New User nearly throws TT3 and car cradle in bin !

Egbert_Nobacon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 3

Hi all, and Happy Christmas.
I bought TomTom 3 and car cradle for my wife to use with her Dell Axim X5. Software installation seemed to go ok, but there was no indication that the Axim was 'seeing' the GPS mouse dooberry thing.
The GPSMDT, when powered up, it's led was steady green , then after a few seconds, started flashing. Having read some of this very useful forum, this seemed to mean it was working ok.
So I left it for a few mins, then 45 mins, then 2 hours. Absolutely not a peep from the Axim: the GPS properties screen showed no moving dots, no time, no satellite bars, nothing.
I dug out a mains adaptor (12 volt, centre positive for you brave souls), and left it on overnight, indoors, with the Axim off, and the GPSMDT on an upstairs window sill.
This morning, when I powered up the Axim, all burst into life ! -the GPS properties showed a time and the satellite bars were displayed!
The TT3 software quickly got a fix and all was serene.
SO the point of all this is to let other users know what I couldnt find- that the GPS properties shows absolutely no indication of the presence of the GPSMDT, *until* it's done it's initial lock on, which in my case took several hours.
Thinking a little about the cause of this: I bought the unit in September and it has sat unopened until Christmas: I know the GPSMDT has it's own internal battery: maybe this took a long time to charge up ??
Anyway, wife now restored to 'happy bunny' status, so life can proceed Smile

Sorry to ramble on but I hope this may help other new users.
Neil

DavidW · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:14 pm Post subject:

A 'factory fresh' GPS can take at least fifteen minutes with a clear view of the sky to acquire a first fix, especially if its built in almanac is corrupted or hopelessly outdated.

I'm a little surprised at no scrolling dots - but the Axim X5 has a slightly weird serial port. If you find that you 'lose' the GPS again, try a soft reset before starting TomTom Navigator 3.

David

Egbert_Nobacon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 3

UPDATE:
after a seemingly good result: it started playing up again: no evidence of GPS activity, no scrolling dots, nothing.
Decided to get to the bottom of this..!
After a lot of head scratching/investigating it turns out that the cradle and Axim weren't mating together correctly. The Axim was a *really* tight fit in the cradle, preventing reliable connector contact. After a little stanley knife modification to allow the Axim to seat a little further, it now works every time. Getting a fix only takes a few seconds, and the scrolling dots are present whenever the Axim is in the powered cradle.
Having done a short journey, I'm very impressed with the mapping data: much better than in my own car's built in system.
Happy ending
Neil

DavidW · Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:24 pm Post subject:

Let's hope all continues in that working vein!

As I forgot to say it earlier - Welcome

- glad you're with us.

David

Egbert_Nobacon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 3

Thanks David.
I've now downloaded and installed the Speed Cam database and the CheckPOInt software: after figuring out that the latter needed configuring to produce a sound for each type of POI, off I went to my nearest speed camera to check! Yup works great, I'm seriously impressed with this kit: may get a PDA of my own just to run this stuff.
Neil

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