TTT Unreliable Connection

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

Hi Everyone, first post - be gentle.

I've been a lurker for a long while, this site and the information you've all posted has been a great help in my decision processes (which PDA, which nav software, which gps, which cradle (aaaaarrrrgggghhh).

My question is about TomTom Traffic and getting connected. It's all set up fine and it will connect but when I'm travelling, more often than not, traffic just won't connect. To be clear, it will connect when it's "on the bench" i.e. sat at home testing it, but when I'm in the car it often won't.

It seems to be speed related - when I'm moving relatively slowly it often connects ok, but travelling at motorway speeds appears to be a problem.

A friend of mine is reporting the same and has found that unplugging the GPS (we both have wired TT GPS) leaving the PDA for a minute or two then trying seems to work.

So between us, we think that it could be something to do with;

The TomTom server,
GPRS and moving between cells (both of us on O2),
Some kind of processing 'conflict' between GPS data and Traffic data on the PDA,
Updating of the map causing the PDA to 'max out' and not be able to process the Traffic data.

What's most surprising for us both, is that there are no posts on here about similar problems! The problem seems to have got worse over the last month of so. Isn't anyone else having the same issue?

I'm really disappointed, at the moment I don't think I'll be subscribing as the reliability of connection seems to be down near 25%.

alix776 · Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2004 12:19 pm Post subject:

im using an xda2 and havent had any problem with the o2 gprs connection at all but then im usually only doing 56mph
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

MrT · Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2004 6:04 pm Post subject:

I have no regular problems with the 02 GPRS connection at any sustained speed upto about 85mph and brief bursts above this. I have maintained connection over 300 mile 5 hour trips. If I ever go out of the covered 02 area, it re-establishes when I get back into reception.

According to Orange GPRS is only reliable at speeds of upto 60mph http://www.orange.co.uk/business/corporate/office/moc/documents/Orange_FAQs.pdf

Do you have an external aerial on your car for your phone, I do?

You don't mention your phone hardware, other hardware, or connection type this could be useful to anyone trying to help you resolve your problem.

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

Interestig Link - thanks, I wonder if that's Orange specific or general GPRS info?

Phone is a 6310i with a Nokia CARK91 with windscreen mounted aerial (stuck to the inside), bluetooth to iPAQ 2210. No problems with normal phone signal strength (does anyone know if this also relates to GPRS signal strength?).

Some more info - I haven't tried this but a friend, with the same issue, tells me if he switches to Traffic view and zooms in a bit, it connects fine.

GPRS seems to connect OK (I get the little G symbol on the screen), just don't get traffic updates.

It's all a good idea this traffic data over GPRS thing, but if it's not reliable at over 60 mph, maybe TomTom SHOULD do the TMC thing.

It's just the two of us with this problem then?

MrT · Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 7:39 am Post subject:

I also use a BT connected 02 6310i with a Nokia hard wired car kit with my aerial on the roof, so the problem is unlikely to be this. The voice and GPRS signals are not the same strength in the same location which can be seen on other phones with two signal strength meters.

The 6310i is not very good with the GPRS re-establishing when interupted by phone calls although this could be down to me being a bit clumsy with the "red" button when ending a call. Make sure that the GPRS type is set to permanent.

I assume you have the latest 3.04T version of TomTom as the earlier versions had a problem retreiving data from any GPRS supplier who cached data (inc 02).

To see if it is your PDA that is maxing out, you could always use a smaller map that covers your local area. If for example you used a 16MB London map rather the ~100MB UK map, this uses less PDA memory and it also only downloads the traffic data to cover that map, which is obviously a lot less than the traffic data for the whole UK. It's also cheaper to download less data!

gokhart · Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 1:35 pm Post subject:

I have a Nokia 6230 connected via bluetooth, with the Nokia CK-7W Advanced Car Kit . The phone is on O2. Bluetooth to the IPAQ 2210 and using a bluetooth TT GPS or Fortuna Clip-On sometimes. I seem to have the same problem as you guys. The GPRS stays connected fine when stationery, but at any speeds, the connection gets lost. I don't bother too much with traffic as it tends to be out of date, and anyway, when on the motorway, the alternatives could take even longer. I just monitor the traffic news on the Radio (TP) and if necessary request an alternative route in TT.
_________________
IPAQ 2210 Rom 1.00 CF 512MB
TT3 / TTBT & Fortuna Clip-On

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

MrT · Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 5:19 pm Post subject:

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

Hmm, I've checked those settings, but do they apply to GPRS or just WAP?

I'd emailed TomTom, only to get the response "3.05T is out, try that and if you still have the problem, get back to us". Can't get 3.05T, and my trial subscription runs out next week. Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Anyway, another theory - me and the other guy, both have the same SD card. One theory is based on where TomTom saves the Traffic information it downloads - if it's trying to write to the SD card while TomTom is frantically trying to read from it while your doing motorway speeds, and the card isn't a fast one? What do you think?

He's also got a CF flash card that's labelled as Hi-Speed, and he's going to try that.

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

3.05T hasn't fixed the issue, but it seems like switching to the CF has. I'm also going to try a CF.

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

For those that are interested, I tried TomTom support again and got a remarkably fast response.

I'd asked them where traffic saves the data, if it's in the same place as the maps, there might be a read/write speed issue with the SD card. I was looking at one of the newer 60x SD cards.

It also turns out that the card I have (dane elec 256Mb) is quite fast on read tests but seems to have a write issue that slows it down significantly.

TomTom suggested I reformat the card (and gave me a link to a free trial of a flash formatting app) as FAT32. I've done this, an down some tests on the bench and it seems much better - ran it in demo mode for about four hours and it connected nearly 100%.

Will post later on actual on the road results.

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

Well, looks like it works fine! Done an 1 1/2 hour mainly motorway journey this morning and it connected 95% of the time (one drop out, but i thing that was a phone related thing).

So, now I've joined the rest of you, I can start moaning about the accuracy of the traffic service Confused

gokhart · Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:02 pm Post subject:

good effort on resolving this issue. There have been several posts regarding memory cards, and in general people suggest FAT 32.
_________________
IPAQ 2210 Rom 1.00 CF 512MB
TT3 / TTBT & Fortuna Clip-On

Feel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 13

Thanks, and a quick update.

Still connects fine.

My Dane Elec card has "Made in Japan" on the back, my mate's Dane Elec has "Made in Taiwan". He's reformatted his as FAT32 but still has the same issue with Traffic. I'm going to give him a hand to make sure that he's doing it exactly the same as I did, but perhaps one to watch out for.

TomTom told me that they have other users with Chinese SD card issues...

	PocketGPS
	Web