TomTom TMC - Areas of Service / No Service

mikealder · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject:

Where this does get complicated is GCap also own Classic FM, so one company have control over all FM TMC transmission in the UK - Mike

yo612 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 08, 2007 Posts: 3

Hello everybody from France,

We have exactly the same problem in France with the Tmc-RDC receiver.
Near of Paris, which is a big town with lot of radios stations, sometimes we can receive the trafic-information and sometimes the tomtom goes to scan again and again.
When you leave Paris and go at 10 or 20 miles ahead, it 's worth.
Few times, tomtom can receive a good signal.
Many of us have sent e-mails at tomtom support and their answer is very... pathetic.
They advise us to not install others speeds camera coming from others website than tomtom, erase these poi, flash again the tomtom with the 6.522 and reset it.
So, is it really necessary to say to you that nothing changes after doing that ?

Bye
:x :x

Scotty-uk · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:

I've been asked by one of the posters on this forum how I connected into my car stereo with my modified TMC.

So here goes :

My car (Audi S4) has a 'modern' ISO aerial connector and therefore I had to use adaptors. I think most cars 2000+ cars have these now.

I bought all these bits from my local Maplin :

[1] 'ISO to old' converter lead (to go on the aerial lead)
[2] ISO right angle plug to old' converter (to go in the back of the head unit)
[3] an 'old' aerial connector
[4] a splitter
[5] one male coax connector
[6] two female coax connectors
[7] length of coax

I actually just wanted an ISO connector to go on the aerial lead but I couldn't find one so I did this : I took a 'ISO to old' converter lead ([1] above) and cut off the 'old' end. On the cut end I then put on a male coax connector ([5] above). This was then plugged into the input of the splitter ([2] above).

On one of the outputs I plugged in (using a female coax connector ([6] above) on the end of the TMC extension cable) the TomTom/TMC.

On the other output I used the other female coax connector ([6] above) on a bit of coax. On the opposite end of the coax I fitted the 'old' aerial connector ([3] above).

This was then plugged into the right angle converter ([2] above) and connected to the head unit.

It's a bit convoluted but I didn't want to cut the car's aerial lead and I couldn't find ISO plugs and sockets on their own.

I hope this helps.

swebb · Regular Visitor Joined: Apr 27, 2006 Posts: 79

Scotty - can you post any pictures of this?

Malc6552 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 21, 2003 Posts: 20

Hoping mine will be here tomorrow, looks like mods are gonna be needed .... would be nice to see more pic's of what people have done to make this thing work!!!!

frosty000 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 2

I've just been reading the whole thread and looking for solutions myself. I was going to go down the route Scotty took as I have a company car (VW Passat) and didnt want to pull it apart and cut cables, when I found this -

http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/671

My only reservation is that apparently my aeriel is amplified and the power (7 Volts) goes through the centre core of the coax. I am worried it may cause problems with the RDS-TMC unit.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly received.

Thanks, and sorry if I have barged in - I'm new to forums

GizmoB73 · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:45 pm Post subject:

frosty000 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 2

I had the impression that this product was a splitter from the aerial, but I can't be sure as help from the site has just been copied text that was cut and pasted from the description !!
The Passat has ISO connectors, so I would end up with a lot of adapters as the splitter you mentioned is a DIN type. The power does come from the head unit - does this mean I would'nt need to install the filter ?

Thanks again

GizmoB73 · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:27 pm Post subject:

Malc6552 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 21, 2003 Posts: 20

As I thought , rds tmc mod required. So after reading the very helpfull posts on here I have made my first mod

Soldered a 29.5 inch fine cable to the gold pad and instantly got a signal without connecting to car arial, gonna get myself the rf amp and splitter for next weekend, has anyone else found any other ways to mod ????

There are four wires on the pcb, 2 must be for power, and im guessing one is for the signal to the tomtom and the last one could be the arial, was thinking this would be a better place to connect the car arail to but cant decide which one to go for, anyone have any thoughts on this method????

vicky · Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:25 pm Post subject:

I was thinking that the 4 wires were

2 were

+v & -v supply for the TMC

Other 2 were

Serial Data + & - for data transfer back to TomTom unit

I figured that the TMC was using one of these as the antenna

Just a guess but if thats the case it would make using any of these as an antenna port a bit of a problem,

Not really had the time to investigate in detail, so I may be totally wide of the mark on it tho.

Exhale · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 12, 2006 Posts: 4

Just a quick note to say that I've just done this modification too.

I *had* to connect the shield to the pad closest to the 4 wires (and the core to the other pad) because I was getting interference without the ground connected.

That said, I'm using a mains adaptor to charge the TomTom via. an inverter.

The result is impressive - the radio's picking up a hell of a lot more radio stations - and the quality is excellent - and it's locking on to Classic FM almost straight away (about 30 seconds from starting up).

If you're going to do this modification, it's well worth getting some oversized heat shrink and sealing the two PCBs properly, and then looming everything together with zip ties and/or spirawrap to prevent damage from cable strain or rough handling as everything is pushed into place.

/al - very happy!!

AVRHack2 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 24

jamiepyoung · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:00 pm Post subject:

would anyone be willing to carry out the mods to my tmc on my behalf?

i have no skills at all at this sort of thing!

obviously on a no-risk basis.

i am in warwick/midlands.

thanks!

coastersteve · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject:

I'm just up the road and our electronics factory is in Nuneaton. If you can come around we can pop it open and solder in no problem.

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