FM Transmitter Problems Anyone?

[marty45714]

I am online with TomTom support right now because the FM Transmitter will not consistently work. I am trying to find out if the unit is defective. Is anyone having trouble with the FM Transmitter working?

 

[suignrs]

Take a look at the review here: http://www.yournav.com/content/review/356/1186057800/

Their conclusion was that the FM transmitter was virtually unusable.

Sorry.

 

[marty45714]

Take a look at the review here: http://www.yournav.com/content/review/356/1186057800/

Their conclusion was that the FM transmitter was virtually unusable.

Sorry.

Thanks for the link to the review. This is not what I am talking about though. I am litterally meaning that it does not work. And when it does, it will not change frequencies. I have to hit the reset button to get it to work, and once I power off and on, it will not work again until I reset again. TomTom support had me use the Clear FLash tool, which did not resolve the issue. I am going to Amazon for an exchange. Hopefully this is just a defective unit and not a hardware platform issue. I was using the new software 7.010.

Related to the review:

I DID find however, that if you uncheck the Adjust Volume According to Noise Level option, that you can turn it up to 100% and it is plenty loud on your radio. My guess is that the reveiwer did not do this.

 

[a4000]

Thanks for the link to the review. This is not what I am talking about though. I am litterally meaning that it does not work. And when it does, it will not change frequencies. I have to hit the reset button to get it to work, and once I power off and on, it will not work again until I reset again. TomTom support had me use the Clear FLash tool, which did not resolve the issue. I am going to Amazon for an exchange. Hopefully this is just a defective unit and not a hardware platform issue. I was using the new software 7.010.

Related to the review:

I DID find however, that if you uncheck the Adjust Volume According to Noise Level option, that you can turn it up to 100% and it is plenty loud on your radio. My guess is that the reveiwer did not do this.

Good info. I hope you aren't trading in one problem for another, like the handsfree buzzing. Good call on the volume adjustment for the fm transmitter. My experience is it all depends on what station you try. Some are pretty bad and some are pretty good. I also heard somewhere to try the higher fm stations, not the lower ones.

BTW, that review for the fm transmitter was not well done. They didn't even commend on quality at all, they just didn't like the fact you had to turn up the volume...big deal, bad review.

 

[sriggins]

I tried the FM transmitter on several channels that were static without the 720 using them and there was just as much static with it transmitting. I could barely hear the TT voice. Horrible.

 

[mwjoerin]

I've put about 1000 miles so far on my 720 this week, many more miles to go. I am disappointed with my FM transmitter. I have to crank the car stereo volume up a tremendous amount to get a volume I can hear (yes the volume on the 720 is set at 100% which is necessary, and this applies to tomtom directions and playing various MP3's). The volume is turned up so loud that the background normal FM noises are amplified to an unacceptable level. This normal background type noise remained a problem (though lessened) even in the mountains when I was not able to recieve any FM broadcasts.

When traveling through urban areas that have many stations, finding a useable station is challenging (though I was generally successful). But the bleed over from adjacent strong stations caused additional background noise. As with other user's I had to change frequencies often when traveling through urban areas.

For tomorrows drive I will likely stop using the FM and listen to my podcasts through the tomtom speaker (side note, the MP3 player needs fast forward and rewind capabilities, not just skip track).

I would appreciate feedback on user's experience of the 720's FM transmitter to help determine if this is common to all 720's.

I may try exchanging my 720 in hopes that the replacement broadcasts at a higher volume.

-MJ

 

[digital-flex]

As far as I have read in boards and reviews, the problem you have described is common.

The answer from TomTom is to return the unit to the place you bought it from. I would just call support to make sure about that though.

 

[ptco911]

I haven't run into any issues with the FM transmitter on my unit. I would exchange the one you have.

 

[BlackRBWag]

IMHO the FM works well - BUT you seem to have to have the 720 quite close to the vehicle's radio aerial. In fact, I have found when the 720 is within inches of the car's aerial the quality is really good (assuming you have selected a totally vacant FM freq).

In my car the aerial is way at the back so FM quality from 720 to stereo is el crappo, so I am having an auto electrician dude splice a second aerial wire off the back of the car's radio and run that second aerial wire up inside the dash up to near where the 720 is mounted.

 

[Nauset]

two weeks into the 720: FM in the Mini, pretty poor. So I use the hardwire connection to the radio head for my MP3 Player. Works great but the volume is low. In the Isuzu Rodeo it worked great! Though I did have to boost the volume, but it was clear as a bell. Got rid of the Rodeo and picked up a 2004 Saturn Vue (way better mileage) earlier this week. The FM transmission sucks. I haven't been able to find a usable frequency. Now I'm planning on replacing the stock radio/cd player with a new Radio/CD/MP3 player, and I'll find one with both bluetooth and an external jack for audio. I found a sony that lets you stream from an MP3 player to the radio head via the bluetooth connection.

 

[anth75]

through past experiance using an fm transmitter you never get that clear sound and you seem to always haer the static of the channel you are transmitting through.your best bet (if you have aux on your radio)is to buy a 3.5mm to rca cable and go right through your stereo.sounds great for watching movies,playing mp3s,and gps itself.i tried going through an fm transmitter with my sirius and the sound was just horrable and low.good luck

 

[slgta]

through past experiance using an fm transmitter you never get that clear sound and you seem to always haer the static of the channel you are transmitting through.your best bet (if you have aux on your radio)is to buy a 3.5mm to rca cable and go right through your stereo.sounds great for watching movies,playing mp3s,and gps itself.i tried going through an fm transmitter with my sirius and the sound was just horrable and low.good luck

I tried with the AUX output .... but there is a serious buzzing noise whenever I have the car charger connected. Did some research, I think it is due to the "ground loop" problem ... and to get rid of the buzzing, we will have to install a Ground Loop Filter which cost approx $20.

 

[BIGBMN]

I have a $25 device, that plays my mp3's through my car stereo. Nice little thing that plugs in to the cigarette lighter. It is NOT perfect, but works OK. Hey, thats what you get for $25 dollars.

One of the reasons I purchased the TomTom 720 was to also have the capability to play my mp3's thorugh the car stereo. This ability is basically non existent. Unusable. I'm returning this unit, and will try this capability in a store before purchasing another unit. I'm thinking they just don't have this right.

 

[cj96ss]

What are the steps to access the FM transmitter I look yesterday and couldnt find it...

 

[cj96ss]

Well I figured out how to use this FM transmitter.. I must say I am impressed..... I have no complaints besides the fact that your telephone calls are not able to be heard threw your car stereo.... Why is that?

 

[netarc]

Yep, I'm having an issue with the FM transmitter as well - not a quality, issue, I just can't get it to work; posted my query re: this here:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?t=5087

I set the 720GO to output FM and select an unused FM station (tried two different ones, one on the low end ~91, the other one ~107) ... when I select the channel, I clearly hear the test phrase "you have arrived at your destination" over the car speakers ... but when I select DONE on the 720 (at the STOP/CHANGE/DONE screen) to return to the navigation panel, the unit's onboard speaker reactivates, and there's no audio over the FM radio.

 

[cj96ss]

Yep, I'm having an issue with the FM transmitter as well - not a quality, issue, I just can't get it to work; posted my query re: this here:
https://www.tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?t=5087

Sounds to me as if you are cancling the previous steps and going back to the main menu as nothing ever happened.

 

[netarc]

Sounds to me as if you are cancling the previous steps and going back to the main menu as nothing ever happened.

Well, once the station is selected and you hear the test phrase on the radio, there's only three options available on the screen - STOP, CHANGE & DONE. CHANGE takes you back to the frequency select page; STOP cancels and takes you back to the navigation screen; DONE - one would think - would accept your changes, leave the FM transmitter active and return to the navigation screen ... and while it does return to the nav screen, it also causes FM output to stop and voice commands continue to emit from the 720

Am I missing something?

 

[ajsasr]

Someone suggested something to me and it worked great. Tune your station, set the FM transmitter, turn up the volume on the TT to 100% then change the volume on your radio to your liking.

 

[BIGBMN]

FM Transmitter Better

Back in November I had addesd a post asking about the FM transmitter, and telling of my expereinces, which was not positive. Mine didn't work effectively, and I was unclear if it was just poor performance or it was broken. Calls to TomTom Support, really didn't get me anywhere, and I decided to return it. It really bothered me, paying the extra money for a feature that didn't work.

Over the holidays, I had the fortune of getting a gift certifiicate to dell, and decided to splurge and buy another tomtom go 720. This time around, the fm transmitter works fine. So if there are any people running in to this problem, you should know/expect a certain level of performance from the fm transmitter, not perfect but OK. And that tomtom support was unable to effectively diagnose this problem. Somewhat obscure, but hey I had an inkling they should have nailed it.