CF29 GPS stops all reception

I've had my 29 for 1-1/2 or so, and the first thing I did was add the GPS/bluetooth from customtoughbooks. It went in easy,and works great (enough) all (most) of the time.

The antenna is in the cover above the battery (WM, MP, whatever slot that is for the sled).

Sometimes, when the lid is shut and/or it's in a funny position and/or looses connection with the satalites for a prolonged period of time (like over night), I can open the lid and fire it back up and the GPS won't be putting any data out to the com port.
It works perfectly after I shut down, pull the mains power/battery, press n hold the power button (to reset the gps), and then plug it all back in and fire it back up.
It's a Holux GR87, btw.

Why? Is there a telnet command or dos command I can send to reset the gps or something???

 

Is this recognized as a USB device or is it on a com port?

I use u-blox utility to see what kind of strings are being sent. U-blox will also cold/warm/hot boot your device.

Is this something that just happened? (just being relative) It sounds like with the hard boot(pulling system battery)...you are doing a cold start on the GPS. Re-setting to factory etc. I have a seen a picture of a GPS that had a watch battery on it to maintain settings or,
Speculating here: if GPS is set to auto would there be less conflict/argument over USB /com ports whichever it uses. Guessing USB.
Setting the com port or usb port to another number would eliminate conflict.
Re-set com port to 7 or USB to ?.
These are all idle thoughts to be reviewed independently or together as you prefer.
Curious here...if it's USB do you have another USB device hooked up.
Jeff...idling...

 

.....
it's a serial/com port
it works properly 99% of the time
it just needs a reset after prolonged periods of not enough/significant blocked signal.

I found the pdf for the holux unit and pin6 is timeclock/reset. It puts out a clock signal, and takes in a reset signal (when you make it go low, the unit resets).

I've been googleing the h3ll out of it, and it's led me to believe there is no standard command to do what I want to do, which, in short, is to send a command to the com port to reset the gps engine.

I'll check out u-blox, thx.
I really don't want to hide a switch somewhere......

 

To begin, this is information gathered over years of GPS use, its not scientific and I can't cite references.
All GPS receivers, if turned on, will stream data, with or without a fix.
Cold boot vs. hot boot refers mostly to whether or not you are in the same place, or close to where you were when you turned off the GPS. The receiver remembers where it was and looks for satellites where they were when it shut down. The satellites are geostationary so the unit should find them where it thinks they are. If you have moved a long way it will take the receiver longer to find itself.
Your symptoms sound like either intermittent power to the GPS or more likely a break of some sort between your receiver and the port it uses. I tried "Xport" a long time ago to run multiple programs on one GPS. After it messed up all my com ports a couple of times I went back to Franson Gate, a much better program. The point is, if you are losing the port someone smarter than I will have to chime in. Do you have GPSinfo from USGlobalSat? It does a nice job of searching out ports which have active GPSs attached. I've got some pretty fancy GPSs, $8K to $15K with very fat manuals full of stuff you can tell them to do, never seen a "reset GPS" command.
CAP

 

I use xport, and like it very much. Hasn't given me any problems so far.

As far as the behavioral issue I"m having, it also occurred even when just 1 gps program attaching to the actual com port (as opposed to a virutal com port through xp)

I guess I'll have to put a small push button to break the lead coming off of pin 6 from the gps engine.

Is there some sort of way to cause cn18 to reset/cycle it's power?

 

Looked at PM lately? On another subject.

 

Try the Panasonic drivers for gps or the sleds?
CN18 is the same port the sleds use isn't it? Do you have the buttons to the left of the handle? They will turn the power on / off to the sled. That may work for CN18 depending on which pin he gets power from.
Did you contact customtoughbooks? He is a real nice guy and may have a simple solution.

 

Yeah, I contacted vincent, and yes, decent guy! we have some stuff goin on to take care of it.

Can someone post or link to a clear picture of the buttons to the left of the handle? I may want to add them to my 29. What all is required for them to work (only mkX, federal, sbc, some special connection, the wwan sled, etc???).

Thanks!

 

That flat plastic piece to the left of the handle is a filler. It fits in there. Want this CF-29C for a model? $125 stripped/shipped. I'll even put the sled back in if I can find it. 12 1/2? screen.

Jeff...poke...pull chain...he,he he.

 

That's almost as good as your mk3 kit for $225, but that sale ends tonight at midnight?

 

linky, linky, here linky linky

I have an extra switch and cable that I will part with.

wwan switch

I believe it plugs into the motherboard into cn54 which is beside the ram slot / speaker connector

 

Hmmmm....my interest is peaked.

has anyone tried this switch with an aftermarket gps/usb/bluetooth hooked up to cn18 (the wwan connector). i wonder what happens? which pin does it switch? ooh,ooh,ooh!