axim4hiking

The story so far...

Got my X51V 2 weeks ago and flashed it to the A12 ROM with no apparent issues. Today, I got my Haicom HI-305 CF GPS delivered and got to work. In settings, I set the GPS Program Port to COM3, and the Hardware Port to COM4/4800 baud with Access:Manage GPS automatically checked. Note that I did not install any of the drivers that came on the CD, as I am guessing from appearance they are only SD to CF card drivers/fixes. (the HI-305 has a SD card slot in the side of the GPS antenna. from other posts it appears this does not yet work with WM5)

I loaded up VisualGPSce 1.00.3 on the SD card, popped the CF card in and got a red LED on the side of it. I walked outside and within a few seconds had 4 satellites with SNR of 38-42. In Connect>Serial_Port, COM4: - Drivers\PCMCIA\Haicom-Hi-3???(small text box) is already selected as is 4800 baud. I even started a log file. So what's the problem?

The problem is I have no Position Fix. Lat/Long is all zeros, which doesn't help me be in a found state of mind. I also have 12 sats in view but zero in use. I have heard that it takes as long as a minute to sync up, but after 10 minutes outside there was still no joy.

As I type this, the axim is back in the cradle with the GPS going. I have 2 sats with SNRs of 32, but I am still "lost". What did I miss or do wrong?

JakeRich

It can take 20 minutes to get the first fix, although I would have expected 10 minutes to be sufficient in most cases. It also takes at least 3, preferably 4, satellites consistently used to get a fix. GPS doesn't work well indoors or in heavily covered sky (buildings, trees, etc). Weather is not a factor, but metal and trees are. If the receiver is reporting that it can hear the satellites, be patient and don't move the receiver even an inch while it gets that first fix. After that first fix is done, future fixes will be faster. The reason for that delay is described in the gps tutorials linked in my sig.

axim4hiking

I doubt it had anything to do with it, but I loaded the driver that came with the CD. Once that was done, I used GPSinfo to start recording data. The trick was to tell the software to use serial port 4(not assume that it was), even though I could have sworn I did that the first time. That got the data flowing and after a few, I had enough data for the position fix. I closed that down & started VisualGPSce, which had its position in a few seconds. The LED on the side also started blinking, instead of staring at me with its solid red eye.

It looks like the HI-305III has all the brains in this relationship. To test that I could do it again, I shut down, powered off and removed the GPS. Once I powered back on 2 minutes later, the GPS found the first satellite within a few seconds. I suppose that it somehow stores the last ephemeris data so it can get started more quickly. I will try it again tomorrow afternoon & see how long it takes to get a lock.

Right now, I have 5 sats with SNR of 24-30 indoors. Life is good.

sz1999

Originally Posted by axim4hiking

I doubt it had anything to do with it, but I loaded the driver that came with the CD.

It needs driver? My BC-337 does not require any driver, just plug in and find out the com port, then bang all GPS software works (one at a time, they are using the same port).