Garmin Nuvi 660 & Trafficmaster

nikpro · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 42

I purchased a unit yesterday from Halfrauds with a GTM21 and I am not receiving any traffic info.

When I go to the subscribers list it doesn't show trafficmaster; only the two 3 month trial subscribers for France & somewhere else.

I thought it came with a lifetime subscription to trafficmaster?

How do I set the unit up to find trafficmaster?

I live in Cheshire and from reading earlier posts I believe it may be a reception problem - can I check this?

Thanks for your help :D

Hamie · Regular Visitor Joined: Dec 30, 2003 Posts: 177

Take it back & get a TomTom 910.

Sorry to say, but the Nuvi660 is pretty much a dead duck. The ONLY feature over the TT widescreen series that the Nuvi has is the ability to 'hold' the zoom at a set level (e.g. 5km when driving on the motorway). In every other aspect the TT beats the Nuvi hands down. Nav, Routing, directions, map quality (I never thought I'd say that TeleAtlas were better than NavTech, but it's true, they are). Oh an garmin just keep removing features from the Nuvi. While TT put new ones in.

Oh... And traffic. Don't get me started. Not that the TT TMC unit is currently any better than the GTM-21, but at least TT know there is a problem and are fixing it. Garmin have their heads up their &^% on that one I'm afraid...

As for TMC data... Traffic master is pretty much as bad as ITIS as far as quality goes. Neither are particularly accurate on motorways such as the M4. Neither are real-time, no matter how much the ads say. And neither of them cover minor roads very well, but ITIS (The TT provider) MAY have an advantage there.

H.

philpugh · Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:46 am Post subject:

I have the 660 and live in North Cheshire (3 miles from M56/M6 junction) and I had problems with the GTM21 unti I connected it to my car aerial (which is amplified as it's a VW). I now have TMC working for a lot of the time.

I have TT6 on my PDA and I deliberately chose the nuvi for its neat compact size (not true of the TT 910) and the fact that I have owned GARMIN GPS units of varying types for 10+years - only one had a problem and this was rectified by GARMIN UK with a replacement unit sent within 1 week. So their customer service (in my eyes) is pretty good and the quality of their products is very good. TMC was not a big decider - but having got it - and used it in anger a couple of times - it's prett y neat - but I don't do the sort of mileage I used to so cannot comment on wider UK. I use it around NW / North Wales and Yorkshire areas.
_________________
Phil

kelvin66 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 02, 2006 Posts: 31

philpug

philpugh · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject:

Fairly simply.

I bought a DIN 'Y' splitter from www.nexxia.co.uk (Part PC5-105 £7.99).

I plugged this into my own car radio (replaced when I bought the car s/h).

One end fits into the aerial lead from the roof aerial. (I had to use an adapter when fitting the JVC radio initially as you have to provide 12V up the aerial lead to the amp - VW radios do this by default - be warned. If you are using a standard VW radio the centre conductor on the aerial lead will be at +12v.)

I pulled the plastic end off the GTM-21 string aerial - it comes off easily.

I stripped this back to give about 5 cms of bare copper and simply wrapped this around the centre pin of the other end of the Y splitter.

At present this is simply taped together - gives as good a connection as you get in most aerial plug/socket connections - no need to solder. I may get around to installing a 'proper' plug/socket arrangement one day :D Once again - if using standard VW radio take care as there is +12V on the centre lead - I would strongly recommend soldering a .1uF capacitor to this and attaching the GTM21 wire to the other end of capacitor. I don't know if the input circuitry to the GTM-21 can handle the 12V - I would expect so, but you never know as it wasn't designed to be plugged into anything.

All the wiring is hidden below the radio in the centre console. I mount the 660 to a Brodit mount near to the radio. The GTM-21 aerial lead is fed in under the car-radio carrier. The close mounto the radio allows me to use 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio lead to connect 660 into AUX input on the radio - very good sound and hands-free phone. Trailing cables keptto a minimum - only the power lead to plug in. Also no tell-tale holder/marks visible on the windscreen.
_________________
Phil

	PocketGPS
	Web