Dell Axim 5 and TomTom package

AliT · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 1:42 pm Post subject: Dell Axim 5 and TomTom package

Does anyone have any experience, comments or criticism about the Dell Axim X5 working with Tom Tom 2?
The bundle that Dell is offering seems the best deal around (X5 300 mhz, 32mb + TT2 for GBP 297 plus vat)
Which is best, the 300 mhz plus spend the extra 50 quid on a CF card or the 400 mhz 64 mb plus a CF card?
Having read some of the wish list and comments about TT2 how useable is it really. I intend this as a gift to my partner. She is a sales agent and lives in her car (almost) but needs good navigation and speed camera info, but as she is not a techy it must be easy to use, mustn't crash or lock up, and most importantly must be accurate.
Can this bundle price be beaten by any other ppc/gps combination?

Dave · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 5:09 pm Post subject:

The Axims do work with TTN2, personally I would go for the 64mb 400Mhz model, you will find it faster with the extra RAM and processor speed.

Not all Dell users have been satisfied, personally if you've got a little more money to spend I would go for a HP iPAQ 2210 and TomTom Navigator 2.

AliT · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2003 11:51 am Post subject:

£243.00 plus vat is not what I call a "little more money" unless you know of a good bundle price. What problems do people have with the Axim which are not apparent in the HP?
Expansys have the TT2 kit for the Axim at £225.00 plus VAT so the Dell bundle price is extremely good - £72.00. Either Tom Tom or the PDA manufacturers are charging excessive prices. Or is Dell's buying power so good that TT have "given" the product away. Perhap's we could persuade HP that such a deal would be a good thing.

Dave · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2003 3:26 pm Post subject:

Actually it is a little more when you compare it to complete in-car systems at £2000 which basically give the same quality or less quality/features compared with the PDA packages.

seanruk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 13, 2003 Posts: 2

Just wanted to say that I have recently purchased TTN2 for my Dell Axim X5 400mhz PDA and I am very pleased with it. Aside from one or two minor issues in the beginning my Dell has not caused me any major issues. Advantages with Dell are the SD slot and CF slot which make a big difference when it comes to storage for maps etc.

Again, No problems so far and very TTN2 is easy to use... :D

his_racing_puma · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 03, 2003 Posts: 12

I have just taken delivery of the TT2 and Dell Axim 5 package this week. I went for the 400mhz deal.

I have found that it is about as good as the full system I had in my previous car. The bonus is that it really takes only 2 mins to fit to your car.

I have noticed that it comes with GPS 2.08 already but can not work out what version of TT2 it has - how can I tell please Dave.

Oh one last thing. My wife hates techy gadgets but even she can usethis and seemed quite keen. I may just have to buy one for her now.

his_racing_puma · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 03, 2003 Posts: 12

I did forget to mention, dont buy it via the web site. Ring them up. I did and it was actually £30 cheaper than on the web. If you are nice to the sales agents they also have the option to give you free delivery and an extra 5% off. Wish I had known that before. But I do when I buy the next one Smile

SimonK · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 19, 2003 Posts: 6

How long does it take you guys to get a gps fix when you power on?

We have two of these dell/tomtom packages and they are both taking 10 mins plus to get a fix when we power on.

(Once a fix is got everything is great and 8 sats + are the norm)

Have spoken to TomTom today who told me the the silver gps mouse is dumb and does no processing and has no memory therefore can't be faulty as we do get a decent signal/fix eventually.

They suggested we are powering on and off in the incorrect sequence and have asked me to exit TomTom, then power off the Axim before removing from the cradle.

We have now tried this and no joy.

In what sequence do other people power on and off?

Thanks in advance for any help / suggestions.

Dave · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2003 12:37 pm Post subject:

10 Mins is far too long, you should be getting a fix within 50-60 seconds.

TomTom are correct, the receiver will just receive signals, however if the receiver isn't picking satellites up then it could be a faulty receiver, or faulty connector, or a problem with the Dell's.

Easiest way is to use WinFast Navigator and perform a manual test, you should be looking at getting 3-4 sats (green circles), blue means it's acquiring and red means it doesn't have a fix but can see the satellite (this is different colour coding compared to TomTom).

Checkout the following article for how to download/install/configure WinFast Navigator

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/winfastnavigatorppc.php

SimonK · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 19, 2003 Posts: 6

Thanks for that Dave.

Keeping TomTom completely out of the equation and just using WinFast Navigator I am now seeing the following results:

1) Simulated "Cold Start" TTFF in around a minute, less if gps mouse placed outside

2) Real cold start (ie being turned off for 1-2 hours) then WinFast Navigator is behaving the same as TomTom was and taking 10 mins + TTFF

Any ideas what the difference is between a "real" and "simulated" cold start is?!

Thanks
Simon

Dave · Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:02 am Post subject:

This looks to me like you have two faulty GPS Receivers. What's the luck of that ?

If you get a fix under WinFast Navigator, whilst still connected go to the COMMAND menu option and goto the tab with the Hot, Warm, Cold figures on it. Click Cold and OK, does this take 10 mins from that point to re-acquire a fix ?

A cold start is usually considered once the GPS Receiver has been cold for a couple of hours. Basically you should be receiving sub 1m30s fixes from a couple of hours up to several months before the Almanac expires (Almanacs are up to date for a couple of months and show the rough positions of the satellites). If you don't have the Almanac, then it means that you have to download the full Almanac and Ephemeris tables which will take around 12.5 mins.

What you may be finding is that these receivers have been sat in a factory for ages and haven't had their onboard backup battery charged, so once you've got a fix, see if you can go for an hours drive and leave it plugged in, just to give the receiver some juice to charge the battery. After a few hours, the battery should be charged, so that it shouldn't then lose this information and allow you to have a 1min fix.

If after this it still loses a fix, I would return the GPS Receivers as they are most probably faulty.

Basically if you leave a GPS off for about 20 mins, you should obtain a hot fix which usually is sub 10sec, and if you leave it off for between 20 mins and 2 hours you should receive a warm fix, which would be around 30-40 seconds on average. A full hot cold fix should take 30 seconds under optimum conditions, but most receivers will receive a fix around the 50 seconds mark depending on conditions, ionosphere, multipath errors etc.

When simulating a cold start by using the COLD Start option, this will basically remove a lot of the Ephemeris table from the GPS / ignore it and try to do a cold fix. A real cold start may be different if the backup battery hasn't got a full charge and it's then actually losing the Almanac too.

SimonK · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 19, 2003 Posts: 6

Thanks for all your help Dave.

Trouble is Dell don't want to know and say TomTom provide the support.

And TomTom support just ignore me unless I want to sit in a queue on an international call for half an hour to speak to someone who tells me that these gps receivers aren't supposed to have any memory!

Time to get the credit card company involved I think.

Simon

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