CF-28 GPS Problems & Solutions Thread

I figured I would start a new thread for helping out the rest of us that do not have working GPS and/or have GPS that is not working too well.

Currently I have my GPS working. Pretty much stock settings except I've forced the settings in the BIOS to 3E8/IRQ11 as this is the only setting where the GPS will work.

The strange thing is that when I first start up any GPS program (such as WinFast Nav) I may get one satellite... If it a really good day and the satellites are in the right position I might get two. But they stay shaded purple (Unreliable data)... So... I let the laptop sit out on my deck. The only time I can get a good fix with 3+ satellites is when the laptop hits the time limit (on batteries) and the screensaver kicks in or the monitor turns off. I can sit there and watch it and... Nothing. However... every time I hit the touchpad to bring it out of the screensaver I have a great fix.

So... What could be causing this? What is it about my monitor that prohibits a GPS fix? Could it be some sort of conflict? Any opinions for stuff I should try?

Hopefully Modly will be able to figure the pinouts/hookups to the GPS so we can buy other GPS engines to put in! I really want to try that!

 

The new driver I emailed you may fix the problems. Maybe.

 

I've tried a few things and made my lock worse.

I got a new hard drive finally (80GB), re-installed windows, used the "new" GPS filter driver, disconnected the battery from the module, etc.

Now I don't see any satellites through any software at all (I used to see 8 in the red, but none that would lock). So not sure if I'm doing something wrong now or what.

I also updated my BIOS, and got no change. Back to the drawing board for me, because I've gone backwards with progress.

I'll try throwing my permanent GPS from the car back on it, and see if it comes up with some satellites that it can start to work with.

Edit; Also, I was considering the use of a Mini-PCI GPS module (Not as cool though as the earlier idea), which is made by Commell. I couldn't find many places that sell them though.

 

Modly... Instead of giving up my 10/100 NIC I'd rather buy the engine you talked about before... And the active antenna... I figure we could make money by taking out the GPS we have in ours ($250) and buying the new stuff. ($100 for the engine and $50 for antenna) We'd end up making money and having a better GPS. I just need those pinouts.

How's the Hearse coming along?

 

It's about to fire up in a jiffy, as soon as I head back out side. Took way too many hours making a custom throttle cable bracket, but it looks good...

I do agree that the module in the old GPS spot would be the better bet though, just figured I'd throw it out there.

 

same thing am thinking about changing the reciever, caus it could only be a hardware issue or sofware and well i tried every software solution there is,
so could be a hardware issue with the reciever,
But saying that everyone here has the same problems, whats up with that, panasonic sold faultyrecievers with it????????

 

DJ... You have to realize thatthis is 5-6 year old technology... If not older than that. I don't think these were made for quick locks... They were made for engineersw out in the field to get a good long. & Lat.... Not GPS for turn by turn directions.

Somewhere, somehow, some way... we need to be able to get our hands on the tech diagrams for the GPS from the net... Or Panasonic? Then we could figure the pinouts and put in our own. Hell... I'm getting to the point of maybe buying one of the USB type models and tearing it apart to stuff into the laptop and then finding the antenna connection and hooking up my own antena. Then I'd at least know that it would work... Maybe...

 

even though you could be right with that,
even if it were to be used for field work how comes you dont get full satelites when using a tester program for gps,
also when i emailed panasonic about it there told me to send it in to sort out,
meaning even there knew it is suppose to get more then 3 satelites at one time........not sure about the tech manual for the GPS thats like winining the lottery........
i have the usb GPS lying around bought 2 from the market a little while back, was thinking of running the usb cable internal and soldering it up to the usb, also that will mean so use of the usb port after that..........

 

Hi. Hello & compliments to the forum from Italy. I have buyed an cf28@800MHz, 12" touch trasflective 750 MBram, original GPS and sierra sb300 in the same board (super rare). I have fitted cisco 350 in the idden pcmcia slot, and an ext wifi antenna on the right top of the monitor, from 3com router. plus Billionton Bluethooth and vodafone quadband world wide umts gprs (great!!)
Many many Thanks to DJACID and all the friends for the tips about cf 28 and his GPS, and the problems with ports and mouse conflicts. Now I can fix 7/8 sats, S S. more than 46/47 on RCT V1.1 beta, time for fix no more than 2 (two) seconds !!, fixed 3 active sats on indoor use !!! (near a window in my office, a great result, better than others not proprietary systems I tread). Good with autoroute 2007 and others prgms.
Now the only problem: change OS from win xp to stable Linux (ubuntu?) and have to pretend that all works well (!!!!). Hey, sorry for my poor English, regards.

 

Wow, I would LOVE to see pics of your setup. I am guessing, then, that the option board under the battery is populated with BOTH radio modem AND GPS hardware? Way cool. This would explain why there's RS232-sounding signal descriptions AND GPS-specific ones on the schematic page that deals with that port.

So, you're getting a good signal with the factory GPS? good to know. Are you using an external antenna?

 

Oh, and as far as the RAM. is it 256 onboard + 512 expansion? what is the make/model of the 512MB expansion you are using?

 

I think he said that he is using an ext antenna.

 

I re-read it and he mentioned an external wifi antenna, but i didn't see where an external GPS antenna was mentioned

 

Hi. Tomorrow, I think, I'll try to include some pictures of the board under the battery, I have mount myself the gps module on the original sierra sb300, this pcb include all the ic's and extra for sierra and gps. Put the micro switches 1 on and 4 on (I say that switch 4 can able gps, 1 is for the radio, I don't know for 2 and 3, can you help me?). Now I have a problem, can I use Sierra Sb300 in my country? I think no. I'm sure no. Can I replace this radio module with another one, and well-use the space and the original wiring ?

A strange effect: if you switch on the radio (the on/off switch located outside in the left front), the gps signal path became very low. Not so important, anyway.
About gps from factory, thanks Gravitar, I use the original antenna located on the left side. No external antenna. Very very good signal, in car too with the laptop on the right.

Ciao a tutti dall'Italia !! Robert.

 

I remember reading SOMEWHERE that someone had decyphered the switch settings. If it wasn't here, it was on the Yahoo toughbook group, I'll look

 

About my configuration, 256 mb on board plus 512 mb 133 kingstone, antenna for wifi only is coming from an damaged officeconnect 3Com, located on the right side of the screen, but I 'm looking for place it inside the left door (8x Lite-on DVD-R-RW) because I'm not sure about antenna cable reliability.
Thanks gravitar for your help on dip switch setting on the radio board.

About tranflective screen, 12 inch, I'm not very satisfied. I've my phone palm (qtek1010), used with tomtom, perfect night vision, fantastic vision too on full daylight.
I suspect that we can upgrade the Panasonic tranflective screen. Perhaps.

 

Here is a page from the Yahoo toughbook group:

--- In [email protected], "klbooker.geo" <klbooker.geo@...>
wrote:
>
> I hadn't looked previously at the connector on that side, so I just
> pulled the battery side piece off and looked. The 30-pin ribbon
> cable connects the SB300 to top of the daughter board that sits
> above the battery, and that appears to connect to the motherboard
> with a 50-pin ribbon cable at the memory chip location. The images
> on the toughbook wiki for the M34 show the narrow cable on the left
> of the modem in the picture, and the wider cable on the right - that
> is similar to the CF-28 I have.
>
> Looking back at the wiki - the jumper pin settings show the SB300
> connecting to CN19-
> DIP switch functions:
> Switch 4, changes LCD type? Appears as input to HD64F3434 controller.
> Switches 1, 2, 3: Change installed RF module type:
>
> ON,OFF,OFF = RIM 802/902 module (connects to CN18)
> ON,OFF,ON = Sierra Wireless SB300 (connects to CN19)
> ON,ON,OFF = WAVE module (connects to CN20)
> OFF,ON,ON = "H"? no further data known
> OFF,ON,OFF = "Enfora", no further data known
> ON,ON,ON = no RF Module installed
>
>
> Makes me wonder - is the 50-pin connector another source for
> expansion? Is it related to the HDD interface somehow? I assumed the
> CDPD modem was attached to the motherboard, but that now appears to
> be a separate card, and opens up all sorts of possibilities (or ways
> to blow up a CF-28 ).
>
> Does any of this help??
> Ken

yes it does. and i'm not sure if everyone knows this already but the
factory GPS board uses the same daughtercard as well. (but only
minimally populated)

My RIM modem has switches 1-4 as follows: off, on, on, off.

The GPS board is set to off, off, off, on.

Where is CN19? When I look in the compartment all I see is CN18 and
CN40. The service manual does reference a CN19 so it must be in there
somewhere!

I found a pinout for the motherboard connectors on page 32 of the
service manual. Some of the descriptions are pretty cryptic but
atleast it's a start.

 

In the my doughter board, under the battery, the 30 pin that is connected to sierrasb300 is cn102, the master 50 pin flatcable connector is cn101, I don't know the use of the cn103, 22 pin in trasversal position. I'm sure that, like you say, gps require off,off,off,on at least (showed presence in bios), sierra sb 300 requires at least on,off,off,off, but in my 28 it was configured on,on,off,off and in this mode bios show others functions such rings (??), any way I suppose that the 50 pin flat cable is not a parallel data bus, it only carry serials, pwrs supplyes and probably some proprietary function regarding power management across the bios.

Can I fit other type of radio instead sb300? What is rim?
Where I can find service manual?

 

RIM is "Research in motion", which is the company that made the comm. module. They are also the company behind the Blackberry handheld devices.

I recall finding a pretty good manual when I searched the fcc.gov site for the RIM module's FCC ID. I think I saved a copy of it but I can't recall where offhand. I'll have to open up another RIM option board and do the search again.

 

gotcha. my bad.

 

About factory gps on CF28 (800Mhz, 760mb, tranfective12), today at 04:00 pm (central Italy) 7 satelites fixed in 1 second (no more time after totaly pwr off) under various gps tester programs, signal average 46 (peak 56 ?) in my car, pc on the right seat, battery operation. In outside 8 sats fixed, I don't check if more sats was fixed due to the programs used. My friend (cf 18 Centrino plus wired external Garmin gps module) has had poor results with 3 sats after 20/30 secs. The factory gps for cf28 works wery well, just to fixed the problem of arrow jump with filter.

 

well 8 fixes is the best yet, have you configured the gps in anyway,
the best i get is 4, and 5 in certain places, but as you know the antenna is right near the parm rest so when you have to write you loose a signal here and there,
i tried a external gps antenna and then it work great, but now i have to look for a part solution so i can have it all in one.................

 

Yes, anyway I can't have any problem during travel. Today i have try pcnavigator 7, I prefere TOmtom, exist one version for PC?

About power signal, I'm not sure but there are difference beetwen beam power of different sats.

 

Finally got around to testing out the GPS.. I am using Precision Mapping 3.0 which has a separate GPS module...Like everyone else... Can only get 7 fixes... and thats sitting on the seat.. When I get my laptop mount squared away in my truck..( Modified Kodiak CF-27 mount to fit my 28 ) I am sure the coverage will get better....

 

I've been using a Holux 22 channel setup with mine. I've abandoned the Panasonic GPS altogether... Too outdated and unreliable... And definitely NOT for turn-by-turn direction. I was shocked to get 8 strong signals on it! I took it in my house and still got 7 stong signals... Inside! You gotta love new technology!

Kyote... I have a Kodiak that was made for the CF-27. What did you do to modify it? It looks like either the front grab bars need to be spread open or cut off entirely.

 

Yep.. I chopped the front ears off completely... all thats left is the 1/2 inch piece in front... I also had to trim the 2 side ears as well.. Left them about 3/4 inch high. otherwise they hit the GPS bulge and the strap slots.

PM me an email addy and I'll send ya some pics of what I did.....

 

Here's the integration manual for the RIM module if anyone's still interested. Actually, there's a lot of really good antenna theory in there, and it gives you the pinout of the interface to the option board.

 

Hey! Grav, I know its out of the line, the thread is about a cf-28 gps sol. my problem is to install gps module on cf-m34. There are two terminal port inside the motherboard for rim and sb300 modem. Is it posible to instal a gps module on it and what type? i don't have a detail pinout of the terminal but i quess its the same with cf-28 under battery compartment. The cf-m34 terminal is a bet smaller. Can you help me this out? anybody. thanks in advance. I try to e-mail the guy on ebay who sell cf-28 and cf-m34 with modified toughbook, you know him the one with red and blue color skin toughbook but he never give an answer or response.

 

And he won't give you an answer as it is his bread and butter! Modly and I are trying to get one working. It's figuring the pinoutsd that is the problem. The schematics are like reading Aramayic or Latin... They don't always make sense... And the Techs haven't been able to help us with that yet.

 

as far as i know, a professional whatever field you are and somebody need a help with the same field of profession must share and let the others know.


so i quess, i will do the trial and error. i must get one spare of mbo in case i fried the other one.

 

Yeah... But it is his trade secret as he is making money on it. I know he buys his stuff from Jim Gray online. Even Jim Gray doesn't want to tell you the exact parts that someone else ordered. If you figure out the pinouts... Please let us know.

 

I totally agree with you.. i believe in full disclosure. I'm in it first and foremost to have fun, and if i make some money along the way then great. i'm usually happy when i can cover the expense of the hobby and have a few $$ left to buy parts for myself.

unfortunately though, greed is a powerful motivator. some people come up with a good idea and think they're gonna corner the market and get rich. to each their own but i personally don't have much use for those people.

hopefully there isn't anything that the greedy bastards know that we can't figure out soon enough!

 

who is jim gray

 

Ive got now my spare mbo. just waiting for gps module sooner or later we can figure it out even if i fried or blown up my spare mbo. But of crse with safety precaution. Till then, wait for the result. if it is successful i'm gonna give you a feedback.

 

http://www.jimdgrayassoc.com/

 

Jeez.... I guess I need to reveal all of MY secrets now...

I guess you are right. The people who modify and hack are going to do it anyway regardless. The others will "Oohhh and Ahhhh" and even though they see how it's done, won't ever attempt it. It sounds like most everyone here is fairly to very gifted in the art of modding and hacking. And... What comes around goes around.

I'll have to post more tutorials when I have the time.

 

Hey guys I just found this while searching for schematics to the gps module for pinouts. It is for the cf-18/29 so I don't know if it is the same for our cf-28's but I thought it might be worth the look. Maybe this was covered before but I don't remember a post regarding this. Specifically the part where they say that Infrared and GPS can not be active at the same time??? Wonder if that is an issue or do they share the same com port???

 

Nice find, but ours is a CN-GX0100A. The one in your document sounds better that the one in the 28

 

BTW this is what the panasonic semiconductor guy sent me. My guess is it has little relevance to our module though.

 

The document that you posted, is that for the cf-28 gps module or a different module or was he not specific?

 

that's just it.. i told him CN-GX0100A and this is what he gave me. Ours isn't SMD (it is through-hole) so I know that isn't our module. I probably shouldn't have even attached that, for fear of confusion.

 

Thats ok. Not confused just wanted to clarify with you. I do not have the GPS module. Mine came with the RIM setup which from what I gather is a fancy paperweight. You dont happen to have the fcc id off of that module do you? I could try and get some info that way if it hasn't already been done?

 

Hmmmm... Dumb question time. Do you think that we could use the Tx & Rx from the irda for the GPS?

 

Thas what i'm thinking about, coz now a days nobody use the infrared and there a good posibility to replace that ird by a gps module or even bluetooth module.

 

The connection for the IR is CN770.... We'll have to look it up in the manual. It's getting late here... I'm headed to bed... I'll check in the AM....

 

Here you go.... Looks like it might be worth a try... I'd gladly get rid of my IR...

 

I like the thinking! Something that also just popped into my head, is that'd be a great place to put an internal wireless antenna once you pull out the IR module. Should get pretty good reception there...

 

Hmmm... I think it would have to be beefed up a little but I was thinking that too.

As far as the IR connection... The mobo shows the connection as CN770 but the manual shows it as CN55... I'll have to check into that.

 

Toughbook I just looked at the CN on my mobo and it shows it as CN55. That is actually where the IR is connected to. Hope that helps. I just took a closer look at things and realized that the CN770 is actually on the IR board itself which is removable of course. The CN55 is the mobo end of that connection. It appears to be a 7 pin connection.

 

You are correct sir! I saw CN770 but do not see CN55 anywhere except in the schematics. (I don't see it on my mobo) I see what you mean about the 7 pins... But the ribbon cable is a 10 wire type. Not sure where they go to but I'll defer to the schematics.