A month of using MN4 & TMC in the UK

Hunnymonster

A month of using Navigon Mobile Navigator 4 with Navigon Modular GPS with TMC & Bluetooth modules in the UK

Apologies for the longwinded post - but I didn't want to leave anything out Embarassed

First of all a quick note about costs & distances etc.: Throughout I'll give distances in km, prices in Euro & Sterling - based very approximately on €1.4=£1 - all distances and prices are order of magnitude figures not exact (so for example if €350 is really £235.82, I’ve rounded it to a reasonable approximation), and obviously costs may vary depending on your supplier, local tax regime and local market for the various products mentioned. All trademarks and copyrights are implicitly acknowledged, and this posting is entirely my opinion based on my observations over the last month. If you go out and spend the cash and it doesn't do for you what it does for me I can't help that, nor will I accept any responsibility.

Background: For the 6 weeks or so preceding this posting I've been lucky enough to be evaluating PocketPC-based routing &navigation software for my employer – most of the big names have been part of that test: TomTom Navigator 3, Destinator 3, Alturion 5, Navigon MobileNavigator4, Route66 (CoPilot 5 wasn’t part of the trial because of it’s much higher cost per seat) - in fact I've only tested 4 because after using Navigon MN4, I got hooked on it... so much so that because I know I have to hand back the test rig soon, I've ordered my own copy of MN4. Initial testing was carried out using a GlobalSat BC-307 CF GPS card, on a works iPaq 2210.

TomTom 3 introduced me to the idea of traffic updates while en route, but using GPRS wasn't a practical option for my target audience (for various reasons - not least that I personally like turning my (work) mobile off at every opportunity) and then I read about the idea of RDS-TMC in the forums on www.gpspassion.com and on www.pocketgpsworld.com and decided to buy a TMC-enabled GPS (with a view to writing it as part of my works trial if it didn't work, and keeping it if it was worth it - I hope my other half doesn't read this or I'm a dead man ;)).

I decided very quickly that I'd get a bluetooth one, to reduce the cable clutter near the iPaq, and because the bluetooth was only about €50/£30 more than the cabled version (if you add a €100 bluetooth module and remove a €45 cable kit) - and it'd be usable with any bluetooth-enabled laptop/PocketPC in future with no additional outlay or risk of unavailability of cable.

After a bit more research and I placed my order and received my Navigon modular receiver, bluetooth & TMC modules on August 3rd from www.computeruniverse.net - it took 5 days from order (being totally fair I should say 4 really as I placed the order at 11pm their time) to delivery to arrive. Total price (including delivery) was €350/£250 for the Modular GPS, the TMC Unit and the bluetooth Module. A sizeable sum for a GPS unit, but it's a new toy and we all like new toys to play with :D

Once I managed to penetrate the outer packaging (exceptionally well packed by computeruniverse.net in a 38 litre cardboard box, that didn’t give way when I stand on it - and I weigh close to 100kg), and unpacked the three Navigon product boxes within the outer box, my first impression was that the documentation supplied with the Navigon receiver and the two modules is that it's very insubstantial, well to be totally precise - non-existent - so anyone planning on getting one of these receivers to use with another program than Navigon MobileNavigator, watch out! Although all you need to know from a bluetooth point of view is the pairing code is 0000.

That said, it was all exceedingly simple to sort out and I was up and running on the iPaq 2210 in about 10 minutes (including unpacking the boxes) - with no need to refer to the manual - although I did ask some questions of Navigon's tech support about the various combinations of lights shown on the indicators on the modular GPS. A helpful reply was received within 24 hours, with the answer and suggesting politely that I should have read the manual too (oops!).

Placed on charge and first fix obtained, and unit fully populated with bluetooth & TMC modules, I mounted it in the car (just resting on the rear parcel shelf for this trial), and set off on a test drive (about 15km). As I set off, I was heartened to see the TMC icon immediately turn orange indicating that the TMC module had been detected and the GPS icon turn green and indicate it had lock on 6 satellites. Within a couple of minutes, the TMC icon turned green and TMC messages started to arrive. At the next available opportunity, I parked up to review the messages received.

All were for motorways and trunk roads (as you'd expect), in the main for road works, but some for jams too. The alerts themselves seem to cover a crow-fly radius of approximately 75-100km for trunk roads and a little more for motorways (about 120-150km by my reckoning), which seems a reasonable area to be covering at any given time. I guess that this subset of messages is delivered by targeting the transmitter's intended footprint, plus some overlap into adjacent zones, so that most detail is concentrated in the area served by the transmitter, and progressively less outside the service area of the transmitter. Obviously this is a function of the TMC provider, and nothing to do with the Navigon software, or the receiver.

Within a fortnight, we had some rain.... and some more rain.... and for a change, it rained - twice the entire month's average rainfall fell over a 3 day period, so we had some floods, although nothing on the scale of http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3570940.stm - and my TMC messages told me all about the flooding, at least the flooding affecting major roads - the radio travel news confirmed them all about 15-20 minutes afterwards. At least one of the floods (at the county boundary between Northumberland and Cumbria) has no easy diversion either (well unless you have nerves of steel and intimate local knowledge) - TMC would have saved joining the inevitable queue of traffic performing U-turns and seeking the more navigable diversionary routes close to the scene - having been trapped by floods in the same area previously I know that it adds at least 90 minutes to the journey having to track back to take the (twisty) detour via Alston, or even more if you have to take the ‘proper’ detour via the A1/A66/M6.

One evening on my way home from work, a jam in an unexpected place - which turned out to be caused by a police vehicle blocking the road to direct all the traffic off the dual carriageway at the next junction - no hint of what was going on... nothing on TMC, until I was waiting in the queue on the off-ramp - then it told me that there was an 'incident' and offered me the choice of 'Ignore' or 'Evade' and recommended to ignore.... so I did what it recommended, ignored it and rejoined the road.... bad idea, I should have listened to TMC. Just under an hour to travel 1½km to see that the 'incident' was in fact a capsized 40 tonne truck on the roundabout ahead. That said the re-route I was originally offered by Navigon would have taken me to the same junction, but a different approach road, but still blocked - so my own local knowledge would have helped, if I'd taken the TMC advice and rerouted. Lesson learned.

Two days later, I was just about to pull onto the same dual carriageway, and noticed a queue forming on the slip road ahead of me, made a snap decision to re-route and about 45 seconds later the TMC message arrived, this time mentioning an 'overturned vehicle'. My navigated diversion took me along the exact route I'd expect to take to avoid the stretch of road flagged by the TMC, alongside the closed road where I could indeed see a large queue of traffic and a capsized HGV (again – but this time on a straight section of road, rather than on a roundabout). Hey presto - 15 minutes later the radio travel news confirmed it....

I started to experiment with concealing the GPS unit in the car, so I could just leave it in situ, powered up and ready to go as soon as I get in – so currently it's velcroed under the parcel shelf in the rear of the car, powered full-time via a device (on the packaging it was called a car battery protector (like www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.asp?moduleno=37962 - originally bought for the electric cool box) that will cut the power off should the battery voltage drop too far (or at least I hope it will), with an external GPS antenna (€15/£10 from eBay) on the roof adjacent to the radio aerial, that improved the average satellite 'pull' from 6 to 10, and it holds onto the signal significantly better in all circumstances, but particularly under tree cover - the FM wire antenna for the TMC unit was initially secured to the rear quarter light using the supplied rubber suckers and a standard audio grade phono extension lead to connect it to the TMC unit - this arrangement appears to work with no perceptible degradation in the TMC reception.

Routinely using this arrangement the TMC reception was ok, but it regularly dropped off-station but it regained it within a minute or two, a simple wire antenna in a metal box (the car) can't help the performance of the antenna much as the car will be acting as an imperfect Faraday cage - I don't see this as too much of a problem though - because there are two TMC providers broadcasting licensed by the Radio Authority in the UK, one is iTiS - delivered via the Classic FM network, the other provider is RAC/TrafficMaster - delivered by Chrysalis & GWR franchises - the latter is still in testing, and isn't compatible with the Navigon software, but obviously the TMC module doesn't know that and sometimes locks the local Chrysalis/GWR station even though it can't decode the messages (or perhaps it realises that it can't decode the messages and starts scanning again - I can't decide based on my observations so far, perhaps someone from Navigon might read this and tell us all for sure). The number of messages received is obviously a function of the TMC broadcaster - in my case it's Classic FM and I typically see 12-16 messages received although during the flooding that rose to 26 at one point.

In the spirit of experimentation, I spent €10/£7 on improving the FM antenna for the TMC unit, adding an antenna like www.doityourself.com/store/026616090075.htm, a 300ohm/75ohm balun like www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.asp?moduleno=5145 and an RCA phono to co-axial adaptor/cable. Initially it seems to improve the FM reception, although not as much as I hoped it would, but I think some additional experimentation with the placement and orientation will enable maximum benefit, although since I straightened out the antenna (still concealed under the rear parcel shelf) and it’s now quite a rare occasion when I lose the TMC station! (at least near home)

Over the bank holiday weekend, we went on the first longish cross-country trip with TMC in operation, including driving through some known black spots for FM coverage, and traffic of course – and being a bank holiday weekend plenty of jams to be notified of.

All went very well for the first 80 miles or so – over to Carlisle and down the M6 towards Penrith. A couple of drops in TMC reception, checking the car radio, Classic FM was only receivable in DX mode. TMC reception was lost ‘for good’ near Tebay (M6 J38), where pretty much all FM radio reception dies, so not entirely unexpected – however it took a further 100km or so before it regained the TMC signal reliably – when 46 messages appeared, a record for me so far – just north of Junction 22, where predictably there was a jam – four lanes of solid traffic headed southbound as far as the eye could see, and knowing the area quite well I knew that it would be solid for 7 or 8km and moving no faster than 30km/h.

Evasive action followed to be directed around the jam, MN4 – and a reasonable alternative route was taken, although that too had traffic on it, nothing on the scale of the jam on the M6, and nothing unexpected for a regular Friday afternoon.

Not long after joining the M56 from the deviation, TMC reception was again lost, and checking as I had every time reception was lost, I found Classic FM reception to be OK on the radio, but in DX mode, suggesting a weak signal, experimentation over the weekend with the options within the TMC screen did nothing to help as it seems that “Hold <Station>” only works if the frequency of the station doesn’t change – in that particular area it does change, and quite often.

The homeward journey was similar – although we did take a detour through the Lake District, where again TMC reception was poor, but again Classic FM was only receivable in DX mode on the car radio, and part way along the western shore of Ullswater under quite thick tree cover, the GPS receiver seemed to have locked up – at first I thought it might have been the bluetooth stack on the iPaq, but a soft reset of the iPaq did not resolve the issue, a power cycle of the GPS receiver did though – this is my only outright failure of the rig in 4 weeks of driving.

CrashBiker · Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2004 11:51 pm Post subject:

Mr Monster :D

Very interesting review. I'm a Copilot user myself and 98% very happy but there is always that 2% to shoot for and Navigon appears to be another leading rather than following product. I'll wait and see how the Copilot traffic system works before considering any rash steps!

Appreciate the viewpoint, good to read how others use their systems.

Cheers

Crash

DavidH · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2004 Posts: 78

Very interesting, and seems to back up de Jong's view of MN4.

I'm a bit puzzled by the b'tooth / cable argument. In theory you need one fewer wire, but then you decided it would be nice to have the GPS always on (as I would), so you've attached a cable ...

So what's the advantage? I can see it may be nice to put the GPS anywhere in the car, but as b'tooth costs more and the stack seems to cause a few problems, I'm tempted to stay with a (permanently powered) cable mouse.

Can you convince me I'm wrong?

Hunnymonster · Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 3:53 pm Post subject:

Well argument 1 is that I expect my GPS to outlive my Pocket PC - so buying a cable now and a cable with the next Pocket PC will cost approximately the same as buying the bluetooth now, and pre-supposes that there will be a cable available for the next Pocket PC and that it won't cost any more than the one I'd be buying right now.

Argument 2 is that I can place (read "conceal") the receiver anywhere in the car (mine is hidden under the rear parcel shelf) and it can be left powered up so it's ready for instant navigation when I get in the car, rather than waiting for it to acquire a fix.

Argument 3 is that I can leave it in the car and test with live fix from inside the house without stepping outside into the rain that inevitably starts to fall when I'm experimenting with it.

DavidH · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2004 Posts: 78

I'm sure I should be able to work this out, but I can't see how to get TMC messages spoken to me. They come up if I tap the TMC icon (MNBE4 + wired TMC), but never via the IPAQ speaker or the radio, whether tuned to Classic FM or R4. I don't wnat to have to try to hit the icon, read the screene tc as I go along the motorway!!!!

I'm sure there must be some setting somewhere, but I find the manual very confusing.
Could you point me in the right direction?

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