php?p=schemes&lang=EN
- http://www.satnav-shop.com/index.php?page=johnboyschemes
You can edit the colour schemes yourself; they're just text files containing RGB codes. Alternatively, use the Color Scheme Editor.
Add-on applications
- http://www.automated.it/ttg-apps.html (several useful little utilities, including an automatic day/night colour switcher)
- http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/poicapture-tomtom-go.php (speed camera recorder)
General customisation
Useful sites
- http://www.tomtom.com/ (official site)
- http://www.mytomtomgo.com/ (independent user site)
- http://www.tomtomsatnav.info/index.html (Ray's TomTom Site)
- http://www.satnav-shop.com/index.php?ln=en&pg=6&sec=6 (care and feeding of your TomTom)
- http://tomtom.com/lib/doc/go5/refman/US/TomTomGO_manual.htm (user manual)
- http://tomtom.com/support/support.php?ID=3&Language=1 (software updates)
Discussion forums
- http://www.expansys.com/forum.asp?code=TOMTOMGO (reseller tech forum populated by some highly knowledgeable scary freaks)
- http://www.dirksoft.co.uk/forum/
- http://www.mytomtomgo.com/forum/
- http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=93
Internals and hardware
- http://www.opentom.org/ (including such goodies as building your own docking station)
- http://www.tomtom.com/page.php?Page=gpl (TomTom's open source code)