Adding Aftermarket Internal GPS to the CF-28

Try this. Remove the GPS engine and leave disconnected overnight. Then hook it back up and check again. It may need to be reset.

Oh, and if you are using the daughterboard, did you try different dip switch settings?

 

The dip switch settings shown in the pic are correct for all RIM boards. Also I think the EM-408 has a gold cap to store settings for several days.

You can try a hardware reset with several of the GPS programs out there. I would also check the BIOS settings to make sure they are correct. Instead of AUTO... Try a different setting on ENABLE.

I cannot stress this enough... You need to make sure that the antenna is soldered on correctly. By correctly I mean that you need to have a hot enough iron to solder the leads... But not too hot where it will float the micro components off the mini PC Board on the reverse side.

But... You are not even getting data stream... So this means that one of your 5 connections are bad. Or you have a bad engine, bad ribbon cable or the BIOS is not set right. Maybe even something in the ribbon cable connector on the mobo. It should be easy enough to track down.

Oh... And also make sure you have some sort of insulation installed BEFORE you put the RIM board in place. The factory does this to make sure nothing on the back of the board shorts out against the cabinet.

 

I will check all those things here in a bit, I brought a spare engine with me to work. I used one of the 28s with the wwan already in it so it had that black insulation sheet below the board already. I was gonna change over to a 28S today so I think i'll just keep the palmrest piece and stick the 1ghz board in there. Getting busy now that school is starting up with repairing graphing calculators and inspecting them... I swear I hate this time of year because in 1 week I see about 3,000 calculators move through my office. No that is not and exaggeration, it's more like an understatement

Anyone want some 600Mhz boards. or even a 800? I have loads of the 600 and 1 800 so far.

Dan

 

Part Sales... You'd be surprised. Just like in the car biz... There ia an arse for every seat.... It's kind of the same...

 

Nice I like that statement. I almost can't give my toughbooks away on ebay. Must be my low feedback score. School season should boost that for me

Dan

 

Well I got it to work. I guess the engine was bad. put a new on the rimboard and check everything. Fired it up and I get data stream. Don't pick up any satellites because my office is a dead zone though. Time to cut and mount this bad boy. Anyone got any recommendations on RAM because the module I got won't show up in the BIOS at all. Kinda ticks me off but then that's life

Dan

 

Silly question. Which way does the ribbon cable connect? Is there a way to test the RIM board before spending money on the GPS and antenna? Also, Thrash, do you have any pics of your antenna install? Did you attach it to the side opposite to the RIM antenna?

 

I doubt very much if you could buy a bad RIM board... Unless someone deliberately messed with it. Buy from a reputable source where they know it will work.

As far as the antenna mount... You can mount it opposite of the RIM antenna (If so equipped) but I wouldn't. The RIM antenna mounting area provides for a much more secure location. Even if you hacked/modded the RIM antenna for wifi... I'd move the wifi antenna to another location before I mounted the RIM on the opposite side. Now that is my opinion... But I have mounted in both locations and have been doing this for years.

You will need a "Steel epoxy" and the mounting is quite tedious as if you get any epoxy in the wrong places... You fry your antenna... Or short it to ground. Not to say it can't be done... But go into it with an adventurous spirit... You have to have all the parts to see how it works. It's kind of hard to do over the Internet.

 

Unfortunately I bought it off of Ebay and until the ribbon cable from Thrash arrives, I am stuck. But once that gets here and I get it hooked up, will the RIM board show up in the BIOS or in Windows or what?

Thanks for the antenna advice TB. I think I am going to go with the default antenna location.

 

Well... The RIM board may show up as one of 3-4 things depending on how the dip switch settings are set. You need to make sure that it is set like the pic. Basically... Shorting pin 40 to ground (I think it is that pin) makes the GPS show up in the BIOS... But that doesn't give you GPS... It just tells the BIOS that there might be one. I would wait until you have the GPS engine soldered in place and then hook it up with the Ribbon cable. It is kind of self evident how it goes... If you look at the connector and then the cable end. I think the blue side is always visible on all ribbon cables. (Blue side up)

I am sure there are more pics around here somewhere...

 

Sorry for the delay in response. Be working on a car, lost a few valves and the houston heat doesn't help much to work outside on the car.

Firebuster, that cable should be there by now. You practially live in the same town, and scroll back a page or 2 and TB posted a link or a pic of how to set up the RIM board for GPS. By some odd reason your board is fried (unlikely as TB stated) I have 1 more left and I could donate it to a good cause. I did give one to Ohlip I haven't had time to mount that antenna yet but I figure I'll go through a couple of lids before I get something I like. Luckily I have lots of spares.

 

Thrasher,
I got the cable yesterday. I guess the mail moves faster heading north? Anyway, I haven't had time to try it out yet, but I hope to have it installed soon. And a BIG THANK YOU for the trade and the help!!

 

OK, apparently the Jim Grey is out of business? Is there another supplier of the Sarantel Geohelix antennas? I can't seem to find any in the US...Never mind! Just found Toughbook's post. Sorry.

 

I know that this thread is somewhat old but I finally had the time to grind on my lid so that I could hook up my Sarantel Geohelix antenna and solder the leads to the antenna from the EM-408 SiRF III. Sitting in my bedroom at my desk I am getting 6 to 7 satellites. I could not have done it without this thread. Thanks to all. Special thanks to Rick for the daughter board and the coaxial cable.

 

Been watching these threads for a while now. Have had my TB for better than a year and has remained untouched untill the other night. Bought it mainly to run automtive diagnostic software for my tinkering. Got around to installing the EM408 the other night, still debating on mod the cover for the Sarantel antenna, in the meantime , pulled the cover off the ant. and tucked it into the bumpout, getting 10-12 sats while driving(f250 fr seat), 7-9 setting in the house, seems to work good there, looses a little when hand over during typing( on my new emmissive keyboard, thnx to springfield). Might try the 27 dbA ant in same location, tho right now pretty satisfied with set-up. Has anybody split the antenna lead so that you could run external antenna while docked in vehicle?

 

Back from the dead and having issues!


The Install:
Recently bought an EM408 for my 1ghz CF-28, already had a RIM so I removed the card that was in it (not GPS) wired the EM408 as pictured in post 601:
http://mysite.verizon.net/rickkirby/RIM-Board.jpg
and switched the number 4 pin to on.

I went ahead and uninstalled all COM ports via device manager, restarted the computer and set the GPS to 'auto' in BIOS while verifying all the other ports were set to auto as well. I boot the computer, install the GPS driver (from modly's site, calls it a gps filter).

The Issue:
No data stream
No connection in Visual GPS
No connection found in GpsInfo
No information being broadcast from HyperTerminal in coms 1,3,4 (the only coms available from what I can see)

Verifications:
Pin 5 and 1 were switched around on the EM408 from the picture and how I wired it. Given this is a 3.3v constant on anyway I figured power is power and an on switch is an on switch, no harm no foul. I switched them around anyway... I went ahead and tested the EM408 pigtail from the connector to the board and everything ohms out fine. The Ribbon from the RIM to the Motherboard is in good shape and properly connected.


So is there something I skipped that anybody can see, or am I looking at either a bad RIM or Engine?

 

Did GPS info pick up your GPS on any comm port?

 

What software are you using?

 

Didn't detect anything on any com

First tried VisualGPS, when nothing worked I tried to open HyperTerminal in Windows and connect to all three open coms to see if there was anything going to them, nothing was showing. I figure just for the heck of it I'll try GPSInfo which searches for the data stream a GPS feeds out (testing all ports) and that came up with nothing.

I wasn't sure if I had to manually go into device manager and switch something around or if just double clicking the .exe file in the drivers would work. Plus if there's something else I could be missing, any tips anybody had.

Strange because the RIM board should be pretty solid, and I JUST bought this EM-408 brand new.

Edit: Should it be sending information out regardless of if I have a proper antenna hooked up or not?

 

So, I started working backwards and physically disconnecting stuff off the RIM, when I got to the antenna everything shot to life and started outputting like normal.

Odd, so people, if you have your stock antenna converted to go into your GPS engine, you might want to think again about that one .

 

Here's my latest and greatest issue. The link doesn't work and I'm unsure how to plug this sucker from the Geohelix antenna to the MMCX input in the GPS engine.

 

You will need a right angle MMCX connector with the center conductor of the MMCX going to the center of the Sarantel antenna. The ground lead can go to either pad beside the center lead on the antenna base.

Can you fab this up or need help?

 

I'm trying to fab this together myself just so I can say I've done it

When I bought my laptop, it came with a Cellular card and a 90 degree MMCX antenna connected to it, but it's only about 10" long and I'm assuming the cable needs to connect directly from the GPS to the antenna (meaning I need a new, longer MMCX cable); and judging by your response I just strip the end and solder it directly to the antenna? Also, as I'm reading to the requirements of this antenna, it's saying it needs a 50 ohm resistor in line going to the GPS, for some reason that doesn't strike me as right, but maybe it is?

(Page 4, SL1204)
http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/GPS/SL1206_SL1204 Electrical_Guide_v10.pdf

Also, obviously the antenna has two grounds, should I connect them together, is it common to leave one open? Last question, is there a proper grounding spot that's better than another because I was figuring I'll just ground it directly to the chassis.

Thanks!

 

I don't think that is the Sarantel antenna that I used to use....

 

For anybody else, the wiring from the GPS to the Antenna is very easy (come to find out). Your quickest bet is to buy a 90 degree MMCX connector long enough to reach where your mounting your antenna (I'm doing it in place of the old stocker, I think 30 inch long was reported).

The EM408 to the SL1204 requires no grounding or power from an external source, meaning you plug the MMCX end directly into the GPS engine and the other end you cut off and solder to the Antenna. There are MULTIPLE parts to this wire though.

Outside layer 1 - Insulation
Outside layer 2 - Braided wire (ground)
Inside layer 1 - Insulation
Inside layer 2 - TRL

Outside layer 2 is what you ground the SL1204 with: either gnd1 or gnd2, I went ahead and connected it to gnd1 and threw a second wire around so gnd2 could be connected to it. This is probably overkill, might not be recommended, but I love grounds and it worked for me.

Inside layer 2 is what you solder to the TRL: very small gauge, I hate twisting around the wire strippers but had to in order to properly cut the braided wire on top, just be careful that if you do the same you don't drag the wire strippers across the TRL wire because it's a solid strand wire (meaning if damaged, it can break when you flex it/if you flex it too much).

I soldered up those 3 points (2 ground and 1 TRL) and I'm getting 4 sats inside a rather tall building.

Last note: on the MMCX connector itself (on the wire), it is VERY easy to bend the little TRL connection there in the middle. Feel the wire in, do NOT force it or you may be spending a little time with a fine needle trying to bend it back.

Edit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RG-59.jpg
Picture of the type of wire I'm talking about (pictured is a normal Coaxial, but the MMCX is the same thing only smaller).

 

Here is another way of integrating the EM408 GPS engine receiver to CF-28 toughbook without RIM board or daughterboard.

I know its an old machine but recently, one of our member on NBR refer a friend to me to do a wi-fi and Gps integration to his machine. He had three unit of CF-29STJ......which has all have 1.0Ghz cpu and with complete caddy and harddrive. In return, he just need one with all the mention stuff and I will keep the two as payment. All of this unit has max. out ram of 768Mb. Now! as you all know that all gps aftermarket installation on cf-28 uses a Rim Board or a daughterboard as we speak. I don't have those stuff. Instead I managed to installed it Using just a 40pin Flat cable ribbon soldered to a round cable to interface with EM408 module. Another thing is that I don't have a bump out casing or Sarantel antena to finished the job. What I have done is taking out one of the rubber bumper to a damaged traveling laugage bag which is ready to throw out on the landfill, Lol..Below is the pin out for those who are still interested on modding a cf-28 with EM408.

Using CN(A) 50pin connector on CF-28 toughbook

EM408--------------------------CN(A)pin

1.0(enable/dis.)-----------------40-41
2.0(Ground)---------------------37GPS In,38-39
3.0(Rx)--------------------------28
4.0(Tx)--------------------------27
5.0(Vcc)------------------------40-41 ( you can short pin1 and pin5 of Em 408 and then connect to pin40-41 of CN(A)



Here a couple of pictures for your reference:

 

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