This thing called Command is stupid

[MBManInKen]

Well thank you for all of the replies, I do know now that I cant set a destination while in the garage, as it must take it from maps rather than satellite.'

I'm interested in this, because I think our systems are more or less the same. I also have a CD based COMAND in the car, 2.5 IIRC.

I park in an underground garage where there is very patchy satellite reception and only fairly dodgy radio reception. However, I always programme my destination while still in the garage, including when I use TMC. If it happens that the system is not able to tune to Classic FM while I'm doing that, it will still calculate a route as per usual and say that it can't find TMC data. However, as soon as I leave the garage, it seems that it just tries again and as soon as it has picked up TMC it will recalculate automatically. Same for the satellite reception: if not able to pick the signal up, it still knows more or less where I am from the point where it lost the signal and it will show that position together with the off road indication. It only takes about 10-20 seconds for it to pick the position up again as soon as it has reestablished the signal.

 

[robert.saunders]

... able to tune to Classic FM

Therein is the problem I think

£100 please.

 

[toby1]

However, I always programme my destination while still in the garage, including when I use TMC. If it happens that the system is not able to tune to Classic FM while I'm doing that, it will still calculate a route as per usual and say that it can't find TMC data. However, as soon as I leave the garage, it seems that it just tries again and as soon as it has picked up TMC it will recalculate automatically.

I don't know what version I have, but that's exactly the same scenario for me. I have Classic FM pre-set so if it can't find it by itself, I just tune the wireless into that and eventually the TMC comes on. Then I switch to the CD for entertainment...

 

[MBManInKen]

£100 please.

 

[television]

I'm interested in this, because I think our systems are more or less the same. I also have a CD based COMAND in the car, 2.5 IIRC.

I park in an underground garage where there is very patchy satellite reception and only fairly dodgy radio reception. However, I always programme my destination while still in the garage, including when I use TMC. If it happens that the system is not able to tune to Classic FM while I'm doing that, it will still calculate a route as per usual and say that it can't find TMC data. However, as soon as I leave the garage, it seems that it just tries again and as soon as it has picked up TMC it will recalculate automatically. Same for the satellite reception: if not able to pick the signal up, it still knows more or less where I am from the point where it lost the signal and it will show that position together with the off road indication. It only takes about 10-20 seconds for it to pick the position up again as soon as it has reestablished the signal.

Thank you. I will take it out during the next few days and see if I can find TCM I do know that you have to activate it in the menu. I do not even get TMC on the menu only a not high lighted TCS

Going into the service menu I see that I have an on going fault B270B and I will check that up now

 

[MBManInKen]

Thank you. I will take it out during the next few days and see if I can find TCM I do know that you have to activate it in the menu. I do not even get TMC on the menu only a not high lighted TCS

Are you not confusing TMC with TP traffic information?

If you engage TP (traffic information), you'll get a highlighted "TP" in the top right hand side. Whenever there is a traffic announcement, the audio source you're currently listening to will be interrupted for the announcement. This is an RDS function. If you're tuned to a station that is broadcasting TP, the traffic messages are from that station. If you are tuned to a station that does not carry TP information, the radio will automatically tune to another station of the same network or even another network whenever a traffic announcement is made, then switch back to whatever you were listening to before.

You can switch TP on or off by pressing and holding the mute button for a few seconds. Alternatively, if you have linguatronic, you can say "traffic on" or "traffic off" to switch TP on and off.

TMC and TCS are different systems. I think that in the UK there is only a TMC service. To engage it, there are two basic methods:

1) In the screen where you are asked what type of route you want (fastest, shortest,...), you can select "dynamic", which will enable TMC. The system will then switch to a TMC station and download the TMC information.

2) After route guidance has started, if you didn't choose dynamic during setup, you can press the tailback button, then select "dynamic route" from the list. Again, the system will change the radio channel to a TMC one (Classic FM in the UK) and download the TMC info, then, if need be, recalculate the route.

I do think that early UK nav discs did not come with the TMC dataset (Alfie or Richard might know whether or not that is correct), but I would think that a 2006 CD ought to have a TMC licence on it.

The TP setting does not affect the TMC setting and vice versa.

Malcolm, I realise that all these lengthy written responses might not always be very clear. If you want, I can take some pictures over the weekend of how it works on my system, you can then compare .

 

[glojo]

I'm interested in this, because I think our systems are more or less the same. I also have a CD based COMAND in the car, 2.5 IIRC.

A good enough reason to get the latest S-class which has a more modern system.

I find these posts most informative and they help educating us all regarding the idiosyncrasies of the different models.

Are we saying that on the CD based systems the driver has to physically tune the radio into Classic FM to get the TMC to activate? It also looks like this system is also much slower to get satellite information?

Is this the same for the C, R, ML, GL-class systems with the newer DVD?

Regards
John

 

[television]

MBManInKen you are very kind, but I think that I have some basic errors.

I thought that If comand was up dated with MY2001 you knew as it has the MB star when you turn it on. Is there a newer disc to update it with ?.

I do not have a Infos menu for a start.
My book and comand are dated 2001
I cant find any TMC the TCS uses the phone
I have a fault not listed B270B

I will have another play and ask Alfie about some points

 

[MBManInKen]

A good enough reason to get the latest S-class which has a more modern system.

At some point it is very likely that I'll swap to a W221, even though it doesn't have the same stylish elegance as my current car .

Then again, I'm a pretty cheap bloke, so this one will have to last a bit longer .

Are we saying that on the CD based systems the driver has to physically tune the radio into Classic FM to get the TMC to activate?

No, if you select dynamic route, the system will automatically tune to a TMC station.

It also looks like this system is also much slower to get satellite information?

Well, recently there have been at least two threads that I remember with stories of slow acquisition, but that is definitely not my experience. Mine seems to lock on very quickly, even after crossing the channel etc. I really have no explanation why what are essentially the same systems should behave so differently .

 

[MBManInKen]

MBManInKen you are very kind, but I think that I have some basic errors.

Yes, I'm puzzled too by these differences .

I thought that If comand was up dated with MY2001 you knew as it has the MB star when you turn it on.

I know that the earliest versions didn't have the star. Do you have the DX label? I would think that Alfie or Richard would be able to tell us what the last update for the system was.

Is there a newer disc to update it with ?.

The last update for it was many years ago, AFAIK - again, perhaps Alfie or Richard can enlighten us further?

I do not have a Infos menu for a start.

That definitely sounds different. Info appears on mine already on the main menu, in the blue bar.

My book and comand are dated 2001

Not sure about mine, it's in the car. If I remember, I'll check.

I cant find any TMC the TCS uses the phone

I can't explain that either.

I will have another play and ask Alfie about some points

Good plan!

 

[television]

You would not think that I spend my days in service menus, some things have 90 parameters to set up that interact with others

 

[MBManInKen]

You would not think that I spend my days in service menus, some things have 90 parameters to set up that interact with others

You need to get yourself another wife

 

[television]

You need to get yourself another wife

I have tried in Tesco, no good so I will try Morrisons next week

 

[MBManInKen]

I have tried in Tesco, no good so I will try Morrisons next week

Priceless .

I'd go a bit upmarket if I were you, try Waitrose .

 

[glojo]

No, if you select dynamic route, the system will automatically tune to a TMC station..

Apologies Television for asking questions but are you saying the radio will have to be tuned into a TMC station to get the system. Both our systems have twin tuners, one for the navigation system and one for listening to and fik old me thought all systems were like this.

Regards
John

 

[MBManInKen]

Apologies Television for asking questions but are you saying the radio will have to be tuned into a TMC station to get the system. Both our systems have twin tuners, one for the navigation system and one for listening to and fik old me thought all systems were like this.

Yes, the radio will switch to TMC. You can of course swap to another audio source such as the CD. This is really silly design since COMAND 2.5 also has dual tuners, why on earth they don't use the second tuner for TMC is beyond me .

 

[television]

Apologies Television for asking questions but are you saying the radio will have to be tuned into a TMC station to get the system. Both our systems have twin tuners, one for the navigation system and one for listening to and fik old me thought all systems were like this.

Regards
John

MBManInKen has answered this better an I could, but yes it has to be tuned to a traffic info station.
My silly TV tuner has 3 tuners and I have never in all my years seen or heard of this elsewhere, no use for the USA satellite guidance either.

I think that I ignore these things to a fair degree as its too much like work for me

 

[Diesel Benz]

MBManInKen has answered this better an I could, but yes it has to be tuned to a traffic info station.
My silly TV tuner has 3 tuners and I have never in all my years seen or heard of this elsewhere, no use for the USA satellite guidance either.

I think that I ignore these things to a fair degree as its too much like work for me

Television, I had a look at the SL/R230 antenna implementation. To me it looks like it had 4 FM and TV antennas at the windshield. Multiple antennas are used for diversity purposes, the signal fades rapidly when the car moves but the fades are not correlated between antennas that are sufficiently far apart from each other (minimum distance is wave length dependent). Diversity reception can be implemented two ways (at least), a single receiver can switch between antennas, using another one when the current turns poor. Or the device may have multiple receivers and the best receiver output is selected (can even be optimally combined). With four antennas I could see even a mix of two receivers each using two antennas.

I did not check but I would guess the SL implementing a diversity receiver radio with more than one FM tuner. Looks like the tuner just isn't clever enough to be able to read the FM channel with one receiver while borrowing the diversity branch for TMC (this would not need to be permanent but periodic). Perhaps someone has actually looked at the internal implementation of different MB radios, I don't even have any schematics.

You mentioned three TV tuners, shouldn't the TV tuner use four antennas? Still, anything between one and four receivers would be possible, 3 just sounds a bit odd.

 

[television]

Television, I had a look at the SL/R230 antenna implementation. To me it looks like it had 4 FM and TV antennas at the windshield. Multiple antennas are used for diversity purposes, the signal fades rapidly when the car moves but the fades are not correlated between antennas that are sufficiently far apart from each other (minimum distance is wave length dependent). Diversity reception can be implemented two ways (at least), a single receiver can switch between antennas, using another one when the current turns poor. Or the device may have multiple receivers and the best receiver output is selected (can even be optimally combined). With four antennas I could see even a mix of two receivers each using two antennas.

I did not check but I would guess the SL implementing a diversity receiver radio with more than one FM tuner. Looks like the tuner just isn't clever enough to be able to read the FM channel with one receiver while borrowing the diversity branch for TMC (this would not need to be permanent but periodic). Perhaps someone has actually looked at the internal implementation of different MB radios, I don't even have any schematics.

You mentioned three TV tuners, shouldn't the TV tuner use four antennas? Still, anything between one and four receivers would be possible, 3 just sounds a bit odd.

Thank you for coming in on this. I have not opened up the Comand to see whats in there, but I have opened up the TV tuner. Yes there are 4 antenna's and 3 tuners, on the TV. I cannot for the life of me think why 3, you cant use 3 at once, antennas can be discretely connected, so two must be. The tuners look like Phillips to me, there is no one in Germany left that makes these things Telefunken and Grundig went bust years ago.

My radio tuner is far from brilliant, but the TV is fine, but then I do not expect that much from the limited antennas. I know that normal cable cant be used owing to the size of it, the 50Ω miniature cable has terrible attenuation at certain frequencies, compensated for by the aerial amps.
the muting circuit (signal/noise) must be what it decides to use in the way of tuners.
Testing is not made any easier due to the fact that I live the wrong side of the hill, DAB is not possible here either.

The sun is shining so I will go out soon and play again

 

[hawk20]

This thread is an interesting read........i am or possibly was, looking at retro fitting a comand to replace my audio 20 in my face lift W203 coupe.

I have a Nokia N73 running TomTom Navigator 6 with a seperate receiver and due to software issues which never seem to get fully resolved with N series phones, the phone periodically either loses bluetooth connection or switches off - either way i lose the post code entry i typed in.

Hence the possibility of Comand.......

Does Comand give an overview of the route (end to end) in 2D before commencing the journey.....like Tomtom does? I get an idea of how direct the route is by looking to see how straight the line of the route is, on the overview.

Should i stick to TomTom on an intermittently faulty N73 and wait for Comand software updates before i upgrade? Or should i save my money and stick to TomTom on my phone?

I would do neither. I have had COMAND, phone, TomTom and Garmin. IMO Garmin is way the best solution. COMAND involves buying update discs for £250 every year or so. Garmin I can update the software and the maps on my computer free every week if I like. And it has TMC included for life. Great for avoiding jams. I pay £29 a year for speed camera and mobile camera updates. I have found it excellent both here in England and in France and Spain when we did 3,000 miles on our two week motoring holiday. I started with TomTOm but had problems and Halfords recommended Garmin as they said about 1 in 8 TomToms have to go back.

Garmin make equipment extensively used in aircraft, shipping etc. UK offices at Southampton. I have the nuvi660.