schmidtj

Hello, it's me again.
My 1490T has the free traffic (with coupons) feature.
I see a coupon pop up from time to time and never really pressed the button until yesterday.
The coupons also seem to collect in a folder.
I see a coupon pop up for "Olive Garden" with a little green square (the coupon?) and a scissors icon.
I press the coupon and it just takes me to a list of Olive Garden destinations. If I press one of these it just lets me chose it as a destination. No coupon code is displayed.
The (less than stellar) manual alludes to a "coupon code" but I've yet to figure out how to retrieve an actual code.
Going through my list of coupons, none of them list a coupon code and when I click on any of them they just start a search for the business and just let me select them as destinations. Still no coupon codes to copy.
What am I missing?

HumVee

I don't yet have a traffic subscription, let alone a "free Lifetime" traffic subscription - so I can't provide any direct insight into this question. The coupons that collect in the folder...can they be opened on your PC and printed?

Can you use the built in screenshot capability of your 1490T to snap some shots of what you're seeing on the display, then post it here?

schmidtj

This will take some work.
Traffic only works when connected to an external power source (not just plugged into a USB port). I think it needs to detect the antenna.
The coupons do not appear to be stored in the drive accessable by the PC.
The coupon list only appears when Traffic is active (see above).
So I'll need to do all this when I'm in my car.

HumVee

The traffic receiver is the car adapter/power cable. It's not built in to the GPS unit itself. You shouldn't need to plug the GPS unit into a laptop or computer to get the screen captures (you don't need to use Garmin xImage). If the 1490T is anything like my zumo 660, you just go into Tools > Settings > Display and enable Screenshot. You then get a little camera icon in the upper-right corner of the display, and you just tap it to create a screenshot.

Take as many as you want, and then go back into Display and disable Screenshot (or just shut down your GPS - the next time it comes back up, screenshot mode will automatically be back to disabled). When you next connect your GPS unit to your computer, you just go to the Garmin\Screenshot folder on the GPS unit itself (your computer will see it as a mass storage device, and if you have a storage card in the GPS, it will be seen as a seperate device). I move them down to my computer, and just because I like jpeg files better (& they're 15 - 30 times smaller in size) - I convert the files from bmp to jpg.

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schmidtj

None of the traffic related menus appear unless the antenna cable is plugged into the 1490T and a 12volt power source. So i need to do the screen captures in the car, the only place I have 12 volts.

HumVee

No worries, and no hurry....

BabyDoc

I have a 1490T and don't see any way of printing out these coupon's either. However, I think you can view these "OFFERS" even when your Nuvi isn't connected to the 12 volt outlet.

Perhaps, if you just take your Nuvi with you into the estabilishment that has the offer, you can just turn on your Nuvi and show them the offer and they will honor it?


BTW, if you haven't connected your 1490T to WebUpdater in the past month, there was a firmware upgrade for the the free TMC traffic firmware. I am not sure what that upgrade was supposed to accomplish, but after doing it, I began to see coupon offers in places that I hadn't noticed before. I am curious if I am the only one noticing this, but when I now turn on my Nuvi in the car, the main menu (the Where To screen), has a coupon offer showing immediately at the top of the screen covering the current time and part of the automobile icon. When I switch screens, and return, this grey offer disappears. Also, if I press on the traffic icon, the next screen which shows choices for doing a traffic search or viewing a traffic map, I see an advertisement on the bottom of the screen. This advertisement stays, even when moving, unlike advertisements on the Map view screen, which disappear.

Has anybody else who has done the traffic upgrade on the 1490T, noticed these new placements for the coupon advertisements?

schmidtj

I've had my 1490T for less than 2 weeks. I did a firmware upgrade the first day. Not sure what got upated.
Compared to your experiences ...
I've never seen a coupon button on the opening menu screen (Go to/Map).
I no longer have any "offers" in the tools or settings menus. I think I did at one time but now they are gone.
I do have a Tools->Traffic but that just lets me turn traffic on/off, display traffic on map, and display traffic on route or something like that. That only displays with the 12volt power cable/antenna plugged in.

I also had my traffic icon today go Grey for a while today. Usually it's Green. The book says Green/Yellow/Red but nothing about Grey. Another undocumented feature?

So outside of a traffic checkbox in the route/avoids I see absolutely nothing traffic related unless my 1490T is actually plugged into the power cable which contains the FM antenna (the "fat" inline module I assume).

BabyDoc

I am rather surprised that the "OFFERS" don't show under Tools. You need to scroll down a page within tools to find them. They will show up whether your Nuvi is connected to a 12 volt source or not. Any advertisement that is received by your Nuvi while connected to the TMC traffic will be stored in the ddb file folder within the .system folder. This file is RDS_LBA.ddb. Unless this file got deleted, you should be seeing the offers. Even if this file IS deleted, it will be regenerated once your Nuvi is receiving traffic signals and ads.

The grey icon appears when you Nuvi has had its traffic signal reception interupted. If after turning on your Nuvi, you don't see an icon at all, it means it never connected to the traffic signal. But if you do initially see a green, red or yellow icon and it then turns grey, your Nuvi connected before but now has lost the signal.

Try this, to see how this works. With your Nuvi connected to the 12 volts of your car, wait until you see a colored traffic icon. In most cases it will be green. Now, disconnect your Nuvi's power cord without turning it off. It will ask you if you want to keep it on. Press stay on. You will now see that the Green icon has turned grey, because you are no longer receiving a signal without the power cord connected. Now plug in your Nuvi, and the grey icon should turn green again.

BTW, thanks for letting me know that you don't see ads on the Where to screen. Now that I know that I shouldn't, I have sent screenshots to Garmin. Hopefully, they can offer a fix for this, although it is more of an annoyance than a real problem..

schmidtj

I too found that Offers do show up even after power is removed and you reviously received some. Not sure if they age out or get deleted periodically but mine did go away without me deleting anything. Still have yet to find any coupon code ever. The hard thing with getting a screen shot of the whole process is you never know when an offer is going to pop-up. I found a FAQ that shows the rules for offers being displayed but it didn't spend much time analyzing it.

HumVee

Sorry, I finally thought to look on the Garmin Knowledge Base:

I hope that helps....

schmidtj

Thanks HumVee,
EXCEPT
Even though the Advertisement shows a coupon there isn't always a coupon icon in step 2. It problematic. I have found one or two (out of the dozen or so advertisements I've gotten) with an actual coupon icon on the Go page but most do not. It's hit or miss. Also for those that do have an icon there seems to be no need to page down for the code. It shows up on the first/only page. Maybe they changed the way the 1490T does coupons and haven't updated the FAQ to reflect the changes?

HumVee

That's quite possible. You'll need to let us know if store clerks will honor the coupon when there's no code, and all you and do is show them your 1490T's screen? But wait - as soon as you unplug the nuvi, the traffic and coupon's disappear?

schmidtj

Coupons "Offers" Folder seem to stick around for a while even if the 1490T is unplugged. I don't know how long but it seems at least a day so that should be long enough to get to the merchant offering the coupon. I guess you could then show them the 1490T's screen.
As far as screen shots go ...
For me the most consistent "offer" is the one I get immediately after powering on the 1490T while plugged into the 12 volt cable.
Unfortunately when I go to enable screen shots and return to the opening screen the offer is no longer displayed. Catch 22 I guess. It does get moved the the "offers" folder in tools though.

BabyDoc

Schmidtj, what are you saying here? Is that most consistent "offer" appearing on the top of the Where To? Screen or it it appearing on the Map View?

Since doing the TMC firmware upgrade, I am seeing that coupon on the opening Where To? Menu screen. Before the upgrade I did not. Furthermore, that offer seems to show up immediately even before I actually view the map. If the car is moving this coupon, doesn't disappear, buy if I switch form the Where To Screen, to any other screen, and then back to Where To, the offer disappears.

There is one other place where I consistently see an offer. If I press on the traffic icon, the next page that says at the top Traffic Up to Date, has advertisement with coupon on the bottom. This coupon doesn't disappear when the car is moving, like those on the actual map view.
Before the TMC upgrade, there were no offers on this page.

schmidtj

On top of the opening "Where To?" / "View Map" screen is the most conisitent. Usually right after I turn the GPS on.

BabyDoc

I am actually relieved to hear that I am not the only one seeing this advertisement. Before the traffic firmware upgrade, this advertisement would not be displayed here. I quite sure of that. This advertisement covers the current time, doesn't it?

Now, do me a favor. The next time you are in your car, when you are viewing your actual map, press the traffic icon. See if you are getting another advertisement on the bottom of the next screen you see (It will have Traffic up to date at the top of the screen with menu choices for Traffic search, etc).? Again this is an advertisement that never showed on this screen before the upgrade.

What's peculiar about these two advertisement locations is that they don't disappear when your car is moving, like the advertisements on the Map screen.

Thinking there was a corrupted file in my Nuvi, I have sent pictures of these screens from my Nuvi to Garmin. (With the WhereTo screen advertisement, I actually took a picture with my digital camera, since as you pointed out, the offer disappears when you try to activate the internal snapshot)

I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who might be seeing advertisements in places that were previously advertisement free.

BabyDoc

I just heard back from Garmin about the coupon offers now appearing on the top of the opening menu (Where To?/View Map), and on the Traffic Menu. Apparently, these are now normal on the 1490T, although they never appeared on these screens before the recent traffic firmware "upgrade". I wouldn't exactly call seeing more advertisements in more places, an upgrade, would you? If there were any real improvements with that new firmware, I have yet to notice them. Have you?

I complained to Garmin that these new screen advertisements are more annoying and potentially more dangerous than the ads that appear on the Map screen. At least the latter ads disappear when your vehicle is moving and can't be an added distraction. However, the new ads on the main Menu and on the Traffic Menu screens won't disappear while viewing them and driving. The only way to make them go away is to exit those screens. Oh, I forgot. Another way to get rid of the ads would be to disable the traffic reports. Considering how misleading or worthless these reports often are, that might not be such a bad way to get rid of the ads.

HumVee

How much time do you spend in the main menu rather than the map screen? If you're actually needing to look up an address or modify your route, you are safest pulling over and doing it, then getting back on the road once you've made your selections. I'd be appalled if Garmin (or any of these GPS providers who are offering ad based free traffic subscriptions) started plastering the map screen with ads while you're in motion - but adding a persistent ad to your main menu doesn't seem entirely overboard to me...but then again, I don't have one of these free traffic subscriptions.

Keep in mind that the advertising is the price you pay to get otherwise free traffic updates. If at any time you find the ads becoming too annoying to deal with, you can opt to pay for an traffic update plan with annual subscription. $50 a year = no more ads. And like you say, if you don't care for traffic subscriptions at all - you can disable them....

I'm not trying pick a fight - just point out that you do have options.

BabyDoc

You could be correct regarding the main screen. The advertisement will disappear quickly enough when you exit the screen to enter your destination or view the map. However, the traffic search menu should not have an advertisement. If you are on route and are are concerned about a traffic delay, that's enough of a distraction. It's unlikely that anybody is going to pull over in order to check the traffic map, unless he is already stopped in a traffic jam. IMO, you shouldn't have the additional distraction of an advertisement on the traffic menu screen unless it appears only when you are stopped. This is the way it works on the Map view. So, why didn't Garmin couldn't have Garmin done it this way with these other screens?

In other words, my complaint is not just that that advertisements are appearing on more screens. I do understand there is a cost for the free traffic service, but it shouldn't be a possible endangerment to a driver who, while moving, could be destracted by them. You could blame the driver for not pulling over to view these screens, who ends up in accident viewing these advertisement. Still, what need is there to give him the chance? It would be simple enough to make these ads only viewable while stopped.

HumVee

I understand your point now, BabyDoc. Not yet having one of these traffic services, I wasn't visualizing the screens. You're right that the traffic search menus should be add free, at least if the vehicle is moving above 25 MPH, which I think is what their policy is. Perhaps if enough users complain to Garmin about the distraction/safety aspect of having ads on that particular screen, they'll modify it....

BabyDoc

Actually, any forward movement of your vehicle will cause the advertisements to disappear on the Map View screen. You don't have to get up to 25mph. Any speed above 0 mph, and the ads are gone.
I have complained to Garmin about the Traffic screen not working that way, too. I was told that my complaint will be forwarded to the software team for their consideration. It could be easily fixed by a software change, but everything takes time.

Incidentally, Garmin told me that the recent TMC traffic firmware upgrade was done for the following reason:

"The TMC firmware upgrade updated the Lifetime Traffic Expiration Date. There were some traffic services that were showing upcoming expiration dates. These dates were not going to alter the use of traffic, it just stated a date. For instance March 30, 2010. It was always a future date as if you had a trial subscription So the update has changed the date back to Lifetime Traffic with no expiration."