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mikealder Pocket GPS Moderator


Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
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Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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Where this does get complicated is GCap also own Classic FM, so one company have control over all FM TMC transmission in the UK - Mike |
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yo612 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Jan 08, 2007 Posts: 3
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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Hello everybody from France,
We have exactly the same problem in France with the Tmc-RDC receiver.
Near of Paris, which is a big town with lot of radios stations, sometimes we can receive the trafic-information and sometimes the tomtom goes to scan again and again.
When you leave Paris and go at 10 or 20 miles ahead, it 's worth.
Few times, tomtom can receive a good signal.
Many of us have sent e-mails at tomtom support and their answer is very... pathetic.
They advise us to not install others speeds camera coming from others website than tomtom, erase these poi, flash again the tomtom with the 6.522 and reset it.
So, is it really necessary to say to you that nothing changes after doing that ?
Bye
:x :x |
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Scotty-uk Regular Visitor

Joined: Dec 24, 2006 Posts: 61 Location: J7 M11 (Essex)
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Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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I've been asked by one of the posters on this forum how I connected into my car stereo with my modified TMC.
So here goes :
My car (Audi S4) has a 'modern' ISO aerial connector and therefore I had to use adaptors. I think most cars 2000+ cars have these now.
I bought all these bits from my local Maplin :
[1] 'ISO to old' converter lead (to go on the aerial lead)
[2] ISO right angle plug to old' converter (to go in the back of the head unit)
[3] an 'old' aerial connector
[4] a splitter
[5] one male coax connector
[6] two female coax connectors
[7] length of coax
I actually just wanted an ISO connector to go on the aerial lead but I couldn't find one so I did this : I took a 'ISO to old' converter lead ([1] above) and cut off the 'old' end. On the cut end I then put on a male coax connector ([5] above). This was then plugged into the input of the splitter ([2] above).
On one of the outputs I plugged in (using a female coax connector ([6] above) on the end of the TMC extension cable) the TomTom/TMC.
On the other output I used the other female coax connector ([6] above) on a bit of coax. On the opposite end of the coax I fitted the 'old' aerial connector ([3] above).
This was then plugged into the right angle converter ([2] above) and connected to the head unit.
It's a bit convoluted but I didn't want to cut the car's aerial lead and I couldn't find ISO plugs and sockets on their own.
I hope this helps. |
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swebb Regular Visitor

Joined: Apr 27, 2006 Posts: 79
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Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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Scotty - can you post any pictures of this? |
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Malc6552 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Nov 21, 2003 Posts: 20
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Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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Hoping mine will be here tomorrow, looks like mods are gonna be needed .... would be nice to see more pic's of what people have done to make this thing work!!!! |
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frosty000 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 2
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Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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I've just been reading the whole thread and looking for solutions myself. I was going to go down the route Scotty took as I have a company car (VW Passat) and didnt want to pull it apart and cut cables, when I found this -
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/671
My only reservation is that apparently my aeriel is amplified and the power (7 Volts) goes through the centre core of the coax. I am worried it may cause problems with the RDS-TMC unit.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly received.
Thanks, and sorry if I have barged in - I'm new to forums |
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GizmoB73 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 37 Location: Cambs, UK
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Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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frosty000 wrote: | I've just been reading the whole thread and looking for solutions myself. I was going to go down the route Scotty took as I have a company car (VW Passat) and didnt want to pull it apart and cut cables, when I found this -
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/671
My only reservation is that apparently my aeriel is amplified and the power (7 Volts) goes through the centre core of the coax. I am worried it may cause problems with the RDS-TMC unit.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly received.
Thanks, and sorry if I have barged in - I'm new to forums |
I am not convinced that is the part you need. I think you need a splitter cable(to feed the antenna signal to the TMC receiver and the car stereo) and possibly a signal separation filter(to block the DC to the TMC receiver). I don't know what type of plugs you have on a Passat so you will have to pick a cable to suit your car however a typical splitter cable would be part no PC5-105. I think a lot of VW's have an amplified antenna, but I am not sure if they are powered by default. They are probably powered by the standard head unit. On the link below see PC5-52 to see what I mean, this is proabbly if you install an after market head unit that won't provide power to the antenna. Halfords also sell these parts so if you're not sure, it would probably be worth taking it into them and asking their techs.
http://www.nexxia.co.uk/Car_Stereo_fitting_kits/antenna_adaptors.htm
If anybody reading has done this with a VW they might be able to give you more help.
Good luck. |
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frosty000 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 2
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Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:01 pm Post subject: |
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I had the impression that this product was a splitter from the aerial, but I can't be sure as help from the site has just been copied text that was cut and pasted from the description !!
The Passat has ISO connectors, so I would end up with a lot of adapters as the splitter you mentioned is a DIN type. The power does come from the head unit - does this mean I would'nt need to install the filter ?
Thanks again |
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GizmoB73 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 37 Location: Cambs, UK
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Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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frosty000 wrote: | I had the impression that this product was a splitter from the aerial, but I can't be sure as help from the site has just been copied text that was cut and pasted from the description !!
The Passat has ISO connectors, so I would end up with a lot of adapters as the splitter you mentioned is a DIN type. The power does come from the head unit - does this mean I would'nt need to install the filter ?
Thanks again |
If the power is coming from the head unit, then I would recommend using a signal separation filter. I don't know if the voltage on the antenna core will definitely damage the TMC receiver (or TomTom GO), but I personally wouldn't risk it. I think the PC5-52 works by applying DC from the attached power lead to the output signal side. It should prevent the DC from going back into a normal head unit (which would damage it). If you omit to connect the power lead on the PC5-52 it should just work as a filter allowing the radio signal through but blocking any DC. You can test this with a multimeter before connecting to your TMC Receiver. This filter would need to go between your TMC receiver and the splitter. If you put it in-line with the head unit, you will lose the voltage to your antenna and it won't work as well.
You do still need a splitter of some kind to allow the antenna signal to be split to your head unit and TMC receiver. The fewer connectors the better as each connector will reduce the signal slightly. |
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Malc6552 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Nov 21, 2003 Posts: 20
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 10:36 pm Post subject: |
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As I thought , rds tmc mod required. So after reading the very helpfull posts on here I have made my first mod
Soldered a 29.5 inch fine cable to the gold pad and instantly got a signal without connecting to car arial, gonna get myself the rf amp and splitter for next weekend, has anyone else found any other ways to mod ????
There are four wires on the pcb, 2 must be for power, and im guessing one is for the signal to the tomtom and the last one could be the arial, was thinking this would be a better place to connect the car arail to but cant decide which one to go for, anyone have any thoughts on this method???? |
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vicky Frequent Visitor

Joined: 12/08/2003 19:53:08 Posts: 264 Location: Secret Base in the Nevada Desert
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Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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I was thinking that the 4 wires were
2 were
+v & -v supply for the TMC
Other 2 were
Serial Data + & - for data transfer back to TomTom unit
I figured that the TMC was using one of these as the antenna
Just a guess but if thats the case it would make using any of these as an antenna port a bit of a problem,
Not really had the time to investigate in detail, so I may be totally wide of the mark on it tho. |
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Exhale Occasional Visitor

Joined: Nov 12, 2006 Posts: 4
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Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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Just a quick note to say that I've just done this modification too.
I *had* to connect the shield to the pad closest to the 4 wires (and the core to the other pad) because I was getting interference without the ground connected.
That said, I'm using a mains adaptor to charge the TomTom via. an inverter.
The result is impressive - the radio's picking up a hell of a lot more radio stations - and the quality is excellent - and it's locking on to Classic FM almost straight away (about 30 seconds from starting up).
If you're going to do this modification, it's well worth getting some oversized heat shrink and sealing the two PCBs properly, and then looming everything together with zip ties and/or spirawrap to prevent damage from cable strain or rough handling as everything is pushed into place.
/al - very happy!! |
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AVRHack2 Occasional Visitor

Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 24
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Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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vicky wrote: | I was thinking that the 4 wires were
2 were
+v & -v supply for the TMC
Other 2 were
Serial Data + & - for data transfer back to TomTom unit
I figured that the TMC was using one of these as the antenna
Just a guess but if thats the case it would make using any of these as an antenna port a bit of a problem,
Not really had the time to investigate in detail, so I may be totally wide of the mark on it tho. |
I think you're close, but the serial wont be + and -, they will be in and out. The TomTom needs some way to instruct the TMC receiver what frequency to tune to and the TMC receiver obviously needs to tell the TomTom what it's got and send the traffic data, so it must be bi-directional....... |
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jamiepyoung Regular Visitor

Joined: May 28, 2005 Posts: 65 Location: Warwick
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Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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would anyone be willing to carry out the mods to my tmc on my behalf?
i have no skills at all at this sort of thing!
obviously on a no-risk basis.
i am in warwick/midlands.
thanks! |
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coastersteve Regular Visitor

Joined: 06/05/2003 18:01:04 Posts: 83 Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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I'm just up the road and our electronics factory is in Nuneaton. If you can come around we can pop it open and solder in no problem. |
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