RDS-TMC and GPRS Traffic differences with Navcore 7.48x

[DennisN]

Mine with 7.221 is more reliable at telling me whether or not it's got signal, so I often get the yellow thing. I have read somewhere that the regulations for UK do not allow a stronger signal.

It's Hobson's choice until they get it sorted - do you prefer to be told it knows all the time (7.481), or that it used to know and it will again in a minute or two (7.221)? Because at present it NEVER knows!
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[LesP2008]

I would prefer it to tell me that it is at least CAPABLE of getting a signal.

[AndyVaughan]

[LesP2008]

Thanks for the info Andy, for the last two days i have been testing it out in the garden with nothing to obstruct the signal.
The time i actually got a signal, it was on the window sill inside with the antenna stuck to the living room window with one of the clear suckers.

[LesP2008]

Went upto Heathrow this morning with the 720 sat snugly in the brodit mount. I put app version 7.481 on last night and when i got to the A23 at Brighton i got a signal with the TMC all the way to Heathrow and back.
Told me all about the accident at leatherhead M25.
I think my problems before are purely down to where i live as when i get to the major routes the signal seems to lock on fine.

[AndyVaughan]

I have a similar problem where I live - I have wired the receiver to the car antenna and can now get a signal in areas that were dead spots before. My car aerial is amplified so that helps!

Andy

[frmarcus]

I'm generally disappointed with RDS TMC. I'm now wary about using its warnings to avoid problems - bacause I've found before that when I've ignored it there were either no problems or they disappeared well before I got to the point in question. The other day a trip from Broadstairs to Oxford with TomTom (145miles) warned me almost immediately on starting of problems on the M25 70-odd miles away - and kept warning me. I used the avoidance measure but was given a rather longer route taking MUCH longer than the original - some two hours. So I ignored it... and lo and behold... not one delay to the original route.

It seems to me that the issue is one of dated info and 'unintelligent' application of that info to one's route, so that, for example, one could be given an avoidance route that's far longer in time/distance than would be reasonably desired given a minor obstruction, making avoidance non-viable.
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frmarcus

[mikewall]

Well i got TT to actually admit there is a issue! Following is my continuing CS case about Traffic! tried pasting the email/conversation but it wouldn't allow me so i'll type it and i promise it's genuine i can forward it if required!

I phoned them on 14/4/08 complaining about TMC, Lack of time info, and colour coding of delays here is the response:

[mikewall]

[SpeedCam]

I can also confirm TomTom are aware of this problem, if you keep escalating, wrting letters you may get a nice surprise. I'm not going to say exactly what they have offered me, but its not a free map upgrade or free subscription to GPRS Traffic. They have agreed to replace my TMC with a new, yet to be released product, that we all know about that does a similar job to the TMC.

Just keep opening the logs and TomTom will evetually give in....

[D4VE]

I tend to agree with you Mike.

A lot of my journeys centre around London and the home counties, I have run with 7.481 since it was available with a short revert back to 7.221 for a couple of days. And without exception I find the TMC will lock on for at least 80% of the time whereas with 7.221 I was lucky to get a lock at all.

I appreciate that the lock may not have been there all the time but I have only had a few occassions where the lock was lost for over 10 mins and plus, perhaps a couple where the green circle even went grey.

That being said I get a lock more often than not and therefore Traffic info, and there are other conversations to be had about the accuracy of said info.

I experienced an unusual event the other day though, whilst checking info/incidents i had an update and Kate then blurted out the info for me, in other words the text under the map converted to voice, has anyone else had this yet, or is it normal and I have missed out for some reason?

Dave
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iPhone4 IOS 4.3.3
TomTom Western Europe v865.3252
App 8.300 V1.6 (670441)
TomTom iPhone Car Kit

PC Operating System: Windows 7

[AndyVaughan]

[mikealder]

But running 7,481 this little one off must be down to a glitch in the system, perhaps the data received by the device was corrupt causing the TomTom to react to a traffic message.
Joking aside, when TomTom get around to sorting this out you will get the same level of information while using RDS - it used to work, it has been broken for too long now - Mike

[D4VE]

[pbrace]

I think this must take the prize for the best and most irrelevant response so far from TomTom.

My final message after a number of exchanges:
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I am disappointed that I have not received a detailed response from your second line support team.

I am also extremely unhappy that I have purchased a 720T in the last month, spending an additional £60 over the 720, based on your advertising and claims that clearly represent a serious misrepresentation of the products capabilities.

It is advertised as showing the traffic delay on the traffic bar and being able to find you alternative routes. This is clearly not the case and, from the information I have seen in various forums, has never been. How you can therefore market this product as having these capabilities?

The main problem (with 7.221) are:

1.The traffic receiver is very poor. It will only occasionally pick up traffic signals even when I am in an area that I know has good reception. It is clearly in need of redesign and should not be on the market.
2.When signals are received the data regrading the delay times is, the be honest, ridiculous! I assume it is calculated on some kind of algorithm that is clearly inappropriate. On some occasions showing delays of over an hour when it is only a few minutes.
3.The delay time does not appear in the traffic bar, as advertised. When a time does appear it is never more than 1 minute no matter what the delay is shown in the detailed view and not all delays appear on the bar.
4.The blue tooth hands free occasionally “hangs” so it rings but no voice is heard either end. To resolve this when I try and switch the unit off, it will not, and eventually reboots.
5.The unit keeps corrupting the gnsdata file.

On on updating to 7.481:

1.All colour coding of delays are lost and no time delay information is present anywhere in the system.
2.As there is no time delay the system refuses to calculate an alternate route.
3.The useful information regarding the station you are tuned to has dissapeared.
4.No information is provided when the system is looking for a station (you do not know it is not tuned in). I.e. The yellow circle no longer appears.
5.Once it has found a signal and the green circle appears, it never changes back, even if a signal was found for a few seconds and no traffic data downloaded.
6.Items have been removed, or lost from the traffic and setup menu with no advice to the user that you have changed the interface.
7.4 and 5 of 7.221 still happen

Clearly your software is very buggy and is not properly tested before release and why do you not provide your users with full details of the changes made?

The unit and software does not perform as advertised - please advise me when you are going to fix this.

I look forward to hearing what you propose to compensate me for the time I have wasted in updating this system time and time again and for the money I have wasted.
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Response (only received after 10 days and a reminder update to the log):

First of all I do not know how the product is advertised in the UK as I am based in the Netherlands. However on the Traffic bar the delay for the specific incident (congestion) should be shown. However this is also reliant on the map data that is available.

The traffic receiver should not be affected by version 7.221. The TMC receiver you got with your Go 720T is a redesigned receiver that has passed all the tests. We have not had any complaints (bar your complaint) since releasing this version of the antenna.

As explained earlier in the e-mail, the delay times are also reliant on the map data supplied. Also it is reliant on the information provided through the frequency. These are all factors that can result in some information not being as expected.

The delay time is for the specific traffic incident, therefore it may well be less than a minute. This should however vary.

Concerning the bluetooth we are unable to provide you with an answer as you have not supplied us with the make and model of the mobile phone.

With all software based products you will have updates. This is the nature of these products. We provide these updates for free so that your device is continually provided with the latest and most efficient system available. You will find no difference with any other make GPS device. These will all also come with their occassional updates.

If you are really having all these issues consistently this will not be due to the application installed but most likely due to a faulty RDS-TMC antenna. We can arrange a repair for you to have this replaced.


With Best Regards

The TomTom Customer Support

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