Lth0ms0n
Go Kart Newbie
- Location
- United Kingdom
- Car(s)
- 2013 Golf GTD
Right, I really fell down a rabbit hole with this last night (thanks, ADHD) and gleaned a LOT of information about it. It's still not working, but I think I'm one hell of a lot closer to understanding why that is...
If this doesn't interest you, look away - now.
First off, let's start with the codes.
To enable this on the MIB, these 5F adaptations/long coding have to be set:
The codes which are needed for the TMC adaptation channel are actually indicated in the navigation database. On the SD card, if you browse to Maps\00\cfg\mapcfg\VW\Traffic\TMC, there are two files in here relevant to this.
The TMC Providers file lists all the service providers for the navigation region (Europe, in this case) which VW has partnered with to provide this data for the system. It's broken down like this (with corresponding ID numbers [bulleted] - which I'll also get to):
The TMC Provider Sets file is the one we're really interested in - using numeric values, this aggregates lists of the providers which are then referenced in the MIB's adaptations, instructing it on which region to be used. I've listed them underneath with the corresponding providers listed in brackets, afterwards.
If you've got a retrofit MIBII, 1023 really is your best bet - as we cannot have access to Car-Net (which I'm going to investigate at some stage, I saw someone saying it's actually the MAC address of the MIB which is used to identify the car, not the VIN - but I need to fact check that) if you set a value which makes use of online services, you have to wait for it to time out and fall back to TMC each time. I'm not sure how long that is exactly, it's covered off in the General Config file I think.
I also think that the content of the General Config file is responsible for some of the supposedly random delays (seen by @DV52, as I've seen him commenting on other forums) when he's helped people code it. For example, I think the car has to search for the data when it firsts starts operating; it builds a list of countries where it can obtain the information from and it does this using a saved list of 3. In Europe, the car seems to start with "DE" and then works from there. This could be why it takes almost 24 hours for a Golf in the UK to start pulling the data down; although once it's started, it should theoretically be a lot faster at obtaining it, because it's stored whatever frequency it's pulling the information down on in the first memory slot and bumped one of the other entries for it.
So, now I've got that out of the way...this is where it gets messy.
VW makes use of Trafficmaster data in the UK to supply this information to the MIB. As we know, this is broadcast by Classic FM. The car is ideally supposed to have 2 tuners built-in - one who's job is fully responsible for scanning for this information and pulling it down, regardless of the radio station/media input being used. Last night I came across a reference to the transmitters are used, and their locations... (I have no idea how relevant this is.)
This table comes from a license application PDF I came across, for an application from INRIX to OffCom to maintain their service. They're also making use of the Classic FM network to broadcast their information. I don't know how to look up grid references but the general consensus in my house this morning is that Meldrum (20 miles North West of Aberdeen) is a broadcasting site up here and should be where my car gets this information from. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for this location however, it's not where Classic FM is coming from up here, which could well be why...
I think I came across @golfdave posting on another forum about this; he made very similar comments about the way we get treated by stuff like this, up here in the North East, which he's made to me in the past. If it turns out there are 2 Meldrums in the UK and this is one further south, nothing would surprise me!
I'm going to have a look and see if I can get some kind of logging/tracing out of the car today. I found an entry in the engineering menu yesterday which looks as though it might write that to an SD card; either the nav one that's already in it or an additional one - not sure if it will allow me to choose. This is either going to come down to it not working in the area I'm in at all (poor show, but not surprising) or the antenna for this being missing/using the wrong amplifier, as I stumbled across something about it yesterday.
If this doesn't interest you, look away - now.
First off, let's start with the codes.
To enable this on the MIB, these 5F adaptations/long coding have to be set:
- Byte 13 RDS - Not Deactivated
- Byte 13 Radio Text Plus - Activated
- Fee-based Traffic Information (TMC) - See below
The codes which are needed for the TMC adaptation channel are actually indicated in the navigation database. On the SD card, if you browse to Maps\00\cfg\mapcfg\VW\Traffic\TMC, there are two files in here relevant to this.
- ~TMCProviders\TMCProviders.xml
- ~TMCProviderSets\TMCProviderSets.xml
The TMC Providers file lists all the service providers for the navigation region (Europe, in this case) which VW has partnered with to provide this data for the system. It's broken down like this (with corresponding ID numbers [bulleted] - which I'll also get to):
- TMC Pro - DE
- Trafficmaster - GB
- ViaMichelin - FR
- MMM - FI
- BeMobile - PT
- Inrix - GB
- Hungary_Pay - HU
The TMC Provider Sets file is the one we're really interested in - using numeric values, this aggregates lists of the providers which are then referenced in the MIB's adaptations, instructing it on which region to be used. I've listed them underneath with the corresponding providers listed in brackets, afterwards.
- "Free TMC" - 0 (Doesn't work in the UK)
- "VW TMCPro" - 3 (Providers 1, 2, 5)
- "VW w/o TMCPro" - 4 (Providers 2, 5)
- "Bentley w/o TMCPro w/o MediaMobile - 7 (Provider 2)
- "TMCPro + TrafficMaster + infoBlu + viaMichelin + MediaMobile Nordic" - 15 (Providers 1, 2, 5, 9, 13)
- "PayTMC Ger" - 19 (Provider 1)
- "PayTMC France" - 20 (Provider 5)
- "PayTMC UK" - 21 (Provider 2)
- "PayTMC PT" - 22 (Provider 11)
- "VW PayTMC All" - 1023 (Providers 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 13)
- "Only free TMC" - 32768 (Provider set 12)
- "VW TMCpro" - 32771 (Provider 1, 2, 5, 12)
- "WV w/o TMCPro" - 32772 (Providers 2, 5, 12)
- "Bentley w/o TMCPro w/o MediaMobile - 32775 (Provider 2, 12)
- "TMCPro + TrafficMaster + infoBlu + viaMichelin + MediaMobile Nordic" - 32783 (Providers 1, 2, 5, 9, 13)
- "PayTMC Ger" - 32787 (Provider 1, 12)
- "PayTMC France" - 32788 (Provider 5, 12)
- "PayTMC UK" - 32789 (Provider 2, 12)
- "PayTMC PT" - 32790 (Provider 11, 12)
- "VW PayTMC All" - 33791 (Providers 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13)
- 1023
- 32771
- 32772
- 32789
If you've got a retrofit MIBII, 1023 really is your best bet - as we cannot have access to Car-Net (which I'm going to investigate at some stage, I saw someone saying it's actually the MAC address of the MIB which is used to identify the car, not the VIN - but I need to fact check that) if you set a value which makes use of online services, you have to wait for it to time out and fall back to TMC each time. I'm not sure how long that is exactly, it's covered off in the General Config file I think.
I also think that the content of the General Config file is responsible for some of the supposedly random delays (seen by @DV52, as I've seen him commenting on other forums) when he's helped people code it. For example, I think the car has to search for the data when it firsts starts operating; it builds a list of countries where it can obtain the information from and it does this using a saved list of 3. In Europe, the car seems to start with "DE" and then works from there. This could be why it takes almost 24 hours for a Golf in the UK to start pulling the data down; although once it's started, it should theoretically be a lot faster at obtaining it, because it's stored whatever frequency it's pulling the information down on in the first memory slot and bumped one of the other entries for it.
So, now I've got that out of the way...this is where it gets messy.
VW makes use of Trafficmaster data in the UK to supply this information to the MIB. As we know, this is broadcast by Classic FM. The car is ideally supposed to have 2 tuners built-in - one who's job is fully responsible for scanning for this information and pulling it down, regardless of the radio station/media input being used. Last night I came across a reference to the transmitters are used, and their locations... (I have no idea how relevant this is.)
This table comes from a license application PDF I came across, for an application from INRIX to OffCom to maintain their service. They're also making use of the Classic FM network to broadcast their information. I don't know how to look up grid references but the general consensus in my house this morning is that Meldrum (20 miles North West of Aberdeen) is a broadcasting site up here and should be where my car gets this information from. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for this location however, it's not where Classic FM is coming from up here, which could well be why...
I think I came across @golfdave posting on another forum about this; he made very similar comments about the way we get treated by stuff like this, up here in the North East, which he's made to me in the past. If it turns out there are 2 Meldrums in the UK and this is one further south, nothing would surprise me!
I'm going to have a look and see if I can get some kind of logging/tracing out of the car today. I found an entry in the engineering menu yesterday which looks as though it might write that to an SD card; either the nav one that's already in it or an additional one - not sure if it will allow me to choose. This is either going to come down to it not working in the area I'm in at all (poor show, but not surprising) or the antenna for this being missing/using the wrong amplifier, as I stumbled across something about it yesterday.
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