DIY - Adding YOUR car to YOUR Tom Tom
 

I was looking at a DIY for a GPS mount, I was courious as I had bought one. Skyman put it up.....and when he showed his Tom Tom in the picture, what did you see, HIS CAR ON HIS TOM TOM!! so cool....so I ask...and found out how it was done. And as it turns out, anyone can put any car on their Tom Tom if they want, and know how.....SO I put together some step by step instructions on how YOU too can do it.

One of the things you can do is change the CAR that you are driving.......AND there is a way that you can build your own car icon by taking a picture of YOUR car from the back (slightly elevated so you can see the stripes good on the trunk) and do a little image magic to it....so now I have MY car in my Tom Tom when we are driving somewhere new in my Camaro.

Here is a picture of Mine on my Tom Tom.

Attachment 881786

Skymans Tom Tom

Attachment 139597

Pretty COOL!

if you have a Tom Tom or are getting one, here are the instructions on how to put YOUR car on YOUR Tom Tom:

To add YOUR car to your Tom Tom, do the following:

1. Connect your Tom Tom to your computer and open up Tom Tom HOME.
2. If you need to, update any software or hit the "BACK" button and it will take you to the "manage your devise" page.
3. Go to the "ADD Traffic, Voices, Safety, Cameras, etc." link.
4. On that page, open the link to "Images and Icons", then "Car Symbol".
5. A list of optional images opens up, 243 pages of them!! geeeeez, but there is a search feature, lol.
6. At the bottom left hand corner of the page there is a link to "How do I create my own content". It will give you some instructions on how to make your own, and some specifics.
7. Use the "Create" button, your browser will open up, the second link is "car symbols" and follow the instructions, when done making your icon, save it in the "art" and "Car" folder ON YOUR Tom Tom. After you have your new icon, open up "windows explorer" or "my computer" and you will see your Tom Tom listed. Open it up, and that is where you will see the ART and CAR folders, which is where you save your new icon.
8. When you are all done, and have your new icon on your Tom Tom, if you want, you can share it with others in the Tom Tom community by to the page with the "create" button, and use the "SHARE" button to upload your cars image for all the share.
9. All you do to change the car icon to your Camaro is to go to the configure screen in your Tom Tom and change the car symbol to your Camaro.

UPDATE:
for those of you want to do this, the file needs to be saved as a bitmap (.bmp). needs to be 80 pixels X 80 pixels, and must have a RED (RGB: 255,0,0) BACKGROUND. with that, in Tom Tom the red portion is INVISIBLE, only the car will show. That is all there is to it. Just save it in the file location mentioned in step 7. AND OBVIOUSLY you can make ANYTHING you want!! lol

AND, IF you have a IOM with White Stripes, or Rally Yellow w/ Black stripes already, when you get to the list of available car images (step 5), do a search at the top right hand side on "CAMAROS" and you will find TWO 5Gens, mine and Skyman's and you can use them instead of having to build your own.

I send you a PM, let me know, and it may be a difference of the model of Tom Tom I have vs the one you have, but if I can make the instructions more clear, I will certainly do it.

In your case, it should have been really easy, you could have gotten mine, which is available, downloaded it to you, opened up the file, and just changed the color of the stripes and resaved it, and you would have been done....piece of cake. lol

UPDATED: the instructions have been updated to make it more clear, plus a few tips.

how do you connect your tom tom to your computer, mine only came with a cable to plug it into the cig lighter

You should have received a cable that goes from the back of Tom Tom to a USB port. Look around you probably put it in a drawer somewhere thinking you didn't need it. The cable was used when you first loaded software on to your Tom tom.

:word:
AND you can use that cable to charge your Tom Tom and supply power to it via the USB port in your car insted of using the BIG A$$ cig lighter charger. I bought a longer one that I use, as I have my radar detector plugged into the outlet in the console. not to mention, I hate the placement of the outlet in front of the shifter.

mine never came with a cable other than the cig cable and I never had to upload any software. Maybe because mine is the cheaper one? It was like $125

good stuff
 

Good stuff.thanks for the info.Where do you mount your tom tom? I have tried the windshield and it really takes up a lot of viewing space.Sometimes it is so heavy it has fell off. :facepalm: The console does not have any good locations that I can find.Open to suggestions.Thanks

I have one of the newer XL series, it stays put with no problem. I know the vents aren't very tall, but you can get mounts on ebay for about $15 that work. but since I have a radar detector up there, that space is used up anyway so I put mine on the glass, most of the time.

How did you decide to mount your tom tom in your car. I've been brainstorming on what I want to do when my onstar free year is up. if you have pics can you post them?

Yea, I got a file for a Red Jewel Tintcoat that I added to my Garmin.

that is so cool

Lokks like my car, how about sending me the finished pic of the car.

TooCool look at the instructions....the VERY LAST PARAGRAPH of the UPDATE at the bottom.....there is already an IMO 5th Gen there, that anybody can use in the listings of available cars...because I already uploaded it to the Tom Tom server, do a search of camaro and you will find it.