2210 and which receiver?

[richs2000]

I'm a bit new to all this and am looking to buy a gps reciever for the missus as a birthday present.

I am fairly sure on Tomtom navigator 2 as the software but is the Haicom 303mmf any good?
What is the difference between mouse mode and CF mode. In mouse mode does it connect via serial cable to the 2210 and in CF mode it plugs straight into the PDA?

Does the power adapter/serial cable come with the Haicom.

Thanks in advance

Rich

[DavidW]

I rate the HI-303MMF highly - it's the GPS I use with my iPAQ 3970. My preference for use in-car and generally would be for the HI-303MMF (SiRFstar IIe/LP running standard SiRF firmware) over the HI-303S (SiRF Xtrac) or HI-303E (Evermore chipset).


You've got the two modes correct. The serial cable you need for mouse mode on a PDA isn't supplied - it's an optional, chargeable extra. You usually get a 9 pin serial cable in the box, which will work with a PC (you must plug the third connector into a PS/2 port to power the GPS). In mouse mode you do need external power from somewhere - the PDA cables connect to a cigarette lighter and power both the PDA and the GPS.


Due to hardware limitations, there's no serial input in mouse mode - though once you have the GPS configured correctly, which you must do in CompactFlash mode (if indeed the defaults aren't fine) this isn't an issue so long as you don't let the internal battery go flat. To be fair, though, the defaults are pretty sensible; they should certainly work fine in TomTom Navigator 2 and just about every other program (as it defaults to NMEA 0183 version 2 at 4800bps - as standard as you can get for GPS).


If you buy a HI-303 series GPS now, I'd try to get a written guarantee that the one you have bought is compatible with the HI-401 Bluetooth slipper. Apparently not all are (older stock is unlikely to be compatible). Even if you're not interested now, this may be something you're interested in at a future time. The Bluetooth slipper allows you to turn a compatible HI-303 series GPS into a Bluetooth GPS for around half the price of a standalone Bluetooth GPS, giving further flexibility on what is already a flexible option.

There's no 100% reliable way to tell whether a particular HI-303 series GPS will be compatible with the slipper, though if the GPS has a second barcode (a sticker apparently on the antenna part, adding to the barcode on the back of the CompactFlash part) it is likely, but not guaranteed, to work in the slipper.

Supposedly it's a very minor hardware change that allows the GPS to work with the slipper - though there's no news on whether it's possible to have an older GPS upgraded to work in the slipper.



David

[richs2000]

Any idea where i can get the cable that connects the 303MMf to my 2210 PDA?

[DavidW]

That's a good question! globalpositioningsystems.co.uk used to list them separately. However, both they and GPS Warehouse only seem to list Haicom cigarette lighter chargers now, which I think are only chargers without a GPS connection.

Both these companies clearly do have the cables available, as they're selling HI-203E or HI-204E GPS mice, which use the same cables as the HI-303 series GPSes (you use the Haicom cable set with the 4 pin Firewire-like connector to 6 pin mini-DIN cable that you got with your HI-303 series GPS).

Probably the best thing to do is to get in touch with one or both of these companies and explain that you want just the cable set to use with an existing Haicom GPS, and you don't want to buy another GPS. The cable set you want is the one that's listed for the 3800, 3900, 5400, 5500 and 2200 series iPAQs - so long as it mentions any one of those series, it'll work with your 2210. Expect to pay around 20 pounds.



David

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!