Traffic Pro FAQ- Frequently Asked Questions
updated October 7, 2007
  • TP display doesn't dim with the dimmer switch (no hack... yet)
  • TP keeps playing for a minute after car shuts off. If you press the "ON" button within that minute it will stay on for a hour.
    If you press the "ON" button with the ignition off, it will come on and stay on for a hour.
  • Check SSV: press first and last bottom buttons at the same time to access speed and
    direction screen. Speed should read 000 when vehicle is not moving. with car
    in park, rev engine and be sure speed indication does not increase with RPM.
    When car is moving, speed number should increase and decrease with speed of
    car, it will not display speed in mph.
    If that's good, delete calibration and recalibrate.
    If that fails, copied disc corrupted Navi module and will need to be checked
    by Becker
  • Why does TP have to stay on for a few seconds after ignition is switched off?
    Date: Friday, January 28, 2005 7:03 AM
    Reply-To: trafficpro@yahoogroups.com
    Traffic Pro Tech Support writes:
    This has been a feature of Becker head units for years. The most
    damaging moment for any electronic component is at turn on/off. To
    counter any possible damage, when the unit senses the ignition line
    has gone low, it goes into its own shut down mode. This takes a few
    seconds, but greatly increases the life of the unit and any external
    amps connected to it.
  • "GPS MODUL ERROR"? Fix: Run Set Up software, calibration again. (Some have pulled out their unit and unplugged it and then set it up again.)
  • The Traffic Pro also features a telephone-muting option if a telephone system is installed in your car. The current program is muted and once you accept the call, the sound can be heard through you speaker system. The hands free kit must have:
    • Speaker Level Outs (not pre-amp)
    • Mute Trigger must be Ground
    • See also phone install pages
  • Aux. in cable the Becker part number is 1319.116-276. Burl in parts 1-888-423-3537 ext. 1209.
  • BMW Harness Plug:
    Pin 7 is I-bus
    Pin 10 is GALbut the BMW harness you buy doesnt have a pin for pin 10. You have to add it.
    Pin 17 is not assigned
    Some people are considering pulling pin 7 or pin 17 out of the car side of the harness and running it to the reverse wire so Traffic Pro is a fully removable system.
  • Bavarian Autosport's had a completely functional, completely assembled plug and play harness. My TP install took about 15 minutes with it.
  • The BE 7860 changer magazine ($61.00 plus shipping from Becker.
    has Porsche written on it)
    Turns out it is the same as a Sony XA-T6 at stereoadvantage.com. 1-800-835-7290. $29.90 each plus $8.90 shipping and handling. $7.90 for one.
  • Tom? at DensionUsa.com said they were working on a firmware upgrade with many improvements including song titles for their ipod adapter for Traffic Pro
  • The dimmer will only have an effect on the button illumination. The display
    is operated by a light sensor and automatically adjusts to the ambient
    light. Make sure that the unit LCD setting is in "automatic" so that when
    the lights are turned on (assuming in low light condition) the backlight is
    turned off and the text goes to red. Even in this mode, the light sensor
    will adjust the brightness of the text.
  • CD/Changer Bugs- From RichC
    #1 The changer does not support the PILA interface module (the thing that converts the IBus into another format, like Pioneer's CD Changer code. Tony says this is because they reverse-engineered the IBus to support it. My BMW head works with the change, but the Traffic Pro does not.
    #2 Since I could not run the Pioneer CD Changer with the Traffic Pro, I hardwired into the CD Changer inputs and hooked up my IRiver MP3 player. This works fine as long as the NAV cd is in the CD player. However, if I put a music CD into the player, then try to switch to the Changer, it would not let me (similar to your experience). Tony at Becker says this is a software bug.
    #3 This weekend I had the situation that the CD would not play a specific CD. Fast-forwarding through the CD revealed more than 60 tracks (it actually only has 12 tracks) and no volume. Hitting the soft reset (I used TP+3+5) seemed to cure this    .
  • If you're getting no signal from the CD changer you might have plugged the
    connector in upside down.
  • Display- Black/Orange & Dimmer: Shel:Late model bmw trafficpro's were produced in conjunction with the specs from bmw europe. Only the very first run (very few) were produced with all the same specs as the harman unit. The ability to control the lcd from positive to negative was removed. The display was put into the negative mode with the brightness controlled by a light sensor ajusting to the ambient brightness. These models also include the diversity antenna system that the originals did not have. If you have diversity antenna capability you can't change the orange to black. *possibly the new map software (version 2) allows the display to change orange letters on black background or black letters on orange background
  • OSGP
    > 3. The GAL setting on BMW TP should be:
    > 0=no change with speed
    > 1=change at higher speed (or very small change at lower speed)
    > .
    > .
    > .
    > 7=change at lower speed (or very significant change at lower speed)
    > The GAL setting in the instruction menu is reversed.
  • How to check SSV:
    press first and last bottom buttons at the same time to access speed and
    direction screen. Speed should read 000 when vehicle is not moving. with car
    in park, rev engine and be sure speed indication does not increase with RPM.
    When car is moving, speed number should increase and decrease with speed of
    car, it will not display speed in mph.
    If that's good, delete calibration and recalibrate.
    If that fails, copied disc corrupted Navi module and will need to be checked
    by Becker H/K
  • Jon V:When you insert a music CD into the TP, it will display the time of the song (ie "Track 4 2:43") but will not do so if you are playing
    a CD in the changer.
  • You might be able to use FREE pins to connect the GAL wire- Chris notes from the MZ3.net article: "Now the bad news. The pins required for the connector are odd-sized. They're 0.098 inch pins. The common 0.093 inch pins won't stay in. The good news. You can get the correct size pins and even the mating connector free from AMP. Call (800) 522-6752 ask for some engineering samples. Ask for part numbers 1-828737-1 (the mating connector) and 927797-2 (the pin). I asked for 5 connectors and 20 pins, and they didn't bat an eye.
    Interestingly enough, you're not allowed to buy the connector unless you are
    a BMW contractor. But ask for free ones, and there's no problem. I love the way the world works!" Note: This article is for the 1996 and 1997 model year BMW Z3, I've had vague reports that on 99 models (and perhaps some 98 models) the connector has changed
  • Using Nav without radio or CD playing:
    • Rich C writes: run the radio volume down to 0, then turn the nav
      announcements up (while navigating, press the
      "info" button and during the announcement, change the nav volume -- all the volumes are independent.
    • Adam writes: Push and hold the dP (tone key) button until the "secrete" menu comes up. Press the Nav soft key. Choose the option for independent, I think
      the default is mixed. Then you can raise the Nav volume without
      also raising the radio/CD/CD change volume. The way RichC describes works fine only if you are in the independent mode. In mixed mode, with the radio turned all the way down the nav announcements are inaudible and if you try to increase the nav announcements by hitting the info button and turning up the volume,
      the radio volume will also increase.Hope that helps.
  • You CAN swap faces -4773 faces for a BMW face. It will look like this on boot up instead of saying "BMW" but it will say "Becker". See the color difference here, 4773 Red:
  • 4773 faces: amber is a bit easier to read in sunlight. The red looks better at night
  • Your speed wire has to be digital to work with Traffic Pro
  • Radio station "jumping" to the first position on the dial, by default, the unit is in DAS mode (Dynamic Auto Store). It continuously sorts stations by signal strength, with the strongest signal going to the first position, the second to the second, etc. To stop this from happening and to manually assign particular stations to particular buttons, you need to put it into either "Stations Fix" or "Stations RDS" mode. Is TP indicator on? If so, the current source, (CD, AM, FM ) will be interupted so that transmitted traffic announcements can be made. Use the TP key to turn it off. BTW in the bay area, The Bone and KFOG transmit the tp signal, but I have not heard any announcement yet.
  • Ken Bellview writes: The BMW TP [4771] does come with pre-amp out puts which can be connected to RCA cables which will plug right into the amp. There's no sub out put on the BMW version like there is on the HK TP [4773], only two sets of pre-outs for the front and rear channels.
  • Ron Stygar's GPS Antenna placement test:. "Under the dash behind the instrument cluster 6>7 satellites. Under the dash above the center grille duct 7 satellites. This varies depending where you place it above the duct. I did it live while receiving satellites for optimum position. On top of the dash, centered up to the windshield 8 satellites. On top of the roof 8 satellites."
  • DIY Antenna plug repair-The GPS Antenna Plug: You will need a WICLIC antenna plug. Try ebay or google. Good luck, Joost
  • Map troubles: the navigation data for Pennsylvania and a few other states have a strange structure. You may find it helpful to enter the county name in place of a city name and then enter the street.
  • G Derbin writes: Remote turn on lead from the TP: I have my BMW antenna amp, remote turn on for my JL amp, my soundgate dock, and the remote turn on of my XM Commander on
    it (last three fused). I was concerned that I should use a relay to control these items instead of directly off the remote turn on lead. For example, some Pioneer units max out at 300 mA.
    Tony at Becker assured me that he was running a similar setup in his car w/o a problem, he then went to the bench and drew a 3 A load off of a TP without a problem.
    Big difference between 300 mA and 3 A.
  • George writes: If your 4771 looses it's factory CD changer, you don't have to unplug the CD changer three pin power cable, you can just do a three finger salute (TP + 1 + 3) reset, and your 4771 will find your factory changer again after it reboots. But make sure you have a Nav disk handy.
    I tried sending a changer reset, that didn't do squat. But at least I didn't have to take my cd-changer down.
  • Erratic Compass: Posted by Marc on 5/6/2005, 4:50 pm
    I posted below about my erratic compass problem I have been having. At the same time, the radio would also think it was a sreet over from it's actual location. It DID navigate properly 98% of the time, though. After the suggestion of sending it for service I decided to grab a spare (yes, legit) unit of ebay. I wanted a spare anyway, so what the heck. Plugged it in and...... same thing. Hmmm.... In the diag menu, F1 and F10, it showed speed sensor, etc. What I never realized was that the speed signal was "noisy".
    After it dawned on me that the speed signal was jumping around instead of smoothly incrementing, I pulled out the service manual for my car, (02 Civic) and double checked all the wires. I noticed that the speedo is coupled by a DIODE to the speed sensor. As an experiment I added a Diode in
    line with the TP speed signal line and..... Lo and behold, rock steady speed pulses. Who'd have thunk it.
    I did also hook up the reverse wire after reading a compelling post on a german navi forum as to why it IS needed. Long story short, my TP is running PERFECTLY now, and the compass is working all the time. The Nav also seems to know exacly where I am when I start my car the next morning. It always
    had problems before. I hope that this may help someone reading this. Not all speed signals are "clean" and while the TP may work, it will likely be quirky like mine was.
    Thanks for reading.
    BTW, upon starting the car, the TP would turn off and back on. Seems a lot of people have this problem. I finally decided to replace my battery since it was 3 years old. Car started fine, but you could tell that it was not as brisk anymore. I bought an Optima battery, as I have had great experiences
    with them before. The radio no longer cuts off while starting the car. This lets me program a route without idling the engine the whole time. I suspect that an aling battery could also cause the TP to glitch. Anyway, another minor annoyance solved
  • Using Back Up Copies of NAV CDs: George wrote: Two things I did, I made a backup with the CloanCD using "data disk" and the lowest speed I could. Also, I do not program in a destination when in an "off road" situation. These two things have allowed me to stick with a backup for a couple weeks now w/o an issue. Where-as before I was getting problems after about a week.
  • Changing the color- Gels- George writes: It is a guy who did it for his own XM Commander and offered the service for others for $45 including shipping. Gels are readily availible, it is just the hands to desolder the boards to get at the leds. I am pretty good with an iron, but wouldn't attempt this,
    especially when someone elese has figgured it out. The XM commander has such small leds, he only has one source for them, and he has to order 1000 of them, which is too costly for a side project. Marc
    goes by the name "The Tinman" on www.xm411.com. That is the best way to reach him regarding the XM commanders.
  • Heat- Tony wrote: The cd drive generates no heat. All the heat from that unit comes from the internal amp and the processors (threre are a few) The unit have an overtemp protection circuit built into it. This will activate long before any damage can be bone to your discs.
  • Check you GAL/SSV settings: press first and last bottom buttons at the same time to access speed and direction screen. Speed should read 000 when vehicle is not moving. with car in park, rev engine and be sure speed indication does not increase with RPM. When car is moving, speed number should increase and decrease with speed of car, it will not display speed in mph.
    If that's good, delete calibration and recalibrate.
    If that fails, copied disc corrupted Navi module and will need to be checked by Becker
  • Activate Phone: push tone button for 8 seconds to activate phone
back to Traffic Pro Users page
 
Esmerelda's Page Esmerelda's Home Page~ Z3ers.com
copyright Rachel Corey Katz all rights reserved