OmniaTMC Beta 2 (and unofficial Beta 3)

[Guest DAlma]

The "low frequency noise" effect is caused by some interaction between iGO audio settings and FMRadio that I'm investigating. The audio output is working but playback is extemely slow (appears a wrong sampling rate on playback). If you raise the volume to a very high level you'll notice that it's just the "click" sound.

Yesterday I finished my charger/antenna adapter and it is working. By using a charger as antenna audio routing does not happen anymore and output remains on speaker. This is the best option because I can charge the phone on car/bike while receiving stations.

Does the "audio from speaker" option makes sense if headset isn't needed anymore?

(asking your opinion ... to me no, but I can make it configurable from the tool)

Hi Beamrider,

Can you share a manual how you built this car charger with antenna? I am planning to do the same, but I need some Ideas :-) Did you take the original car charger? Added the two pins for the antenna?

Edited April 23, 2009 by DAlma

[Guest BeamRider]

Hi Beamrider,

Can you share a manual how you built this car charger with antenna? I am planning to do the same, but I need some Ideas :-) Did you take the original car charger? Added the two pins for the antenna?

I have no photos but I can just give some clues ... Usualy any charger has both pins 1 and 2 available but they are shorted (don't ask me why, I suppose is to avoid having electrical noise on the tuner) so antenna is sorted on ground.

You just need to:

1. prepare a 3.5" female connector with two wires coming out (let's say blue/black where black is ground ... I used non coaxial cable due to size of coaxial cable)
   
2. open the connector
   
3. desolder the ground wire (usually black)
   
4. remove the two pins by GENTLY pulling them out
   
5. sparate and clean the two pins
   
6. solder the red blue wire coming from your cable to one of the two pins (thil will go into position #1)
   
7. solder the two black cables to other (this will go into pos #2)
   
8. cut the rubber holder (beware to no cut the cable inside)
   
9. place your new cable beside the old one
   
10. glue the assembly
    

By not using coax cable you reduce the size (useful on step 9) and you can also use it as standalone antenna (not really efficient, but better than nothing). If you do not plan to have an external antenna you can just connect a standalone wire to pin 1.

You may also want to entirely replace the cable ... just a matter of personal taste.

I used this one (Samsung model of couse):

Edited April 23, 2009 by BeamRider

[Guest DAlma]

I have no photos but I can just give some clues ... Usualy any charger has both pins 1 and 2 available but they are shorted (don't ask me why, I suppose is to avoid having electrical noise on the tuner) so antenna is sorted on ground.

You just need to:

1. prepare a 3.5" female connector with two wires coming out (let's say blue/black where black is ground ... I used non coaxial cable due to size of coaxial cable)
   
2. open the connector
   
3. desolder the ground wire (usually black)
   
4. remove the two pins by GENTLY pulling them out
   
5. sparate and clean the two pins
   
6. solder the red blue wire coming from your cable to one of the two pins (thil will go into position #1)
   
7. solder the two black cables to other (this will go into pos #2)
   
8. cut the rubber holder (beware to no cut the cable inside)
   
9. place your new cable beside the old one
   
10. glue the assembly
    

By not using coax cable you reduce the size (useful on step 9) and you can also use it as standalone antenna (not really efficient, but better than nothing). If you do not plan to have an external antenna you can just connect a standalone wire to pin 1.

You may also want to entirely replace the cable ... just a matter of personal taste.

I used this one (Samsung model of couse):

Ok thanks. To be sure that I understand you completely:

- I need to find an old earphone cable with 3.5" female connector

- Open the car charger connector and desolder the ground wire

- remove softly both pins and clean them

- solder the cable (from the earphone) to the corresponding pins of the car charger connector

- closing the connector by cutting the rubber and glueing the cables

So at least you have two cables glued together, right? So at least you have a modified carcharger with antenna cable?

Cheers

Edited April 23, 2009 by DAlma

[Guest BeamRider]

Ok thanks. To be sure that I understand you completely:

- I need to find an old earphone cable with 3.5" female connector

- Open the car charger connector and desolder the ground wire

- remove softly both pins and clean them

- solder the cable (from the earphone) to the corresponding pins of the car charger connector

- closing the connector by cutting the rubber and glueing the cables

So at least you have two cables glued together, right? So at least you have a modified carcharger with antenna cable?

Cheers

Yes it's what I am doing beacus I want not only the antenna but a connetor that I can use for connect the car antenna to Omnia (or an amplified antenna).

The glues is to keep both cables firm with the original rubber (you have to play a little bit here, but depends on the shape of the rubber part). I haven't glued them toghether for the whole length, just up to the end of the rubber part.

I will try to take a picture of the assembly this evening

[Guest DAlma]

Yes it's what I am doing beacus I want not only the antenna but a connetor that I can use for connect the car antenna to Omnia (or an amplified antenna).

The glues is to keep both cables firm with the original rubber (you have to play a little bit here, but depends on the shape of the rubber part). I haven't glued them toghether for the whole length, just up to the end of the rubber part.

I will try to take a picture of the assembly this evening

I opened my original car connector. There are only following Pins 1 and 20 (GND and V+). Where should I connect now the antenna? Due to the plan Pin1 should be FM Antenna?

[Guest BeamRider]

I opened my original car connector. There are only following Pins 1 and 20 (GND and V+). Where should I connect now the antenna? Due to the plan Pin1 should be FM Antenna?

Yes it is, but ... Are you absolutely sure that it is only pin1 and not pin 1 & 2 joined? ... sorry for asking, but the pins are so small that appers to be one when soldered together.

Putting GND on pin 1 only makes charging impossible

Edited April 23, 2009 by BeamRider

[Guest DAlma]

Yes it is, but ... Are you absolutely sure that it is only pin1 and not pin 1 & 2 joined? ... sorry for asking, but the pins are so small that appers to be one when soldered together.

Putting GND on pin 1 only makes charging impossible

Yes you´re right. Pin 1 and Pin2 are together soldered - but on a "printed circuit board". So I will now try to seperate Pin 1 from Pin 2 and solder the antenna to Pin 1 and the GND to Pin2. Is that correct?

You mentioned before that you used a non-coax cable. So a earphone cable (the blue and black cable are not isolated) should be fine?

[Guest illusion786]

Yes it is, but ... Are you absolutely sure that it is only pin1 and not pin 1 & 2 joined? ... sorry for asking, but the pins are so small that appers to be one when soldered together.

Putting GND on pin 1 only makes charging impossible

Thats weird, you have only 2 pins ?

On my car charger it has 4 pins as with my wall charger.

| |............................| |

? ?...........................2 1

What functions are of the pins in the question mark? the obvious im guessing is the + - terminals

Then why are pins 1 and 2 needed in a car charger?

Edited April 23, 2009 by illusion786

[Guest BeamRider]

So I will now try to seperate Pin 1 from Pin 2 and solder the antenna to Pin 1 and the GND to Pin2. Is that correct?

Yes it is

You mentioned before that you used a non-coax cable. So a earphone cable (the blue and black cable are not isolated) should be fine?

The two wire have to be insulated (metallic part is covered by rubber) the just are separated to avoid that the coaxial shileld blocks the signal where you have no antenna connected to the 3.5" jack.

[Guest BeamRider]

Thats weird, you have only 2 pins ?

On my car charger it has 4 pins as with my wall charger.

____________________

[| |............................| |]

? ?...........................2 1

What functions are of the pins in the question mark? the obvious im guessing is the + - terminals

Then why are pins 1 and 2 needed in a car charger?

PIN 1 is the antenna

PIN 2 is the GND (- terminal)

PIN 19 and PIN 20 is +5V

1 and 2 are shorted to avoid that electrical noise coming from the engine or the wall charger goes into the tuner chip. Useless IMHO :excl:

Edited April 23, 2009 by BeamRider

[Guest illusion786]

Ahh That makes sense. Thanks.

edit...

pin 1 & 2 shorted..

This is probably why i was able to get a little tuner signal via my car charger but not enough for it to carry any data as it was shorted.

Edited April 23, 2009 by illusion786

[Guest flywhc]

The "low frequency noise" effect is caused by some interaction between iGO audio settings and FMRadio that I'm investigating. The audio output is working but playback is extemely slow (appears a wrong sampling rate on playback). If you raise the volume to a very high level you'll notice that it's just the "click" sound.

Yesterday I finished my charger/antenna adapter and it is working. By using a charger as antenna audio routing does not happen anymore and output remains on speaker. This is the best option because I can charge the phone on car/bike while receiving stations.

Does the "audio from speaker" option makes sense if headset isn't needed anymore?

(asking your opinion ... to me no, but I can make it configurable from the tool)

Sounds similar - I saw WAV1 being used in HTC FM driver. Don't know what is the chipset provides FM radio feature. if it is BRF6350, you can compare it with HTC FM driver.

On HTC device I could mute FM audio and set audio path to loud speaker. This allow voice instruction for navigation while RDS-TMC is still received.

don't know if it uses hardware audio mixer API

[Guest BeamRider]

Sounds similar - I saw WAV1 being used in HTC FM driver. Don't know what is the chipset provides FM radio feature. if it is BRF6350, you can compare it with HTC FM driver.

On HTC device I could mute FM audio and set audio path to loud speaker. This allow voice instruction for navigation while RDS-TMC is still received.

don't know if it uses hardware audio mixer API

Apparently Samsung is addressing directly the mixer at hardware level to change audio path. BTW the driver provides me IOCTls to control audio path (that I just finished to implement) and volume of the FM line.

On beta 2 the audio path will be configurable from OmniaTMCSetup with three values:

No change is useful when using a modified charger, for navigation with headset or with a bt handsfree

Force Speaker is useful if using the Headset adapter but just as an antenna

Force headset ... mmmhhh here just to have a complete implementation

The path rule is applied when nav software opens the TMC port.

[Guest gemx]

Apparently Samsung is addressing directly the mixer at hardware level to change audio path. BTW the driver provides me IOCTls to control audio path (that I just finished to implement) and volume of the FM line.

On beta 2 the audio path will be configurable from OmniaTMCSetup with three values:

No change is useful when using a modified charger, for navigation with headset or with a bt handsfree

Force Speaker is useful if using the Headset adapter but just as an antenna

Force headset ... mmmhhh here just to have a complete implementation

The path rule is applied when nav software opens the TMC port.

That sounds like a great improvement :excl:

[Guest esticbo]

The "low frequency noise" effect is caused by some interaction between iGO audio settings and FMRadio that I'm investigating. The audio output is working but playback is extemely slow (appears a wrong sampling rate on playback). If you raise the volume to a very high level you'll notice that it's just the "click" sound....

Ciao BeamRider, I tried your fantastic program :excl:  with the Igo version 8.3.2.83157; and I have this sound issue :excl: .

I think that the problem is the memory ram of Omnia, because if your program work very well with Igo 8.3.2.64873 (and with the other not), and this version is very good for ppc with less memory than 64 MB

Thank very much, for your work

[Guest DAlma]

Damn, I destroyed the Pins. Now I have to wait for another car charger

[Guest wkmmx500]

Hi Beamrider,

Today I was finally able to use my Omnia with TMC in the car.

I've tried to use in following setup...

Omnia connected to port multiplier (bought at Fommy in UK). Port multiplier connected to car charger and with headset cable to car stereo. I'm using my Omnia like this so I can listen to music and downloaded podcast while iGo is doing navigation. And I was hoping this would now be supported by TMC information.

Unfortunately I ran into following problems (partly already mentioned by other posters in this thread).

- The port multiplier is not connecting the antenna connection so no TMC receipt. Then I connected the headset cable directly with my Omnia (no longer being able to charge at same time), but now iGo was at least receiving TMC data.

- when I start iGo, then minimize and then start music player to listen to music I have no sound (not from iGo and no Music)

- when I start music player first and then start iGo, music keeps playing but iGo doesn't connect with Gps receiver in Omnia (funny enough the TMC receiver was actually working)

- when using just iGo with TMC switched on it works but no usable audio on headset. The sound is converted at to low frequency and not usable (already reported in this thread). I also have the feeling that iGo is responding very sluggish. Screen refresh in iGo is not fluent any more. iGo is every now and then loosing GPS connection and then within 1-2 seconds GPS connection/receival is back again. It almost looks like my Omnia is not fast enough to run iGo with TMC switched on.

I know the software is still beta so I hope you (together potentially with our HTC friends) can "solve" the above mentioned problems.

My ideal setup is that I can listen to music / podcasts while iGo is doing navigation with TMC. Based on above posts around antenna connector I'll also see if I can fix the port multiplier to also pass antenna connector.

Again thanks for your fantastic work on this.

Gr.W

Tested it in Germany and works on iGo 8.3.2.79297 (20090302). I'm running it on WM6.5 - 21501 from dddrko.

P.s My donation is a small amount compared to investment if you want a real navigation system in your car with TMC and then you have problem that you're always messing around with multiple gadgets. So other people who are interested please support Beamrider so he can "fix" the problems with the beta. :excl: :excl: :excl:

[Guest BeamRider]

I think that the problem is the memory ram of Omnia, because if your program work very well with Igo 8.3.2.64873 (and with the other not), and this version is very good for ppc with less memory than 64 MB

You had a very good intuition ... latest iGO version (with improved TTS) are intended for devices with >= 128 MB of RAM and we are on the edge. Anyway, the slowdown doesn't happen with TMC disabled. It can be either a memory problem with iGO loading TMC database into memory or an audio issue due to FMRadio code playing with audio device.

I am not experiencing anymore the issue on my mobile, I will load something that eats some memory to test your intuition ... Thanks!!!

Damn, I destroyed the Pins. Now I have to wait for another car charger

Sorry mate, I destroyed them too on my very first attempt. If you don't want to buy another charger, just buy a cheap aftermarket usb cable (be sure that Omnia connector is plastic and not rubber) to take pins out.

I'm still looking for someone selling spare S20 connectors, If anybody knows a source, please contact me!

- The port multiplier is not connecting the antenna connection so no TMC receipt. Then I connected the headset cable directly with my Omnia (no longer being able to charge at same time), but now iGo was at least receiving TMC data.

In this case you can modify an headset cable to add charging ... just add GND/+5 lines on pins 1 and 20 and you have done :excl:

- when I start iGo, then minimize and then start music player to listen to music I have no sound (not from iGo and no Music)

I will test your configuration (which audio player are you using?) ... maybe the audio routing fix in TMCSerial will fix this too

- when I start music player first and then start iGo, music keeps playing but iGo doesn't connect with Gps receiver in Omnia (funny enough the TMC receiver was actually working)

Have you tried to setup iGo to use GPS on the same port of TMC? The TMCSerial mixing feature is to have an unique port for both, just like GPS/TMC devices.

- when using just iGo with TMC switched on it works but no usable audio on headset. The sound is converted at to low frequency and not usable (already reported in this thread). I also have the feeling that iGo is responding very sluggish. Screen refresh in iGo is not fluent any more. iGo is every now and then loosing GPS connection and then within 1-2 seconds GPS connection/receival is back again. It almost looks like my Omnia is not fast enough to run iGo with TMC switched on.

Yes, that is what I'm investigating, but if you are using some other software with iGO I strongly suggest to step back to previous iGO builds. The latest are too much hungry to be able to play music with only 128MB of memory. Your test seems to confirm esticbo's guess.

I know the software is still beta so I hope you (together potentially with our HTC friends) can "solve" the above mentioned problems.

We are thinking about a common API to use the hardware and to integrate part of my protocol implementation to enable HTC users to use TMC.

Anyway OmniaTMC is my priority and I will keep it evolving as a part of my contribution to flywhc project too :excl:

My ideal setup is that I can listen to music / podcasts while iGo is doing navigation with TMC. Based on above posts around antenna connector I'll also see if I can fix the port multiplier to also pass antenna connector.

Does you splitter have a S20 (the same connector that Omnia has) replicated port? Does TMC works if you connect the headset adapter to the replicated port?

If you answered yes to the above questions, you may only need a simple antenna harness just like the one made by illusion786 shown on the previous page.

P.s My donation is a small amount compared to investment if you want a real navigation system in your car with TMC and then you have problem that you're always messing around with multiple gadgets. So other people who are interested please support Beamrider so he can "fix" the problems with the beta. :excl: ;) :P

.... and I'm scared of counting the hours I put into this project :excl: but I'm very happy to have started it.

I will fix things, promised (at least on the maximum possible extent) and donations will be used to go ahead with the project (with yours I want to buy the same port splitter you have).

Thank you again for investing money into the project. Next beta will be release at the beginning of the next week. I noticed that the sound routing fix will help a lot of ppl that doesn't know how to modify their cables and I'm speeding up things.

[Guest wkmmx500]

Hi Beamrider,

Have you tried to setup iGo to use GPS on the same port of TMC? The TMCSerial mixing feature is to have an unique port for both, just like GPS/TMC devices.

--> No, I did exactly as in your instructions using tmc port 4 and gps port 3. Now I think of it. If I let iGo do it's own auto selection of the GPS it gets port 0. Is that causing a conflict somewhere?

Yes, that is what I'm investigating, but if you are using some other software with iGO I strongly suggest to step back to previous iGO builds. The latest are too much hungry to be able to play music with only 128MB of memory. Your test seems to confirm esticbo's guess.

--> Ok. I'm using KINOMA music player together with iGo and that works fine.

Till later...

[Guest moster67]

Great stuff my friend :excl:

Once you've brought the OmniaTMC beta into a more "final"-version, will you be considering making perhaps a version also for Samsung i780 or other Samsung-devices running Windows Mobile?

I really hope so... :excl:

Take care.

[Guest BeamRider]

No, I did exactly as in your instructions using tmc port 4 and gps port 3. Now I think of it. If I let iGo do it's own auto selection of the GPS it gets port 0. Is that causing a conflict somewhere?

I mean into iGO not in the OpenTMCSetup app (that should remain 4 and 3). In iGo you should use 4 and 4. 3 and 4 should work in iGO unless you have a non shareable port 3 or some issues with GPS port sharing.

--> Ok. I'm using KINOMA music player together with iGo and that works fine.

Ok I will setup a test

Once you've brought the OmniaTMC beta into a more "final"-version, will you be considering making perhaps a version also for Samsung i780 or other Samsung-devices running Windows Mobile?

I think that i780 uses the same FM tuner chip, the problem is mantaining the low level driver updated with Samsung roms and that's why I'm thinking of rewriting the driver to my specs (easily ported to i910 and maybe i780).

This is a very time consuming task and, as you said, it will see the light only once OmniaTMC will be stable enough.

Edited April 24, 2009 by BeamRider

[Guest illusion786]

You had a very good intuition ... latest iGO version (with improved TTS) are intended for devices with >= 128 MB of RAM and we are on the edge. Anyway, the slowdown doesn't happen with TMC disabled. It can be either a memory problem with iGO loading TMC database into memory or an audio issue due to FMRadio code playing with audio device.

I am not experiencing anymore the issue on my mobile, I will load something that eats some memory to test your intuition ... Thanks!!!

According to my tests, i found that it was not an memory issues. The reason why is because whilst the radio driver is loaded in the memory along with using the igo soft the sound actually works without any issues (with my modified antenna) as the sound is coming out of the main speaker.

But as soon as you connect the earphone it triggers the pda to change its mode to SPK -> Earphone which causes the slowness. It has nothing to do with the memory or igo.

Its an issue the radio driver which causes the slowness once earphones are connected.

I tried hard resetting the pda and just installing the iGO app with no TMC app, it installed and worked perfect with the earphones but not with the radio driver loaded.

I am using the latest release of iGO8 v8.3.2.83157 (Apr 3 2009) with TTS

Edited April 24, 2009 by illusion786

[Guest illusion786]

Oh i forgot to mention.

I re modded my Antenna, this time i only have pin 1 connected and with no pin 2 (GND). It seems that it gets a better reception. The antenna is only 5 inches long from the connector.

[Guest gemx]

Just made an interesting discovery.

If i connect the wall plug cable (220V charger) i am actually able to receive TMC in Germany :excl:

Although reception is not that good as with the headset cable it does receive TMC event if i don't connect the cable to a wall plug.

I tried with 2 different - original Samsung - 220V charger type ATADS10EBE

That means that the antenna isn't shorted in the plug that goes in the Omnia which makes it quite easy.

You only have to open the end that goes to the wall plug and solder it to a car charger and you might even be able to extend the antenna because it must go through the whole cable.

I just need to buy a spare 220V charger, open it (you will probably have to damage it because i couldn't find any screws), take out the cable, open the car charger and solder the wall charger cable to the 12V plug.

Should work...

[Guest BeamRider]

But as soon as you connect the earphone it triggers the pda to change its mode to SPK -> Earphone which causes the slowness. It has nothing to do with the memory or igo.

Its an issue the radio driver which causes the slowness once earphones are connected.

I am using the latest release of iGO8 v8.3.2.83157 (Apr 3 2009) with TTS

So we are back to the FMRadio driver audio behaviour. :excl: *sigh*

Oh i forgot to mention.

I re modded my Antenna, this time i only have pin 1 connected and with no pin 2 (GND). It seems that it gets a better reception. The antenna is only 5 inches long from the connector.

Yes it should because you were using a coax cable, with pin 2 connected the cable shield was shielding your antenna from signal (as it is supposed to do). That's why I suggest to not use coax cables for standalone antenna application.

Edited April 24, 2009 by BeamRider