SIRF-4 GPS kit for CF-19

Hello. Anybody here familiar with a SIRF-4 GPS kit(WWAN-COEXIST)for CF-19?
This kit is sold on the eBay by seller "TECHTUFF" from Canada. I tried to ask a question as to details, but the answer was: buy it and we will provide the informations, installation guid and pictures, not before. Sounds a little odd. Custom Toughbooks from Norway provide all info on the kits they are selling.
Is "TECHTUFF" connected with "Blackhawk, Black OPS computers? They are selling Toughbooks on eBay with the same SIRF-4 GPS kits. The seller is "MOBILEMAMA" also from Canada. In the listings; descriptions and pictures are the same. Need help with the decision on buying this kit. Regards, Voytek.

 

Techtuff is on here every day. I'm sure he can help you

Custom-toughbooks is here every now and then too.

AFAIK "Blackhawk" isn't related to Techtuff. We generally don't like their garbage Toughbooks... lol

 

Thanks Rob. The possible connection to "Blackhawk" and as you said "their garbage" worries me. Could be, that they just buying the kits from Techtuff.
Voytek.

 

I'll jump in here. techtuff is a good guy. I have one of his GPS units. I can't answer any questions on it as I have not un-wrapped it yet. Can't = won't until I've installed and played with it.


Andre (techtuff) is ***** in my book. I've dealt with him for a couple years now.

Jeff

 

I have a sirf-4 kit in one CF-19 and a Ublox LEA-6S kit in the other CF-19.

Both CF-19 have exact the same hardware and software configuration only difference is the GPS receiver kit.

I use both CF-19's outdoor in woods with heavy foliage, now we can see a huge difference in reception of SV's, Ublox is outperforming the Sirf-4 on all points. Ublox also has a much faster first sat fix, cold or hotstart.

Also under a clear sky with no objects destructing sat reception ublox shows better reception results as Sirf-4.

So after this years busy summer season when most of work is done i will swap my Sirf-4 for another Ublox gps receiver

C

 

When I say "garbage" I am referring to the fact that they simply put rubber bumpers on old crappy Toughbooks and think that they're in some way tougher, when they aren't.

And yes, Andre from Techtuff is a GREAT guy! I can vouch for that!

 

Rob...He is not talking about the "Blackhawk" that we have issues with (USA Seller). I to can vouch for Andre...great guy. He will treat good

 

Hows the plastic bumpout? It looks to be a third-party one... hesitant on non-OEM parts on my Toughbook - I'd like it to be as durable, dust and water-resistant as possible as I do use my CF-19 outside a lot!

 

boomtown...incoming PM

 

Boomtown, send me a message and I will make an exception and show you install instructions Before you buy. As a matter of fact if we avoid eBay I will do a Forum special of $119 inc. shipping.

That goes for anyone else of course as well.

CanuckCam we actually made the cover a little wider to accommodate someone who may want to put in a bluetooth device, etc... During the install we recommend using either silicone or hot glue to seal the hole that the cables go through for a water tight seal.

Cedneb I would love to see screenshot from Winfast Navigator on the satellite signals on your Sirf 4 installation. We actually use Ublox 6 on our CF-29 kit and it is VERY good, but the Sirf 4 kicks -ss... I for sure need to create a youtube video one day to compare the most common GPS receivers.

Kit for CF-30 is ready for sale (just finishing the instructions) and same for CF-29

later boys

 

He does customs molds for his covers. I haven't had one in my hands to see if myself but talking to him through PM and he sounds like a guy that is good to deal with.

 

I just purchased one, hope to have it next week. Gonna use it to replace an oem on a MK1, then I will compare it to my oem mk4 which does a decent job.

 

I would like to express my thanks to everybody for helping me out in GPS choices for CF-19. Also if I offended Andre from TechTough I'm sorry. Everybody has high opinion of him. In my case it was a unclear answer on eBay, that started all this. On Sunday I will see Mr. Toughbook himself (TEO) and he will help me, make a decision as to what setup I go with. Probably it will be TEO's custom setup and not a kit. All of you Toughbook People would like to have him for a neighbour and a friend. Hi rules! Regards, Voytek.

 

Thanks everyone... in preference for full disclosure, here are the three non-OEM GPSs I'm looking at:

SiRF: $150 + shipping
SIRF 4 GPS KIT for Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 laptop (WWAN coexist) NEW | eBay

Ublox #1: $180 + shipping
GPS kit for Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 (WWAN coexist), Ublox 6 | eBay

Ublox #2: $125 + shipping
GPS KIT FOR PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK CF-19 MK1, MK2 & MK3 | eBay

 

No worries Boomtown, Teo is a great guy and is also a master of course at GPS installs, I am sure you will be happy with Teo's solution.

I used to live in Vancouver, Surrey, etc... beautiful city, too bad the Canucks didn't go to far this year.

Peace

 

Thanks Andre. Montreal Canadians did not do much better Regards, Voytek.

 

Got it today and installed it tonight. Looks good, not sure I care for the extra space but larger size doesn't bother me too much. Honestly it doesn't feel as tough as the oem bump out, I almost tighten the screws too much and heard a little crack but backed off and looks ok. Now to the part that matters recenption in my house was excellent, 100% better then what my oem MK1 gps was, see the pudding...

thinking of doing a cf-30 next

 

Beat me to it ....results similar in the house ...pretty nice outside.

Film at eleven...or maybe twelve...it got dark. CF-19R w/Gobi 2000 fyi.

Jeff

 

Here's the film. These (computer) were shot on my bench in the shop. Tin roof double-pane windows.

The sheepy shot is for Shawn. Beatnik and Reverso getting lunch. That's a picture of my "dog house". Bill observing.

I liked the happy satellite picture best of those I took.

Jeff

 

This is a nice machine Jeff! I'm still waiting for mine. Same source. Looks, like in addition to the GPS you have emissive keyboard. Are you going to upgrade
the RAM?

 

Will it take more than 4 Gb? Presently running 4096.

The emmissive KB made it almost a keeper. Still under 100 hours.

The techtuff gps locks up as soon as you push the button. Gobi takes 20 or more seconds then it kind of jumps around. Not sure what's going on there.

What's a desktop way to switch between GPS on Winfast Navigator without having to go into control panel. Navigator won't let me change after it's locked on. You can go into the folder and change the config file. You can disable the gps in bios. I guess what I really want for testing (and I know there are other better tools for that...this one's pretty)is two simultaneous running programs. Is that possible? Maybe put one on a virtual drive?

GPSInfoPC and Winfast don't "quite" work on 7. Both are in XP mode.

Anyone done it?.....BTW Windows 7 Pro. CF-19RAG.

Jeff...what's a virtual drive...

 

What doesn't work? Both work fine on my CF-19 Mk2 w/Win 7 Pro 32bit with OEM Panasonic GPS.

 

Leetle stuff. Part of a word is blocked out on GPSInfoPC...I think it's baud and part of 4800.
I thought I remembered changing baud rates after Winfast was started. Pro'bly faulty memory ....mine.

Jeff...no big deal..we get by

 

Jeff, Your Machine will handle 8GB of RAM. Windows 7PRO 32 bit will only recognise 4GB. To have all 8GB, you will have to run Win 7, 64 bit version.
I'm sure that Linux (your favorite) will see 8GB RAM. As to GPS, I don't use Winfast Navigator, I use Nobeltec VSN11 marine navigation software. Can't help you

 

Yah, I knew it would take 8 GB. Just being facetious. Playing ignorant. I was just dinking around trying to get two of the same program running at the same time. Nothing important.

See ya in a couple days. Cow work to do this week-end.

Jeff

 

I seem to have some time on my hands waiting to have my Achilles tendon reattached so:
@ all, The signal strength bars in programs like WinFast don't really tell you much of interest. I have frequently recommended VisualGPS (free) to check your GPS for accuracy. I am attaching a screen shot of VGPS with the survey pane enlarged to full screen. The blue squiggly line (a technical term), represents the position currently being called out by the GPS. As you can see, it is all over the place. The green oval with the cross hairs represents the software's confidence level in your actual position, the smaller the oval the better the fix. The current confidence level has the position within .0024 minutes of longitude (also .0024 nautical miles which are 5913.6'), roughly 14'. Your home work is to determine the accuracy of the latitude fix. Hint: Degrees/minutes in Latitude are not always the same distance, it depends on your distance form the equator/poles. I'm not going to go through all the talk about internal vs. external or Sirf 3 against Sirf 4 or the need to track a gazillion satellites for an accurate fix. I've been there before, suit yourself. In short, if you want to check your GPS it's hard to beat VGPS, it does have a satellite signal graphic display pane if you really care about that sort of thing, and lots of other useful screens and logging capacity.
View attachment VGPS Scrn Cap.pdf
@ Jeff, I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but if you want to run multiple mapping programs simultaneously with 1 GPS you want Franson GPSGate. I have been using it for years, even paid $40 for it back in the day but it's now FREE! It finds your GPS and sets up multiple virtual com ports to which you point your mapping software. I have attached screen shot of the front end of GPSGate and one of the virtual port listing. Finally I have attached a shot of Streets and Trips and DeLorme Topo USA running beside each other on a split screen. If you meant that you want to run 2 GPS units together, you could probably just open the software twice and and point each window at a different port. I have software which will deal with multiple GPSs but it's kind of high end.
View attachment FG Input.pdf View attachment FG Output.pdf View attachment Topo-S and T split scrn.pdf
CAP
Oh yes: CF-30 MK3 with BU 353 and no view of the sky (sitting at my kitchen table).

 

I wish I would have know about the forum member GPS deal. I bought two of these units direct for the more expensive price and they do work better than the OEM units (Sony). I have a MK3 and MK4 that I put them in.

Oh yeah if any of you CF-19 guys would like an emissive keyboard check out my for sale post. I have some left yet.

Jason

 

Send me an email with your item # / id and I will refund you the difference Jason.

thanks for your business

Andre

 

Does this kit fit a 19MK2?

 

techtuff is a good person to deal with. I'd be interested in seeing gps info for cf-29 and cf-30 as well..Driller

 

Hi driller,

We just listed our cf-29 kit today, cf-30 kit was listed last week on eBay under our id "TechTuff"

Thanks for your interest !

 

Does someone know of a (thorough) comparison test between the SIRF4 receiver and the Ublox6, in terms of accuracy (noting capt.dogfish's post #26 on the prev. page), lock speed in various conditions, indoor/outdoor performance, power usage, extra positioning technologies (GLONAS, GALILEO, etc).
in the meanwhile, ublox 7 was released.

maybe a separate thread would be useful, i'm not exactly on topic.

I've started searching for a good GPS to put in my CF-30. Sirf4/Ublox/* owner's impressions are welcome.

 

A quick note. It is my considered, informed position that the EM-408 which appears to be the same GPS engine as in the BU-353 is as accurate and sensitive a GPS as you could possibly need given the current state of GPS satellites. I have not investigated any of the newer units, ie. SiRF IV as I don't need them. Suit yourself, but unless you get some significant forward compatibility for future GPS satellite technology you don't need to spend the money. For internal GPS it's going to be all about the antenna setup, not the GPS engine. I'm not criticizing any of the above mentioned suppliers, I haven't tried them because I don't need to.
CAP

 

I was also thinking of alternative GPS tech, like GLONAS, GALILEO, Compass especially using all of them combined for better accuracy; this is where a 50ch receiver should really shine.
I found this comparison chart here, including the EM408 (Sirf III).
Engine Board Comparison Chart

My only experience with GPS on PC was the integrated GPS on Gobi2k, it was painfully slow, TTFF took a few minutes, and that was outside, indoors, no chance. So any dedicated GPS I'll get will be a huge progress.

From the Ublox LEA-6 datasheet, average power usage is around 40mA @3V, with power save mode @ 12mA.
The Sirf IV chip, has a 50-500uA hibernate mode, providing hot-start in ~1s. Average power is 60mA @1.8v.

As CAP said, the antenna is critical, and depending on whether is active or not, power usage can vary a lot.

@Techtuff: could you post some pictures of the GPS module/antenna in your kit, ? and a side shot showing how much the cover bump sticks out.
thank you.

 

You can check out his eBay auctions. he has some very good pictures. He uses the same user name

 

"I was also thinking of alternative GPS tech, like GLONAS, GALILEO, Compass especially using all of them combined for better accuracy; this is where a 50ch receiver should really shine."
You miss my point. The BU-353/EM-408 have consistently performed with sub-meter accuracy(usually much better) for me. You don't need, nor can you practically use, any more accuracy than that. Unless of course you are a land surveyor. The compass function requires that you be moving unless you are using more than one GPS and they are interfaced. I don't use internal GPS so there might be some reason to use different engines but I can't guess why, as I said it's all about the antenna with internal. As for 50 channel, there are currently 32 birds up there, not all of which are functional. Maybe I missed something, but a good GPS is going to take the data from about 8 satellites(the ones with the strongest signals and the best angles), average the data, and report your position. We report, you decide.
CAP

 

the Compass I was referring to was the Chinese satelite navigation system (10 up to 35 birds planned).
European GALILEO (w/ EGNOS) has 3 to 30, Russian GLONASS(w/ SDCM) 24, and of course US GPS (w/ WAAS) with up to 32.

I think your EM408 achieves sub meter accuracy with a SIRF3 receiver, only by using WAAS, as without it, the precision would be more than a few meters. And the external active antenna, helps A LOT in this.

Anyway, due to the very low power hot-start capability, interference/jamming suppressor, and processing speed, I've ordered the Sirf4 kit for CF-30, from Techtuff.
An Ublox 6 kit was also an option, but it would be installed in place of the WWAN sled, and also needed a extra antenna (the sirf4 kit uses a patch antenna, right on the module, no extra length).

However, the specs list its accuracy at 2.5m without SBAS, or 2m with it (WAAS, EGNOS, etc).

I'll see how it goes, once it gets to me.

Thanks for the input.

 

Well, since I have no intention of travelling anywhere WAAS is not available I assume that I will continue to enjoy sub meter accuracy with my current GPS. Like I said, statements like "unit X gets much better reception" or "shows much better signal" are meaningless if they are based on the number or length of bars shown in some third party software. The only way to know the quality of the position shown by your GPS is to check it against a known position, like a survey marker. If we are going to throw around terms like sub meter you need to be able to measure your location against a control with a ruler. Again, suit yourself, but don't assume you are getting an accurate fix unless you can verify it.
CAP

 

Hello, all!
I have CF-19MK5 with installed HSDPA PCB and bluetooth PCB. I want to upgrade toughbook with GPS. I need installation guid and pictures for SIRF-4 GPS kit for CF-19 (from techtuff). There are some suspicions, that this kit doesn't fit my toughbook because of restrictions on the thickness GPS PCB.
Thanks everyone in advance.

 

Have you emailed Andre (techtuff) to see if it will fit ? I know if you buy the kit he will send you guide and pictures on how to install it. Most sellers will not send these out untill you buy it...I think you know why

 

No, i have no Andre contact((

 

Andre/techtuff, is the poster at the top of the previous page. You probably don't have enough posts to send a PM but his email contact is in his profile.
CAP

 

What quantity of posts need to send PM?

 

you need one more...5

 

Not sure if that email address will work...he might of updated it but don't think so.

 

Don't consider me a spammer)))) Now i have 5 posts...

 

Some are having problems on ebay getting to techtuff...check out the picture.
To get this you must put the auction # in

 

Thanks to all for help.
Soon my littletoughy will have GPS from Andre.

 

So I guess he got back to you...I sent him this link last night.

 

I got my GPS kit from Andre. Now i have a reasonable question, what software to use for maximum performance and accuracy?