H2210 & GlobalSAT 308

[Amit]

I just bought a H2210 and BT 308 (with TomTom - older version NOT Tomtom 2). I have loaded the tomtom navigator and maps on the CF card. My BT connection seems fine - use SirF and 38400. Although, I do have a 'dead' green light on the BT-308, which other people on the forum have also experienced.



The problem I have is with my current location/positioning. The navigator does not seem to get the right fix of my current location at all and hence gives me all the wrong direction to my destination. It seems remotely close to where I am and at times it gives my current location as 'unnamed road'.



The GPS status seems to be good enough with about 5 sats tracked on but still it does not seem to track my current location and also very often it says the GPS is unreliable !



Has anyone experienced a similar problem. If not can anyone please suggest an alternate and reliable GPS receiver. I dont mind the wires etc. all I want is reliability !



Thanks in advance.

[Dave]

You need to be running it at NMEA 4800. If you run it at SiRF 38400, you won't be positioned properly, especially west of Meridian in TomTom Navigator. This was fixed in TomTom Navigator 2.



There is an updated GPS driver, you could try installing this. I'm not sure if the fix retrospectively was updated in TomTom Navigator 1.

[Stevie]

Amit,



I don't think you'll find the Globalsat is unreliable. I have used mine with TT2 on both the NMEA and SiRF settings. The green light is off (not dead) when you use SiRF, NMEA has a flashing green when a fix is obtained or steady green when it's still trying. It seemed to me that SiRF may have got more satellites (quicker) but the difference was so small I reverted back to NMEA just so I could see the fix confirmed by the flashing green led.



As Dave says try NMEA first. You may want to upgrade to TT2 rather than changing to another BT device if yours is OK.

[Amit]

Thanks Dave & Stevie for your replies. However, I have returned the BT308, since my 7 day return expired yesterday.



However, please could you let me know which GPS (in-car powered) would be ideal in terms of reliability and compatibility with the older version of Tomtom. I have the read the much of the forum but am still undecided (although Haicom 203 seems to be close). Also if SiRF is really better than the evermore chipset (Haicom 203 uses evermore chipset) or is it just the latest fad ?



The reason for moving backwards (from bluetooth) is the (any possible) incompatability with the older version of Tomtom. Also, I am using my CF card slot for memory, hence cannot use CF based GPS devices.



Thanks in advance,



Amit

[Dave]

If you are using TomTom Navigator 1, then the Leadtek 9531 or Holux GM-210 should work okay. Personally I would stay clear of the Haicom 203E. Quite a number of people have had problems with these, and for a seemless setup the Leadtek or Holux would be my choice.



There were some issues with TomTom Navigator 1, if you used the NMEA driver you wouldn't have had any issues.

[Amit]

Thanks a lot Dave.



BTW is there any difference between 9531 & 9532, apart from the colour and LED indicator.



I called TDC and they said in terms of the stuff inside the box both 9531 & 9532 are same but your review seems to suggest that they are different and that 9532 is superior than 9531 ?



Thanks again.

Amit

[Dave]

Yes, 9532 has SiRF II support where as 9531 had SiRF I support. Leadtek updated the current 9531's they were selling from December 2002 onwards to SiRF II chipset so that if there are any in shops now selling the 9531, they should be the new SiRF II chip, which is then identical to the 9532. The only difference then is the outer case.

[Amit]

Hi,

Due to wiring complication in my car, I had switch back to bluetooth GlobalSAT 308 and have tried the NMEA (0183v2) 4800 setting recommended earlier. This has fixed the green light problem but unfortunately I still have a problem with the fix.

TT version is 1.53 and GPS driver is 2.06. TT wrongly positions me about a mile away (approx) from where I am (with unnamed road). It is not like some other part of the globe. So is my problem related to NMEA 4800 or something else ?

Please help !

Many thanks,
Amit

[DavidW]

Are you actually on a public road? Navigator 2 attempts to snap your position to the nearest public road, and I believe Navigator 1 does similarly.

Moving can help - it seems that direction of travel information is used as part of this process (occasionally when I first get into the car I find Navigator 2 believes I'm on the wrong road - as soon as I move off the problem is corrected).


A mile of error is truly massive - far outside the specification for the GPS Standard Positioning Service. How many satellites are shown as being used?

You could have a look in the TomTom GPS driver and compare that to your position in multimap.com (the WGS84 position appears under the screen) to see how close the GPS is.



David

[Amit]

Hi David,

Thanks a lot for your reply. Your reply helped me fix the problem, although indirectly !

I was looking for the 'WGS84' that you had mentioned in your reply. Although, I could not find where this is this (maybe because this exists in TTN 2), but during this process I located the reason for my problem.

For some reason, my location got recalibrated and I got an option (when you click and hold on the blue arrow) to cancel the recalibration and bingo it worked fine.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Amit

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