TMC Emulator idea for PPCs

leaskovski · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 24

Hi Guys,

I have come up with an idea for a program for PPC devices. God knows if the idea is sound or if it could work!

Anyway, here goes...

Basically, as most navigation software is now enabled to pick up TMC, could it not be possible to emulate TMC?

The software would work by mapping to a COMs port on the device. It would then use the GPRS to obtain traffic data (from the BBC or other sites, possibly using RSS feed?). Using this data, it could then convert it into the 'TMC' format (not sure if thats possible) and then stream it to the mapped COM port.

The navigation software would then (hopefully) be able to see this data coming in from the COM port and use it in its own internal way.

So guys, does this sound feisable or do you think this wouldnt work?

Any comments are welcome. :D

leaskovski · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 24

Okay, first things first...

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/StandardsQueryFormHandler.StandardsQueryFormHandler?scope=ALL&keyword=14819&isoNumber=&sortOrder=ISO&title=true&search_type=TEXT&search_term=14819&languageCode=en

These are the standards for TMC. SO my first job is to understand how these work.

leaskovski · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 24

And this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_Message_Channel

Wiki, is good! PS, how do you edit messages in this forum?! Laughing Out Loud

!

swing · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 1:26 pm Post subject:

You can't edit messages in these forums.

However, what would using GPRS to collect the information from websites offer over and above using TMC directly? If the software supports TMC, then I would have thought the TMC hardware would be cheaper than the hardware you are suggesting...

Also, most of the online websites get their information from one of two sources, and guess what - those two sources are also the two companies who offer their data via TMC (or the websites are partners in the supply of the data via TMC).

Finally, to actually feed the data to the PDA as a TMC signal, you'll need the TMC Location table for that device, and the ability to translate the web data back into the location table. The device will also need to have the location table data loaded into it, which needs a license from the data supplier - this normally comes with the hardware, which would seem to make this a circular argument - if the consumer only gets the location data with the hardware, then why would they want to not use the hardware....?

leaskovski · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 24

Ah i see. I didnt really understood how tmc worked. I was sugesting an idea that did not require hardware and thus a free solution (apart from the gprs cost).

Do you have to use a TMC table for that country? Ie Does navigation software have these tables for all the different countries?

swing · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:16 pm Post subject:

leaskovski · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 24

Ok.

I don't suppose you can explain how it all works then? Embarassed

Do these country tables only work in the country they are designed for? Are coordinates passed in the TMC message which is then used to makr up an area of traffic, or is that what the country table is used for?

Laughing Out Loud

, i know f all about TMC. Its quite embarrising.

Skippy · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:46 pm Post subject:

What sat nav software are you running on the PPC?

It isn't that hard to download the TPEG data from the BBC and convert it into waypoints which can be shown on your sat nav unit. Updating the incidents on the fly is more of a challenge, but possible.

From what I understand, TMC traffic alerts are in clear text but the location of the incident is scrambled and has to be determined using a lookup table which you pay a licence fee to use. Can anyone confim this?

So, in theory, if you could get a licence (ahem) to use the TMC location table then you could convert the BBC's TPEG feed into TMC locations using the lookup table and feed it into your sat nav which could be an interesting hack.

I've seen a suggestion that some sat nav units convert the TMC data into NMEA strings similar to what the GPS receiver generates so you could inject them this way.
_________________
Gone fishing!

leaskovski · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 24

I use iGo/MioMap software. I was thinking that the kit could use one of the freely available country tables. Thats why i was wondering if a country table was locked to a region, otherwise you could use a free country table across several regions.

Can you tell i am making it up as i go along?

I remember seeing something with Tomtom that basically allowed POI to be shown on a map, but then you couldnt utilise TomToms rerouting, so it a PITA having to plug all the manual avoids into the software.

swing · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 6:03 pm Post subject:

leaskovski · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 06, 2006 Posts: 24

Ah, so the location table is bascially used to reference junctions on roads.

Okay, well that puts pay to this idea then. Shame Sad

Could have been a good peice of kit.

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