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DAB slow to change stations?


billybob66
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hi all,

just got myself a new focus after having my MK2 for five days short off 10 years.

Anyway i have now got a 67 plate st line x and have to say i am loving every thing about it, all but the DAB radio. you see when i change from one station to another it takes around 15-20 seconds to change and this time is spent in silence waiting. Is this normal or is it just mine? Or is there a setting i have missed to put this right? i have downloaded and installed version 3.0 and checked again but now up to date. 

also, when i update the maps the car has to be running or is it possible to update with the stereo on as i clean and polish the car? i know it says it must be running but wondering if anybody has done it without it running.

thanks for reading, billybob66😃

 

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Mine does that too, which is really annoying, so would be interested to know why, and what the solution could be.

Its fine if you switch to a station on the same Dab 'band', ie between national BBC stations though.

 

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22 minutes ago, SgtAWilson said:

Mine does that too, which is really annoying, so would be interested to know why, and what the solution could be.

Its fine if you switch to a station on the same Dab 'band', ie between national BBC stations though.

 

if i find out i will let you know, sorry to say and very sorry to say i am glad its just not me and it is a problem others are having.so we can sort it out.

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Mine does the same between stations. Eg when I drive to work I have greatest hits radio on. Part way to work if fades so I go to another frequency for same station. I have both frequencies on preset buttons but when I press the preset button to change it still has 10 seconds of silence

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If that's on Sync3 it doesn't sound right. On my Focus MK4 it's near instantaneous between presets, using the up down buttons on the steering wheel there is no gap between stations.  

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this is not necessarily the correct technical term - but the idea is how it works - when we had analogue stuff it used loads of bandwidth just for the one channel with a big gap and so a distinct split, which seems to have given very fast channel hopping

when we went digital its like we broadcast one channel at a time, but each has say 10 audio streams (with each audio stream being a separate radio station), and thus to get 60 radios stations we get 6 channels all with 10 stations.... note these channels are called multiplexes these days, and each multiplex is much closer to the other, as the digital stuff clashes less.  I expect filtering out all the noise takes a split second and adds a delay (you see it on digital TV too).  But then swapping across channels/multiplexes takes far longer, maybe as the tuner now has to filter out which of 20 or 30 streams of digital rubbish you wanted?

if you flip between stations on the same multiplex it could be fast.... all BBC stuff sits on its own multiplex, and others are randomly scatted about.  So you might toggle totally different stations and it switches quick as broadcast on the same multiplex, or toggle across totally different multiplexes which is far slower

that will present a change to the user that the software nerd may or may not what to do, so you could deliberately delay everything so it appears to always take the same time (even though it doesn't really).  Then as DAB reception is still terrible / not available in places they can look for DAB not find and switch to FM... buts now it has to find the corresponding FM version after DAB fails, bringing in more delays (and usually with a big change in sound / quality)

On latest cars they mix and match all this fun into a single Radio app, but in hardware and software its really dancing around various tuners, stations, multiplexes and FM, DAB signals … my old car (not a ford) you have to swap to a different tuner and when on DAB its shows the name of the multiplex in use for the station you're on.  Between station's on the same multiplex its about 3 seconds, between multiplexes it seems like 15 seconds but is more like 7 seconds

 

 

 

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As I said mines quick even between different multiplex
 

 

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21 hours ago, Mark-UK said:

As I said mines quick even between different multiplex
 

 

Wow in the time you scrolled six presets I would still be waiting for one.

Had the car in on Friday for a recall and forgot to ask if there was a fix for this.

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  • 1 year later...

My Ford Transit Connect has started taking circa 30 secs to change stations. It used to be instantaneous or almost instantaneous. Very annoying. 

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  • 1 year later...

I've had this issue with a 2017 Grand CMax. A couple of years ago, the dealer "updated some other firmware" -- didn't tell me what, but I suspect the APIM -- and it was MUCH better. Like 1/2 second within the same multiplex/ensemble, or 2-3 seconds to change.  Unfortunately that only lasted a couple of months, and it's been back to this normal ever since.

It's usually 7 seconds to change between two multiplex/ensembles, or about 20 seconds to make two changes (even A-B-A).

 

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  • 1 year later...

Did anyone get this fixed? Mine does the same. I suspect the longer delays happen when between standard DAB services and DAB+ ones, which are becoming more common.

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