Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

so why not push the thanks button? ;)

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

I wonder if it is possible to emit a TA signal (RDS Traffic Announcement) when the telephone rings for an incoming call. (as well as the name of the contact to show on the radio display)

My car stereo pauses CD playback when it receives a TA signal (and I think this is the common behaviour), this way you could stop cd playback when there is an incoming call.

Thank you for this interesting thread,

L-

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Haw to say thanks for the Script app to boost FM Transmitter.
Tested it and now got perfect signal even 10m from the antenna :)

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Thank you. Working like a charm in bringing improvement to the fm transmitter.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

is there a newer app? and where is it??? lol this is all safe right????

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

so i assume this gain adjustment would need power. how has battery life been after gain adjustment? Also, whenever i used the default transmitter in the car, if i would keep my phone on the charger it would make the transmitter unusable, very staticky. I was wondering with this new app, is there less static if using fm-booster with car charger?

thanks

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Haven't tried charge it with the new script. But when I have been using the charger in the car I just put so the phone is higher than charger cable. When I do it like that it works quite okay.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

yeah, i would like the phone in a specific area on my dash but i may have to get one of those windshield suction cup holders to make it sit higher. thanks for the response.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Radio like this involves very little power, so if the combination of chip and internal antenna are efficient I wouldn't expect a noticable difference. But you never know - good question.

That's due to a bug which turns the transmit power down a lot when the charger is plugged in. It may be fixed in the forthcoming firmware.

Meanwhile, the app may well fix it (NB: I haven't tried yet), even setting to the 'normal' transmit power of 112.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Well it may be illegal in the US but not in the UK for example.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Unlike the FM radio, there is no way to connect an external antenna to the N900. Not even through the USB jack or the headphone jack. The FCC may be the reason for that. The wavelength of the FM band makes an internal antenna next to being useless. One possibility is to make a passive antenna repeater that the N900 can be placed next to.

Maybe duct taping a coat hanger to the phone will work. A little bit tin foil can be used for fine tuning. :D

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

There's (both headphones and USB cable helps; that's why I don't consider the "power level decreases while a USB cable is connected" a bug). Though I'm worried packaging "an enabler" for this might make Nokia less inclined to allow enabling it as trivially as currently is (the fmtx is a V4L device!).
And of course, connecting headphones to it makes it _finally_ usable, like they do in every other device with an FMTX I've used, including multiple car GPS devices that you can practically buy in any shop in Spain. I have to wonder if the FCC is really so restrictive.

That's what I was trying to say previously; just wrapping the device with VGA cable seems to do wonders. Of course, this is all very random :)

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Without the enabler the fm-transmitter is useless.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

The trick is to orient the N900 for vertical polarization(as most vehicle antennas are) and use a reflector to make the signal as directional as possible.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Time to install a parabol dish on the passenger seat of my car. If I have to take people in the car with me, there's always the back row left for them. :D

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

You know, his use of the the phrase "FCC countries" in the bug tracker statement made me assume that a lot of other countries have adopted the FCC regulations for FM broadcast, but after a bit more searching i can't find any indication that is true.

Does anyone know of a country besides the US where that band is regulated?

It may just come down to the FCC requiring devices sold in the US to conform to the frequency restrictions, and Nokia taking the easy way out of blocking it so they can release only one version worldwide.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

OK i got a stupid question, do I run the FM boost script before opening the media player & FM transmitter or is it OK if I run the script while FM transmitter is turned on and media player is also running ?

Also, do I need to run the script everytime I turn the FM transmitter ON ?

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Funny you should mention that, cuz while testing the fm booster app, I found that if I could be at least over 20 feet away and have a clear static free signal... if I place the n900 on the corn of the wall ... were those metal end cover are on dry walls.

Also line of sight seemed to help also.

x

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Thought I'd chime in here.

Volvo S40, N900 with the latest available firmware. Reception is excellent, I even get 'Nokia' on my radio (which was a nice surprise).

In fact, its so good I keep the device in the center console armrest.

I didn't notice any difference with the screen being open or closed.

Frequency: 90.7

But on a related note, is there some app or widget to toggle the radio from the home screen? Its really a pain to go to settings > fm transmitter > on every time :/

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Ya there is a desktop widget for FM transmitter that you can use to turn it on or off and also to set the frequency.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Yup, it can now be found in "Extras-testing" as fm-boost...

It does require that the Media-player and FM transmitter be on before starting it and;
It does not stay resident after the FM transmitter is shut down (Closed Media Player)... It is required to be launched every time.

After the recent Firmware update I checked the transmitter power level without it and it measured "111".

>> http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...8&postcount=17

After applying "FM Boost" (by clicking on its shortcut icon) my transmitters power level measured "118" (theoretical max).

>> http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...8&postcount=44

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Seems like you guys should sign up for the next Nokia PUSH. =P

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

[QUOTE=YoDude;468947]Yup, it can now be found in "Extras-testing" as fm-boost...

Coming in a bit late here but is FM-Boost a pre-baked widget that amplifies the FM transmitter as discussed in this thread?

Cheers.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

[QUOTE=janszoon;468982]Yes, it's a small script that amplifies the FM transmitter power.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Nice work guys but i have another question regarding the FM transmitter. See, before my n900 i was using Nokia n97 and on that phone i was able to set the frequency to two last decimal places, which resulted in finding more free frequencies.. n900 can't do that. Example: N900 - 99,1MHz; n97 - 99,15MHz.

Is there a way to enable that on the n900?

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

YoDude, please report again after you have updated to the 1.1 firmware. I'm curious to know if this script is obsoleted. I really hope it is.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

I can't find fm-boost in the extras-testing repository

please help! ahh... i want to get my fm transmitter to work too..

I activated extras-testing repository, but I can't find it even by searching it, and going down the "all" listing in alphabetical order. Does anyone one else have this problem by any chance?

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

what kind of car????

many newer cars have special radiation (solar) absorbing glass (ex Mercedes R class) that even interferes with toll booth transponders.

Since the car guys assumed that all the transmitter are on the outside of the car that is where they put the antenna and now your little N900 is inside a "faraday" cage.

check your owners manual if you have a section that states you can only put toll transponders in certain spots of your front windscreen, you may have a problem

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Same ol' song dude. :)

Updated PR1.1 firmware reports 111 without.

Push fm-boost button and BAM!

118

It is still needed. :eek:

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Ok, then I guess I should push to extras-testing. :(

EDIT: ...when the packages interface is not broken... :(:(

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

I found a new feature in FM-Transmitter...The transmitter now displays the artist and song on the radio display in my car...so no need to write a new program for that...All thanks to the new firmware from Nokia

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

My appologies RogerTHAcctant. It was in "Extras-devel" all along but will soon be in "Extras-testing".
It must have been the spiffy new icon qole configured that tripped me up.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

But at least your N900 is now somewhat safe from random lighting strikes. :p

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

can anybody confirm this?

mhm... then i could uninstall rdsnotify because sms-displaying isn't working for me at all :(

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

Lol cool thanks, I was disabling and re-enabling my extras testing repository and updating it. I thought maybe someone took it down or i didn't know if my apps weren't updated or what not.

I could just enable the extras devel, thanks for your response though!

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

finally tried out the script and I'm happy to report that it works like a charm. I have not used my car cd player in last two days because I've just been using N900 to play my mp3s via fm and its been working great :)

Thanks to the author of FM Boost.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

@b666m : i can confirm this, just tried the fm tx this morning and this new feature just surprised me :p

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

I too am looking for this app, but can't find it. Could someone point me to it a bit more clearly? Thank you.

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

It's in extras devel. Do you need more advise than that, or do you know how to find it?

Re: N900 Radio Transmitter: ways to amplify the radio signal
 

The app is called fm-boost and it is in Extras-devel.

I am trying to promote it to Extras-testing but there is a bug in the webpage, and I'm waiting for them to fix it.