TomTom 130, RDS-TMC questions

[Whisperwolf]

Hi there folks, I have a couple of questions about the TomTom 130 and its compatibility with traffic.

I bought the Canadian version of the 130 off Ebay a while back, and it's been working fine, until today when I plugged the USB RDS-TMC I bought (again off ebay) into it.

It recognizes the traffic receiver, and says the receiver has connected properly, but almost immediately goes to the grey dot with an X over it. When I try to touch anywhere in the bar it says "RDS-TMC Information: Your RDS-RMC Traffic Receiver cannot be used in combination with the current map." I can get no further than that.

So on to the questions:

My maps are out of date, by almost two years. If I buy the up to date maps will this resolve the issue?

There are no identifying marks other than the TomTom logo on the receiver. I've read in a few places that there seem to be different versions for Europe and North America - how do I find out which version I have? Related, if I have the European version and I try to use it in Canada will this cause the error?

If the receiver itself was broken, would it detect and install and get this far, or would it simply refuse to detect at all?

The application version is 8.017 - is this the latest version, and if not where can I get the latest version?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[dhn]

The European rds-tmc antenna (non mini-usb type) does not work in North America and vice versa.

It's not a function of updated maps or application, it's about hardware.

You can connect to Home and see if it offers you an application update.

Finally, the North American rds-tmc antennas were subscription based for traffic. One year free and then $60/yr (US); the European rds-tmc included lifetime subscription for traffic.

Supermod mikealder is UK based and may pop into this thread. More than likely he'd know what version number should be on the sticky thing attached to the antenna if it meant for the European market.

 

[mikealder]

On the cable for the receiver near the plug will be a white paper/ plastic strip with some numbers on it, for it to work in Europe I would expect to see the number ending with .010 or .013 or .014 (The latter two are the more common ones as .010 was a very short lived unit) - Mike

 

[Whisperwolf]

There aren't any tags, labels or identification marks on it. Is there any way I can find out from the hardware side, or is it dependent on a label?

 

[dhn]

The reality is that rds-tmc coverage in Canada is limited to four cities.

However, one is Montreal. See the coverage area here

 

[mikealder]

If its Mini USB then its a .014 unit assuming it was purchased for European use, without the flag with a part number printed on it the only other way to find out the version is to crack open the receiver body and look at the PCB as the version number is etched on the board, this is rather drastic though and will void any warranty or possibility of returning it - Mike

 

[Whisperwolf]

I think my problem is how to tell if this unit (which I bought off Ebay) was destined for the european market or not. TomTom phone support say that there's only one kind of USB-Mini adapter, and say the problem is down to the maps being out of date, but I'm not sure that I believe them since it would make more sense to me if the maps were out of date for it to be showing as unable to get a signal, not straight out telling me that the receiver isn't compatible.

Let me ask this way: If I'm receiving this particular error message is it definitely hardware related? Can't help thinking that Tomtom wouldn't mind me spending $80 on new maps even if that won't fix the problem. If it was a software (out of date maps) problem, would it just sit there looking for a signal?

 

[mikealder]

There are some RDS related files contained in the map data folder which might explain why TTCS are saying to update the map but I couldn't be sure on this one without knowing the exact map version number you are currently using - Mike

 

[Whisperwolf]

According to the ttgo.bif file:

CurrentVoiceInfo=Jane
CurrentMap=USA_and_Canada
CurrentMapVersion=815.2022

I believe the current version is 8.55 which would put the maps between 2 and 2.5 years old