Does the MSN Direct receiver need to be plugged in to my GPS device to receive information? What about a power source?
The receiver is fully contained in the vehicle power cord, and houses its own radio receiver, antenna, processor, RAM, flash memory, and battery. It can operate completely independently for 2-3 days without being connected to external power or to your GPS device. When the internal battery is fully charged it downloads data at full strength, and when the battery level is low it will preserve power by downloading only traffic information at full strength, and all other types of information more slowly. When the receiver is attached to the GPS device, it uploads all the fresh data that it has saved.
