Acer N35 with Co-Pilot 5

AntSte · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 3

Hello All

I was given an Acer N35 with the Co-Pilot5 software installed as a gift. From reading the forum this appears to be the special QVC package that was avaliable late last year. The problem i have is that when it is working it is fine but to get it to work i have to do either a soft or worse still a hard reset. If i just turn on the unit i get no GPS signal until i perform a reset !!
Having mailed Co-Pilot about this i was told that there are no upgrades for this software because it was the QVC system that had been purchased.

Has anybody else had this problem or know of a fix

Many thanks

Steve

neil01 · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:50 pm Post subject:

I would take the matter up with QVC - after all, they have far more clout than you ever could.

PONDEROUS · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:17 am Post subject:

I don't have your hardware or software, and I don’t know if you’re using a fixed or bluetooth GPS receiver. However, it should help if you can get the connection to your GPS receiver established, then start up Copilot.

In any case, if you want to see if Copilot or something else seems to be causing the problem, try running another GPS-based programme. You don't have to purchase another package just to do your test, as there are public domain or shareware titles on the web that you can try for a few days. VisualGPSce is one I have tried in the past. It should help you provide a bit more information when contacting manufacturers, etc.
_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

PONDEROUS · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:33 pm Post subject:

You might have difficulty finding Visual GPS CE from the way I wrote it above. It is available free on the following site:

http://www.visualgps.net/VisualGPSce/

It doesn't look as if it's ready for Windows Mobile 5 at the moment.
_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

AntSte · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 3

Ponderous

I have installed the application you suggested and it gives me a reading straight away, as soon as i turn it on which again is making me think it is a software problem.
As for hardware ,The Acer N35 is a PDA and Handheld with a 266MHz Samsung S3C2410 Processor. It is supplied with a Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2003 Operating System and 64MB RAM. The N35 supports Infrared (IrDA) protocols, and has a 3.5" 16-bit (64K colours) TFT active matrix screen as well as an inbuilt GPS receiver. Looking at the running apps. I just have Co-pilot and Speech apps (TTS).

The co-pilot is build 5.1.0.7 and tech support as saying as it was the build they did for QVC that the .48 patch will not work Sad

I believe i can get a free upgrade to co-pilot 6. Is this going to be worth it, or looking at new Acer N35's they are shipped with destinator 3. is this a better product

Many thanks in advance

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

AntSte

I'm in here because I've got one eye on Co-Pilot at the moment. I don't know too much about it however it looks like a good proggie but I don't have hands on experience with it. However, I can comment on Destinator 3 and to be honest its ready for retirement. Its old now and has been superceded by Destinator PN which has some great features but a stupid custom-POI structure that drives you barmy (slightly improved since WinMobile5 patch but still not perfect). But Destinator 3 should IMHO be avoided unless you want it short term.

My other half bought an N35 with Destinator 3 preloaded then shelled out for Tom Tom Navigator 5 because D3 drove her mad!

Others may disagree but if you want my input don't pay good money for D3. Put it towards something newer.

Also, although the N35 looks like a good buy, if you can stretch to about £60.00 more I think you'd get something you're gonna be happy with for longer. Our household N35 is a trooper and at time of purchase was a good value PDA-based GPS solution out of the box but there are 2 things: Other PDA based systems with newer features and better software have dropped, and secondly, it seems that the N35 is now shipping with a proggie called Destintor Lite which looks like a scaled down and locked out version of PN. Tread carefully.

For what its worth, my only reason for going with Destinator PN was that its good at trans-european mapping and is unbeatable for price as a european GPS programme. However, for just UK based navigation there are other options which might have more pros than cons. Map coverage with the usual 'Teleatlas versus Navteq' issues are worth considering if you want to go to Southern Ireland where Navteq has coverage.

Probably thrown more into the pot than I should here, especially as I'm not really a Co-Pilot user but thought I'd share.
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

neil01 · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:31 pm Post subject:

PONDEROUS · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:53 pm Post subject:

From what AntSte says, it does seem as if his or her version of CP 5 is relevant to the resets described. Presumably you have set the baud and serial port numbers WITHIN Copilot, AntSte? Some versions of CP 5 required a user choice between manual and automatic receiver setup: if yours is set by default to manual, that could be your problem.

As to whether CP 6 is worth it, forgive me, but didn’t you say that the upgrade offered was free?

As to trying to decide whether to purchase CP 6 or TomTom 5, the only other comparable package with which I personally am familiar, this is a difficult question to answer Out of here

Yes, ALK have in my view made some very sloppy errors and, yes, they have missed out some important basic features, while including others that have been poorly thought through and implemented. Yes, the graphics in CP 6 are slow, jerky and dated in appearance. On the other hand, there are features in CP 6 that are not found in TomTom 5, which itself is not perfect.

What is needed is a feature-by-feature comparison, but none exists at present: however, I think that most features are discussed, warts ‘n’ all, if you work through the forums. Of course, by far the best comparison is a hands-on one, and if the present package came as a gift and the CP 6 upgrade is free, then it sounds like you might be in the position to have two packages running on the same PDA at relatively low cost.
_________________
Dell Axims X50v & X30 (both WM 2003 2nd Edition). Copilot BTGPS3 and Fortuna Clip-on BT receivers. Jabra BT 250 audio headsets. Welltech 40032/AF32 BT handsfree audio. Copilot 6.0.4.110. TomTom Navigator 5.21. MS Autoroute/Pocket Streets 2005

jimbo_hippo · Frequent Visitor Joined: May 18, 2005 Posts: 444

I'd agree about Tom Tom N5. Its so close to being perfect and is as slick as a slicky thing to look at but underneath it ain't perfect. Some of our 'jerky' choices do a better job of actually navigating! That said, if my Grandad asked for a recommendation I'd probably recommend TT Navigator since out of the box its a doddle. For those with a bit of tolerance and a drive to work around a few niggles the less sexy progs sometimes have the edge.
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

Manga · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:26 pm Post subject:

I have the same version of CoPilot that came with the Acer N35, but I now run it on an Orange SPV M500, works fine too. I can't find the receipt now from when I purchased it, so can't get the free upgrade to CoPilot 6, it will cost £50, if I could find it it would indeed be free. I reckon it would be a full supported version of CP6. Pity it didn't come with desktop software though.

AntSte · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 17, 2006 Posts: 3

Many thanks to all for your advice. I will upgrade to 6 and see how it goes

Manga · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:31 pm Post subject:

I mean, pity version 5 didn't come with desktop software, hopefully version 6 is the full "ordinary" version when upgrading

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