TMC in France?

[Retty]

Just when you thought it was safe to come back in to the forums and find no TMC posts ;-)

I recently went to France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

My C710 was unable to receive TMC information for France (could not find a station) but did pick up TMC for Belgium (Radio 2 Belgium), Holland, Luxembourg and even Germany. The C710 managed to pick up Belgium information in France and German TMC in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Has anyone managed to pick up TMC information for France (as opposed to TMC information from Belgium whilst in France) with the recent 3.2 update (Jan 2007)? It took me a while to realise that the TMC information was not for France but for Belgium.

Fwiw, the TMC information in Belgium was quite detailed and seemed to remain on the TMC for longer than it does in the UK (even after a power off). I notice that some of the TMC information alerted to danger spot roads where accidents are especially common and serious. This would be a good feature in the UK.

In 400 miles or so of travelling I didn't encounter 1 speed camera alert (and, I think, not one speed camera). On return to the UK I encountered countless alerts!

The C710 failed badly as a result of a new road layout - not it's fault at all of course. Instead of thinking clearly - about how to turn left in to a blocked road - I didn't think clearly and ended up driving around for a long time. The problem was that because I was so close to the destination I couldn't "avoid" the road that a) I was already on and b) that the Mio "thought" would lead me to the destination.

What I should have done - and what I would advise anyone in a similar situation to do is as follows. It sounds simple but it didn't occur to me at the time and it may help someone:

1) Find a nearby parking space away from the destination and certainly away from the road that leads to the destination (it may be safest to use POI to find a parking space away from the tantalisingly close destination).

2) Delete the existing route and re-enter it (or perhaps simply "recalculate").

3) Now go in to itineray, selecting the offending road and select "avoid".

In short the MIo will not avoid a road if you are already on (or possibly immediately near) the road. Because of long roads and naming conventions this can be a less obvious problem than it appears.

If I had followed my own advice it would have saved me at least 25 minutes or so. Being lost in a strange place can be pretty anxiety causing when the traffic flow and road rules are different to the UK.

I wonder if it's worth putting a simple FAQ of "what do I do tips" together? Had I had the above simple advice whilst encountering the problem it would have been a big relief.

I noticed also that when I got lost in a French town the Mio really did struggle to find my position when it was forced to recalculate the route and when my position deviated from the planned route.

[GPS_fan]

As we intimated in the TMC reports borked thread, it looks like the TMC issue with the latest update is more involved than just the iTIS / TrafficMaster issue.

There is/was a press release on Mio's web site regarding the C710, TMC & France, titled "Traffic Message Channel (TMC) now delivered at no additional cost to Mio C710 purchasers in France" and dated November 14, 2006:

http://www.mio-tech.be/en/press-releases-tmc-delivered-at-no-additional-cost-for-mio-c710-in-france.htm

Did you have good satellite reception when you got lost in a French town or was reception poor?

At one time, there was a list on Mio's web site detailing the number of cameras in various countries and although this list has disappeared, I did make a copy of the information:

Country Count
Austria 766
Belgium 1944
Czechie 307
Denmark 29
Finland 153
France 2466
Germany 4299
Italy 573
Lichtenstein 1
Luxemburg 11
Netherlands 1739
Norway 294
Portugal 138
Slovakia 2
Spain 785
Sweden 260
Switzerland 449
Uk 9539

As you can see, this information shows about FOUR times as many cameras in the UK as France, so you would get more warnings.

Also when your speed increases (motorways), the warning distance to cameras increases and you'll be alerted to a few on roads adjacent to the one you're travelling on.

[Retty]

[JohnRicketts]

Took my c710 to the french alps 17th feb. Put it in the hire car from Geneva. Using the 1/4 wave std arial, it pulled down about 7 pages of messages, and rerouted me nicely round the back streets of Annecy.

It did not get TMC whilst in Bourg Saint Maurice, but then it is in a valley surrounded by high mountains! GPS took quite a while to lock as well.

[GPS_fan]

Surely you were nearer the satellites so it should have been quicker for GPS to lock on

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!