Traffic announcements support?

**rudeboymcc** · 06-04-2005, 06:34 PM

hi. i'm really thinking of making one of these setups but if i do i want to do it without the headunit. i don't want to make any compromises (i.e. i want to be able to do everything i can do now).

i want to know if a USB radio tuner can/will look for traffic announcements like my sony headunit does, and so then automatically switch to it.

or if i was to get GPS, i've heard that GPS can use a signal to see the road conditions itself and will therefore automatically give you another route to avoid traffic.

will a computer be able to pick these up or is it too complicated?

emphasis on automatically as most of this can be done on the internet.

**rudeboymcc** · 06-05-2005, 01:11 PM

can't belive noone has tried this or at least has a view on it.

i don't wnat to buy the radio unit and then realise it wont work.

**Laidback** · 06-05-2005, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by rudeboymcc

can't belive noone has tried this or at least has a view on it.

i don't wnat to buy the radio unit and then realise it wont work.

Well then don't buy a radio unit that hasn't got TMC/RDS receiver built in!

**stevieg** · 06-05-2005, 01:48 PM

Search for the RDS FM tuner project, this will offer these kind of functions.

If you're in the UK, you maybe be interested in our Infomatics project which will be live in a few weeks, which will offer free localised traffic infomation and tons more, via a bluetooth mobile internet connection.

**Laidback** · 06-05-2005, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by rudeboymcc

or if i was to get GPS, i've heard that GPS can use a signal to see the road conditions itself and will therefore automatically give you another route to avoid traffic.

It will if it's got a built-in TMC/RDS receiver and you match it with a GPS application that supports it! Nothing to do with GPS, just the same signal that your radio picks up.

**stevieg** · 06-05-2005, 01:58 PM

Originally Posted by Laidback

It will if it's got a built-in TMS/RDS receiver and you match it with a GPS application that supports it!

Yep, it is thought that Destinator 3 will support it with a GPS + TMC receiver, plus a little SDK programming, but none of us that know how to do it have £200 spare to blow on a GPS/TMC receiver that may/may not do it!

If anyone wants to buy one, post it to me and let me see if I can get it working, then I send it back with instructions (if it DOES work), feel free!

**Laidback** · 06-05-2005, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by stevieg

Yep, it is thought that Destinator 3 will support it with a GPS + TMC receiver, plus a little SDK programming, but none of us that know how to do it have £200 spare to blow on a GPS/TMC receiver that may/may not do it!

If anyone wants to buy one, post it to me and let me see if I can get it working, then I send it back with instructions (if it DOES work), feel free!

The trouble is that the SDK only has 1 mention of TMC/RDS. i.e. EnableTMC.

How do you test it afterwards? I'm not convinced that's finished, ever heard of anyone using Destinator on a ppc with TMC?

**stevieg** · 06-05-2005, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by Laidback

The trouble is that the SDK only has 1 mention of TMC/RDS. i.e. EnableTMC.

How do you test it afterwards? I'm not convinced that's finished, ever heard of anyone using Destinator on a ppc with TMC?

I've seen it mentioned in reviews, though I haven't seen shots of the UI. The TMC strings are send from the GPS / TMC receiver just like NMEA data. I wanted to try and emulate the output to test it and perhaps inject internet based data into it but couldn't find any sample output files to test with (TMC is as you probably know a closed standard).

Only thing I can assume, is if it works, it will just 'work' and re-route around traffic. But I don't think it will, I'd say I am about 10% confident it will work. That's why I haven't bought one!