Testing GPS

yeah some bootable software sounds fun i'm up for that, willing to help share a torrent if others are into that.
do you come across maps for outside us/eu? i'm keeping an eye out for some china maps (mainly for my pda) at the moment.
i'm gonna be working in hongkong for a few months, found hongkong map for tomtom, but nothing for mainland china for any software (windows or wince)

you do offroading, thats cool went a few times long way back when me dad had an old 2-dr range rover. big V-8 and lotso sloppy mud do mix very well

 

I'm getting my new toughbook this week (The 1GHz with GPS that was previously mentioned, from the same guy mentioned), so I'll be testing it out comparing the GPS built in with the GPS antenna in my car.

Currently, I've got my toughbook attaching to a USB antenna (Though hole, hockey puck style. Worked great in the hole already made in my ex cop car, and is a permenant mount), and it fixes extremely fast, so I'll try out the new module and compare.

I use Microsoft Streets & Trips (Only microsoft product worth buying, honestly) and it works pretty well. If you want map software, I highly recommend it, though I'll be honest, I haven't tried anything else out.

It should be here thursday, so I'll be sure to post back some results.

 

Modly... What condition was the laptop in. (If I'll be buying from the same guy!?) Did it come with all the doors? Have an A/C adapter? Scratches? Tell me all the straight dope!

James... Foam=gel... The gel is kind of like the gel earpieces you get when you buy earbuds or a in-ear headset... Not liquid but very squishy.

 

well,
i love outdoor ativities, paintballing,off-roading,manhunt,treking,camping....ect,
well i do most outdoory ativities, main reson i love the cf-28 perfect for the job.....
james.....about the maps of china am sure i do have some but not sure where, as toughbook knows it took me 3days just finding the pdf file for streamline xp,
well i do have the 2007 version of Microsoft Streets & Trips and too be honestnot much difference then the 06 version apart from fixing the few problems,
you should try pc navigator it is really good and the interface on that looks similar too a tomtom..........

 

sounds like someone half the people buying those laptops are in this forum
mine should also be here soon... my dvd drive is waiting.

gel to me is stuff you put in your hair, or use to shave, but gel = foam i can handle that, now i know
maybe it's a brit thing, maybe its just me :-/

errr, DJACID... when you say manhunt, i hope you dont mean wandering the backalleys of london at night with a plastic bag and a length of wire Oo
pc navigator do you have ver6 or ver7? i can prob source ver6 myself.
dont bust a gut on those china maps, i have hong kong already, and i bet once i get there every street corner will sell what i need for like 20p

thanks for all the tips guys, hope everyones toughbook turns up fine.

 

LOL!!!!!!!!!!
manhunt is a game similar to paintballing but instead of 2 teams of 11 its just the one target you have, and all you have is ur gun, compass and maps to get him,
really fun............

that is strange everyone is buying there toughbooks from the same seller, sounds like something from the X-Files
fingerscrossed you guys that urs ASAP,
am still thinking about buying one to use as a backup.......

 

I will get it on Thursday, so not sure til then. I'm only really concerned if I get my back panel on it, because my parts book has all the rest if I need it.

I'll let you know how it turns out though.

I'm well on my way to doing the wireless hack you've got. I just got my Atheros card, and some antennas should show up this week. I plan on doing some internal antennas as well, just to test (And I'll outfit my old one with internal ones to sell it, so that it looks alright and gets some sort of wireless connection).

 

Hi to everybody. I am having problems activating GPS on Windows XP. I am getting Microsoft Serial BallPoint mouse that throws the cursor of every time its active. I have tried installing GPS driver (goes on like a filter I gues) from pany web site with no luck. It is a CF-28PC... 800Mhz with built in gps. Any thoughts on that? Best regards, Alex.

P.S. Is there any tricks with RAM or any PC100 256Mb will work?

 

well you will need a windows update hotfix to sort this out,
if i have time i'll put the link up here

 

Whatson, have you looked in the Bois setup for the GPS settings?? as it may be turn off there. You can have all the drivers and filtters loaded but if the GPS is turn off in Bois, then she not going to work

As for the mouse, i have the same thing, just uninstalled ALL of the mouse and pionters then reboot and installed. worked fine for me on the last reboot.
Tho i hate using the keyboard in place of a mouse, i had to for the reinstalling

 

there is a windows update to solve this problem.......
problems you get from windows for using plug and play devices....

 

I tried every conceivable solution that could be found on the Net and none of them fixed the problem under WinXP SP2. In fact, I found some to be very outdated when doing further research on it.

But alas, after toying with one setup after another (I think I'll name my first child "Reboot") I did find THE solution to the "jumping mouse" syndrome. I will do a write up on it tonight and post it. If you've tried everything else, you'll wish you had tried this solution first -- believe me.

 

ok,
it be very nice to hear how to solved this problem..........

 

Yup... I'd like to see the write up too!

 

With the Panasonic's the GPS are built-in so you cannot simply unplug it, make changes, and then reboot (which works for plug-in GPS). Because the serial mouse and the GPS share the same or similar chipset, when the GPS begins spewing data, Windows thinks it's a mouse moving around, hence the "jumping mouse." To solve this, first you have to disable the serial mouse in Device Manager (not uninstall it because it will just re-install on reboot). Next go to Ports. Select COM4, then go under Properties (right click). The last tab on top of the screen that came up for you shows, Resources. Uncheck the box for "Use automatic settings". Then in the drop down box that says "Current configuration" select any other configuration, i.e., 0000,0001, etc. Turn on your GPS software and the GPS will send its data free from the mouse.

Upon reboot the mouse will jointly assume your new changes, so you will have to change the "Current configuration" from the drop down box each time you want to use the GPS. But then again, it is usable whereas it never was before in WinXP SP2 for me.

I will work on making the changes permanent in order to keep the GPS active over the mouse and report back. I wish the above could have been in more detail but life has its many demands and I wanted to report my findings asap rather than keep everyone in limbo.

 

Thanks for the info... It's been filed so I can keep track of it!

 

CHECK OUT THESE LINKS?????

http://www.pcmaritime.co.uk/leisure/support/jumpingmouse.html

http://www.beaglesoft.com/stsytrouble.htm

When I connect my GPS device the mouse starts jumping around uncontrollably. What can be done?

This problem is caused because Windows sometimes incorrectly recognises the GPS as a pointing device. In most cases the quickest solution is to unplug the GPS and plug it back in. If you have a detachable USB cable (like on a Haicom 204) then simply detach the unit from the cable. The mouse should stop jumping immediately. Now go to My Computer/Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager. Here you will see a list of all the hardware devices in your system. Expand the Mice and other pointing devices item. You should see at least two devices listed here, one being Microsoft Serial Ballpoint. Right click on it and select Disable. This should prevent another occurrence of this problem.

Also a problem you will get is ur gps signal will not be as strong once you disable the mouse, another soloution is to get the original drivers for ur mouse install them first and then do the gps......

 

This guy has these back up... He's not looking too stoned anymore!

 

Anyone?... Anyone?... Bueller?... Bueller?...

 

I'd rather just buy a whole laptop for another $100

I still think his prices are overly high on everything he sells. He's got backlit keyboards for $140, when I could find them elsewhere for $100. I'm getting a deal on that one at that rate... GPS, and Backlit keyboard, DVD/CD-RW combo, plus a laptop with it..

 

You're right... I could buy another GPS laptop and then take out GPS and sell it. Hmmmm... Options... Options...

 

Might also be able to make all the money back on parting it out. The ones from that one place I just bought my new one from, they've got touchscreens, combo drives, backlit keyboards, hard drive caddys, batteries, and I'm sure other things you could sell outright. Could probably even pull the motherboard and sell it as an upgrade for somebody with a 600MHz model.

The internal GPS will be cool to have, but for an 8 channel system (I think), it's not worth $280 to get to my door. I'd rather get a few upgrades with it for the money I'd spend.

 

is there any chance he'll take a offer on it?????????
say like $100...........:tongue:

i'd just buy one with it built in.......
that way it will cost less....
gps

 

toughbook, what about the unit modly returned, maybe the seller will bust that unit up for parts you need?
in fact i'm betting all it wants is the heatsink tinkering with.

 

am close on getting another unit my mate bought a cf-28 the other day model number CF-28STJGEDM but it doesnt have gps built in as it should if check on the panasonic website,
also it cost him £300 delivered not £350 as mention, the seller was asking £350 but he accepted a offer of £300......
he has one more left which i would like as the condition is great compared to my war machines, mine looks like it has been through every war this world has seen........:wub:
LOL..........:tongue:

 

damn, 300 from uk!?
thats cheep, would make my import almost a waste of time.
never mind, hopefully i will be happy anyhow

 

JAMESJRL................have you recieved urs yet????????

 

PLEASE do NOT do this on a cf-28 unless you know what you are doing

ok, i found this stuff relating to the GPS

theres a pdf file from panasonic that mentions a problem with the gps unit on CF-30

"cursor cannot be controlled properly"
their fix is to download and install a file called "skipenum.reg"

i downloaded this and the exe tells me that my hardware is not compatible
of course this file is intended for CF-30
it is just a self extracting archive with a system test, so i extracted it myself

inside is the skipenum.reg which reads

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ACPI\PNP0501\1\Device Parameters]
"SkipEnumerations"=dword:fffffffe

does anyone think this or a modification of this should work on cf-28 with XP?
i'm most likely gonna try entering this manually into my registry later and see what happens.

 

Just make sure you back up your Registry first!

 

try it and let me know with the out come,

 

james....did you sort it out or just using it by the disabling method...

 

i think we have a winner
the reg file doesnt work, poking around in the registry i found the "1" didnt exist
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ACPI\PNP0501\ 1\Device Parameters

so i picked the 3

and inside Device Parameters added a new dword called "SkipEnumerations"
and gAve it the hex value fffffffe as it said in the reg file.

after a reboot my serial ballpoint mouse is gone
no more jumping, but i dont know if it has the same side effect of slowing down the gps lock or reducing the signal as has been reported
if someone else can pass judgement on any side effects i'd be grateful.

so to put it simply
in regedit you should find
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ACPI\PNP0501\3\Device Parameters

(or another number after acpi, but ignore 0)

add a dword with value fffffffe

 

ok will try it later once down graded to xp again from vista.......

 

I haven't done the registry edit yet, but I'm trying to get the GPS to work, with some failing involved.

I got Streets & Trips to recognise that the internal card is there (Same for other GPS software), so I wandered outside, which I rarely ever do while it's sunny, and sat there for 5 minutes "receiving data", with no fix. My other GPS antenna picks it up exactly where I was standing (But it's a permanent mount car antenna, and extremely fast at a fix)

I must say though, the mouse jumping around thing is annoying as hell. Was quite a task to disable it (Just because it kept jumping, even with the touchscreen).

I'm curious now though, I've got an old military mag mount external antenna with what looks like a u.fl connector on the end. I wonder if I can run a pigtail out off of a splice, so I can have either the internal or external antennas. Might give me better reception.

 

I just did this on win 2k, It got rid of the serial ballpoint mouse, and the gps does lock on. It works on my cf-28. Thanks!!!

 

no problem, and to be honest i am shocked this fix is so hard to find!
it is not just us cf-28 users, nearly everyone on the planet with a serial connected gps suffers some occurence of this problem and the general hack is to unplug it and disable drivers repeatedly until it works!

why is is hidden only in an obscure update for a panasonic cf-30???

MODLY
anyhow, as for getting a lock i had a whole lot of trouble to start too, i'm not sure if it was the driver issues i hadn't cleared up yet.
i find the warm up is still quite long, my understanding of how the gps system works is that they send data to work out were you are every second, but you can only use this data if you know where they (the satellites) are, and they only give out this information much less frequently (i think i remeber reading a few minutes somewhere), and if you miss it you just have to wait.
try to make sure the base has a clear view of the sky, might be worth tilting back the screen a little (not ure if magnesium messes with microwave??)
the gps reciever in the cf-28 is old, without doubt you can find superior ones now, the sirfstar3 in my pda is much faster and can track more satellites.
I think a nice mod would be to stick a cheap antenna onto the coax for the internal reciever card, an external reciever would definitely improve your reception, maybe somone else could advise on this including avoiding impedance mismatch etc?)

i pesonally find that the gps in the cf-28 is good enough now, i can live with the slow warm up time(it can definitely run to minutes), and the signal is low but i get a lock, which is always exactly the same as my pda is telling me (so i tend to trust it).

 

sorry, just remembered i meant to put this in.

standalone units like TOMTOM now have a feature that allows yuo to keep a database of where the satellites will be in orbit, my only info on this is what they say on the site... go check it out.
the idea being if you tell it roughly where you are starting from and the time (i know not always ideal for GPS LOL) it don't need to wait for that position information to come and give you an almost instant lock.

has anyone come across something like this for laptop?, maybe it need to be integrated into the actual receiver?, i'm not really up on how the location info is decoded.

 

Which drivers are you using? I'm using the GPS filter thing that they offer for the CF-29/30/18, but that's all I could find that would install.

I'm wondering if there is a way to hook up my permanent mount antenna in the car to get a fix on satellites, then go to the internal GPS to get a quick lock. Not fully ideal, but it'd be a start.

 

i'm actually not using any drivers at all
i'm pointing my software in the direction of com4 with nmea spec.
i'll try those later model drivers maybe later

 

WELL,
there are afew fixes for this which work, in start up add command "/serial" reboot the toughbook and go straight into the bios and change the gps from auto to manaul as you know if its on auto the computer controls it and if it is enabled and you do so once started i had a message new hardware found, so click on the gps driver and it wouldnt installed, loaded a alternative driver for a different gps device which use the same broaud rate and specs and it worked with a error code, am sure if anyone find another source for a gps driver we will be fine
my windows 2000 loads fine with no problems its winxp with the problems

jamesjl.....the fix you decribe is good and i have used it the first time i installed winxp but also that fix is the same as just going into device manage and disabling the serial mouse..........
so if anyone has problems with doing there registry just disable the serial mouse from device manage....
windows 2000 with gps fully working i get 6/7satelite fixes all the time,
with windowsxp after sorting the gps problems with how james describe with the registry or simply disabling the serial mouse you only get 5fixes and the signal isnt steady as it should i tested the gps with afew gps software and no where is it close to the way it works in windows 2000
am sure that gps driver files isnt right for winxp
also best thing to do if you want to keep winxp on ur toughbook is load a good gps software my toughbook came with copilot 5 which is panasonic branded cd and has gps track with it meaning it keeps a record of all the last fixes so can pick it up quicker the next time........
the quickest fix i get with win2000 is 2mines from my room,
same location but with winxp it takes more then 6mins(so i just shut if off),
from my front garden win2000 takes a matter of a 1miunte to get me a fix and on winxp it takes 5/7mins to get a fix of only 2/3satelites while with win2000 i get 5/6/7 fixes straight away...........

 

hmmm, that is very interesting, you are right i've never dound a full set of satellites.
i'm going to dig into this and find what the difference is... xp is fundamentally similar to win2k. I refuse to be beaten.

 

the only problem is the drivers that are added to too winxp which aint in win2000, main reason you dont get a problem with win2000 only with winxp...

 

you mean this ballpen driver?
i dont have any gps driver at all, that i can see anywhere

 

Well, I've now got 5 weeks to get my GPS situation fixed, because I'm gonna go on a 2400 mile drive (Preferably with GPS), and two flights after that.

I'll try setting GPS to manual in the BIOS, but I'm curious what you meant by adding /serial to startup, DJACID. I'm a Mac guy, and do unix stuff too, but I'm not sure exactly where I add any commands in XP.

Edit; just found this... Kinda looks like it might help, perhaps?
http://walcottscientific.com/downloads/com_port.pdf

Edit again; Parts books on eBay, with GPS, starting at $199
http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-CF-28...ryZ42205QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Ok, more research today (It was too hot to work on the hearse. I'm sweating just from testing out the GPS signal on the front sidewalk).

I finally got a lock on 3 satellites long enough to post my location, and it would intermittently go in and out, but it's proof of the receiver working.

I noticed that the plastic around the antenna housing is slightly damaged/cracked, so I decided it was time to rip stuff apart and see what makes the antenna tick, and what it looks like.

Inside the lump on the side of the GPS toughbooks is a GPS antenna, which is a PCB (21mm X 18mm X 1mm, rounded up to nearest whole number. Using digital calipers), and on top and bottom of that board is the antenna and whatever else is in there (Didn't take that apart). The bits on the board measure 18mm X 18mm X 3mm, and the other is 4mm (Making the whole antenna 8mm thick).

The connector looks like either an h.fl or u.fl connector (Not sure of which, but I'll assume it's h.fl, because it looks *slightly* bigger than the wireless connector). The inside diameter of the connector is 2.1mm. So, that brought me to do more looking around.

http://www.wi-sys.com/products/antennas/WS1857.php

That's what I found. Not the proper connector type, but they do say that other connectors can be put on. Perhaps it would help gain a better signal?

 

well in system properties, go to advance and then start up and recovery,
click on "EDIT" start up options,
and then
pad will open with some thing written similar to this -
[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

now all you have to do is add /serial at the end of the line so next too /fastdetect, so you'll end up with this -
[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect/serial

ok and exit and restart start, you suppose to do it before you have the ballpen mouse installed and what it does is it wont let the mouse install when you restart........

 

i'll find the link for a page with it on too help you,
so just wait abit and read the info i put up..........

 

Well I've bitten the bullet and got on the way one of the GPS from Ebay (USA). And yer I know, I paid too much for it but when you see how much that guy in the UK was selling them then the odd $300 with P+H was not that bad lol. And I can keep my USB for other things now. I just hope I dont have as much trobble getting it all setup as some of the other guys have....... Be re'reading this thread a few times I think LOL.

Molly, thats not a bad idea with that antenna you found.

 

best option is install windows 2000 you wont get no problems with the mouse what so ever,
windows vista,windows xp plus windows 2003 all give you the same problems

 

I thought you guys isolated the problem???