Is the FM transmitter any good in real life?

[sachin007]

I know that the n900 has the fm transmitter and i would love to stream my music to my car stereo without all those clunky wires.

I have read somewhere that the fm transmitter on the n97 is actually useless since the output is very weak and there is a lot of noise compared to a stand alone fm transmitter.

Is this true?

Thanks

[UCOMM]

the one in the n79 works like a charm, absolutely perfect

[quipper8]

I have never had very good luck with the various fm transmitters I have tried over the years for use in car with an mp3 player, so I would not be surprised if it sucked

[ysss]

I also really like this component :)

I wonder how big of a battery drain it would be... but then again, if you were to use it to stream sound to your car's stereo, then you just need to get a car charger to avoid any power problems.

Output power shouldn't be much of a problem given the proximity to the receiver in this particular usecase.

[luca]

Is it a stereo or a mono transmitter?

[zerojay]

I've had very mixed results with FM transmitters before. It's really too hard to predict without having the hardware in my hands. When I do, I'll let you know, if possible.

[Thesandlord]

Also, is ALL the sound pushed, or just certain apps? Is it the same as plugging in a 3rd party FM transmitter?

[Hellmur]

Hello,
I have used it a lot of times with my N78 and its usability depends a lot on the car you are using it. Since the car is rounded with metal and the antenna is outside of the car it works perfect if you put the phone outside of the car but once you are inside it depens on how shielded the car's radio is. I have seen it work perfect in some cars and couldn't use it at all in others.
Another downside of it is that if you are travelling long distances while using it its difficult to find an unused frequency because the stations use diferent frequencies in different cities (at least in my country, Spain) so an unused frequency in one city or region may be in use in another and you have to change the frequency the phone is broadcasting in.

Bye.

[McChicken]

FM transmitters are not that good, they are a compromise as almost no cars had a cassette anymore, and jonly the last years cars have had an AUX / iPod input.
I have to say that the results are depending on a lot of factors, so if you are keen on having better sound try to install an AUX input or use the simple cassette I KNOW that it is sooooo Yesterday....but is bad sound the present Future ?.
maybe FM transmitters will surprise me now, but have no great hopes for that.
But as I say I am very picky, I use at least 192kbs when ripping, but still sound can be of dubious quality... but very handy

[JayBomb999]

Coming from the US, I can tell you that the difference between a good and not-so-good FM transmitter depends heavily on its ability to broadcast at 87.9MHz. This frequency is generally vacant (for reasons unknown to me) and often not a selectable option on consumer FM transmitters.

Anyone know if the N900 can broadcast at 87.9MHz?

[iskarion]

so if you are keen on having better sound try to install an AUX input or use the simple cassette I KNOW that it is sooooo Yesterday....but is bad sound the present Future ?
Why bother with AUX input or even FM transmitter? More and more car audio systems have AD2P support. e.g. the Sony MEX-BT* series. Blaupunkt and Pioneer are also manuacturing AD2P enabled car audio systems.

After using FM transitters for years (and I was never really happy with the sound quality of any of these FM tramitters) I recently bought a Sony car audio with AD2P support. The quality via AD2P is so much better than via FM transmitter.

And as I understand, the N900 will support AD2P out of the box.

[timsamoff]

So far the N900's FM transmitter (stereo, btw) has worked great for me. It's got the eae of use of a Belkin and the quality of an iTrip. Very good experiences so far.

Tim

[timsamoff]

And as I understand, the N900 will support AD2P out of the box.
Yes, and it sounds awesome with my Motorola S9s.

Tim

[bongo]

Why bother with AUX input or even FM transmitter?
.

- rental cars
- company cars
- old cars
etc ....

[Capt'n Corrupt]

Your (new) girlfriends car....

Also, you can blast tunes anywhere a radio can be found, even transmit and share music in creative cases.

Maybe I missed this: does the N900 have an FM receiver as well?

};^)~

[qole]

Yes it has a receiver as well. Just no app that uses it yet.

I hope someone makes an app that takes audio from the mic and pumps it out through the FM transmitter. It will turn the N900 into a wireless microphone.

[cobalt917]

Coming from the US, I can tell you that the difference between a good and not-so-good FM transmitter depends heavily on its ability to broadcast at 87.9MHz. This frequency is generally vacant (for reasons unknown to me) and often not a selectable option on consumer FM transmitters.

Can't speak to whether the N900 supports this frequency, but I figured I'd put my radio nerd hat on for a minute. There are two reasons why there are basically no licensed radio stations at 87.9 FM:

1) The treaties the US has with Canada and Mexico only cover the frequencies from 88.1 MHz through 107.9 MHz. The FCC has the actual documents at http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/agree/files/can-bc/can-fm.pdf and http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/agree/files/mex-bc/fmbc.pdf. Any station within 320 km of either border has to abide by these agreements and can't be on 87.9, so that rules out large swathes of the northern and southern portions of the US.

2) The other reason has to do with the old analog VHF TV channel 6. The audio for channel 6 was broadcast at 87.75 MHz using the exact same transmission technique as broadcast radio. Since each FM station needs 0.1 MHz of space on each side of its center frequency, channel 6 (which would extend to 87.85 MHz upwards) rules out a radio station at 87.9 (which would extend to 87.8 MHz downwards). So anywhere there was a channel 6 TV station, 87.9 MHz couldn't be allocated.

Interesting tidbit: Wikipedia claims (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_broadcasting_in_the_United_States) that there are in fact only *two* licensed radio stations in the whole country on 87.9MHz: KSFH Mountain View, CA (a high school station) and K200AA Sun Valley, NV (a translator of Christian radio station KAWZ Twin Falls, ID).

And there's your bit of radio trivia for the day (or month!). Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, also known as "wishing I could buy an N900"...

[Cadabena]

Yes it has a receiver as well. Just no app that uses it yet.

I hope someone makes an app that takes audio from the mic and pumps it out through the FM transmitter. It will turn the N900 into a wireless microphone.

That's the best idea I've heard all day!

[JayBomb999]

@colbalt917

Thank you for the extremely thorough explanation of 87.9 MHz.

So, I think you would agree that the N900 having the ability to broadcast on this frequency would be fantastic. Well, at least for Americans. :)

[Capt'n Corrupt]

Yes it has a receiver as well. Just no app that uses it yet.

I hope someone makes an app that takes audio from the mic and pumps it out through the FM transmitter. It will turn the N900 into a wireless microphone.

Seriously! It's a great idea! I wonder how far it transmits.

It would be fun to have this via wifi as well. Which raises an interesting question...

Are there any 'discovery' servers available for maemo? For example, discovering a device on a local network and potentially the services that it's open to. This would be a useful little project.

}:^)~

[JayBomb999]

Yes it has a receiver as well. Just no app that uses it yet.

I hope someone makes an app that takes audio from the mic and pumps it out through the FM transmitter. It will turn the N900 into a wireless microphone.

When I was a child, we called this "Mr. Microphone".

[attila77]

I hope someone makes an app that takes audio from the mic and pumps it out through the FM transmitter. It will turn the N900 into a wireless microphone.

Or, if you get the input from, say, twitter, then hook it up to flite and the FM transmitter and BAM - the wireless twitterphone is born ! :D

[Capt'n Corrupt]

The possibilities are finite! Hahaha

}:^D~

[qole]

It would be fun to have this via wifi as well. Which raises an interesting question...

Are there any 'discovery' servers available for maemo? For example, discovering a device on a local network and potentially the services that it's open to. This would be a useful little project.

}:^)~

The interesting thing is that Maemo 5 uses PulseAudio. Which, in theory, should be able to transmit / receive audio over TCP/IP. So theoretically, a "Mister WiFi Microphone" is also possible...

[Capt'n Corrupt]

For realz..

I like the idea of auto-connection based on proximity. I vaguely recall something like this before, but my memory is fuzzy.

For example, your N900 alerts people that are on your network (or can be polled by people on your network) that you have certain apps authorized for connections ie. the 'Mister WiFi Mic', a web server, an FM stream on a certain frequency, a chat, etc, etc, etc.

{:^)~

[cobalt917]

@colbalt917

Thank you for the extremely thorough explanation of 87.9 MHz.

So, I think you would agree that the N900 having the ability to broadcast on this frequency would be fantastic. Well, at least for Americans. :)

Haha, no problem. It was better than doing work. ;-)

But yes, the punchline is that you should get pretty good reception on 87.9MHz on most non-crappy radios (especially in cars which have to have pretty decent radios to work at all while moving).

If you don't, I'd recommend radio-locator.com's unused frequency finder at http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/vacant. It's pretty slick.

[timsamoff]

Yes it has a receiver as well. Just no app that uses it yet.

I hope someone makes an app that takes audio from the mic and pumps it out through the FM transmitter. It will turn the N900 into a wireless microphone.
Yeah, my idea was to have the phone (well, any audio from the N900) be able to route through the FM transmitter as well.

Tim

[Thesandlord]

Guitar -> mic in -> FM transmit -> Radio -> processing -> amp

or even better

Guitar -> mic in -> PulseAudio -> guitar rig -> amp

Wireless baby! I can finally run around the audience scarring away the guests! And I can use my wiimote setup to have a fully wirless guitar / dynamic foot pedal! YEAH!!!!

[qole]

Yeah, my idea was to have the phone (well, any audio from the N900) be able to route through the FM transmitter as well.

It already can do that :)

[pycage]

Anyone know if the N900 can broadcast at 87.9MHz?

No, it starts at 88.0 MHz. :(
This sucks as I'm currently using 87.6 MHz with very good experience in my area with my 3rd party FM transmitter and the N810.

[pycage]

It already can do that :)

This is great news for us users without a bluetooth capable car audio system who happen to answer the phone in car from time to time. :)
Now if only it could do this automatically upon answering an incoming call.

[Dead1nside]

I only have experience with my girlfriend's N85's FM transmitter and even then I've only used it once; it did work but it was quite quiet on an aged car radio.

Definitely a feature that I'm interested in though, like TV-out that even if you don't use it all the time is nice having.

[JayBomb999]

No, it starts at 88.0 MHz. :(
This sucks as I'm currently using 87.6 MHz with very good experience in my area with my 3rd party FM transmitter and the N810.

That's a disappointment.

Any chance of hacking... I mean enhancing the code to correct this issue, ya think?

[pycage]

Let's hope Nokia will fix this. I want my 87.6 MHz! :)

[r0eladn]

Hello,

I was thinking about the push competition and i had this idea to use two N900's as walkie talkies, using the FM frequency.

It would take to create an application that would 'kill' the connection to your headset (antenna) when transmitting, and then 'revive' it when receiving (in idle mode). (this action would have to be done because of the N900 not being able to send with antenna/headset, and not being able to receive without).
This simple switch would be all controlled in a simple interface with only one button.

This idea got me to find this thread so i guess i was'nt THAT original.

Only problem is the range of the fm transmitter. And from what i've read here so far about FM transmitters in other devices, there is not too much to be expected from an FM transmitter in such a device.

[Faz]

Hello,

I was thinking about the push competition and i had this idea to use two N900's as walkie talkies, using the FM frequency.

It would take to create an application that would 'kill' the connection to your headset (antenna) when transmitting, and then 'revive' it when receiving (in idle mode). (this action would have to be done because of the N900 not being able to send with antenna/headset, and not being able to receive without).
This simple switch would be all controlled in a simple interface with only one button.

This idea got me to find this thread so i guess i was'nt THAT original.

Only problem is the range of the fm transmitter. And from what i've read here so far about FM transmitters in other devices, there is not too much to be expected from an FM transmitter in such a device.

Nice idea, but transmitter power is too low:

From page 74 of the Official N900 User Guide (http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/nam/phones/guides/Nokia_N900_Rover_en-US_es-LAM.pdf)

The operating distance of the FM transmitter is up to a maximum of 3 meters (10 ft).

Also regarding frequency range:

The operating frequency of the transmitter ranges from 88.1 to 107.9 MHz.

But I wonder if either of these are hackable! ;)

[qole]

The operating frequency is definitely hackable. I don't know about the operating distance, but I doubt it...

[sachin007]

I hope the operating frequency is hackable to support the 87.9 frequency which according to this thread is supposed to be empty. Just for the record, the standalone fm transmitter i am using now doesn't have this frequency as it also starts from 88.1 :(

[lcuk]

works for me.
even says "NOKIA" on the display.

ub3r cool

[sachin007]

works for me.
even says "NOKIA" on the display.

ub3r cool

Hey lcuk can you elaborate?

Thanks

[lcuk]

the report is complete.
i had no problems at all using it,
first time, totally effective.

[allnameswereout]

I was thinking about the push competition and i had this idea to use two N900's as walkie talkies, using the FM frequency.On FM that is not allowed and you'll piss of Agentschap Telecom (http://www.agentschap-telecom.nl) sooner or later because doing so is illegal because of the range, and you'll interfere with other FM frequency users. This is outlined in one of these (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_EMC_directives) directives.

Whereas on the short range Nokia N900 transmits that is not the case, and its made so it falls within regulation of getting CE mark. AFAIK you'll need a license to operate a transmitter of a certain range (which includes e.g. a taxi business), while something like 802.11 is specifically exempted from that.

[pelago]

Hey lcuk can you elaborate?

Thanks
I guess he means the radio (e.g. a car radio) that he was using to receive the signal transmitted from the N900 says NOKIA where normally the radio station would be displayed, like BBC RADIO 1 etc. In other words, the N900 is transmitting RDS.

[twaelti]

Hey lcuk can you elaborate?
Thanks

I'd guess that the N900 not only transmits the FM sound, but also RDS information containing the label "NOKIA" as radio station name.

BTW: My wife just bought an N97, the transmitter in there works up to 2 metres according to spec and also in practice (I tested it). It's a very nice feature.

[lcuk]

yes, i forgot about that bit.
you are both right.

it worked well and overpowered BBC Radio1 when I tuned it the same channel, then when i turned off the n900, BBC Radio 1 came back.

no interference detected apart from the missus doesn't like my taste in music.

[Thesandlord]

With my Belkin ipod transmitter (which broke...), i was able to remove (from the case) the copper wire that was the antenna to get more range. I wonder if a similar antenna hack could be done on the N900.

[Faz]

With my Belkin ipod transmitter (which broke...), i was able to remove (from the case) the copper wire that was the antenna to get more range. I wonder if a similar antenna hack could be done on the N900.

I like the approach the guy in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsZw_youJAo) has taken to boost his Belkin FM transmitter - SImple external wire antenna.

Of course the same mod could be performed directly on the N900, but I'd rather not risk it, especially when these external transmitters are so cheap.

Makes quite a difference, as it seems their outputs have been attenuated by design.

[Helmuth]

Could I stream Internet Radio over the FM Transmitter to my normal Radio? :rolleyes:

[pelago]

Yep, should be able to.

[pycage]

Could I stream Internet Radio over the FM Transmitter to my normal Radio? :rolleyes:

Yes, you can.

[Texrat]

Arg... I can't any info anywhere on how to use the N900's FM transmitter! Nothing on the device and Google is failing me. !!!

[kwantam]

As far as I can tell from looking at the drivers, the transmitter is Si4713.

https://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/Si4712-13_short.pdf

The part is capable of transmitting from 76 to 108 MHz, but probably has a software limitation to keep it legal. Similarly, given the last paragraph in the left column, it's likely that the output power can be increased from the present level, but again may be software limited.

[qole]

Arg... I can't any info anywhere on how to use the N900's FM transmitter! Nothing on the device and Google is failing me. !!!

Then you don't deserve to be able to use it. :p




(you can either find it in the music player's drop-down menu or in the Settings page)

[Texrat]

Then you don't deserve to be able to use it. :p

(you can either find it in the music player's drop-down menu or in the Settings page)

Zerojay and EIPI, nice guys that THEY are, beat ya to it. :p

But seriously... why not a radio app for desktops that can also get there, as well as handle FM reception? I kept thinking this was a connectivity thing (yes, yes, i r an engineering type).

[Texrat]

As far as I can tell from looking at the drivers, the transmitter is Si4713.

https://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/Si4712-13_short.pdf

The part is capable of transmitting from 76 to 108 MHz, but probably has a software limitation to keep it legal. Similarly, given the last paragraph in the left column, it's likely that the output power can be increased from the present level, but again may be software limited.

That's what ticks me off. If it's a regional requirement, then it should be tied to regional settings.

Like the max volume. I hear that it's kept artificially low because apparently the ears of French legislators are overly delicate (I kid... sort of). Again: tie this to regional setting and let me crank MY device.

[bocaJ]

As long as there is a high potential for open-source drivers to get around this, I'll be happy.

[RevdKathy]

Tried this for the first time today with my massive collection of Christmas music, and it worked flawlessly. Nice interface through the fm transmitter widget, too. :)

I found myself wondering about the range - ideally one would want if wide enough to at least cover the whole house, and whether one could use the microphone with it.

In fact, if one could extend the range and include the microphone one might have an instant hospital radio!

[MrGrim]

I found myself wondering about the range - ideally one would want if wide enough to at least cover the whole house, and whether one could use the microphone with it.
In fact, if one could extend the range and include the microphone one might have an instant hospital radio!

That might work through a repeater. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeater) Fat chance of anyone installing them in a hospital though

[Laughing Man]

The range is annoying low. In Toyota cars the attenae is on the back of the car meaning if you mount the N900 in the front you'll hear a slight static. But other then the range it works pretty well (to bad the D.C. area is flooded with radio stations)

[Alex Atkin UK]

Tried this for the first time today with my massive collection of Christmas music, and it worked flawlessly. Nice interface through the fm transmitter widget, too. :)

I found myself wondering about the range - ideally one would want if wide enough to at least cover the whole house, and whether one could use the microphone with it.

In fact, if one could extend the range and include the microphone one might have an instant hospital radio!

Of course that would be an ILLEGAL hospital radio, which is why the transmitter is so low powered.

[RevdKathy]

Of course that would be an ILLEGAL hospital radio, which is why the transmitter is so low powered.

Must you spoil the dream?

We could stream it over the internet but there's no computers in patient areas... I just fancied inviting inpatients to pop in and send a message... I work in a psychiatric unit so you wouldn't want to broadcast any wider than the unit. ;)

We have an entire hospital recording/podcasting suite at our other unit. I just fancied allowing our folks to play with it while they're detained. :p

[go1dfish]

I used the n900's FM transmitter to stream ccMixter podcasts over edge/3g on a trip from San Diego to LA monday.

Was a rental car (wagon-ish) with the antenna on the back roof.

Was only able to get good FM signal with the device clipped to the headliner in the front (in my old e51 case), or held up by passengers in the back.

Quality was OK most of the trip, most of the issues we ran into were bandwidth related on the cell side in spotty areas. We did have to change the FM frequency once along the way after getting overpowered by a LA station.

Overall it worked fairly well. I was disappointed however that the FM transmitter will not function while USB is plugged in (a yellow message alert appears notifying you of such)

[Laughingstok]

Transmitter works very well in a Jeep Wrangler.

[j.s]

I found myself wondering about the range - ideally one would want if wide enough to at least cover the whole house, and whether one could use the microphone with it.

Whole house? For me, it does not even reach half way across a small room. I'm very disappointed.

[Laughingstok]

Thank you, Derek Zoolander.

:p

I must be missing something.

[ehab]

I just tried this in my station VW and the transmitter is the best I have seen in ages. Sound is good, and range is perfect for my car.

http://www.elmotaheda.com/


I know that the n900 has the fm transmitter and i would love to stream my music to my car stereo without all those clunky wires.

I have read somewhere that the fm transmitter on the n97 is actually useless since the output is very weak and there is a lot of noise compared to a stand alone fm transmitter.

Is this true?

Thanks

[Alex Atkin UK]

Its good when it works, but due to law its very low powered.

[B-B]

Tried using mine yesterday; nearly useless in my vehicles, where I live. Being in a large urban enviornment there are very, very few freq. available and those are usually subject to interference from drift.

Is it possible to increase the output power via software?

[stlpaul]

Just tried mine for the first time, front passenger seat of a 2010 Toyota Corolla. Sound quality was not so great and it got lots of static as I moved it around about a 1 cubic foot area (above my lap). The FM transmitter just simply stopped working after a few minutes (sound started coming out of N900's speakers), and when I went back into the settings it still had the FM transmitter enabled, and still had the icon. I tried disabling and then re-enabling it, at which point the whole music player got really slow, nearly unresponsive, and FM transmitter still didn't work.

[Hunter]

Very disappointed that the FM transmitter will not work when plugged into a car charger. When using it drains the battery.

Why would they disable the usb connection when using the transmitter?

[gidyn]

I tried mine with a standalone radio. The transmitter is so weak that I had to hold the transmitter end of the phone within 2 centimetres of the antenna to hear anything, and there was still lots of static.

[Mandibela]

Mine works well, everywhere I have tested it.

I found out that when I keep the N900 close to the radio in a car, I get better signal to noise ratio. Prob. depends on the radio. Worth trying out if the quality isn't satisfactory. Also rotating the N900 in different positions affects the s/n ratio.

[reviver]

Mine has worked really well too. Lot better than the separate FM transmitter I had earlier. Sound is really good unless the charger is connected.

Was quite surprised actually because the N900 is sold worldwide and thus the power might be limited by the country with thightest laws?

[noobmonkey]

i'm shocked to hear people have signal issues!
I used mine last week in the car in my pocket fine. Only to hear that the friend in the car behind could hear it when she was close (At traffic lights etc) - so i got a good 10 feet if not more from mine!

Have tested it on 4 radios, and i can see a slight difference with some though. One of the House radio's needs the N900 within 4 foot for it to work!

[Caesar]

my fm transmitter works like a charm:)
i've tested in a new car and a old car, in both fm transmission sounds stunning:)

[Kajko]

Works nicely in my car. Much stronger than the transmitter in the N97 that I had. The trick is to find a frequency with very little noise.

[yorg]

i wish it supported frequencies lower than 88 and higher than 107.9 MHz

also it would be nice if it could also support resolution of 0.05 MHz

does anyone know whether there is a config file with the min and max values for the transmitter GUI?

[matthewcc]

Suggestion: we should create a wiki page with best station to transmit on in different local markets. like in boston 88.5 works pretty well

[Texrat]

None of the frequencies works well for the Dallas area. :(

[matthewcc]

None of the frequencies works well for the Dallas area. :(

Thats ok... no one likes texas anyway :p

[R-R]

Works nicely in my car. Much stronger than the transmitter in the N97 that I had. The trick is to find a frequency with very little noise.

Yep, while it can override a local station it's much nicer if you just scroll slowly until you find an empty channel to use! (Toyota Echo 2004 as a test)

[jjx]

I had no luck trying to use it for music in my '99 Mondeo in Oxford, UK - nor in Milton Keynes - nor in Weybridge.

I got sound, but it was always very staticy unless I held it in the space in front of the windscreen, and then it was clear. But that isn't very safe when driving :) The car's antenna is on the roof at the front so I had expected better.

It's hard to be sure, but it might be because i couldn't find any frequency in it's range which didn't get interference from some broadcast or other. I literally tried every 0.1MHz increment on the N900 and the car radio, and from time to time some other boadcast would fade in. The most powerful broadcasters (BBC) spanned nearly 2MHz if you include low quality fading sound from them :(

When it was on the passenger seat, I got sound some of the time but it was almost always too staticy to listen to.

My car is too old to support Bluetooth audio, and with the N900 costing as much as a cheap second hand car that's now out ;)

[RevdKathy]

I was fine till I got a bit close to the coast - think I may have been close to the coastguard frequency. Oops!

Around the rest of the county I was fine. Will find another frequency when I have time to hunt.

[jjx]

Very disappointed that the FM transmitter will not work when plugged into a car charger. When using it drains the battery.

Why would they disable the usb connection when using the transmitter?

That's been reported as a bug and should be fixed in some future firmware, not necessarily the next one.

[go1dfish]

Mine has worked really well too. Lot better than the separate FM transmitter I had earlier. Sound is really good unless the charger is connected.

Was quite surprised actually because the N900 is sold worldwide and thus the power might be limited by the country with thightest laws?

Or it might be limited on a per firmware localization basis? IIRC this is how the Wifi channel restrictions are also applied.

Perhaps people reporting their performance should mention their firmware localization?

I'm on US firmware, and have had pretty decent success with it in multiple vehicles. I have no familiarity with other FM transmitters though.

[acano]

i my case it taken my alot of time to be able to fint a frequency, with no many signals. Finally I found that 101.1 fm worked very fine. And I use it all days i go by car.

[pillar]

FM Transmitter is working fine for me for music purposes, but today I was driving in the car and had the phone in a stand, but even though I had the volume max high, it was hard to hear the other person. I had a sudden idea to try FM Transmitter for it, but it didn't work. Wouldn't it be a nice speakerphone workaround?

[Viny]

its not so great, ive tryed using it many times and ive had to switch frequenices often, and the only way i can get the best reception is if i leave my phone on the sun roof.

[TA-t3]

[fm transmitter not working when usb (charger) is plugged in]
That's been reported as a bug and should be fixed in some future firmware, not necessarily the next one.
It's actually fixed in the upcoming firmware version, according to a link in that other thread about the new firmware.

[anidel]

Uhm, I just tested it on 51-1 and it didn't work. As soon as I plugged in the USB cable to charge it, it stopped the FM transmitter.

[makel]

I tested in three cars and transmitter worked very well. Much better than my old external belkin transmitter.

[jeffsf]

Poor in a 2006 Mini Cooper -- not able to find a place in the car that maintains a reasonable level of signal to the in-car radio. More static and drop-outs than AM radio driving across the great plains on blue highways.

[tpinhao]

Mine works great, on a Zaffy i just put it next to the ashtray and sound great ... no static

[drgonzo]

Tried it once in a rental car (Citroen something) and it worked very good

[sgbirch]

That's been reported as a bug and should be fixed in some future firmware, not necessarily the next one.

The bug is here:

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6792

The FM transmit power is dropped when the USB is plugged in, for me the following worked around the problem and restored full power.

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6792#c9

[texaslabrat]

function worthless for me...doesn't work at all in my car plugged in or not (2008 BMW). I think the radio antenna is in the "shark fin" on the roof (meaning steel barrier in the form of the roof between the N900 and the antenna) and the rest of the RF path is exceptionally well shielded...so there ya go. Maybe if i open the sun roof, duct-tape (or "90-mph tape", as is appropriate) the N900 to the roof it might work :p

Not a huge issue...the car has both aux port and usb port...but it was a little disappointing that this little gadget feature didn't work.

[Bratag]

I think the poor range of the fm transmitter can be attributed to two things

1) Power - pushing a stronger signal would drain the battery much faster
2) FM regs - in most countries there is a growing regulation on the fm band and items that use it. Its possible Nokia erred on the side of caution and kept the range low for that reason

[AltarCrystal]

Great in my Jeep Liberty
Terrible in my Ford Mustang

[klinglerware]

Works very well for me. I was also surprised to see that it wasn't a huge drain on the n900 battery either.

[jxwolf]

It works great in my 96 Jeep while in my shirt pocket. In my 07 Subaru, it is miserable. I think it may have something to do with whether or not the antenna is a whip antenna or embedded in the rear window.

[specialp]

I find the FM transmitter works decent, but if you have a car charger hooked up, it does not work at all. I think the cord being attached changes the functionality. This is a bit of a disappointment because I would like to have my phone charging while playing last.fm over my radio

[mysticrokks]

i doesnt work great- it needs the lolw frequency..

[TA-t3]

I find the FM transmitter works decent, but if you have a car charger hooked up, it does not work at all. I think the cord being attached changes the functionality. This is a bit of a disappointment because I would like to have my phone charging while playing last.fm over my radio
AFAIK this is supposed to be fixed with the next firmware update.

[thedoctor]

Does not work very well in both my cars. I have a aux port in my Prius so I just connect it that way. Can also charge it at the same time.

[RevdKathy]

Does not work very well in both my cars. I have a aux port in my Prius so I just connect it that way. Can also charge it at the same time.

But is there an aux in your TARDIS?

[mysticrokks]

luv it - "in my pirus"

you silly yanks lol..

hahaha

[Bratag]

luv it - "in my pirus"

you silly yanks lol..

hahaha

Maybe I am dense - but I just don't get the joke here.

[mysticrokks]

it isnt a joke and wasnt meant to be one. it was a comment.. you yanks and your prius's lol..

i dont need to explain the points do u. surely!

[RevdKathy]

luv it - "in my pirus"

you silly yanks lol..

hahaha

Err the prius (http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/frame_start.jsp?id=MSR_PRIUS) is a model for the Uk market. And I believe the 'Doctor' (at least the outgoing 10) does indeed drive one. Though his second car is a TARDIS. ;)

[Bratag]

it isnt a joke and wasnt meant to be one. it was a comment.. you yanks and your prius's lol..

i dont need to explain the points do u. surely!

Ahh - ok. We now return you to your regularly scheduled topic.

[mysticrokks]

revd lol, you have no idea what you are talking about then do u!!!

[RevdKathy]

I was following the conversation: various people were listing which vehicles they drove and whether the FM transmitter worked.

If 'prius' has some other meaning for you than the toyota model, which I assumed thedoctor meant, then no. I know what everyone else is talking about, but you seem to have found a joke the rest of us have missed.

[mysticrokks]

its the equivelant of "i do alot for charity but i dont like to talk about it"


yanks that have prius's love to drop it in under any situ..

if the lad had a different car he may have just said i have an aux port in my car(not prius)

[RevdKathy]

Err, if you dial back you will see that may people have listed which cars they have tried this in - a jeep, a mini cooper, a mondeo a citroen... someone even boasted of a BMW. I don't think thedoctor was doing any more than that.

I suppose I missed your joke because I made the mistake of assuming the poster was from the UK. Guess I'm more of a nerd than I thought - thedoctor immediately said whovian to me, not american. ;)

[mysticrokks]

it wasnt a joke.

it was a comment.

seeing all the yank celebs in prius's potraying they are helping the envioroment- (reality is they have another 8 litre gas guzzler they normally use)

or the whole its cool to be green in public, yet arnt in other situs;

look dude just dont worry about it..

in the europe we drive quailty cars with low emmisions.. the prius is a massive deal in the states-but its ugly as sin.

[Bratag]

it wasnt a joke.

it was a comment.

seeing all the yank celebs in prius's potraying they are helping the envioroment- (reality is they have another 8 litre gas guzzler they normally use)

or the whole its cool to be green in public, yet arnt in other situs;

look dude just dont worry about it..

in the europe we drive quailty cars with low emmisions.. the prius is a massive deal in the states-but its ugly as sin.

Or he could just have been letting us know that his car had an AUX port which was a viable solution to the inability to get decent reception from the FM transmitter in his car - which happens to be a prius - thus enabling other people who may have that car to know they arent completely boned.

But then I am a glass half full kinda guy. Preferably followed rapidly by an empty glass and then a full one again.

[mysticrokks]

well i dont think anyone will buy a car based on there phone..

And everyone knows what aux's do.

or do i use my brain to effeciently.

[RevdKathy]

well i dont think anyone will buy a car based on there phone..

And everyone knows what aux's do.

or do i use my brain to effeciently.

No, but it's an interesting analysis of what people see when they read a post.

You saw a reference to a prius and assumed an American showing off. (Despite others also listing the make and model of ther vehicle).

I saw the user name thedoctor and assumed a Brit who happens to be a Who fan (probably complicated by the fact that last I heard David Tennant was driving a prius..)

It's entirely possible that we're both quite wrong in our assumptions about this user.

My car has an aux input - I can't use it if I am also charging the n900, since the charging process generates so much EM that is makes horrible, horrible interference noises on the aux cable. Mind, at the moment I can't use the FM at the same time as the charger at all.

[N900FTW]

I tried it in 4 diff cars and still no luck.

My FM transmitter is WEAK!

[mysticrokks]

yes i was making a sweeping generalization about an american that drives a prius- fueled mainly by the notion in america that they are putting themselves out to save the envioroment by driving one..

in europe we are much more advanced and we get our top cars great performance with effeciency.

the fm tramsimitter is gash-- some may be lucky- but that will be more down to free signals in there areas. in london it really doesnt matter what car you have - the tramsmitter will never work as well as the aux.

to add to the car discussion

i have a 09 golf blue motion(68 mpg)- ten times better than that awfull looking prius with zeltch performance(not to mention 4 grand cheaper)-and almost the exact same green rating(28 to 27)- the aux port works fine and when charging- the fm transmitter has almost made me crash a few times it is lame.

ps: yes i am being abit ironic- and yes i feel discussing cars is way more important than our phones rubbish fm transmitter- which isnt practical- and i dont think it will based on our cars- areas perhpas- cars no.

[cashclientel]

The FM Transmitter is too weak to be of use in most circumstances. I've got it working 'OK' in a 2002 VW Golf (50 MPG), but the quality is no-where near as good as the CD Player. Was testing it out with radios in the house - when placed directly on top the signal is clear, although the quality is missing a bit. Not sure if the transmitter a generally low spec component or if this is just cheap software.

I've just read through 6 pages of mixed reviews and although the question "can the power be upped through software?" has been asked, it hasn't been answered. Is there any thought here? I'm guessing that in some countries the power is down tuned to comply with local laws, but it would make sense all phones in all countries are the same components?

[mysticrokks]

that must be abit annoying for you cash, having a cd and no aux..

if i was u buy a powerfull plug in transmitter- i cant see the nokia one improving-- and with a speperate one you can hear telephone conversations throuh the radio.

like the 50mpg comment :)

[pisthpeeps]

Tried today morning for 5 minutes in 2000 Ford Fiesta - antenna in roof at the front. n900 was placed in front passenger seat. The radio could not pick up the frequency at all. I tried only for 5 minutes with couple of FM frequencies(90 and 88.1). Both didnt work. Later found that 88.1 is already used by someother station. Would give a more detailed try later today and post.

[Matan]

Look at the directory /sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-2/2-0063

Interesting files:

region - my (DDP) device says 2.

power_level - mine says 88 when active. You can echo higher values into it (according to the driver's source, it should be 0 or in the range 88-115). I did not check the effect it has.

region_bottom_frequency - mine says 87500, even though the GUI only allows 88.1 and up.

[shinkamui]

The transmitter is extremely weak. in my 07 Mercedes C230, the transmitter isn't strong enough to reach the antenna unless the phone is behind the rear seats under the rear window, OR upside down in the cupholder (which results in periodic static). Unfortunately 88.1 is the lowest frequency on the transmitter, but I can tune my Comand 50 to 87.9. Probably not going to be that useful unless your golf cart has a radio.

[RevdKathy]

Tried today morning for 5 minutes in 2000 Ford Fiesta - antenna in roof at the front. n900 was placed in front passenger seat. The radio could not pick up the frequency at all. I tried only for 5 minutes with couple of FM frequencies(90 and 88.1). Both didnt work. Later found that 88.1 is already used by someother station. Would give a more detailed try later today and post.

88.1 is right where I used to have Terry Wogan before he retired - Bracknell may be the same. I hit 'find' and watched the scan till I spotted a chunk where nothing was being found.

Once selected and tuned, my ford fiesta happily picked up signal from n900 on the passenger seat.

[Laughing Man]

I noticed something oddly..

My car, which is from the 90s has a receiver that only extends once you turn on the FM radio. I find it hard to get a good signal from the front seat.

Yet the other family cars all have the shark fin which I don't have trouble when the N900 is with me in the front seat..

And they're all Toyotas. o.O But the one on my car is farther back than the shark fins.

[geneven]

I find many Europeans to be superficial and poorly educated. That is just the experience of a few years in Europe, though. Present company excluded, of course.

[fnordianslip]

I find many Europeans to be superficial and poorly educated. That is just the experience of a few years in Europe, though. Present company excluded, of course.
Lol. At least they didn't elect W.

[jn183]

I tested this out on two cars:

Acura RSX - 04
Toyota Camry SE - 08

In both car, the FM transmitter is definitely useless for the front seat. Once I put N900 behind the seat, then I could get clear sound.

BTW, no point of Fm Transmitter if you have to turn off bluetooth signal. My Camry has handsfree. I couldn't get FM signal as long as my N900's bluetooth is connected to the car.

I have an FM transmitter wire for the Acura. Therefore, I could just plug it into N900's 3.5mm jack for sound. It work fine. I don't have put the N900 behind my seat.

For the Camry, it has an aux port which I don't have to turn off BT.

[slvr32]

Lol. At least they didn't elect W.

I'm sure a significant number of people all around the world would argue that W _wasn't elected_... twice!!!, despite the shameful fact that he was in fact the president of the US for 8 painful years :-p

And I love the South Park Prius parody, and tend to recommend a VW TDI over a Prius, since the VW TDI's are 50-state-emissions-legal again in the US, the VW is more fuel-efficient than the Prius, unless you almost drive exclusively in the city, and the VW is tons more fun with 236 ft-lb of torque.

Back on topic... I don't have much luck with the FM transmitter in the n900, probably due to very high frequency saturation in the Southern California/Los Angeles area, and the fact that I can't really avoid picking up broadcast stations from 88.1 - 107.9.

[Bratag]

I find many Europeans to be superficial and poorly educated. That is just the experience of a few years in Europe, though. Present company excluded, of course.

DAMN that's a broad brush you are painting with.

Anyway back on topic - I tried echoing a higher value to the transmitter control file yesterday and can confirm it helps considerably. Not sure what it did to my power consumption however.

[pisthpeeps]

88.1 is right where I used to have Terry Wogan before he retired - Bracknell may be the same. I hit 'find' and watched the scan till I spotted a chunk where nothing was being found.

Once selected and tuned, my ford fiesta happily picked up signal from n900 on the passenger seat.

Is it front passenger seat? Gave a patient try yesterday evening and my car couldnt pick up the n900 signals at all :-(. Went home and tried it on nokia 6230i and it could pick up the signals. So FM transmitter works fone. I would try to place the n900 in back seat of car and try it during weekend. May be the car is too old. How old is your car?

[pisthpeeps]

Tried fm transmitter again today. Bought the car windows down and took the n900 near the car antenna once and woah it worked fine. Then closed the car windows and still it worked fine. I am happy. :-)

[Jeromeo]

Download "fmBoost" in the repositories to increase the transmission mW output to help.

[colnago]

The FM Transmitter is too weak to be of use in most circumstances. I've got it working 'OK' in a 2002 VW Golf (50 MPG), but the quality is no-where near as good as the CD Player. Was testing it out with radios in the house - when placed directly on top the signal is clear, although the quality is missing a bit. Not sure if the transmitter a generally low spec component or if this is just cheap software.


Meh, not all FM tuners are created equal...you just need to upgrade :p :

http://home.comcast.net/~masterpiu/img053.jpg


I had the 900 in the cubby hole of my 20th, and with a "stubby antenna" (in rear of car), I had a solid signal for 2.5hrs on a road trip accross 3 states, while streaming internet radio:



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