NAVMAN 3450 new user needs help...

57Vette · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 21, 2004 Posts: 4

I posted a plea for help on usenet and Darren was kind enough to suggest that I come join this forum and get the benefit of plenty of GPS and Navman experience to help me get rolling. I'll give you the quick overview; just bought a Navman 3450 on eBay but no software was included. I'm trying to get it running properly with my iPaq 3970.

Sleeve is on iPaq and Mapopolis is installed in the iPaq. I bought a 256MB CF card and put my first group of maps (CT & MA) on the CF card. Mapopolis works fine finding locations, but I have yet to get the Navman working (I think).

When I select GPS in Mapopolis it switches over to the Navman and starts searching for a com port. Do I have to literally install the Navman and assign a com port to it? I'm a little new to all this and if someone wants to jump in and walk me through the setup... that would be great. I've downloaded two files from Navman but when I try to run the patch file it keeps asking me for the CD (which I don't have). Maybe I don't need it?

OK, go easy on me because this is my first experience with a GPS like this.

Mike

Darren · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 8:22 pm Post subject:

I'll start this off by asking, when you switch on do you get any error message about 'Unrecognised CF Card'? If you don't then in Mapopolis the best bet is to configure the correct COM Port rather than let it search as these automatic seraches often fail.

If I recall correctly COM4 is the Port you need. Try that and let us know how you get on?
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Darren Griffin

Dave · Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2004 8:27 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure what the COM port is on the 3970, but the 3870 I think was COM 5 or 6, basically 4, 5 or 6 should do it. The Navman 3400 runs at 57600, but if it's had SmartST Pro being used with it before, it maybe switched to SiRF 57600.

If you insert the iPAQ into the sleeve and you get a card not recognised type of message then you'll need to install the Navman driver for the iPAQ to recognise the sleeve.

57Vette · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 21, 2004 Posts: 4

Is there a way to bypass the "searching for com port" deal and actually assign a com port for this device? Also, does the Navman come with map software that is better (or worse) than Mapopolis or perhaps MS Street finder?

Mike

Dave · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 8:07 am Post subject:

I think you can, last time I looked you could set the COM port, but you need to know what it is. If you install WinFast Navigator (on our downloads page) and take the sleeve off, run up WinFast Navigator then insert the iPAQ into the sleeve, it should tell you which COM port it's using. :D

57Vette · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 21, 2004 Posts: 4

Dave...

Thanks for that tip I will certainly try that. I don't know what com port the GPS is working on or what happens when I eliminate that search. I know it kind of hangs on the "looking for a bluetooth connection" for a long while before it starts going into GPS mode. Could be it's searching while the GPS is searching for a fix?

In the last couple of days I have played around with the unit and I finally got it to work! So, aside from a lethargic warmup and the searching for com ports, once the system is hot, I did get Mapopolis vocally giving me directions as I made a few stops. For those of you who haven't seen/tried Mapopolis, you ought to... it's a pretty neat program. Naturally, I could make a few minor suggestions to "improve" it to my liking, but I don't know whether everyone would agree on my suggestions!

I still have a couple of gripes, and would like to resolve them. Here's a quick list:

1. Every once in a while a popup window opens over the map area and it notes something to the effect that the iPaq can't make a connection because I have no modem. I have no idea what that's about, so I just push the dismiss button and it goes away. Just a nuisance.

2. It seems that when I remove the unit from my vehicle and unplug the power cord it sometimes doesn't want to shut down completely. Eventually it does, but then when I reconnect and re-seat the iPaq back in the Navman it doesn't want to power up unless I hit the recessed reset button and start from scratch.

3. When I power up each day, I have to click select every map area individually, even though the top selection is "Select all Maps" is on top. It would be nice to have a true "select all maps" option, but I haven't messed with maplets yet.

Things I'd like to see; an optional OTG speed down in the bottom of the display, a maximum of 50% screen usage for text instructions, maybe I'll think of other things down the road. But first impressions of this combination are very good. I've got the Navman mount over to the left of my steering wheel, low so that part of it winds up behind the windshield frame. Never lost signal yet in about 250 miles of driving around, so I don't think there's any need for an external antenna if you mount it anywhere near the dash/windshield area.

Mike

57Vette · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 21, 2004 Posts: 4

When I click on the "programs" screen, I'm seeing two (2) Navman v.1.3 icons, and when I try to remove them, I'm told I can't because the uninstall was unsuccessful because the files are in use or are read-only. They give instructions to try stopping all programs and then uninstalling, but that didn't work. I just don't want to bog down the iPaq, so if anyone knows a way to remove an installation like this... let me know.

Mike

Darren · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:30 am Post subject:

I wouldn't be too concerned about the two icons, they're certainly won't be too installations, more likely just two instances of the icon. You could resolve this by browsing to Windows\Start Menu\Programs and deleting the duplicate icon.
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Darren Griffin

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