FM TRansmit: Volume adjustment

[steakman]

Anyone that uses this function may find as I do that the volume even at full strength on the TT is in my opinion too low and could use a significant boost.

Does anyone know of a way to increase this through the tweaking of the software...??

I'm hoping that someone has messed around with FM2010parameters.*** or FMsignal.*** and has an answer...??

thanx,

stk

 

[TimSmit]

Yes! The volume level is waaaay to low.

 

[Jimbowmac]

I asked Support about this, and so far there no way to separate the volumes.

I sent in a suggestion to support.. let's see if it'll go somewhere..

 

[baggss]

I've noticed that if I power on the unit and start playing a song before it acquires the satellites the volume is MUCH louder. Once it acquires the volume drops by quite a bit.

 

[nicholb]

One thing that does help is to turn off the option to adjust volume according to the background noise. That will get the volume a little higher, but not high enough. I finally gave up on the FM transmitter and am using a cassette adapter for the music and directions. With the low signal strength you just get way too much background noise on the station. In contrast, before I had the 720 I use to use a $29 FM transmitter that plugs into the cigarette adapter to play my mp3's. That had no problems with signal strength so it is a mystery why TomTom chooses to have such a low FM transmission strength. Perhaps it is due to some legal restriction in one of the countries they market it in?

 

[baggss]

One thing that does help is to turn off the option to adjust volume according to the background noise. That will get the volume a little higher, but not high enough. I finally gave up on the FM transmitter and am using a cassette adapter for the music and directions. With the low signal strength you just get way too much background noise on the station. In contrast, before I had the 720 I use to use a $29 FM transmitter that plugs into the cigarette adapter to play my mp3's. That had no problems with signal strength so it is a mystery why TomTom chooses to have such a low FM transmission strength. Perhaps it is due to some legal restriction in one of the countries they market it in?

I don't think it's the FM signal strength since even when my TT is jacked directly into my cars stereo it's volume is still lower than it should be. The FM signal strength seems quite good to me and is good for about 100 or so feet from the unit itself, perhaps a bit more.

 

[srallen]

I finally gave up on the FM transmitter and am using a cassette adapter for the music and directions. With the low signal strength you just get way too much background noise on the station. In contrast, before I had the 720 I use to use a $29 FM transmitter that plugs into the cigarette adapter to play my mp3's. That had no problems with signal strength so it is a mystery why TomTom chooses to have such a low FM transmission strength. Perhaps it is due to some legal restriction in one of the countries they market it in?

I have had the opposite experience. While I do find the TomTom FM volume to be too low, I find it to be clear and I can compensate for it buy turning the stereo a little higher. In contrast, when I tried a $29 FM transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter in the past, I found it to have static and a signal that was intermittant. It was louder, but way too annoying for me.

 

[srallen]

I don't think it's the FM signal strength since even when my TT is jacked directly into my cars stereo it's volume is still lower than it should be. The FM signal strength seems quite good to me and is good for about 100 or so feet from the unit itself, perhaps a bit more.

Very interesting! Particularly the 100 feet or so... I find that proximity is important but I haven't actually tried a long distance. I'll try that and see what happens...

 

[baggss]

Very interesting! Particularly the 100 feet or so... I find that proximity is important but I haven't actually tried a long distance. I'll try that and see what happens...

I only noticed it last night. I came home from the airport in a rental car. I removed my 720 but didn't power it off. I placed it on the hood of my truck in the garage, unloaded my bags and then went to drive the rental car around the corner to park it. It's about 100 or so feet from my garage to the end of the alley where I had to turn to go park the rental car. When I stared the rental it was still tuned to the 720 transmitter and I got a good signal until the end of the alley. Once I turned and the building was in the way, I lost it.

 

[canderson]

I find it necessary to keep the TT's FM volume set to max as well. When the FM radio is set to an accordingly appropriate volume, I do notice that switching to a "live" station tends to have the radio set just a bit loud. So in my case, while I think it would serve them to drive the FM amplitude a bit higher, it's not too bad.

As far as 100' goes... I have noted just the opposite, and it's had me thinking that for some reason TT hadn't chosen to go with the maximum allowed power (100mW) for their transmitter. With my 720 stuck on my dashboard, I sometimes get less than optimal reception, especially near traffic lights at certain intersections where the RF overcomes the TT signal slightly, causing some static. My 300M's car "antenna" is in the rear window defroster. That may have something to do with this, although the normal FM reception is just fine. However, the 720 is weak enough that turning on the rear window defroster really wipes out the signal. That doesn't even happen on somewhat weak FM stations.

 

[Dick Maxey]

Very Poor FM Transmission strength.

When I first got my TomTom 720 the FM signal strength was quite good. I noticed it because I have a Sirius satellite radio that has a fairly weak transmitter, but the TomTom seemed quite clear. Since then I have connected it to my PC with TomTom Home on it and allowed it to update my unit. Since then it seems that the FM transmitter won't work with directional instructions nor is it as stong as it needs to be. It seems like even if I find a fairly blank area on the FM dial, there is still a lot of interference and noise. I know there is a way to fix this via software because it used to work well before the new software update. We need a good hacker to get the source code and fix this for us.

 

[canderson]

When I first got my TomTom 720 the FM signal strength was quite good. I noticed it because I have a Sirius satellite radio that has a fairly weak transmitter, but the TomTom seemed quite clear. Since then I have connected it to my PC with TomTom Home on it and allowed it to update my unit. Since then it seems that the FM transmitter won't work with directional instructions nor is it as stong as it needs to be. It seems like even if I find a fairly blank area on the FM dial, there is still a lot of interference and noise. I know there is a way to fix this via software because it used to work well before the new software update. We need a good hacker to get the source code and fix this for us.

As to lack of FM for nav instructions, TomTom killed that with firmware release 8.300. To get it back, you'll want to roll back to 8.010. This is covered in threads elsewhere here.

As for your lack of signal strength, I've found that the physical position of the power cord in your car can make a huge difference. Seems that much of the signal is radiated from the power cord.