Adding Aftermarket Internal GPS to the CF-28

http://www.usglobalsat.com/p-258-em408-header-cable.aspx

That's incase yours didn't come with one (It should though, but just incase).

I was thinking about buying extras because when I was stripping my ends to solder on, I pulled out one of my leads and broke it.. so I had to use my second one cut in half.

Finding daughterboards is harder though... Rick bought two of them on eBay, so if you keep looking you might be able to find one.

You can try this; http://www.partstore.com/Part/Matsu****a/Panasonic/DL3UP1121BAA/New.aspx

But do it at your own risk. I'm not sure if they have them in stock, or if it's going to be the right board, so check their return policy.

Edit; We need to fix that censor thing... In my link, it blocked out part of Matsu****a. Fix it to get the link to work.

 

Happy New year from Belgium :SLEEP:

I have a question regarding internal gps:

Has any wan try ad a bluetooth gps mounted inside the cf?
I think it is possible to put a stand alone bluetooth gps in the inside. You only have to put 5v from the mb to the gps and mount a external antenna.
So you don't need a rimboard.

Greetings

 

Seems if you went through the trouble of splicing off +5v, you might as well grab the serial lines too.

 

All of them should have had a short pigtail a couple inches long with the mating connector to the one on the module. If yours didn't come with this, let me knonw and I'll let globalsat know that one was omitted.

 

Modly,

You can use a voltage regulator (LM7805 or MC7805) right of the battery connector trough a mini switch build on the side panel.

It is only an idea, and it is not so difficult. i think i am going to try it out.
I have an old sirf II (holux) to take apart and solder an external passive antenna on.
If it works, i buy one of that new tiny sirf III BT sets.

Greetings

 

Mine are all included with pigtail on it. I think that is standard, right?

 

Why are you guys are concentrating to put a bluetooth gps inside while the usb gps receiver can be attain easily and also bluetooth gps can drain your battery sooner than you expect, when you are using a battery alone. Ok! i explain, if you use bluetooth gps you must have a bluetooth builtin too, so, you are using two 5volts at the same time its not a practical solution. Here below is my on going project. The picture that you are going to see is an improvised daugtherboard attached with two usb hub. Name it whatever you want to install using usb like gps, bluetooth, sd card reader, mini hardrive, builtin camera, fingerprint reader, and etc. You can either install 4 port usb hub instead of two

 

Ohlip,

I was looking for a cheap solution because the daughterboard is in Europe not for sale, they only sell it in the US and most of the sellers don't want to send it to Europe, or the shipping cost is way to high.

And if i use a small waterproof switch i can turn it off (the bluetooth can be turned off by software)

 

Ohlip... Is that a 30 conductor ribbon cable you are using in CN18? (It looks like it.) Also... what pc board are you using in there? Can/will you draw us a schematic? Also... What about posting a higher res picture. If you want you can email it to me at [email protected] and I will host the pic.

Thanks!

 

I think the only person who is interested on this idea probably me and Stan.....Yup! you can do that to a switch on it provided that is waterproof.Actually if you only need to hack the usb, you don't need 50c cable ribbon just a ribbon to reach the usb pin.This way you can have cheap solution and look on your old stuff that can be use.


Note: Actually the materials you need are available everywhere for this project.

 

Yup! its only 30c just to reached the usb pin and the board is from desktop modem. Ok! i will make an schematic and i will send it to you maybe later.

 

I don't understand. what is the PCI modem for? Are you just using the modem as a platform to mount the rest of the circuitry on? I would think you could get a cheap piece of perfboard at radio shack for that

 

Yup! you can use that as aplatform for your circuitry but as you can see the pci mdem has a fine pitch both side of pcb the side to plug on to the pci socket. That fine pitch will be the one you are going to used to soldered the strip cable ribbon. You have to isolate the fine pitch to the board itself. I am using that as a bridge from flat cable ribbon then to your application.

 

Ohlip,

I am always interested in cheap solutions. can you give me the pin out for the usb? i don't find them in the posts.
I guess a good old usb 1 hub will do the job.

Thanks

 

go to modly.net and you can find the service manual of cf-28 or just look for mod.. s post and you can see below the link to his server

 

Why did I never click on modly's drivers link before? Cheers modly and happy new year to all.
And has this site been down for a while or has France decided the internet should drive on the other side of the information superhighway?
Oh well... 5v is available on cn18. And 3.3v. And 16. And 3.3 and 5 can be had permenantly on or on and off when the system is off or running, And lots of other stuff too. I think there is also a 1.5v line there somewhere.
Still working on a machine to make a breakout board for this port but it looks like I may need a major re-think on the lead screws. If anyone needs one in a hurry then look for a supplier who can engrave 0.5mm pitch pcb's. I'll do a really basic schematic shortly so I can test this thing, I think 0.63mm will be the absolute limit but the schematic will still be usefull to get boards engraved.
Modly may well have something much more usefull, I think I was supposed to find a single chip USB hub though. Time to finish the Chrismas spirit methinks
cheers

 

Hey Stan
Try rack and pinion and drive from your servos with cog pulleys and ditch your lead screws. Unless you use ball screws they are unusable for what you are doing and a general PITA.
This is the best place in the USA for what you are doing; let me know if you see something you want maybe I can help. http://www.sdp-si.com/

Jim

 

I'm getting slow progress done. I've got some holes in the board, but I'm trying to measure everything to make sure they'll fit on the first go. I've also taken out the 50 pin connector until we figure out what we're doing with that..

So not much is done, it's just a few resistors, a couple connectors, and a few holes.

I've been slacking alot though.

 

Hey modly how ya liking this weather? was that you I saw driving a hearse in a speedo

 

Hahaha, nooooo... I was the guy driving it nude. I'm not a speedo kind of man

The weather is nice though... almost warm enough for me to rip the transmission out of the hearse.

 

Make the most of it! I was up on the roof nailin' down shingles all afternoon..

 

You can get the antenna at:

http://www.rcatsystems.com/cube/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=17

It is the ****! Get it in 30” length. They are very quick to get it out. I have modified the RIM antenna mount and it works great.

View attachment 14018


Recon

 

I just found the daughterboard at a very unlikely place for $100.00. I am going to give them a call.

http://bumblebeestoves.com/427/427426218.html

I will give a SITREP later.

Regards,

Recon

 

Ho doggie Recon you must what one of dem daughter boards real bad to pay dat price.
I got one I’ll sell ya fer $99.43 and I guarantee it aint no stove part.
Caddy

 

I am sitting on 3 of them at the moment and two stock GPS units. It is just nice to know where to get one on demand if need be. I like to open my sights and views for targets of opportunity.

Recon

 

Okay... I just spent the afternoon catching up on this thread, as I was curious to see where you guys were tapping in for data, etc...

So... my question is ... Why aren't you guys using this?

http://www.spkecl.com/detail/65425/65425.html

*MUST MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE URL*

It seems a lot less hassle in the end; a small bundle of 30 ga wires through the unused left hinge space & attach to the daughterboard, which leaves lots of room for your internal USB upgrade. With SIRFStar3 chipset & the GeoHelix antenna you guys love built-in it has no worries about making/soldering/crimping RF cables & signal loss, it's super efficient & it's already at TTL, so connection should be the same as you're already working with?

As for your custom corner piece; I'd take a lid with the corner installed (But remove the screws) spray the heck out of it with food-grade silicone spray lubricant to use as a release material, then make a mold using a small cardboard box filled with hobby latex or RTV sealant. Once it cures, use it to make an epoxy dummy which you can carve, add to, remove from, etc for the shape you ultimately want. Once you have that, make a new negative mold the same way as the original mold. Now that you have that, you can modify the mold to allow you to place your antenna module (PRETESTED, with wires preattached) in the mold, then encapsulate it all with epoxy as you make your new corner out of epoxy.

But wait, you say; that looks NASTY goopy brown & YUCKY! I want it to LOOK like it belongs on a Toughbook!

That's where this stuff comes in:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Plasti-Dip-Spra...ing-BLACK_W0QQitemZ200176576685QQcmdZViewItem

Not only can you make your new corner look like it belongs, you can renew the look of your other rubber bits at the same time.

Anyhoo... this is what I would do if I were going to try and make small quantities of custom-molded parts.
I've done it for bits for my RC cars when I used to race; add a little fiberglass mat (or loose strands pulled from the mat) and you have a reasonably strong part with a minimum of tooling expense.

mnem
<Windows Vista encountered the following error: The operation completed successfully.>

 

I looked at that antenna too... But it is a passive antenna. Plus... Why would you want to run 5 wires down to CN-18? Seems like more work to me.

 

It seems to me that if you're running one wire or a bundle of 5, its the same work... and you're making the same 10 solder joints already, hooking jumpers to the daughterboard.

As for the amplified antenna; remember that you only really NEED an amplified antenna to make up for signal loss from impedance mismatch introduced by a length of cable. What you're looking at here is the SAME antenna element used in the amplified unit, only now it's impedance-matched AND tuned for the input section (read 1st stage AMPLIFIER) of the receiver with NO LOSS from cable whatever. I've built more than a few custom antenna arrays; I'll take an antenna coupled directly to my RF section over one coupled remotely by cable ANY DAY.


Also; where you are most likely to create signal loss is by the very same kind of homebrew connections you guys are making in the RF signal cable by soldering wires together or trying to make cables of unknown impedance because of their length & varying connection quality. The people who make radio equipment (including GPS) spend millions of dollars designing custom cable assemblies with known signal losses & impedance around which they can design their RF stages. Now admittedly, you can afford to lose a lot of signal in your setup because of the preamp section in the antenna, but it does introduce the possibility of interference from other sources, IE cellular data communications equipment. With the unitized design, that is almost eliminated; the design sheet says it decouples CDMA frequencies by 55db & can be placed as close as 10mm from such antenna without experiencing interference.

RF is freaky sensitive, particularly in the GHZ & up range; I'd much rather be worrying about data traveling at a few KHZ. It's nearly impervious to such interference.


mnem
We are the universe made manifest in its desire to understand itself.

 

Why don't you try it and let us know how it works out? Your theories make sense.

 

An interesting side note;

It appears the domain gps-antennas.com is up for sale:

http://www.gps-antenna.com

Anyone feeling entrepreneur-ish?


mnem
"DUDE! I'm staring down a .44 Magnum; it has a barrel big enough to reach inside of... do you really think I FEEL LUCKY?!?" *BLARRRRFFF* <~~~ If the movies were real

 

I looked at that rig...I googled around and don't see anywhere to buy it.

Semper Fi
Glen

 

Heh... gotta get mine up & running first... the cost of putting drives in it alone is giving me palpitations.

mnem
C:\DOS
C:\DOS\RUN
C:\DOS\RUN\AndTellMeWhyIDon'tHaveAnythingButAFloppyDriveInMyToughBook?

 

I just commented in a diff thread how pricie they are on e-bay right now (cdrom drives)

 

You know Glen, you're right - I thought I'd gotten to the MFG site via a link from SparkFun... but it turns out I got there from asiannet.com.

The MFG has technical data on the GPS – GS405 here:

http://www.spkecl.com/comm/upfile/p_061103_02656.pdf

and asiannet.com has the techsheet on your GeoHelix antenna here:

http://webbuilder.asiannet.com/ftp/617/gps-antenna-geohelix-s.pdf

I did note that SPK Electronics does offer "Evaluation kits"; these are obviously the prototyping kits that are being sold on SparkFun.

I would try going through your contacts at SparkFun and ask if they can source the GPS – GS405 (I suspect SparkFun may very well be SPK Electronics' online store); otherwise, shoot an eMail to this addy found at the top of those pdfs: [email protected] ; ask if they will sell you an Evaluation Kit or 5 based on the GS405.

Oh, and one other notion; the quadrifilar antenna element on the Sarantel GeoHelix amplifed antenna you guys are using is nearly identical to the one inside this fellow:

http://www.antonline.com/p_980666-GA_172101.htm?gclid=CO3h6JOK9JACFUV0OAodT1XQ0Q

It is pretty rugged, and comes with a ([MMCX]<---WRONG ) SMB male connecter mounted pependicular to the main axis, so you can snap it onto a female bulkhead connector and use it as a flip-up antenna. This came original on my RoadMate 760; I used it with a 1M extension cable bought on eBay so I could mount my GPS indash; it performed admirably well.



mnem
Food for thought, thought from food.

 

I've sent sparkfun a note asking for purchase info.

 

I am new to the gps mods but I have large quanity of rim daughter boards with all cables and many other parts . I am looking to swap for some 800/1000mhz hard caddies.

 

How many boards for one caddy?

 

I found the caddies I needed but if anyone needs the rim boards (complete w/ cn18 ribbon) I will be selling 15 of them. I'm thinking $40 plus shipping. If anyone needs them I can send a paypal invoice direct. Please pm me....

 

For those that have been interested in the RIM boards, here are the pictures.

I hope to get them shipped within a day or two of payment. Thanks for being patient.

Top (Upper)

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg313/auction4fun/Rim Board/?action=view&current=lcdscreen122.jpg

Bottom (Lower)

 

PM Sent to you xtratuff!

 

Mnementh, are you saying that the Magellan 980666 Replacement Antenna that you mentioned can replace the Jim Gray antenne?

 

If I had more info on it, I'd say go for it, but it doesn't sound like it's much better of an antenna.

I'm very open to new antennas, but I've spent countless nights searching, and the one I'm using is the best I've found. It's active (Amplified), has a great omni-directional receiver, and can be embedded. All of which put it ahead of stock style patch antennas.

If I can find a way, I'd like to mount it below with the module.

 

Stugops / Modly - I don't believe it's gonna be better than the Jim Grey; I believe that as long as you're mounting the GPS engine so far away from the antenna, an amplified model will prolly work the best for you. I just wanted to let you guys know about a quality passive antenna that I'd had good luck with, as it lends itself to being easily attached/removed if you wanted to mount your GPS antenna at a bulkhead connector rather than on the LCD, or for embedment in other projects.

Modly - this antenna IS NOT a patch antenna; it is a quadrifilar cone antenna made exactly the same way as the actual Sarantel antenna element on your Jim Grey model. Seeing as Magellan was selling these models 4 or 5 years ago, I suspect it is their design rather than other way around, & I figured that it might be something to toy with.
mnem
*Geekitude*

 

Got any more photos of that thing? All I can find is pictures that show it's a half oval and that's it.

I would be very up for using an antenna that gets only 70% of the signal quality if it's easier to mount.

 

I just ordered one of those Magellan 980666 (666? I might regret this) antenna's ($26.00 shipped).

I just get bad vibs thinking of mounting that fixed stub on that corner like that....just setting it up for a good *wack* and, well, you get my drift....

 

I just ordered one too. I figure the active Sarantel antenna gives GREAT reception so a little less won't hurt anything. I too worry about people breaking off the antenna on the laptops I sell. So... If this stubby little guy can do the trick... Why not give it a try?

 

Dang -

I wish I hadn't gotten sick; I'd have posted you guys photos of mine, I still have it in a box in the garage. Let you see how it mounts, etc. before you spent money on it.

mnem

 

You can still post some pictures for the rest of us.
I’m falling behind on my GPS project and have not mounted my antenna yet and would like to see pictures of all options before I invest in rubber corner molds.

Thanks
Jim

 

If you can still get photos, I'd like to see them.

 

count me in to about the pictures.