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TomTom Traffic & Bluetooth

This is a discussion on TomTom Traffic & Bluetooth within the TomTom forums, part of the Satellite Navigation (GPS) category; I am looking forward to buying a PDA + TomTom3 Blu etooth and taking advantage of the "Traffic" facility ...

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Old 01-06-2004, 07:29 PM
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Default TomTom Traffic & Bluetooth

I am looking forward to buying a PDA + TomTom3 Bluetooth and taking advantage of the "Traffic" facility currently available for free.



Just a couple of questions.



I have a Nokia 6310i so presumably this phone will allow me to communicate with TomTom but do I have to pay for the phone calls or do I pay for an internet connection on my phone? I have never tried to access to web via my mobile so if I do have to pay for the internet connection how much is this likely to cost?



Secondly I have a Bluetooth hands free car kit for my Nokia 1610i and I can only one Bluetooth connection at a time. For a trial period I would be happy use the phone in the car exclusively with the TomTom but if I was happy to continue using Traffic would you suggest that the only work around would be to buy a second Bluetooth mobile or is there another mobile phone that can support more than one Bluetooth connection?



Thanks
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Old 11-06-2004, 11:55 PM
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Hi,

What you are intending to do I have just done. And I spent a while working out how much it it's going to cost. I have a Nokia 6230 with Bluetooth connected on a contract (Everyone 200) on T-Mobile. For a GPRS connection (I would recommend because a straight dialup will be less reliable and a lot slower), they charge .75 pence (not 75 pence) per K (1024 bytes). When I got the phone, it had Internet access set up on the phone itself.

First of all, when you use Tom Tom traffic, it gets it's traffic updates either by you specifying an interval automatically. Or by clicking a small icon to manually update.

I checked out how much data was being sent and received in each update. It worked out at about 7K. So that worked out at about 5.25 pence each time it updated. I called T-Mobile who arranged an allowance of 3 MB per month for £5. That would give you 428 updates a month. So it’s worth doing this if you intend to use a lot. Having used the Traffic software, I've found that for day to day driving, I prefer to just click the update icon. If I were to go on a long journey (for me that is about 1 and a half hours), I would set it to automatically update every 6 mins. This is a matter of preference at the end of the day.

Incidentally, it’s worth noting that if you were to set up a standard dial up via an ISP, you would probably have to pay a minimum connection charge plus time online. GPRS works out cheaper (even though I hate the idea of paying for data). Don’t know many other options at the moment.

If you need any help in setting up your PDA to use your Nokia via Bluetooth using GPRS, I’ll post the little info I got from T-Mobile. Your PDA is probably not setup to use GPRS by default (mine wasn’t).

In answer to your question about a mobile that will allow 2 Bluetooth at once, the answer is, “I don’t know of one.” Those who do know, please post as I’ve got the same predicament. I have even thought about buying a pay as you go sim card and putting in a cheap Bluetooth phone and just leaving in the car somewhere.

Another option is to buy a CF mobile phone card for your PDA. That would make the PDA a totally dedicated unit that wouldn’t rely on your mobile phone. But you will still need another sim card for GPRS usage. To see what I’m talking about, see here http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/3542.html Search on Google for gprs cf card.

My experience of traffic so far (and I’ve only used it on 2 occasions) is that it looks pretty good once installed over Tom Tom. Today though, I was driving to Chichester on the A27 bypass from Portsmouth. Coming from the opposite direction there was a huge jam building up. The police stopped the traffic from going any further westerly at the Emsworth turn off (for those who might know this). I mentioned to my wife that they should really block the traffic at the Chichester end because this road is about 15 miles with no way of getting of. Anyway, about 2 hours later after spending time in Chichester, I decided to test the traffic software by calculating a route back to Portsmouth. As expected, Tom Tom routed my via the A27. I then updated the traffic information. Tom Tom reported no incidents, so I happily drove towards the A27. Guess what? The motorway was closed. So somebody somewhere failed to update this information for Tom Tom traffic users. Which is pretty bad considering this same information that Tom Tom get is also sent via TMC (over FM to your car radio).

It's also worth noting that traffic information can be updated via your home ADSL connection (if you have one). Either via your PDA cradle via your PC. Or via a WiFi point (if you have one). So you could update your traffic info before you leave the house.

Good luck

Last edited by djohnson : 11-06-2004 at 11:58 PM. Reason: Addition
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Old 17-06-2004, 03:02 PM
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Hi, a quick question on the subject of TOMTOM3 and traffic.

I have installed the plug in for traffic on a fully working TT3 and Ipaq 2210 with bluetooth Tomtom GPS after several months of plain satnav. After about an hour trying to get the GPRS settings from O2 for my Nokia 6310i, I managed to get it all up and running and downloading traffic data.

However, Once on a journey the application kept failing to contact the traffic database either with an always on GPRS connection on the phone or a 'when needed' option. Even tapping the 'update' icon, it failed repeatedly. Phone generally had 80% or more signal during journey albeit much of it was motorway meaning frequent changes to mobile transmitting aerials.

I'm not an expert as to the relative quality of GPRS signals, but I must be doing something wrong?.....or the service is just not reliable enough to fork out for a subscription?

Anyone help ?
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Old 21-06-2004, 08:17 PM
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I run the 6310i with my HP 2210 & experience the same problems on Orange GPRS. It appears that the only way to receive further updates is to close the programme, wait until the GPRS disconnects, then restart TomTom. Frustrating (and dangerous whilst doing 70+ mph on the M1!)

I'm hoping to try it with a different model of phone next week & see if it makes a difference.

It's a bit of a shame, cos when TomTom & Traffic are running properly, it is a cracking little system. I have guys on the road who need something like this but I'm certainly not going to subscribe if it's not reliable.

Perhaps Steve at www.totalpda.co.uk has the answer?

www.nationalcarphones.co.uk
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Old 22-06-2004, 10:27 PM
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My traffic system has got better in the last few days by doing the following:

1. Disable automatic update of traffic

2. Slow down to 50mph or less with phone on full signal

3. Do a manual update.

Whilst this now works 90% of the time, I would not reccomend. Clearly if you can only update when going slow, you are already in the traffic jam which you were trying to avoid using the traffic plugin........touche!

Im sure the issue is either with GPRS not working very well with constant positional phone location changes (due to high speed) or Nokia doing a cheap and nasty GPRS function, which is not totally unlikely when you consider their bluetooth technology.

Unfortunately i cant change phone easily as it is a company mobile but I will be interested to hear from others who have usedthe traffic plugin with a superior technology phone (i.e. Sony P600 or similar).

I certainly wont be forking out for a paid subscription unless the situation improves dramatically
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Old 22-06-2004, 10:51 PM
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Hi guys i have not tried the traffic updates as yet (not had a chance sorry). There will always be bugs and am sure Tom Tom will update to solve these problems. I will let use know as soon as i get a chance to use it and see what happens.
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Old 24-06-2004, 11:57 PM
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Just another quick comment about TT3 traffic

Driving back from Scotland today to the midlands via M6 I encountered a total of 1hr 10mins of delays due to 3 seperate issues/incidents. Not one was mentioned on the Traffic plugin despite numerous traffic updates (approx every 15 mins) and a properly planned journey. I almost missed the football!!

I am rapidly going off TT3 traffic during the free trial. Surely nobody at the moment is paying for this service!
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