c510T (with GTM21) never picks up TMC signal

[simon69c]

I got myself a c510T from Halfords the other day but so far it has completely and 100% failed to pick up even a hint of a TMC signal - the cigarette lighter adaptor led's maintain a solid green for power and solid yellow for status. This has been on journeys around the SW quarter of the M25 and up and down the whole length of the M3.

I've tried running the aerial straight up vertically, straight along horizontally, as well as having it in an L configuration - I never seem to pick up a signal. Is there anything else I can try before I take it back for a refund / replacement?

With the adaptor plugged in and the traffic menus visible, the traffic button from the 'home page' is always dulled out, and when I go to the traffic setup menu it never seems to be able to show anything there either (it never seems to find anything if I go for a manual search). Even going into the subscriptions section only shows two entries: one for some US service and another for a French one - should there be one there for the UK too? Is that perhaps why it isn't picking anything up?

I also checked with the webupdater program to see if there was any updated firmware, but it is apparently already running the latest.

Any help would be appreciated - at the moment I'm thinking of just replacing it with a non-TMC nuvi if all the Garmins are a bit dodgy (aside from the lack of TMC I really like the Garmin setup), or perhaps a non-Garmin TMC to see if they are any better.

Thanks in advance!

[JoshT]

You are not alone. I have a Nuvi 660 with GTM21 with same problems along M4, M3. Problems to do with signal strength - GTM21 also not up to the job.

The only time my GTM21 picks up the signal is when I'm very close to a transmitter. I.E Reading city centre.

I've given up hope of TMC working reliably on my device as I've had it since last Oct and had a Nuvi 310D before that with same issue.

[simon69c]

Yeah I've pretty much given up on TMC as a lost cause. Took the c510 back in the end and got a nuvi 200W instead (so lost TMC but gained a nice wide screen). Looked at the Sony NV-U82 too but the UI seemed a lot less responsive than the Garmin units so I didn't think it was really worth the extra £50 (plus I'm not sure if I could have coped with Tiff Needle warning me about Speed Camera's all the time!).

[philpugh]

[PaulJSmith]

I know this is probably a stupid question but......Has anyone ever contacted or heard of anyone else who has one or two of the the
station(s) or service provider who comissions the TMC/Garmin service to ask why the transmission is so weak and innefective. Maybe if loads of people send an e-mail they might look into improving the source of the problem rather than all us poor bugg*rs having to scratch and scrape to get it working.

Why cant Garmin use the Classic FM service I wonder. I suspect this may be better but, of course, it may not!!

Cheers,
Paul

[swing]

All radio signal strength outputs are regulated in the UK, so the radio stations can't simply up their signal to help out manufacturers who produce poor radio receivers.

iTIS (*) is not better - ironically, there is a TomTom TMC thread at the moment with people asking why TomTom cannot switch to Trafficmaster, on the grounds it might be better - trust me, both are poor.

(*) I prefer to correctly label it as the iTIS service, as they already use 2 additional radio stations to Classic FM, and more will be coming onstream at some point.

Having said that, with the situation in the North West, and iTIS actually expanding it's range of stations is making them look like a better long term prospect at the moment.
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[ukmobile786]

i have just bought an sony nv-u82 from internet and when it arrives i went to http://support.sony-europe.com/eve/navigation/downloads/update.asp?l=en&f=nv_5171

the above link to download the latest Software update version 2.0.07 called Firmware updates
now the system wont come on @ all it says to reset but tried this few times still not working does any 1 know what to do please email me or message me

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