For TomTom Navigator 3 users

pak · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 6

Last Dezember I bought a DELL AXIM (latest WiFi and BT model with Windows Mobile Pocket second edition) and a TomTom Navigator 3 wired system. I installed evrything and it worked well two times. Now, when I connect the PDA to the holder in the car, nothing happens. I can see the indicatin of the satellites, but the system never starts to work. I mean, the program starts and I can see the map, but there is no "activation" of the program. It seems that the software is not receiving the signal from the GPS. The antenna is workig (I can see the green light) and the PDA is also working fine.
What is wrong? It worked last week, but now...?

Thanks and regards.

DavidW · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:12 pm Post subject:

Have you installed the 3.07 update - which may have been shipped on a update CD in the pack if you bought Navigator 3 recently.

If not, install it - as it's the only version of Navigator 3 that's listed as working on 2003 Second Edition.

Meanwhile, have you looked at your GPS settings - second tab of the TomTom GPS application? Do they look right, and is there a tick in the box at the top left of the screen? (If not, tap the box to make it unticked, correct the other settings, then tap the box to tick it). Are there 'scrolling dots' on the first tab?

David

pak · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 6

David,
thanks for your response. Regarding the Update, yes, I have downloaded it from the Tom Tom website and installed it. The GPS configuration is ok, I can see the sats in the "circular schema" and there is a tick in the box you mentioned. Also in the main GPS window I can see this scrolling dots between the antenna and the PDA icons.
The last time I connected the system and it worked, it took some moments to become active. But now I connect it and, for example, the numbers of the system position remain in grey colour, not in black (and changing) as they are when the system was working well.
Do you have any further suggestion?

Thanks!

DavidW · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:21 pm Post subject:

If that's the case, and you have grey bars, simply leave the GPS receiver stationary with a good view of the sky for a while - and it should get a position lock eventually.

Are you seeing plenty of grey bars, or just a few? It may be that you have an athermic windscreen or similar, so your GPS reception is marginal - but it was good enough on your earlier runs. If you post the make, model and year or your vehicle, someone may know whether this is likely to be a problem.

An athermic windscreen is likely if the GPS receiver works rather better out of the car than in it.

David

pak · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 6

David,
in fact I can see several grey bars. Sometimes only 2 or 3 and other times 5 or more. Regarding the car, the first time (when the system worked) I was driving a Audi A3 (2004 model). And when the system didn´t work was when driving a Renault Laguna (2003 sw model). Is that so relevant for the GPs system? I mean, if so, shouldn´t be an advice when buying the system?

Once again, thank you very much.

DavidW · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject:

Quite a few French cars do have athermic windscreens - so that could be the problem with the Renault.

There's four solutions to an athermic windscreen:

Put the Bluetooth GPS in a window other than the windscreen, such as the back window of the car - though it must have a good view of the sky there (the back window wouldn't be much good in something like my Zafira!)
Put the Bluetooth GPS in the part of the windscreen that's OK for things like toll tags
Use an external antenna on the Bluetooth GPS
Use a re-radiating antenna

Hopefully one of these will get you going in the Renault.

David

pak · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 6

David,
thanks for the advices regarding the athermal windscreen. Today I tried again in the Audi. The TomTom Navigator GPS worked well, but it seems that there is a problem between the main TomTom Navigator software (that shows the maps and get the data from the TomTom Navigator GPS program) and the TomTom Navigator GPS software module. I say this because when I clicked on the TomTom Navigator icon while the TomTom Navigator GPS was working fine, the screen was somehow partially frozen and only the upper and down parts of the screen where visible. The place were it was suposed to appear the map was gone. Today I updated the the TomTom software again (applied again the 3.07 update).
The PDA has the software in spanish, and the GPS software is in english. Do you think that this has something to do?
My apologies if I am bothering to much with this, but I really would like to enjoy my GPs the way it is intended to be.

Regards.

DavidW · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:46 am Post subject:

Your questions are fine - not a bother. The forums are here for people to ask questions that haven't already been asked elsewhere.

It does sound rather as if the Renault has an athermic windscreen if the GPS is working fine in the Audi.

As for the "missing" map, it's highly unlikely to be down to the language version; there should be no problem running an English language version of TomTom Navigator on a Spanish Pocket PC. Using the 3.07 update is, as I said earlier, recommended on a Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition machine; I would stick with that version.

There are occasions times on my setup where Navigator seems to take a second or two sometimes to bring up a map if you've worked it hard, but if you're getting more severe problems than that, you could have a memory card problem, assuming you have maps on an SD card. CompactFlash memory cards don't seem to cause the problems SD cards do.

It would help if you posted details of the memory card you have the maps on. By this, I mean, brand, size, type (SD, MMC or CompactFlash) and any markings on the back of the card. For example, I'd post:

1GB Lexar 32x SD card

LEXAR MEDIA
SD1GB-100M
1204452
A0405078
MADE IN U.S.A.

I can compare the information you've given to some memory card types that others have reported having problems with.

You can sometimes help matters by defragmenting your memory card. There's three ways to do this. One is to obtain and use defragmentation software on your Pocket PC - but that can be very slow. Another is to put the memory card in a card reader, and run defragmentation software on your PC.

My favourite, however, is to copy off all the contents of the memory card and copy back the files in order of least likelihood to change - so my TomTom Navigator maps go back first and my backup files (which change nightly) go back last.

I hope this helps - I'm more than happy to keep this thread going.

David

pak · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 6

David,
thank you for your answer. Here are the specs of my SD card:

Kingston Technology
3.3 V
Toshiba SD-M256
0439 TM001H
Made in Japan

Please let me know if these data is usefull or not.

Best regards,

Pablo

DavidW · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 7:29 pm Post subject:

I'd be very surprised if a Toshiba made SD card was the cause of any problems; Toshiba cards are normally a quality product.

It may just be a processing delay, especially if the map appears eventually.

David

pak · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 6

Thank you David. I think that the device is working well now. I formated the card and put all the maps again there, but using a card reader. I will test again this week. Hope everything is ok.

Regards,

Pablo

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