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2014 Tacoma Electronics BLAH

clr8ter

New Member
I have the fancy electronics package in my truck. If it did what (I think) it was supposed to do, it'd be awesome. But it doesn't. I am not sure how much of it is my fault, VS. the trucks' or my phones' fault. But...

Apple I phone keeps disconnecting, intermittently. For no reason, I''ll go through periods where it may or may not stay connected, and sometimes it's an awful chore to get it to connect.

When you want to make a call by telling the truck who to call, it's always a crap shoot. Some names, it just cannot get, no matter how I pronounce it. Can it be taught?

I have had more than one free trial of XM radio. Every time, the reception is awful. I don't get how they ever sign anybody up for a paid service that has much worse reception than FM. I drive 9 or so miles to work, and it'll loose reception 10-15 times. In any weather. Any conditions.

Other than that, the whole system's complicated. I understand to some degree that it will basically be an extension of my phone, but I don't know what real benefit that would be. Especially since the setup is so complicated, it seems...

And, yes, I've mentioned these things to the dealer, they don't seem to know anything about the system.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
You have issues if you can't get satellite radio. Where do you live?
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Reception for xm is either on of off, as it's digital. What types of connection/reception issues do you have?

Your talking about the entune system correct? What version is your software?
 

toyotasrule

Active Member
100 Posts
There was an article I just read that spotlights where XM satelite signals are the strongest and weakest, seems to point out that they're hitting the center of North America strong with wide coverage, but near the edges of the coverage area it gets spotty. My guess is that New Hampshire in in that area.

http://www.deadzones.com/2012/01/sirius-xm-losing-signal.html#.Ve4xRPlVhBc



This article is from 2012, but they keep having financial problems so maybe they're cutting power back, I dunno how it works, but they have to bounce the signal up and hit the satelite and then have it spread back to earth.

We have been noticing a lot more Sirius XM radio signal drops in the last few months. I was hoping to get a clear technical explanation of why this might be happening from someone knowledgeable at the company. However, my attempts at reaching the appropriate person at the company have been unsuccessful. So I thought I would make a blog post about the topic and hope that someone will find us to explain.
 

toyotasrule

Active Member
100 Posts
Also, I'm sure you and/or your dealer tried this, but make certain to follow Toyota's instructions for hooking up your phone.

The http://www.toyota.com/connect website offers these steps to use when connecting your Toyota Entune system to your iPhone:
 

clr8ter

New Member
The reception problem is that it just drops. One day, it dropped the signal when I passed a tractor trailer. When I get off the highway every morning on the way to work, it drops the signal when I go through the cut in the rock. And, it drops the signal randomly, on a nice sunny day with nothing around, with a clear view of the sky.
The phone thing is basically the same. The phone usually connects fine, and works fine. But randomly, it will disconnect. No reason. And it can be, (but not always) a bitch to get it to re-connect. It hasn't done it lately.

Oh, and I forgot; the weather. That also has a very spotty signal, or reception, I don't know which. Most of the time, it says that HD signal is not available. When it does get a signal and display the weather, it does so for a town not in our area. It drives me nuts.

Not sure what version of software it is, but after I bought the truck and complained, they checked and said it was up to date.
 

Huck Norris

Member
It's got to do with the fact that you're getting a Satellite signal from the sky and the angle that you get the signal to your antenna depends on where you are at. Not that there is anything that you can do about it, but you can check to see what satellite you're pulling signal from.

The further north and east you go the shallower the angle to the satellite as most of them are on orbits that are set to target the whole of north america, plus some do go in different orbits and honestly i've not kept up with all of the new launches they have but they put them up every few years and have different orbits as well.

http://www.n2yo.com/whats-up/?c=33

I just used that site to make a map showing where all of the satellites are right now. If you do this at night you can go outside (if you live in a dark area) and see them.

upload_2015-9-8_12-6-48.png
 

clr8ter

New Member
Yeah, I've assumed as much. But I question the wisdom of basically setting up the NE part of the country to not get a good signal. There are an AWFUL lot of people packed into this region, and we drive an AWFUL lot of Toyotas. I personally will not be paying for a spotty signal. If the signal was good, I'd consider it.
I'm also assuming the weather channel feed is satellite. If so, I get that part, same problem as the radio. But all my other problems aren't related to any satellites.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Looking at that list, looks like there are now five xm satellites in the air. Didn't realize there were now five of them. I think there is a setting to tell you which satellite you are connected to at any one time.

Let me reach out to them and see what I can learn. I agree that you shouldn't be losing signal very often, but that is the trade off, drive into a downtown area with high rises and you're not going to get s signal. However, you can hop on interstate 90 in Boston and drive all the way to Seattle and always have the same stations.
 

clr8ter

New Member
Fair enough, in downtown Manhattan, I can see you loosing some signal. But around here, there's not that type of downtown.
 

Huck Norris

Member
Ok. So went and found some online discussions about this.

First point that a lot of people were making is the increased number and power of cell phone towers. Something with those increasing causes interference with the satellite signal coming down.

Also really do wonder if they're cutting signal strength though to save money, that's a definite possibility for sure as xm and Sirius merged due to financial issues and problems. Why not cut back a little to save money?
 

Huck Norris

Member
In fact one guy wrote this on a website dealing with signal loss called deadzone.

uly believe it is the proliferation and upgrading of CELL TOWERS. I have a 2006 Honda Ridgeline comes with XM standard and have used it since I bought new in '06. had a few, very few dead spots but now I notice it dies in the same areas constantly and guess what there is a cell tower within a block. Contact SiriusXM tech support, no help told me to contact a Honda Dealer. My wife has an old '96 Mazda standard AM/FM radio with an add-on XM receiver and it rarely if at all losses signal. that is until Sirius took over (I believe that is when my Honda started having my issues)and now does it does loose some signal around large buildings but not that bad. After reading multiple blogs and entries on this subject it is obvious that SiriusXM may not be around much longer (joining the ranks of Blockbuster, etc) . Pandora, Radio Paradise (one of my personal favorites) and other internet apps will soon take it's place. Too bad I really enjoy many of the channels and programs.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
So I actually have not had XM for at least a year now and just happens that I saw an online ad that XM is doing a free week or two right now for select channels.

So I was in my minivan driving the kids to school today, it's raining and we're in north Texas so not really a lot of trees or anything, but we're at a much lower latitude so who knows, but I figured that I would test it again to see how many times I lost signal.

XM FREE TRIAL SIGNAL TEST
So in the 90 minutes and 10 miles between my kid's two schools and a Racetrac to get a coffee and egg biscuit sandwich ... never lost the signal. Not even once. Sorry, my experience doesn't mesh up to your signal experience.

Now, I pretty much only listened to the 80's on 8. I did listen to Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN for a few minutes and that station did take maybe 4 or 5 seconds to come on after I put on the station, but it never faltered once I got the signal locked in. Going back to the 80's on 8 only took maybe 1 or 2 seconds for the signal to start playing for those channels.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
I'm not sure why the terrestrial cell phone towers would degrade the signals from the satellites. Maybe they do, but they're on different frequencies aren't they? I guess they're all energy waves and I actually got my degree in communication technologies, but I graduated when satellite radio was in it's infancy, in fact one guy who I graduated with got an XM radio back very very early, like 2001 or so and we listened to it in his car back then and it just really expanded my mind!

However, that was a while ago, maybe someone who knows more about this still will come by and offer their opinion.

I am sending a message to the Toyota PR firm regarding the Entune system and XM/SIRIUS signal strength and I'll see what they report back to me on testing and diagnostics for your complaints.
 

Toyota Girl

Active Member
100 Posts
Satellite reception is not terrible here, but not all that it's cracked up to be. This is of course in the northwest with heavy cloud cover all the time. It still works but it will drop signal in heavy clouds, all of the trees probably cause issues as well too.
 

jazz

Mechanic
100 Posts
I thought it was just me having trouble with satellite signal. Nothing but rocks and trees around here..I packed it in with satellite radio and just use memory stick at work. I find news/dg's too annoying,,maybe its just me...sirius is just spooled content IMO ...I have accu radio app now but have yet to use it out of town to see when and where I have signal...I'll try it next week...
 

MuddyTacoma

Mechanic
1000 Posts
plus with the expansion of cell towers across most of the usa now you pretty much can be connected all the time to the internet and don't need to have a satellite signal, right?
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
What model of xm capable radio do you have? This is the full satellite navigation unit, right or wrong?
 

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