Tom Tom Sat Nav

I hope someone can help. I have a Tom Tom Go with a series 5
card. It worked perfectly with my last car, Toyota Camry,
but for some reason it keeps losing the Sat signal in my
Peugeot 406 HDI Estate. As the Peugeot is full of electronic
gizmo's, could this be the reason, I have moved it all round
the windscreen, without much success. Strange as it may
seem, in frustration I put it in the door pocket and it
started talking to me. The built in sat nav system is Nav
Tec but it is not a lot of good, having just bought a new
disc ( £98.00 ) I thought it would improve the system, but
it has not. I thought about buying an Arial for the Tom Tom,
but I can't find anywhere to fit one. Any help would be
really appreciated.

Bryan ( Winchester UK )

 

Hi

My First thoughts would be the windscreen itself, some anti glare filters
and some electronic heated screens can cause problems with this unit and
other similar devices.

This would also explain why when you put it closer to the side of your car
it started working. The elements in the windscreen would be blocking the
signal but as there is no such thing in the door glass this doesn't cause a
problem.
An ariel may be the onkly way to go. I dont know of a suitable place for ti
to go though you'd have to look into this.

Rob

 

my tomtom go 300 works perfectly in the centre of the screen on my 206 -
then again i don't have a headed screen which is what causes this issue
i believe. External antenna is the solution although where i'm not sure.

 

Thank you Rob and Tom for your replies. I think it maybe a
case of back to the drawing board.

Bryan

 

Infact, the windscreens of a 406 are metalurgic coated, it works like
a Faraday cage preventing signal to go either in or out.

I don't know the wavelengt of a GPS signal, but it might just be to
weak and long for the gap that is behind the mirror to get through. It
would ( among it the max 2 watts emision from a cellular) explian why
your cell phone does work inside a 406, though even that does not work
all to well without an external antenna

If there is a GPS antenna to be placed the obvious place would be to
fit it in the compartment behind the mirror, though there already may
be one from the nav tech, as well as the rain sensor is located in it.

tomtom

http://www.tomtom.com/products/accessory.php?ID=123&Product=76&Category=&Language=4

places it near the rear windscreen, but that just wont work on a 406
as all the windscreens are coated

 

If you can fit an external, or remote aerial to the Tom Tom, then place it
inside, on the area of the screed which is covered in black dots by the
rearview mirror.
Otherwise, you will have to site the unit as close as you can to a side
window.
If you look at the screen from the outside, you will see that it has a
definite purple reflective tint. This is the metal film.
You can pick up aerials on ebay. Had to do the same on my 307 for my Garmin.

 

TomTom external aerials are magnetic so can be placed outside and will stay
on perfect reception

 

I drive a (03) 406Hdi estate similar to yours with Onboard Navtec Sat
Navigation.

Your Tom Tom signal reception is poor due to the antiglare coating on the
front windscreen.

The onboard Sat Nav system has an external aerial (Radio / GPS) located on
the roof,

fitted as standard.

Disconnect the GPS antenna cable at the CD Rom, then run to your Tom Tom
unit.

<<

Orion

 

A friend of mine used a bluetooth receiver. He connected the oringinal Pug
aerial to it and used the power supply from the original Navtech unit. The
receiver is mounted on top of the Navtech using double sided tape and talks
to a dash mount PDA via the bluetooth. works fine.

If you want to sell your CD please let me know as I am still persevering with
the original Navtech as I only use it for trips to London & Birmingham where
it seems to work half reasonably providing it boots up correctly. But it will
never be as good as the Tom Tom as the Navtech technology is at least 4 years
old. I hope this helps.

Dave G davegreaves (at) btopenworld (dot ) com

 

Have you tried placing it on sunroof or side window? Not ideal but may be
the answer?