GPSlim and Map this .497b

[jpc2]

Hey guys i just got my GPSlim236 today and it worked amazingly right out of the box. funny thing is after that it wouldnt connect again. then about 3 hours later i was in my house and it connected in like 3 seconds. then again i am trying it again in the same spot and it is not connecting. In fact it doesnt even have sats in veiw. am i doing something wrong or could my unit be defective. The bluetooth light is on and the orange light is on. i just gave it a full charge but still no luck.

[deniska]

I would pair it a PC (via blue tooth) and see if it behaves the same way..
It is possible that your device is defective (which is quite common for holux receviers, according to my web research)
It could also be a bad cable.. is it hand-made?

maybe you need a different resistor or something..

[jpc2]

i dont know this thing is crazy. I was trying to get it to work and then bam all of a sudden it links up great connection and everything. then i restart it all to see if it will reconnect again right away but no go. it then eventually connects are a power up then down. so while it was connecting i brought it to my computer paired it up but the software they gave me just wasn't working. i checked my com ports and everything but no go. so while the red lite was still flashing i connected it to my psp and it synced in right away and worked great full service and everything. so i go to the bar with some buds and i just unhooked it and plug the gps into the car charger so i would have to shut it off. after about 2 hours i come out the red light is still blinking so i go to connect to my psp and it is saying the gps is off on the info screen in mapthis. so i shut it off turn it back on and the orange light is on but it is still saying my gps is off, so i exit map this, do a hard restart on my psp and shut off the gps. I load mapthis again turn my gps on then i turn gps on in map this and it is registered as being on. unfortunately i didnt give it more then 20 seconds until i shut it off. i just cannot figure out the inconsistency of it all. and yes my cable is home made with no resistor since the volts running through i no whats important it is the current that runs through the wire which the psp is able to handle. thats why you dont need the resistor. i had my physics lab teacher help me make my cable lol. BUt other then that i was just wondering if you have the same issues. Or maybe you could tell me the order in which i should hook up and turn each device on. I meen when the thing is working it is amazing. it makes teh psp290 look like shiny plastic and thats it.

[jpc2]

oh and sorry for the double post on both forums. i just really want this to work and just wanted to know if i was doing something wrong on my end.

[deniska]

Have you tried to run this program?
http://files.futaris.org/psp/pspgpslim236/pspgpslim236.zip

It does not have any NMEA validation so you should be able to see all the data that your receiver is sending on your PSP screen...

see if you get good nmea sentenses from your device... (no weird characters, etc)

[jpc2]

ill give that a try. i jsut got home from work and i did a little test today. This morning i turned on teh gps receiver with out attaching it to the psp. i noticed that the orange light was flashing with in 30 seconds so i decided to plug it into my psp. For this i turned on the psp then pluged it in. i ran mapthis and as i thought it was fixed and it zoomed over to my location and with in the next few seconds i have full signal in my house and my room is dead center of the house so it gets the worst possible signal. Then about 5 minutes ago i did the same process i turned it on with out connect the psp cable and the light started blinking. this time i connected it to the psp before turning the psp on. I turned it on loaded mapthis and like clockwork it zoomed over and with in a few seconds i had full signal. I am going to try it again in another 2 hours to see if i ge tthe same results using the second method if so. i think the reason i was having trouble is the psp is maybe jamming/interfering with the internal cpu of the gps possible causing it to lock up. Oh and another thing i have noticed is sometimes when i turn the gps off while map this is running and gps mode is on, when i turn it back on only the bluetooth light will light up.


just updateing i did it again and it worked like a charm.

[jpc2]

Well i am still having the same troubles. just when i think it is fixed it happens again. ok when i ran the test program i got just a bunch of garbled jargon. does this meen it is defective. I ran this test when it was just sitting with the Orange light on. it did not have a fix or anything. When it just the bluetotth light is flashing and there orange does not even come on i get absolutely nothing on the test prog. i can only assume it is defective. i have tried everyting except removing the internal battery for a factory reset but since the ebay seller allows exchanges/returns i think i might jsut send it back i figure it wont hurt to pass this knowledge to you incase some oen else has the same problem.

[MIB.42]

Well i am still having the same troubles. just when i think it is fixed it happens again. ok when i ran the test program i got just a bunch of garbled jargon. does this meen it is defective. I ran this test when it was just sitting with the Orange light on. it did not have a fix or anything. When it just the bluetooth light is flashing and there orange does not even come on i get absolutely nothing on the test prog. i can only assume it is defective. i have tried everyting except removing the internal battery for a factory reset but since the ebay seller allows exchanges/returns i think i might jsut send it back i figure it wont hurt to pass this knowledge to you incase some oen else has the same problem.

I kinda had a similar problem when my cable was acting up. I took the cable apart, resoldered it and it works fine now. Check connections with a volt-meter while wiggling it...

Have you tried connecting it to a PC since your last try with the supplied cable?

Did you notice the same behaviour when the GPS is fully charged?

[deniska]

I would try to pair it with bluetooth enabled PC...
The driver installation can be tricky but it definitely works (you can get the drivers from holux website)
Once you make it work, see if you get good nmea sentences on PC viewer and compare them to ones on your PSP. You can run both connections at the same time..

[jpc2]

see the thing is when i am getting the bad NMEA sentences it is when no matter how long i let it sit, it doesnt get a fix. I tried pairing it with my computer and using the GPS veiwer program but no luck. On the psp it shows the garbled text and on the gps veiwer it shows nothing.

[jpc2]

ok i just did it and when i scan for the gps nothing come up and when i connect it manualy no sentences stream. But on the psp i am still getting the garbled text. What does teh garble text meen even. I also tried SIRFdemo and got eh same results as teh gps veiwer

[deniska]

garbled text means that either your device is defective or your cable is not good... try changing resistance settings...

[jpc2]

ok ill do that tommorow ill try putting a 1k resistor in and see if that helps. But that still doesnt explain when i try to pair it with my computer the gps veiwer wont detect it and even when i set the com port and baud rate i still get nothing. Not to mention on the ocasions it does work i get perfect sentences with my cable. Oh and i just want to thank you for taking the time to help me diagnose this. your program is great and i hope that this will help other people in the future.

[jpc2]

Hey could a bad cable possibly cause the GPS to malfunction it self. I don't think this is it because when it is working it doesn't seem like there is any problems.

[jpc2]

Hey i jsut wanted to thank everyone for the elp they have given me. Over this period i have discovered one thing. That is that the unit has yet to not work when left alone for about 2-3 hours. For some reason turning it on and off in a short period of time locks up the system cuaseing it to send corrupt data. So i figure that if i am makeing trips where i would be turning it on and off i will just leave it on and plug in my car adapter. Also adding a 1k resistor also seems to make a difference. not sure what but it works. My next venture is to make a cable that allows for access to the headphone jack and charging on teh gps at teh same time.