REVIEW COMMENTS: Haicom 303E

Dave · Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:32 pm Post subject: REVIEW COMMENTS: Haicom 303E

The Haicom 303MMF was the worlds first hybrid GPS Receiver which operated both as a Compact Flash GPS Receiver, but also as a GPS Mouse with a cable. Haicom have now extended their line of 303 models to include both an Evermore chipset (303E) and an XTrac chipset (303S). Coincidentally the 303E is the one we are reviewing here.

For the full review check out
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/haicom303e.php

techflavor · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 11, 2004 Posts: 2

I have been having a great amount of trouble trying to get the Haicom 303E to lock onto satelites and stay locked on. I am using the device in my vehicle (no heated windshield) without the wire antenna -- just plugged into my CF slot into my Toshiba 750 (I forgot the antenna at my other house in Houston and I am in Ruston, LA so I can't get it at the moment).

First, whenever I load iNav and go to GPS Info -- it starts trying to find the satelites. I have it set to COM 2 with 4800 baud rate (I found COM 2 to be the one when using the GPSInfo program provided by iNav). It usually takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes before it can locate 12 satelites. Once it finally finds the 12, if it can find the 12, it attempts to lock on to any. It is sometimes able to lock onto one or two but lately no more than two. I can't even recall the last time I've been able to use my GPS PPC because it rarely locks on. Whenever it stays locked onto two satelites for sometime and never picks up a third, it releases all satelites and trys researching for everything -- again never finally working.

I've tried to get this to work in the car, in my room, and outside in the complete open.

Is there anything I am doing wrong? I've reinstalled the software thinking that was the problem but no luck. I can't understand why it is taking so damn long to find the sats then never locking on -- and I see on reviews it takes no time. This is crazy!

Any help would be appreciative.

iancjc · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 8:55 am Post subject: 303e

sorry meant to post this as a reply not a new post

Same problem here

got the 303e yesterday - can't get tomtom to see any sats in cf mode - I've also go the bt slipper and it works just fine using BT and an external antenna - from turning on ipaq to getting 5 sats takes less than 20 seconds (bt slipper is permanently powered from rear lighter socket).

Not sure about the CF mode - there are special instructions for tosh models on the cd.

Using bt or cf the gpsinfo program doesn't find anything!

One thing - does the 303e suffer from lag when driving - I went round the block last night and I hought the position was noticably behind where I was (and this was a 30mph) - I'll try it later at 80mph and see if its a problem .

Cheers

Ian

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techflavor · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 11, 2004 Posts: 2

I am able to see it trying to work in GPSInfo but I just can't get enough fixes/locks on the satelites for it to allow me to begin using it.

Again, I am using it in CF mode without an antenna on a Toshiba 750/755. I don't have my CD with me so do you mind telling me what instructions it says on the Toshiba models?

I've read it has a little bit of lag, but nothing too serious.

Any ideas Dave or anyone else?

iancjc · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 10:41 pm Post subject:

from the cd - it relates to a different tosh model

Installation Notes:

TOSHIBA e330

1. Connect Toshiba e330 with your desktop/notebook PC with cradle.
2. Decompress the driver (ce_pl2303_071102.zip) inside your desktop/notebook PC and then sent all file to CE device.
3. After installation, select COM 1 and start GPS

Note: If the GPS receiver didn’t communicate with your PDA, Turn off PDA power -> Press Reset -> Music -> COM 1

----------------------------------------------------

As for the lag - it's ok - no problems today with a trip of approx 200 miles - averaged 7 sats with a mx of 9 at one point - the external antenna is tiny and I've left the bt slipper and cf card powered in the back of my MPV with the antenna on the roof.

I will try the card in cf mode on my ipaq 3850 tomorrow and see what happens.

Dave

iancjc · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:59 pm Post subject: 303e in cf mode with 2210

Hi

I have tried every combination of ports etc and I cannot get this bloody card to do anything when its connected directly to my 2210 vie the cf slot.

It works perfectly with the bt slipper but I would really like to use it in cf mode as well.

Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated. When the cf card is inserted it flashes 3 or 4 times max then nothing. As soon as I plug it into the bt slipper and establish a bt connection it flashes maybe 3 times and then goes solid with a sat fix. I thought the cf mode would be simple and the bt mode trouble - shows what I know!

Ian

Dave · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 5:50 pm Post subject:

Ian, if you read the article link I posted in the previous message it shows how to diagnose with WinFast Navigator. The beauty of WinFast Navigator is that if you remove the GPS out of the iPAQ, run up WinFast Navigator and then insert the card whilst it's running, it will tell you exactly which COM port it's using so you know which to port to use.

iancjc · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 6:53 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the tip Dave - I'll give it a bash and see whats what

Ian

iancjc

Right

on my ipaq 2210 the card is just not recognised regardless of what programs I use. tomtom gps / winfast just don't see it.

now when i plug it into my 3850 with expansion jacket and select generic 4800 plus cf port tomtom finds it ok and the gps gets a 3d fix in no time.

So it my ipaq or the card or ppc2003? Idea

I presume the ipaq is ok as I've also just purchased a globalsat cf card which works like brilliantly in both ipaqs. Thumbs Up

I got the haicom to use with the bt slipper (works very well) but things like this really annoy me. Evil or Very Mad

Any clues / suggestions would be welcomed.

Cheers

Ian

DavidW · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:23 pm Post subject:

The Toshiba driver mentioned earlier in the thread is only for use with a cable - the PL2303 bit is the give-away (it's a USB to serial chip). Toshiba Pocket PCs are somewhat unusual, in that several models have USB host capabilities rather than a serial port. Using a PL2303 gives you a serial port in that setup.

Another problem with Toshibas (though I think we're going back to the e740 here) is that some models generate excessive RF noise, which makes a GPS card work rather poorly. I have similar problems with a Taiwanese laptop and my HI-303MMF - the GPS performance is awful with the card in a PC Card slot - or, indeed, if I bring the GPS in my iPAQ alongside the laptop when the laptop is switched on.

There is certainly no Pocket PC 2003 problem with the older HI-303MMF cards (mine is one of the older examples that I suspect won't work in the 'slipper'). In my case, I'm using an iPAQ 3970, ROM 4.00.08 (Pocket PC 2003), a PC Card Expansion Pack Plus and a Pretec PC Card to CompactFlash Type 2 adapter.

There is a slight hardware difference in the newer cards - I believe those that are compatible with the HI-401 Bluetooth slipper have an extra pin wired in the CompactFlash connector. I'd be very surprised, though, if that was the reason why there's these issues - you'd have thought Haicom would have been careful not to introduce incompatibility.

I haven't got access to a HI-303E, but I'd be surprised if Haicom have gone away from the Oxford Semiconductors UART used in my HI-303MMF. Does the card show up as CF_CARD_GENERIC in TomTom GPS? If so, it's highly likely that they're still using the same UART (another way to check is to put the card into a laptop using a PC Card adapter and see if it's Oxford Semiconductors drivers that you need to install to get it to work).

I've no answers - and I'm fully aware that Ian's problematic card seems to work fine in his 3850, though it sounds like his 3850 hasn't been upgraded to Pocket PC 2003. I'm just trying to add a little more information.

David

iancjc · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:47 pm Post subject:

David

thanks for the reply

DavidW · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 4:35 pm Post subject:

iancjc · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 5:07 pm Post subject:

Hi David

I'm using the NMEA 4800 setting! - no joy.

What I have just tried is selecting the haicom setting and connecting via the bt slipper : in tomtom gps selecting Haimcom gps and bt serial port com8 and it's working fine - locked onto 6 sats - previously I've been using the nmea settings and BT without problem.

I don't think this has teken me any further but has confused the hell out of me!

Ian

iancjc · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 5:20 pm Post subject:

Hi David

I'm using the NMEA 4800 setting! - no joy.

What I have just tried is selecting the haicom setting and connecting via the bt slipper : in tomtom gps selecting Haimcom gps and bt serial port com8 and it's working fine - locked onto 6 sats - previously I've been using the nmea settings and BT without problem.

I don't think this has teken me any further but has confused the hell out of me!

Ian

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