FM Transmitter - Nuvi 660

FM transmitters in the US have very limited power (they are limited by FCC regulation) output. The European models have much higher power output, but actually require licensing before they can be used. That aside, you can buy a device at most auto stereo shops that is mainly designed for use with portable satellite radios, that will block the incoming FM signals, regardless of frequency. In essence, they "block" over-the-air reception, but will allow on-board FM transmitters. This device costs about $80 installed, and will solve your problem. The reason for the device is that an FM transmitter (whether it be GPS device or Satellite Radio) transmits to the car antenna, and in a lot of todays cars, those antenna are in a rear window or mounted toward the rear of the vehicle, making it harder for the low-power FM transmitter to reach them.
I had one of these devices installed on a Honda Odyssey, and it totally eliminated the problem of poor reception from either my XM satellite radio or my GPS transmitter.

Hope this helps........

Joel

This is a common complaint. My Nuvi is less than 3 feet from my car antenna and I have te same problem. If your car is old enough to still have a cassette player you can use a cassette adapter. This is the route I went and it works perfectly. This is the one I use: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=3510454&st=cas...

That is the reason why I returned my 660 and bought the 650. Now I have my 650 connected to the stereo directly using rca cable.

cdnrver,

I also have a 660. The 660 also has a headphone jack. I use a 1/8" stereo to rca cable and connect to the aux inputs of my of car stereo. Is that the way you connect your 650 to your car stereo?

As it has been said previously the FM Transmitter is low power. Here are a couple things to try that helped me. Make sure you have the cable pulled out all the way and not coiled up or bundled. Try another FM frequency that may not be competing with outside stations.

The clearest signal will of course be a direct wire to an aux input. BTW I noticed on my 760 diagnostic screen there is a setting to change the headphone jack to a line output setting.... nice! But I don't use it since I don't have an aux input on my car radio. My 680 doesn't have such a setting that I could find.

I will be interested to know since I drive a Odyssey too. I have not tried to use the FM transmitter after lousy results, but this site may help in picking a good frequence:
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/vacant?select=city&city...

I have a $7 USD FM transmitter I use for the portable DVD player in my car and it works fine. It seems to me that a $500 USD 660 should work too but it doesn't.
I see the weak FM transmitter as a big CON on the 660 but I will live with it because there are many PROs. (I wish it worked though.)

Works for us. My son suggested it.

@spectrum44:

I'm getting the 650 (all the same features as 660 except for bluetooth (which I don't need) and fm transmitter)

The 650 was $150 cheaper than the 660.

Because I did not have an aux input on my truck's factory stereo, I had to install one $79 + the rca cable.

I used this device:

http://www.crutchfieldcanada.com/SearchResults.asp?sp=lnav&s...

I plugged my son's 650 into my new aux input with the rca cable and it sounds great - direct connection and no hissing.

Overall, the total cost was cheaper and superior sound.

The next thing I'm getting is a bean bag mount to deter thieves. Some people remove their GPS but leave the window or dash mounts visible. A thief could break in thinking that the GPS is hidden under the seat etc.

A frequency in your town or city may not be good elsewhere. I had the problem because I was driving through Atlanta, where the frequencies are really crowded. With the device installed, I eliminated the problem.

Joel

Suggested the same thing to my son, but he had to pull the entire radio out of the dash to get at the antenna in his Ford F-150. Now he's assured of "dash rattle" for the life of his truck! Obviously the best avenue is to use the AUX input if the vehicle has one. Since all but new vehicles do not, the "blocking device" is probably the best bet........

Joel

Thanks Spectrum44. I had a 1/8" cable I use to connect my I-Pod to my car's auxilliary input jack. That resolves the problem. Now I'm thinking I'm going to just fill up my SD card with MP3s and stop using the I-Pod in my car.

I have a 660 and a 7200 and have the same problem with both. I have just given up and use the direct connection to my car stereo system. That works great!

I Have a Hyundai Santa FE, I installed a discontinued Apline Multi-Media Radio (over three years old). The box mounted under the drivers seat has aux ports I use an aux port to listen to my zune in the car, now it's also used for the 660.

We are on the same page with the bean bag mount, I got mine a few years ago (I also Have a Street Pilot III) I still use the Street Pilot III for making my own routes on long trips cross country.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Glad my post helped you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I bought one. I plugged it in. It is working better than the FM Transmitter. However, I'm annoyed by the constant clicking noise, loud enough to be heard, from the cassette player. Anyone out there that is knowledgeable about how to get rid of this clicking noise. It did not help with my demagnetiser.
Thanks in advance.

That noise is mechanically induced from inside the adaptor. Some of the lesser quality cassette adapters seem to be louder than others. I have bought several over the years and I have noticed the same problem. I wish I could recommend a silent version but the last two I got still clicked.

I think I am going to have to just replace the radio one day with a CD Radio with Aux input. I have a bluetooth car adaptor that will connect wirelessly but unfortunately the Garmin Bluetooth profile isn't up to date to support it yet so it will only work with my Pocket PC's.

This sounds just what I've been looking for. I was almost at the point of disconnecting my car radio antenna and making a modified one located closer to the 660 in the hope it would work. I've called a couple of auto stereo shops who seem to have no clue what you are referring to. Any idea what it's actually called / manufacturer / web link? I'd be forever in your dept!

I would like to get the FM transmitter working (at almost any cost) as the TTS / MP3 / bluetooth cell 'phone are the top reasons I purchased this unit. If this feature works as advertised then I can live without listening to radio stations (I only did that for traffic and don't have the need now!).

I have had the same issue here is a good article on the subject:

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/learningcenter/car/noise_s...

My problem was the ground loop caused by the antenna, and I think this may be fairly common. Unplug the antenna as someone else mentioned, that worked for me too.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-4TW3NmZlpGV/App/Product/Item/Ma...

This is installed between the antenna and the radio.

Tomorrow, I'll call the stereo shop that installed mine, and get the name of the device for you. I believe that it is sold in conjunction with satellite radios - mainly because most of them have the same "weak-knee" FM transmitters that we are all finding in our GPS devices (when so equipped). Once installed, I never had any problem with either my XM radio, or the GPS transmitter. Before installation, all I had was problems......

Joel

You Sir, are a gentleman!

All the other 'solutions' that I have researched involve additionally connecting the Nuvi to the aux in or similar and I want the functionality of mounting the GPSr in the cradle with NO additional wiring attached.

I'm sure that, if this blocker works the miracle I'm hoping, it will be the answer to a lot of Nuvi owners!

Now I kind of like this one... It allows the remote disconnect of the antenna but it is designed to use a hardwire connection from your device. I wonder since the Garmin has the FM transmitter already built in and if it was set to one of the four fixed frequencies of this FM modulator if this could be a "wireless" solution? And then the RCA line in connection is just a spare aux in. Well Oditius I think this may be the best solution.

I found favorable reviews of the product. Here is a self installation and review at www.stu-offroad.com/electrical/fm/fm.htm I got an online purchase price of only $19.95 w/ free shipping at Shop4Tech.com
http://electronics.pricegrabber.com/car-audio-access/m/48576...

This solution is almost the same price as the cassette adapter but without the clicking.

Several have mentioned unplugging the antenna. Am I to assume that you never listen to your car radio then or do you have a switch installed to disable the antenna?

Seems like the antenna passes through the modulator since it has both male and female plug.

I am also having the same problem and my antena is on the hood, not the rear of my truck. I read where you can block all of the FM stations. I think that is what I am gong to do.

There is an option (on the 660 at least) in the service menus to increase the power of the FM Transmitter, but I haven't been able to figure out how to save the selection on exiting the service screens. And of course, you may be violating regulations in your country, state or province ... or even over powering the fm transmitter(?)

I can only guess that your adapter is not working correctly. I would return it. The worse option is that your cassette player is not working but if it plays cassette tapes ok then it would point to the adapter. All I can say is for me the adapter works perfectly. While I would prefer that the FM transmitter worked without any problems, living in the DFW area makes finding a clear frequency difficult. The cassette adapter has been a better solution. It is easy but of course is only available to us folks driving older cars that still have cassette players.

Sorry I wasn't clearer. What I meant was there were several posters that said they simply unplug their FM antenna (not using a modulator) which I assume then they don't listen to their FM radio other than using the Garmin. The modulator does act as a switch which is why I got it ordered it because I do listen to FM radio stations.

This would be great? Anyone know how to do it?

It is an Audiovox XM FM1. I'm sure that it is used more for XM satellite radio than by GPS owners, but I can tell you that it works great for either. I did not want to mess with the dash on my Honda Odyssey, so I had it installed (by the stereo shop that sold it to me), and it was $79.00 installed. The nice thing about this device is that you set one of your presets on your stereo to match the frequency on your device, and the remainder of your presets still work for broadcast FM....

Hope you can find it where you live, because it solved all my FM transmitter problems!

Joel

I only ever used my radio to listen to MP3's contained on my ipod (via a low cost ipod FM transmitter add-on that worked VERY well) and occasionally the local traffic report. If I can get the Nuvi's FM transmitter to work at an acceptable level then I will use the Nuvi for my MP3's and traffic.

There is a discussion about this here:

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=98249&...

My 660 (ver 2.40) has choices for...

2.0mW
1.0mW
0.5mW

But there is also a box called 'High Pwr' that is selected. I assume that means use the highest power that it can.

Considering the many reports on this board (and others) that the FM transmitters for ipods etc. work much better than the Nuvi's I would guess that the Nuvi transmission power is not close to violating regulations in the US.

Thanks Joel!

I've found it on several web sites so should have no problem purchasing it. I'm not 100% sure though that this will do what I was hoping it would. It looks as though this unit has a lead that connects to your XM radio, is that correct?

My ideal solution is to have no additional wiring to the Nuvi.

The description on Amazon (and elsewhere) of the Audiovox XM FM1 says:

The Audiovox XMFM-1 FM Direct Adapter for Xpress XM7 Satellite Radio Receiver is designed expressly to turn the internal FM transmitter in Audiovox's XM7 receiver into a wired FM modulator. This unit plugs directly into the vehicle radio antenna jack in your car stereo, and connects to the XMC-10 cradle via the docking station's audio line-out jack. This is especially useful for when you are taking advantage of your XM7 XM satellite radio receiver's FM transmitter because your vehicle's car stereo does not have an audio line-in jack accessible, and you are driving through areas with strong FM radio signals that are interfering with your car's reception of the XM7's FM transmission. In order for this unit to operate, your XM7 receiver must be set to FM On in the Xpress XM user's menu.

This is a bit confusing because it says that it is a wired FM modulator. And the part about it connecting to the audio line-out jack on the XM unit makes it sound like this would need to be hard wired to the headphone jack of the nuvi.

However, from the picture, it looks like the only connections to the Audiovox unit are the antenna pass-through and DC power.

I would have to guess that the way to use this in conjunction with the nuvi's built-in FM transmitter (no additional wires to nuvi) would be to use it without the part that gets hardwired to the XM receiver. And to just connect the Audiovox in between the car's antenna and the car's radio. And then set the Audiovox to a certain frequency which you would then set the nuvi to transmit on, and your car's radio to receive on.

Is that how it works? Am I understanding this correctly?

One possible cause of an audible clicking is the use of an incompatible cassette adapter with an auto-reverse cassette deck. Many auto-reverse decks detect end-of-tape by sensing that the slack reel is no longer turning. Some cassette adapters include gears to link the two reels, and possibly a catch to make it only turn in one direction. Without the gearing, the affected decks will attempt to switch directions constantly. With the gearing, the deck should play continuously in one direction (unless the adapter jams).

Not as significant in this case, the directional catch will force the deck to always play in the same direction. I don't know of any use for that other than allowing the manufacturer to reduce cost by implementing playback on only one side of the deck's playback head.

The picture I found on this site... http://www.beachaudio.com/Audiovox/Xmfm1-p-77554.html# shows a connection to the car radio antenna, a connection to the car radio and a connection that says 'to XM radio' so I assume there is a wire that would have to run to the Nuvi. I agree that the description is a little confusing!

I had hoped (like you) that this would be a magic device that would only require fitting within the car radio antenna line).

It's cheap enough that I may buy one just to see if it could be used without a direct connection.

So there are ten electrical connections on the Nuvi to cradle connector. I guess it's too much to hope that three of these are ground / left audio / right audio? Does anyone have a schematic for this connector?

What Toranodo found was rather interesting. Like I said, I had the unit installed, so if there was a wire that went to the base of the XM radio, I was not aware of it. I can tell you that there was no wire that went to the XM radio itself, because I took it off the base and out of the car frequently by simply pulling the power plug, antenna plug, flipped the lock, and out it came. If I misrepresented the product, I apologize, but why would it work with my Nuvi? I'm going to have to guess that you could ignore the wire to the XM, and it would work fine. I tried the Nuvi without it, and it was crap. With it, it sounded as good as the XM radio.........

Joel

Hi, Bwarden:

Thanks for your response. Is there any fix for the clicking noise for my Philips brand of cassette adapter If there is, will you please tell me how? The noise was there even when I changed to a regular music cassette tape. The noise is really getting to be annoying especially when I am listening to some easy and soft music/songs.
I tried Nuvi's weak FM transmitter, I found myself busy chasing after the vacant channels to avoid statics. I tried the internal speaker, but the volume is weak it is barely audible on the interstate. I am beginning to wonder my new Nuvi 660 is a poor choice or poor design by Garmin.

Hi, plainodude:

What brand of cassette adapter are you using?

No apologies necessary! I'm assuming that the mystery wire must go to the cradle of your XM radio but that doesn't explain why it works so well with your Nuvi. Unless something better appears in the next day or two then I'll buy one and do a few tests.

This link has a better explanation of the Audiovox XMFM1 connections.

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?i=220X...

Seems there are two XM radio connections on it that would be unused in a nuvi application.

Large picture:
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/products/2006/220/x220XMFM1...

I believe the thing with the giant connector and the bare leads is just an extra power port.

From BestBuy's description:

This FM direct adapter for XM Satellite Radio receivers lets you switch seamlessly between your car's FM radio antenna and your XM satellite radio receiver.

Allows automatic switching to XM Satellite Radio reception when your XM Radio is turned on; switches back to car radio when your XM Radio is turned off

It appears the XMFM1 doesn't get connected directly to a DC power source. I think it must function as a relay that gets triggered by the signal from the XM radio.

Without an XM radio connected to it there wouldn't be any way to switch it on and off unless there was some hack that would allow you to do that.

dcoffing, I just got a 760 for Christmas. How do I get to the diagnostic screen to change the setting, making the headphone jack a line output? That would be great.

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.

Touch and hold (about two seconds) on the battery icon of the main screen. That should bring up the diagnostic screens for you to page through. I think it is about the 4th or 5th screen in when you can change it from a headphone to a line-out setting.

You got a GREAT Christimas present too! I am sure you are going to love it.

I am curious why would you choose the AudioVox vs Scosche FM Modulator? The AudioVox is only good for the XM (and Garmin) whereas the Scosche is universal and could work not only with the Garmin but anything you have that could be plugged in. I feel pretty confident now after reading PaintballCFO's experience that both will work wirelessly with the Garmin.

toronado455 you bring up a great point here about the switching. On the Scosche there is a manual switch. Anyway your logic which I think is correct says this AudioVox may be a bad choice unless you have the AudioVox XM Radio installed too.

PaintballCFO can verify this for us by letting us know that he must have the XM Radio "on" to use the Garmin.

I don't see how. Unless I am misunderstanding the way it works (entirely possible), the Scosche can be set to transmit on one of two FM frequencies (87.9 or 88.3). It isn't listening/recieving on those frequencies also is it?

It would eliminate interference from radio stations, but it seems it would also eliminate the ability to receive the signal from the nuvi. With the vehicle radio antenna unplugged, how is the vehicle's radio able to receive the FM signal transmitted from the nuvi?

I use a Sony brand purchased from Best Buy. Here is the link: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=3510454&st=cas...

Other than the pain of plugging/unplugging it from the Nuvi it works perfectly. However I agree with everyone else, I wished the FM worked as advertised by Garmin.

The XM radio has to be OFF to receive the FM Transmissions from the Nuvi, otherwise there are two transmissions competing for the frequency. As I said previously, the Nuvi transmission to the frequency was as clear as the XM.

Joel