[dehlya]

About . Destinator and MN7 do not even find the FM hardware .

[krischan]

SmartSmurf, on Mar 25 2009, 10:31 PM, said:

Just for your reference: other ETEN models use the following architecture:
Application -> FM.DLL (interface) -> FM_SI4700.DLL (driver) -> I/O (Hardware)
What you received in your patch is just a new driver. Either it still has no initialization for RDS (although analysis indicates it should have it) - or the connection between FM.DLL and FM_SI4700.DLL changed...

Today's feedback from Acer's dev team:

Quote

We did not see the Application calling out the command IOCTL_FM_GET_RDS. Based on our experience from previous model, after FM Driver detected the RDS DATA, it will setEvent() name to FM_RDSreadyevent and notify application to capture RDS Data. This log seems not to perform the IOCTL_FM_GET_RDS action. Please re-confirm.

eg command line:-

#define FILE_DEVICE_FM ................. 0x22446688
#define IOCTL_FM_GET_RDS ........... FILE_DEVICE_FM+8

New TMC patch /driver. Acer's dev team claim that they tested the patch with iGO8 and TMC simulation and that it works (there is no TMC in Taiwan/ROC). Serve yourselves, I haven't tested the new patch yet.

Attached File(s)

•  FM_PATCH_V900.CAB (44.01K)
  Number of downloads: 90

[dehlya]

Great ! Congratulations to Krischan and the ACER Eten Team !
V900 with IGO8
does find (manual search) the station,
does display the RDS name of the station ,
does claim to have found a TMC signal
but does not show traffic events yet.

But its a big success anyhow. Thx a lot.

Attached File(s)

•  DSC_0184.jpg (90.61K)
  Number of downloads: 91

[krischan]

Yessss! FYI: dehlya's ROM is GER 431. Just succesfully tested iGO 8.3.2.xxxx on V900 WWE 372. No fiddling about in sys.txt needed. Apply patch and reboot your device.

First bugs on my WWE 372:

• Autoscan for TMC (iGO 8.0.0.05xxx): Deleted "SAVE" subfolder and did an autoscan. iGO exited/crashed as before without any TMC settings stored. So I stand corrected: Leave for now the old settings [tmc] port=COM,2", source="eten", gps_source=0 (or any TMC setting, for I have tried 2COM,4" with no difference) in sys.txt. Haven't tried different bd rates or protocols yet.
• Autotuning: Still doesn't work; scans a lot of stations, many more than before, but doesn't stop ("No TMC signal"). Patch or iGO related?
• Manual tuning: TMC signal found, RDS displayed, but green strength indicator bar turns black after a minute or so though "TMC signal found" and RDS info are still displayed.

Thanks dehlya for your feedback. btw: no traffic events on my old X500/iGO8 shown either!
We're looking forward to seeing your report on Navigon MN 7.3.2 http://www.eten-users.eu/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif

Edit: New log file added (see attachment). It's larger than before - though range is only from 94.3 to 99.7 MHz - and seems in accordance with SmartSmurf's statements http://eten-users.eu...1...st&p=110871, only call "FMGetRadioStation()" is missing.

Attached File(s)

•  testfm.log.txt (15.9K)
  Number of downloads: 22

This post has been edited by Rens: 02 December 2009 - 08:26 PM
Reason for edit:: [Moderator] Superfluous quote removed

[tmn]

Should RDS work in the FM Tuner now using this patch?

It didn't make any difference when I tried it.

[dehlya]

No.

[pebrok]

Hi,

I tried it as well on my V900 ROM 361 (I think) and IGO8 8.0004... and it does the same as Dehlya, finds a signal, finds TMC on the usual frequency, but stops there. As soon as TMC is found, the green bar becomes empty. It doesn't download any traffic information, and doesn't stay on TMC long (as soon as you go back to the map, TMC disappears).
We're close, I guess, but not there yet...

Pebrok

[krischan]

pebrok, on Mar 27 2009, 08:16 PM, said:

It doesn't download any traffic information, and doesn't stay on TMC long (as soon as you go back to the map, TMC disappears).

Might also be a problem of weak reception in V900 itself. This evening I tested iGO/TMC in my car. I tuned to a TMCpro station (107.5 MHz) with seemingly strong signal and almost instantly lost TMC when I set the car in motion. I only got it back when stopping for red traffic lights. So, don't use your V900 in a car or crawl to your destination ;) Maybe the length of the telescopic antenna has to be properly adaptded to the radio frequency. Has anyone tried with the earphone antenna plugged in yet, i.e. if the headset still is an antenna.

One more TMC glitch in my iGO version: I manually tried to tune to another TMCpro station at 91.4 MHz. Tuning from 107.5 over the upper end at 108.0 MHz only got me as far as 90.5 MHz, then iGO suddenly leapt to 106.8 MHz. I re-tried several times and always ended up with the same weird result.

iGO's TMC is no use anyway as long as TMC autotuning doesn't work ...

[dehlya]

Well Krischan, despite the fact, that V900 s aerial is far too short for FM frequencies , this behavior does not even change with an active (amplified) rod . This behavior does not change even with strong signal levels.

It might be interesting, that Destinator does behave like IGO : Autotuning does not work.

Btw. I do not think, that IGO is able to decode TMC-PRO ....

[krischan]

dehlya, on Mar 28 2009, 12:48 AM, said:

despite the fact, that V900 s aerial is far too short for FM frequencies , this behavior does not even change with an active (amplified) rod . This behavior does not change even with strong signal levels.

According to the datasheet the Si4721 FM transceiver comes with a built-in FM antenna that may be inadequate for proper RDS/TMC reception and that V900's telescopic antenna might not be connected at all. If so, RDS/TMC reception will be weak to say the least. You can test reception on your V900 by yourselves: Tune to a TMC station in iGO's advanced settings and slowly extract/push back the telescopic antenna and watch if it makes any difference in reception (green bar) or RDS detection.

When I did the test there was no difference, presumably meaning that only the integrated FM Antenna of the Si4721 is working. I wonder if this can be remedied by a new TMC driver/patch.

Judging from the block diagram, the Si4721 also accepts external antenna input.

For the "experts":
https://www.silabs.c...resentation.pdf
https://www.silabs.c...es/default.aspx
http://www.datasheet...DSA00241186.pdf

[Venca Vrana]

krischan, on Mar 28 2009, 02:23 PM, said:

According to the datasheet the Si4721 FM transceiver comes with a built-in FM antenna that may be inadequate for proper RDS/TMC reception and that V900's telescopic antenna might not be connected at all. If so, RDS/TMC reception will be weak to say the least. You can test reception on your V900 by yourselves: Tune to a TMC station in iGO's advanced settings and slowly extract/push back the telescopic antenna and watch if it makes any difference in reception (green bar) or RDS detection.

When I did the test there was no difference, presumably meaning that only the integrated FM Antenna of the Si4721 is working. ...

I would say, you are not correct. I live in a place with quite weak signal reception. If I try to tune up the FM stations in the automatic mode and my antenna is retracted (pushed back), iGO scans the whole band and usually finds no station (or it finds maximum 1 or 2 stations). If I push out the telescopic antenna, iGo suddenly finds a lot of stations.

But there is something interesting: If I let iGO to tune up the stations in the automatic mode, it stops at the first found station with TMC signal (in my case its 92,6 MHz). The green bar shows only about 10% strength of the signal. RDS information with a name of the station is displayed, TMC signal is available. If I swith to manual tuning mode and go 1 frequency step back to 92,5 MHz and then I go again to original 92,6 MHz, the green bar suddenly shows 40% signal strength.
What is also interesting, If I retract (push back) the antenna, the green bar still stays on 40% of signal strength. It never goes back to 10% signal strength value, as it would correnspond to the signal strength with the retracted antenna. It seems, iGO is not making any refresh of the status in manual tunning mode. If I switch back to the automatic mode, iGO starts to scan the FM band again. If it finds no station, it ends up on 107.9 MHz. I also discovered, that in the automatic tunning mode, the green status bar is refreshed only at moment of a weak reception, when iGO needs to tune up to a stronger station.

Therefore I suggest to don't take the information from the green bar into account at all. It works weird apparently because of some software bug in iGO.


Regarding the presumptions, that TMC in iGo is not working because of a week signal reception: If iGO is able to receive RDS information and display a name of the tuned station, why it should be not able to display also the TMC information? It is part of RDS, so there is no fundamental difference.

I would say, the driver patch simply not unlocked all functions of the RDS/TMC chip, or there is some difference in the TMC protocol, or some information routine in the driver does not giving a correct output. But it has nothing to do with a weak or strong signal reception, otherwise there would be already someone who lives in a vicinity of some FM radio transmitter and he/she would be reporting that the TMC function works as it was supposed to work.

[dehlya]

Venca Vrana, on Mar 28 2009, 04:00 PM, said:

I would say, the driver patch simply not unlocked all functions of the RDS/TMC chip, or there is some difference in the TMC protocol, or some information routine in the driver does not giving a correct output. But it has nothing to do with a weak or strong signal reception,

I do agree. Krischans different experiences might appear, in case of very strong local stations.

In my area , tuned in at a weak station, aerial rod has to be pulled out, or headset plugged in. Even if you are touching head of inserted aerial , you should notice a difference.

Btw. I do not have time to think about bad reception, and usually use for experiments an amplified rod as mentioned in my post before or an active Y-adapter for my car antenna, coupled with a ceramic capacitor..not ideal, but sufficient enough for good FM/TMC reception.

[krischan]

Venca Vrana, on Mar 28 2009, 02:00 PM, said:

I would say, you are not correct.

Bingo! I was wrong. Please disregard my silly statements. It has truly nothing to do with the antenna or reception.

You mentioned that your iGO version stops for the first TMC station when autotuning for the first time. I haven't been that lucky, auto tuning doesn't work for me no matter if I start autotuning for the first or n-th time. My iGO simply doesn't take the time required for proper TMC detection. It only tests a few mil secs for TMC ("No TMC found") and then goes on testing the next frequency. If iGO were more "patient" it'd find TMC stations while autotuning.

What is your iGO version?

[Venca Vrana]

krischan, on Mar 28 2009, 06:21 PM, said:

What is your iGO version?

8.0.0.54000

[dehlya]

krischan, on Mar 28 2009, 06:21 PM, said:

If iGO were more "patient" it'd find TMC stations while autotuning.

I do have the same impression.
But nevertheless, it is possible to do manual search and set the frequency to a known Station. Name displayed , but it simply does not show up any TMC events.

Btw.this IGO Version does work with the X500, displaying TMC events.

cu