RDS-TMC and GPRS Traffic differences with Navcore 7.48x

[AndyVaughan]

This morning, prior to the 7.481 update, I decided to take some screenshots of the differences between RDS-TMC Traffic info and the GPRS Service. Some users on the forum have been praising the latest update as having ‘fixed’ the 1 minute delay issue and the issue with the Traffic Sidebar, hopefully this will demonstrate that TomTom have still not fixed this issue.

I would like this thread to be dedicated to the RDS-TMC issues with Navcore 7, and if every user who is experiencing the same or other issues could post in here as the reports are getting spread between different threads. Hopefully this info can be relayed to TomTom and a fix be found for a Navcore 7 specific problem. (Who knows, it might exist in Navcore 8 as well????)

Firstly, I planned a route from Rossendale to Norwich, and set off down the M66. I let the RDS-TMC get a lock and pick up a signal, and after 10 miles or so pulled in near Junction 2 to take the screenshots.



As you can see, no incidents on the sidebar and no delay indicated on my route – 4hrs 19 mins journey time

So I then went in to the traffic details



3 incidents on route – so the sidebar is useless!

Lets have a look at the details and delay time for those incidents







No delay info for any of the incidents at all.

So, unplug the TMC and activate the GPRS to see if we get any difference

Mmm 6.08hrs journey time and some incidents on the sidebar with delay info – that looks like useful info!



Lets look at the details



5 incidents on route and 1 hr 48 delays – slightly more useful than the RDS summary screen

And the details











Now that is how RDS-TMC used to look with Navcore 6, delay info and a sidebar with incidents on.

Who else gets the same lack of info as this with the RDS-TMC?

Maybe you have never seen the GPRS service so don't know what you are missing, the data source is the same so the end result on the device should be the same.

Andy

[billconant]

My wife uses a One-XL-S everyday as a optician delivering glasses to nursing homes in the US. She informs me that she see the exact conditions that are laid out in the post. Never sees any info on the traffic bar or icons on the screen at an incident. She gets a verbal warning that an incdent has effected her route. She has to go into the traffic icon and see whats going on, whre she gets a verbal about the incident. She also always sees a 1 minute time delay.

[AndyVaughan]

Interesting, a discussion I had in a pub car park today with a nameless frequenter of this forum was along the lines of this appeared to be a UK only issue - looks like it has made its way across the pond as well.

Andy

[DennisN]

Excellent Andy. I can confirm I get the same result with GO920T, App v7.480. With GO720 App v7.221 I go back to the slightly more useful (but still totally useless!) 1 min delay or xxx mins delay.

Your GPRS shots remind me of what I saw briefly back in December 2006 when I experienced a free month's trial of it with a new GO710. The only thing I found wrong with it was the info was no more (often less) up to date than BBC Radio 5 Live

I have tried to persuade TT to give me a GPRS subscription until they fix the RDS-TMC, but all they do is insist on me letting them have the antenna for check/repair. As soon as this thread gets a few more confirmations, I'll try them again, with a link here.

I can't say how it goes with v7.481 - I'm not downloading that until Mike says so!!
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[mikealder]

[shadamehr]

SLIGHTLY Off Topic in one regard, but still relevant...

The OTHER Thing about the new update(s) that I keep flagging up with TomTom...

Andy, I suspect your screenshots were done, when you say with a prior version, using v7.480, and NOT 7.221, the prior "stable" version.

I say this because your screenshots clearly show one of the OTHER bugs that .480 and even now, .481 introduce...

"Clear Coloured Lane Indications"

That is, in many of your screenshots above, you will see incidents on the mpa shown with a clear, plain GREY lane.

If you did this whole experiment with version 7.221 they would not be the useless grey - they would be BLUE for Lane Restrictions or Closures, and AMBER for Roadworks Related Issues.

Another bug of .480 AND now .481 is that when zoomed to around mid-zoom, the normal usable level, Traffic Congestion issues now do not show a symbol on the map, whilst all OTHER incident types DO show the warning symbol.

Zoom further down however, and then suddenly the "Queuing cars" Warning Triangle does appear.

For this reason, I am considering going back yet again to 7.221 'til TomTom finally get their fingers out their er, you know what, and actually put this right.

[PeteT]

I would like to confirm i am having the same problem as AndyVaughan described. I was coming down on the A1 from Scotland yesterday, there were problems around the metro centre. I had to Tap the Status bar, then tap show Traffic on route, then click through the traffic incidents and decide whether i need to replan. (not very safe really) - with RDSTMC

I do have a GPRS connection as well and i can't pair my phone (O2 Graphite) with the .480 version, it has paired before but i deleted the connection. Maybe this is another bug no-one else has found yet.

i am just backing up as i type then i will try .481

Pete

[shadamehr]

[gluey]

Hi All,
I have the gprs traffic and the tmc traffic.
gprs works as mentioned above and tmc does nothing really.

No sign of anything on the side bar. You need to look in the traffic menu to see any thing on route and never gives any delays or offers a reroute.
Iam back to 7.221 as the last two versions are a joke.
Kev

[Tobas]

Please ignore, replied instead of new post

[pbrace]

I have also had a problem with the upgrade to V4.820. After this and many other problems with a 520 I decided to try a 720. It was supplied with 7.221 and the traffic on map appeared correctly with coloured animated areas indicating the severity of the problem. I upgraded to 7.481 and now they are all grey and no delay time shown at all. I have also lost half the icons in the traffic menu. I have sent the following to TomTom, I will let you know the result.
---------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your response, however matters have moved on. I obtained a replacement for the 520 as there were other problems with it. I now have a 720T. Spurred on with confidence as a result of your message I foolishly allowed the 720 to update itself from 7.221 to 7.481. It now exhibits exactly the same problems that the updated 520 did, namely:

Traffic is no longer working correctly - Today there was 1 incident on my route and although it showed the picture for this this no delay was displayed and no re route could be calculated as it did not know what the expected delay was.

Also in map view the traffic jams are now only shown in grey and not with the animated "caterpillar" showing the direction and severity of the jam.

In the menus I have lost all of the RDS-TMC options with the Traffic menu now only comprising one screen of Minimize delays, Show home work traffic, Show traffic on route, Browse map, Change traffic preferences and Read aloud traffic info.

I have also lost Show version in the main menu.

I also today received an error message after planning a route indicating there was a problem saving, I think, Map data.

I have not done anything else to the system and it was working perfectly before the update.

I do not have a SD cards in the unit and I also do not have any map codes as the only maps that I have are those provided with the system. I am therefore loath to run the utility you refer to.

Clearly there is a significant problem with the latest version of your software and I would be grateful if you can advise me how I can revert to version 7.221.

Paul Brace

[gardenshed]

well i had the 7.48 and reverted to 7.221, but was tempted to try the 7.481 last night, and today contrary to other peoples experiences the tmc not only indicated a delay of 12 mins in the sidebar but showed the icon correctly. I indicated all incidents for me today perfectly. though i am sure the data is somewhat different from the gps version earlier pointed out, however, I can say it performed as well as 7.221 and never lost signal whilst updating real traffic reports

[DennisN]

OK gardenshed you've tempted me. I shall give 7.481 a whirl and if it doesn't do the RDS-TMC business, it'll be your fault (NOT I hasten to add, TomTom's!).
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[Tobas]

Using 481 here after a few days with 221. Drove about 500 miles using 221, plenty of incidents but not one delay time indication and only showed an icon on the driving screen when there was only one incident. Any more and it didn't show any. With 481, no different i.e. no worse or better. Got the standard tomtom reply, I'll update them with some more facts when their question system starts working.

[AndyVaughan]

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