Route 66 & O2 XDA IIi NO Voice

[NOTLEP]

Hi all,
I am a new user of Route 66 and have it installed on my O2XDA IIi. The routing shows on the maps OK, but I have no voice guidance, nor turn guidance on the screen.
Took it back to a retailer who reinstalled from another CD onto 2 SD cards. One installed fine on an HP PDA, but mine still had no voice. (The voice says calculating the route OK, but after that nothing). I have removed all other software, done both hard and soft resets, upgraded to the later versions on the web, reinstalled many times, changed from a 1Gb card to a 256Mb card, emailed Route66 and O2, and in the process torn out most of my hair.
I have searched thru many forums, and have found no postings with a similar problem.
Can anyone here help ??

[mikealder]

Can you check the following in Route 66
Tap the screen, icon top right should say Sound OFF with a large red X through it, if it says Sound ON tap it.
Now select Change Settings Volume and make sure that is not set at Min.
New select Change setings/ Langauge, try selecting English United States - does this make any difference? then revert back to English United Kingdom.

Use file explorer on the PDA to check there is a speech folder in the memory card and contained in the speech folder sould be a file per country for the actual voice, can you confirm this is in place?

After that it could be down to hardware but the IIi should be more than capable of running the Route 66 package. When you last hard reset the device did you install the ROM in personal or corporate mode? - do you have any of the O2 Active interface visible on the screen - Mike

[NOTLEP]

Thanks Mike for your prompt reply - I suspected that this forum might be alive with activity :-)
Well, as I said I have tried everything I can think of. I won't insult you by confirming that yes, the sound is on, and yes, the english file exists. I have also tried installing with all languages, and switching from UK English to US English to French and to German. In each case a very nice lady welcomes me to Route 66, and says she is calculating a route when I ask her to do so, but is mute thereafter.
(Thus proving that the volume is not on minimum)
You asked if during my last hard reset, did I select personal or corporate mode. That is interesting. I have never seen such a question when I reboot - Is this perhaps a feature in the UK version, which is not in the Asian version. What is the difference?
And I am not sure what you mean by "O2 Active interface visible on the screen"?
Having spent most of my waking hours over the last two weeks trying to resolve this problem (much to the disgust of my family) I am coming to the conclusion that it may be a firmware problem with the XDA IIi. I suspect that the program splits into two major sections. One looks afer the route calculations according to the inputted data - i.e. starting and finishing points, the map vector data, routing type, etc, etc. While it is doing this it talks to me saying that it is calculating. When this phase is complete, it outputs a list of commands to perform the "route". One of the outputs is the "list" which I can see, and which shows each turn, and the instructions which accompany it.
The other part of the program "implements" these instructions. i.e., this part of the program is responsible for sending the turn instructions to the voice engine for outputting the voice via the language database; at the same time, it should grab the appropriate turn symbol for this turn and the next one, for display at the bottom (or side) of the screen; and finally, it monitors the difference between the instructed route, and the actual route, and sends back to the routing engine a command to re-route, if the deviation exceeds a pre-set limit.

It is this second part of the program which is not working at all.

I have discovered that the O2 XDA IIi is part of the Alpine family of PDA's made by HTC in Taiwan, and I am currently exploring the possibility of upgrading the extended ROM memory in case this is the problem. However I am loathe to take such drastic action, in case there is a much simpler solution which has simply escaped me.
I look forward to your comments Mike.

Regards

Peter

[mikealder]

I was only asking basic questions to start with because you would be surprised how often the basics get missed when in reality the problem was down to a misinterpretation of the icons, in this case that’s clearly not the case!

I noticed you mentioned your device as O2XDAIIi in your first post, which is why I wanted to know if it has the O2 active interface on the device (it’s a user interface that O2 load as part of their ROM - certainly in the UK) and from my experience it can cause serious problems with an otherwise good device. What ROM version have you got loaded? It seems strange that your device issues certain spoken commands but not all.

I would also check the actual version of Route 66 you have installed the latest version AFAIK is 7,0,2834 if you need this to try an update go to the Route66 - Mike

[NOTLEP]

Thanks for your reply Mike.

When my O2 boots up the first time, it installs a program called "O2 connect". If I run this program, a raft of installable programs are available to add in. The only one I have ever installed is a desktop utility which has icons to provide shortcuts to thing like battery capacilty, backlight setting, GPRS usage, I.E., email, etc. Is this what you mean by the O2 active interface? (It seems O2 classify Australia as part of Asia, so we get basically an Asian version but with an English GUI. I suspect the UK ROM is different. (Support for our device is via the O2 Singapore website.)

After at least one of my hard resets, I have installed Route 66, but with no other of my add-in programs, but the problem remained, so I don't think an external program is causing the fault. (I have purchased and can install Microsoft's voice recognition program, which I find excellent, and thoroughly recommend. I suspected this may be "grabbing" the voice channel away from Route 66, but removing that program made no difference.)

The O2 program versions I have are:-
ROM 1.11.00 WWE
ROM date 01/27/05
Radio Version 1.00.00
Protocol version 1337.38
Extended ROM version 1.11.923 WWE

The version of Route 66 which I purchased on CD is 7.0.2091. I have tried the update on the Route 66 web page, (normally the first thing I do with any hardware or software), but it behaved the same. Interestingly, this update adds a new menu item to Route 66 which allows the device to update live from within the program. (either via GPRS - expensive!! - or via a PC connection to the Internet.) When run, this installed an even later version (which I later removed so I have lost the version number) but it behaved the same.

The craziest part of this whole business, is that despite extensive Google searches, and reading many forums, no-one else seems to have had this problem before. (or if they did, they haven't made it known on the web, nor to Route 66, nor to O2). By the way, the reponse so far from Route 66 has been to reinstall the program again, or to do a hard rest, and reinstall. I have advised them that these procedures did not solve the problem, and am still awaiting a reply fom them.

Any other ideas Mike?

Regards

Peter

[NOTLEP]

Just to make sure I am not going gar-gar, just did a hard reset, let the ROM based programs re-install themselves, then deleted "O2 connect" (in case it causes a problem) re-installed Route 66 from the SD card, and tried it in the car once more. (i.e. plain old fashioned vanilla installation)

Result : THE SAME. Tells me it is calculating the route, the map comes up with the suggested route, with the turns highlighted in green, but NO VOICE thereafter, and no turn indicators for the next turn and the one thereafter.

(also does not recalculate the route if it is not followed.)

The possible causes I believe I have ruled out are:-

. The CD I purchased, (tried another CD on mine and a HP PDA - The HP worked fine)
. Other programs running and interfering,
. The SD card, (have tried 1Gb, and 256Mb Sandisk cards)
. Voice turned off or volume turned down,
. GPS data (In Brisbane last week the retailer tried using his bluetooth GPS with the same result)
. Program version (have tried all available)

Last night I even checked out the hardware connection to my Garmiin GPS. The website http://pinouts.ru/PDA/pda_wallaby_pinout.shtml shows the pinout for the 22 pin connector for the O2. I noticed that this connector carries audio output (for use by an in car hands free unit). To ensure that these wires were not being shorted, I checked my null modem adaptor (necessary to convert the RS232 GPS signal from the Garmin GPS III to the O@ XDA), but all seems OK.

Again - a brick wall !!

Regards

Peter

[mikealder]

It sounds very much like you have the Active interface on the device, and simply deleting it doesn't actually remove it (not all of it anyway).
Hard reset the device, but sit with it while it installs, the first part is OK, but after a while look for a message asking for Personal or Corporate mode (it only stays on the screen for about 10 seconds, so it is easily missed). Select Corporate and enter the pass code zero, five, zero, six 0506 this prevents the Active Interface from loading. As you hard reset last night its worth trying again.
The bits that are now missing from your display (battery meter etc) can be replaced with other software from more reputable software houses - Mike

[NOTLEP]

Thanks Mike. I did as you suggested - hard reset the device, (with SD card removed so Route 66 doesn't install) and carefully monitored the install process.
There was no pause asking whether a personal or corporate install process is required, so I did not get the chance to enter the code you mentioned. The only pause in the process is when the program asks if you want to connect to your telephone provider and install their GPRS settings.
Nevertheless, went ahead and re-installed Route 66, and tried it in the car, but - you guessed it - no change.
(By the way, I have a question. With a properly functioning Navigate 7 program, does the route map always point in the direction of travel, like all the brochures and manuals show? With mine, the map can be any orientation, regardless of what direction I travel - i.e. sometimes the direction of travel along the road is upside down, towards me (in 3D or 2D mode). Also, sometimes the ICON representing the vehicle is a red dot, and sometimes a large red arrow - there seems to be no logic behind which one is shown. Is this normal, or another sympton of my problem?) (In case you are wondering, the Garmin GPS III receiver I use sends NMEA 0193 V2.0 data as specified by Route 66).
Also, the area on the screen which should show the next turn, permanently shows a checkered flag. With a normally functioning program, when do you see the checkered flag? (When I click on this flag, I get all the GPS information - lat, long, speed, direction, no of sats, etc, as normal)
Also, the area on the screen which should show the turn after next shows a triangle which changes its direction seemingly at random. Do you ever see the triangle under normal operation, and if so, under what circumstances?

Thanks
Peter

[mikealder]

Well at least you have confirmed the dreaded O2 active isn't on the device.
The chequered flag is normally dispalyed at the start or end of a journey, it should not be there all the time.
The vehicle icon should be a red triangle, it does turn to a red dot if the GPS data disapears, but I don't see that too often.
I get a Blue triangle in the next turn box when off road or I have deviated from my route, while it is re-calculating it shows the blue triangle which oints in the general direction you need to travel. Why it is red in your case I am not too sure, red usually means error.
The map is always in the direction of travel.

I am a little unsure as to what to try next, I know the software works on an XDAIIs I can probably try the software on a IIi on a mates device to see if we get anything strange showing up. - Mike

[NOTLEP]

Well thanks Mike for all your help and assistance. I have sent an email to Route 66 support pointing them to this forum, so they can have a better insight into the problem, and all the things I have tried. I am sure if their support depatment can only pass on to their programmers the symptoms, they may quickly diagnose the fault.
I will also be able to try the program on a XDA IIs tomorrow, so will post here how it works.
In the meantime, thanks again and kind regards,

Peter

[NOTLEP]

Well !!!!!!!!!!

Simultaneously, I got a response from Route 66 and later that day had a chance to use a colleagues Bluetooth GPS device.

The response from Route 66 was:-

"Dear Sir,

After reading carefully all the information you have posted on the forum and also the e-mails sent to us, I can inform you that the problems you experience are caused by a defective GPS connection between the GPS receiver and the navigation software, or between the GPS receiver and the Pocket PC.

If you GPS receiver is the one that is presented in the below link, I can definitely tell you that the this device is not compatible with none of the ROUTE 66 softwares

http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsIII/

Best regards,
Carolina JUBIRCA

ROUTE 66 Customer Support "

AND as Carolina said, it turns out the Garmin GPS III device is incompatible with the Route 66 software. The software works fine on my XDA IIi using a Bluetooth connection.

Which leads one to ask why ??

Having only a very superficial knowledge of how Windows CE and Bluetooth operate, I can only imagine that somehow the use of a serial port by Bluetooth, and also by my Garmin GPS are incompatible.

It would be nice if someone knowlegdeable in these matters could elucidate us....

In the meantime, thank you Mike and anyone else on this forum for your interest in this matter, and my problem, and..

Peace and long life....

Regards

Peter Elton

[alix776]

it sounds like the o2 connect is o2 active this is installl when a hard reset is done and can be disable by selecting corprate and entering 0506 wen prompted wheb you hard reset you'll need to whach for it as it only lasts 20 seconds

the lastest rom for this device is 1.72.00 from memory make sure this is the rom you have on the device ill try the version I have on 2i at weekend
_________________
currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

[mikealder]

[NOTLEP]

Exactly right Mike - If the Blutooth GPS had been set up correctly by the retailer in Brisbane all those weeks ago, then the mystery would have been solved, and we would never had had this discussion.
Never mind, thanks again for all your help, and cheers,
(and sorry about the cricket )

Peter

[mikealder]

Don't apologise for having a team that can actually play the game correctly!
It was the fact the Bluetooth unit didn't work at first that was confusing, I guess you now have a Bluetooth GPS and can start to use the software correctly at long last - Mike

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