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Retty
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Joined: Sep 07, 2006
Posts: 336
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 Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject: Repair or replace Mio shoe string aerial? |
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Hopefully someone can help with advice.
The shoe string aerial for my Mio C710 has broken - the plug has come away from the lead.
I've been told by 3 suppliers that it isn't possible to buy a replacement (it may be possible from Mio directly but I haven't been able to contact them today).
Has anyone managed to buy a similar replacement shoe string aerial?
If I need to make a new aerial could someone tell me the plug dimensions and the pins the lead should be soldered to?
Thanks for any help. |
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GPS_fan
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Joined: Jan 04, 2007
Posts: 2789
Location: Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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If it isn't possible to get a replacement shoestring aerial, you should be able to get a 2.5mm jack and length of similar wire from the likes of Maplin.
Then all you need to do is determine which pin to attach to end of the wire to...from memory, I think it's the centre - but I'd have to re-check this with a meter
This should also be cheaper than the shipping costs Mio charge
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Retty
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Joined: Sep 07, 2006
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| Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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| GPS_fan wrote: | If it isn't possible to get a replacement shoestring aerial, you should be able to get a 2.5mm jack and length of similar wire from the likes of Maplin.
Then all you need to do is determine which pin to attach to end of the wire to...from memory, I think it's the centre - but I'd have to re-check this with a meter
This should also be cheaper than the shipping costs Mio charge |
Thank you.
I'm a bit confused though because the C710 spec sheet I've just found describes a 3.5 mm jack plug. I wonder if the spec sheet is correct because I notice that the plug for the C510 is described as 2.5 mm.
A couple of car audio shops I've approached have said that they won't rsk making a new lead because they can't be sure of the correct wiring and incorrect wiring could, in theory, damage the device. Surely this isn't the case though if no significant current is being supplied to the jack plug? |
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mikealder
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Joined: Jan 14, 2005
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Location: Blackpool , Lancs
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| Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Have a read through some of the posts Sallyann made in This Thread as it details where to get the correct type of connector (Maplins) and a part number + connection details and some explanation as to why there is only a single connection made - Mike |
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Retty
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| Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:59 pm Post subject: |
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| mikealder wrote: | | Have a read through some of the posts Sallyann made in This Thread as it details where to get the correct type of connector (Maplins) and a part number + connection details and some explanation as to why there is only a single connection made - Mike |
Thanks Mike - much appreciated.
I'll have to order the jack plug from Maplins online. I visited 3 Maplins shops across the south of England and not one had the plug in stock. Pretty poor really.
Mio will sell a new aerial but the postage cost from Belgium is crazy at about 20 euros - there's no option for non premium postage. The total cost of the item (including postage) is £22.
I managed to find a shop in the UK that can sell me the item for a reasonable cost - at least they think that they can get it. I tried 5 suppliers who weren't even interested in trying to help before I found the one whose service was genuinely impressive. I'll post the details if they deliver :-) Even if they can't deliver I would still recommend them on the basis of the friendly, unhurried and genuinely helpful service they provided.
I was very disappointed by Global Positioning Systems who this time last year provided excellent service but are now very poor indeed on the basis of my humble experience at least. The person who answered the telephone explained that the company is now owned by expansys. They weren't even mildly interested in helping or even taking the details of my enquiry - they just gave me the premium rate phone number for Mio! Avoid. |
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GPS_fan
Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2007
Posts: 2789
Location: Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| Retty wrote: | | I'll have to order the jack plug from Maplins online. I visited 3 Maplins shops across the south of England and not one had the plug in stock. Pretty poor really. |
Gareth,
Can you not use the Maplin web site to check stock levels at various stores?
Part number (HF98G) Your local stores here
Farnborough 39
Reading 8
Guildford 8
Basingstoke 10
Part number (HF80B) Your local stores here
Farnborough 55
Reading 0
Guildford 7
Basingstoke 7
I hope this helps speed up the process of repairing your shoestring aerial
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Retty
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Posts: 336
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| Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:45 am Post subject: |
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| GPS_fan wrote: | | Retty wrote: | | I'll have to order the jack plug from Maplins online. I visited 3 Maplins shops across the south of England and not one had the plug in stock. Pretty poor really. |
Gareth,
Can you not use the Maplin web site to check stock levels at various stores?
Part number (HF98G) |
Thanks for the information.
The plug that's needed is the 4 pole plug (although I'm not sure why - probably something to do with the design of the TMC chipset connector which I suspect is a generic chipset not made by Mitac). The C510 has a 2.5 mm connector.
I did check stock levels before I went to the shops - it was showing as in stock at Oxford Circus but they had no stock and the same in Southampton.
It's also proving tricky to get a replacement aerial.
I think I may have to buy the hard wired aerial splitter from here:
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/539
The 4 pole 3.5 mm jack adaptor is interesting and I suspect not a coincidence. There's probably some sort of market leading generic standard TMC chipset hardware - I think I've read other posts that provide some evidence for this but I can't find them.
Reviews describing the quality of reception with the splitter are mixed and the technical issues seem to be more complex than just installing the splitter and reasonably expecting the reception to be better than with the shoe string aerial.
I would still need a replacement portable aerial though. It's possible that the current broken one can be repaired although the broken solder on the 4th pin is quite impressive - needing a very steady and precise hand and fine solder. Not sure I can even come close to competing with that and the expense of the appropriate iron wouldn't justify it.
I would have to say from my experience that I wouldn't recommend people buying Mio sat nav products on the basis of technical and after sales support from Mitac. Very poor indeed.
The main reason I bought the C710 was because of multiple via point support and bluetooth support at a reasonable price. The only other show in town on both these points was (and to some extent still is) TomTom. Multiple via point support is still missing, it seems, from almost all mainstream sat nav units. This is really strange considering that it's just a function of software and most processors (if not all) are up to the task. iGO PDA versions (available for use on most CE and other Windows PDAs) supports it and yet the hardware brand locked software from Garmin and other mainstream companies doesn't.
Mio had good TMC support as well at least on paper (or did it? - Mio didn't seem to know that TMC was supported in the UK! I guess we will never really get to the bottom of that one and the idea that Trafficmaster support was the result of a programming glitch :-) ) I wish I could get Trafficmaster back without losing the important bug fixes provided by the November 2006 and subsequent updates. Itis TMC reception is very poor in many urban areas in the south of England and the forthcoming transmission coverage changes aren't likely (I guess) to alter this significantly.
The ability to buy a Trafficmaster license file for the device would be good. The software has this functionality whereby a license file purchase can be tied to the serial number of the device and to an unique device generated code. The US Mio site even offers this service for the new devices and although the C710 is missing from the list of supported devices the gif examples of how to sign up to the service actually used, until last week, a C710 as the example hardware. In the last week the C710 registration screen picture has been replaced with one for the C720 but the other C710 generated gifs remain!
http://tmc.mio-tech.com/usersguide.asp#UUID
Anyway, still no Miomap update (since March 2007) and consequently no bug fixes or feature updates (to bring Miomap 3.2 up to date with recent (and free) iGO updates). Less than a year after the C710 was being marketed as the flagship unit from Mio this is very poor support. |
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Sallyann
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Joined: Jun 23, 2006
Posts: 768
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| Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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I picked up a QT65V in Maplins Croydon a couple of weeks ago. There didn't seem to be a shortage.
The C710 has been on sale for 18 months now, it's about time Mio had a replacement to keep up with the opposition and it looks like the C620 will be it, but I'll stick with the C710 for the time being.
Sal |
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Retty
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| Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Sallyann wrote: | I picked up a QT65V in Maplins Croydon a couple of weeks ago. There didn't seem to be a shortage.
The C710 has been on sale for 18 months now, it's about time Mio had a replacement to keep up with the opposition and it looks like the C620 will be it, but I'll stick with the C710 for the time being.
Sal |
Me too. I also think that I will, finally, go for the hard wired option. Now that an online payment system is available and a decent postal rate there's no reason not to (other than the installation fee charged by the car audio shop for installation that is).
But I think you're missing the point when you say that the C710 was on sale for 18 months. It was discontinued in May of this year (iirc) and yet there has been no bug fix software release since March of this year (and that despite the arrival of the iGO 2006 Plus based Miomap 3.3). It isn't good enough for Mitac to simply drop support of update support of units that are well within the warranty period and it should be a warning to potential buyers. An 18 month life spam discontinued in the last 6 months speaks of very poor end user support.
As for north American TMC subscription. The subscription service for the C710 has been removed from the US website (which is, it seems, actually managed by Mitac Taiwan in terms of technical and customer support queries. No chance of getting a sensible answer from them and I speak from experience). Ironically iGO My Way 2006 Plus provides US TMC for free (without the need for an annual subscription). It seems that many people (judging by posts on other forums) are using a hacked C710 to run iGO May Way 2006 Plus on the Mio hardware thus bypassing the need for a US TMC subscription. Thus no complaint from many US C710 owners. It's a funny old world. |
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GPSBear
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Joined: Jul 15, 2006
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Retty wrote: | | It seems that many people (judging by posts on other forums) are using a hacked C710 to run iGO May Way 2006 Plus on the Mio hardware thus bypassing the need for a US TMC subscription. Thus no complaint from many US C710 owners. It's a funny old world. |
Do you have any pointers to doing this? Running IGO that is. I assume one just needs the CE desktop unlocked.
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Mio C710 on MioMap 3.3 |
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Retty
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Posts: 336
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| Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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| GPSBear wrote: | | Retty wrote: | | It seems that many people (judging by posts on other forums) are using a hacked C710 to run iGO May Way 2006 Plus on the Mio hardware thus bypassing the need for a US TMC subscription. Thus no complaint from many US C710 owners. It's a funny old world. |
Do you have any pointers to doing this? Running IGO that is. I assume one just needs the CE desktop unlocked. |
I haven't done it myself and the discusson of how to do it - or pointers giving instructions of where to find information - wouldn't be appreciated in these forums and would probably result in action from the moderators.
The point is however that Mio offer no way of purchasing a US TMC subscription for use on the C710 and so people who want/need this function tend to find ways around the problem (such as using the almost identical iGO software which for some reason doesn't require the purchase of an US TMC license).
I emailed Mio support to ask them where/how/if I could buy a US TMC subscription for the C710 and they emailed me a link to the C510 TMC receiver! Doesn't inspire confidence. |
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