GPS on Gobi 2000 WWAN card for CF-W8?

Hi folks, new guy here, reporting on my attempts to upgrade a new CF-W8EWEZZAM I recently picked up on ebay.

Thanks to the helpful posts in this forum, I was able to easily swap out the stock hard drive for a Crucial M4, increase memory to 4GB, and install Windows 7 with all necessary drivers. It's a nice little machine (my first Toughbook) and I really like the 4:3 aspect screen.

More to the point, I also added a Sierra Wireless Gobi 2000 module (with dip switch 1-on; 2-off). It was recognized in the bios and under device manager, and once the driver was installed, it works fine with a local GSM SIM card. The GPS aspect however, does not seem to work.

Can anyone confirm that Panasonic have indeed locked out GPS function on this model (as someone has already suggested in this forum)?

Are there any (not too radical) modifications that will return the GPS functionality?

 

I have the same laptop with a gobi2000 and GPS does work fine. Try Leadtek's Winfast Navigator to test it. But first, look in device manager under "Ports" for a port with NMEA in the title. That is the port number to set in Winfast Navigator. Try a baud rate of 9600. From a cold start, it may take a minute or so, but should pick up green satellites soon. If it does not, then the dip switches may need adjustment. I do not have my CF-W8 here at the moment to check the dip switches, but will post that info when I can.

 

Thanks very much theoak2. I followed your suggestions and it worked and returned lat-long coordinates, after a short warm-up phase. There was no need to change the dip switch configuration. :thumbsup:

 

Hey guys,

I was thinking of doing the same upgrades since i have an extra Windows 7 disk....

Is it worth the money to upgrade the Hard Drive and Ram like ewezzam did ???

ewezzam -- could you tell me where and what products you purchased?

thanks

I am seriously debating if this is worth upgrading or get a new laptop.....confused....and why the GPS ? ? what is the primary use?

please add anything you can to help me out

rich

 

I have upgraded all my Toughbook's with at least 4GB memory and SSD's. You will see a lot of speed in start-ups and open and close programs...to name a few. For about $100.00 - $130.00 its the best upgrade you can do. Ask anyone and they will tell you the same thing.

Main use is navigation...point A to point B without getting lost :wink:

 

thanks for quick response...

could you suggest where and what you purchased for RAM, SSD, and GPS

thanks again

rt

 

When it comes to SSD's I use Intel 320 , Samsung 830 or Kingston Hyper X. If you keep an eye on ebay you can pickup some good deals on them or check out newegg to see what they have on sale. You max memory is 4GB , DDR2-6400 or DDR2-5300 . Just last month I picked up two 2GB for $30.00 on ebay and also a 160GB SSD for $90.00 .

 

1. SSD: The single best upgrade for this laptop. But the SATA interface is an old one, so you may not get all the speed benefits that a brand new, state-of-the-art SSD can offer. I already had a Crucial M4 sitting around, so I used that one. But even an older, SATA2 SSD will do fine if TRIM is supported I think . It's a good idea to upgrade to newer OS for TRIM support among other reasons.

2. RAM: I used Transcend JM667QSU and it has been very stable, but I think that any DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 laptop memory will do the job.

3. WWAN: If you travel a lot, it's definitely useful to have 3G speeds on the go. Personally, I haven't found the GPS part to be so useful. I think it is a standalone GPS (not "assisted" or A-GPS) so it takes quite a while to get a fix, and suffers from the usual problems (interference from tree-cover or buildings).

SSD and RAM from the usual retail outlets depending on your geographic location. WWAN module from ebay (mine cost USD50, but probably available for cheaper if you look around).

Overall, this laptop has fast become one of my all-time favorites. For basic office tasks, email and web-browsing, the occasional movie, and even some retro-gaming(!) it's a very good machine. The keyboard is a little cramped, it could use a keyboard light, (and an express-card slot rather than cardbus!) but these are minor quibbles.

Definitely worth upgrading, and you can save yourself lots of $$$ instead of buying a new machine.

 

wow., this is great., can you reccommend which SSD model you used exactly., or one that you feel is best., this is exactly what I needed someone to do ., many thanks

rt

 

These are the 3 SSD's I use in all my Toughbooks (10) :thumbsup:

 

I'd mostly agree with toughasnails. Samsung, Intel, or Crucial M4. Go for stable and reliable over the long term. You don't need the blazing fast sequential read/writes because the older SATA interface on CF-W8 is a bottleneck in any case. Perhaps some of the other forum members could chip-in on this one, but as I understand it is random read/writes that are more important in terms of responsiveness, perceived speed improvements, etc.

 

thanks., what size are you guys using ? main reason is to install windows 7

 

On my 19's I use 80-100GB , my 30's I use 120GB, my 52's I use 160GB and my 53 I just installed a 240GB. Boots times are great...like 18 to 22 seconds to windows :thumbsup: . I might add that I use 4GB (CF-19 and 30) to 16GB (CF-52MK4 / 53) memory too.

Watch out for OCZ SSD's. they been having problems with there drives. Check out newegg and read the reviews on them or any of the drives to give you a idea what to look for and also click on the link in my sig ssd review...these guys are great.

 

Yes, do read up on SSDs if you haven't yet. It's generally recommended that you don't fill up the SSD like you might do with conventional spinning disks. For wear-levelling? I don't know the exact details, but I don't use more than about three-fourths of the 120 GB drive anyway. I use an external drive for most storage and backup needs, so 120 GB is plenty for internal SSD (Win 7 + software + some saved files, etc).

 

I agree, I do the same thing and I keep my pictures, music and movies all on a external drive.

 

I know I should look this up but I'm busy and feeling lazy. Does this guidance re: keeping the SSD below 75% or whatever apply to the whole drive or to each partition on the drive ie. Drive C 13.7 free of 81 (83%), Drive D 49.5 free of 157 (68.5%), whole drive 63.2 free of 238(73.5%)? C: is applications, D: is files and needs cleaning out, I do this about once a week, and will pick up probably 10-15GB free space. I could be more careful about this but probably won't if its not a big thing.
CAP

 

With the older drives I never filled them up no more than 50% because I always felt that it slowed the laptop down way too much. I am not sure how the SSD's would run with them filled up but the way I have my 52 and 53 setup they both run great. My 240GB 53 is running about 30%