GPS frustrations

silbot22 · 01-13-06, 11:13 AM

after spending some weeks now trying to get my Rikaline 6021-x6 to work in my axim i am about to give up. how i have not smashed the gps with a hammer is only down to a little green plant.
the gps has a green light on so it is connecting but sometimes it will pick up a signal others it dont (in 8 tries it may get it once) when trying it in the car it kept loosing the sats, no problem i can add an ant. what gets me is the just dont want to work. the tiny battery inside has almost 3 volts. i am at a total lose & looking at the Haicom Multi Mode Foldable with SD Slot. anyone have an idea how this would perform

a suicidal very lost Sil

*JakeRich* · 01-13-06, 01:16 PM

Sil, hang in there. The X5 and CF gps normally works very well together, so let's try some troubleshooting first.

1. Only ONE app can use the data from the receiver at a time. Remember, tapping the X in the upper right doesn't kill the app, it only pushes it into the background still running. That action can block anything else from seeing the GPS data. So, is your problem that you can't find the receiver with the software, or are you finding it but it doesn't display any satellites?
2. Some windscreens, particularly in Europe, have a metallic coating to remove dew/frost. That metallic coating blocks the signals from the satellites so that the GPS cannot receive it. Does your Rikaline work better out of the car than in it? Have you tried it outdoors, in a clear area with a good view of the sky? If not, do so and see if it works there.
3. TomTom is a bit unforgiving of GPS configuration, let's get it working with something simpler first. Do you have any utilities that would let you just monitor the GPS? GPSViewer, a free utility downloadable from here, will let you try connecting without TomTom's complexities. Put the card in the X5, fire up GPSViewer and let it automatically find the GPS. Once that's done, let the receiver get a fix and report where it is. That step will make the next step easier. Once you have a fix in GPSViewer, then completely stop it (see item 1 above) and then fire up TomTom. Pick, as I recall, the serial GPS option and set the com port to what GPSViewer found. Assuming TomTom finds it then, you should get a fix in a few seconds.
4. The little battery inside the CF unit is immaterial to its operation. That battery is ONLY for holding data between uses. Read GPS101 and GPS201 for details on how GPS really works and you'll see that to get a "warm" fix the data from the last fix has to be stored, so most units have a tiny battery to power the memory chips inside the receiver that store the last fix, ephemeris and almanac data. If that battery dies, every time you start the unit you'd need to get a cold fix, which takes a little longer. In operation, that battery doesn't do anything as the CF card pulls all power to operate from the X5 through the CF connection.
Hope all that helps some.

silbot22 · 01-13-06, 04:21 PM

Hi Jakerich
the problem sems to be GPS monotor is not getting a signal from the card. when it did get a signal a while ago the little circle (looks like a globe) on the right side bottom of screen would change colour & rotate, also in the VIEW option when DEVELOPMENT is ticked it should have data streaming but i am getting nothing? i have tried resetting the axim a few times also taken the card out and on reinserting it does pick it up but still cant get it to run. all this is done with no other application running at all. i know if the GPS monitor picks up signals it will then get a fix but now i am not even getting that far, could it be the card? the green light is lit on the gps all the time it is supposed to be connected, if it was picking the card up i am sure there would be data streaming in the (view-development) option. other settings are in COMMAND, initialize; reset mode=factory. Messages=enable raw track data, ticked & enable development data, ticked.in NMEA baudrate is 4800. GGA:1 GLL:0 GSA:5 GSV:5 RMC:1 VTG:1 MSS:0 USER:0 User:0 if i click default it sets to these. if i go into port settings i get a window up saying Error! couldnt find value, clicking OK this repeats 3 times then onto GPS Protocol this is set at NMEA, port is Serial com5 baudrate 4800.ok'ing this goes back to navigation message view= which should have 0 on the position/velocity/lat/long/altitude/utc/sats used. all this is dead? i dont want to spend out on another CF GPS and find that will not work but i am sure it is the card causing the trouble. what do you think? HELP i am really stuck with this.

many thanks
Sil

*JakeRich* · 01-13-06, 07:07 PM

Did you buy the card new, or used? I ask because the previous owner, if you got it used, may have changed something from the defaults that is causing a problem. That card has a SIRF chipset in it, and that chipset can be set in a mode of communication that is proprietary to SIRF. In that mode, it won't communicate with any NMEA interface. At that same download site was a utility called SIRFDemo. It is designed for a PC, not a PPC, but you will need BT in the PC/Laptop to use it. If you google, there is a PPC version with more limited functions, but at least you can check to see if the receiver is somehow in SIRF mode. Read the directions for SIRFDemo carefully and then try setting the unit to NMEA, 4800 baud to see you can then recover the unit. Be very careful not to change anything else. SirfDemo is a very powerful utility that can get you into a lot of trouble if you don't know what you are doing. It is always possible the interface portion of the receiver has failed, but that's not really likely.

silbot22 · 01-13-06, 09:03 PM

i got it on ebay, used, he said it was working fine running tomtom for him, i think i will be out of my depth & could really mess up, getting a bit complicated for a mear mortal like me

*JakeRich* · 01-13-06, 09:27 PM

Ok, I took this screenshot of the main menu from GPSViewer. If your screen looks different, we may not be talking the same software. Assuming it does look the same, let's try this:

1. Insert the Card in the slot.
2. Soft reset.
3. Start GPSViewer--nothing else, just GPSViewer.
4. Tap "Scan..." and wait. Let it run through all ports/speeds.
5. If it finds the GPS, tap "Open GPS." If it doesn't, enter COM5, 4800 and tap "Open GPS." I'm working from memory here, but I think that is the default GPS port for the X5. I'll do some digging to verify that after I post.

The rest of the boxes will un-grey when it detects the card. If you see data flowing in the box, you have connected. If not, try tapping "Cold Start" and watch the box.

Let me know how that works and we'll do some more diagnostics.

silbot22 · 01-14-06, 09:26 AM

Thanks, went through it as you said, it did not find the gps so set it at port 5 & 4800 then had to do a COLD START. in the box then came up;GPS OPEN...
$PSRF104,0,0,0,96000,237759,922,12 ...DONE

i then looked in GPS status where the time clock was still and no movement at all. hope that helps, thanks JakeRich

*JakeRich* · 01-14-06, 10:28 PM

That sentence is a command to Sirf chipsets to reset, set the coordinates to 0 and restart. If you waited 4-5 minutes after that and didn't see data, it may be in SIRF mode.

Get APLSirf. Install it. Start it. Set COM5, 4800. Tap OPEN. If data is in the NMEA window, it's in nmea mode and will probably get a fix in 4-5 minutes, outdoors. If you see activity in the SIRF window, it's in SIRF mode.

To take it out of SIRF mode all you have to do is tap the "to NMEA" button and look for data in the NMEA window, then tap Close. That will do it.

silbot22 · 01-15-06, 11:25 AM

after many hours of repeating the steps i tapped it on a hard surface & had data streaming straight away. great i thought its working. closed the aplsirf pro & opened tomtom & drove around the block worked fine, left it on in fromt of the car & it lost the gps again. back at home i was trying it for another 3 hours then decided it had to die. at least i know what the inside looks like, the rest is in many bits.
Many thanks for all the help JakeRich you been wonderful, i will order a new gps in the week & hope this works from the box. why i tried to save & got second hand i dont know. new one should work??????

thanks again
Si

julioarca33 · 01-15-06, 03:43 PM

in my opinion, go for a bt receiver

silbot22 · 01-15-06, 08:55 PM

any recomendations, i am findng it hard locating a bluetooth cf card here in the UK for some reason, should be easy i thought also i read somewhere that Blenkin cf bluetooth would not work in the X5.

so much info on this site i am really glad i found you guys

thanks
Sil

silbot22 · 01-20-06, 10:00 AM

got BT now, very many thanks to Jakerich for all the help. i think the card had it's day it seemed very tempremental to say the least.
all working fine.

sexysi · 02-07-06, 08:13 AM

Just thought I would put my pennies worth in the SysOn CF memory GPS 3 is an excellent receiver, 9 satellites every time. And a Gb of card space.
sexysi

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