Anyone got a TomTom to talk to an 8800 via bluetooth?

[avmad]

Hi all,

I have an 8800v through Vodafone in the UK. I also have a TomTom One XL GPS device.

I have subscribed to receive traffic updates on my TomTom but this requires a connection to a phone or similar to send the data to the TT.

The TT connects to the BB via bluetooth - theoretically by setting up a serial connection then using the gprs dial up facility to connect to the internet. I have the following configuration set up in the TT:

APN: internet
username: web (can be blank also)
password: web (can be blank also)
dial sting: "at+cgdcont=1,"IP","internet""
dial number: "*99***1#" (also tried "*99#" - both work from a PC DUN connection)

It's interesting that the BB 8800 is not listed as a supported phone on the TT website but the BB 8100 is supported (red herring?). I would have thought these two devices might have similar hardware/OS setup.

Anyway, because I have had no success in getting the data connection on the TT to work (although the devices do seem to pair OK), I thought I would switch to my laptop and see if I could get the "untethered" bluetooth modem working on that (I couldn't).

Following instructions given on the website (in the How to use the Blackberry as a modem guide), I next went for the simpler "tethered" PC to BB connection via USB cable and I did get that working (although it seems to require the BB Desktop to be installed, as that supplies the "RIM virtual serial ports"

I'm not sure if the RIM virtual serial ports are required for the PC bluetooth connection as well as I still have to research this. Also, the connection may require the BB Desktop to be running for other reasons???

However, what I am concerned about is that if these virtual serial ports (and possibly other BB Desktop configs) are required on a PC, maybe something extra is required within the TomTom to create a DUN type connection to the 8800. If so how can this be achieved?

Any comments or help would be appreciated.

Cheers!

avmad

[mckinneycm]

It won't work. The 8800 will not act as a GPS transmitter to another device. The reason the 8100 is compatible with the TT is because the 8100 does not have GPS and therefore can use the TT as it's GPS transmitter. Does that make sense?

[mckinneycm]

I tried to do the same thing with my 8820 and 8100. I wanted to see if the 8820 would transmit a GPS signal to the 8100 via bluetooth, but then I found out from everyone on this site that the 8820 won't do that.

[avmad]

It won't work. The 8800 will not act as a GPS transmitter to another device. The reason the 8100 is compatible with the TT is because the 8100 does not have GPS and therefore can use the TT as it's GPS transmitter. Does that make sense?

Thanks for that.

So you seem to be saying that even though I do not want to use the GPS capabilities of the 8800 - because the TomTom XL has it's own GPS - This is somehow interfering??? This is disappointing given that I simply want to receive traffic data (not GPS data) from / through my phone. It doesn't quite sound correct.

:-(

avmad

[mckinneycm]

The BB is not a trasmitter. It will pull the traffic data for it's own applications, however, it will not transmit the data to another device.

[ggoodale]

I think the OP is trying to use the 8800 as a modem, not as a GPS device. The TomTom model he referenced can dial out to the internet via Bluetooth to download traffic updates.

@<hidden> - who's your cell provider?

[mckinneycm]

I think the OP is trying to use the 8800 as a modem, not as a GPS device. The TomTom model he referenced can dial out to the internet via Bluetooth to download traffic updates.

@<hidden> - who's your cell provider?

Ok, I see where you're going with this. I still don't think it will work, because you would need to have Desktop Manager installed on the TT. But maybe there is some type of driver that you can use.

[avmad]

I think the OP is trying to use the 8800 as a modem, not as a GPS device. The TomTom model he referenced can dial out to the internet via Bluetooth to download traffic updates.

@<hidden> - who's your cell provider?

Yes!! ggoodale is exactly right. That's what I want to do - use the 8800 as a modem to connect to the net to retreive the TT traffic service and then transmit it to the TT device.

Seeing as you asked, I'm on a corporate vodafone contract (connected to a BES).

When I started on this, the task seemed simple enough given that the TomTom One XL has the facility to establish a serial connection to a phone via bluetooth and then in a similar manner to DUN from a PC, to dial a (gprs) number using the user supplied APN / username / password.

However...

The BB 8800 is not listed as a supported device by TomTom and Vodafone do not support TomTom connections. Funnily enough, the BB 8100 *is* listed by TomTom as a supported device and so I am surprised that this device would work but the 8800 not.

BTW - It's no consolation but my personal PDA (an Orange SPV M3100) is also not on the TT supported list and that does not work either).

Hope that helps on the clarification front :(

avmad

[SimonSingh]

Hi there mate,

It is possible. A while ago, I had no internet at home, and was forced to use my 8800 as a modem. With the standard settings, it wouldn't connect.

There's a site about here somewhere, with instructions showing you how to use it as a modem. It's got alot of custom strings, depending on your network.

Another idea is, have you set up your TCP settings in your phone?

I'm pretty sure that I did this with a friends TT, not sure if it was my BB or SE though.

[fxstsb]

mine does. I get traffic and phone use. Can't say the phone use is great since my road noise is significant. My traffic come off the internet thru my phone.

[avmad]

Hi there mate,

It is possible. A while ago, I had no internet at home, and was forced to use my 8800 as a modem. With the standard settings, it wouldn't connect.

There's a site about here somewhere, with instructions showing you how to use it as a modem. It's got alot of custom strings, depending on your network.

Another idea is, have you set up your TCP settings in your phone?

I'm pretty sure that I did this with a friends TT, not sure if it was my BB or SE though.

Thanks for your reply which is both intriguing and encouraging, although frustrating at the same time!!

Can you or anyone else tell me where these custom strings might be located? As you may have observed above, I'm using the standard one that TomTom has inside the unit (at+cgdcont=1,"IP","internet") but from discussions with the techies at Vodafone, that string is also their standard one. Additionally, I have managed to get my 8800 to connect to the internet from my PC with DUN (but only in tethered mode via the USB cable).

Thanks again.

avmad

[avmad]

mine does. I get traffic and phone use. Can't say the phone use is great since my road noise is significant. My traffic come off the internet thru my phone.

Thanks for the response. Is the phone that you are doing this with a BlackBerry? If so, would you mind sharing exactly how you configured the TT to BB connection for traffic?

Cheers!

avmad

[Griffog]

I have connected my T-Mobile 8800 to a GP720 and can access Traffic etc.

[avmad]

I have connected my T-Mobile 8800 to a GP720 and can access Traffic etc.

Thanks Griffog: Based on what I put in my first post in this thread, do you see anything that I'm doing wrong or have any tips or help to offer in getting the connection running?

Cheers!

avmad

[Griffog]

I chose 8100 in the setup/pair process as that was the nearest to the 8800. Apart from that I didn't do anything special.

On the 8800 I had previously changed the APN from the default to general.t-mobile.uk to resolve a connection issue with Opera Mini which may be linked?

Did you let TomTom set it up automatically? There should be no need for you to manually input APNs, usernames, dial strings etc, just choose Vodafone as your provider in the set-up process?

[avmad]

Did you let TomTom set it up automatically?

Yep. Tried that to no avail. Maybe I'll try it once more and report back.

EDIT: I also just tried selecting 8100 as the phone but the TT still reports "Unable to setup your wireless data connection. Do you want to change your settings?"

:(

avmad

[Griffog]

What APN do you have configured on your BB?

[joller]

What APN do you have configured on your BB?

I take it no APN as he's on BES?

I've got the same problem, I'm with telstra in Australia.

I don't use APN, I assume all my traffic goes through BES, so no provider-side APN is needed.
Is it somehow possible to point tomtom to use the BES rather then telstra's APN?
Opera mini and google maps don't have a problem working through the BES, so I thought hopefully tomtom could use BES as well?
tomtom insists on putting in APN info though, so I'm not sure how to get it to work through BES instead.

[SimonSingh]

Thanks for your reply which is both intriguing and encouraging, although frustrating at the same time!!

Can you or anyone else tell me where these custom strings might be located? As you may have observed above, I'm using the standard one that TomTom has inside the unit (at+cgdcont=1,"IP","internet") but from discussions with the techies at Vodafone, that string is also their standard one. Additionally, I have managed to get my 8800 to connect to the internet from my PC with DUN (but only in tethered mode via the USB cable).

Thanks again.

avmad

I'm not sure what the site was, but I'm sure I can find it

Go to Settings, Advanced, and then TCP. Mine for TMobile is general.t-mobile.uk, which I had to get off another site.

For the connection strings, it should be on the site on which you got the tutorial for setting up the modem. On my 8800, I had to modify the string for TMobile UK. I had the TMobile USA string, replaced with the TCP setting - as above.

Hope to help, shoot me a PM if you need a hand.

[avmad]

Go to Settings, Advanced, and then TCP. Mine for TMobile is general.t-mobile.uk, which I had to get off another site.

Thanks for the offer and thanks for the info.

I think you are referring to the APN name and associated user name / password.

From several sources, the consensus seems to be that this should be what I have set already, namely:

APN: internet
username: web (can be blank also)
password: web (can be blank also)
dial sting: "at+cgdcont=1,"IP","internet""
dial number: "*99***1#" (also tried "*99#" - both work from a PC DUN connection)

This is also confirmed by this exellent site: GPRS information and UK settings (http://www.filesaveas.com/gprs.html)

It's worth noting that the 8800 initially had its APN set to "internet.com" instead.

Sadly, with these setting, the TT still reports "Unable to setup your wireless data connection. Do you want to change your settings?"

Cheers!

avmad

[SimonSingh]

Try changing the APN to

wap.vodafone.co.uk
and
Username - wap
PW - wap

What happens with that?

And are you deleting the connection off the TT before each attempt?

EDIT: Download GoogleMaps, and try and connect with the APN set as Internet. Does it work?

[avmad]

Download GoogleMaps, and try and connect with the APN set as Internet. Does it work?

I will try the other suggestions shortly but I already have Google maps and it seems to work fine when the APN is set to either internet.com or just internet (using username=web and password=web in both cases). By fine I mean that it can find my location (or any location) and then download new bits of map as I pan around.

Are you sure that google maps uses that APN setting?

Does the browser also use that APN setting do you think? Because I can browse the net fine in the browser with either APN setting.

I'll post again when I have validated the other settings within the TomTom.

Thx

avmad

[avmad]

I just tried the wap.vodafone.co.uk settings but the TT insists that it cannot set up the wireless connection.

I just noticed that on another posting in this thread, someone wrote:

I don't use APN, I assume all my traffic goes through BES, so no provider-side APN is needed.
Is it somehow possible to point tomtom to use the BES rather then telstra's APN?
Opera mini and google maps don't have a problem working through the BES, so I thought hopefully tomtom could use BES as well?
tomtom insists on putting in APN info though, so I'm not sure how to get it to work through BES instead.

Maybe this is why I am seeing no differences with google maps and browsing etc after changing my APN?

Does this make any sense? How does this BES version of the APN work? Can the TomTom be pointed at that somehow maybe?

:???:

avmad

[SimonSingh]

Hmmmm... Try clearing the APN settings, and then inputting the correct APN settings into the TT?

[glen_b]

I have a Blackberry 8800 on T-Mobile UK and a Tomtom 510 - initially the traffic services worked ok (after chosing the 8100 model on the tomtom) however I updated to firmware 2.3.0.80 / 4.2.1.101 and since then Tomtom traffic will no longer work with my 8800.

I get as far as 50% when setting up the plus services and then it bombs out - I suspect if I had a) backed up and b) made a note of the firmware before I upgraded I could probably downgrade and it would work again.

I've tried speaking to T-Mobile - They were a complete waste of time and Tomtom are unable to help as they dont support the 8800.

[joller]

I just tried the wap.vodafone.co.uk settings but the TT insists that it cannot set up the wireless connection.

I just noticed that on another posting in this thread, someone wrote:



Maybe this is why I am seeing no differences with google maps and browsing etc after changing my APN?

Does this make any sense? How does this BES version of the APN work? Can the TomTom be pointed at that somehow maybe?

:???:

avmad

I'd like to confirm that with BES and no APN TOMTOM communicates perfectly fine for PLUS services, BUT as was mentioned a number of times, the 4.2.1.66 version from Telefonica Venezuela seems to be the ONLY working OS version for 8700.

[avmad]

Maybe this is why I am seeing no differences with google maps and browsing etc after changing my APN?

Does this make any sense? How does this BES version of the APN work? Can the TomTom be pointed at that somehow maybe?

:???:

avmad

Just got rid of my 8800 in favor of an shiny new 8310 Curve.

Tried to have the TomTom connect through Bluetooth to the new 8310 - Same stuff happens here as did for the 8800 - i.e. the BT pairing is fine but the setup fails when the DUN bit is trying to get configured :(

Seems like the firmware is ver 4.2.2.146 / 2.5.0.16.

BTW - Still looking for answers about how the BES data connection works (without use of the APN parameter)...

avmad

[avmad]

It won't work. The 8800 will not act as a GPS transmitter to another device. The reason the 8100 is compatible with the TT is because the 8100 does not have GPS and therefore can use the TT as it's GPS transmitter. Does that make sense?


I have just discovered that mckinneycm is exactly correct.

I'm an IT Manager and today I've had my Vodafone service team (management and techies) in my office for another reason. While they were there I asked them why I can't use either an 8800 or an 8310 to get my traffic data from TomTom. They told me that the BB units that have a GPS installed (i.e. both of mine) have the TeleMaps software on board and are blocked internally from connecting via bluetooth for DUN because they do not want you to be able to connect to an external GPS device as they want you to use their own.

While the above sounds like restrictive practice to me, apparently that's the way it is.

A couple of the folks on the Vodafone team are kindly looking at whether it is possible to work around this restriction. If they find anything, I'll certainly report it here!!!

avmad
AKA :x Angry of Derbyshire

[Griffog]

Then your IT folks are talking complete rubbish! It matters not a jot whether the BB has GPS or not! Crikey as an ex IT Consultant I know we're used to talking waffle but that lot takes the biscuit!

The OP isn't trying to use the TomTom as a GPS to power the BB, all the TomTom is doing is using the BB as a wireless GPRS Modem to get data for it's Traffic Situation plug-in.

I use my 8800 with a TomTom 720 and it works fine. If it doesn't then it's either a BB config, BES or other issue with the phone or the phone is not supported. The 8800 isn't in the supported list but as I have said, it works fine with my TMob UK phone.

[avmad]

The OP isn't trying to use the TomTom as a GPS to power the BB, all the TomTom is doing is using the BB as a wireless GPRS Modem to get data for it's Traffic Situation plug-in.

I use my 8800 with a TomTom 720 and it works fine.

Oh boy! This gets less clear the further I look into it. I would have agreed with your logic but I thought that what the Vodafone techies had said made sense given that I had not achieved this with either of my BBs, but given that yours does work, apparently I still don't have the full picture.

Just for the record, I'll re-state what I've tried:

TT One XL to BB 8800 (failed)
TT One XL to BB 8310 (failed)
Laptop to BB 8800 via USB (succeeded). Note settings for APN, username and password don't matter.
Laptop to BB 8800 via BT (succeeded). Note settings for APN, username and password don't matter.


There just aren't that many things to configure so I'm at a loss as to what is really wrong :x

Thanks for the info though!

avmad

[larryb227]

I'm not sure what the site was, but I'm sure I can find it

Go to Settings, Advanced, and then TCP. Mine for TMobile is general.t-mobile.uk, which I had to get off another site.

For the connection strings, it should be on the site on which you got the tutorial for setting up the modem. On my 8800, I had to modify the string for TMobile UK. I had the TMobile USA string, replaced with the TCP setting - as above.

Hope to help, shoot me a PM if you need a hand.
************************************************************
I have been following this thread as I have the same problem with a 8800 setup with a GO720.
In my case I am in the Anderson SC and use AT&T but when I go to my TCP setup I find that it is for wap.cingular and gives a password that I have no idea what it would be. Any ideas there? How would I find out what my password is?
I get about 65% on the bar indicator on the TT
Thanks
LarryB227
***********************************************************************
I got mine to work and it was a matter of selecting the correct provider in my case. I use AT&T but had to select Cingular (media) and it worked.
Therefore we can connect the 8800 to a TomTom.
LarryB227

[larryb227]

The BB is not a trasmitter. It will pull the traffic data for it's own applications, however, it will not transmit the data to another device.
************************************************************
I have successfully connected my 8800 to a TT Go 720 and it receives traffic just fine. I use AT&T as my carrier. I had to select the BB8100 and Cingular (media) during the process. It connected just fine. Then I called TT and had them start "Traffic". That was it.
The only things that does not work is making a phone call for some reason.

[ddanc1984]

I use T-Mobile and got my 8800 to work with TT+:

1. Select 8100 phone
2. Manually set up the internet connection to wap.voicestream.com
Use your phone number and password (just like you would log into your T-Mobile account on the web). Some other poster said it didn't matter but I use it for DUN so I erred on the side of caution.
3. The TomTom One will ask you to set up the dial string and should automatically fill it for you as well as the initialization string. For reference the settings are:

Dial - *99#
Initialization - +cgdcont=1,"IP","wap.voicestream.com"

This is all for T-Mobile US and I'm sure the same process works for other providers, just the number and initialization may vary. I think the link for the 8800 DUN is on this site somewhere.

I checked it by downloading Weather and QuickGPSFix and both worked.

[avmad]

So far, I've been assuming that my issues were with the 8800 and 8310 (cos they are not TT supported devices), so today I borrowed a newly configured 8100, stuck my SIM in it and paired it with the TomTom. This combination (which is supported by TT btw) still did not work for me.

Clearly, either something is wrong with my TT or something in the way my company configs BBs is affecting this :-(

avmad

[RobM]

************************************************************
I have successfully connected my 8800 to a TT Go 720 and it receives traffic just fine. I use AT&T as my carrier. I had to select the BB8100 and Cingular (media) during the process. It connected just fine. Then I called TT and had them start "Traffic". That was it.
The only things that does not work is making a phone call for some reason.

I just got the 720 and dont see how you set it up. Assuming that I am a dummy, please give a step by step of what exactly you did to pair your tom tom to your 8800 using att as your carrier.

greatly appreciated

thank

rob

[misthos]

For those of us on a BES, I wonder if the firewall can be an issue? On our BES the firewall is set to active and cannot be disabled.

I have tried the standard T-Mobile US setting that have been listed above as working and I still cannot get data services. Phone and phonebook transfer worked perfectly.

[RobM]

The latest I have heard is that the 4.3 os takes care of this issue...from those who are using the beta and have tomtom's, they all report that they now can connect to the tt without issue.

[red_jude]

I have a TT720 and a new BB8800, traffic works fine and the phone works fine.
It didn't take any configuring except the usual on screen set up ie pairing the TT with the BB through Bluetooth.

With my old phone, a Motorola Pebble, it still connected with Traffic but the phone connection was not constant when Traffic was updating, don't know if this is a still a problem with the BB, but otherwise its fine.