Meaning of Power modes ' Trickle Power' and ' Push to Fix' ?

[pwhooftman]

Hi,

I purchased a Leadtek 9537 BT GPS Sirf/Xtrac ver2 receiver.
I'm a bit confused about which Power Modes which show in Winfast Navigator are usefull when navigating with TomTom Navigator 3.

Continuous means the chipset is powered continuous, that's obvious.
Trickle Power means that the chipset is powered down between the 1-seconds NMEA string outputs, which should save power considerably.
Push to Fix could mean that only a fix is obtained when you push (but push what, the power button?).

From these descriptions, i would say that Trickle Power is still very usable for use with car navigation, as long as NMEA string output is used. Am i right?

Furthermore, i have learned that Xtrac is enabled by firmware, and even makes receiving satelite info indoors possible through separate NMEA data strings (indeed, in the developmentwindow of Winfats Navigator, i can see data coming in when using the BT receiver indoors). But am i right that no navigation application uses these separate NMEA strings? Xtrac should make navigation possible even in park garages, but thats a bit academic if no navigation applications uses the signals.....

Thanks to anyone replying to this topic.

[DavidW]

XTrac firmware works through standard NMEA 0183 sentences; there's no special application support needed to take advantage of the greater XTrac sensitivity.

Indeed, you can't disable XTrac - if your GPS runs XTrac firmware it's always XTrac. The one exception is the Fortuna Clip On, which has a switch to change between standard SiRF and XTrac firmware.


I wouldn't get too bothered about the Trickle Mode stuff. Push to Fix works by sending a command to the GPS and it returns a fix. I wouldn't have thought the power savings even in standard trickle modes are going to make that much difference to a Bluetooth GPS's life between battery charges, though I must admit I haven't experimented. Further, if I remember rightly, many of the more aggressive trickle mode options don't work with XTrac firmware.

You will probably find the performance of TomTom Navigator goes downhill if you reduce the time between position updates.


The battery life of your GPS is likely to be rather longer than your Pocket PC or similar device. There's no problem wiring up a car charger for your Bluetooth GPS if you want to make sure it doesn't go flat when you're driving.



David

[Skippy]

[DavidW]

Indeed - in the right application "Push To Fix" is incredibly useful. It's no use for in-car navigation, though!



David

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