Help: Viewsonic V37 and Garmin GPS 12

ielb · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 24, 2004 Posts: 4

I have a Viewsonic V37 Pocket PC running Windows Mobile 2003 and a Garmin GPS 12 and I recently bought a 'Viewsonic to Garmin R with Car
Power Set' (GPRV35) cable set from http://pc-mobile.net

I have tried various pieces of software and various settings on the Pocket PC and Garmin GPS 12, to no avail. They do not seem to communicate with each other at all. I'm presuming that the cables I bought work OK and (a few years back) the GPS 12 worked with a laptop and Autoroute with no problems so the chances are that the problem lies with the Pocket PC.

One piece of software I have tried is G7toCE which is a diagnostic problem but whatever setting I try does not work.

I'm not sure which COM port I should be using on the Pocket PC (I've tried them all) and what the settings should be for the Garmin GPS 12 (I've experimented with all the configurations).

Has anyone successfully got this set-up working? If so, what programs and settings did this work with?

I'm presuming that this should work somehow (after all, pc-mobile.net do sell a cable). The cable is, strictly speaking for a V35 but I believe the hardware is the same as the V37.

Hopefully someone can help me out here? Thanks!

Pc-Mobile · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2004 5:57 pm Post subject:

What are your software/GPS configurations and what error messages did you get?
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Pc-Mobile
http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

ielb · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 24, 2004 Posts: 4

Using Winfast Navigator the settings are Com1, 4800 and NMEA protocol used and on the Garmin GPS 12 they are NMEA/NMEA (NMEA to NMEA), NMEA Version 0183 2.0, 4800 baud. There is no data displayed on Winfast Navigator and no error messages. Winfast Navigator works OK it just doesn't show any data incoming from the GPS. Winfast Navigator displays the available ports as Serial Com1:, IrComm COM3, IrDa Com4: and USB COM9:

G7ToCe gives a "Comm error in AsyncInit 1; prot:COM1:; Error:55 - The specified network resource or device is no longer available".

Oziexplorer says 'No data received from GPS'.

ielb · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 24, 2004 Posts: 4

Also, I have now tried the Mapopolis software (seems quite good) and it tries to scan the Com Ports and detect a GPS but it does not detect it. I've used the GPS with a laptop so the GPS should be OK and the Pocket PC is only a few months old so I presume that it is OK.

I've checked to see if any other program is using the Com port but there doesn't appear to be anything. Infra-red beam receive is set to off and I make sure that Activesync is not running when I've been trying to get the GPS to work.

Pc-Mobile · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:28 pm Post subject:

It is possible that either the cable or the interface is faulty, though problem on the GPS could not be ruled out.
Did you get a fix on the GPS or did you try demo?
(since you have not used the GPS for some time?)
If you have been able to get a fix and have been trying demo mode and there is no data then the cable/interface could be faulty.
If so confirm with us by email and we'll arrange for replacement and see whether it makes any difference.
_________________
Pc-Mobile
http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

ielb · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 24, 2004 Posts: 4

PC-Mobile were helpful and had sent me another lead and an SAE so that I could try it and confirm that the problem wasn't with the cable. The new cable made no difference and I have now returned it.

I have now given up Sad

trying to get my Viewsonic V37 Pocket PC working with my GPS as I am getting nowhere and I'm just wasting time. I now know the lead is not the problem (at least it's not faulty but the pins possibly could be wired wrong for this configuration), as I've tried another one. I also know that the GPS works fine as I can happily use it with Mapopolis and my Orange SPV E100 using another cable that I purchased from PC-Mobile.

This more or less rules out hardware as the Viewsonic V37 Pocket PC seems to work fine and I can Activesync it using the same port, to my PC.

I have also contacted Viewsonic but they have shown an incredible lack of knowledge of their own product and also an unwillingless to be of any help whatsoever.

I have also been searching the internet and, to my knowledge no-one else has successfully got their Viewsonic Pocket PC working with a GPS that they have, using a cable.

However, TomTom do list the Viewsonic Pocket PC as one that will work with their software but I am loathe to spend so much money just now when I already have a GPS. Also, I am more interested in using my Pocket PC for aviation than for driving as my car has a built-in GPS. However, it would be useful when I hire a car, on holiday.

I suppose I am paying the price for not buying a Pocket PC from a manufacture that sells more units and provides better support than Viewsonic and alse has a larger user base that can provide support too.

andersmusikka · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 2

I've got a Viewsonic V35, and I've got it working with my Garmin GPS35 TracPak-receiver.

I'm using Tomtom Citymaps, with the GPS-software-update from their webpage.

I choose COM1 as comport, and NMEA 0183v2 at 4800 baud as protocol.

It took me quite a while to get it up and running.

I have to say, I get the feeling that the 35's comport is rather flaky.

If I connect it to another computer, I can always transmit to the other computer. But the RS232 receiver on the V35 seems to have some kind of problem, as sometimes it just won't work. Not for input from GPS receivers, and not for running a regular terminal either.

The only solution I've found is to reboot the device until the comport works.

Usually, 1 or 2 times might be necessary. This is bad.

The good part though, is that once you've rebooted it, it seems to work for at least several hours. Today I used my pocketPC as a navigation aide for approx 1h30 min, and I didn't even run out of battery power! :-)

After approx 5 min though, the system became very very slow. This wasn't resolved until I rebooted the PocketPC. Perhaps ActiveSync or one of the other apps that tend to be running in the background has a memory leak? Or ActiveSync doesn't interact well with other programs also supporting the comport? Anyway, in my experience, this sort of interaction between unrelated programs is more routine than exception when it comes to microsoft PocketPCs :-) ...

Price, performance and general useability is much better than with Palm pilots, if you ask me (have owned both. The Palms are almost as quick and efficient to use, but only almost).

andersmusikka · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 2

Oh, I forgot to mention:

I used the Viewsonic Serial Sync cable (at the equivalent of $25.. expensive for a simple cable) which I plugged into a RS232-connector, on which i soldered the correct leads from the GPS-receiver.

Fangasaur · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 24, 2005 Posts: 1

http://www.technobrains.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.pl?s=cd023e40d7c022ee5ef3a775681b373e;act=ST;f=77;t=1752

Don't know if anyone cares anymore since the last post on this thread is almost a year ago but....

I had the same problem with my V37 and my cable set from pc-mobile.com. Like someone had posted, the folks at pc-mobile were very helpful but it turns out the V37 needs a patch for the COM1 port to recognize serial devices that the V35 and V36 have no problems with. I applied the patch and everything works after a soft-reset.

Check out the link above.
If anyone needs the patch, please email me at fcfang@mail.com or contact Viewsonic techsupport. The patch I used was named serial_patch_0213.arm.zip and is a zipped PPC installable CAB.

Pc-Mobile · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:22 am Post subject:

Thanks for clearing that up.

We do not have a V37 so we could not figure out what the problem was as I am sure many customers had the cables for V37 without problem and I am quite sure the cables supplied were not faulty.
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http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

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