Database Users

tomtom? do i need an external GPS device?

This seems like a silly question even while i am the one asking it. but by the looks of things i need to buy a bluetooth GPS to get my tomtom working.
is this correct..
thanks jay

Yes I'm afraid so - Unless your Pocket PC has a built in GPS (but as far as I know none of the HTC models do).

you could also use a SDIO GPS, but BT is a more elegant solution.

by bt you mean like the bt phone company?

jamiehutber said:
by bt you mean like the bt phone company?
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Click to collapse
Bluetooth GPS Receiver, from £50 inc vat. - http://www.gpsw.co.uk/cats/cl3_209.html?OrderBy=Price&

ye sounds good. i was looking on ebay they have solo panel bt one. any preference on the number that they have. the one you pointed to is a "36". whats that mean?! :lol:
cheers for the help

Ill recommend you the Holux GPSlim 236 Bluetooth GPS with SIRF Star III chipset, imho the best you can get for your money right now.

How about the Solar GPS reciever
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Solar-Bluet...9709303933QQcategoryZ4668QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I have heard of people using this one with the universal.
Anyone have any info about that one?

My advice is don't waste time on gimmicks.
The priority is to get a SIRF III chipset inside as beachmeat suggests.
Solar panels do not stop you having to charge the device, they merely slow down the rate of discharge, providing it's day time, in the winter evenings and at night, you'll probably find they have less battery power then a non-solar panelled device. The guys over at Pocketgpsworld.com did not rate solar panel recievers very well and took time to recover from the piece of advice on the instructions which say "Contains sensitive electronic parts, keep out of direct sunlight"
Another excelent device is the Globalsat BT-338, or the Holux that was recommended earlier.

another Vote for either the Holux 236 works really well with the Exec

well i took your advise even though the solar panel did have the new chipset... i ended up getting a Globalsat BT-338 for £70.. so when i get it i'll let everybody how it goes and works

other options
being 3g the universal is able to run telco programs which help u with traffic like tomtom, even better they can give you more personalized information because the telco can feed u life information.
I live in Australia and Telstra is currently testing a live road map system through 3g, optus does this also.
hope that helps

I might be talking rubbish, but I recently read somewhere that there is a GPS receiver built into the Universal or something like that. From what I remember it was called the 911 GPS and is used to give position information to the emergency services when they are contacted. I heard somewhere it was possible to integrate this to work with navigator software, but would like to know whether or not this is actually correct.
Thanks
Euan

What version of TomTom?

Which version of TomTom works best with the XDA Exec and where can I buy it from?

With 126 posts already you should not be posting this!!
Plenty of threads on it already!!
Use latest version 5.21 (works very well)
google for your purchase or... total-gps.co.uk or ebay for it.
For gps unit... my recomendation is holux 236 (cant get better than this).
BR

Is the Holux better than the bluetooth GPS that comes with Navigator? I find the bundled GPS can take a long time to get a fix.

Does the Holux have 32 chanel? Auto on and off? Works inside the glovebox? 12 hour battery life car and mains charger? For £40? As after much searching I went for this Qstarz BT-Q880 32 Parallel Channel Bluetooth GPS Receiver with 'Auto-ON-OFF' Technology and worlds fastest TTFF.:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9739255922&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1
Also re tomtom 5.21 working, I and another can confirm it does NOT work, if you have the latest CE rom version. I upgraded, and now even the 5.21 won't work - shuts down when you get to choosing a voice part. If you know a fix to this please let me know!
Greg.
agent003 said:
With 126 posts already you should not be posting this!!
Plenty of threads on it already!!
Use latest version 5.21 (works very well)
google for your purchase or... total-gps.co.uk or ebay for it.
For gps unit... my recomendation is holux 236 (cant get better than this).
BR
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Click to collapse

lol well if you and 1 whole other can confirm it dosn't work, guess the rest of us should switch ours off and stop using it then.
Usual culprits for the crash at setup are, no CurrentMap.dat file in the my documents\Tomtom\ folder, just create a blank text document and rename it, (beware of windows xp renaming it as CurrentMap.dat.txt)
Also check you actually have voices installed, they do not come as part of the 5.21 installation file, your supposed to get them off your original CD's.

Hi Greg,
Indeed that looks like a nice unit @ a competitive price.
I cant coment further on it since its just unknown to me.
The holux though... very nice looking unit (not that it makes a diference on efficiency), does last 10 hours on the go,... on average from inside my glove box it picks up 7-9 sattelites (fixed) and as for the size its only marginally bigger than the nokia battery that it uses and it has 20 channel (if it had 32+ it would not work any better) price wise..one has to shop for it to get the best price and as a guide sellers on ebay at its cheapest are only making under £8 profit ...I give this 10/10 excellent.
Plz dont take this as blaging towrads what i got but just my 2 pence worth towards your questions :wink:
In regards to 5.21...I am also using the latest CE and it works flawlessly.
I have also encotered such problem as yours and a proper voice instalation fro the disk sorted it (you could have a problem if you dont have the latest instalation exe file that seems to throw an error when you have the latest rom on your device.
I have posted so much on these tomtom problems over forums that just cant be asked to repeat myselfe over and over again
If you cant get it going Greg.. PM me and Ill surelly sort it for you in real time talk.
WBR

Thanks for that really helpful post. I can't fault the holux either, or mine for that matter. One of the reasons I bought mine was the quoted fast start times (true) and the fact I can stick it in the glovebox and wire it in to the ignition, with the auto on/off feature it powers up on ignition then and also is charging so should I need to go walkabout it's always charged.
Anyhow thanks re tomtom, I'll give it a go again installing some voices and will go from there I think - be aware you may get a pm ;-)
I'm a hardened TomTom user and have hacked it pleanty in the past so was a bit worried by 6 or so hours of messing not getting it working!
I'll update in due course if I figure it too.
Greg.

XDA - Tomtom 6 - non-bluetooth GPS error

Hi
I have read through literally hunderds of pages of GPS stuff to do with mini. I have read some things that are true and some that aren't and am now confused.
I installed Tomtom 5.0 onto my Mini S. It went on fine. Maps installed fine. I went into 'satellites - configure' part and couldn't find my GPS on any of the settings. I am almost sure my GPS receiver isn't bluetooth. I know the baud should be 4800, but otherwise I am not sure. My dad has the same recieve but uses his with an IPAQ and it worked first time. I have tried my receiver with his ipaq and the receiver works fine so that eliminates that posibility.
Here is my receiver and the blurb that comes with it.
http://www.evermoregps.ca/
GM-R700 GPS receiver
(third one down.)
The mouse-shape GPS receiver is design for PC and PDA applications. With WAAS/EGNOS channels, EverMore can give you more accurate direction and position. Compact Flash module is also available now.
I selected 'Other NMEA GPS receiver' and tried all of those. Then went through the bluetooth equivelent just in case. None of them pick my receiver up.
I then read somewhere that version 6 of Tomtom wouldn't work on my XDA mini. I downloaded 5.2 and tried it with that. I had read that this allowed 'port 7' to work. I couldn't get my map to work with 5.2 even though I spent ages on it. Eventually I tried Tomtom 6.0. As I mentioned earlier, someone had said that it wouldn't work on an XDA, but this is false as I got it working straight away. The map also installed fine and once I activated it things seemed ok. I presumed that the port 7 would now come as an option. It didn't. I am still at the same place. I believe that the port 7 thing may be a bluetooth only thing but I am not sure. I am not great at GPSbut know my way around an IPAQ pretty well. I am new to my phone so chances are there is some gateway or something that I haven't enabled etc, but I am at the end of what I know.
If anyone can help me out at all I would be eternally greatful. So far I have spent a good 20 hours getting the bloody thing working and I am about to lose the will to live.
I have used the search option on the site, but it seems everyone has BT GPS, and none of the posts seem relevant to my problem. If I have missed a post then I am sorry, but there are a fair few posts on the site now.
Thanks in advance,
Woody.

bluetooth
you have to pair your gps receiver with your phone in bluetooth settings give it com ports then go into tomtom then into show gps status then configurethen other bluetooth gps receiver then pick your com port hope this helps

jay05 said:
you have to pair your gps receiver with your phone in bluetooth settings give it com ports then go into tomtom then into show gps status then configurethen other bluetooth gps receiver then pick your com port hope this helps
Click to expand...
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Do I have to do this even though it isn't a bluetooth device?
Even when I enabled com 7 on bluetooth settings, comm 7 didn't appear on 'Select your GPS receiver' on Tomtom.
I will try it anyway, and thanks for the speedy response.

sorry
i have give you wrong advice i thought gps recever wash bluetooth you should try going into on your phone settings, connections ,beam ,and un tick receive all in coming beams as these frees up the com port 7 on xda1.YOU WILL HAVE TO RECONFIGURE SETTINGS IN TOMTOM GPS STATUS FOR WIRED GPS RECEVER. SORRY FOR LAST POST HOPE THIS HELPS ps i got gps recever recever off ebay was meant to work on my xda1 but did not it was for ipaq the connector was the same but wiring was wrong hope this helps

Woody, first of all I couldn't understand that which GPS device have you got as you have mentioned 3rd down on that webpage, anyway I have the attached the picture of one of the device named "GM-R700", if this is the right device which you have then this is a serial cabled GPS device which connect to the device via cradle, not via Bluetooth, if I am right then bluetooth chapter is closed, we are going to talk about the cable GPS device.
If it is the right device then how are you connecting the GPS device to the XDA, does the GPS device came with the cradle and the car charger? (it must be).
Find the attached word file for a sequential instructions, I have just made it for you and others who are still stuck to make their TomTom work.
GoodLuck & let me know.
Sidd

Sidd, your attached documents refuse to open!, I am not too sure that you can connect a wired GPS to this type of phone, it simply won't work, the only option is Bluetooth for the Wizzard. In the case of the IIi and IIs phones they had a true serial port that could be used - Mike

Try these attached files as I have zipped them on a normal compression.
I think ""GuinUK (1st post)"" hasn't mention his/her device, but the GPS he/she mentioned is a serial device.
Sidd

I am pretty sure it is a Mini S he is trying to get to work with the cabled GPS receiver, it simply will not work - the device doesn't have a serial port to connect equipment like this to. The Mini S is Bluetooth only for GPS AFAIK - Mike

sidd said:
Woody, first of all I couldn't understand that which GPS device have you got as you have mentioned 3rd down on that webpage, anyway I have the attached the picture of one of the device named "GM-R700", if this is the right device which you have then this is a serial cabled GPS device which connect to the device via cradle, not via Bluetooth, if I am right then bluetooth chapter is closed, we are going to talk about the cable GPS device.
If it is the right device then how are you connecting the GPS device to the XDA, does the GPS device came with the cradle and the car charger? (it must be).
Find the attached word file for a sequential instructions, I have just made it for you and others who are still stuck to make their TomTom work.
GoodLuck & let me know.
Sidd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. This is indeed the right GPS. Sorry for any confusion there. I am about to try what you have written. I have indeed got a cradle, and a converter which makes my Ps2 GPS fit into the socket.
I will get back to you with how I got on.
Thanks again for the help, at least I know for sure it isn't BT before I start.
Woody

mikealder said:
I am pretty sure it is a Mini S he is trying to get to work with the cabled GPS receiver, it simply will not work - the device doesn't have a serial port to connect equipment like this to. The Mini S is Bluetooth only for GPS AFAIK - Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK I got the download working from Sidd, thanks. I ran through all the steps you had mentioned. The problem I had is that I don't get the option of 'serial cable blah blah', mine just says 'Serial port'.
My phone is a Mini S. Perhaps this is the reason why. My friend has a bluetooth model, and I got that working fine so I guess if this last attempt doesn't work I will just buy another GPS. It isn't like they are expensive in truth.
Thanks everyone for the help, and sorry for my delay in posting but it being Xmas and all.
Cheers
Woody

If u r going for a bluetooth gps device then keep one thing in mind that u might find difficulty in searching of the proper bluetooth com port. Soltution is to download the TomTom version 5.2 prior to connect ur device.
GoodLuck & let me know
Sidd

Fantastic post
Thanks Sidd, your word doc (Serial COM Port setting to setup TomTom.doc) worked a treat, two mins and I'm up and running. I'm using spv m1500 (same as xda 2) with a cheap unbranded cabled gps unit i got from fleabay and TomTom 5.2. Thanks again.

Can I re-iterate for the benefit of others reading this post, the newer XDA device (equipped with a mini USB connection point) cannot be used with a wired GPS unit, this includes the Mini-S, Exec, Orbit etc. The older devices IIs, IIi etc all require the Receive all beams to be turned of to free up the serial port for use by the wired GPS.
If your device has a mini USB connector your only option is Bluetooth for GPS - Mike

Doc114 said:
Thanks Sidd, your word doc (Serial COM Port setting to setup TomTom.doc) worked a treat, two mins and I'm up and running. I'm using spv m1500 (same as xda 2) with a cheap unbranded cabled gps unit i got from fleabay and TomTom 5.2. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem Doc114 my pleasure, any way I am also going to upload something new on the FTP (check in: ftp://ftp.xda-developers.com/Uploads/Software/) with another brief instruction manual, enjoy the new one, you know what I mean (My name would be included in the file name, so you can recognise it easily).
I will also make one illustrated instruction for a bluetooth GPS setting whenever got a device.
Sidd

AMEO GPS Settings

Hi,
I can get my AMEO working great with TOMTOM as it recognises the "Built In GPS" device, but other applications like Virtual Earth require a COM port.
Does anyone know how to get round this problem?
TIA

Try COM4, or changing the settings in the GPS option from the settings page.
Might not work with TomTom running, as TT has a habit of locking the GPS port.

yep,
COM4 it was. Thanks.
Shame we can't use the ameo as a normal phone. Big drawback as I don't want everyone hearing my calls

Using the Ameo as a normal phone
Im the same, i still went ahead and got an ameo tho. Been looking at this which looks like it will solve the problem of other people hearing your conversations
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=297861
Ive ordered one from eBay and await delivery. The thread ive posted above explains alot about it so pursuaded me to take the plunge!
Hope this helps!

tomchap said:
Im the same, i still went ahead and got an ameo tho. Been looking at this which looks like it will solve the problem of other people hearing your conversations
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=297861
Ive ordered one from eBay and await delivery. The thread ive posted above explains alot about it so pursuaded me to take the plunge!
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could have given mine to you for half price! I don,t reccommend it to any one unless they have memorised their phone book.

victoradjei said:
I could have given mine to you for half price! I don,t reccommend it to any one unless they have memorised their phone book.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or you could just get a caller ID bluetooth headset Anyway, maybe that is only me.

wu5262 said:
or you could just get a caller ID bluetooth headset Anyway, maybe that is only me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got one already, and actually made my comment already in the linked thread. I prefer the Jabra ...8010 I even bought before the LG arrived

Speaking of GPS issues...
Ive been trying to get Google Maps for PocketPC to work with the Ameo built in GPS, it wont.
I have GPSTuner, and if I turn off the windows thing that manages your GPS for you then GPSTuner connects and works on Com5 9600bps ok.
I close that, totally quit out of it and make sure its not using the com port.
I run Google maps, try to track via GPS and it says the GPS receiver is not responding!
I turn on the windows GPS manager, tell it the hardware is on Com5 at 9600 and the software port should be Com4.
Now GPSTuner crashes (I did set it to try com4 first). It locks up the phone and I have to reset.
Google Maps still doesnt find anything.
Help?

I can only confirm the GPS-Tuner thing. I've got the same problem. I didn't even try Google Maps.

Iguidance problems

This software (iguidance) has some great feathers, but every time I try to tell it to take me to my destination it tells me it is waiting for gps signal. I then try to make sure take Iguidance sees my gps when I do the auto detect (gps port/Baud Checker) and it see it, and it still tells me it is waiting for the signal. Then when I try to detect my gps again sometimes it tells me that it "No Gps Found, please reconnect your GPS receiver." I thinking some how it is keep loseing the gps signal. Does anyone have this same problem or how do I fix this. " I have the cingular 8525" or maybe someone can gave me a better away how to set this up from the beginning. "maybe i set the gps up wrong, can some one help) thank You!

read here and see if it helps you.
also what kind of gps receiver do you have? have you tried following its manufacturer's instructions on how to pair it?
i experienced the same problem and my problem was gps receiver related. had to RMA it back and have not had any pairing problems eversince.

i have the Bluetooth GPS Receiver - GlobalSat BT-359, i will read that link hopefully this works because i hate paying cingular $10 per mouth for the telenav, (that is a real good program, I just wish i didn't have to pay for it)
EDIT: that is what i did the first time, but i guess you have to have it on the highest port com. Thanks for the info. It works good. What do you think is the best Nav software.

really depends on what suits you. i too have iG4. i chose it over the others because of its good features. i.e. TTS, tells you which side of the road your destination is and also can be used on your laptop.
however, good as it is, iG4 too has issues. so this is something you might consider.