REVIEW COMMENTS: Holux CR-100

bartez · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 3

I have been researching GPS receivers for some time now and after reading the positive reviews from Dave Burrows (great work BTW), narrowed down my choices between the Holux 231 and the all-in-one Holux CR100. I finally decided to take the plunge this weekend and purchased a CR100 from an ebay seller:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4668&item=5749945389&tc=photo

I was even able to pick the device up from his house which was a definite plus as its difficult to get a feel for these things from pictures on the Internet.

I decided to go for the CR100 mainly because it's a neater solution and one which my Wife can use more ease.
Of course, cost came into the equation and for 85 quid, you can't go wrong. After purchasing the CR100, I opened the box, placed it on the windscreen and plonked my 4150 into it using the GPS settings Dave suggested and away I went! Found 7-8 satellites on average on my way home. Now that's what I call plug and play!
As you can tell, I am very pleased with it and that is the main reason for me posting this to the forum. I just wish that you could get a vent adaptor for the CR100. Has anyone tried any DIY to get it to fit onto the vent? Also, it would be good if the CR100 had its own battery so that you wouldn't have to keep it on charge all the time. No idea if this is bad for the PDA's battery?

Also on a slightly separate note, I did have some teething problems with the TomTom software. It kept saying GPS unreliable but that didn't stop it from guiding me home. By the end of Sunday, it refused to start and would just bomb out to the main screen! A reinstall of the s/w has now resolved this. I also upgraded the GPS s/w to 3.0.7 but I doubt this was the issue. I think perhaps putting the s/w on the main memory (along with the Wav files) and putting the maps on the memory card for performance reasons could be the problem, or perhaps it was just a bad install. I have put everything on the memory card now and it works a treat!

To conclude, if you are like me and are pondering over the CR100 and any other receiver, you won't be disappointed if you decide to go for the CR100.
I don't have anything to compare it to, but acquiring 7-8 satellites is more than enough.
:D

kickstart · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:30 pm Post subject:

I did a slight modification to the back of the unit with a needle file and used a couple of stick on velcro pads supported by two cable ties and it works a treat fixed to one of the centre vents on my Golf. Weight was a bit of a problem, again a sticky pad inside the vent housing put paid to any bouncing about.
Still pick up on average 8 satellites as even when fixed to the vent the GPS has good clear access above it. I guess the shape of some windscreens and car roofs will restrict access directly above some vents.
Regards
Colin

langers · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:09 pm Post subject:

Hi
I have a SPV M2000 (aka XDAIIs or PD2K) and am interested in getting the CR100 mount as an all-in-one solution - does anyone know if its available for this device yet? I think it has the same connector as the XDAII, but the shape is slightly different thats all. On the Holux site it says "XDA3" is compatible... Confused

Cheers
Langers

IanD · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 12:15 pm Post subject:

langers,

I'm not sure about the compatibility in terms of shape with the CR-100 and the XDAIIs but given the problems with ActiveSync and dialling with the XDAII and the CR-100 I would hold fire just now. Bluetooth GPS will work perfectly so you may be better with a cradle and a separate GPS unit which also has the advantage of working away from the car.

I like the neatness of the CR-100 but find the only way to get the full advantage of having an XDAII compared with a non phone PDA is to use my Bluetooth GPS receiver. If I use the CR-100 then the phone needs to be turned off and you have to put up with ActiveSync error messages every time you connect the two units together.

Dave is trying to find out more from Holux as he suspects a pin mapping problem which may be resolved on the XDAIIs. Their only advice to me was to hard reset my XDAII and start from scratch which didn't solve the problem. They haven't replied to my email since then.

Ian

langers · Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:59 am Post subject:

Cheers for that Ian. The problem with using BT is that I already have a BT headset, and I believe you cannot have multiple BT connections activated at the same time, so not sure how practical this would be. Also I didnt want to have to worry about another battery to recharge! I might give the CR100 a go and hope they have solved the problem you are having....but I will make sure there is a refund policy before I commit! Wink

Will let you know how I get on.

kimo · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 09, 2005 Posts: 5

I like several others would quite like to vent mount the CR 100 to offer a more 'permanent' solution and not having to remove it from the windscreen all the time. Also, it does not fit that well on my BMW dash.

Any idea whether the TheClip.com Vent Mount would be a good solution??
Would the adhesive sticky be strong enough to hold both an iPAQ and the CR 100!!!
Any other ideas about a commercially available vent mount which might just slot perfectly onto the back of the CR 100 ??The silvershield one from pdamod????

Dave · Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:58 am Post subject:

AFAIK it wouldn't be strong enough to hold both.

bartez · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 3

I have managed to secure the CR100 to the vent of my Audi A3 using TheClip.com Vent Mount giving me the flexibility to use either the vent mount or the screen mount as neither solution is permanent.
I can easily remove the CR100 from the vent mount and put it in my glove compartment when not in use - much easier then messing around with the windscreen mount.
The vent mount isn't really suited for use with the CR100 out of the box but a little modification makes it the ideal companion. I had the following problems when trying to use it out of the box:

- The button bit that sticks onto the PDA or CR100 in this case would need to be placed at the bottom of the CR100 (where the windscreen mount clips onto) because the receiver is on the top.
Placing the butting at the bottom of the CR100 unit will allow the CR100 to spin round as there is nothing keeping the thing upright!
- If you do try and stick the butting at the bottom of the device where the windscreen mount clips onto, you will notice that it won't really work because the side rails that hold the windscreen mount in place stick out a bit.

I have therefore used a piece of plastic that slides in/out of the CR100 just like the windscreen mount and have attached this to the vent mount. This works a treat. I know this is probably a bit difficult to picture, so here is some more detail....I have cut a piece of plastic so that it slides in/out of the CR100 (doesn't need to be as tight a fit as the windscreen mount). The new piece of plastic has the button stuck to it. I had to use an evostick binding glue to stick the button to the plastic piece as the sticky pad is pretty useless (perhaps this is because of the type of plastic I was using). Then I just added some Velcro to the vent mount and the plastic piece to keep it upright/stable. The plastic piece stays on the vent mount and I just slide the CR100 in/out of the plastic piece when I want to use it.

Getting hold of a piece of plastic to fit into the CR100 and have a snug fit was a bit of a problem. After searching round the house I came across some rubbery plastic from a compartment box. I just had to cut this to size and away I went. Failing this, I think Perspex may also have done the trick.

The vent mount is very stable and I don't get any shaking when going over bumps etc. There has been no compromise on reception either as I still pick up 7-8 satellites on average.
I did ask Holux if there was another solution and they suggested using the brodit swivel mount which will then mount onto any of the proclip range, but this solution is much more expensive and in my opinion, not as flexible.

D0K · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 05, 2005 Posts: 4

Works a treat. Only niggle is connecting/disconnecting the audio cable whic is a bit of a pain.
Just converted from Navman and ipaq to TomTom and XDA.
Really impressed with addons available for TomTom. Camera's and Traffic working great. The live update on traffic has been great since I started using them to get home on Friday evening. Avoided a couple of shunts on the way. :D

IanD · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 4:59 pm Post subject:

DOK,

Which XDA are you using? Are you having any problems with the XDA dialling out or trying to ActiveSync?

I am using an XDAII and have to disable the phone and put up with ActiveSync errors when I use the CR-100. If there is a way round these issues, I'd like to hear how it was achieved.

Ian

D0K · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 05, 2005 Posts: 4

Hi IanD,
I'm using an XDAII with activesync(3.7.1) via the USB cradle with no issues. Like I said having the phone enabled allows the traffic updates to come through so I wouldn't want to have to turn that off.
Are you using a wired Holux or BT
Regards
Dave

IanD · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 11:26 pm Post subject:

Dave,

I'm using the Holux CR-100 cradle. If I use my bluetooth GPS receiver, everything works fine, but as soon as power is applied to the CR-100 with my XDAII in place, it tries to dial out. This then causes the XDA to crash.

Disabling the phone lets it work with the CR-100, but it comes up with an ActiveSync error even though it is not connected to a PC. As Dave (Pocket GPS one) has said, it sounds like a possible pin out error, but I can't understand why some XDAII and CR-100 combinations have a problem whilst others like yours don't.

Holux haven't given any more advice since they suggested I hard reset the XDA and start from scratch. After doing that the problem still recurred.

Ian

D0K · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 05, 2005 Posts: 4

Ian,
Did as bit of playing with my system today. What I've noticed is that if I establish a GPRS connection before using TT then everything seams fine however if i go straight into TT then it struggles to make a network connection and the GPRS indicator flashes wildly as it tries to establish a connection.

I'll try a bit more but it looks like the GPS is causing a problem for the GPRS.

When I did establish a network presence before TT I was able to update my traffic ok.

I'll spend a bit more time trying to understand the sequence of events

Do you have your XDA set to synch with an Exchange server using the mobile synch setup?

Regards
Dave

IanD · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:24 pm Post subject:

Dave,

No, the option to use mobile schedule to sync is not on.

I'm on GSM rather than GPRS. Not sure if that would make a difference. I can't see why it would want to dial out when connected or why it tries to sync with a non-existant PC. Synching works fine normally with the cradle or Bluetooth when linked to the PC.

Ian

IanD · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:28 pm Post subject:

May have a solution although I've still to try it some more.

I left the phone on, but immediately after placing the XDAII in the CR-100, I started TomTom. Allowed it to run through the route finding part and accepted the last valid GPS position.

Only after doing this did I connect the power to the CR-100 and this time it did not attempt to dial or sync.

I'll try it some more over the next few days to confirm that this has solved the problem.

Ian

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