TomTom RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver Available In Europe

[paulc1976]

The circle must be lit green, if its greyed out you are not receiving any stations, if the circle is green, go into the tomtom menu (2 of 4) tap on the traffic icon (car) the station will be displayed at the bottom right of the screen.
At home I usually receive one of the BBC stations (R1,R2,R3,R4) none of these are any good as they don't carry TMC data nor do any of the local stations I have picked up, only Classic seems to work

[lydiachris]

Yes you are correct in thinking that tmc is broadcast continusouly.
If you look sometimes at the screen, the traffic bar will flash quickly and thats a sign of it updating itself.

I keep saying to people this:

What I did for the first time I got the receiver, was to hook up your go to it's mount and sit it on a window sill say in s high story or bedroom. Stick the tmc on a window, preferably high and connect it to the go AFTER the go has turned on.

I then left mine like this for about an hour, although it started to get info for the first time after about 5 minutes. Perhaps i'm being a little pedantic, but it has seemed to work for me, I know get info in about 10 seconds.

Also make sure that the cable for the receiver is AS STRAIGHT AS POSSIBLE. I understand that the cable is also part of the "antenna" I would use the little clear suction bits on your windscreen which we're supplied with the tmc receiver.

Also make sure that under traffic then TMC Preferences that you have selected "Strongest Signal". I've tried the "UK" option and not had much luck.

Also fiddle around with traffic then traffic preferences, try unhooking the tmc receiver and going into the traffic preferneces as if you we're using GPRS as a source to download traffic info, tick the "limit traffic frequency" box and selecect ok, it will then ask you if you want to limit the traffic updat, select no to this, then re-hook your tmc receiver and then try it, STILL stationary on your windowstill.

Try looking at the traffic map and zooming out to see how far the traffic info goes, ie. a radius. If its quite substantial then turn off the go 910 wait a few minutes then try the tmc in the car CABLE AS STRAIGHT AS POSSIBLE and see how long it takes to start receiving the traffic info.

Hope this helps some people, this is what I have done with mine and have had no loss of signal or dropouts and I get continuos reliabel info.

Sorry for spelling mistakes, typing fast

Cheers,

lydiachris

[mikealder]

Ok let’s start with some basics here. In the same way I asked for people to update their profile to include their town/ city etc in the Garmin TMC thread can we please try this here.
Go to your profile and enter a Location nothing more than the place (In my case it displays Blackpool). Why is this of relevance, well other members can offer advice as to what frequency the Classic FM transmitter is using for your specific area. At least you know which frequency the unit is looking for.

TomTom obtain the TMC data from a company called iTIS holdings, a brief read of their web site HERE will indicate the TMC is ONLY transmitted over the Classic FM radio transmitters in the UK so if your unit locks to another station you might get a green indicator but no data.
As a basic tip select UK for the country not strongest signal. (I can see this point being a discussion that could drag on!)

If you want to find the local transmitter for your area have a look at THIS page for the list or THIS for a geographic map showing where the transmitters are located.

Note radio reception depends on a number of variables, first check the local transmitters power output, you might find a higher power transmitter slightly further away that offers better signal strength.
To find the transmitter power figures you can have a look at THIS excellent web site or drop me an e-mail I will send you a POI file that includes all the info on the Classic FM transmitters. (Position, Name, Frequency and Power level)
Next is the aerial you receive the signal with, make sure this is not tangled up or bunched, to be effective it needs to be full length.
A few links above that contain useful information, have a read and quite a number of questions will be answered - Mike

[MELennium]

Here is the latest email I recieved from Tomtom today:

[B0dger67]

Agreed, MEL. That's what TT support told me verbally - set it to look for the strongest signal.

As for peoples' locations and the relative poke of different transmitters, I'm not sure that's relevant. You can't tell this thing what frequency to tune to so its just pot luck what it picks up and when.

I'm happy to say that the instructions given by lydiachris re. putting it on an upstairs windowsill for an hour or two has borne fruit. As I type its chugging its way up the FM scale one local station at a time, however three hours in with a route set via the Southern end of the M1 there is still no sign of an update.

My hope is that it will eventually settle on a Classic FM frequency, realise that's where the goodies are, and thereafter follow the station up and down the country, retuning to the strongest ClassicFM signal as it goes along.

I hope TomTom read these forums because, lets face it, this is crap. The plug and go principle which the very helpful guy at TT said should be the case clearly isn't, and I suspect they have a good deal of work to do to make this a truly viable alternative to the GPRS service.

If they don't improve it they're going to have a hard job documenting something along the lines of lydiachris' instructions in a way that doesn't make the thing sound very Heath-Robinson. Maybe that's why they keep delaying the "official" release.
_________________
Two ears, one mouth - please use in proportion

GO 510, MoWE & Sony Ericsson W300i

[B0dger67]

After 36 hours hanging in the widow of the spare room, the TMC receiver does seem to have learned about some radio stations.

All the way to work in Slough this morning (from Woodley, just East of Reading, along the M4 from J10 to J6) it kept a tight grip on "97.0FM: BBC Berkshire"

Just two problems: 97.0FM isn't BBC Berkshire, it's 2-Ten FM, and neither station broadcasts iTMC.

There's no way to retune or reset this thing so far as I can tell, so with luck and a strong enough signal I will fair better in London later on after this signal gets too weak.

I'll keep you posted, but by now any propsective traffic users will probably be signing up for their GPRS account.
_________________
Two ears, one mouth - please use in proportion

GO 510, MoWE & Sony Ericsson W300i

[jamiepyoung]

I'm having the same problem. Frankly, it is cr@p.

I bought the 910 specifically because i wanted TMC. £500 badly spent.

I'm going to contact TT to see when an update is coming, because if it isn't soon i'll be returning both the 910 and TMC.

[jamiepyoung]

Great, now the TT support web doesn't work, so I can't evenmoan to TT.

[mwfox]

Amazing how Tomtom can delay a product that long and still not get it right.

[ba9rn]

[mwfox]

Digital radio seems to easier to receive so I wonder if TMC was broadcast over that and we had the appropriate receiver things would be better?

[SpeedCam]

[MELennium]

Since Classic FM seems to have a band range from 99.9 (Sandale transmitter) to 101.9 (Brighton,Divis,Peterborough transmitters). Why don't Tomtom limit there receiver to these instead of finding all the local stations that don't transmit TMC? What is the point of the light turning green only to find it has found a local non TMC station, pathetic.
_________________
TomTom Go 910 (3) v.6.522 Map Western Europe v.650 with useless TMC receiver
Ex. owner TomTom 910 (2) Returned Faulty
Ex. owner TomTom 910 (1) Returned Faulty
Ex. owner TomTom One v.5.420 Map UK v.605
Ex. owner Garmin i3 v.2.7 Map UK V.7

[B0dger67]

Exactly my thoughts. Since you can choose a specific country it should be easy enough to limit the range or even look for a specific RDS station name tag. I guess the problem may be that these frequencies are likely to be used by other stations in other areas, and that RDS tags have a habit of changing - even between transmitters. There must be something in the RDS specification that is unique to a broadcaster and which the TomTom can look for before locking, and maybe that's the update we're waiting for.

Anyway, for anyone reading who doubts whether the receiver works at all, mine was excellent in London on Thursday once it got hold of ClassicFM somewhere near Heston services on the M4. Sadly, on the way home it locked onto Capital and so was no use at all.

This cannot be so hard to fix, surely...
_________________
Two ears, one mouth - please use in proportion

GO 510, MoWE & Sony Ericsson W300i

[howie555]

basically the tmc antenna is an ill thought out piece of equipment as it only works very intermittently. It would have been better and I see no reason why the software can not be altered to allow the user to manually tune the unit and lock on to the only station in the uk that transmits tmc and not go seeking other fm stations that are of no use.

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