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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 1:19 pm Post subject: Mio 168 / TT3 GPS POSITION UNRELIABLE
Hi, this is my first post but I've been following the forum for a while.
I've searched and found plenty of references to the 'GPS POSITION UNRELIABLE' problem in TT3 but none of them seem to match what I'm getting, so here goes.
I have a Mitac Mio 168 which came preloaded with Mio Map (i.e. Destinator 3). I found this software to be frustrating for many reasons which I won't go into here, and took the plunge with TT3 as the price is now down to about ninety quid.
With Destinator the GPS always worked perfectly, but I'm having strange problems with TT3.
The GPS status is showing plenty of satellite fixes (six red bars most of the time), and indicates a position and speed which all seem OK.
TT3 insists that the GPS Position is Unreliable however long I leave it, and I can't get it to show the maps. If I select 'Map' from the dropdown, an intro box flashes up for about half a second then TT3 exits. The GPS icon remains and the status remains OK.
I can't get into the maps at all, but address lookup is OK. (Having selected an address, I then can't get any further - I have to soft reset).
GPS is set to 'TomTom Navigator GPS' and 'Serial Cable on SP2'. I've also tried NMEA 4800.
At the moment I'm using TT 3.03; I do have the 3.07 CD but haven't installed it as the Mio 168 isn't in the list of affected devices (I think it runs something called PPC 2003 'Premium' - there's no mention of 'Second Edition' anywhere.
I didn't get any error messages when I installed TT3. The maps are installed on the SD card.
i have the mitac mio 168 and tom tom navigator 3.07 installed fine on my device. i also have trouble getting a signal at times. You havent mentioned if you are trying to use indoors as this will affect the signal. If your using in the car with an athermic heated windshield this will block the signal too. are you using an external ariel ? install the 2nd disk the upgrade works on the mio. _________________ Mitac Mio 168
2gb high speed Lexar SD card
256mb + Wi-Fi SD card
Tom Tom Navigator 6
PDAir Aluminium Case
Medion MD PPC 150 Desktop Cradle
I know there's no issue with GPS signal as I'm getting six red bars and a fix. I'll install 3.07 anyway and see if that makes a difference.
Another thing I can think of is maybe I haven't uninstalled Destinator correctly.
I've been looking around a bit and I wonder if something's gone amiss with activation? I was prompted to enter my product key (the fifteen digit code in the CD case) but there was no mention of a device-id or anything like that. But then I'm not getting any 'activate' messages.
I'm also on a private road at the moment (at work) so will try again on the way home.
When you are getting GPS Unreliable message on the Mio, are you on the Safety (NAVIGATOR) Screen ?
If so, have you tapped and hit NAVIGATE and select a destination to drive to ?
....and, have you started driving and are driving on a public road ?
If not, then you may still receive a GPS Unreliable message. Try changing to MAP view, zoom into the location where you are at and you should see a blue triangle pointer showing were you are.
I have 3xMio 168's here running Navigator 3 without any problem. All are configured to Serial COM SP2 NMEA 4800.
Having 6 red sat bars means you have a satellite fix, so it sounds like you aren't on a public road, or you haven't set a destination to navigate to on the Navigator screen.
Hi Dave - hadn't looked for any more replies for a few days so I've only just read your response.
I don't know what happened, but it seems to have been a problem with installing the maps - it wouldn't let me view the maps at all, whereas now it is quite happy to display them regardless of having a GPS fix.
I switched to TTN from Destinator because there were some things I just couldn't live with, namely: very slow recognising that I was off route and recalculating; horrible graphics; road speed text tiny and not consistently visible; address by council name, not town name; over-aggressive snap-to-road; tiny icons so could only use with a stylus.
I've found TTN has a much more polished feel, but of course it's not perfect. But the Mio was an open-box discount from Expansys, so even after buying TTN it's still pretty good value.
I did have a TTG for a while, but found it lacking - over-keen on routing via motorways, with no way of controlling it, for instance. But the main issue was that it was too damn big to fit in my pocket! I just hope TTN5 is a bit more configurable than the TTG 4 I had.
Using the TomTom GPS driver means you are using a driver not designed specifically for the GPS and may result in problems. There are specific tweaks in this driver over the NMEA driver which is a raw driver, so you will be best served to use the NMEA driver (which is what I do).
Hi - I'll give NMEA a try, though I'm not having any problems at all now! (It's already got me past an accident by routing through the back streets of Blackpool - ended up on a road I knew having completely lost my sense of direction - but TTN got me there no problem.)
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 11:21 pm Post subject: Mio Map
Hi,
What didn't you like about Mio Map as I'm considering buying the Mio 168 with it ready installed? My other option is to buy it without the GPS software and choose from TT3 or Nav Man Smart ST (I've read enough dodgy reports about Co Pilot to scrub it off my list.) The second option is more expensive and can be tricky to set up ( not my strong point!), so I was coming round to the Mio Map option with it's complete compatibility with the PDA, no need for setting up and smaller price tag. Will your reply change my mind (again)
Jane
Hi - sorry, haven't logged in for a while so missed your question - hope it's not too late.
I would describe MioMap (Destinator 3) as 'fit for purpose', and if a Mio with MioMap is significantly cheaper than one with TomTom then you'd probably be happy with it - at least you could defer upgrading until you need newer maps.
I'd tried a TomTom GO, liked the idea of GPS, but couldn't afford the GO - I managed to get a Mio 168 with MioMap from Expansys in their open box list so it was under 200 quid. Having experienced the user friendliness of the GO, I found MioMap/Destinator 3 a bit of a letdown.
Some reasons for disliking Destinator 3 are a matter of taste:
I found the graphics a bit 'spidery'
Icons are small and need the stylus
It 'snaps' to roads aggressively - so if travelling on a road which isn't on the map (e.g. M6 toll) it will jump to nearby roads and give directions as if you're travelling on them - TomTom is much more willing to let you just drive across 'nowhere'.
Your speed is displayed in a tiny font at the bottom of the screen, and is not displayed all the time.
Directions can be 'odd', e.g. a local road bends to the right and has a side-road exiting to the left at the apex of the bend. TTN says nothing (correctly) but Destinator told me to 'take the exit to the right' (or something like that).
I found entry of addresses clumsy
There is an annoying screen on starting Destinator where you have to agree not to use it while driving - every time you start it up.
I couldn't set a route if my starting point wasn't on a road.
More serious issues:
On more than one local road, it would tell me to go the wrong way down a one-way street - TTN3 doesn't do this, despite also using TeleAtlas maps (and these streets have been one-way for years).
During a long journey, Destinator would clog up and need a soft reset.
What I found more irritating than anything else, though, was that on deviating from a planned route, Destinator took an age to realise. This meant a recalculation was delayed and often meant I missed the optimum new route. TTN is much quicker at recalculation.
Don't get me wrong, neither product is perfect - but I find TTN more workable than Destinator. As my Mio was cheap, and TTN3 was only 90 quid at Amazon, it was a reasonable thing to do. (I'm a bit worried now that TTN5 won't work with the Mio as it's not in TomTom's compatibility list, but I don't think it's all that accurate).
[/list]
Hi - sorry, haven't logged in for a while so missed your question - hope it's not too late.
I would describe MioMap (Destinator 3) as 'fit for purpose', and if a Mio with MioMap is significantly cheaper than one with TomTom then you'd probably be happy with it - at least you could defer upgrading until you need newer maps.
I'd tried a TomTom GO, liked the idea of GPS, but couldn't afford the GO - I managed to get a Mio 168 with MioMap from Expansys in their open box list so it was under 200 quid. Having experienced the user friendliness of the GO, I found MioMap/Destinator 3 a bit of a letdown.
Some reasons for disliking Destinator 3 are a matter of taste:
I found the graphics a bit 'spidery'
Icons are small and need the stylus
It 'snaps' to roads aggressively - so if travelling on a road which isn't on the map (e.g. M6 toll) it will jump to nearby roads and give directions as if you're travelling on them - TomTom is much more willing to let you just drive across 'nowhere'.
Your speed is displayed in a tiny font at the bottom of the screen, and is not displayed all the time.
Directions can be 'odd', e.g. a local road bends to the right and has a side-road exiting to the left at the apex of the bend. TTN says nothing (correctly) but Destinator told me to 'take the exit to the right' (or something like that).
I found entry of addresses clumsy
There is an annoying screen on starting Destinator where you have to agree not to use it while driving - every time you start it up.
I couldn't set a route if my starting point wasn't on a road.
More serious issues:
On more than one local road, it would tell me to go the wrong way down a one-way street - TTN3 doesn't do this, despite also using TeleAtlas maps (and these streets have been one-way for years).
During a long journey, Destinator would clog up and need a soft reset.
What I found more irritating than anything else, though, was that on deviating from a planned route, Destinator took an age to realise. This meant a recalculation was delayed and often meant I missed the optimum new route. TTN is much quicker at recalculation.
Don't get me wrong, neither product is perfect - but I find TTN more workable than Destinator. As my Mio was cheap, and TTN3 was only 90 quid at Amazon, it was a reasonable thing to do. (I'm a bit worried now that TTN5 won't work with the Mio as it's not in TomTom's compatibility list, but I don't think it's all that accurate).
To add to the debate, can anyone answer this. Using TT3, navigating to home, it was giving directions OK. I then decided to take a different route, but it would not re-calculate. It only showed the busy icon, and said in small text that the GPS signal was unreliable.
So, why was it reliable up until I took my diversion ? And then became unreliable ? I don't belive that the signal was unreliable because I had a strong fix on 7 satellites, and when I drove below the safety screen speed and the map appeared, it showed accurately exactly where I was !
What was even more frustrating is when I arrived home, and had switched the engine off, and removed the 168 from its cradle, I was just about to switch it off, and it cheerily announced, "In 100 yards you have reached your destination". Grrr.
To add to the debate, can anyone answer this. Using TT3, navigating to home, it was giving directions OK. I then decided to take a different route, but it would not re-calculate. It only showed the busy icon, and said in small text that the GPS signal was unreliable.
So, why was it reliable up until I took my diversion ? And then became unreliable ? I don't belive that the signal was unreliable because I had a strong fix on 7 satellites, and when I drove below the safety screen speed and the map appeared, it showed accurately exactly where I was !
What was even more frustrating is when I arrived home, and had switched the engine off, and removed the 168 from its cradle, I was just about to switch it off, and it cheerily announced, "In 100 yards you have reached your destination". Grrr.
Don't know why this happens, but I've had just the same fault a couple of times. Instead of recalculating, it just freezes - then eventually gives a lunatic direction like the one you had.
This doesn't happen consistently, so I'm just having to live with it.
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