REVIEW COMMENTS: XTrac or No XTrac

Dave

We have completed an article on SiRF XTrac which hopefully better explains what XTrac is, and what to expect from it.

The full article can be read here.

CoRCoVaDo · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 9:56 am Post subject:

"At the moment there are only XTrac GPS Receivers, and non XTrac GPS Receivers, the two haven't been merged"

http://www.fortuna.com.tw/PocketXTrack.htm
http://www.fortuna.com.tw/Clip-On Bluetooth GPS.htm

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:24 pm Post subject:

I'm aware that there is one from Fortuna, but haven't found it available in general retail yet.

Semsons will be sending us one, once they get hold of them. They did have a few early units but these have disappeared, and I think Fortuna are gearing up for full production soon.

CoRCoVaDo · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:55 pm Post subject:

It seems that here he is available in general retail:

http://store.yahoo.com/semsons-inc/fordualmodpo.html

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 3:20 pm Post subject:

By General Retail, I mean Generally Available. When I spoke with Carlon at Semsons a week ago, he said "We currently do not have the Fortuna Dual Mode Pocket XTrack yet.". This was due to Fortuna delaying delivery.

I'll check with Carlon to see if they have any available, as he is due to send us one when they come in.

gpsfan · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 16, 2003 Posts: 28

Very interesting read! I recently came across this review of a "merged" device, the Fortuna PocketXtrack on GPSpassion - http://www.gpspassion.com/fr/articles.asp?id=69 and they seem to be saying that Xtrac is only worth it if you can switch back to SirfIIe normal mode. What seems to back this up is that it's being sold for almost the same price as a standard or xtrac receiver at 149 euros.

Dave · Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 9:49 pm Post subject:

XTrac won't be as accurate in positioning as a regular GPS. The reason for this is it's bringing in weaker signals, although the more sats the better, if you're getting sats that are pretty weak, the data you're going to get back could be more problematic or take longer to retrieve. This can potentially set you a few feet off from where you are, or if you're standing still, create a compass effect, where your pointer on screen stays in the same position, but it rotates slightly thinking you've taken a foot or two in another direction.

Street Navigation products like TomTom, Navman etc, all cheat. They snap you to what they believe to be the nearest road by performing a calculation between several roads at your location. Although most of the time pointers show you being dead center on the road, you're not, and if XTrac is 5-10 feet off in another direction, it potentially can be 5-10 feet closer to another road, and this is what quite a few people have experienced in small roads like you find in housing estates, cul-de-sac's etc. It does depend on the quality of the signal the GPS is bringing in. XTrac is perfect for on foot, topographical maps (providing you don't need SBAS accuracy). It's also good for in-car, but you do have to remember it's accuracy may be slightly off compared to a standard GPS, but in my tests, I've only found it around 10 feet off.

thebears · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 11:21 am Post subject: Mines on order dual mode gps

Have a look at

http://www.fortuna.com.tw/Clip-On%20Bluetooth%20GPS.htm

they are in stock at globalpositioningsystems.co.uk

I will let you know how it goes once recived.

Dale

gpsfan · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 16, 2003 Posts: 28

Looks interesting!
After doins a search I found hey were testing on here: http://www.gpspassion.com/fr/comments.asp?id=204

dibun · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 02, 2004 Posts: 6

But can you disable Xtrac by any software?

Dave · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:55 pm Post subject:

No, XTrac is pre-loaded onto the chip and enabled on boot, there's no way of disabling XTrac apart from re-flashing the firmware.

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