Suppport Thread for the TND 500, TND 700 or future Rand McNally products.

I reported that Regina ring road bug about 5 months ago.

 

This may have been asked before, but as we all know truck drivers are far too lazy to read all this info. So please forgive me if I am asking a question you have already addressed.

I bought a TND 500 last week. Of course the day I bought it I got put on a dedicated route. But this is an interesting route to figure out using my new GPS.

I load in Lordstown Ohio, and deliver to Bridgeport Connecuit. Get empty and head back. Going into Ct it routes me across the GW bridge into the Bronx. But coming back it routes me down 287 bypass. Same facilities on both ends. Any ideas why it does this? Also when I get into the NYC area, it tells me to take exit 45 off of I80. Exit 44 is the 287, but after I take exit 45 it says to get back onto I80, then move to the left lanes...the upper deck. So I do that and it freaks out. Starts warning me about low bridges. There are none there. Last night it would only tell me there is no approved route to get where I am going. I was about 1 mile from the GW toll booth, in the EZ pass lane. As soon as I hit the toll booth it started to recalculate then seized up completely. I had to reboot it before it would do anything at all.

I did the update for it right away. Any ideas what it is doing?

 

Mark could you explain about the new mapping? I think I am misunderstanding you about how it works... so when I plug in my 700 for an update, mapping is not part of those updates? So how do you get the new mapping database?

Thanks,
Chris

 

Thank you once again mark. But can you tell me if it will work in the windshield? Or would I gain anything by sticking it outside?

 

We have tested this extensively, so here's a clearer "scoop" for anyone else too who is wondering about this. Also, this is NOT exclusive to just the RM TND units. This applies to 6 different truck GPS's that we have tried it on, but certainly is true for this thread and this question.

Answer A (the sort attention span version)
- Yes, our independent testing definitively shows that an external GPS antenna/receiver will always increase signal strength and decrease signal loss or positional "dementia." In ALL brands tested. Because the Garmin 465T has no external jack, it scored lower than the others on this particular line item, but was not a "show-stopper" for most users who do not experience extreme signal loss.

- No, it does not necessary HAVE to be mounted outside. Placing it near the windshield facing upward cures the majority of cases. Placing it outside does increase the signal even more, but be wary of weather conditions and the ability of your receiver style to withstand outside environment extremes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer B (for the techies and those who sat through "2001 - a Space Odyssey" multiple times)

1. Normally an external receiver is not needed and the unit will NOT lose GPS signal with any regularity.

2. SOMETIMES, the GPS will experience one or both of the following symptoms: "dementia" or "total signal loss." When either of these happens, Murphy's Law dictates that it will happen at the worst possible moment and it is very frustrating.

3. "Dementia" is a phrase created by my New York City driver who runs these devices through their paces for us there in that very unique and challenging trucker environment. This is when the built-in GPS receiver gets overwhelmed by the "environment" and experiences partial signal loss to the point where it "THINKS" it is still on track, but it isn't. The most common example is where it all of a sudden shows your truck one street over from where you actually are and immediately starts trying to make you "turn ahead" to get back to the street that you are actually still on. This usually lasts for a period of seconds, or even minutes, before it jumps back over to show your actual position once the signal "environment" improves.

note - definition of "environment" as pertaining to global positioning systems: basically it's how much satellite signal is able to physically reach your receiver - internal, or an external one on the dash or mounted outside. The environment is an accumulative factor (everything adds up.) The primary factors for a trucker's environment are where you are in the country, where the GPS is physically sitting in your cab, where the power wires are running in your dash or console in relation to the GPS, how much metal is used in the construction of your cab, whether or not you have one of those nice chrome visors over your windshield, how powerful is your CB or FM transmitter (like an XM or Sirius radio,) how much RF, HF, and cellular activity is around you now, how many power lines are near you, the weather conditions currently, and which direction you are traveling at the time.

4. "Total signal loss" is when the GPS actually loses your position entirely and goes into a kind of "cruise" mode whereby it cannot tell you any turn information or show your position until it reacquires the signal. Most will say something like "determining current position" during this time. The most common causes of total signal loss are going through a tunnel, receiver hardware failure, and GPS software lockups. Usually the GPS will reacquire the signal on it's own when you come out of the tunnel, etc, but sometime it requires a reboot (or even replacement) of the unit.

SO, if you have made it this far, here is an extreme example of a driver who is CONSTANTLY going to experience one or both of the above symptoms: A car-hauler, with an older truck listening to Sirius radio using an FM transmitter through to his stereo, talking on his megawatt aftermarket CB radio, and driving through Manhattan.


Less extreme examples where an external antenna would be helpful to decrease signal issues are if you have one or more of the following:

• drive a car-hauler
• drive often in mountainous, tree-lined roads (like the Ozarks or Appellations)
• have lots of electrical stuff in your truck (FM transmitters, big CB's, cell phone booster, big inverter running, etc.)
• drive often in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, etc.
• have a big metal visor over your windshield or desire to place your GPS far back from the windshield.

The signal strength screen: all of these units have a screen in the software where you can view the signal strength. Use this (especially if you are experiencing dementia) to determine if you need an external receiver. The minimum to have position is to be able to see three satellites, but generally if you are dropping below 5 with any regularity, you may want to look into an external receiver.

 

First I would like to thank RM for the new version which has been needed for soooo long. Love the little speed indicator, it also seems to aquire satellites quicker,and the level 1.1 for map resolution rocks, how about a few more levels that still show smaller roads?.
But.... Why couldn't they address the screen brightness? It is still way too bright, I drive down the road at night with a book in front of it. And yes I went in and set it at it's lowest point, STILL too bright.
I tried to find a spot in Sioux Falls, SD by entering in an intersection and it says it found none? Strange.
So are you saying I can trust this thing now to give me proper explosives routing?
Hey, Kajidono, did they take care of the "connecting Road" fiasco?
Please add bread crumbs, please, please.......