TomTom TMC - Areas of Service / No Service

beaconlegal

I've just returned today from a trip to Austria over Christmas and new Year so you may (or may not - in which case, sorry for taking up the space!) be interested to hear of my experience with the RDS-TMC receiver.

I have a GO 710 and an unmodified receiver - I'm afraid advanced electronic surgery is well beyond me. The car is a V reg Peugeot 406 Estate.

Having bought the 710 and the RDS-TMC together at beginning of November was very disappointed with RDC-TMC. Classic FM reception in Worcestershire, where I live, is not good even for audio - scratchy reception is the norm from Sutton Coldfield on 100.1

Very little reception of anything at all to start with, just occasional locking on to BBC Hereford and Worcester or Radio Wyvern - both being pumped out by the Malvern Repeater - and even these only occasionally.

Played around with the location of the antenna and found that much better reception achieved by routing the antenna from my 710 (which I place to my right by the driver's front pillar, just above the dash) up the right hand side of the windscreen and then along the top of the windscreen above the rear view mirror. Still got useless channels - BBC H&W and Wyvern - but more or less constant.

Anyway, decided I might as well have the thing plugged in on my trip to Austria just in case it worked at an opportune moment and saved my a long delay somewhere. 710 had software version 6.520 as latest version had not been released when I left before Christmas.

Got my first Classic FM signal and some traffic info at the summit of the A419 just NE of Swindon on the way to Dover and got it intermittently down to Kent.

In France got a signal and information almost straight away in Calais. Intermittent info through Belgium and Luxembourg. More or less constant info through Germany (Saarbrucken down to Bregenz) and fairly constant info in Austria through to Innsbruck (perhaps surprising given the fact the road winds through the Alps and spends a lot of time in tunnels where you still get full radio and mobile telephone reception!!)

On the return journey, Got info in Austria - though it completely failed to report the one hour delay on the Innsbruck side of the Arleberg Tunnel due to an accident - patchy information through Switzerland (came home a different way!), better in France, patchy in Belgium and then we were back in the UK.

In the UK, I got info when I left the ferry in Dover. I don't know whether this was due to a brief lock onto Classic because when I looked, It said I was tuned to "Invicta" and this stuck with me, as did the information, all the way to Reading where I stopped at the services. It seemed to me that Invicta was supplying the information - ???

When I restarted the car after the services, I got a selection of local stations all the way back to Worcestershire but no Classic FM and no information.

Have now updated software and will see if that makes any difference in the future.

Icenians · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 04, 2007 Posts: 1

I'm getting reception around South Norfolk and North Suffolk but the bit of my daily commute I really need it for is a dead spot Sad

A14 Stowmarket junction to A14/A12 Junction (Ipswich) No reception
A12 From Ipswich to Chelmsford No reception.

All this with an unmodded aerial.

I'm going to mod it this weekend and report any improvement.

hijacker · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 20, 2003 Posts: 188

I too shall be modifying the TMC unit in the next few days after acquiring the necessary equipment today.

I shall report as soon as I can.
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TT GO 1005

hijacker · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 20, 2003 Posts: 188

Nearly completed the mod. I have completed the work within the TMC unit and just need to hard-wire into the car aerial now. I'm working nights at the moment and it's dark outside so will have to wait until the morning!!

It's amazing how a strong signal boosts the peformance of this unit. I tried the unit out of the car and four floors up in an office block which outside has wide open views. On average, it locked onto the Classic FM channel within 10secs!! This compares to about 3-5mins for me when out in the car normally.

So far I am modding this unit using the core to core method and leaving the screen untouched and the unit maintains a Classic FM lock with the car charger either on or off.

A further update will be issued in due course ! Smile

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TT GO 1005

Pritch · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:55 am Post subject:

mikealder · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:03 am Post subject:

I don't know which unit Vicky is using, coastersteve mentioned THIS One earlier in the thread. I have coupled my device to THIS and am happy to report a great improvement (not an option for most people - as it does involve drilling a hole) - Mike

vicky · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:47 am Post subject:

PPlutt · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 27, 2006 Posts: 16

Make an easy cheap test take an 24AWG (from inside a CAT 5 cable)
75cm long I dont know how many foot but it shoud be somthing like 29,5 inch.
And solder this to same place as coax core.
This improved my reception alot.
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Sorry for my spelling I'm from Sweden. :-)
My guess is that you can read my bad English easyer than when I write in Swedish. ;-)

vicky · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:07 pm Post subject:

OK I have made another alteration

As earlier mentioned at the moment I am using an antenna splitter to send the standard car antenna signal to the FM Radion and the TMC Unit

I also purchased the stick on the windscreen Powered Preamp antenna described here but was reluctant to use it, more untidy wires

So my solution, smash open the Preamp antenna, inside is a little PCB about the same size as the TMC one,

Connect the Car antenna lead to the inut lead on the preamp unit, connect the output leas to the splitter that supplys the Car Radio and the TMC, connect the Preamp power to my FM Stereo +12v Supply, wrap the whole 1" square budle in black tape and lose it behine the stereo

Now I get a much better car radio reception, as for better TMC, that I will find out over the next few days as I travel to areas that normally give bad reception,

If it does improve things not a bad investment at £9!!

Cheers

Vicky

vicky · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 2:48 pm Post subject:

:D IT WORKS :D

I now have full constant signal in areas that have been totally dead before even with the external antenna Mod.

Constant Signal all down the A38 from M1 Jnc28 to Derby, from 101.1 arriving Derby Signal dropped and picked up 100.1

I have never managed to get a signal before in these areas,

M1 South from M1 Jnc25 to M1 Jnc19 Solid signal from 100.1 and back from Jnc21 to Jnc28 from 100.1 then it switched to 101.1 for the last few miles home

Very Happy Bunny.

So My Final Mod (For Now Is)!!

Standard Car Roof Antenna

At the radio end of the car antenna lead I have soldered in the Preamp unit I took out of the £9 preamped Antenna and it picks up a +12v feed from a splice into the Car Radio Red Wire

The output from the preamp then feeds to a homemade splitter unit that feeds

a) The Car Radio
b) The Core Pad on the TMC Unit

Since fitting the preamp the signal meter on my car radio reports much stronger and stable reception, before Classic was fluctuating 3 or 4 bars out of 5. now its an almost constant solid 5

So if you are confident enough to do the basic solder mod to the antenna then I would strongly recommend the addition of the Preamp unit for £9 it has made the TMC unit a viable unit...

Cheers

Vicky

micknelson · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 30, 2006 Posts: 17

pepperm · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2006 Posts: 48

mikealder · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:19 pm Post subject:

In a word YES, in a few words the modification has transformed the device into something that works.
I am using an amplified aerial feeding the unit and reception / traffic information is now present more often than not. Stoke is an area similar to Blackpool in terms of Classic FM signal strength, increase the presented signal to the device and its almost as if it has woken up from a deep sleep!
You are not the first person to query the connection points on the board being a short circuit, but the chap who reported that a week or so back has also found a significant increase in usability post modification - Mike

GizmoB73 · Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 8:04 pm Post subject:

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