C510D issues

[peaton]

I have had my C510 a week now and I am not too happy. On the first day it worked fine as far as I could tell. I was able to navigate home using the preloaded detail map and was warned about speed cameras by the preloaded camera POI database. Later I went to show someone how it worked but when I turned it on it complained that no detailed maps were found that supported routing. I was able to load an additional map onto the SD card and I can now use it to navigate but get a warning that says can't unlock maps. I presume the gmapprom.img file is somehow corrupt. The preloaded Cylops sample POI files no longer work. I am on my second GTM21 thanks to the helpful people in the shop where I bought it but despite driving many miles over the last week I have seen no traffic information, the icon with the two cars remains grey. The light on the GTM21 does occasionally go green. Am I doing something wrong? I have seen various references to the traffic information being a bit flaky but it seems strange to get nothing.

[portman]

May be worth taking the unit back.

With regard to the traffic, the best thing to do is go in to the diagnostics menu and look at the signal strength. From the map screen press the 'speed' in the bottom left then press and hold the 'overall avg' button for a few seconds. This will bring up another screen, keep pressing next til you get to the GTM Status screen and look at the 'level'. You need i think a minimum of 7/8 to get traffic.
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Samsung Mega
Tomtom 500

[peaton]

[portman]

If you don't get traffic, turn it off then on again, quite often gets traffic that way.
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Samsung Mega
Tomtom 500

[peaton]

Update:
I have yet to get any satisfactory results from the GTM 21. I have managed to get a signal in my car and receive actual traffic information, only however while stationary and fiddling about with the wire aerial. I see various references to extending the wire and also to splitting the car's FM aerial coax in attempts to get a better signal. Do these mods really work? I would rather make this darn thing work than fight for my money back. I do not want to mess around with the GTM 21's built in aerial if all I am going to do is ruin any chance or returning the thing. Any real world evidence the mods work would be valuable.

[peaton]

I have managed to get reasonable reception on my C510 by extending the GTM21's aerial wire. Initially I attached the extended wire to the roof aerial in a similar manner to kelvin66, as shown on another post. This involved a small eye terminal that was clamped between the screw off aerial mast and the base. However I removed this one day as it was a bit untidy and found that the extended wire seemed to be sufficient just hanging inside car, at least in the areas I have driven recently. It consistently takes just over four minutes to capture a signal but then the LED remains green for most of my journey. I have not ventured up North since the mod so until then I will reserve judgement as to whether this is a real fix or just an improvement. Interestingly enough the traffic data, now that I do receive it, has so far been of little relevance to my journeys. The BBC traffic reports have substantially more information.

I have had a reliable signal from Swindon and surrounding areas, up the A420 as far as the M40 and on to Banbury.

Extending the wire involved carefully removing the plastic end off the aerial and replacing it with a small connector. I soldered a matching connector to the extension wire. The only purpose of the original plastic end appears to be for stopping the two windscreen suckers from falling off the wire.

When I am satisfied that this is the solution I will do a neater job of extending the wire and routing it around the car.

[peaton]

I have been experimenting a bit more with my GTM21. I bought a used aerial base for my car at the weekend. It is an amplified “bee sting” style aerial, similar to the one already installed. I drilled a small hole in the base plate beside the coax and fed a wire up to the amplifier. I have now put this on the car in place of the original aerial. The new wire is attached to my GTM21. My first observation parked outside the house is a slight increase in signal level with the amplifier turned on. It remains to be seen if it makes a significant difference on the road.

Incidentally, I did benefit from the traffic information yesterday, albeit a little too late. I was warned about a road closure on the A420. I got caught up in the tail back but was able to detour using the GPS and found an alternative route with ease.

[footix2]

I get strong Traffic signal on motorways and large metropolitan areas (such as Glasgow)

However venturing into my home county of Cumbria meant i got zero traffic. However this may be due to the fact there is no provider of TMC FM in the county.

[HughGW]

I have just updated my C510D using WebUpdater - it gave me a traffic software update to 3.90 and the signal strength referred to above has shot up in to the low 30's in my house on a hill in the Forest of Dean (not noted for brilliant radio reception). I shall be trying it out in the car tomorrow. This increase in Level ought to make a significant difference - I hope!

[peaton]

I have applied the same update. I also get significantly higher signal level numbers. However I suspect this is just a different scale for the same information. My green light now turns orange at 16 instead of 4. I also am seeing a green light and no traffic data, something which was not the case before the update. I consider the update to be a step backwards.

[peaton]

I am seeing the green light come and go at levels well into the 30s. The unit has a green light now with no data. It is using channel 138 – 103.1 . When it cycles through the channels it always settles on 138. There are three other channels on the FM table. This is all in the house where I was able to receive data before.

[peaton]

That should be 101.3 not 103.1

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