TT5 + iPaq 3870 + Navman Jacket = Dire GPS performance

Rutger · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 10, 2005 Posts: 9

I have installed TTN5 on my iPaq 3870 WM 2003 and am using the Navman GPS Jacket. TTN3 performed flawlessly and I have had 50,000 miles of perfect navigation with no problems at all so I thought it was time for an upgrade.

Install went fine and can see no obvious interface issues apart from one fundamental problem. It takes an age to get a satellite fix. I have set up the Navman jacket in the only way that is possible i.e. 'Other NMEA wired receiver', '57600 Baud' and 'Navman driver'. Stood outside pointing the iPaq at the sky and the fix is quite quick, in fact I would go so far as saying as quick as TTN3, but in the car in the same place on the windscreen mount, no chance. I have driven 90 miles to get a fix before, only to lose it sat on a a petrol station forecourt. Then it took 25 minutes to re-acquire.

Thinking this must be driver/software related I hard reset the iPaq, installed Navman serial driver 3.1.6 then TTN5 after a reset. First fix outside within 30 seconds, took into the car and mounted in suction mount, sat and waited for 10 minutes watching the bars jump up and down. It could clearly see at least 6 satellites with pretty much maximum strength on each bar but would not fix.

Interestingly if I took the iPaq out and held it at arms length out of the window (whilst stationary), it would get a fix almost instantly. I then run the old TTN3 GPS monitor and it would get a fix almost instantly sat in the car in the windscreen mount, even after a soft reset.

At this point I moved the iPaq to the centre of the dashboard in line with the gear stick so it seemed to have a clearer view of the sky. Bam, almost instant fix and it would seem to see more satellites. Happy in this knowledge I thought I had cracked it.

After mounting the iPaq to the central vent and driving around today I can report that this is marginally better but no where near as good as TTN3. In fact I went through an Arc car wash (the kind with a 'roof') to see how quick it would re-acquire after losing the fix when driving through. Simple answer, it didn't until I stopped and waved the iPaq out of the window again.

Now I don't know what TomTom have done but it seems that it isn't anything to do with the GPS driver, just the way that TTN is interpretting the data coming from it. When it does have a fix it does seem almost as good as TTN3 but is too quick to lose it again and way too long to re-fix.

Maybe the 3xxx series iPaq's are too 'old' and not powerful enough to cope with the new improved version but I have seen nothing that would lead me to believe this such as drastic slowing down, lock ups. Even the scroll speed is around 10-15fps.

I am all out of ideas, perhaps others with similar setups could let me know performance details, software versions etc. I would love to sort this out as TTN5 is such a more polished product, it would be a shame to upgrade hardware to take advantage of it.

Regards

lbendlin · Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 4:43 am Post subject:

We are hearing more and more of these reports. It's really strange since there's no reason for a poorer performance unless TTN5 tries to talk back to the receiver too much.

It may have to do with the fact that the new engine only supports serial and BT receivers natively. All others (CF, Jacket etc) are not really supported.
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

Hannibal · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 06, 2005 Posts: 19

I have virtually the same setup and I'd entirely agree with you, however I think you're lucky as you can get a fix by holding it outside your window - I have to just wait an hour or so TTFF! Have you got a 'comfort' windscreen? That may be your problem. I'm going to upgrade to a MDA3 & BT GPS SiRFStar3, but in the meantime it'll be back to TT3 I fear.

H

Rutger · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 10, 2005 Posts: 9

Hi Hannibal

By 'comfort' windscreen are you meaning re-radiating? No, it's an 03 Vectra which TT3 has worked flawlessly in since new (60,000 miles).

I really cannot see what is so different between the two setups. I mean the only thing that effectively stops the GPS signal for TTN5 is a standard car windsrceen. Even if support for CF and Jacket-type receivers are not standard in TTN5 surely TomTom should allow us to choose the COM port that the Navman driver creates in GPS setup. For TT3 GPS this was COM 6, so theoretically we would then be using a 'serial' device. Bypassing the 'Navman' driver in setup seems to me the only way forward but TTN5 will not allow a COM port selection other than 1, 5 or 8.

I am confused as to why TomTom have efectively cut out such a huge share of the TTN3 upgrade market. The Navman jacket is old technology by todays standards but it works fine for TTN3 and I dare say a majority of users would not want to upgrade not only their GPS receiver but also their car mounting device as well for a functioning TTN5 set up.

The other TTN3 -> TTN5 upgrade gripes listed on this forum really do not bother me. Ultra configurability is fine but when the product works out of the box with a lot of nice new touches it is worthy of the term upgrade.
Having to upgrade a perfectly good working part of an exisiting setup for absolutely no apparent reason is certainly not.

Hannibal · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 06, 2005 Posts: 19

Quantum · Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 4:03 pm Post subject:

My son has an IPaq3950 running WM2002 and the Bluetooth jacket. I've heard that installing WM2003 disables the Bluetooth in the 3970 which has BT built-in, but does it also disable BT in a 3950 with BT jacket?

Would TTN5 run on this kit?

Tim Buxton · Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 4:39 pm Post subject:

amcluesent · Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 4:49 pm Post subject:

>BT works as normal<

Yes, my 3970 with proper WM2003 works fine with BT to phones etc. There is a d/l patch for BT on WM2003 available from HP however.

Barclay · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 22, 2004 Posts: 11

have you gat a link for the wm2003 download can,t find it

amcluesent · Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 2:28 pm Post subject:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/22254.html

gazza_saab · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 28, 2005 Posts: 2

I have the same configuration, TT3 worked fine, TT5 will not lock onto satellites, inside or outside of the car. I’m trying to reinstall TT3 but need my activation code either replacing or being unlocked, awaiting a response form TomTom, looks like I wasted £50.

v0n · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:45 am Post subject:

If you have Navman SE jacket with MCX connector on the side the easiest way is to buy cheap patch antenna with MCX connection, there are Holux ones on ebay going for about £10. I now have patch antenna in a dashboard cubby inside the car and fix and reception is practically instantenous.

I know this is again a workaround for badly written GPS code, which should be fixed by tomtom, but never the less, it's the cheapest workaround.

Hannibal · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 06, 2005 Posts: 19

Just tried out TTN 5.1 and it works pretty well (given the outdated hardware). TTFF cold about 15 mins (whilst driving) and warm in under 5. I've bought a Holux 236 which is infinately better TTFF of seconds from warm and around 30 from cold and they're form inside the house! I just need to get a pda with bluetooth now!

H

Jit · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 02, 2004 Posts: 1

I just tried TTN5 with my Navman 3000 sleeve.

With v5.0 I can barely get a fix - the sat bars just seem to flicker high then low. I think that I've only ever had one fix with this version, which only lasted for a few seconds!

With v5.1 I can get fixes slightly faster, however they don't last for very long. I can generally see two to four sat bars that are generally grey most of the time - even when I'm outside in the open with plenty of sky.

In the same conditions using TTN3 I can get a lock within seconds! And it's a pretty solid lock!

It's a shame that you can't use this older GPS driver. Looks like I'm going to be returning my copy of TTN5... Sad

Ash10 · Pocket GPS Verifier Joined: Feb 19, 2005 Posts: 478

I have exactly the same problem here - enormous ack 'n' track problems with TT5 and a Navman sleeve, but it's as steady as a rock with TT3 - even getting a decent lock indoors.

Given that TT5 is undoubtedly more processor-hungry than TT3, I've experimented with under/overclocking the iPAQ to try to alleviate self-interference problems with the Navman sleeve - which made no discernable difference whatsoever.

The Navman serial driver just maps the sleeve onto a virtual COM port - seeing that TT5 can communicate with the Navman sleeve, I'm drawn to the conclusion that it's TT5 interpretation of the Navman data that's the problem...

	PocketGPS
	Web