Relying on TMC? Better be careful!

[mikealder]

I can assure you I have tried this all over the country with very little reception at all, this being in various cars - as an example only last week, Blackpool to London aprox 250 miles, RDS-TMC for 25 miles, the remaining time it sat there "tuning".

Get an external aerial I hear you say , I have one of the best external aerials you can buy 8) , I have also tried the device coupled to other aerials as a test, this improves matters but not to the point where I would consider it acceptable. Where I live is a poor reception area, but from experience even when close to a transmitter reception is at best patchy.

I guess you have hit lucky and got a device off the production line that exceeds normal reception, best of luck with it for the future, the fact it works for you as an isolated individual gives hope to the others that are still awaiting a hardware fix to actually solve the problem. - Mike

[GPS_fan]

Also, it depends upon how your GPS indicates the presence (or otherwise) of TMC and what prompts this to change.

For example, on my Mio, TMC is indicated by an icon (the satellite reception icon, which shows 2 small cars when a TMC signal is present). However, simply loosing a TMC signal is not alsways sufficient to change the icon - often the screen has to be changed (eg to a menu screen and back) before the icon changes.

I can illustrate this example further by using my journey to work:

I have a full strength TMC signal at home, but NO TMC in the car park outside work.

If I drive to work without changing the screen displayed, my GPS indicates the presence of TMC throughout my journey and until I turn the GPS off upon arrival at work.

However, if I have to TMC control screen showing as I drive to work, it shows 'TMC present' for less than 50% of the journey.

If, I leave work and drive home, then the GPS indicates an absence of TMC for pretty much the whole journey.

Is it possible, therefore that thezerocool is not actually receiving TMC as well as it appears on face value and they are, in fact, in the same situation as the rest of us?


When the TMC data is viewed and TMC is present, there appears to be a constant stream of updates rather than udates at 15minute intervals as indicated by thezerocool

[jonandmarkuk]

My Viamichelin icon goes red when the TMC has been lost, but this is a delay as I have seen it be green when first switching on with the aerial unplugged.
Driving down the motorway I have seen it change without changing screens, it is useful to know the signal has been lost.

The Navman 530 I had didn't have anything on screen to let you know it was receiving TMC or not, although the manual suggested it should.... another bug Navman refused to fix maybe?

[jimbo_hippo]

I agree with those who argue that bad data is no better than no data. I use TT Traffic over GPRS and it's hardly faultless although this idea of monitoring mobile phone movements for quick reliable info is interesting and I hope we might see something that works on the summer (dream on). But as for the TMC issue, with the speed we seem to change our devices and the tumbling cost of GPRS access I opted not to get a TMC reciever as I already have a collection of devices which were state of the art for 5minutes and I don't want another. Even if TMC worked, I'm not gonna shell out £xx on something to clutter up my dash if I can use that money to pay for GPRS costs which are minimal anyway.

The only time a TMC stick might be useful is when I'm abroad in a hire car as GPRS roaming ain't cheap. But a quick single connection before departure gives general info on big problems then switch it off. This usually works well enough and I really don't want another bit of kit to drag around in my hand-luggage then shoehorn into a hire car.

For all it's faults GPRS Traffic seems to be occasionally useful with little pain or cost.

And whichever way you go that vision of sailing past motorway traffic on a little B road grinning and waving as you arrive home early is still a long way away anyways. So if you get a signal will you trust what you recieve or just use it as a guide and cross chech with RDS. THat's what Traffic has become for me.
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

[inspiredron]

[stehanson]

Zero cool - which unit you have ? - Ive got a Nuvi 660 with GTM 21 TMC receiver - but cant get anything in the Northwest (liverpool through to Preston) and since I have a vectra I was wondering what aerial you have and how its located??
cheers Ste

[mikealder]

[swing]

[1stbambi]

Well for my three peneth, this site is great since april i have had a nuvi 610t which comes with a tmc 21 thingy,(as you can see i am very technical about this.

In this short space of time i have run the full gamut of emotions over this tmc malarky, mainly frustration though it works then it doesnt then it does,

the most reliable place i have found is between jct 12- jct 20 of the m60-62 round the top of manchester.

i cover about 50000k a year driving all over and i dont rely on the tmc i dont have tmc in my van i rely on radio 2. if my tmc on the nuvi works, great,

but i am glad its not just me. 8O

[thezerocool]

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