Holux 270CF

dephead2004 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2004 Posts: 7

Good morning. Long time user but now need some advice from experts please. I have used the above very successfully for a year or so. Then did not use it for a couple of months and now find that it won't lock onto a usable signal. It sees up to 4 satellites but then loses them and starts all ove. The date never moves from the default except by random numbers. In TT3 I never get red bars and in GPS viewer the same is true. I've tried in various locations and with the extension receiver. Also various revisions of TT3 too.
Any idesa anyone? I'd be grateful for some input.

Dave · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 12:55 pm Post subject:

If you haven't used it for several months, you will need to stand outside with a clear view of the sky for approx 15-20 mins to download the full almanac and ephemeris tables.

Alamanac and ephemeris table takes approx 12.5 mins to download, but you will never get all the data first time round, so you may need to look at leaving it on for up to 45 mins max. You will also once you have received the fix to leave the card in the Pocket PC and powered on for at least a few hours because you will need to re-charge the on-board battery on the CF card, or the capacitor so that you don't lose these settings again.

dephead2004 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2004 Posts: 7

Dave,
Thanks for the reply from the head honcho himself. I have tried leaving it connected for several hours and it still cannot even find the correct date. Well, it starts off. finds it then loses it again and again on a cycle. It can find some satellites but seems to go through a cycle of resetting itself once it seems to find say four sats and then loses them all and goes back to reset position. Is there some diagnostic software or are there any user replaceable parts inside the plastic case as it seems you might be telling me I have a £100 door wedge.

Dave · Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 7:57 pm Post subject:

:D

You can try WinFast Navigator, but it's probably only going to show you what you're currently seeing already. You will be able to switch to development mode and look at the data coming through to see if there's any corruption in the data (foreign characters). The other alternative you have is to try an external patch antenna, it could be that something has blown inside the card, or perhaps has a dry solder joint and that's causing a problem with the patch antenna in the card.

Do you still have the same hardware that you were using with it prior to the problems, or have you changed Pocket PC ?

To check out WinFast Navigator, try
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/winfastnavigatorppc.php

dephead2004 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2004 Posts: 7

Hi Dave,
It's the same hardware exactly and I purchased the patch antenna back in April from Holux UK for a train journey to Scotland. (Worked really well with TT).

I have tried GPS viewer and the data looked sound but I don't really know what I am looking for. I get a $ sign before the GPGGA and GPRMC strings etc Looking at it again the GPGSA string always has a lot of commas in it ie $GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,50.0,50.0,50. The others have data strings which look OK but the second half of the string always appears to be a set of zeros :eg %GPGGA,000336,986,0000.0000,N,0

In Memory map navigator position window I get a message which says "unknown RMC status flag" and I notice that GPRMC is one of the data strings in GPS viewer. It looks like this $GPRMC,000330,986,V,0000.0000,N

Are the two linked do you suppose? Holux have been helpful and I had a reply from Semsons from whom I purchased the unit over a year ago giving me these instructions:

Attached is the utility(WinFast Navigator 1.0) to reset the GPS. Please follow the instruction below to reset the GPS.
1. Unzip the file
2. Install onto your PDA
3. Soft reset to make sure all programs are off
4. start the utility and connect to GPS using appropriate com port and baud rate of 4800
5. From the command, please choose factory radio button and perform a factory reset.
After reset, the GPS receiver will require 2 - 5 min to pick up the signal for the first time but the subsequent fix will be much quicker.

As you and they suggest this routine that's my next experiment. Does the data above give the experts any clues to the problem?

Martin

dephead2004 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2004 Posts: 7

Well here we are 12 hours on and Winfast tried till it glowed red. But to no avail. The reference to interpreting the codes was really helpful. I have too many V=warnings and too many ,,,,,,, and too many 0000000. Something has gone wrong with the unit I suspect and so I will have to dismantle. Any ideas on that? What to look for?

Dave · Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:32 pm Post subject:

Something's definately not right. If you're only seeing a lot of commas then it's not locking onto the sats, so it's quite possible that there's an antenna issue.

I would try and contact Holux and see what they say. I don't think it's going to be something that you'll be able to fix yourself.

dephead2004 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2004 Posts: 7

Thanks Dave,
Both HoluxUK and Semsons have been very good and helpful. Semsons have offered a repair at 30% of new cost. This seems very good to me and very generous. Kudos too to HUK and Julie who gave me all sorts of pointers and to you too and the excellent input I received.
I'll let you know the conclusion
Martin

jakefh · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 27, 2004 Posts: 11

Mine looks like it's done the same thing. Did you find out what happened?

dephead2004 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2004 Posts: 7

It's back with Semsons ATM and I suspect will just be scrapped pending a new one being sent to me. My recommendation is to use the unit at least once per month as I had not done anything with mine except not use it.

jakefh · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 27, 2004 Posts: 11

Don't think it's that. I use mine regularly, and it conked out two days after i'd used it. Trouble is i bought mine off ebay so have nowhere to send it back to. I'll give Holux a call but i doubt they'll be able to help me Crying or Very sad

dephead2004 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2004 Posts: 7

Could it have been old "stock"? I was led to believe that there is a battery inside that maintains settings. HoluxUK did suggest that dismantelling was possible but not recommended.

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