SMEG+ nav and traffic, questions and a bit of a rant

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Richard_C
(Donor 2016)
Posts: 535
Joined: 15 Oct 2011, 17:31
Location: Cambridge, England
My Cars: C4 Picasso 1.6 Blue Hdi 120 Manual Excl+ 2016
C3 1.2 Puretech 110 Auto Flair 2017
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SMEG+ nav and traffic, questions and a bit of a rant

Post by Richard_C »

This relates to the SMEG+ unit on a late 2015 build pre-facelift C4 Picasso. I know the unit is shared with the Grand Pic, Peugeot 3008 and 5008, Cacti various and probably many other PSA cars.

Mine is running on SMEG 5.4 A R3, I know there have been a couple of updates but I think they only address some Cactus issues and maybe android mirroring which I don't need, so I don't want to do a firmware update unless I really have to. The post 2016 facelift hardware is different and I think runs SMEG 6.xxxx so later cars may not have the same issues.

I have had the car for 4 months now, bought 'with the head not the heart' because of changing and specific needs but I am getting to like it. It was pre owned, registered to Citroen UK. I sought out one with a colour display screen and Sat Nav - in retrospect maybe should have settled for a VTR+ without all that. There are a few things about the satnav that drive me crazy, crazy enough to say to myself "if you buy another one, get a lower spec save a few ££ and sit your Garmin on the dashboard".

It's a pain not being able to show the map on top screen unless its also showing on the bottom one, which rather defeats the purpose of 2 screens. It's also unthinkingly bad design that you can't turn down the brightness unless the lights are on, and if you go to 'black panel' at night the one thing that still shows, the speedometer, steps up to full brightness regardless of the settings you had before. And the speed limit data is pathetic, I don't care about camera locations (did buy one copy of the database), but its useful to see speed limit on urban and suburban roads where its often unclear. But - you only see speed data on top screen if that is switched to map and if the bottom screen is showing map and in any case it only has limits on M and major A roads, not even all A roads. My cheap old Windows phone, which uses the same Here Maps data as Citroen, shows the limit everywhere - so it's the PSA implementation that's dismal, its not lack of data. These are the grumbles but if anyone has found way to improve things I would be glad to hear them.

The thing somene might be able to help with is traffic information. I have played with just about every setting and read the manual and always press 'confirm' to make changes, but others might have had more success, even if not it would be good to know so I stop wasting time trying to fix the un-fixable. I know traffic info is often out of date but it really helps to know about big closures - "bit busy on B1098" can be ignored, "M5 closed and will be all day" cannot.

Radio Traffic Announcements

I don't get any of the TAs from local BBC stations, whether I am listening on FM or DAB. I get very occasional random TA break ins from the odd commercial station - Heart mostly. I read somewhere that that EON functionality that drives it has been left out on SMEG +, its worked on just about every car I've owned for 20+ years and is fine on my C3 and very basic C1. Has anyone got TA to work properly? If so, how.

Satnav traffic announcements

You can set satnav to show new messages. If you have a route set in its sort of OK, last week it told me lots about traffic jams in Manchester while I was on a route up the A1 to Leeds from Cambridge, so its far from perfect but I can live with it.

If there is no route set in, you can set radius around vehicle. If I set it to 6 miles - too low to be of practical use - and sit in my village in Cambridge it brings me countless messages from North London, the M5 at Cheltenham, .... you get the picture. Of course while these random massages are popping up every few seconds you can't adjust the heat, change the radio station or see the map so the only solution is to turn them off. Has anyone got it to work properly?

The RNEG I had in my 2010 Myway C5 was wonderful in comparison - TA and traffic both fine.

So - any SMEG experts who can help? (Smegxperts?) or do I just make sure my next car is a different make (Smegxit?)
Richard_C

Current: , C4 Picasso 120 BlueHdi, C3 1.2 Auto
Past Citroens: Dyane (x2), 2CV, Visa, BX (x2), Xantia, Xsara Picasso, C3 (x2) C5 X7 Tourer, Synergie 1.9TD, C1
Others: Hillman Hunter, Cortina Mk 1, Maxi, VW Type 2, Granada, SAAB 900, SAAB 9-5, R5 Gordini
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