Adding GPS to CF-29

Well.. I broke down and installed GPS on the 2nd CF-29 that I bought. (Almost $400 from Heartland shipped!) The results were amazing considering it was stock Panasonic! Miles better than the older CF-28 stock GPS. I'm not sure.... I might switch it into the one that currently has Sprint in it.

I installed the kit after much head scratching. Then I remembered Zeroflight said that I wouldn't use all the parts... DING! Then the lightbulb went on. I used my 1st 29 that has the existing Sprint sled in it as a guide. It really only goes together one way. BUT... When I first put it together for a trial fit and to test it out the Satellites took a while but they popped up. I started out with just 3 then 4 popped up. After letting it sit there for a few minutes it got 6-8 satellites with a very strong signal... Into the 50s with WinFast! (That's good!) However... I took it all back apart and applied the copper flashing like my other sled has and also the metal cloth to close off and isolate the GPS patch antenna. My signal went DOWN! (Back to scratching head!) I'm not sure why this happened. I still have to play around with it and I'll post pics of the kit... But I'm wondering why isolating the GPS antenna (or adding the copper sheet) would degrade the signal. Unless I didn't let it sit long enough the second time... Which may be since I am in a hurry to get out of here tonight. I'm headed out of town until Saturday afternoon... I'll be bringing the laptop with me to play around with.

Here's the kit with my existing sled to the right...



There are a few things you can't see... Like the rest of the ribbon cable under the pc board... I installed the rail system in the case seen below. (Look lower right) You can see where I had to run the main ribbon cable over to the other side and under the black shield that screws to the case and protects the cabling from sliding the hard drive caddy in and out. A fairly easy install but I'm still not sure that everything is installed correctly. I'll have to keep playing with it to perfect it...



I'll keep updating this thread as I get more info!

 

One note, if you installed the whole, large copper sheet with the gray mesh tape along a short side, you need to cut a center strip out of the copper sheet long-ways so you have two strips on the sides and remove the mesh tape. Having those on seems to cause issues.

That's probably a little confusing... in the sled in the left picture, the sheet would go across the large open space and the tape across the edge that goes inside the 29.

 

Hi! base on your photo you have a patch antena, right! where you gonna install it? is it a side mount on the toughbook like cf-18? coz I haven't seen any slot for that. thanks

 

The antenna is the same setup as the CF-28, the patch antenna mounts in the black plastic endpiece you see in the picture.

 

See the black piece of plastic? It fits in there... I am VERY impressed with this GPS system. It is SOOOOOOOO much better than the stock CF-28 type. It is sensative to having your hand over the antenna where the custom installs I do with the active Sarantel are not. The strange thing is... The signals that you do get are VERY strong! But you get less signal than with the Sarantel. BUT... You get more satellites with the Sarantel but at less power... If you get my meaning. Either way... You can't go wrong with either... All you need is a good fix on 3 sats anyway.

 

TOUGHBOOK, did you follow the quoted procedure? If you did, did you take photos?

 

Does anyone have good quality photos of the internal factory GPS? Sure would be appreciated.

Got the parts on the way from Heartland; and considering doing the install myself. Kinda nervous about it, so I thought if could get some photos it might not be so scairy.

 

Pappy... I deleted all my shots except for what is posted here... Unfortunately. But this really shows pretty much everything there is to show.

 

TF so you like the STock GPS over the Sprint? Just curious.

 

Ummm... Am i missing something here, or did you just suggest that Sprint provides GPS?

*Snicker*

mnem
*Habeus Corpus, RIP*

 

No I MEANT the CF that has his Sprint in it. He didnt mention the model of the one he was using for the CF-29 that isnt stock, so I was going by his own usage of the Word Sprint.

Hows things going in Texas? I hear the way things are going there may be trouble with that Trans Texas corridor? lol

 

What, you mean where Queen George wants to tear down all the Mexican shanty towns & use the timber to build a fence for his Border Patrol Guards/Dogs to piss on?

mnem
Yeah, good luck with that...

 

The Border Patrol Guards/Dogs have to p--s somewhere. The boards from the shanty towns seem as good as any.

M, you need to loosen up with some beet juice before you post so you can let us know how you REALLY feel.

 

Not sure what you mean here... Even after you explained it. If you mean do I prefer my CF-29 that has SPrint in it over the non-Sprint... The naswer is NO... I just sold the one with Sprint and GPS... Now I have my regular one with GPS... And another guy wants to buy that one... We'll see.

I have sold like 7 UTBs in the past 2 days... Business is brisk to say the least! I just need to wait for all the parts!

 

The way I read it; LT was asking how you liked the factory GPS that you installed in the unit with CDMA sled that you took pictures of. It seems like to me that you answered that earlier in this topic.

I'm glad to hear that you did well in business lately. Maybe now you can buy flowers and get us all out of the dog house at Heartland.

 

Ohhh... dewed... you simply have NO IDEA. If I letchyer all know EVERYTHING I REALLY THINK... your heads would implode from the sheer force of UNFETTERED DENIAL that is my psyche. BE GLAD you don't know a fraction of what goes on in my mind... it's a dark and dangerous place. That is, except where my beautiful wife & incredible baby boy are concerned... there is a flower-filled wonderland of unbounded joy which simply casts those vast wastelands of despair into even STARKER contrast.

mnem
Chaos, panic and disorder... My work here is done.

 

Yes I was asking how you like the Stock GPS over the other Aftermarket GPS on your CF-29? You seemed to indicate you liked the Stock the best, but it was early in your post and you were still testing.

I find the Stock GPS gets strong signals 43-50 all the time. And out in the open I get about 6 solid locks. I think the area I am in is blocking a couple since I live in/near river canyons. I was impressed how well it worked in the Truck, I had solid locks while mounted in on the rack.

mnem, the Trans text corridor is the SUPER freeway being built from Mexico to canada, which is Denied in most states except the ones its going through.

 

Yeah... I think I posted that earlier. All I have ever done is the stock GPS in the 29. Now... When you compare that to the EM-408 in the 28... THAT is a different story.

The 408 seems to give several more locks on sats... But the stock GPS in the 29 gives a stronger lock on less sats. Either way you are safe. They seem to be both the same as far as accuracy. Both are a little off on my home address using I-Guidance. The 408 is probably a little more accurate but not by much. It might be because of more locks on more sats... But you are only talking a few feet. You aren't going to be guiding ICBMs with either system...

 

Ohhhh... you mean I-69 ? I think the name says it all...

mnem
Yeah... Like I said before... we've got a SPECIAL BREED of dumb@ss here in Texas...

 

snip

mnem
Yeah... Like I said before... we've got a SPECIAL BREED of dumb@ss here in Texas...[/QUOTE]


Dumb@ss is better than no@ss.

 

Thanks TF, I must have got it mixed up, I thought you added an Aftermarket to the CF-29.

I agree I would rather have stronger signals that More sats, atleast getting 6 isnt bad in anyway. I find mine is right on and tracking very accurate which is great as the BU353 would drift at times, the Stock GPS doesnt.

 

UPS brought back my toy from Toughbook (username) today. For a very fair fee he installed the factory GPS kit. Top notch workmanship, fast turn around and superb after service help. Nope, I'm not getting a commission.

Heck the GPS even works. I'm EXTREMELY PLEASED!

 

Hi! how much the gps kit and where did you bought it?

Thanks

ohlip

 

I bought it for $324 USD from here: http://www.heartlandsi.com/

 

Thats the big problem, heartlandsi will not ship to canada. Oh, well! I think I'm gonna continue mod....this 29 to have an aftermarket gps

 

Surely, there must be a way to get a part from the U.S.

 

ohlip.... I have a "parts" CF-29 coming with a "bad monitor" (supposedly)... That will be my aftermarket GPS testbed for the 29. I'll keep you posted. I do plan on using some of the parts from the last GPS kit that I bought... Just to make things easier on me. The parts are available separately so it won't ad too much to the already lower cost of the aftermarket setup.

I'll keep everyone posted!

 

So where does one get a copy of the Winfast Navigator? I just put a factory GPS in my 29 from another unit I bought and have nothing to run it.

TIA

 

google winfastnavigator. Its free.


ohlip

 

Yeah, I found it. For some reason the pages that said had it, didn't.

 

So... Did you find it? I can try to email it to you....

 

Try Visual GPS, I like it a lot more than WinFast. Also a free download
Cap.

http://www.visualgps.net/VisualGPS/default.htm

 

Well, I bought one of the AT&T WWAN Sled with Novatel Expedite EU730 off ebay and took out my working OEM GPS and installed the sled. It did not show up in the BIOS and windows found it but it would say “Your WWAN client adaptor is disabled”. Since you would normally turn this on in the BIOS and it was not present in the BIOS. I said screw it and put back my OEM GPS. It did show up in the BIOS as it should but now it will not show up in windows. I even restored the CF-29(mk4) to factory and still no com3 in windows for the OEM GPS. Has any one ever had this kind of issue?

 

Recon... Please don't ask the same question in multiple threads... It makes answering the questions that much harder and searching for an answer in the future even worse...

 

I had a simulator problem on a mk2 CF-29. The only way I was able to fix it I had to format the hard disc and use a set of recovery discs. Then when that was done then install the WWAN sled and driver .I had aproblem with the comports.You could try to uninstall the comports.

 

I had an issue on my 29 where Windows configured both my internal modem and my GPS for com3:. Once I moved the internal modem to com4:, everything worked much better.

nine

 

Thats the problem for multiple question for only one problem. I already answer this q? to another thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=356849&page=7


ohlip