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Dustysworld Occasional Visitor
Joined: Feb 13, 2007 Posts: 53 Location: Southampton (England)
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:08 am Post subject: |
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So because your unit works for you , it must work for everyone else ? _________________ www.dustysworld.net |
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freedie Occasional Visitor
Joined: Dec 23, 2006 Posts: 12 Location: Wherever my GPS takes me 60K miles p.a.
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:28 am Post subject: |
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Nope; however if I do not mention that it works, all of you saying it doesn't may believe that your situation is "the norm". |
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chas49 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jan 15, 2007 Posts: 3
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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Just to add a little balance - I too have had no problems with getting a TMC signal on my Navman F20 with T1 module using the supplied external antenna.
So far the unit has only been used in North Bucks and Oxfordshire so I may find things different when I travel further afield - but so far so good.... |
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Dustysworld Occasional Visitor
Joined: Feb 13, 2007 Posts: 53 Location: Southampton (England)
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malcolmb1963 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jun 23, 2006 Posts: 11
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | So because your unit works for you , it must work for everyone else ? |
and
Quote: | So far the unit has only been used in North Bucks and Oxfordshire so I may find things different when I travel further afield - but so far so good.... |
To add some more confusion - mine worked like crap in the UK but is great on the continent - if you discount the fact that my 530 is incompatible (probably for licensing reasons) with the Dutch system so I ended up buying an F20.
Also - my 530/T1 combination worked immediately "out of the box" in North Bucks (on the side of a hill looking north over Milton Keynes) but faded out pretty quickly around Leighton Buzzard and past Aylesbury.
There was also complete absence of usable signal on the M25 between the M1 and most of the way down the M20 towards Folkestone. |
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jonandmarkuk Frequent Visitor
Joined: Aug 06, 2006 Posts: 832 Location: Derby
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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I think the issue is more with the provider and the fact they only transmit on limited stations.
Don't get me wrong this limitation should be advertised by the seller of the GPS (no matter which company) and they should also be pressuring the TMC provider to improve UK wide TMC coverage that will be 99.9% reliable. |
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tony60 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Jan 21, 2007 Posts: 10 Location: Wigan
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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Can any of our more experienced members cast any light on this TMC issue,how is the signal transmitted and at what strength,why a car radio can receive the station without problem and the TMC unit needs in some cases a specilist antenna to function. |
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swing Pocket GPS Verifier
Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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tony60 - The radio broadcasts in the UK are broadcast at a much lower signal strength than most other countries, hence these problems. The car radio can receive the station without problem for a number of reasons - firstly, it has a nice large (often amplified) radio antenna outside of the metal box of the car, secondly, it has extra processing to try to smooth out the noise, which is fine for music and speech, but no help to a data signal.
My clock radio at home has a single wire aerial, and has great problems receiving radio signals with any level of quality, yet my car is fine outside (I'll note my traffic receiver with a single wire performs much better than the clock radio when inside the house).
The solution to the problem (for many) is a better aerial, or connecting into the car aerial circuit - it's not the traffic receiver at fault, it's simply the low quality aerial, which is sufficient for nearly every other country in the world, except the UK. _________________ Please don't be offended if I do not reply to a PM - please ask questions via the forums. |
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mostdom Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jul 10, 2006 Posts: 1964 Location: Surrey, UK.
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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tony60 wrote: | Can any of our more experienced members cast any light on this TMC issue,how is the signal transmitted and at what strength,why a car radio can receive the station without problem and the TMC unit needs in some cases a specilist antenna to function. |
There was a large thread about this some time ago. (I'm not gonna try and search for it for you) but the gist of the tread reveiled that the freqency of the transmission was such that the arial had to be a specific leangth to pick up a good signal. Now although the navman ariel is ok in this facit it is dulled in its abilities because of all that metal around it namely the car. Hence boosting and external ariels etc.
French reception is higher because the Privatly run Motorway networks wish it to be and have intalled antennas to give their customers just that. Stray from the motorways and the reception will slowly deminish. However the concencis is that the signal is stronger.
To annoy you all. I am still using the supplied navman T1 arial. It works most of the time (say 80% on the routes i've run it on) this includes a run to folkstone where it continued to work well, even in the recent blizzards at 2:00 in the morning.
Maybe I'm just lucky! Maybe you're all idiots who can't install a small feeble wire! Maybe you are in the wrong part of the country! Maybe you haven't read the instructions, fitted the wire 120mm up 240mm accross at a 92 degree angle, to form a trapezoid shape, only 19mm from the edge of the window frame with car only facing north, whilst driving with one hand in your crotch!
BUT!
It obviously shouldn't be this hard to make it work! There is something wrong!
P.s. I have asked the PGPSW team visiting the CeBit show to ask some posing questions, fingers crossed. _________________ Dom
HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot |
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Dustysworld Occasional Visitor
Joined: Feb 13, 2007 Posts: 53 Location: Southampton (England)
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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Even tho I'm happy with the F20 unit its self . I will never buy a navman product again. The customer support is woeful and i get the feeling that its a matter of getting your cash and that's about it. They may help you regarding setting up etc, but if it comes to forking out money because of problems with their kit, forget it . Your basically on your own. _________________ www.dustysworld.net |
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Hamie Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 30, 2003 Posts: 177
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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Dustysworld wrote: | Even tho I'm happy with the F20 unit its self . I will never buy a navman product again. The customer support is woeful and i get the feeling that its a matter of getting your cash and that's about it. They may help you regarding setting up etc, but if it comes to forking out money because of problems with their kit, forget it . Your basically on your own. |
You're under the impression that other vendors are better. Not necessarily a very good one I'm afraid.
Realisticaly the vendors are out to make a profit. That's the bottom line. And sadly support is done by people. They get tired, cranky, fed up with the same questions time & time again, and of course they're dealing with products that weren't really designed for use in the UK (If they were, then they'd work a bit more reliably with the pathetic signal we seem to get).
Now I've had a TT500 (Traffic updates via GPRS/Internet) and now a Nuvi660.
TT were nice but useless. The data didn't match reality, but it usually did connect (Although there were large periods of time that the server was either unable to cope or just down). Nice support system (Web based, you can see your questions & their answers. I can still browse ALL my support calls. Ref numbers etc. The works. very nice), but sadly they were seemingly unable to get their heads around the quality of data they were providing. Needless to say I didn't pay after the free trial.. It was more frustration than anything else. I just went round & round, and they shrugged in a gallic kind of way and blamed ICTIS for the data quality problems.
Garmin... Sadly their support setup isn't anywhere as good as TT's. You fill out a form, and hope an email comes back. No ref numbers etc. They're pretty adamant (Always have been) that any problems are operator based & that their software & design are perfect (Or next best thing to it).
Having said that if you have a hardware problem, I think they'r ebeen the best around. Often 'fixes' are a complete refurbishment of a unit, and frequently it's free. They seem to take genuine pride in their hardware. It's the software support that lets them down (Although things that work, genuinely work very well).
I haven't tried NavMan... Maybe next time
H |
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Dustysworld Occasional Visitor
Joined: Feb 13, 2007 Posts: 53 Location: Southampton (England)
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:47 am Post subject: |
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No i'm not under any impression of any other company, where did i give you that impression . . I work on the fact that navman support is kak. If others are too, that's for me to find out when i take my custom else where . _________________ www.dustysworld.net |
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Hamie Regular Visitor
Joined: Dec 30, 2003 Posts: 177
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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Dustysworld wrote: | No i'm not under any impression of any other company, where did i give you that impression . . I work on the fact that navman support is kak. If others are too, that's for me to find out when i take my custom else where . |
I was merely pointing out that if you're moving your custom elsewhere for better support, you're going to be sadly disappointed.
If I was a little more paranoid I'd say the vendors are in a shagging big conspiracy to sell us something they forgot to test... |
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Dustysworld Occasional Visitor
Joined: Feb 13, 2007 Posts: 53 Location: Southampton (England)
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:32 am Post subject: |
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My mum bought one of them cheap sat nav for £99 at PC hell . I told her to take it back, i thought it was awful the easiness the size the build quality. She packed it up and off to buy a better make . _________________ www.dustysworld.net |
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nch2284 Occasional Visitor
Joined: Apr 14, 2007 Posts: 5 Location: swindon
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:18 pm Post subject: Navman Support |
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Hi all,
I've been using navman stuff for a few years now.. I must be getting my support from somewhere different to you lot, because I've found their support to be outstanding. :D .. Now I know that put's me in the minority..
I've always telephoned the gatwick office - and the've ALWAYS bent over backwards to help me. :D
A couple of examples - last week I telephoned for a replacement set of discs - they arrived the next day free of charge, along with an email with new application and map keys. :D
Previously my HP5150 wouldn't work with the BT GPS. A quick trip to Gatwick - they tested everything on the spot for me - and told my HP4150 was playing up. No charge and it was no problem. Smiles all round. :D
I'm delighted with Navman stuff. (ST V2 & V3) and recently a shiny new F20 - which is used daily. As navigation tool it's great... much better than fumbling thru my a-z. :D
And so far in 4 weeks of constant use in Hants/Wils/Glos it's found eveything I've wanted. :D :D :D :D
Neil |
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