Funky BT-338 behavior - help?!?!

stewartg · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 25, 2005 Posts: 3

After reading lots and lots on the boards here, just bought my Tom Tom 5 and BT-338 combo. Worked like a charm for several days, then tonight...

Turned on BT-338 started up Tom Tom on my PocketPC and - "No GPS Found." Checked bluetooth status and was watching amazed as my BT-338 was connecting, then disconnecting, back and forth. Looked into the problem further and noticed the Green LED on the BT-338 was not lit at all. My understanding that on this unit the green led is ALWAYS going to be either solid green or blinking green, depending on status.

Couple of hours later, booted everything up again and it worked perfectly.

Anyone seen this before? Its important that I have a GPS system I can rely on, as it would MAJORLY stink if I were in the middle of Hooterville, USA when my ability to navigate tanks.

Any help/input/sharing of experience is appreciated!

Thanks!

StewartG

Privateer · Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:58 pm Post subject:

Hi stewartg,

Welcome

to the forum! Thumbs Up

and

.

The GlobalSat BT-338 is still one of the best GPS receivers that you can buy at the moment. A unit that is working correctly should have a steady green light whilst obtaining a satellite fix and a flashing green light when it has a fix on the satellites.

I suggest that you remove the battery from the BT-338 for at least 10 minutes and delete the pairing of the BT-338 with your PDA.

Reinsert the battery and create a new paring with your PDA. If this doesn’t work repeat the above but leave the battery out for longer, say an hour or so.

If you still have problems then you may need to contact the retailer who sold it to you.

Regards,
_________________
Robert.
iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14.0.1: iOS CamerAlert v2.0.7
TomTom GO Mobile iOS 2.3.1; TomTom (UK & ROI and Europe) iOS apps v1.29
Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D

stewartg · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 25, 2005 Posts: 3

Thanks for the prompt reply, Robert, and Merry Christmas to you and yours!

I kind of figured it HAD to be a hardware problem, as my reading of the instructinos led me to believe that the green light would ALWAYS be on, whether steady or blinking. So far its been okay since my one non-green LED "incident." If it happens again, I will follow your advice. If it happens again after THAT, I'll just assume I got the one in 1000 bad hardware units!

StewartG

bianco · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 26, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi stewartg, I have the same problem with BT 338. It's 2 days now it is not working anymore. Green light always off. I had this problem before one time but cleared it just switching off then on the unit. Also I used SIRFdemo software bfore having receiver unusable. I think I could have messed up something. But the fatory reset they speak about is not possible nor working. Please drop me a line if you solve the problem. Also it looks like the tech support doesn't help. Thanks

stewartg · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 25, 2005 Posts: 3

Bianco:

Did you also have the problem with bluetooth connecting/disconnecting/connecting/disconnecting while the green LED was off?

Very strange. I asked my retailer (buyspsnow.com) for an RMA for an exchange. I hope I don't run into the same problem with my replacement unit... Sad

StewartG

bianco · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 26, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi stewartg, wish you all the best for new year and especially for your replaced unit. Now my GPS switch on, blue LED blinks normally (slow not connected,fast connected) but green light is ALWAYS off. It looks like I can connect the unit with devices but I am not sure I can get/send any command.
I am in Italy but I buoght GPS in another country so most probably I cannot get any benefit from the seller, even if I have regular warranty. I called this morning Taiwan factory,they are very kind and maybe they try to help me to solve this matter with seller.
What I can tell you is that I had the problem once first, then unit working fine for few days, then problem came back on regular basis.
I still hope it is a software configuration problem, maybe I can set it back with SIRFdemo. So please if anybody know how to do it please drop me a line.
Also I can try another reset. The period required for a complete discharge of the small back-up battery and an automatic reset varies from 10 minutes up to 48 hours according to what I read on the web and all the people I asked...so now I am trying the "48 hours battery disconnected reset".
I'll just assume I got the no. 2 in 1000 bad hardware units! Laughing

...take care

Bianco

treborl65 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 12, 2006 Posts: 1

I have just had this problem with my new (3day old) BT-338 and found removing batter ect would not clear the problem.
However out of interest later in the day and before giving up completely I plugged the power cord into the receiver whilst it was powered on, instantly the Green LED (and the orange battery charge LED) came on. On removing the power cord these two LED,s went off again leaving only the Bluetooth LED flashing, as soon as the power was reconnected both Green and Orange LED’s came on again. Connecting the PDA and running the GPS software showed the receiver was doing something but could not get a fix, after about 5 min the satellites started to come “on-line” one at a time and I had a fix and was up and running again. Having since given the unit a full charge it’s now working as expected.

In conclusion I suspect that the battery had gone flat (no warning was given) and prevented the unit from functioning correctly, the only strange thing was that Bluetooth was OK. Have ant of you come across this before? Also even though I had fully charged the unit before first use it only had about 8 hours use before this happened, do you know if the unit consumes battery power when switched off ? If so this might explain why I got no battery warning before it went flat.

bianco · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 26, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi,
yes I do confirm I had same problems and applied the same solution you described. Charging the battery or simply inserting and/or unplugging the charger to the unit seemed to cure the problem initially, but after some days I had the unit fail completely to get sats signal and never had green light ON anymore. I confirm anyway bluetooth always working. I also made a long battery charge the first time. The expected battery endurance is around 15 hours, it would be anyway abnormal discharge rate. Try to use it your way and please let me know any news if you have time, I am very curious. Now my unit is on maintenance in Taiwan, they told me I will see it back again in 1 month Rolling Eyes

Wish you good luck,
MB

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