Thanks to your article and GPS Monitor I am up and running

[buddybuddy63]

I just want to say thank you very much to this Forum. I spent all week-end trying to get my Mio P350 GPS detect satellites .... finally this has been accomplished - my family travels to France in 7 hours so this has happened just-in-time.

Curious though.... the Mio P350 is supposed to have SirF Star III integrated chipset. According to the setting that worked on GPS Monitor it is NMEA not SirF. and the stream it gives on GPS Development monitor is consistent with that shown in the forum's detailed article (link below) My GPS works fine on its NMEA COM2 4800 setting, so I shall not disturb it, but I would like to hear from you experts out there if I should see improved performance on a different setting. Off to France now....

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

Cheers

[mikealder]

As it works leave it well alone and use / enjoy the device for your trip.

The actual SiRF vs NMEA issue confuses many people, in your case you have a SiRF-III chipset equipped GPS unit within the PDA this bit is the hardware, also present is the software which in this case (as is normal) is using the NMEA protocol for communication - the hardware and software are two different things - its just a shame they share the same name. - Mike

[buddybuddy63]

Well I've been to France and back and it picked satellites on and off for short bursts.

Also TTFF is very long, arguably it doesn't happen unless I first fiddle around with GPS Monitor first for a lock. Not impressed with Sirf III if this is the best it can do ... there must be still something wrong with my hardware/software combination so on goes the investigation..

[Skippy]

[Border_Collie]

Get WinfastCE1.3, (it shows as 1.1) which has the addition of a Save facility which enables you to print the data (see below) from http://www.leadtek.nl/nts/uk/index.php?pageid=2&dl_id=146

DON'T mess around with the SiRF settings.

You'll find your default NMEA settings on the Mio P350, when checked with WinfastCE, are GGA 1, GLL 0, GSA 5, GSV 5, VTG 1, MSS 0, User 0, User 0, User 0.

Start WinfastNavigatorCE, before you do anything else tap on Tools - Port Setting and select NMEA - GPS_HWCOM COM2 - Baud rate 4800, then OK. This will start Winfast running.

Tap on Tools - Command - NMEA and change the settings to: -

After many hours experimenting with WinfastCE on my Mio P350, I've come to the conclusion that GGA 1, GLL 1, GSA 1, GSV 5, VTG 1, MSS 0, User 0, User 1, User 0. appear to be best.

Tap on OK. Now go outside under a clear view of the sky. You should start getting locks quite soon.

Tap on View - Signal Level where you will see details of Sats and their position, and whether locked or not.

Tap on View - Development and you'll see the data being received. (Which you can save with Winfast 1.3 by tapping on the 5th icon, floppy disc. I save to SD Card.

To stop the program. make sure you go to Tools - Disconnect, then Tools - Exit. DON'T use the 'X' top right or Winfast will not release the port and TT won't work.

If, as Skippy says, you have an athermic windscreen, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault will have, then it's best to get a lock outside the car, once done you can set up inside and everything should run fine.

You may find or may not find the following interesting but make sure you at least skip towards the end, 'Programs running in the background.

The $trings are as follows GGA = (GPS fixed data)
GLL = (Position Lon/Lat)
GSA = (Active Satellites)
GSV = (Satellites in view)
RMC = (Minimum Data required)
VTG = (Course and ground speed)
MSS = (Beacons)
User
User (This user on mine results in a $GPZDA showing every second. ZDA = Time and Date). e.g. 15:09:09.000,25/09/2006
User

All the above $trings are transmitted every second except GSV which is every 5 seconds.

Here is a 5 second period taken from mine.

$GPGGA,154202.000,5122.2858,N,00035.9740,E,1,07,1.4,12.9,M,47.0,M,,0000*68
$GPGLL,5122.2858,N,00035.9740,E,154202.000,A*3B $GPGSA,A,3,31,07,21,06,16,30,25,,,,,,3.4,1.4,3.1*31 $GPRMC,154202.000,A,5122.2858,N,00035.9740,E,0.25,218.80,171006,,*09
$GPVTG,218.80,T,,M,0.25,N,0.5,K*61

$GPGGA,154203.000,5122.2858,N,00035.9740,E,1,07,1.4,12.6,M,47.0,M,,0000*66
$GPGLL,5122.2858,N,00035.9740,E,154203.000,A*3A $GPGSA,A,3,31,07,21,06,16,30,25,,,,,,3.4,1.4,3.1*31 $GPRMC,154203.000,A,5122.2858,N,00035.9740,E,0.21,178.79,171006,,*0F
$GPVTG,178.79,T,,M,0.21,N,0.4,K*67

$GPGGA,154204.000,5122.2858,N,00035.9739,E,1,07,1.4,12.9,M,47.0,M,,0000*60
$GPGLL,5122.2858,N,00035.9739,E,154204.000,A*33 $GPGSA,A,3,31,07,21,06,16,30,25,,,,,,3.4,1.4,3.1*31 $GPRMC,154204.000,A,5122.2858,N,00035.9739,E,0.20,201.44,171006,,*04
$GPVTG,201.44,T,,M,0.20,N,0.4,K*65

$GPGGA,154205.000,5122.2858,N,00035.9739,E,1,07,1.4,12.4,M,47.0,M,,0000*6C $GPGLL,5122.2858,N,00035.9739,E,154205.000,A*32 $GPGSA,A,3,31,07,21,06,16,30,25,,,,,,3.4,1.4,3.1*31 $GPRMC,154205.000,A,5122.2858,N,00035.9739,E,0.20,162.64,171006,,*01
$GPVTG,162.64,T,,M,0.20,N,0.4,K*61

$GPGGA,154206.000,5122.2857,N,00035.9739,E,1,07,1.4,12.1,M,47.0,M,,0000*65 $GPGLL,5122.2857,N,00035.9739,E,154206.000,A*3E $GPGSA,A,3,31,07,21,06,16,30,25,,,,,,3.4,1.4,3.1*31 $GPGSV,3,1,11,06,55,071,35,07,51,253,40,21,48,157,36,31,46,217,42*75 $GPGSV,3,2,11,25,45,230,35,16,40,296,36,30,22,121,20,10,14,048,16*7E $GPGSV,3,3,11,23,10,304,20,13,08,336,10,03,05,254,16*43 $GPRMC,154206.000,A,5122.2857,N,00035.9739,E,0.22,199.38,171006,,*02 $GPVTG,199.38,T,,M,0.22,N,0.4,K*6E

Notice the 3 GSV lines appear during the 5th second? e.g. the 3.1 is line 1 of 3

You'll see that GGA and RMC gives you Time and Latitude/Longitude.
GLL gives Lat/Long and Time. Therefore GLL is only duplicating GGA and RMC.

The middle User if set to 1 gives a ZDA $tring of time and date but you get the time and date in GGA and GLL and the date in RMC. So required strings appear to duplicate each other with some information, so maybe TomTom actually needs/uses the GLL data and maybe even the ZDA. By activating them it can do no harm, if the data isn't read, or needed TT will ignore it. With that in mind I chose the above settings.

Make sure you have no programmes running in the background. You will find ActiveSync keeps starting itself i.e running in the background, even when you haven't Sync'd up with your Desktop.

The way to overcome this is: - Start your P350. Go to Start – Programs – Activesync.
Tap on Menu then Add Server Source’ Enter 1, 1, 1, 1 as the server.
User a
Password b
Domain c
Next uncheck the boxes End.
Now go back to Menu – Schedule and use the two sliders to select each as Manual OK
Now go to Activesync - Options, where you can delete the Server you’ve just added. It will now keep the Manual settings.

You will still be able to use Activesync in the normal way but you’ll find it no longer auto-starts when it’s left alone, thereby saving some battery and CPU power.
_________________
Formerly known as Lost_Property
And NO that's NOT me in the Avatar.

[buddybuddy63]

Lost_Property; many thanks for the detailed explanation. I followed your instructions to the dot and I see early signs that my P350 is not so bad after all (it even detects 5 or 6 satellites from inside the house and this never happened before) Look forward to testing it going into work tomorrow. By the way I am not using TT, I use the aoftware which came with a Medion (Medion Navigator 4.4) --- wonder if TT is much better?

Skippy; Thanks for your posting as well. By the way I think we share the same taste in toys as I think my bike is identical to yours - I shall try personalising my profile with a picture as well

[Border_Collie]

[philpugh]

[Border_Collie]

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!