Traffic receiver - a drive in the right direction (TomTom RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver)

Member Name: rrharmston

Product:	TomTom RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver
Date:	22/02/09 (257 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, fairly accurate, better than radio updates alone, good for new areas

Disadvantages: small bar size on screen, doesn't always have all delays on it

I bought one of these to use with my tom tom one XL. I'm not sure it's the exact same model as the picture but the result is the same. Basically you pay a one off cost for this and receive life time traffic updates for no further cost rather than subscribing to tom toms traffic service.

The receiver arrives with a long, thin black "ariel" wire which sticks onto your windscreen with a series of clear plastic suckers. On my Focus this extend about half way across the front windscreen. Once put in place they occasionally fall off but most stay put for ages. The only thing that bothers me is that this means it may be obvous to thieves that there may be a sat nav in your car. I always leave the wire in the car but might be dodgy in a high risk area.

It also has a small receiver which obviously receives the information about accidents, congestion and lane closures on your route. The system does not show items on roads close to but not on your planned route. The power supply plugs into this by either a USB like connection or a small power insert depending on the model.

I can say that this receiver works with my tom tom one XL but I'm not sure about the other models. According to the TomTom website it also works with the Go series (520,530,720,730...) but it may be worth emailing them to confirm before purchasing it. I think it may depend on the sofware that your sat nav is using as I read on the itnernet that firmware 8.002 didn't recognise the receiver but 8.010 does.


The receiver always has to be receiving power through the 12v car socket to show traffic information I think. Basically when you plug the receiver cord in the sat nav will show a message saying that the receiver is plugged in. Once you have planned your route it will display a small orange circle in the top RHS which changes to green once traffic information received. This will change back to orange as the system updates along your route.

The system displays a small bar on the rhs of the sat nav screen which basically corresponds to your journey. It will display any problems along the route on this bar and usually utters a single beep to alert you. I have seen car accident, hazard, congestion and lane closure. If the sound is turned off you have to keep glancing at it to see any new information.

When the unit finds an occurence you can click on the small symbol on the bar for more information and the sat nad will then show a rough diagram of where the incident has occured ie at a roundabout or junction and basic information about what has happened/radio station information retrieved from.

Pros

Fairly accurate traffic information covering the whole of your route and the distance to the problem. You can then decide wether to change routes.
One off purchase of around £30.00 saves you from subscribing to tomtoms monthly service bundle at around £7.99 a month for HD traffic.

Cons

Traffic information - particularly lane closures and roadworks is not always up to date.
Congestion - own unit usually says one minute delay but a glance at the sat nav usually shows much more. Still useful as it draws your attention to the problem.
Doesn't always know about every problem if no one has yet called the pilce or radio station about it
Difficult to tap displat to find out more information when driving. No voice recognition

Summary: Neat gadget which makes sat nav more useful