Sysonchip GPS CF Plus, first day blues!

Deep-6 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 41

Hi all, I'm a long time reader but first time contributer.

I finally bit the bullet and decided to go all out and buy the bits for PDA based navigation system primarily for my Peugeot 206 GTi..

Last week came the Ipaq H2210, and today the Sysonchip GPS CF Plus arrived. Incidentally I havent bought the mapping software yet, that will have to wait a couple of days till payday Embarassed

After installing the Sysonchip viewer app from the PC, i put the card in, wandered to the balcony of the office i was in, and waited a few minutes and got some satellites locked on. Back at my desk, 10-15ft from the window I managed to get as many as 8 satellites coloured blue, so I hoping this receiver should more than be enough for my 206's heated screens.

THe problem is along the way I seem to have knackered the GPS card, is this even possible? Right now, if I look at the development screen I just see garbage, lots of ٱ characters, UART messages and some text regarding failures. With all this and no satellite locks whatsoever..

I've hard reset the IPAQ to start from afresh but I'm still getting this. I may have told the card to do a factory reset at some point and I understand it could take a looooong time to get a lock after that so right now the ipaq is in its crade with the sysonchip cf card in, the red light on, but so far no locks, its been around 20 mins now. Has anyone else seen this before? Is the card totalled or should I be a bit more patient? The serial number starts with 0312. The GPS viewer says the card is on NMEA / 4800, running on com 7.

I hope someone can help..or give any advice.

Many thanks
Deep-6

Deep-6 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 41

Ok, after doing some digging I see that if the receiver has been switched to SIRF, the data I see (I assume from the Developer view of the gps viewer software) is binary and just wont show up properly, and the fact that I dont get any gps info means I have probably fudged up the speed settings somewhere... I'll keep looking..

Any help still appreciated though ;-)

marchban · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Hi Deep 6. I've also just bought a 2210 and the sysonchip plus CF card and have purchased tomtom2.

Now I dont seem to get any sat fixes at all. I installed the tomtom software and this then gave me the option of selecting the sysonchip receiver. I have also tried the NMEA 4800 setting but to no avail.

Am I missing something significant? Ive never played with gps before. Should I have installed some drivers for the device, if so how? I made the assumption that tomtom had its own drivers for the gps device. Sorry to sound like a complete novice, but I am.

How can you identify whether or not it is cofnigured for sirf mode? could this be my problem.

Any help would be very welcome!

Regards

Dave Embarassed

Deep-6 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 41

Hello,

well I'm happy to say I managed to get my set up working..... This thread here helped out a bit:

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2593&sid=7c22b52756629806d0aaa0c515419981

Dont bother with the Leadtek tool, I actually couldn't find the install that would install it to the 2210, but the Sysonchip GPS view seems to be exactly the same anyway so make sure this is installed.

Also, try and get the viewer to talk to the CF card, and check the Development view and see what kind of output you get... if its junk and you see things like UART failure, dont panic its proabably stuck in SIRF mode...you'll need to spend a little time just coaxing it in NMEA using the viewer application and speed 4800.

The other thing that foxed me is that the card stopped working on COM 7, and has now switched to COM 1...the sysonchip viewer errors when i set the port to com7, (com 8 fired up bluetooth!) so I tried com 1 and the card works perfectly. Every time you open port settings on the viewer it defaults to com 7, if you error, try another com port.

If you sucessfully connect, then go to the Tools/Command and the NMEA tab and adjust the appropriate settings...keep checking back on the development view to see what output you are getting.

Back in tom tom, I'm using gps driver 2.08, along with NMEA 0183v2 4800/SysonChip CF_GPS_Receiver

Try this out, I feared I had a bad car, but a little bit of time got it working again. Your post looks like you had it working before.

I hope this helps...

I bought all this and didnt even spare a thought as to how I was going to mount it in the car, so I've settled for some Arkon equipment from expansys...ideally i want a smart/pro clip and a brodit mount. Are you using your setup primarily in car?

Good luck!

marchban · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Thanks for your help.

It did appear to work at some point initally... yesterday however all I get in my garbled characters. Does this suggest Im in SIRF mode?

I've had a look in tools - command NMEA (hit ddefault and then ok) Should I be selecting any specifically in MODE selection (Hot, Warm, Sold or Factory???)

Also my navigation window displays: Velocity, latitiude, logitude, alt and UTC are ALL blank.

How easy is to coax it into NMEA???

Just a final question, Ive downloaded the latest sysonchip gps viewer with provides two software options: PocketPC 2002 and Windows Mobile 2003. I assume I should be running with the pocketpc 2002 option? Does this matter?

Regards

Dave

Deep-6 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 41

It sounds like you are in SIRF mode, at least thats what I assumed in my case from the other thread about tweaking and testing the GPS.

At one point due to desperation, I ended up choosing all those restart options at one point. I also did a hard reset, returning the IPAQ to default Confused

I wouldn't think you need to do that though.

You should be using the Windows Mobile 2003 option as thats what the H2210 is loaded with, its worked fine for me.

Using the sysonviewer, connect to the GPS, go to command, go to SIRF, change the speed from 38400 (or whatever) to 4800 or something else,press OK, go back... then choose a hot start, i'd turn off the ipaq, remove the card, and put it back in. Now that I think about it, there was a bit of trial and error. Connect to the GPS after this, and then Command, the to the NMEA tab, set the speed to something different, press ok, then go back and choose a hot start and press ok. Keep checking the development view for the output. Eventually get back to NMEA/4800.

Now, with that viewer I wasn't quite sure whether If I adjusted the settings for the relevant mode, and chose the restart mode on the seperate tab whether it would do both, so I did one, then the other. It was really hit and miss come to think of it, but it did work.

Keep at it, sorry I can't give you the definitive method but it sounds like you might have been playing like I was and just confused the card..I was praying the card wasn't defective, and thankfully, it wasn't. I hope you get it working. I plan to take my setup on the road for this weekend.

Good luck and keep posting to let us know whats happening!

Cheers

marchban · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Many thanks for your encouragement Deep-6. Im beginning to hope I’ve got a duff card!!! But your experience sounds like I havent! As a computer consultant Im finding it very frustrating not being capable of resolving this issue. I was up until 1am last night with the damn thing. I will not let it beat me. I will not let it beat me! Twisted Evil

Anyway. Ive now really messed around in my gps viewer software but still dont think the thing is switching from SIRF mode. Im still get binary SIRF data through, but switching to NMEA doesnt appear work.

I am now considering the following options:

1. Hard reset my IPAQ and reload software
2. Send my CF card back as faulty
3. Continue to play around with gps viewer software (although this is getting tiresome) in your experience how long is it before you realise that the device is working. As I make changes I'm leaving the GPS on for 30 minutes at a time, before realising its done/doing anything!
4. Reset the GPS Cf device - is this possible/recommended?

By attempting option one, will this make any difference? I assume that if the card is in SIFR mode, then any changes to my IPAQ will be worthwhile???

I know at some point the thing began acquiring satellites. and then I probably got bored and switched it off, thinking it was communicating quickly enough. How can I re initiate my GPS device?

Sorry to waffle on... hopefully I'll get it resolved over the weekend and I promise to let everyone know - what if anything fixes my problem, I cant believe I am the only person to ever experience such an issue.

Cheers

Dave

marchban · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 22, 2004 Posts: 5

Success? of sorts. Okay my GPS crad is working but apparantly only in SIRF mode. I curently have acquired 5 sats and tomtom2 now appears functional. Im going to leave it stable for 30 minutes or so. Bit concerned that if I start playing at I might mess the thing up.

I may decide to leave the thin in SIRF and see how I get on.

Thanks for your! Will let you know how I get on over the weekend!

Cheers

Dave

Deep-6 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2004 Posts: 41

Hey Dave,

I'm glad to hear its working. TomTom has been fine for me in NMEA mode, but I fancy tinkering around with it myself. Which is what got me into strife in the first place! Embarassed

Still at least your card isn't faulty.

Good luck and I will be interested in how you get on this weekend.

Cheers!

Bharat · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 28, 2004 Posts: 3

Here are some lessons that I learnt getting the SysOnChip CF card working on a Pocket PC 2002 PDA:
1. Do not use the SysOnChip GPS Viewer application. It gave me a lot of mis-leading information. It failed to notify me of a satellite fix even though the GPS was connected to 7 satellites! In addition it displayed the wrong time in the navigation view.
2. I uninstalled this utility and installed the The WinCE Navigator from http://www.leadtek.com.tw/support/download.asp?pronameid=277. This is an excellent tool that help me get a satellite fix in under a minute.
3. Use this utilities command menu to do a "factory start" for a brand new device that has never been used before. This is key to getting the device working properly.
4. Finally I got the GPS working with TomTom 2. The configuration is done using the TomTom GPS Status tool. This had a quark whereby TomTom only works if I select the SysOnChip CF GPS receiver port but not the same device from the product list.

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