bertie

Hi All,

Has anyone had any experience with the Haicom CF gps unit. I dont think i've seen a product with such little commentary on the web.

I think the model number is Hi-302. Apart from one rather vague review there doesnt seem to be much feedback on it. Any links or recommendation would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Bertie

cavuu

I just purchased one on Ebay this week and waiting for delivery. So if you can wait a bit I will post a review as soon as I can.
Fyi, it is the same unit re-labeled that is being sold by Controlvision and Teletype.

__________________
Somedays your the dog, somedays your the hydrant

jens_s

I have had the HI-302CF for a month or so now. I think it works fine. I bought the kit with the PCMCIA adapter and the external antenna.

Some of my experiences:

Power: It's thirsty. With the standard battery in my Axim it runs for about 2.5 hours with the screen brightness turned all the way up.
Thankfully I anticipated this, and got the 3400mAh battery for the Axim. Theoretically that should last about 5-6 hours.

Reception: Without the external antenna it works fine outdoors. I normally get 6-8 sats. Sometimes even 12 sats at once. Indoors it seldom works, unless I attach the external antenna (also located indoors), then it usually gets 3-6 sats.

In the car: Works best with the external antenna mounted on top of the dash just under the windscreen.

Precision: Works best when it can see at least 5 or 6 sats. From my experiments I would say that the precision is within 5-10 meters. If less sats are used, the precision drops to 10-20 meters.
Altitude is less precise. On average it seems to be consistently about 40 meters too high compared to the official measurements in my home town.

TTFF: Reasonably fast. Normally 45s to 60s for a cold-start... 10-30 seconds for a warm start. Under 10 seconds for hot start.
Those times are measured when it has a good view of the sky.
If I start driving before it obtains a fix it takes a very long time... Sometimes several minutes.

Reaquisition: When the signal is lost (for example driving under a bridge) it usually reaquires the signal within a few seconds

Design: There is a gap between the top of the Axim to the bottom of the bulky part of the GPS, as if it isn't inserted all the way. Looks a little fragile.
I personally dont like the greenish color of the unit...
The LED is placed on the left side of the unit. I would have preferred it placed on the top, so it would be visible from more angles. It is also hard to see the LED in bright daylight.

PCMCIA (With adapter): Works fine on my laptop.

All in all I have to say that I am very satisfied with the unit.

/Jens

cavuu

I just recieved my Haicom 302CF and it seems dead, the manual is not much help.
Installed in a Dell Axim 300
-the LED does not light and no indication of activity on the program.
-com 1,2,3 show on with GPS in or out
-com 4 shows off with GPS in our out

-I have installed the enclosed gpsinfo.exe for ARM program
-do you need to install any other driver software to the Axim?
-there is no explanation for the LED. When shoud it be on or flashing?
-what com port are you using

Don

__________________
Somedays your the dog, somedays your the hydrant

JakeRich

I don't have Haicom, but my Holux CF doesn't come on until I access it through the com port. GPSViewer, from Semsons, and Mapopolis both have actions to connect to the GPS. When I tap those, the LED on the CF card lights and it starts to work. Have you tried that?

jens_s

Quote:

Originally posted by cavuu -com 1,2,3 show on with GPS in or out -com 4 shows off with GPS in our out -I have installed the enclosed gpsinfo.exe for ARM program -do you need to install any other driver software to the Axim? -there is no explanation for the LED. When shoud it be on or flashing? -what com port are you using Don

I use COM5 with the Haicom in my Axim.
(Com5, 4800 baud, 8 bits, one stop bit, no parity, no handshaking)
You dont need any other software or driver to use the GPSINFO program.
The LED comes on when the correct com-port is activated, and stays solid while it searches for satellites. When it gets a fix it starts flashing.

/Jens

cavuu

Thanks Jake and Jens
My day just went from to :) Nothing worse than getting a new toy and it doesn't work!

The software that came with it only had com 1-4 not 5.
Oziexplorer has com 5 available and everything is working as it should.

Don

__________________
Somedays your the dog, somedays your the hydrant