In the beginning

JR · Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 5:38 pm Post subject: In the beginning

Firstly Hi to everyone. This is my first posting so a little about myself and then the question.
I am retired and at the age of 73 have taken the first steps into this fascinating world of GPS. Having limited funds I read through quite a few mags and decided on the Acer n10 as the PDA. Good price at Ebuyer and a 2 year warranty. I added a Viking 128 SD to the order together with the Viking 6 in 1 card reader. I then bought a package of a BT 307 and TTn2 on ebay. An information link for, 99p also on ebay, brought me to this magnificent site. Loaded all the maps and downloaded CheckPOInt, ukpostcodes (made a small contribution) and the safety camera database,all working perfectly, thanks to a lot of info from these Forums.
As we visit Spain fairly regularly (that is when Easyjet have there very very cheap fares) I ordered a Viking (Toshiba badged) 128 CF card and downloaded onto it some ebooks from Microsoft, a talking book and further compressed a selection of MP3 music files. I will be making use of this next week on route to Spain. 8) After all this success I was waiting for the downer Crying or Very sad

and it arrived. On the first trial run, I found out what the dreaded Laguna screen does to GPS signals, so I began looking for an external antenna on my favourite ebay. An advertised Garmin one (which is a Holin product with the same spec as the Globestat one) at £18.49 Buy now from the USA caught my eye so I ordered it. 5days later it arrived but I found I had made the mistake of thinking that MCX and MMCX were the same. However I found on RS site a MMCX plug and lead made the connections,rushed down to the car and guess what, it doesn't work. Now we come to my question. I get 4 or 5 sats with the PDA outside of the car but as soon as I plug in the aerial they go. There is 2.94v going to the aerial (the range being 2.5 to 12v) but no sats with it pluged in. Has anyone any ideas. I have emailed the Seller to see if he has any answers but I think I have more chances of getting a solution here. Hope I haven't bored you.

Jim

Darren · Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:20 pm Post subject:

Hi and welcome. Please tell me you didn't pay someone money for a link to our site? This practice makes me really angry, the information is freeley available by using a search engine such as Google and I can't believe a seller would have the gall to charge for it :x

Anyway, the losses in GPS antenna leads can be huge and adding additional connections is never a good idea. I suspec that in your case the adapter isn't suitable to connect the two. Your best option would be to return the antenna (if you can) and get the correct part. Sorry I can't offer a more helpful answer Sad

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Darren Griffin

JR · Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 9:46 pm Post subject: Paying for access

Hi Darren

Thank you for your reply, I will have to await a reply from the USA regarding return. I will admit I payed 99p but regard it as the best money I have spent up to now on this venture. I have just tried Google and found you on page 4. I don't think I went that far the first time. However according to your own article you don't exist!!! so how was I going to find you without help? I may attempt to fit just an MMCX plug to the cable if I cannot find an alternative. The connection at the moment is via 3amp connector block. Thank you for the prompt reply and for taking the time in your busy schedule.

Jim

Darren · Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:01 pm Post subject:

Well you're here now and that's the main thing although a search for Pocket PC GPS would have found us on page 1 Thumbs Up

I must caution against your proposal to attach the MMCX plug. As I said in my earlier post, the frequencies used in GPS are very high, any connections result in signal loss and whilst these are mitigated in connections made during production you will be very unlikely to achieve a working solution using any connection you make yourself.
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Darren Griffin

JR · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 7:37 am Post subject:

Hi
I fitted a new lead with a commercially fitted plug to the aerial which meant only two soldered connections. It still did not work. I purchased a Motorola antenna on ebay with all the right spec. Plugged it in and hey presto got 10 stats in about 40 secs. Am now a happy bunny, (sighs of releif from the other half). Off to sunny Spain on Tues. Wish I had some maps to play with. Bye for now

Jim

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