Database Develop

Garmin e-Trex GPS -> XDA

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has successfully hooked up a Garmin E-Trex to an XDA. It should be possible using the serial connector from both (null-modem!?!). If so what software was being used on the XDA.
Cheers
Jeff

Garmin eTrex - XDA
The eTrex and XDA make a great combination even with Pocket Streets: the eTrex gives you the vector to your destination and the XDA shows you where you are on the map at zilch cost. The draw back is that you can find your target destination on PStreets but there doesn't seem to be a way of extracting the coordinates to feed into your eTrex.
So I got the TomTom Citymap of London to try that out and after a poor user experience when the supplied gps driver locked the XDA up and I had to download another, plus no explanations of various 2.06 driver features plus finding that parts of the M25 London orbital were chopped off, I have the best of both worlds. It only cost me 10UKP.
Oh yes, connections. You can buy a TomTom power/gps cable for the XDA that is meant to take the TomTom gps mouse via a 4 connector phone type socket. So all you have to do is come up with a 4 connector phone type plug leading off to you eTrex. If you have the eTrex car cable for power and RS232, which you might want to use with a laptop, you will not want to cut this. So get a cheap RS232 cable and chop the appropriate end off for your phone type connection. Marry everything up, ignore the wife's complaints about wires and delayed departures while you fiddle with the eTrex and XDA, and you are off.
The TomTom cable phone socket housing can be taken apart briefly to check which are the Common, TX and Rx wires, and the tiny circuit board even tells you which is which. If you want I can give you the pin outs but at the risk of misinterpretation.

Etrex GPS
Managed to get it to work with Navigator and am well impressed.
Got a cable from http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm. However had a few problems to start off with. The XDA ground to a halt (I have updated the ROM to the latest O2 release and apprently TomTom 1.4 has a problem with later version). Updated TomTom to 1.51 and still no joy. Change the interface from Garmin to IMEA 4800 baud on both GPS and TomTom and had a great weekend driving up and down the motorway and country roads in Derbyshire.
Jeff

Jeff,
Cool, isn't it! Perhaps you can enlighten me about Navigator. Not knowing much about TomTom I rather expected voice prompts on the citymap thingy I downloaded. Question: what do you have to do to get the voice prompts invoked (spend more money probably) and can you hear them from the XDA? :?:
Ken

Navigator Talking
I have Navigator 1.51 installed (downloaded from Tom Tom site) only you need at least a previous version as otherwise there are no maps.
When you do a route plan (rather than just have it in map mode), it does the "300 yards turn right......turn right.....find the next convenient place and turn round"
Not sure what happens with previous versions as I had 1.4ish on before and that interfered with Windows as I had upgraded PPC2002 to a newer version and it odesn't like that too well.
Cheers
Jeff

Hi guys, do you know if the connector for the Garmin Geko 201 is the same as the Etrex? I was looking at buying the Geko and the cable from the site listed above but they don't say specifically for the Geko. I put an email question in to the cable guys but you never know how long it will take to get an answer. It's definitely a flat connector and not a round pin type. Thanks - Jim

Hi,
I've bought a Fortuna U2 GPS receiver with an O2 XDA lead.
I've downloaded some software (GPSeasyCE), but when I try and connect to the GPS unit, I get "unable to open COM1".
Any suggestoins please?
I have tuned my keyboard driver to IR & serial, and I think I'm using the correct com port settings (4800bps, NMEA 0183).
I'd really like to just check that the hardware is working.
Can I download some free demo software that will do that?
What's best?
Thanks in advance, for any help anyone can offer,
Muddy

You have to turn off the IR port.
Muddy said:
Hi,
I've bought a Fortuna U2 GPS receiver with an O2 XDA lead.
I've downloaded some software (GPSeasyCE), but when I try and connect to the GPS unit, I get "unable to open COM1".
Any suggestoins please?
I have tuned my keyboard driver to IR & serial, and I think I'm using the correct com port settings (4800bps, NMEA 0183).
I'd really like to just check that the hardware is working.
Can I download some free demo software that will do that?
What's best?
Thanks in advance, for any help anyone can offer,
Muddy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

disable your infra red port under setting, connections/beam, it will then work. A point about cables to work with gps, if you get a serial xda cable, and you also have a pc serial cable that links to your gps, all you need to do is get a 9 pin male to 9 pin male null modem adaptor, or make one, you need to join pin 2 on one to pin 3 on the other, pin 3 to pin 2 and pin 5 to pin 5, plug your xda lead one end, gps lead the other, and away you go.

IrDA

does it really lacks the IrDA port?
I use the irda port on my wizard to download my Polar Data.

Yup, it really does lack IR.
Gordon

Damn you HTC
edgardito said:
does it really lacks the IrDA port?
I use the irda port on my wizard to download my Polar Data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sucks big time. I used my Trinity as a universal remote. I hate it when they replace specs instead of just upping them.

Cutting reduces cost, size and use of battery life.
Most people didn't use IrDA

maybe you can find one for the SD/IO port ?
DLD

RacerX10 said:
maybe you can find one for the SD/IO port ?
DLD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but I don't particularly like the idea of stuff sticking out of my sd ports. Besides, (micro)SDIO products are few and far between. They never should have removed it because infrared is still used in a number of different appliances which could double your phone as a remote control. As far as I know, it doesn't take up battery life whilst idle (unless you set it to constantly watch for incoming beams?)...
I sure hope their next phone reintroduces it.

forcedalias said:
Thanks but I don't particularly like the idea of stuff sticking out of my sd ports. Besides, (micro)SDIO products are few and far between. They never should have removed it because infrared is still used in a number of different appliances which could double your phone as a remote control. As far as I know, it doesn't take up battery life whilst idle (unless you set it to constantly watch for incoming beams?)...
I sure hope their next phone reintroduces it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't like stuff hanging out of mine either!
Sadly, I doubt very much you will see it return in future devices. The TyTn had one, but it's range was veeeery low, just a couple of feet. I have the feeling it's like floppy discs getting as rare as hens teeth.
Mike

Welcome "Industry trends"
Some fool decided that IrDA is a no-go and should be removed from laptops and hence from PDAs since Bluetooth has 100% penetration. Outlook for this was 2007, then pushed to 2008 and now they are talking about 2009... I know my company sells chips with IrDA support for laptops coming out on 2008/9... there is still demand but probably the chipset used for the P4550 does not support FIR (IrDA) anymore...

I am in search for a new device to replace my BlueAngel and have had a look at the TyTn II as well as the P6500 but I am very disapointed to find out that the IrDA is no longer available in the new HTC units. I am using the Ir for several devices like my other phones, Polar sports watch, dive computer etc. so for me the Ir is an essential feature.
Are there any way to get this working, I have not found any external units to connect to the TyTn via mini USB. (Even though I would hate have to have some contraption hanging out of the device.)
As of now I might start consider leaving the HTC-land after 6 years with their fantastic products.
/Ronny
( - Wallaby - Blue Angel - Atom - )

Just wondering if anyone has found a solution/accessory for this lack of IrDA port? I have a Touch Cruise which also lacks a IRDA (Gee thanks HTC). I need to get it to talk to my Polar S625x watch. Anyone found a miniUSB IRDA device?
Thanks

OK, I have read a bunch of posts on the lack of IR abilities and how the Tilt uses BT to beam. I just sent a file from the Tilt to my Hermes via BT and it took about 10 seconds. I enabled IR on both devices and aligned the IR port on the Herm towards the left side of the Tilt and it gave the option to beam, I beamed the same size file and it took less than a second. I am not sure I understand, I repeated the test 3 times with the same result. Any ideas?

has anyone tryed this?
http://www.ameri-rack.com/APA-TFC1m.html
Its a sd to microsd port so you can fit into your sdio irda into your phone. its gona be pretty big but at least that is an option...

GPS antenna

I've recently purchased an EverMore GM-R900 GPS receiver, connected to the 750v serial port through a mini-DIN adapter (which also includes power input from the car adapter). The question is : how do I map the serial (data) to make it available to other apps (other than active sync, which seems to be the only user of the serial...) ? I tried with GPS Gate but unsuccessfully, I cant find the correct source. Has anybody experienced something similar, yet? Perhaps with some carholder with integrated gps?

UP! C'mon.....is there a way? I've also tried with gpsgate but maybe I'm using the wrong parameters....... I've tried (from WM gps config) to map every port but I'm not getting a thing on any of them. The antenna itself seems to be working.

Still No GPS Device Found
Hi Guys,
Thanks in advance, i have gone through this site numerous times but still haven't been able to get my TomTom working on my new Treo750 and Ox-XDA IIs both running WM6.
I have GPS receiver in my cradle which works like a jam on my previous Treo650 (Running PalmOS). But since upgrading to this WM device it has become a night mare can't get it right particularly the way windows is handling com ports.
Can any one please guide me on how to get it going as I don't have PDA with in-build GPS receiver nor bluetooth receiver only this serial connected receiver.
Thanks
Nilesh

not sure i understood
If you have the tom tom software from your 650 and you are trying to use it on wm6 ,it is more than liely a software problem.
i have tom tom running on my 750,with a sirfstar 3 bluetooth gps unit, with no problems but the software came with the device.
If I am not mistaken tom tom allow you a device change every so often, in which case you will be able to download the correct software for your device.

Whither IRDA

I can't see it in the specs or make out from the pictures, but it looks like the Tytn II/Kaiser (Stellar) doesn't have infra red.
Anyone confirm that ?
Thanks, DBo.

Yes it's true, any version of the Tytn 2 does not have an IRDA port, shame as it would have been great to use as a remote control.

B*gger!
I have a dive computer that has an IRDA interface. It means I can view dive info straight away after surfacing. That means 'taking two devices into the shower' now.
BTW, The O2 site definitely lists the Stellar as having IRDA, although the PDF manual doesn't.
<sigh>

Dispite what you may have read anywhere else, no version of the TyTN II has IrDA. Last year, HTC announced a new policy of eliminating IrDA from all of their products. I can understand their reasoning, the TyTN II has Bluetooth, which has pretty much replaced IrDA has the low power data transfer protocol. Only legacy devices still use IrDA. And don't shed to many tears for not being able to use the TyTN II as a remote, as IrDA ports are poorly adapted to sending remote control signals, and usually have a range of only 4-5 feet.

Kaiser and Power Point

Does anyone know if it is possible to use Kaiser to project a power point presentation, bypassing the need for a laptop, and without the use of an intermediate device like the Margi PDA presenter? I read that the new HTC phones may be able to do that, if so is this a software or special hardware wiring? is it a function of the device being VGA or qVGA display? I would appreciate an explanantion by one of the experts.

You are hearing about a technology that hasn't yet been released... it will be a micro projector built into the phone or as an ipod sized accessory.

researchermd said:
Does anyone know if it is possible to use Kaiser to project a power point presentation, bypassing the need for a laptop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you mean the sort of video output dongle thats possible to use with the Touch Pro and other devices, no it won't work if used with the Kaiser. I've not tried it with my Kaiser, I've just read it here somewhere on XDA-DEV that it doesn't work with a Kaiser.

I am talking about the ability of the new devices e.g. Fuze to connect directly to a TV or slide projector using a special cable from the mini USB on on one end and has RCA connections on the other to attach to the external display device. See this:
http://www.htc.com/us/product.aspx?id=58080

Kaiser doesn't support/have the TV Out feature, this was asked and explain before, just search the kaiser forum and you will get your answer.
DG