BLUE&ME TOMTOM 2

The 2014 500e comes with this unit.

It's mounted on a "stalk" that fits into the dash. This only provides power, the unit is Bluetooth. You also get a charging/USB cable, it has a unique connector on the bottom.

You also get a separate suction grip mount to use in another car, besides just handheld.

Customizing

I wanted to change the car symbol, you have to make the graphics file a bmp file, and it can not be larger than 128 x 128 (min size 24 x 24). I got a nice picture of my car, but I figured I needed a transparent background, so made one up in Photoshop, and then converted to bmp file. There is a place on the tomtom site  called "add community content" (I searched for it) that allows you to upload custom stuff.

Now a nice picture of my car scoots around on the map screen.

I went to a fair amount of pain to make the background transparent, but apparently transparency in a BMP file is tricky business, you need and "alpha channel", you need 32 bits per pixel, and my photoshop does neither, so my little car is in a nice white box. 

Updating

I got into an "update" loop, it wanted to keep installing an update that had already been installed, and it prompts you everytime the computer is booted (you can disable this) that you need this critical update.

Finally, I went to the "users" directory, then my user name, and then appdata and then tomtom... there was a folder called home3, and I deleted it, and then rebooted.

 

Weather Underground PWS KCACARLS78