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Yes, I think the firmware is a variable in this. Here's what happened in more detail
1) Out of the box, everything working, lots of nice messages about traffic delays on the A57 at Hyde etc.
Firmware 3.9 (I'm aware this a 'bad' one). Location, Sheffield. Didn't check the diagnostics so unsure of signal strength.
2) Next day - I'd moved around a bit, but after returning to Sheffield, no traffic. Lots of messages coming in on the diagnostics and a high signal.
Can this have been caused by moving around and then the unit getting locked to Classic? I read something about this but have forgotten the details.
3) I then 'upgraded' the firmware to 4.1, and from then on the unit has not picked up a single message, flashing yellow and occasional gren/red flashing.
I'm usually in the sheffield area when I'm testing it, although I live in Castleton - I'm fairly sure there's no reception here so I have to go out to test it out. I pick up signals of more than 10 from about Hope onwards.
I also believe the power cable might be a problem - it is not one of the serial numbers that have been mentioned on the "big thread". TBH I can't face contacting Garmin and so I'm going to get hold of a grey motorola charger, try that and then give up.
Thanks Swing!
R
I live in Sheffield too - the traffic reception is rubbish, but I suppose this could be the fact Sheffield is surrounded by hills. What is the issue with the power cable that you mention and what is the "big thread"? I haven't really had a chance to try it outside the Sheffield area yet, accept on one trip to Lincoln that I've already mentioned in an earlier post.
Like RichK, I got good reception with the original firmware via Classic FM I think, but as soon as I started to update it the service got worse!
I have pulled the black button off, and now I'm looking for a decent method to extend it... I'd buy asplitter, but I need to verify what sort of connector my car aerial as, and that means dismantling a few bits... Might be more than a week... Although I might pop down to Halfords/maplins in maidenhead tonight & see what aerials they've got in stock to try it & see whether a temporary one would work as well...
Well...
Halfords (Maidenhead) were about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Made me feel like I was in the way of their conversation around the till more than anything else. They can kiss my arse for any more business for a while.
Maplins guy was pretty naive, but as helpful as he could be...
Sadly neither had an aerial splitter... Maplins had a boosted portable aerial, but it ws rated for TV signals (400-500Mhz) so I wasn't willing to part with a tenner to tey & see if it worked with the FM radio signals.
I did try my TV aerial booster at home... Nothing... Nothing with a portable battery powered booster either. Although those results could just be because I'm having to hold the wire on the centre post of the connector rather than having a decent connection (TV aerials are so large, I don't want to put one on the rather flimsy string from the GTM-21).
Time to rethink... What connectors have others used to connect the TMC units to their car aerials? Or has everyone just bit the bullet & used a normal car aerial connector? Or soltered wires? Or SMA connectors? BNC, (m)MCX? Or what?
Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 7:21 am Post subject:
Nonny wrote:
What is the issue with the power cable that you mention and what is the "big thread"?
If the part number of the car charging cable contains 6017, it needs replacing with one that contains 6025. The "big thread" is the 42 page thread in this area of the forums with discussions over the performance of the GTM12 (basically the same hardware).
Quote:
Like RichK, I got good reception with the original firmware via Classic FM I think, but as soon as I started to update it the service got worse!
You are unlikely to have ever got traffic from Classic FM, as Classic is used by the competitor to the Trafficmaster service used by Garmin. Your unit may have locked onto Classic, and you may have thought the traffic messages were coming from Classic, but they shouldn't have been, and technically it shouldn't work anyway. _________________ Please don't be offended if I do not reply to a PM - please ask questions via the forums.
Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 4:27 pm Post subject: Garmin tech support
Thought people would be interested in this e-mail chain between myself and Garmin tech support, after I told them of the problems I was having getting a traffic signal on my Nuvi 660:
Message 1, from Garmin to me:Please check with your car manufacturer that you do not have a heated or treated front windscreen.If you do not have a heated or treated front windscreen, you can return the traffic receiver to Garmin for repair/testing/replacement.
Message 2, from me to Garmin:I do have a heated front windscreen, but it only has heating elements at the bottom where the windscreen wipers rest. What difference does a heated screen make anyway, why isn't this mentioned in the instructions and what solution do you suggest?
Message 3, from Garmin to me:The electronic windscreen inhibits the signal from coming through the windscreen as it should. When you bought the TMC, the store would have been able to tell you if there would be any problems with your car.
There is no way around this. The biggest problem is the strength of signal being transmitted is quite weak due to government regulations and there is nothing we can do about this either.
Garmin are a new equipment manufacturer who supply goods to dealers who sell the goods. If you are unhappy with the TMC receiver, please speak to the store where you bought the unit.
Personally, I think this advice sucks, and will be writing to Garmin again shortly. I will be taking it up with the store where I bought my unit, but I would not blame them if they pleaded complete ignorance about this issue. This is Garmin's problem, not the reseller's.
I did manage to get traffic information today, but only on the A610 just outside Nottingham and only after driving from Sheffield down the M1 with no signal whatsoever for 90% of the journey!
Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:39 pm Post subject: Re: Garmin tech support
Nonny wrote:
Garmin are a new equipment manufacturer who supply goods to dealers who sell the goods. If you are unhappy with the TMC receiver, please speak to the store where you bought the unit.[/i]
Copout! That's pretty much all you can say.
They advertise the Nuvi670 in the UK as having real-time traffic alerts. Via the GTM-21. Their website lists the whole of the south-east as having Full Coverage. Yet they bloody thing doesn't work. If that isn't false advertising, I'll eat my fricking Nuvi660 whole.
FWIW I had the same responses, except my windscreen isn't heated, and the signal doesn't change between IN the car and OUT of the car. Thus the windscreen is NOT causing a problem.
I refuse to believe that a company that can design (Well, before they started buying SiRF chipsets anyway) a 12 channel RF receiver to pickup the pathetically weak 1.5GHz GPS signals using a built-in patch antenna, can't design a decent receiver for the (Also weak, but far stronger than GPS) FM signals used for TMC.
Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 9:32 am Post subject: Re: Garmin tech support
Hamie wrote:
Their website lists the whole of the south-east as having Full Coverage. Yet they bloody thing doesn't work. If that isn't false advertising, I'll eat my fricking Nuvi660 whole.
I agree, they can't have it both ways - either it works everywhere (as per their coverage map) or it doesn't, and they should modify their coverage map. _________________ Please don't be offended if I do not reply to a PM - please ask questions via the forums.
Joined: Jun 06, 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Midlands, UK
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 5:21 pm Post subject:
Driving south on the M6 today towards Walsall. The traffic signal was on, but all i was getting was information on closed roads, the nearest of which was over 100 miles away near London! No info on delays/accidents even though there were the usual delays at the M5 intersection. What was all that about! _________________ Regards
Tyke
I just plugged the wire into the main car aerial and it totally fixed the problem for me. Can't do any harm so give it a go.
I have a Merc with the aerial as part of the rear demister.
cheers,
Paul
In what way did you plug it into your car aerial - (connector, bare wire etc) and did it not decrease radio signal strength? btw what car is is im having probs in north west geting a signal with nuvi 660 and gtm 21 in a vectra c
Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject:
If you are in the North West in the region of the Winter Hill transmitter, then I believe this transmitter stopped transmitting TMC radio signals a while ago, and it has still not been fixed. _________________ Please don't be offended if I do not reply to a PM - please ask questions via the forums.
Joined: Jan 14, 2005 Posts: 19638 Location: Blackpool , Lancs
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 9:21 pm Post subject:
It stopped transmitting RDS Traffic Master data last December (28th IIRC), and not a peep from it since, so I guess this fault isn't on the high priority fix it list, devoid of WinterHill most of the North West region suffers from no coverage - not a good situation when you live where I do - Mike
Joined: Nov 04, 2003 Posts: 2225 Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject:
Wow, it is really that long now...
I've seen from another thread that Garmin have now acknowledged there is a fault with the transmitter, but they do not have any ETA for it being fixed. _________________ Please don't be offended if I do not reply to a PM - please ask questions via the forums.
Friday night I pulled my radio & HID from the dash & discovered to my horror that despite Halfords guides saying I didn't need an adapter for an aerial in my car, it does indeed have an ISO connector...
Sat morning, I bought an antenna - ISO and an ISO - antenna convertor from maplins. About 2quid each IIRC.
Sat evening... Remove HID & radio again... Plug in convertors, and aerial splitter. Contemplate for a bit and decide that the area above the (Useless) cup holders is a good place for a new connector I drill a hole & fix a 2.5mm single connector socket (Black) in place with a wire from the splitter.
Then soldered a 2.5mm single connector plug into the end of the useless piece of wet string garmin like to pretend is an FM aerial on the GTM-21 and fire it up.
hey presto! Traffic messages...
First real test this morning on the way to work... I get a signal even on the A404(M). Pity it's not actually covered by the TMC data as I sat in the car for 45 minutes crawling from J9B to J8/9 to then join the M4 which was moving freely... It did warn me of traffic on the A4 (Colnbrook bypass) which was non-existent...
But at least the TMC messages are now received... Only step now is to get TM data quality better than the crap I used to get via GPRS from TT... Might be farting against thunder for that one though... They don't seem to respond... Remind me who the customer is again please?
Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 2003 Location: Antrobus, Cheshire
Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 8:58 am Post subject:
mikealder wrote:
It stopped transmitting RDS Traffic Master data last December (28th IIRC), and not a peep from it since, so I guess this fault isn't on the high priority fix it list, devoid of WinterHill most of the North West region suffers from no coverage - not a good situation when you live where I do - Mike
So that explains why I have never had reception from home! I got my TMC equipped nuvi first week on Jan!
Do Garmin have any way to pressure the transmitter owner / radio station owner to get the kit fixed.
Or are there some politics being played out here? _________________ Phil
Joined: Dec 28, 2005 Posts: 2003 Location: Antrobus, Cheshire
Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 9:04 am Post subject:
Hamie wrote:
But at least the TMC messages are now received... Only step now is to get TM data quality better than the crap I used to get via GPRS from TT... Might be farting against thunder for that one though... They don't seem to respond... Remind me who the customer is again please?
Glad to hear it's working and Halfords 'techies' are still as good as ever
The Trafficmaster supplied data seems to be more reliable than the iTIS data - but the whole system is far from perfect. _________________ Phil
But at least the TMC messages are now received... Only step now is to get TM data quality better than the crap I used to get via GPRS from TT... Might be farting against thunder for that one though... They don't seem to respond... Remind me who the customer is again please?
Glad to hear it's working and Halfords 'techies' are still as good as ever
The Trafficmaster supplied data seems to be more reliable than the iTIS data - but the whole system is far from perfect.
45 minutes to travel (Can this be called travelling?) down the A404(M) from J9B to J8/9 of the M4. NOTHING on TMC, although I had a good signal & plenty of notification of problems elsewhere... J8.9 of the M4 was completely standstill.
One thing I also noticed is that the Garmin only reports the START of a traffic jam... So if you hit it half way it seems to be ignored (Especially on the traffic list if you have the older 2.7 firmware).
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and Halfords 'techies' are still as good as ever 
